New guy with a question

[Lithan]

Alright First lets get introductions out of the way. I've been coming to overclockers.com for awhile... never really check out the forums. Made a few trades on classifieds ages ago. Oh and I miss the how they used to look at the adds and point out the best weekend deals... that was cool while it lasted. Anyhow, I just upgraded my system a few months ago to a shuttle ak31 and an xp1800+. (Note: EconoPC ripped me off and shipped me a 31 when I had paid for a 31a. They ignored my emails and basically told me to ship it back to them, and pay shipping again for them to send me the motherboard I had ordered (with their shipping fees in order to have my warrantee honored it would have wound up costing about 30$ more) I almost told my credit card company to tell them to go **** themselves... but the board and chip were stable, and I didn't want the hassel of ordering another setup so I just let it drop. I still hate econopc though (Growls menacingly). Oh and they also sent me a piece of sh*t coolermaster fan which I paid extra for because it was "AMD approved". Guess what... it was amd approved, up to a chip about half the speed of my own... on the chip it had been sold with? Nope. Anyhow. I bought a Vantec that performs acceptably well. (44-52idle, 54-60 with load, was better but the delta 38 was unacceptable so I put a ystech 26 on it. Even lapped up to 1500 grit, beyond mirror shiney, its still only right around what I'd call acceptable. I'm probably gonna grab an Aeroflow when I get a chance.) Oh and as for the differences in temp readings... the room temp fluctuates alot. I'm not overclocking at the moment... but I'm sure I will once I actually start hacking up my case. (Currently only has a PSU fan for circulation... yes I hate myself too.)


BUT ANYWAY! on to the question. A buddy of mine wants to upgrade his machine (750 slotA, 256 pc133, geforce 2 mx400, etc)

He wants to grab a new video card, and a new mobo/cpu/ram. He has 400-500$ to spend, and this will be a few months in the future, so prices should be a little lower.

We're figuring on him getting a ti4200. That's around 130$ cheapest now... so we're guessing he can grab one around 115$ then. That leaves $385 for cpu memory and motherboard. What would you guys recommend for the best system he could buy for gaming with?

Edit: Oh and he wouldn't need to be able to overclock... he doesn't know enough to do it.

Edit again: Also... he's almost certainly going to go with AMD, but if you have intel suggestions go ahead, just please tell us why you recommend it. Because we've all been using AMD's since 5X86 days.

Thanks,
Lithan (Aka The Guy who controls all the lethally armed monkeys in the world)

 

[Oni]

The ECS K7S5A is an excellent motherboard for what you describe, and uber cheep! I think they go for about $50 - $80 USD on newegg or so. They take both DDR and SDRAM (but not at the same time) and aren't overclocker friendly, but he's not doing that anyways. They also have onboard sound, which I always consider a plus, unless you're doing something like a Home Theater PC where you need the best sound you can get.

You could also pick up an XP 1600+ w/ that for $50 USD.

You'll also wanna splurge any extra ends on some good DDR RAM, like CTL Samsung or Crucial PC2100. Get about 512 MB and you'll be good. Not sure what that goes for, however.

 

[specific]

since he wants a gaming system.........
personally, i would avoid most onboard sound. soundblaster makes a better option for <20 bucks.
abit, msi, epox, all make quality kt266a mobo's for <100.
ddr is a must, 512mb pc2100 goes for around 120.
gaming will benefit from a 7200rpm hdd. if he's on a 5200rpm drive now, don't overlook that upgrade. 40-60 gigs, 75 bucks.
the cpu shouldn't cost more than 60.
mwave or newegg would be great places to start looking.

 

[Lithan]

Thank you for your suggestions...

He's got a close to top end dma drive (WD 120gig 8meg cache 7200) and an SB live xgamer.

Yes, the ecs was what I've been suggesting to him. Although he most likely is going to want a faster processor than the 1600+... He wanted one clocked at 2 gig... but I think he's gonna wind up somewhere between 1800+ and 2100+. I was thinking something around this...

ECS k7s5a/shuttle ak31a = 60$

512 ddr = 120$

ti4200 = 120$

2100+ = 120$

But when I suggested this to him I got the impression that he might be interested in a more recent motherboard. And with the 80$ he has left on the budget I thought it might be possible. So are there any motherboards under 150$ that are an appreciable step up from the kt266a or (Sli magik was it?)