Originally posted by: user1234
Originally posted by: newmenu
AMD 3200 Winchester core with .90die $190, abit AV8 $110, ocz enhance latency 521x2=1gig $175 and after shipping and handling your right at $500 and youll be set. This assuming youre using an AGP vid card. If you have a Pci-E card then the mobo should be the AX8 and its the same price as the other. DONT go with off brand or the cheapest parts, think of your pc like a car, you can always find cheap parts, but like anything else you get what you pay for, pending latest state of the art cheaper to manufacture items, but on 500 budget dont worry bout that. The items ive listed will do you very well and the makers have excellent reputations, warrantees and customer support. Believe me its better to spend a bit more on getting good ram and not the value ram even though its more than the processor, and on the 939 socket, youll be able to upgrade that cpu easily for years to come without needing to tear everthing apart again to replace the mobo.
yeah, except that when you pay $175 for the the 1GB OCZ memory, you get virtually nothing more than the $75 corsair value ram - cpu and all other components will run exactly the saem, only the ram will be a little slower - but it will have negligible effect (less the 1%) on system performance. So better save the $100 and spend it on a better video card, or sound card (audigy2 zs will not only give you much higher sound quality and special effect but will also increase your gaming frame rate by 10-15%).
So final list is:
DFI Ultra/SLI - D mobo
Athlon 64 3000+ (only venice not winchester - difference is 15% more overclocking, costs almost the same)
1GB Corsair Value select PC3200
Audigy 2 ZS Soundcard
Video card: ATI X800XL (non-sli) / Nvidia 6800GT (sli setup)
This is guranteed to give you the most performance for this amount of money (especially the non sli option which is cheapest but has more limited upgradability).