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Building another PC


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#1
VHB

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Hello,

I am travelling to USA in two weeks and would like to buy parts to build a computer at home. Due to air travel space and weight limitations, I will only buy the "core" there:
motherboard, processor, RAM, video card and hard disk. The other parts will be purchased here.
There has been a long time when I bought my current home computer, so I would like to have your help to choose the components. The restrictions are:
I am not a gamer but I would like it to be able to run "heavy" games, like "Half life 2" and "Counter strike".
Hard disk: I think 300GB are enough for now. I can add more later.
The cost of these parts should be around US$ 700, due to Brazilian customs limits. So, I would like to have the best system that can be bought with US$ 700.

I am considering this system, as a starting point:
motherboard: Nforce 570 Atx Socket Amd AM2 1 Pci-e X16 X1 2 Gb Lan Ieee 4DDR2 Price: 150.81 at Amazon.com
processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ 2.2 GHz Price: 99.99 at Amazon
RAM: US Modular Dual Channel 2048MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB) Price: 139.99 at Amazon
video card: onboard
hard disk: 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Buffer Serial Ata II/300, 3.5INCH, 8.9MS Seek, Caviar Series Price: 124.99 at Amazon

Price Total: US$ 515.78

Some doubts:
Is that motherboard a good one?
Is the onboard Nforce 570 fast enough for games or should I buy a separate video card?
The price is almost $200 below my limit. How should I spend this money to improve the system?
Any suggestion on where to buy? The restriction is that the place must accept international credit cards.
Other comments?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Vital
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#2
fortune82

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well, no onboard video will be able to play HL2 unless you have at least 4GB RAM. so you might as well buy a separate video card. a 128MB would be sufficient, but to play it safe, i suggest a 256MB. a nice cheap one would be a nVidia Geforce 7600. you could even stretch it to a 7800, but thats up to you.

One More thing: use www.newegg.com. they are an electronics superstore, and can get any PC part you would need.

Edited by fortune82, 12 April 2007 - 08:22 AM.

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#3
james_8970

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Due to the recent AMD price slashing you'll want to get a AM2 board. Probably the 4400+ on your budget maybe more, for small increases in money you get large leaps in performance, keep this in mind. But you'll have to get a video card regardless without it you won't have a gaming machine.
James
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#4
VHB

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Thanks for your replies.
After some research at newegg.com, I think I have my "partial computer" specified:

Item Description Price
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail 189,00
Motherboard MSI K9A Platinum Socket AM2 ATI CrossFire Radeon Xpress 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail 129,99
Memory G.SKILL 2x1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) System Memory - Retail 149,98
Video card XFX PVT71PUDP3 GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 EXTREME Video Card - Retail 169,99
Hard Disk Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM 79,99
DVD writer LITE-ON Beige 20X ATAPI/E-IDE DL DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology - OEM 35,99

Total: 754,94

Does anyone have comments (good or bad), about the parts I chose? Suggestions are welcome.

thanks,
Vital
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#5
Titan8990

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The board I think is a bit overkill. I havn't heard much about MSI or their boards so I can't comment on that. I think you can get a good brand board will all the features you need for a quite a bit cheaper. Check this Gigabyte out: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128034.

Normally me and James would recommend a 8800 graphics card but for a $170 that 7900 is pretty good and will fulfill your need nicely. Also you could go a little cheaper on the RAM. They say that the DDR2 800 is only worth it if you plan to overclock. If you do plan to overclock you have a good system to do it on.
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#6
james_8970

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The 8600's were released today and a strongly suggest them.
Here are some oblivion benchmarks to prove it.
http://www.tomshardw...8600/page8.html
I'd give you the link for the 8600GT, but I can't find it and have run out of time. It's the same price range but will deliver more performance and has the eye candy of DX10. Although don't get to excited about DX10, because I expect these low end DX10 cards to barely make it by since the DX10 games will be much more complex and GPU demanding. Regardless, for present games it packs more of a punch, if you can, I'd spring up to the 8600GTS.
James

Edit: Since the AMD are closer to their full potential (or spec) then Intels Core2duo's, they don't overclock quite as nicely, if you have plans on overclocking go to the Intel side, otherwise you could save about 10-20$ and get 667MHz (I'd recommend no slower). If you do plan on overclock you'll have to spend a bit more on things like heatsinks(not the stock one that comes with the CPU).

Edited by james_8970, 17 April 2007 - 09:32 PM.

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