My 1G Power machine

scharky

scharky

Veteran
So I'm finally upgrading from my 3 year old P4 2.4 Ghz Sony Vaio. It's a pig and my laptop is faster than it, which is really sad. My budget is only 1G, so here is what I'm getting.

This time I'm leaving room for upgrades, up to 8GB Ram, Dual PCIe for more monitors, AM2 socket for the newer AMD procs. I'm also using the Dual layer DVD drives that I just bought for my other computer, and I just bought a 400GB and another 120GB hard drive for my old computer, so that's not included in the price. Let me know if there are any weird configurations.

Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 Nvidia nForce 570 SLI Mobo-$146
Sunbeam IC-Silver/black ATX Mid tower, 450W PS -62.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200 120GB system drive- $59.99
OCZ 2x512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $114.99
Athlon 64 X2 4200 Windsor Socket AM2 - $359
Leadtek 256MB 7600GS 256MB (Dual DVI) - $122.99
Microsoft Curve 2000 Keyboard :) - $15.99

Total $883, not including OS

And no, I don't want to buy a Mac, so please don't reccomend it :) thanks.

 
scharky said:
Seagate Barracuda 7200 120GB system drive- $59.99
Click to expand...

Scharky, try to get a Seagate 7200.10 (not 7200.9!) 320 GB drive. It costs 90 Euros here and it's the first 3.5" drive with perpendicular recording (bigger and faster).
 
Thanks for the advice. First off
David, do you have a case you would reccomend? All the ones I looked at are either $300 or really freaking ugly. I don't want an alien face on my computer :) This one seemed to get good reviews, has lots of space, and seems to have a pretty good PSU, but if you know if a better one that could fit in my budget, I'm all ears.
Marcus, does seagate make a 7200.1 120 GB HD? This is going to be my system drive, and I really don't want a 320GB System Drive.
Whats the difference betweeen the .1 and the .09?
 
i really dont like asus stuff. Really bad support and something else that I cant remember at this time. or was it acer stuff.... my mind is fried. Oh well never mind.
 
Any reccomendations on similar motherboards, ie 8GB ram, Socket AM2, 2x PCI express 16x, 2x PCI express 1x, and 3 PCI?

Unfortunatly it looks like my only other option for motherboards with these specs is MSI, and I have read absolutly horrible reviews about them. :(
 
scharky said:
Marcus, does seagate make a 7200.1 120 GB HD? This is going to be my system drive, and I really don't want a 320GB System Drive.
Whats the difference betweeen the .1 and the .09?
Click to expand...

The 10 series is the (first) one with perpendicular recording and currently the fastest 7200 rpm drive.
The smallest drive is 250 GB (about 75 euros), the biggest is 750 GB.
The 320 GB drive has the best GB/$ ratio.

Just create a small system partition (mine is 16 GB) and a big one as a work partition.
 
scharky said:
Any reccomendations on similar motherboards, ie 8GB ram, Socket AM2, 2x PCI express 16x, 2x PCI express 1x, and 3 PCI?

Unfortunatly it looks like my only other option for motherboards with these specs is MSI, and I have read absolutly horrible reviews about them. :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, go with Asus before MSI... MSI are junk. I have a Soyo, and its been good to me...
 
What I would do is first off decide on the motherboard. If you go asus the customer support is horrible but most of the time they have good products, however don't touch anything which 'just came out' because it will need some bios revisions. I'd also advise staying away from a nvidia nforce4 chipset if you can. After the motherboard is selected, make sure the RAM and CPU are compatible, not just the sockets, motherboards have lists of compatible hardware, a Qualified Vendors Lists (QVL) which names specific hardware that has been tested and qualified to run on the board. The last thing I'd say is re-check that case you have listed, if you are paying 65$ for a case plus a 450w PSU that's not good. I didnt check the specs of the PSU but for that price I don't think it will be what you need. In my opinion OCZ has the best PSUs and is 2nd in customer service, EVGA is #1 in customer service and I'd suggest going to them for a video card if you go nvidia. Check to see if your motherboard has a list of qualified PSUs, if not, you can go to the motherboards forum, that is the best place for information. But really with PSUs, if you buy quality you will have no problems. The motherboard's forum will be a very helpful place for information when building your system.
 
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