Originally posted by: DrCool
a few people seem to have taken it apon themselves to decide that their 'opinions' are the 'opinions' of the majority. (fisher, DGath, subhuman, Hinton, Tostada, Gothgar, Boonesmi)
I hate to break it to you, but this is a community of many hundreds maybe even thousands, and your limited views, do not represent the majority.
Well, I think they might represent the majority, - to a good degree.
Overwhelming reason I have not seen fit to post previously in this thread, is that DGath makes exactly my argument so well. I'm fine with fisher, Gothgar and Boonesmi too.
You finally make some good arguments though. Comments about personalities are generally unfortunate, and I do not care to underwrite any such. That doesn't mean I would never tell anyone he/she is behaving stupidly. And being 20 and jumping right into a forum, where hardware have been discussed for ages, and presenting a "System Builders Guide", "your questions, ANSWERED!", is pretty stupid.
Don't worry, when you're young, stupidity is not coupled to IQ and also pretty common. We've all made fools of ourselves, at one time or another.
But I'm going to try stay constructive: The argument you made about performance/price (the one Zebo recently quoted) is good, and something I
generally agree with (the performance difference I see between FX5200 and highend 6800/X800 is more like 20 times, but it's a minor point).
You still come to the wrong conclusions though, - A64 3000+, Asus VIA & 128MB 6800 ($615 total), instead of A64 3400+, simple Chaintech/EPoX NF3-250 for ~$75 & 256MB 6800GT ($687 total, I'll easily compensate the additional $ on other stuff, 1GB good PC3200 CL2.5 can be had for ~$150 instead of your precious Crucial at $251, for instance. And 128MB video is NOT enough for new generation videocards and games). That's just some examples, your other suggestions are off mark, too.
To put this in general terms, instead of commenting individual component choices, you tend to choose components that are too expensive, in relation to what they actually offer to the system. The prime example would be the cordless mouse and fancy keyboard for the budget machine. Another trend is the expensive brands, and the 'deluxe' editions. My guess is that this is a result of you wanting to include items, you've seen favourable comments about, in various reviews. Eventually, we find you financing these by backing off on CPU, videocard, and RAM. Not a good way to put together a system, on any budget.
To me and most of the forum, a "budget" system means a system put together with budget components. Not a prestige brand, low performance system, with deluxe features.
Clinging to Asus, Abit and MSI is to me a sign of inexperience. Asus are arguably sometimes the best, but not necessarily at any budget. Cheap brands like Shuttle, EPoX, Soltek, Chaintech, Gigabyte, Asrock, even ECS, are still in this business because their stuff usually actually really do work. Even if you doubt it.
(...and I'm not sure MSI belongs in company with Asus & Abit)
Typical review winners are also usually 'deluxe' editions, with fancy power and clock arrangements and a ton and a half of features you usually never will have any use for. Even an overclocker can often make use of a simpler board. It might not be the highest OC, but the money saved could be put into a one notch better CPU, for instance. But for a non-OC'er the simpler, cheaper boards are often the best choice. Why pay for features you don't use/need?
At the highest end, a few % additional performance can be squeezed out, by careful choice of expensive RAM and mainboard. But on a budget, even a high budget, it's far from sure this kind of optimization is beneficial. The money saved on cheaper RAM and chipsets/MBs, can be used to better effect on the videocard, CPU and amount of RAM.
This would be an example of the typical kind of decision you have NOT made when you put together your systems.