Mr Grim,
Those prices on the Gameplayer site are way out of date, unfortunately.Prices have increased as fast as the value of the Oz dollar has dropped, and are now much dearer than the prices they state.
i.e They give the price of the E8500 as $200 . The cheapest i know of is nearly 50% more, at IT Estate who are selling them for $291, Umart have them for $295.
I'm not even thinking about upgrading my machine until the dollar gets back near parity with the U.S dollar.
Yes unfortunately I know that prices have increased considerably but some of the information may still be relevant and may point him in the right direction.Mr Grim,
Those prices on the Gameplayer site are way out of date, unfortunately.
i.e They give the price of the E8500 as $200 . The cheapest i know of is nearly 50% more, at IT Estate who are selling them for $291, Umart have them for $295.
I'm not even thinking about upgrading my machine until the dollar gets back near parity with the U.S dollar.
Here are some of those prices today, just to depress you.
Lots of really awesome advice here now, without a doubt.
The person/people talking about power supplies weren't blowing smoke either, that's why I recommended the silverstone ST400 for a budget build (rather just stated it as the one I use now)... and the idea of spending a bit more on a netbook is another good one... I personally got a lenovo S10 and that was money very well spent.
As for spending on the beefiest you can get now, I kinda did a little trick there... I got a motherboard that supports the newest 45nm LGA775 CPUs and a nice hunk of ram since its low right now, and just am making do with the little cpu and video card right now until it's not enough... by the time I'm ready to upgrade again core2 quads that are $250ish now will be down to $80 or $100, and the same with video cards... There is no such thing as future proofing but there is such a thing as buying in stages and being smart about it... this is why I recommended the parts I have now, and why I mentioned doing an incremental upgrade myself, early in the thread.
Newegg has the AMD Phenom 9850 2.5Ghz Quad Core Black Edition AM2+ Processor + Asus mATX 780G AM2+ Motherboard w/ HDMI = $159 with free shipping (code EMCLPNR34). That could be the basis for a killer HTPC. U dont even need a video card if you r not doing any major gaming and yes it will do full 1080p while playing a bluray movie and lite gaming with the built in card. the mobo also suports the new AM3 socket so u have an update path in the future. U can also overclock this cpu easily since it has an unlocked multiplier (a lot of ppl have done 3.0Ghz on air cooling with a good fan which u would need to buy, but YMMV). I have looked around a lot and have not found a better bang for my buck than this combo. Hope that helps :)
U can find cheap ram and HDs there as well. here is a link ( dont know when it ends but probably this weekend)
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Last edited by seti007; 27 Mar 2009 at 02:36.
What about this as videocard?
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 - 55nm
(896 MB)
Good card,
I love EVGA also, they have a solid warrenty program and also let you "Step Up" within 90 days if you wish. Just register your card with EVGA and if you decide to upgrade in under 90 days they will give you what you spent on your original card as a credit on a new card. Only bummer is you have to send your card with original package (so keep all the contents) to them to verify so you would be out your video card for a bit, so make sure you have a back up if you do this. Great way to have a card now and use it's full value on an upgrade later.
As for the Core 216, it is a solid card. Has 216 processing cores vs the 240 processing cores of the more expensive 280 line. It keeps up very well and will give high performance at the 1680 x 1050 level and mid to high at the 1920 x 1200 level.
Also look to get the middle clocked version, if it is not too much more, and then just clock it up to the level of the "superclocked" version with it's included software. :)
Cheers!
great card, great warranty......
if your gonna go for the 260 i'd go for the 65nm version...... it uses less power, & runs cooler than the 55nm.., the cooler is also larger on the 65nm model.
if you were thinking of the 280 i'd say go with the 55nm 285 as that actually does what its supposed to & uses less power & runs cooler...
:)SK
Try this:
ASUS MA378 MB
AMD 7750 Black CPU
ATI 3870 1GB PCIe
OCZ Fatality 4X1GB DDR2
Seagate SATA 500GB
LG Super Multi DVD RW SATA
Coolermaster Glite
Powerful, quiet and < $500 after rebates from Newegg.
Aseries: the motherboard is unfortunately not avalible in my country
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