Inexpensive build to put under cascade, your thoughts?

[FragTek]

I just specced a few parts out for grins to see what kind of price I was looking @ in terms of a cheap setup to stick under the phase.

Here's what I was thinking:

A64 3000+ AM2

Biostar TForce nF4 Mobo

Mushkin Extreme 2gb DDR2 kit

BFG 7600GT

Antec TruePower 480w

Comes to $600. Doesn't look to terribly bad, I could save about $30 if I wanted to go down to a Sempy but the $30 doesnt seem worth it until the Sempy's get verified as wicked clockers.

I'd definately like to keep it in the price range, maybe even less... I still have to think about fans, etc for the case. I do have 2 burners, fan controller, etc for it still.

What are your thoughts?

 

[FarFarAway]

Very nice mate. Should be sweet as a nut to OC. dunno about the Antec PSU cause of the stress of overclocking

 

[JN]

How much is the Antec setting you back mate? Take a look at a Silverstone or Tagan. The older Tagan 480w-U01's are pretty cheap nowdays.

 

[FragTek]

The ANtec supply is about $70 and I've heard quite a few good things about it. About how much are those Tagans going for, and do u know where abouts I could pick one up in the states... I'd much rather have the Tagan if its comparably priced.

After doing some thinking though I may sell the cascade straight away when I get it. Only reason being is that my car is falling apart and I really need some cash for a down payment on a new one... ugh!

Dilemnas I say!

 

[Ham]

Thought of only 1GB of ram? Quite a few people use one (llwyd for one) and its not that bigger differeance tbh.

 

[FragTek]

Thought of only 1GB of ram? Quite a few people use one (llwyd for one) and its not that bigger differeance tbh.

Yeah definitely thought about that and may consider it... the 2gb is necessary in a few games though (but seeing as I won't have a top end vid card it may not matter) such as BF2. That would save me nearly $100 though. Ill have to lok at my options when I get home, thx for the suggestion.

 

[|3ourne]

check out www.ajump.com . they have by far the cheapest tagans in the US. As for the mobo , its a good decent mobo , but I would rather u get an Asus SLI board ( its for like 145 on newegg ) . That way you can just get another 7600gt when they get cheaper and run sli. The Antec isnt one of my most favs but in the end teh choice is yours. You can get an OCZ gamextreme from Monarch for 99 USD . Its 600Watts. So if you wanna buy that and retire some old 24 pin psu for this system , you can do that as well. Try to buy processors with even multipliers like the 3200+ or the 3800+ or the 3500+ ( lower the multi to 10x ). That way ur ram will run at 800 mhz DDR2 instead of 720 mhz DDR2 that it does with odd multipliers ( quirck in the IMC ). Honestly I would wait for a month more. AMD is going to drop prices on the 24th of July. Take advantage of it then. But w/e you do get Nforce 5 chipset. It will be better than NF4 for AM2 . NF4 for AM2 is like 865P for LGA775.

 

[Ham]

I dont mean to pick at your mighty wisdom|3ourne, but afaik dual graphics cards simply ant worth it yet. I know XMS has changed back to a single card and llwyds crossfire rig was plain terrible.

However i know you may be thinking of future, when programs my be optimised for it. Just my .02

 

[FragTek]

thanks for the suggestions bourne, they are all spot on I think...

I won't be thinking about purchasing any of this until I actually have the cascade in hand which will be a few more months I suspect. at that point prices will probably be even better with more new exciting parts to choose from.

thx bourne pal. :beerchug: