[Ferken123]

Hi guys,

I need a NEW CPU. My current one is so Horrible im goning to upgrade it like crazy with your guy's help

So now im going to build a new desktop from scratch with a tight budget of $550 Dollars (canadian) give or take a few of dollars.

I want to use my computer to play some games, like CS source, Warcraft 3, WoW etc. Also some homework, Web Surfing etc.

I Currently have a windows XP cd, and got my hands on a AMD A64 3200 Processor.
Now with my 550 dollars i need a new hardrive, motherboard, videocard, memory, case, and powersupply.

Anyone have any ideas on the parts i should get with my budget, and requirements.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help

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Welcome to G2G

I am not a gamer so I am not going to advise you on which video card to buy I'm afraid. I'll leave that bit to someone who knows!

I would suggest the following however:
1. Motherboard
Go for an Abit, Asus or MSI board if you want a decent board on a budget. Personally, I would favour Abit but thats just my opinion.
Whatever board you are interested in, research it before buying to see if there are any known problems with it etc. I would especially research the chipset in regards to compatibility with the rest of the system.

2. Don't buy low quality (cheap) power supply or RAM. The PSU is particularly important. Any case that comes with a PSU (this is mainly cheap cases), will contain a cheap PSU. Either buy a case that doesnt have a PSU in it or be prepared to replace the PSU for a better one.
You will need a minimum of 400W to 500W PSU.

If you wish to run dual channel RAM, you will need to buy two identical sticks of ram. Corsair, crucial, kingston etc are all very good. Your best option though, would be to buy the motherboard first then go to Crucials website (www.crucial.com), use their memory advisor & order your RAM from them. They guarantee that the RAM you buy will be 100% compatible with the motheboard.

3. Whatever case you get, make sure it can provide decent air flow & cooling. i.e it should be reasonably large & have plenty of places to mount fans in.

4. Hard drive
Most new boards these days will have SATA controllers for hard drive, as well as IDE so you may as well get an SATA drive. I'd advise that you buy a retail drive instead of an OEM one though. Retail is more expensive but usually comes with a 3 year manufacturers warranty.

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G

I am not a gamer so I am not going to advise you on which video card to buy I'm afraid. I'll leave that bit to someone who knows!

I would suggest the following however:
1. Motherboard
Go for an Abit, Asus or MSI board if you want a decent board on a budget. Personally, I would favour Abit but thats just my opinion.
Whatever board you are interested in, research it before buying to see if there are any known problems with it etc. I would especially research the chipset in regards to compatibility with the rest of the system.

2. Don't buy low quality (cheap) power supply or RAM. The PSU is particularly important. Any case that comes with a PSU (this is mainly cheap cases), will contain a cheap PSU. Either buy a case that doesnt have a PSU in it or be prepared to replace the PSU for a better one.
You will need a minimum of 400W to 500W PSU.

If you wish to run dual channel RAM, you will need to buy two identical sticks of ram. Corsair, crucial, kingston etc are all very good. Your best option though, would be to buy the motherboard first then go to Crucials website (www.crucial.com), use their memory advisor & order your RAM from them. They guarantee that the RAM you buy will be 100% compatible with the motheboard.

3. Whatever case you get, make sure it can provide decent air flow & cooling. i.e it should be reasonably large & have plenty of places to mount fans in.

4. Hard drive
Most new boards these days will have SATA controllers for hard drive, as well as IDE so you may as well get an SATA drive. I'd advise that you buy a retail drive instead of an OEM one though. Retail is more expensive but usually comes with a 3 year manufacturers warranty.

[Ferken123]

Thanks for the tips on buying my new desktop, anyone have any suggestions on what type i should buy.

Edit: Anyone recommend any excellent asus motherboards, not to expensive though/

Edited by Ferken123, 02 January 2006 - 08:03 PM.

[jrm20]

Make shure you get pci express on your new motherboard. Get a video card in the $200 us dollar range. Your cdn so I dont know how much it will be for you.

Look into corsair memory they are the #1 leader in memory. Get a true power power supply of course 400w to 500w like mentioned above.

Get a nvidia 6800gs or above or a ati x800gto or above.

[†Gladiator†]

for 550$
I would suggest an ANTEC Sonata II case $115 comes with 450 watt PSU
An ATI 9800pro will work fine $100 on good deals
Seagate 250Gigs HD with 16mb buffer $100
2 sticks of 512 Kingston Value Ram $125
and you have about 115 left for a mobo shop around i am not that familiar with amd sockets
You can run all those games on very high settings with this set up and everything listed above r top notch parts with budget in mind.
BTW where in Canada do you live? cause if you live near Toronto i have a few good stores with really good prices to point you to.

[jrm20]

I dont know why you would want an ati 9800 pro.

Think about it they only come in agp slots.

You do not want to buy a new motherboard and get agp. Get Pci express it is the newer technology and is faster.

The pci express video cards are even a few dollars cheaper than the exact same card in an agp version. Yes.. Agp is about dead. They are making the 6800gs's in agp and thats probably going to be the last agp card..

[Hemal]

agre with jrm20-- look for something more with the pci-x16- even if you were to get a decent card now- when you get more money- you can upgrade in the future- I would really shop around and penny pinch on products like memory and harddrives- if you look around for deals with rebates and such you could save another 100 and then get the 6800 or something

[warriorscot]

Yeah the PCI-e cards come in more of the cheaper budget varieties than AGP ones ever did, alot of the manufacturers released excellent cards recently using new technology to reduce manufacturing costs but maintain the performance(x800gt or 6800gs both good examples of this). And AGP cards are more expensive as well, the AGP version of the 6800GS is more expensive than its PCI-E variant.

Some corsair ram and a Abit or a MSI board im still cautious with asus boards there reputation on AMD motherboards isnt as good as most they released a few dodgy mobos.