[Taima]

Right now I have about $200, and I was wondering what you guys think about this

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

If it's really not that good, then it would be much appreciated if someone found a better deal for $200 or less. Preferably a combo deal, so I can kill 2 birds with one stone. I'm seriously tired of spending my money on other stupid things, and I wanna put this money towards building a new rig before it's too late.

Thanks

[samjohnson]

Ya that is a pretty darn good combo deal. When I get some time I will have a look around newegg for ya and see what there is available.

[Rik]

Looks good but don't forget it will require ddr2 ram. The ram from your existing system wont work in it.

[samjohnson]

Ya like Rik said your existing memory won't work for it. But since that combo deal is only 120, you could easily get a 2 gigs for 40 or less.

[Taima]

Lol Rik i actually made sure i knew what i was doin when i planned this...im goin for this lil combo, the ram, a hard drive....what kind of power supply would i need for that? Oh and btw sam that deal is 180 not 120

[Daveskater]

That's not a bad deal but it's not one of the energy efficient Phenom's, so it will use more power and run a bit warmer.

If you're using the on board 8200 graphics then a 450W will probably do, possibly even a 400.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Well it's only a Phenom 9600, which has a TDP of 95w, so energy efficiency shouldn't be a problem with that particular chip

To be honest I didn't know that chip was still available with it having the TLB erratum.

Overall I think it's a very good deal I agree with Dave about PSU wattage Perhaps a little more, say 550w-600w if you intend on upgrading in the future

[Taima]

So I got my money, and it came to $222 which is now sitting in the bank waiting to be used.

Anyway, I changed the EVGA board to this ASUS one:
Newegg.com - ASUS M3N78 PRO AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Then I found a combo of RAM with that same processor:
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

As of right now, the total with everything together stands at: $243.36

That puts me about $22 short so hopefully I'll get about as much in my check tonight, assuming I have a check to get (I've been working on and off so much for the one day that I work a week that I have no idea what's been going on with my money.


So what do ya'll think?

Btw, I do plan on adding to that video card so I think I should definitely get at least a 600w PSU.

Oh and something else I forgot, gonna get another case too....what size case would I need? I know the board is ATX but do I need like ATX full tower or mid tower?

I definitely want something with some good fans cause my room can get pretty hot and so will this machine once I get what I want, but I don't want to spend more than like $130 (once I get that kind of money of course)...If anyone would like to help with that, it'd be much appreciated.

[Daveskater]

Which graphics card is it you want to get, there's no link.

I would get a full ATX case, as it will be easier to keep it cooler imo. Having everything slightly more crammed into a smaller case will give the components less room to "breathe" and heat will build up.

[Taima]

Oh as of right now there is no video card in particular i plan on getting...i figure that i'll wait till i get everything else before i worry bout it...i do plan on getting something that will run most games quite nicely though which will probably cost a pretty penny...i guess i'll get a full case then thanks

---------Oh just to make sure you guys know, I plan on using what I build primarily for gaming....so if there's a better processor I can get for about that same price or less, let me know.

[Taima]

Oh I have another question to ask that I think is worthy of another post, at least until i get a couple of replies.

Anyway, I was doing some reading, and I was wondering whether I should get that quad core I've talked about, or this dual-core:
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

In that reading I was doing, I found that dual cores are better right now for gaming, as the quads aren't utilized by most games, and there's also a delay in the transfer of information, which slows it down a bit more because of all the cores.

To counter that though, quads are better because they can handle applications better, and are probably better in the long run when they become fully utilized. (Oh and like Rik said, dual is good for xp which I'm going to keep for a lil longer, and quads are better for vista)

So it's down to the

3.2ghz dual core, or the
2.3ghz quad core.....

Help would be appreciated in deciding this

Thanks

[sho-dan]

a bit off topic
Taima you ever heard of this place microcenter it might not be far from your house if you live in Philadelphia, PA. I go there all the time, great store. I call it the Porn Store for Geeks, due to all the oohs and aahs once in the store . I live NJ.

[Taima]

Yeah that's not far from me really. 23 miles...it's near Paoli which is funny cause my bros gf works up there. Half hour drive according to Google. What part of NJ are you from? Nice to know I've got people not too far from me.

Now if someone will help me with this lol


EDIT: Another thought about the dual core/quad core thing. How about a triple core? lol

[samjohnson]

Originally Posted by Taima

Oh and btw sam that deal is 180 not 120

Oh, haha. I thought I saw it was $120. My bad.
Its not available anymore any way.

I like the choice of motherboard you got there. I also like the RAM CPU combo.

Hmmm, dual core or quad core... or even triple core...!? So many choices!!! lol
I actually don't know what one I would pick either. I think I would lean more towards the dual core though. The quads aren't really used much as of right now, especially for gaming.

[Taima]

Yea thats basically what i've been thinking...wouldn't a triple core be like the perfect balance between them?

[samjohnson]

So you would think right. lol

The quad would allow you to be ready for anything in the future. The dual core could get outdated pretty fast. So maybe you should go for the triple or the quad.

sho-dan -- I used to live in Tabernacle NJ for 10 years. If you know where that is. I moved here to KY 4 years ago.

[Joshuashawharvey]

I agree with samjohnson

If you just want the best performance in games immediately I would go with the dual-core.

If you want to set yourself for the future I would go with either a triple or quad-core, though quad-core seems more of a viable choice to me if you plan to set yourself for the future. I see the triple-core as more for power users on a budget rather than future-proofing.

Bearing in mind that AMD are still releasing dual-cores with the recent release of the X2 7750+. AMD also plan to release some more dual-cores next year. This shows that dual-cores are still very much in, and probably will be for at least another year IMO.

The quad-core you plan on purchasing is only 2.3GHz. By the time games are optimised for quads (which I don't see happenening for some time yet), I can see that processor having a hard time unless overclocked. Also bear in mind that CPU has the TLB erratum which will result in the CPU causing crashes when running virtualisation software.

[Taima]

Well that's quite interesting. Fortunately/Unfortunately, I'm going to be unable to buy the parts for at least a month now because my mom had to use the money to keep one of our cars from being repo'd.

The only good things that come out of that are that we still have both cars, (well 3 if you count my Benz but it doesn't get used) and that I might have a little more money from work by the time I get the $222 back.

I found that X2 7750+ you were talking about:
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 2.7GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor - Processors - Desktops

Wouldn't the X2 6400+ be better because it's 3.2ghz instead of 2.7? Oh and what's the difference between a black edition processor and a....not-black edition one? lol

[Daveskater]

Black Edition have unlocked multipliers so you can overclock them

[Joshuashawharvey]

The main difference between the 7750+ and the 6400+ is the 3MB cache in total including L3 cache which the previous X2's do not have.

There will probably be some added features such as SSE4 instruction set which will improve media performance.

Also the 7750+ has only a 95W TDP as opposed to the 6400+ which has a 125W TDP

If it was my money, i'd go with the new X2 as opposed to the previous ones, even if the clock speed is a little lower.