Building a the basics of a pc on the dirt cheap

[Jeros]

Just you opinons on this little lot if you would


Mobo:
Scan Computers UK: Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe NF570 SLI, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

CPU:
Scan Computers UK: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+, Socket AM2 Windsor Core, Dual Core, 2.8GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, Energy Eff, Retail

GFX
Scan Computers UK: 1GB XFX 8500GT PCI-E (x16), Mem 800 MHz GDDR2, GPU 450 MHz, 16 Cores, D-Sub, Dual Link DVI-I

Everything else i have or can get with not much hassle

its just i have not bulit a pc since this old Athalon XP and things have changed somewhat, there is lots of fancy three letter words and stuff but would all this work together?

 

[Kryten]

Yeah, should work without a problem, showing very well how much system you can get for very little money.

You can trade here for there a little, if you're not too worried about second hand products, you can pick up a geforce 7900 or 7950 for a tenner less than that new 8500 with much higher performance. Obviously it depends what you're doing with it, the new card will give you a warranty etc.

 

[Helme]

If it's just for office works etc. you could probably find a motherboard with an onboard gfx card to save some cash, if it's for the occasional game I really wouldn't advice you to get the 8500 card, an old 7800/7900 would be way better, I think even the 7600 would work, or the 2600XT radeon.

 

[Jeros]

If it's just for office works etc. you could probably find a motherboard with an onboard gfx card to save some cash, if it's for the occasional game I really wouldn't advice you to get the 8500 card, an old 7800/7900 would be way better, I think even the 7600 would work, or the 2600XT radeon.

well its a gaming machine but money is tight

anything beats the 128MB geforce FX5200 from 4-5 years ago i have in there now, i just wanna play AoC

me and ati dont get along ever since a old 64mb radeon took my celeron up to 90 degrees C a few years back

 

[Kryten]

In which case I wouldn't hesitate to get a second user 7900. If you're in the UK, you should pick one up from the likes of Ebay for 20 quid. Half the price of that 8500 and a damned slight quicker.

I should point out, despite not being an AMD lover, you've picked a particularly decent motherboard which leaves you plenty of room to juice it up in the future. Also the ability to add a second 7900, SLI them up and you've heaps more performance.

Thinking about it, if you're lucky 40-50 quid will get you a pair of 7900's and an SLI bridge another 5 quid. Worth looking at, certainly when compared to a single 8500/8600

 

[Jeros]

oh i DO hate dealing with ebay

 

[Jeros]

so a 2nd hand 512mb 7900 would out perform a 1GB 8500GT?

 

[Helme]

Yup, the 8400/8500 cards are pretty weak, 8600 is the bare minimum if you are going for a new card.

 

[inactionman]

TBH, I'd say a they are a bit weak, but the best you can get on your budget. You may want to keep an eye out for a cheap ATI 3850, especially with the coming price cuts.

 

[Kryten]

The additional memory is often merely a marketing feature, the 1gb models are often crap unfortunately :/