Dual processor system have a nice ring to them, but until both games and programs start taking advantage of multithreading, it's a mute point to have one as a home system.
Besides, you can build a solid, fast, and more versital system using the great selection of single processor Mobo's.
taking out the the other accessories and monitor, and a extra hard drive, this is my rig and it should give you an ideal of what you can get.
All prices are coming from
www.newegg.com. If you order online, THIS place should be at the top of your list....
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Mobo -
$141.99AMD Athlon 2600+ 333 FSB Retail -
$234Samsung PC2700 256meg DDR333 ram X2 -
Not listed (?!) $61 X 2 (I'm thinking newegg is running out of Samsung ram
)
Western Digital 80 gig Special Edition HD w/8 meg cache -
$96ATI Radeon 9700Pro -
$348 (currently out of stock at newegg..hmmm they had plenty of parts in January heh, besides I'm thinking they are selling the 9700Pro $300 and under at some stores now)
Yamaha CRW220E CD-RW drive - (Well, to be honest I didn't get this drive at Newegg. Paid like $130 for awhile ago. You can get burners now for $50.)
Some obscure, yet pretty good DvD drive -
$50Sony 1.44 floppy -
$7.50 (Long live the Floppy!
)
Antec 330 watt TruePower power supply -
$54.99Lian Li PC - 82COM case -
$150 (PC -82COM is the same as a PC - 82, except that it includes a nifty looking front aluminum bezel and an extra case fan - I got it at Compusa of all places, as cases tend to add a chunk to shipping)
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Tally so far is --- $1206.48
Of course that's not what I paid 3 months ago
As you can see the Asus 7N8X Deluxe board is a popular MoBo, but you can find cheaper ones, that are just as fast, are almost as fast. This board supports Dual channel DDR, which means it's in your best intrest to get two sticks of DDR ram instead of just one. The reason I didn't get PC3200 DDR400 ram is because the Athlon has a front side bus of 333, so it can run asynchronus(sp?) with the 333 speed of the ram. Unless you plan on overclocking the FSB of the CPU, or buying a future Barton core Athlon that runs at a FSB of 400, then sticking with the PC2700 ram is in your best intrest, as you gain no performance boost by purchasing the PC3200 ram.
I will most likely end up buying two SATA drives, so I can run a raid configuration. That's the only bummer with this Mobo, is that you can't do it with the IDE.
As you can see my system would more than likely fit in your budget, and it's a pretty damn fast system for the money.
Just remember three things not to go cheap on...
(1) Power Supply - After first hand experience at what a cheap power supply can do to a system, You will never see me with a crappy PS. I'm using this Antec right now, as the power is divided up over seperate rails, and the company has a good reputation for putting out solid power supplies. But there are plenty of others to choose from.
(2) Case - I use to care less of what case I got, but todays systems generate a pretty good amount of heat. You don't want a cramped one, and ones that don't have much in the way of ventilation. Look for ones that will allow you to put multiple case fans in it, and leave plenty of room for your system to breath in. Really you can find plenty that fit that criteria that wont cost you an arm and a leg.
(3) Memory - Ironic I say this, as Samsung is a bargin for this quality of a chip. Then again Samsung is a major memory chip maker. Anyways, cheap ram only bogs your hot-rod of a system down. Not to metion the fun you can have by overclocking good ram sticks
)
If I were you, I would be looking at the new Barton core Athlons. They run at an FSB333, and have double the L1 and L2 caches of my chip, and the 2500+ Barton is selling for $175 on Newegg.
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You can pick and choose what best suits your pocket and taste. Give me $1800, and I can build a pretty damn nice, fast, and stable system. You should be able to do fine.
Topic: 1 for the CPU Guru's (Read 7205 times)