"budget performance machine"

[yoni45]

As per Frag's recent thread, I'm looking to put together one of these as well (more or less)

Here's what I got thus far:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ S939

DFI nF4-DAGF nForce4 S939 ATX

Kingston 512MB DDR400 x2

Samsung SP2004C 200G SATA

Sapphire Radeon X800GTO-2 256MB

In-Win C583T Case (Link)

AOpen DUW1616L 16X DVD Burner

MS Comfort Curve 2000 Keyboard/Mouse

Total Price: $970 CDN (Yes, keep in mind... canadian)

First off, how is this overall for the price?

My first concern is the Kingston RAM, as I've heard they don't work all too well with DFI M/Bs... is it that brutal?

My second concern is the balance between the vid card and the rest of the package. I put down the X800 GTO-2 because of it's capabilities, but if in the hands of a person who likely won't overclock, is it better off to install a cheaper vid card? Say the GTO-2 costs $260 CDN, is he better off with a 256MB GTO at $200? an X700 256MB at $142?

 

[outrunner]

Unlocking the 4 extra pipes on the GTO2 and not overclocking it will still give a performance gain, but using the ATItool to clock it is very simple to do and can give you x850xt PE performance

 

[FarFarAway]

Yeah the GTO2 is the one to go for mate

I wouldn't get Kingston - get OCZ, Corsair, GEIL, GSkill, Crucial - but not Kingston