Hello guys, need some advice for a new build...

[TheNewbie]

Ok, I'm on a budget here, not strict, but would like to keep it as low as possible.
I'm building a system which will be used mostly for web/office apps, but I would like to be able to run games on it decently.

CPU:

For cpu I tend to go with intel, since I know nothing about the current gen of amd's.
I'll have to choose between: Q6600/E6550/E8200/E6750
which is the best and which is second best? (I think I heard quads are not good for gaming?)

GPU:

I'm thinking of nVidia 8600gts or 9600gt (512mb on both), once again, not sure which one to go for. Also, I don't know which are the equivalent from ATI in term of performance, do they have something better for that price?

MOBO:

Somthing with G31 chipset...

LCD:

I think best bet right now is to go with 22" 16:9 right?
How important is contrast ration, refresh rate, which resolution does it need to support?


Hard disks and ram are not much concern for me, I'll get whatever...
If anyone has any info/suggestions for similar system with amd configuration I'll be happy to hear thanks.

 

[chinaman1472]

Answer the sticky.

So, a budget system for light to medium gaming? What's the ball park? To some, budget means $400. To others, budget means $1000.
What about overclocking; do you want/plan to do it? Are you going to completely stay away from it? OCing and not OCing will give two very different builds with the same budget.

CPU:
If you OC: E21** series or E4500. Both run great basic apps great and can play games decently. Any can overclock to around 2.6GHz without too much trouble on stock cooling, upwards to 3.0GHz+ with some fine tuning.
If you don't OC: E8200 is probably your best bet. The Q6600 is really good if you run really intense apps like video editing/encoding, etc. I don't know what your "office" work consists of.

GPU:
9600GT without a doubt. It blows any 8600GTS out of the water, and pretty much most of the ATi cards in the same price range. The MSI one has a spanking aftermarket cooler.

Mobo:
Why the G31 chipset? It has onboard video which I don't think you'll use since you plan on buying a video card. Get a P35 chipset, Gigabyte P35-DS3L or the Abit IP35-E, for less than $100.

LCD:
Go to the store and look at the monitors and find out which one you like. You would never buy a TV without first seeing how good the picture quality is, or a car without ever first testing driving it right? Contrast ratio is the difference between your light and dark. The higher the contrast ratio, the more shades between light and dark, typically resulting in a sharper/cleaner picture. Refresh rate is less important, but its how fast the pixels refresh. 60Hz I think is pretty standard for most LCDs. Someone should correct me on this if I'm wrong, or you can ask in the Video Cards and Graphics forum. At 22", you'll probably have 1650x1050 or 1680x1050 at the max.
Personally, I've enjoyed Samsung displays. LGs look nice to me at the store on display.

 

[TheNewbie]

Originally posted by: chinaman1472
Answer the sticky.

So, a budget system for light to medium gaming? What's the ball park? To some, budget means $400. To others, budget means $1000.
What about overclocking; do you want/plan to do it? Are you going to completely stay away from it? OCing and not OCing will give two very different builds with the same budget.

CPU:
If you OC: E21** series or E4500. Both run great basic apps great and can play games decently. Any can overclock to around 2.6GHz without too much trouble on stock cooling, upwards to 3.0GHz+ with some fine tuning.
If you don't OC: E8200 is probably your best bet. The Q6600 is really good if you run really intense apps like video editing/encoding, etc. I don't know what your "office" work consists of.

GPU:
9600GT without a doubt. It blows any 8600GTS out of the water, and pretty much most of the ATi cards in the same price range. The MSI one has a spanking aftermarket cooler.

Mobo:
Why the G31 chipset? It has onboard video which I don't think you'll use since you plan on buying a video card. Get a P35 chipset, Gigabyte P35-DS3L or the Abit IP35-E, for less than $100.

LCD:
Go to the store and look at the monitors and find out which one you like. You would never buy a TV without first seeing how good the picture quality is, or a car without ever first testing driving it right? Contrast ratio is the difference between your light and dark. The higher the contrast ratio, the more shades between light and dark, typically resulting in a sharper/cleaner picture. Refresh rate is less important, but its how fast the pixels refresh. 60Hz I think is pretty standard for most LCDs. Someone should correct me on this if I'm wrong, or you can ask in the Video Cards and Graphics forum. At 22", you'll probably have 1650x1050 or 1680x1050 at the max.
Personally, I've enjoyed Samsung displays. LGs look nice to me at the store on display.

Great answer man, here are my stickie replies:


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
internet, and office, namely school work, not planning on much video editing..
Edit: oh yeah.. gaming - yes I am aware its not going to be cutting edge..

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
I'd like to keep it sub 1K, closer to $900 actually (and that's stretching it already)

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
Don't care, just want the best bang...

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
none

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Nope, starting here...

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
might toy around with very moderate OC, but not sure..

 

[chinaman1472]

Motherboard - $90: Abit IP35-E or Gigabyte P35-DS3L (Abit rebate expires 3/31)
CPU - $70-85: Intel E2*** series
GPU - $165 - $20 rebate: MSI 9600GT 512MB
RAM - $40 - $10 rebate: 2x1GB A-DATA
Case + PSU: - $120: Antec Sonata III (rebate expires 3/31)
DVD Burner - $27: Samsung SH-S203B
Hard Drive - $120: Western Digital 640GB

So here's a system for $647 before tax, shipping, and rebates, which gets knocked down to $557 if you buy by tomorrow, or $617 after tomorrow. This leaves you with about $250 to spend on a monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, and an OS if you need any of those, if you want the budget to stretch to $900.

 

[TheNewbie]

All looks good, but what about the CPU, I think I want something a little better, since I probably wouldn't be OC'ing (not much) anyway..
Does AMD have any worthwhile competition?

 

[chinaman1472]

You should spend a day reading about OC'ing and then decide if you want to. IMO, it's free performance. You can gain another 1000MHz or so just by switching a few options in the BIOS, running a test, and monitor temperatures.

Also, what resolutions do you plan on gaming at? If you're not gaming on 1680x1050 or higher, it's unlikely you'll see any real gains from a better CPU, where you're more GPU limited than CPU limited. You could step up to a Q6600 at a local Fry's or Microcenter for about $200.

As for AMD, it's hard to say. You could pick up a 5000+ Black Edition for about the same price which would outperform the E2*** seres, probably stock and OC.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Consider the e2180 or e2200 with a nice OC.

Also consider the EVGA GeForce 8800GS 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2 for $109 AR
probably within 5% performance-wise of the 9600gt

From the AMD side ...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8GHz Brisbane 65W $78
Need a HSF if you don't have one laying around

BIOSTAR A770 A2+ AMD 770 $68
HT 3.0, PCIe 2.0 x16

BIOSTAR TA770 A2+ AMD 770 $80
HT 3.0, PCIe 2.0 x16, Realtek ALC888, 2 eSATA (6 total)

GIGABYTE GA-MA770-S3 AMD 770 $85
HT 3.0, PCIe 2.0 x16, Realtek ALC888, 2 x IEEE 1394a, DDR2 1066

Last time I checked one of those mobos had a nice combo deal with a WD HDD.

 

[jterrell]

Originally posted by: TheNewbie
All looks good, but what about the CPU, I think I want something a little better, since I probably wouldn't be OC'ing (not much) anyway..
Does AMD have any worthwhile competition?

It just depends where you want to skimp then.
If you do not want to OC then you'll have to lower some other areas to meet budget.

The suggested build was a very good one.
I would definitely suggest the 9600 GT unless you plan on doing very little gaming. It is a solid card for a great price. And this benchmark shows it destroys the 8800GS not a mere 5%.
http://guru3d.com/newsitem.php?id=6340

The overclocking the cpu option basically hands you about 100 bucks of budget back.

 

[jterrell]

this 9600 GT comes to 125 bucks shipped after rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814261002

Rebate expires today tho