im building a new gaming rig and i got the money but im just popin in here to see if i can get something better for around the same price or cheaper. So far the total is like $782.00 with shipping. All parts are from newegg.com :-) The list of parts im ordering are.

1. Biostar T-Force Nf4 motherboard. it has sli. $113.00 ( pepole have said its just as good as the asus A8n-Sli premium but way cheaper. lol but i dont know

2. AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 ghz processor.
$295

3. saphire Radeon X850xt $199.00

4. 1gb G. SKill ram. $71.00

5.X-Blade Case ATX mid tower. $36.00 ( looks fine to me and its cheap...not to mention it dosent have those anoyying plastic clip-ons for the dive bays.

i have a 400 watt power supply at home do you think it would power all that...cause im not really sure.My freind says it should.

ive also got a hard drive and cd drive set aside for this rig so no worrys their. so waht do you think i could improve while keeping around the same price. Or does the setup seem alright. ( personally im really happy with it and it will fit all my needs. but if you see something i could improve upon or get something better for the same price just let me know and i will definatly take it under consideration :-) cause lol im trying to keep it cheap but yet powerful enough to play all the latest games. And morrowind scrolls of oblivion when it comes out.....Thanks again.

"to be a rebel in veiw of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man, but instead he awakens us to something wich war ought to be waged against"

It looks like you're trying to build as cheap a rig as possible, but that's not the wisest thing to do.

"1. Biostar T-Force Nf4 motherboard. it has sli. $113.00 ( pepole have said its just as good as the asus A8n-Sli premium but way cheaper. lol but i dont know"

It's not as good. Biostar is a third tier manufacturer. Go with DFI. And you don't need an SLI mobo. An Nforce4 Ultra is fine.

"2. AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 ghz processor.
$295"

Why? Hardly any games take advantage of dual core yet. Go with an Athlon 64 3700 for $230 or the Opteron 140 for $200. Put your money in the video card; it will do WAY more good.

"3. saphire Radeon X850xt $199.00"

Go with a 7800GT instead with that money you saved on your CPU.

"i have a 400 watt power supply at home do you think it would power all that...cause im not really sure.My freind says it should."

Judging from what you've picked out so far, I'm betting the 400W is a generic. If your power supply goes, it can take other components with it. Don't kill your system with a crap PSU. Get a good 500W or so from a reputable company: Antec, Thermaltake, Enermax, PC Power and Cooling, Coolermaster, etc. If you go SLI anyway, might as well get something certified for SLI while you're at it.

"4. 1gb G. SKill ram. $71.00"

Get Corsair for the same price. In fact, outpost.com is selling 1GB PC3200 kits for $50 after rebate until the end of today. Otherwise, Corsair goes for about $80. Don't nickle and dime yourself to death.

Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!

I agree wholeheartedly with heropsycho2177, especially about the processor. I made the mistake of purchasing the 3800X2 before it was pointed out to me that it is really two 3200 cores not two 3800 cores. Fortunately I was able to return it and get a much better single core for less money.

Unless you have applications that you will use a lot that take advantage of dual core you would be paying extra for something you cannot use. Yes, you would have the ability to run other apps while gaming (e.g. CD/DVD Burning), but they would be sharing the other susbystem resources (memory, hard drive, etc) - and who needs to burn a DVD while playing a game?

I'm not a fan of DFI, but they have one of the highest performance to cost ratios, IMHO, and are a solid buy.

Michael J

MichaelJ,

DFI has traditionally been a high performance to cost ratio geared company, but the NForce4 boards, particularly the LANParty series, are the most reliable and the best overclocking boards available. Check them out!

Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!

alright thats cool...thanks for the help guys. so with in my buget of $800.00 i can get waht you recomened the 7800GT video card and that opteron processor. hmm you think you could help me pick some stuff out for the best price. i always shop on newegg.com my budget is only $800.00 would sure love the help since im doing a whole new computer build. motherboard, ram, powersupply, video card, ect. alright well ill tear down my computer form and rebuild with waht you recomend...thanks guys. i havent ordered yet still deciding things.

"to be a rebel in veiw of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man, but instead he awakens us to something wich war ought to be waged against"

Go pick it out and post back with names and links of each. We'll let you know on each.

For $800, yeah, you should be in business.

Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!

"Unless you have applications that you will use a lot that take advantage of dual core you would be paying extra for something you cannot use."
True...But I would add the word 'yet' to the end of that sentence. If you're a hard-core gamer, go for the single core and upgrade again when apps start taking advantage of it. If you're looking for something for the long-term and won't upgrade again for a while, I'd give the 3800+ another look.

Personally, I don't see myself ever just upgrading the CPU of my computer, since by the time the CPU is sufficiently outdated to warrant a replacement, new kinds of RAM and chipsets are available for the latest CPUs, so I end up having to upgrade the motherboard and RAM as well.

I bought the 3800+ and have been very happy with it, but I'm not much of a gamer (I do video editing as much as I game), and it absolutely spanks anything single core when it comes to hefty video encoding. (Video enthusiasts have been using dual processors for years, so most software is already taking advantage of it.)

Check out this thread (and the excellent link therein provided by jam) for some more opinions:
Single vs Dual Core -- Who Wins?

Good luck,
-SN

Newegg is a good outlet, but it is not the most competitive 100% of the time. Learn to use pricegrabber as well.

0. CPU - Opteron 144 or 146.

1. Motherboard - DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D.

2. VGA - 7800GT.

3. RAM - OCZ Technology 1GB PC3200 DC kit.

4. PSU - FSP with clean voltage rails (450/500W).

Goodluck !!!

When Google isn't your best pal

"I'd give the 3800+ another look."

I personally wouldn't buy the X2 3800 for the simple fact you can get an Opteron 165 with 1M cache per core for $330, which isn't much more than the 3800.

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k i think i got it settle out the total cost including shipping is like 791.00
it was the best i could do.

1. 6600GT by evga PCI Express $139.00

2. BioStar Nforce4U soket 939 $91.00 pepole gave it 5 out of 5 and ill take a shot with it. ( asus was to expensive)

3. 500watt aspire power supply $ 38.95 ( i know its cheap and it should do for now the way i build the comp, it will have a 120mm blowing across the case will keep the power supply cool as well as the top of the motherboard. this worked in my last build and kept my case at 41c max under full load.with the other 2 120mm fans blasting away. and my old generic powersupply never went out on me cause of this.

3. 1gig G.Skill ram $66.00 ( 5 out of 5 stars good reviews.

4.80 gig Seagat Barracuda. ( my freind helped me pick this one out ATA100 7200rpm. $52.00

3. 3 120mm fans $5.00 each

5. Athlon64 3800+ X2 ( this will work for waht i need and it overclockable to 2.4 ghz stable.) i do alot of multi taskin do mmorpg design and 3d modeling. $295.00....expensive but i should be okay for a long time.

and a $39.00 computer case ATX mid tower it will work for waht i need and has good cooling potential.

As for the biostar motherboard it supports all AMD processors Athlon 64, X2, & FX series. and it looks like it will hold up it got good reviews.

but yea the video card is upgradable to so i dont think i did terrably bad with $800.00 budget. it works for waht ill need.

So waht do you guys think could i possibly replace with cheaper stuff of same or better quality. lol ill have to get cd drive form somewhere else. but all parts are from newegg.com ect. but yea im gonna need a dual core at thats the cheapest around that i can see. i dont know i tried....

Note: all the things i piked out had like a 5/5 review so i think ill be okay. since i have experiance putting comps together. not to mention its way cheaper than buying some dell dual core setup where they charge you your soul and all your limbs just to put a down payment on the machine lol.

"to be a rebel in veiw of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man, but instead he awakens us to something wich war ought to be waged against"

"I personally wouldn't buy the X2 3800 for the simple fact you can get an Opteron 165 with 1M cache per core for $330, which isn't much more than the 3800."

Point taken...I admit I didn't even consider that when I was building my box.

It looks like the out of the box performance is pretty similar though, owing to the higher clock speed of the X2:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/opteron-165_7.html

-SN

"1. 6600GT by evga PCI Express $139.00"

First off, you're underappreciating the importance of your graphics card. You should be getting at least a 6800GS for $160ish.

But if that's what you want, check out monarchcomputers.com for a deal on that one for $85 after rebate.

"2. BioStar Nforce4U soket 939 $91.00 pepole gave it 5 out of 5 and ill take a shot with it. ( asus was to expensive)"

A DFI Infinity series board is like $5 more and way better quality.

"As for the biostar motherboard it supports all AMD processors Athlon 64, X2, & FX series. and it looks like it will hold up it got good reviews."

Biostar traditionally uses cheap components, such as cheap capacitors, that kind of thing. Consequently, they are far more prone to go bad after a year or two compared to top tier makers like DFI, Asus, etc. You're basing what you're buying on customer reviews that are posted just after they install the motherboard. Rarely do people post after a year or two saying the board died. RMA rates don't lie; this is why the top tier makers charge what they do for their boards - it costs more to make a very reliable product, support it well, etc.

Be smart with your money. If you plan on using the motherboard for more than a year, spend a few dollars more for a quality motherboard.

"3. 1gig G.Skill ram $66.00 ( 5 out of 5 stars good reviews."

Corsair is $10 more, and is far more reputable, easier to find if you want to add more memory later to ensure compatibility.

"4.80 gig Seagat Barracuda. ( my freind helped me pick this one out ATA100 7200rpm. $52.00"

Check Sunday flyers if you don't mind IDE instead of SATA. You can get a 160 gig for usually around $40 after rebate from Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, someone usually offers such a deal out of those stores.

"500watt aspire power supply $ 38.95"

That's not a good power supply. Even the 420W Thermaltake is better at the same price. Google reviews for the Aspires, and you'll see the wattage is exaggerated, and they have weak rails compared to other good ones if the reviewer actually took the time to test the voltages.

"5. Athlon64 3800+ X2 ( this will work for waht i need and it overclockable to 2.4 ghz stable.) i do alot of multi taskin do mmorpg design and 3d modeling. $295.00....expensive but i should be okay for a long time."

Dude, spend $35 more for the Opteron 165. If you're doing graphics design, you sure could use the additional cache! Plus it overclocks like mad if you decide to do so. :-)

"Note: all the things i piked out had like a 5/5 review so i think ill be okay."

Again, you're using consumer reviews. I'm not saying this is a bad source of info, but you MUST consider the weaknesses of it, just as any type of information has its weaknesses. These people often do not examine all the features, stress test, nor are they evaluating the product on a long term basis when they write their reviews.

How many people who eval'ed the Aspire actually hooked up a multimeter and checked the voltages on Newegg for example?

Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!

alright cool ill do that....so if i get an opteron it will be good for gaming as well and it will be fine if i overclock and cool it with air to a certain extent. im gonna get a few extra bucks and get the stuff you guys are recomending....i know it will be worth it in the long run.....advice taken thanks for the help.

"to be a rebel in veiw of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man, but instead he awakens us to something wich war ought to be waged against"

"so if i get an opteron it will be good for gaming as well"

Yep! Better in fact than the X2 you were considering due to the higher amount of cache in some cases. Once you overclock it, it DEFINITELY will kill the X2 3800.

"it will be fine if i overclock and cool it with air to a certain extent."

Should be. My stock cooled Athlon 64 3000 overclocks from 1.8GHz to 2.5GHz without any issues whatsoever. Consult overclocking guides on the net for details on how to do it safely and effectively.

"i know it will be worth it in the long run."

You can bet on it. :-)

I'm not a big fan of buying things to have the best like many people, BUT...

If you are saving your money before taking the plunge, do yourself a favor and get a 6800GS, not the 6600GT. The 6600GT is already bogging down on games like FEAR. I bought one last year, and I've already upgraded it. :-/ In fact, if you can swing the 7800GT, even better. The video card is extremely important in most games today.

Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

www.redcross.org