Best computer for $1500?

[Oddzball]

Hey, I'm sure that these messages appear a lot and probably piss a lot of people off, but if you had 1500 bucks to spend on a system, not including the monitor, what would you go for? AM2 is definately cheaper, but doesnt perform as well.

Is the difference between them so great that it is really going to matter?

I am upgrading from a P4 3.4 Ghz so either way I am sure I'll see an improvement.

I was trying to decide on a good MB, with C2D it doesnt look like SLI is viable, but with AM2 it is definately possible.

And lastly I was debating on how much of a difference a 7950 GT is from the 7900 GS, both are about the same price so I suppose I should just get the 7950, any thoughts?

Thanks for your input.

 

[Oddzball]

Well, since I havent gotten any responses Ill list what I have...

I decided the difference between C2D and AM2 isnt going to be that big a deal, and since AM2 is cheaper, I went with it.

AM2 64 X2 4200 2.2ghz ~184
DFI Infinity Ultra II ~94
Corsair XMS2 2 GB 2x1GB DDR2 800 ~ 306
FPS Group AX500 PSU ~89
BFG 7950GT ~299
Thermaltake Armor Series Black VA8000BSW ~149
WD SE16 250GB SATAII ~ 79
For the hot chipset I went with the Thermalright HR-05 SLI ~19
For the CPU I choose the Zalman CNPS 9500

Please give me some feedback on this setup.

Thanks.

 

[trake1]

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2823

PC Club Enpower Sabre Extreme: E6600 Made Easy

Thsi $1420.00 system has a very very good motherboard cpu combo. With swapping your video card choice of the 7950 for the 7900 you'll come in under your budget.

Case: Apex customized Mid-Tower with 350W PSU 63
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 151
Processor: Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40 GHz 4MB shared L2 cache) 370
Cooling: Stock Intel CPU HSF
80mm front fan
80mm rear fan 0
RAM: 2x512MB Transcend PC2-5300 JM367Q643A-6 5-5-5-13 Timings 90
Graphics: MSI GeForce 7900 GT 275
Hard Drives: 250GB Western Digital 16MB 7200 RPM 84
Optical Drive: LiteOn 16X DVD+/-RW 32
Audio: Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD Audio onboard 0
Monitor: ViewSonic VA1912WB 222
Keyboard: Logitech Internet Pro 11
Mouse: Logitech RX1000 28
Operating System: Windows XP Home SP2 95
Sub Total: 1421

 

[silentvois]

Or you could consider a slight modification to your proposed setup:

E6300
Gigabyte DS3
Enhance 500W PSU
EVGA/MSI 7900 GTO
Thermalright Ultra 120/Tuniq Tower/Scythe Infinity Heatsink

The reason I was recommending a C2D with the DS3 is cuz you got some ram there than can push at least 450-500 fsb and it would make better use of such a potential with a C2D.