Can y'all post the configuration that you see right now (in your own opinion) as the best price vs performance gaming PC?
I'm building a gaming PC mainly due to the value I can get vs buying one like alienware, but it all seems so complicated. I've read forums, and sites, but there're so much things involved that it's a little overwhelming for me
I'd like to keep it under $2000 USD.
I don't have anything, so it'd be from scratch, including monitor.
Hard Drive - Seagate ST3120026A 120gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache Barracuda 7200.7 Plus
Case - Thermaltake VM3000A Screwless Skull Atx Case in Black No PSU down to taste
PSU - Ebuyer 600w Power Supply Black With Tri Colour Dual Fans
Disk Drives - Sony 52x32x52 IDE BLACK Drive Sony 16x40 IDE BLACK DVD-ROM Drive
Mod Stuff - 4xAntec 80mm Blue UV Cooling Fan (planning on some modding) 2xLazer Led Ultra Violet & 2x12" UV Dual Cold Cathode Kit (I want it really bright )
All of that for £942.84 ($1,735.32)
As you can see, this comes to $1735 (these prices come from the store i buy my hardware from: http://www.ebuyer.com). This is a really nice setup and has lots of room for adjusting and making something similar to what you are looking for. You say you would like it less than $2000, well you can grab a LCD screen for $250 im guessing. If you need further explanation on specific parts, please say so ^^
mmofan, I like coraith's suggestions, but you can go ahead and get an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ socket 939 processor for about $200 more than an Athlon 64 3200+ socket754 processor. Of course that leaves you with $200 less to spend on the rest of the system, but you'll have a socket939 mobo to boot to make upgrading to the best performing chips AMD will offer for at least the next year if not two. There are only 2 mobos currently offering socket939. ASUS and MSI each have one. I would go with ASUS because it performs better than the MSI, and the MSI mobo is hard to find. I would go with the Corsair XMS memory, but you can save yourself $100 and go with the Corsair Value select dual channel memory. The AMD Athlon 64 3500+ socket939 cpu runs $499.00 or $485(OEM) at Newegg.com, but I would definitely buy it with the heatsink and fan because I don't know if any heatsinks or fans are currently out for socket939. The ASUS mobo runs $168.00 at Newegg, and the Corsair XMS memory runs $258.00 for a total of $925.00.
This leaves only $1,075 for the rest of your system so you might want to stick to coraith's config. If you are going to spend over $400 on your processor, I would go with the Athlon 64 3500+ socket939 right now. You can safe money on the memory like I said as well, but stick with Corsair. Sweet memory drool.
The graphics card is a good one that coraith suggested, but is hard to find in stock. Buying the Sapphire will save you roughly $20 to $30 over the ATI X800 Pro. The nVidia GF 6800 Ultra is not a bad card either. Both cards have their pros and cons. I would read these articles before deciding on your vid card. The 9800Pro and 9800XT are still very good graphic cards as well.
I have listed the specs on the cpu, mobo and memory for you. I would also compare the cooling systems of Arctic, Coolmaster, and Vantec. Here is a site that has a lot of cooling info and another on pc cases and accessories.
Question... How do i overclock? When i change the fsb over 205, my system ither becomes extremly unstable, or just completly dosn't boot. I think its becouse of my ram. I have PC 3200, wich has a fsb of 200, so i was wondering is there any other way of overclock, cuz i plan on geting water cooling.
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness ~
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness ~
Thanks so much to those who helped, especially Coraith and RabidWerWolf. Your details were exactly what I needed.
So far, I've looked at graphics card, and I have some quesitons already
I've looked through the articles that RabidWerWolf suggested. Comparing the ATI Radeon X800 XT and nVidia GF 6800 Ultra, I can't say which one is better. One thing I gathered was that nVidia seems to be slower/using more CPU in playing DivX clips, but I don't think this is an issue. However, when I looked up the prices, (for ATI, only x800 Pro is available now), nVidia costs about $600 while x800 Pro can be bought at $389. If this is the case, I think it's clear that I should choose ATI X800 Pro among the two.
ATI 9800 Pro can be bought at $220. That's about $170 cheaper than ATI X800 Pro. I noticed 9800 Pro has 128 MB while x800 Pro has 256MB. If there isn't much performance difference between the two, should I get the ATI 9800 Pro?
I noticed there are many manufacturers for each of the graphics cards. Does it matter which one I should buy from, or are they pretty much the same if they use the same chip?
I've started looking at the CPU and Mobo, and the cases. I need to check up on the CPU and mobo prices to make decision, but the cases are so complicated Really don't know which one to get. I went to CompUSA and MicroCenter today, and they have close to 20 cases. I think some of the only things I am clear is about the PSU, which I should get more than 400W, so that takes half of the cases out of my consideration (whew...). Some of them were on sale, as cheap as $30. CompUSA has the AntecP160 ATX Gamer PC Case for $99.99. Is this a good buy?
If someone can tell me what I should look for in a case, that'd be really appreciated.
Thanks again for those who helped (sorry if I missed anyone).
Thx kptone. If I get 9800 Pro, I'll surely get the silencer. btw, did u recommend me getting the 9800 Pro instead of X800 Pro?
I'm still not familiar with what Over clock means. My understanding so far is that you cool the CPU or Graphics Card, so that it can perform better than it should be? Is that what you meant by OC 9800 Pro to XT?
ok if u have the money to waste on the X800 get it but if u dont. 9800 pro best for ur money. Overclock is when u higher the speed of the Card. like the 9800 is 380/680 u can add more cooling with the VGA silencer and make it like 430/800 which makes ur card faster.U need good cooling to OC ur Video Card or the Motherboard. Well good luck man the 9800 is a very good product i have it and no problems best card ever bought
Originally posted by TallonX Question... How do i overclock? When i change the fsb over 205, my system ither becomes extremly unstable, or just completly dosn't boot. I think its becouse of my ram. I have PC 3200, wich has a fsb of 200, so i was wondering is there any other way of overclock, cuz i plan on geting water cooling.
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness ~
Ty for the specs on your system TallonX. In advance, sorry for the stupid "?" marks in place of the "'". I wrote this on MS word and something went fubar when i copied and pasted.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
To help stabilize after you overclock, you can increase the core voltage or vCore of your cpu, but keep in mind this will greatly increase the heat generated by the processor so you best have a very good heatsink and fan. In fact, I would recommend only doing this to stabilize your system if you have a cooling system in place that allows you to monitor the temp on your cpu. You need to be monitoring your temp on your cpu if your overclocking anyways and increasing the vCore is quite common. From what I know on the Volcano 12, I believe it has a temp detector function, right?
Based on some reading Ive done on your 3200+ XP processor, I believe you will only be able to get an 8 to 10 % boost in performance. This means that the maximum stable overclocking speed is probably around 2.4ghz. This also depends on your set up as well, but I believe your memory is fine. What is your multiplier set at btw, and is your chip's multiplier locked or unlocked? Do you know the current vCore of your processor as well? This is what it should be from the factory, but I dont know if youve changed them already:
Rabid, or anyone who can help (feel free to jump in):
The AMD 3500+ has only 512KB L2 Cache, whereas the 3200+ has 1MB L2 cache. What kinda impact does this difference do to performance?
The 3500+/s939 is $250 more than the 3200+/s754. For anyone who would go for the 3500+/s939, could you tell me why you choose so? For example, is s754 gonna phase out soon?
Originally posted by mmofan That's the hard part in my decision making........The 3200+ with the 1MB L2 cache is actually $200 cheaper than 3500+ with 512KB cache....
yeah but you can put that $200 to a nice fat graphics card. The Nvidia 6800 is out and it's only $608.00 at newegg.com!
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33.333333333333336% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
Originally posted by mmofan That's the hard part in my decision making........The 3200+ with the 1MB L2 cache is actually $200 cheaper than 3500+ with 512KB cache....
yeah but you can put that $200 to a nice fat graphics card. The Nvidia 6800 is out and it's only $608.00 at newegg.com!
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33.333333333333336% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
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600 dollars for a graphics card?
That graphics card better drive me to work.
But seriously, just get a radeon X800 for 100 dollars less...
Dont get the 6800 ultrade Video Card might as well get the X800 pro which required only 350 watt of power and takes 1 slot only, where the Nvidia needs 2 slots 480 Watt of power and too noisy my friend has it. get the X800 PRO get it!!!!!
But, from reviews, there's not much different performance-wise between Nvidia 6800 vs ATI X800 Pro. But Nvidia is $608 vs $389 (x800 pro) --->$220 difference!
9800 Pro is better buy, I really can't see that much of a difference in performance (well I can technically, but you still will get awesome performance from the 9800 pro)
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33.333333333333336% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
Comments
*Edit: I didn't know you had gotten FFXI Talon..
I'm about to sell my HDD in favor of CoH. 
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Hats off to y'all for ur expert guidance
Can y'all post the configuration that you see right now (in your own opinion) as the best price vs performance gaming PC?
I'm building a gaming PC mainly due to the value I can get vs buying one like alienware, but it all seems so complicated. I've read forums, and sites, but there're so much things involved that it's a little overwhelming for me
I'd like to keep it under $2000 USD.
I don't have anything, so it'd be from scratch, including monitor.
ok so lets say 1800 without monitor...
you can get a good 19inch crt with a .21dpi and 1600x1200 max with atleast a 85hz refresh rate for under 200...
i'll let gunblade post the computer, he somehow finds prices lower than me
http://www.facebook.com/murtb
well, id love to give you some help here
A few pages previous i posted these specs:
Motherboard -Asus K8V/SE Deluxe S754 VIA k8t800 ATX Sound Gig lAN Firewire USB 2.0 FSB 800
CPU - AMD (Clawhammer) Athlon 64 Bit 3200/1 Mb L2 cache 754Pin CPU OEM
CPU Cooler - Thermaltake A1744 Venus 12 Heatsink & Fan
Memory - Corsair (VS1GBKIT400) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL2.5
sweet ram
Graphics - Sapphire Radeon X800PRO 256MB DDR3 AGP X8 TV-Out Dvi-i
top notch graphics!
Hard Drive - Seagate ST3120026A 120gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache Barracuda 7200.7 Plus
Case - Thermaltake VM3000A Screwless Skull Atx Case in Black No PSU
down to taste
PSU - Ebuyer 600w Power Supply Black With Tri Colour Dual Fans
Disk Drives - Sony 52x32x52 IDE BLACK Drive
Sony 16x40 IDE BLACK DVD-ROM Drive
Mod Stuff - 4xAntec 80mm Blue UV Cooling Fan (planning on some modding)
)
2xLazer Led Ultra Violet & 2x12" UV Dual Cold Cathode Kit (I want it really bright
All of that for £942.84 ($1,735.32)
As you can see, this comes to $1735 (these prices come from the store i buy my hardware from: http://www.ebuyer.com). This is a really nice setup and has lots of room for adjusting and making something similar to what you are looking for. You say you would like it less than $2000, well you can grab a LCD screen for $250 im guessing. If you need further explanation on specific parts, please say so ^^
*Edit: I didn't know you had gotten FFXI Talon..
I'm about to sell my HDD in favor of CoH. 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NOOO! don't sell it! PLZ! Play with me! What server are you on! PLEASE! XD
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness
~
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness
~
mmofan, I like coraith's suggestions, but you can go ahead and get an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ socket 939 processor for about $200 more than an Athlon 64 3200+ socket754 processor. Of course that leaves you with $200 less to spend on the rest of the system, but you'll have a socket939 mobo to boot to make upgrading to the best performing chips AMD will offer for at least the next year if not two. There are only 2 mobos currently offering socket939. ASUS and MSI each have one. I would go with ASUS because it performs better than the MSI, and the MSI mobo is hard to find. I would go with the Corsair XMS memory, but you can save yourself $100 and go with the Corsair Value select dual channel memory. The AMD Athlon 64 3500+ socket939 cpu runs $499.00 or $485(OEM) at Newegg.com, but I would definitely buy it with the heatsink and fan because I don't know if any heatsinks or fans are currently out for socket939. The ASUS mobo runs $168.00 at Newegg, and the Corsair XMS memory runs $258.00 for a total of $925.00.
This leaves only $1,075 for the rest of your system so you might want to stick to coraith's config. If you are going to spend over $400 on your processor, I would go with the Athlon 64 3500+ socket939 right now. You can safe money on the memory like I said as well, but stick with Corsair. Sweet memory drool.
The graphics card is a good one that coraith suggested, but is hard to find in stock. Buying the Sapphire will save you roughly $20 to $30 over the ATI X800 Pro. The nVidia GF 6800 Ultra is not a bad card either. Both cards have their pros and cons. I would read these articles before deciding on your vid card. The 9800Pro and 9800XT are still very good graphic cards as well.
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040504/index.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040603/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=2044
Here is an article on the socket939 processors.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040601/index.html
I have listed the specs on the cpu, mobo and memory for you. I would also compare the cooling systems of Arctic, Coolmaster, and Vantec. Here is a site that has a lot of cooling info and another on pc cases and accessories.
http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/index.html
http://www.pccasegear.com.au/
Good luck, and let us know what you decide.
Stats on stuff below.
ASUS "A8V Deluxe Wi-Fi" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
Model# A8V Deluxe Wi- Fi
Item # N82E16813131499
Specifications:
Supported CPU: AMD Athlon64 and Athlon64 FX Series Processors
Chipset: VIA K8T800Pro + VT8237
RAM: 4x DIMM for Dual-Channel DDR400/333/266 Max 4GB
IDE: 3x ATA 133 up to 6 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS2,1xCOM,1xLPT,SPDIF Out,1xLAN,8xUSB2.0(Rear 4),2xIEEE1394(Rear 1),Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC850 8-Channel Codec
Onboard LAN: Marvell 88E8001 GbE
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2xSATA by VT8237, RAID 0/1/JBOD; 2x SATA & 1x ATA 133 by Promise 20378, RAID 0/1/0+1/Multiple RAID
Onboard 1394: VIA VT6307
Features: ASUS WiFi-g PCI card
Form Factor: ATX
AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+, 2.2 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail
- Specifications -
Model: AMD Athlon 64
Core: Newcastle
Operating Frequency: 2.2GHz
FSB: Integrated into Chip
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/ 512KB
Voltage: 1.5V
Process: 0.13Micron
Socket: Socket 939
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, SSE2, 3DNOW!, 3DNOW!+
Warranty: 3-year MFG
Packaging: Retail box(with Heatsink and Fan)
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail
Model# TWINX1024-3200C2PT
Item # N82E16820145450
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Corsair
Speed: DDR400(PC3200)
Type: 184 Pin DDR SDRAM
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 2-3-3-6 T1
Bandwidth: 3.2GB/s
Organization: two 64M x 64 -Bit
Special Features: With Platinum Heat Spreader
Warranty: Lifetime
"The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action." Hartley's 1st Law
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness
~
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness
~
"The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action." Hartley's 1st Law
AMD Athalon 3200xp @2.3
1gig ddr400 pc 3200 ~Not sure aBOUt brand and stuff, i forgot, if there is a way i can find out please, tell me.
Radeon 9800 PRO
120 gig hd/7200 rpm
Audigy ZS
VGA Slicer
Volcano 12 heatsink/fan
52x32x52 cdrw
MSI KT6V mobo
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness
~
~I am going to rule the world someday, I promiseness
~
Thanks so much to those who helped, especially Coraith and RabidWerWolf. Your details were exactly what I needed.
So far, I've looked at graphics card, and I have some quesitons already
I've looked through the articles that RabidWerWolf suggested. Comparing the ATI Radeon X800 XT and nVidia GF 6800 Ultra, I can't say which one is better. One thing I gathered was that nVidia seems to be slower/using more CPU in playing DivX clips, but I don't think this is an issue. However, when I looked up the prices, (for ATI, only x800 Pro is available now), nVidia costs about $600 while x800 Pro can be bought at $389. If this is the case, I think it's clear that I should choose ATI X800 Pro among the two.
ATI 9800 Pro can be bought at $220. That's about $170 cheaper than ATI X800 Pro. I noticed 9800 Pro has 128 MB while x800 Pro has 256MB. If there isn't much performance difference between the two, should I get the ATI 9800 Pro?
I noticed there are many manufacturers for each of the graphics cards. Does it matter which one I should buy from, or are they pretty much the same if they use the same chip?
I've started looking at the CPU and Mobo, and the cases. I need to check up on the CPU and mobo prices to make decision, but the cases are so complicated
Really don't know which one to get. I went to CompUSA and MicroCenter today, and they have close to 20 cases. I think some of the only things I am clear is about the PSU, which I should get more than 400W, so that takes half of the cases out of my consideration (whew...). Some of them were on sale, as cheap as $30. CompUSA has the AntecP160 ATX Gamer PC Case for $99.99. Is this a good buy?
If someone can tell me what I should look for in a case, that'd be really appreciated.
Thanks again for those who helped (sorry if I missed anyone).
Now, back to research.....
i have the 9800 pro and OC it to 9800 XT speed im loving the card. Its the best buy for ur money.
Also if u gonna buy 9800 buy a Arctic Cooling VGA silencer Rev3. It doesnt fit tyhe 9800 XT though only the Pros.
So get the pro its real nice. NO problem running games at full and max.
Thx kptone. If I get 9800 Pro, I'll surely get the silencer. btw, did u recommend me getting the 9800 Pro instead of X800 Pro?
I'm still not familiar with what Over clock means. My understanding so far is that you cool the CPU or Graphics Card, so that it can perform better than it should be? Is that what you meant by OC 9800 Pro to XT?
Ty for the specs on your system TallonX. In advance, sorry for the stupid "?" marks in place of the "'". I wrote this on MS word and something went fubar when i copied and pasted.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
To help stabilize after you overclock, you can increase the core voltage or vCore of your cpu, but keep in mind this will greatly increase the heat generated by the processor so you best have a very good heatsink and fan. In fact, I would recommend only doing this to stabilize your system if you have a cooling system in place that allows you to monitor the temp on your cpu. You need to be monitoring your temp on your cpu if your overclocking anyways and increasing the vCore is quite common. From what I know on the Volcano 12, I believe it has a temp detector function, right?
Based on some reading Ive done on your 3200+ XP processor, I believe you will only be able to get an 8 to 10 % boost in performance. This means that the maximum stable overclocking speed is probably around 2.4ghz. This also depends on your set up as well, but I believe your memory is fine. What is your multiplier set at btw, and is your chip's multiplier locked or unlocked? Do you know the current vCore of your processor as well? This is what it should be from the factory, but I dont know if youve changed them already:
XP 3200+ (Barton)
Clock speed: 2200 MHz
FSB: 200 MHz
Multiplier: 11x
Vcore voltage: 1.65v
All these articles on the 3200+ chip confirm the max overclock speed of around 2.4ghz, about 2.42ghz to be exact.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10239
http://content.guru3d.com/article/review/46/10
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1409&page=2
Unfortunately, you may not be able to even overclock up to the 2.42ghz threshold with your set up.
Sorry p. Here is a good overclock FAQ to read btw.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/overclockingfaq.php
"The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action." Hartley's 1st Law
Rabid, or anyone who can help (feel free to jump in):
The AMD 3500+ has only 512KB L2 Cache, whereas the 3200+ has 1MB L2 cache. What kinda impact does this difference do to performance?
The 3500+/s939 is $250 more than the 3200+/s754. For anyone who would go for the 3500+/s939, could you tell me why you choose so? For example, is s754 gonna phase out soon?
Thanks.
it's like how fast your computer takes in the internet information..or however you want to word it
if you have the cash, then DEFINETLY go with the 3200 with 1mb cache..that's a lot
and it's a good lot
http://www.facebook.com/murtb
That's the hard part in my decision making........The 3200+ with the 1MB L2 cache is actually $200 cheaper than 3500+ with 512KB cache....
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33.333333333333336% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
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Talon just get CoH. I'm on server Unicorn for about a week until I make a visit to Ebay.
Feel free to convince me otherwise..If You Can!!! 
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33.333333333333336% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
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600 dollars for a graphics card?
That graphics card better drive me to work.
But seriously, just get a radeon X800 for 100 dollars less...
NVidia - The way it is meant to be played
ATI - The way it really plays
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yeah but you can put that $200 to a nice fat graphics card. The Nvidia 6800 is out and it's only $608.00 at newegg.com!
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But, from reviews, there's not much different performance-wise between Nvidia 6800 vs ATI X800 Pro. But Nvidia is $608 vs $389 (x800 pro) --->$220 difference!
ATI 9800 pro is even cheaper at $220.
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33.333333333333336% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
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how do u reply with the original post shown?
Anyway, back to the topic...
Now, taking Nvidia out of the equation.....
should I get 9800pro ($220) or x800pro($389)
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33.333333333333336% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
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