help me choose hardware

Taurus

hardware monkey
Joined
8 May 2002
Messages
3,206
my buddy got his stimulus check and wants to finally upgrade his socket A system. we'll be reusing as much of his old stuff as possible (case, harddrive, dvd burner). his cap is $600 but i already picked out a good power supply which cuts it down to $500 left. and spending less is always better.

here are the other parts i was considering...

motherboard:
ASUS M3N-HD HDMI (nvidia 750a) $175
GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 (AMD 770) $95

processor:
Athlon X2 4850e (2.5GHz, 45W) $90

memory:
G.SKILL 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 $80

video card:
ECS 9600GT 512MB $140


I've always been the go-to computer guy among my friends and built his current comp years ago. and i've always been an AMD + nvidia guy which still pretty much holds true. i say pretty much because i know current Intel offerings are generally a better option. but i don't really know much about them or the available chipsets.

his priority is gaming (battlefield 2, in particular) which is why i have the 750a board there with it's SLI for future-proofing. but the board/chipset is still very new. makes me nervous.

so what is a good Intel cpu/motherboard/memory combo for roughly $300?
 
Last edited:
FOR INTEL SYSTEM

i would say go for the E7200 or E8200 processor.
 
The 750i is getting good reviews on the net, so I would pick that one. Memory and vid card look good.

The cpu won't fit (like Putale mentioned) so yeah a 8200 would be a good pick.
 
To get within the $300 range get the E4600 processor, Gigabite P35, and Corsaire 2ig xms 6400 ddr2 mem. All can easily be found in Newegg.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Latest profile posts

Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

Forum statistics

Threads
62,015
Messages
673,494
Members
5,621
Latest member
naeemsafi
Back