Powerfull but cheap system please........

[Spongebob]

I'm building a gaming system for someone and I need to know what I should put in it to save expen$es. I need a system that can handle all of todays games with ease at stock. They might like the option to SLI or use crossfire down the road but if I can get them a better board without that option might be the best bet.

These are the items in question;
CPU
Mainboard
Ram
PSU
Harddrive

Pretty much the works, huh????

Also whats the best bang for the buck in the video card market today?

[Mr.Tweak]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

As far as GPU goes, why not look at 7600GT in SLI or even 7900GS in SLI if you can afford it - the latter should do just fine for all of today's games.

CPU would be E6300 Core 2 Duo.

[Spongebob]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

As far as GPU goes, why not look at 7600GT in SLI or even 7900GS in SLI if you can afford it - the latter should do just fine for all of today's games.

CPU would be E6300 Core 2 Duo.

Do all video cards do widescreen well or should I be looking at something in particular if have a widescreen monitor to go with the system? I have a 7800 GT that I might sell them for the system.

Also what chipset would you suggest going with on the mainboard? I was thinking that this board is inexpensive and comes with a newer chipset, what do you think?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131142

[Grim-Reaper]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

Do all video cards do widescreen well or should I be looking at something in particular if have a widescreen monitor to go with the system? I have a 7800 GT that I might sell them for the system.

Also what chipset would you suggest going with on the mainboard? I was thinking that this board is inexpensive and comes with a newer chipset, what do you think?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131142

good cheap board but wont overclock much though Good thing about this board it supports SLI if you plan to get another same card latter on ;)
here is another board but this one supports crossfire good if your getting an ATI x1950 pro

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131045

cpu e6300 atleast but a 6600 will be better ;)

memory - Ballistix 2gb PC8000 or G.skill 2GBHZ 6400

Best bang for buck video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161060

PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341001

Harddrive
well there is really nothing much to it get atleast 250GB look for some good deals

[casecutter]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

Actually, that motherboard Spngebob picked out overclocks very well, but it has MAJOR issues overclocking the ram so it will limit you that way. A single 7900GS does me good on my 20" Widescreen LCD, although I can't wait until I can get another to make it stronger.

I do prefer a 965P based motherboard for overclocking an E6300 to the max. As for ram, G Skill HZ or even better Team Group Extreme ram is worth every penny since it is guaranteed to be D9GMH based ram which is what you need for serious overclocks with an E6300.

As for the Harddrive, get a Seagate 7200.10 series 250GB+ since they now use perpendicular writing technology and are just as fast as Raptors for less than half the cost.

[xaglx]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

I'm not gonna pretend I know a lot, but I'm starting to build a new computer, and I've put quite a bit of research into it. Since I don't have a lot of money to build it, it might be a good choice for Spongebob's friend.

Like Mr. Tweak suggested, I am also going to use the e6300 (that I got for 150 off craigslist, I might add.. that's including hsf!) because of it's price and overclockability, the GA965PDS3 mobo (100 off again craigslist) for its features and again, high overclockability, 1GB G.Skill dual channel ddr2 800 on newegg for 109 (just for the price and 1.8v for the mobo to be able to start up), and.. barring that I don't win any graphics cards tomorrow, I'll probably go for a 7900GS for about 180 on newegg since it's just not as expensive as the GT and frankly since I haven't had a good graphics card in a long time, I can't and won't complain. I'll be using my old hard drives, dvd writer, and peripherals, and getting a cheapo Ultra V 500W, and it'll come to a little more 600 dollars. If you want to spring for a new 7200rpm 16mb cache hard drive, a 150 dollar case, or an sli mobo or psu with special connectors, you might have to spend a little more..

Oh yeah, and apparently you have to get better memory if you're going to overclock your cpu a lot - I'm not sure if the memory I listed is good enough for overclocking the e6300 to potential, so you should check up on that..

Anyways, there's my one-and-a-half cent..

[xaglx]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

Oh yeah.. I will DEFINITELY need help overclocking my e6300 in the very near future.. if any experts would like to do me and others a favor and write a "Complete Newbie's Guide to Overclocking Your E6300 on your GA-965P-DS3" article, that would be amazingly, spectacularly, stupendously, awesome.

..pleeeeassee?

I read an article where the author basically told the reader not to even touch the BIOS if he or she didn't know what such-and-such multipliers were for fear of the user's computer exploding, but I'm willing to take that risk... so, if you guys could collaborate, I and many others would be very much obliged.


Or maybe you could give me a scholarship to study computer engineering?

Barring that, how about a link to a good how-to article? Thanks for your help in advance!

[casecutter]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

I would not limit myself to memory that is questionable for overclocking. The G Skills HZ series ram will overclock very well. Plus, you'd be better off getting a 1GB stick for now (some performance loss but not too bad) and get another one later since 1GB kits are slowly becoming obsolete. As for the 7900GS, it will overclock to GT speeds easily and is the best card for the money.

As for overclocking, you won't blow it up if you set it wrong. just take it slow and easy and use a program called Orthos to test for stability. Up the FSB by 5 at a time and be sure to run the proper ram voltages. Almost all ram has no problem booting in any board now too.

Think of this for the ram. I have an E6300 and to run it @ 3.2GHz, I have to run the FSB @ 465. That makes the ram run @ 465MHz which is 930MHZ effectively. Most value ram and cheap ram cannot run speeds like that. Even in a cheap system, you gotta spend as much as possible on the ram IF you are going for maximum overclocks.

Honestly, you won't need to overclock it alot to have an amazingly fast PC. I cannot give a logical reason why I run my CPU @ 3.2GHz since running it @ 2.2GHz feels just as fast in real world use. That's not to say that it doesn't run things alot faster with the higher overclock, but if you are limited to a low overclock by ram, you will still have a very fast PC. The problem with the E6300 is that it has a very low CPU divider that basically forces you to run the ram 1:1 (depending on the motherboard) so that the ram speeds get high quickly.

One last thing. As you are planning on overclocking, don't forget to get a better CPU cooler. The few people that say they are getting sky high clocks on the stock unit never seem to post proof. The stock cooler is good for that, stock. The Arctic Freezer 7 PRO is the best cheap cooler and they go up from there. Expect to spend at least another $25+ on an aftermarket CPU cooler.

[xaglx]

Re: Powerfull but cheap system please........

Thanks for the ideas on overclocking and especially the head's up on the hsf, casecutter - I think I'll try everything at stock first to see what the performance is like, and then if I want more, I'll go out and get the arctic 7 fan as you mentioned and we'll see if I blow anything up from there.. I know you said that it's hard to blow anything up, but never underestimate the power of the newb.. hopefully I won't be posting any new threads asking how to extinguish fires..