Building a PC

Ok, so I'm building a PC so I can play some games with my out of state brother and friends. I need to hover right around $900 and want to make sure I'm getting the best bang for my buck. Here's what I have so far:

Barebones from United Micro $457

Intel P4 3.00GHz 1MB PRESCOTT PGA 478pin 800MHz FSB
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe i865PE FSB800 DDR400/333 SATA Raid IEEE1394 Audio GbT Lan ATX
Foxconn Diabolic Minotaur Blue 400WT FRONT USB AUDIO FIREWIRE ATX
Parts from Newegg

Crucial 184 Pin 1024MB DDR PC-3200 8T $178
MSI ATI RX9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/S-Video, 8X AGP $194
Sony DVD+RW/-RW Drive, Model DWU18A Black $70
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model 6Y080L0 $61
ORtek MCK-8000 black OfficeMdeia Elite Keyboard PS/2 103keys $14
Plantronics .Audio 90 Stereo Headset with In-Line Volume and Mute Control $18
Total - $992

I want Doom III and HL2 to run smoothly at 1024 or 1280. What do you guys think...would you make any changes?

if you want to game get an athlon64. theyre better than a p4 for that. not sure about prices but you should save a couple bucks then. and while the 9800 is nice you should really try to get a 6800 non ultra if you want to run doom 3 in 1024*768 with most of the effects on. its the best bang for the buck right now at $289 from newegg.

This might be a stupid question, but do you have Windows XP already? Otherwise, that's going to put you well over $1000.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schlep

Asus P4P800-E Deluxe i865PE FSB800 DDR400/333 SATA Raid IEEE1394 Audio GbT Lan ATX

Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model 6Y080L0 $61

The board supports SATA, get a SATA HD. I think that's the board i used in my bro's comp, I liked it a lot. Tons of features built right in.

Yoshi: yep, already got a copy through school. Here's an updated with the suggestions. Look good now?

Barebones from United Micro $405

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0GHz 512K cache 754pin Oem
Thermaltake A4006 Heat Sink & Cooling Fan for AMD Athlon 64 and Opteron
Giga Byte GA-K8NS PRO nFORCE3 250 DDR400/333 Sc754 AMD Athlon64 ATX
Foxconn Diabolic Minotaur Blue 400WT FRONT USB AUDIO FIREWIRE ATX
Parts from Newegg

Crucial 184 Pin 1024MB DDR PC-3200 8T $178
MSI ATI RX9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/S-Video, 8X AGP $194
Sony DVD+RW/-RW Drive, Model DWU18A Black $70
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, MODEL 6Y080M0 $72
ORtek MCK-8000 black OfficeMdeia Elite Keyboard PS/2 103keys $14
Plantronics .Audio 90 Stereo Headset with In-Line Volume and Mute Control $18
Total - $951

sell a kidney if you have to. the 6800 is going to be waaaaaaay more future proof. otherwise it looks good to me. if you can ive heard the corsair value select ram overclocks pretty good if you plan on doing that. from my experience crucial ram is pretty dam stingy. rock solid and dependable if you dont plan on doing any of that tho.

While 6800 is a good deal, for $100 less 9800 Pro which can be overclocked to xt is a better deal. At least for now and especially when money concerned.

I would have definately picked up this card, if I had spare $180 :) to replace my 9700 Pro.

For Intel chips, you can't go wrong with the Asus P4P-800 DLX.

It's what I built my system around, and it works wicked.

(I need a videocard update, though. I'm still running with my Radeon 7200 equivalent from over 3 years ago.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Despair

At least for now

and thats what im not talking about. usually when you buy stuff like he (especially with an athlon 64) is you dont want to be able to play whats out NOW, you want it to be good for upcoming stuff too. and thats why i say go 6800.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Despair

While 6800 is a good deal, for $100 less 9800 Pro which can be overclocked to xt is a better deal. At least for now and especially when money concerned.

Actually, if you read the reader reviews you'll see that specific card is already an underclocked xt and is recognized as such. That's the same card I ordered (the DOA one I mentioned in the haul thread that's going back in the mail tomorrow :\ ), although I obviously can't tell you how well it stacks up yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragonmaster Dyne

and thats what im not talking about. usually when you buy stuff like he (especially with an athlon 64) is you dont want to be able to play whats out NOW, you want it to be good for upcoming stuff too. and thats why i say go 6800.

Well by the time he needs a 6800 it'll be a lot cheaper and he'll probably have the spare cash by then. If that card can run Doom III and HL2 well (and I'll bet it can) then it can run anything else that's upcoming since those are the engines that all graphically intensive games will be using for at least the next couple years (and at some point we'll see the Unreal3 engine but who knows when that'll actually be put into action). Sure, he won't be running Doom III at High Quality, but neither will the 6800.