Reccomendations for a $650 Budget.

[Biohazzard56]

Hey Guys, Im looking for a New Case, Mobo, and RAM for $650. I already know the case. But what mobo should I get and Id like a direct link to a shop to know how much it will exactily cost. Im thinking about a gig of PC3500 Kingston Hyper X but I dont want to bottleneck my AMD Athlon 2400+.

[Vitter]

OCZ is my favorite RAM. It is very affordable when you take into account the excellent timings (meeting Corsair XMS), stabability, and compatability (check out Asus website).

Ill be honest, i dont know much about AMD. But if you wanted a top of the line system you could go for an Asus P4C800E-Deluxe for $188 and 2x512 OCZ Dual Channel EL DDR400 PC3200 memory chips for $255.

That's the best MB ever along with 2 dual channel chips giving you a gig fast memory with great timings (2-3-2-5).

[Daleon]

For $650 you can really get about whatever you want. Its enough to switch to an amd64 3200 setup if you wanted.

If you plan to keep the current cpu though, I'd suggest the Abit NF7-S and a gig of corsair LL. This is only if you also plan to maybe later upgrade to like an XP3200 or something before making your next major upgrade. If not then its just a waste of money and buy cheaper ram. But corsair's LL is still about the best out as far as timings go. The hyper-x 3200 stuff is fine to, would hardly bottleneck an xp2400.

So either a new amd 64-3200 and I'd prolly go with a Via K8T800 chipset, prolly a Abit KV8 board and a gig of ram would put you right at about $600. Or NF7-S, XP3200, and a gig of ram would be in the neighborhood of $500 or so. You'd obviously get better performance out of the 64 system.

[Electrofreak]

Rbstr and I advised him to wait for socket 939 to release, and then buy a nice new nVidia nForce 3 250 socket 939 mobo and an AMD 64 3200+.

He should still have a couple hundred after that to buy some nice RAM etc as well.

Edit- I my AMD 64 3200+ Th3y r t3h pwn.

[Rbstr]

Yeah i would get the AMD 64 939 socket with new ram route

[Biohazzard56]

CPU - 260.82 (http://www.tufshop.com/store/product1772.html)
Case - 73.99 (http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/fro...html?mv_pc=343)
Mobo -137.00 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...131-490&depa=1
RAM - 199.00 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-440&depa=1

Total: $670.81

[Rbstr]

good, but i'd go with a N-Force 3 250GB chipset board, and you need to wait for the socket 939 Athlon 64's that way you can get dual channel memory

[Biohazzard56]

Originally Posted by Rbstr

good, but i'd go with a N-Force 3 250GB chipset board, and you need to wait for the socket 939 Athlon 64's that way you can get dual channel memory

There is no Socket 939, 3200+

[Rbstr]

I'm preaty sure there will be one, it may go by the name 3300+, the other option would be the 3500+ they should not be to expensive
939 has not bee realeased yet so some things are unsure

[Biohazzard56]

With that Mobo I can already use duel-channels, rather than getting an nForce 3 250. Whats the advantage of the new 939 Socket?

[Electrofreak]

You wont need the very expensive and somewhat slower Registered-ECC RAM that the 940 requires. It also will have the faster nForce 3 250 chipset.

Basically, it takes the good of the Socket 754 mobo (Inexpensive AMD 64 chips, regular non-ECC unbuffered RAM), and combines it with the good of the Socket 940 mobo (Awesome FX series chips, Dual-channel, 4 DIMM slots). You will be able to put a 939 AMD 64 or a 939 FX chip into this board also, making it much more upgradeable. All around it will be much better than the 754 or 940 boards because it will feature the best of both.

edit- and yeah, Rbstr is right, the 939 AMD 64 3200+ will probably have some other name, dunno what it is yet tho.

[Rbstr]

Originally Posted by Biohazzard56

There is no Socket 939, 3200+

BNo it does not dual channel AMD64 Athlons (the 3200+ ect) can't dual channel period, only the AMD64-FX versions can, and when 939 comes around every 64bit AMD will be able to use dual channel.

the reason for the Nf3 250gb is the same reason to go for a 865 over some via or other chipset for a P4, its much better and its teh second gereration of chipsets for the Chip, it has the full hypertransport, a gigabit ethernet controler on a high bandwidth bus with a built in hardware firewall, and 4 SATA port so you can do 0, 0+1, 1, and i think 5

[Biohazzard56]

Well it looks like im saving some more.

[Biohazzard56]

It seems that the cheapest 939 Socket Processor is the 3500+

Might be a bit more expensive, I have to save some more.