Help a Newb Build FIgure Out What Parts to get for a new PC between $600-700

Hmm. Buying a prebuilt will be cheaper, but likely you'll end up upgrading a lot(like the psu, graphics, ram, monitor, etc), which increases the price, but you can do it in steps, when you can afford it. Building will let you get more of what you need (like a decent psu, graphics, ram, etc), but will cost more now, but probably less later.

Are you going to oc? That affects the options somewhat, as basically all prebuilts can't oc.

Ok, a new idea. A more upgradeable option.

Msi 939 mobo. $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130485

Amd 939 3000+ venice $148
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

Ram 512mb $53
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145477


Hd. $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148015

dvd rom $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131410

Case/psu $81
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129150

This board has integrated video that isn't too bad, plus you can upgrade it later. It also supports 939 cpus and has a speedy 3000+ a64 cpu.

I get about $460

That's a pretty good system. In a few months then you can get a better video card and have a good gaming system when you have more money saved up.
 
vnf4ultra said:
Hmm. Buying a prebuilt will be cheaper, but likely you'll end up upgrading a lot(like the psu, graphics, ram, monitor, etc), which increases the price, but you can do it in steps, when you can afford it. Building will let you get more of what you need (like a decent psu, graphics, ram, etc), but will cost more now, but probably less later.

Are you going to oc? That affects the options somewhat, as basically all prebuilts can't oc.

Ok, a new idea. A more upgradeable option.

Msi 939 mobo. $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130485

Amd 939 3000+ venice $148
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

Ram 512mb $53
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145477


Hd. $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148015

dvd rom $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131410

Case/psu $81
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129150

This board has integrated video that isn't too bad, plus you can upgrade it later. It also supports 939 cpus and has a speedy 3000+ a64 cpu.

I get about $460

That's a pretty good system. In a few months then you can get a better video card and have a good gaming system when you have more money saved up.
Click to expand...
Everything there looks good, and very reasonable priced. The only thing that I would like to improve now might be the hard drive, I'd like to have a 8 MB Cache.

I'm planning on over-clocking, yes. My friend will probably help me with that.
 
Ok, first, the msi board is a good board, but it doesn't have bios overclocking options. It can be oc'ed however. You can use Clockgen to oc from windows.
http://www.cpuid.org/clockgen.php

Ok, I overlooked the hd having 2mb cache, here are some better choices.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822135106
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148040
I like seagate because of the 5 yr. warranty.

I also found xp pretty cheap, $85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16837102151
 
How's this for a good hard drive:
http://techspot.pricegrabber.com/rd...ba374d1d91598e61baeefd740313/bl=2/promo_id=41
For 22 extra bux it will get me quite alot more hard drive space, in fact, you know what, screw my price limits, I'll just wait until I build all the extra money.
My new planned price limit is 1000, but it can go as high as 1200 if need be.

This is my arrangement so far:
Motherboard: MSI 939 89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130485

Processor: AMD 939 3000+ venice 148
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

RAM: 1 Gig Dual Channel Kingmax 78
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820156020

Hard Drives:Seagate 80 Gig 8 Cache/Seagate 150Gig 62-88
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148040
http://techspot.pricegrabber.com/rd...ba374d1d91598e61baeefd740313/bl=2/promo_id=41

CD/DVD ROM: Light on CD RW/DVD 33
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106982

Case/PSU: Aspire X-Alien ATXA7AW 94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144019

Monitor: 17" LCD 200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824024507

Operating System: Windows XP Home 85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16837102151

Video Card: Saphire Red Radeon X800Pro 200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102466R

Other TV Card: (assuming I can have it and my other video card) 29
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815123001

That's 1106 so far without speakers, a sound card, keyboard or mouse.
 
I don't think the new video card is a better choice, first you just downgraded for about the same money, second it isn't compatible with the motherboard. The motherboard uses pci-e graphics, the 9800 pro is agp. The x800 pro will blow a 9800 pro away anyway.
Here see for yourself.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/2004-27gpu2_34.html


Also, here's an lcd that seems better to me. This one is a 10ms response time(fast), and has a dvi connection(higher quality picture), and is similarly priced.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824024505

Yeah, that's a good price on the new seagate hd.

Here's another psu to consider.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103465

Case: It depends, I don't know what you like, as a case I like you may think it ugly, and vice versa.

What do you mean by cooling unit? Cpu heatsink? If you mean the heatsink, your cpu should come with one, it should be fine with it.
 
If you have a higher budget now, you may consider getting a different motherboard. The one I picked before(the msi rs480 matx), I chose because your budget was so low, you couldn't afford to get a decent graphics card, and that board has built in graphics that aren't too bad. But if you are getting a card, then there's no reason to get a board with integrated. It also doesn't have bios overclocking, (but can oc from windows, somewhat).

I'd suggest this board now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152049
It's a little more, (not much), but it's good. It can oc really well.

Here are some video cards that are compatible, fast, and around $200ish.

x800 128mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102529
x800 256mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127172
6800 128mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127179
 
The LCD you listed (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824024505) seems pretty good, so I'll probably go with that.

And that power supply you posted looks pretty good too:
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103465)

As far as the video card, is there a good card like an all in wonder that can keep up with the graphics of modern video games, that's not like $380.

I might just go with two video cards, one for TV tuner that will be around 50 and the x800 256MB you posted.

As far as when I say Cooling unit, I mean extra fans that I will install, and other possible things to keep my PC cool enough so that when I OC I don't fry anything.
 
Ok i have watching this post for some time. YOu have a higher bidget now, then why are you skimping on your RAM? 84 bucks for a gig sounds like junk to me. I would go for a tier one brand..corsair kingston, mushkin OCZ you get my drift. Also i second the TV tuner and Gfx card being seperate...it will save you alot of money. As far as fans go, i dont order from newegg for those...i use either www.xoxide.com or www.frozencpu.com so maybe you want to check those out.


Good Luck with the build

Sean
 
Atk Spade-thanks for the input, yeah the ram should probably be upgraded, ill look at those sites a bits for fans

vnfultra-I might go witht the third one you posted, possibly
 
Here's what I've got so far, if you guys think changes are in order let me know:
Case: RAIDMAX Virgo ATX-811P 430W PSU
$53

Motherboard- Chaintech VNF4/Ultra Socket 939 NVidia nForce 4
$92

Processor-AMD Anthlon 3000+ Venice Socket 939
$148

Hard Drives- Seagate 80 Gig 8MB Cache
$62

Seagate 150 Gig 8 MB Cache
$88

Video Card: MSI RX 800-TD256 E Radeon X800 256 MB
$236

TV Card: Sabrent SBT TVFM-PCF Interface
$28.49

CD-RW/DVD: Light on
$33

Monitor: LCD 17" Polyview 10ms
$209

PSU: Vantec Ion 2 Van ATX 12V 460W
$68

Operating System Windows XP Home
$85

Extra fans: ???
$10-30

Keyboard/Mouse: ???
$15-50

The whole system should cost around $1250 or so if I keep it the same.
 
You forgot the ram, but you apparantly have it included in your total price.

What is the reasoning behind having 2 hd's? Just the extra storage, safety of having 2 drives?

It looks good to me so far though.
 
Yeah, I forgot the Ram but it will be:
Corsair XMS 1 GB 2 x512MB 184-Pin DDr SDRAM
$116

Two basicly improves the performance, its' convienent, if something happens to one you still have the other.
 
Ok, that's some good ram.

I see the point to having 2 drives. It would be handy at times. I'm not sure that it'd be faster though, what did you mean by that? If you do a raid 0 array it's faster, but you need identical drives for that, and if one drive dies, the whole system goes down.
 
vnf4ultra said:
So is everything decided now? Are you still using 2 hd's, or just one larger one?
Click to expand...
Yeah, everthing is ready, all I have to do now is play the waiting game until the money. I am going to go with two hd's probably just because it's handy, thanks for the help guys, especially vnfultra, you were a big help.
 

Similar threads

N
HP Elite Prodesk 600 G5 PSU upgrade
Replies
0
Views
931
nic25276
N
JohnnieWalker
What are some minimum specs for my new notebook needs?
Replies
0
Views
680
JohnnieWalker
JohnnieWalker
midian182
Why Apple can't easily move iPhone production to the US: 2,700+ parts, 187 suppliers, 28 countries
2
Replies
33
Views
354
nick4wheelin
N

Latest posts

Back