My low budget E7200 build

[HiME]

1. Purposes: Primarily programming and playing high resolution movies.

2. Budget: ~$500 max

3. Canada

4. No brand preference.

5. I will be reusing my old monitor, mouse, keyboard and hard drive for this build.

6. I?ve done with my research here at Anandtech.

7. I don?t know if I should overclock this system as I prefer silent and stability over performance. I am expecting this build to last me for at least three years before I perform another major upgrade.

8. Now! It is possible for me to wait till the end of this year but I don?t see any benifits.

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The following are the parts that I?d selected...

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Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Socket LGA775, 2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3MB $137

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L Socket 775, $93

Mushkin EM2-6400 DDR2-800 2GB (2x1GB) EM Series Cas 5-5-5-12 (1.8V) 240pins (996527) , $53

Antec Sonata III Quiet Super Mid Tower with 500 Watt power supply, $112

Asus EAH 3450/DI/256M ATI Radeon HD 3450 Chipset 256MB DDR2, $35

Total: $430

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Should I head off with E2180 as opposed to E7200?
Does my motherboard have a good feature set?
Is my RAM overpriced? Why shouldn?t I go with a single 2GB stick?
I picked Sonata III because it comes with EarthWatt 500. It is also silent too!
I have no idea regarding to video cards, but I'd really love a passively cooled card.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: HiME
1. Purposes: Primarily programming and playing high resolution movies.

7. I don?t know if I should overclock this system as I prefer silent and stability over performance. I am also expecting this build to last me for at least three years before I perform another major upgrade.
_______________________________________________________________

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Socket LGA775, 2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3MB $137

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L Socket 775, $93

Mushkin EM2-6400 DDR2-800 2GB (2x1GB) EM Series Cas 5-5-5-12 (1.8V) 240pins (996527) , $53

Antec Sonata III Quiet Super Mid Tower with 500 Watt power supply, $112

Asus EAH 3450/DI/256M ATI Radeon HD 3450 Chipset 256MB DDR2, $35

Total: $430

Should I head off with E2180 as opposed to E7200?
Is my motherboard has a good feature set?
Is my RAM overpriced? Why shouldn?t I go with a single 2GB stick?
I picked Sonata III because it comes with EarthWatt 500.
I have no idea regarding to video cards, but I really wanted a passively cooled card.

* E7200 = Faster speed, Faster FSB, More L2 cache, Smaller die size... More $$$
* MB = Basic P35, nothing special
* Stick with the Mushkin RAM.
* Bad reasoning to pick a case, IMO
* Passive HS ONLY works if you have great air flow in your case

 

[Roguestar]

I'd have gone with 4GB of RAM because it's so cheap at the moment but if you're fine with 2GB then that build all looks great.

 

[geokilla]

Check out the specials over at NCIX. You can get some cheap components there. For example. OCZ 2GB RAM is more or less $30 after rebate. Plus, you don't have to paste PST if you're outside of BC.

If you're going to overclock a bit, stick with the E7200. I have the same CPU and motherboard as you and I think I got 3.75Ghz stable.

 

[HiME]

Thank you for the replies!

I will check out NCIX and Canada Computers for the parts... and definitely consider other alternatives for the Mushkin RAM since it is quite expensive. 4GB of RAM might be a bit excessive for this build at the moment so I'll stick with 2GB of RAM. Also regarding to the video card, I will just pop in another fan into the case if there is any thermal issues. although I have no idea whether the motherboard have the fan headers.

 

[angry hampster]

Here's a solid $25 vid card:
http://www.canadacomputers.com...019188&cid=999.243.272

WHen is newegg coming to Canada? CC and NCIX have utterly horrid websites.

 

[geokilla]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
Here's a solid $25 vid card:
http://www.canadacomputers.com...019188&cid=999.243.272

WHen is newegg coming to Canada? CC and NCIX have utterly horrid websites.

What's so bad about Canada Computers and NCIX? I've bought from them a couple of times and had excellent service from them.

If you don't like NCIX because of their shipping prices or similar, take a look at memory house, TD Direct (new name now, don't remember it), and Direct Canada. The last 3 all belong to NCIX but you may get better pricing on some components. Or you can just price match them with NCIX for simplicity's sake.

 

[coolpurplefan]

I did some searching all over to find cheap components to build a "test machine".

These are the components I came up with:

ShopRBC
OCZ Special Ops 2GB 800 MHz RAM $41.85 (before rebate which are usually a scam)
Western Digital Sata II 320 GB HD $60.00

CanadaComputers
AMD Athlon X2 5400+ 2.8 GHz $89.99 (price changed since the other day)
Asus M3A78-EM 780G (with integrated HD3200 video) $84.99

Bestdirect
Gigabyte GZ-X3 case $32.06 (see note below)

PCVillage
Pioneer DVD-RW (model I ordered is now out of stock) $26.95

OK, when I realized I paid $22 for shipping for the case from Bestdirect I figured I could have chosen a Coolermaster Elite 330 from Shoprbc instead and still pay their $10 flat shipping. The Coolermaster case has better ventilation.

Anyhoo, if I couldn't find a good Pioneer DVD-RW, I'd just choose a Samsung SH-S203B or Optiarc AD-7200S.

To make that machine cheaper, I would just choose a cheaper 690G Asus motherboard and slower CPU and I would only buy 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB. However, I chose those parts thinking it may very well play 1080p. The Asus website says that particular motherboard can play 1080p. Total cost for the above with shipping and taxes was $407.64 CDN.

It's kind of cool to think that the total cost is less than a high-end CPU or graphics card. Also, the power supply I would buy would be a Corsair. I ordered a Corsair 520 watt for another machine so I'll be using my old Fortron Blue Storm II 500 watt in that test machine. (I also have a Seasonic S-12 500 watt in my main computer.)

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: geokilla


What's so bad about Canada Computers and NCIX? I've bought from them a couple of times and had excellent service from them.

I've got absolutely no problem with the CS at either place, and I've ordered from NCIXUS and been satisfied with their prices and processing speed. However, their websites are simply sub-bar compared to newegg.