PLz Help me not mess this up!

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methedestroyer

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#10293 15-Nov-2006 07:51

I have finally reached the age where I have some money to spend and I wish to use it to build a computer. Though I am fairly confident when it comes to computers I am going to throw this out to all you people in internetland to give me some advice. My budget is around (NZ)$2100 and I want the best gaming machine I can get for that amount.

My shortlist of components is so far:
AMD ATHLON64 X2 DUAL CORE 4200+ CPU (AM2)
ASUSTEK SOCKET AM2 M2N4-SLI ATX

Or

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6400 2.13GHZ
GIGABYTE CORE 2 DUO GA-8N-SLI

XFX NVIDIA PX7900GS 256MB PCI-E CARD FAN W/HDCP
CORSAIR TWIN2X1024A-6400 2 X 512MB DDR2-800
HITACHI DESKSTAR T7K250 (250GB) SATA II 8MB CACHE 7200RPM
LG DVD ROM + CD REWRITER COMBO DRIVE

I have a keyboard, mouse and speakers and I havent included a case because I have no idea how much power I need, bearing in mind that I wish to eventually put in another 7900GS and hook them up in SLI.

I also havent included a monitor as I dont know what to get and any help or ideas on that front would be much appreciated.

Overclocking is an option but I have never done it before so I dont really want to risk whichever processor I do end up getting.

These components are not final if anyone has any better idea which fit within my budget I would like to hear them.

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#52369 15-Nov-2006 08:35

methedestroyer:
AMD ATHLON64 X2 DUAL CORE 4200+ CPU (AM2)

Or

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6400 2.13GHZ

We recently went through a similar exercise when building a gaming PC for my son. If you look at the review in the November issue of PC World, you will see that the Core2 Duo is way ahead of the AMD Athlon in performance on pretty much all the benchmarks.

We chose the E6400 processor as a result and have been very pleased with its performance. It also doesn't get so hot as the AMD so your fans can run more quietly.

Note that this is the reverse of the situation which applied until July this year, when the AMD would have been the best choice for the same reasons above. The tables have been turned since Core2 Duo came out, but no doubt AMD will have something in the pipeline.

sammy34

12 posts

Geek

#53074 20-Nov-2006 20:53

Hi all,
Those of you who have been thru this please do share your experiences, I am keen to have a go at building a machine as well and very interested in this thread... Any experiences shared is welcomed, including good places to order parts from.
There's stuff on the web but it is so difficult to find out what is 'current' recommendations because hardware is improving so quickly. Apart from the motherboard what are the recommendations for the other bits if one was to work to the same $2k to 2.5K budget ?
Cheers

will

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#53089 20-Nov-2006 23:02

Have a look on Price Spy , it is a really good site for finding computer part prices and sellers.
methedestroyer regarding power supply, as you would like to do SLI later on I would get at least 500W. I also would stay away from generic power supply's as have had a friend put a generic PSU (power supply unit) in his high spec machine when he first built it and it blew up and he was very lucky that nothing else went with it as well. I would recommend getting either a Thermaltake or Enermax power supply.
As for ordering parts I've had good experiences from Ascent and Super Cheap PC .
Have helped friend building his gaming machine at the start of this year.
PM or post if you would like any further help.