APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: this month, hopefully even next week BUDGET RANGE: as far under NZ$1k as possible....
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: web design/development, browsing the net, movie watching, a light bit of gaming of previous generation games
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: won't need an OS, speakers, or a mouse. Maybe not a keyboard either
PARTS PREFERENCES: I've got a preference for AMD and uATX form factor, but I can be swayed on these issues as they are not deal breakers
OVERCLOCKING: No / Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No, won't have a graphics card just yet. I'll make do with IG for now
MONITOR RESOLUTION: dunno? higher the better I suppose, but really I just want to keep costs down
What I've decided on so far (criticism welcome!):
CPU: $90 AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.80GHz AM3
Mobo: $150 Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H
RAM: $100 2GB DDR3 (recommendations?)
Case: $100?? ?? I'd prefer a small form factor as I live in a small apartment in the central city
DVD: $45.00 Samsung/Asus/LG/LiteOn 22X SATA Dual Layer DVDRW (haven't decided on a specific one yet)
HDD: $80 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache
= ~$565.00 Total inc gst, ex shipping (and no screen yet)
My preference tends towards going with the AMD option if all arguments for/against more or less cancel themselves out, but if Intel is a greatly better idea it won't be hard to convince me.
What I have now: An IMB Laptop, the X30 (many years old and is on the fritz).
So basically I don't have any parts I can reuse in a new computer, although I've got a mouse and might be able to rustle up a keyboard.
Planning to assemble it myself, done it a couple of times before & isn't that hard. No intentions at this point in time to overclock.
Living in auckland, and intending to pick up the parts in person from the stores around here in the central city.
Going to use it for web development work, tinkering on open source projects, etc...
Won't do any gaming other than quite light stuff like Civilization III, Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake III etc... thus won't spend the money on a graphics card, I expect a decent bit of integrated graphics can cope with that these days? Although maybe when Christmas rolls around this year I'll get myself a mid range graphics card for a couple of hundred if I can.
Which leads me on to the next point... if we can look to the future for potential upgradability that would be handy, as this would be my main machine for the next few years & I'd expect a secondary one for several years after that.
As I'm clueless as to what monitor to get I'll just go with pab's monitor guide? I'd get the cheapest 20 inch which is recommended in the guide (LG W2043 for about $220, 20" 1600x900 16:9 5ms DVI) or maybe the 23 inch that is recommend (Asus VH232T at about $280 23" 1920x1080 16:9 5ms DVI). Perhaps in a Christmas or two from now I'll get a bigger screen and use whatever one I get now as the secondary monitor (for email, newsgroups, forums, news sites, etc..), but for now I have to be conscious of cost.
I really miss the old pricespy a lot, was heaps easier to look and see where the price jumps are as you go from one monitor/harddrive/ram/etc size to another.
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