General Discussion

Hey guys,

I'm building a new PC for my my dorm, and I need major tech/recommendations help as no one in my family is particularly technical.

We have about a 600 dollar limit, and I'd like to be order the parts tomorrow or Wednesday.

Note: I'm only really going to use this PC for a few things - WAR, Ryzom, CoD4, and SoaSE, hence the small HDD size... I'll still have my laptop for school + music.

Linkworld 313-11(3131-11) Black / Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply

APEVIA CF12SL-4C 120mm Multi-Color LED Case Fan (x2)

Western Digital Caviar WD800BB 80GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 HDD

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor

OCZ ATI CrossFire 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

ASUS M2N-MX SE Plus AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

ViewSonic X Series VX1932wm Glossy Piano-Black 19" 2ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 (typ), 2000:1 (DCR) Built in Speakers

And I'm torn between these two GPUs, I'm not sure which would be a better deal, and which would work best with the rest of these components...  :?

PNY VCG88512GXEB-FLB GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3

OR

GIGABYTE GV-RX385512H Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3

Thanks a ton guys :)

Spend extra and get the amd 5400 black edition overclocks are insane on those. PNY is epic suck its the best buy brand of parts get a name brand.

I see two problems.

First you have an ATX case and a micro ATX mobo.

The micro ATX mobo is about 10" x 8" while your ATX mobo that the case is built for is about 12" x 10".  Cases do support both formats with additional holes that allow you to place mobo peg stands where you need em to support your board well and line up the IO ports directly.  Trouble is I'm not sure the case you selected is one of them because it says it only supports ATX in the specs- and in the pic I can't really see it lining up right.  Something to look at.

What I would do is get a full size ATX mobo without onboard video which should keep the price about the same.  The mobo you selected has onboard video which is not necessary. 

The second problem is the case comes with it's own power supply unit and that unit, while rated at 500 watts, apparently only supplies 20 amps on the 12V rail.  (there's a picture of the label on the PSU)  I'm not surprised as the case w/ PSU only costs 40 bucks.  That's a problem as an 8800GT requires I think 26amps minimum and the 3850 is probably very similar in amperage demand.  You probably wont be able to run either of these cards reliably without a better PSU.  See if you can buy the case only without the PSU and then add a PSU separate.

The third thing I'd like to add is that perhaps you should see about a base model intel core 2 duo processor instead of an AMD.  (Which means you need an intel mobo.)  I'm gonna post a suggestion build in a minute because I have nothing better to do.

Awesome, thanks a ton. I really appreciate the help!

:)

The build below is 624 bucks AFTER rebate, WITHOUT shipping included, and not including those two 120mm LED fans you want at 7.50 a pop.  But it beats the hell out of an AMD 5000+.  The PSU is decent, but the case is pretty cheap.  It does support the cheap micro ATX board I picked out for the bargain Core 2 Duo used.  Good luck.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processorhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128078

COOLMAX V-600 600W ATX12V  (rebate item)                          http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159079

Rosewill R214P-P-BK Black SGCC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147102

PNY VCG88512GXEB-FLB GeForce 8800 GT 512MB                                        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133232                                                    

Western Digital Caviar WD800BB 80GB  (no change)                                          http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144102

OCZ ATI CrossFire 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800  (no change) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227169

ViewSonic X Series VX1932wm Glossy Piano-Black 19" 2ms (no change)http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116088

Thanks a ton! That's stretching my budget a bit, but I definitely can scrape together the final extra cost. But what about cooling? Do I need fans or anything like that? I'm guessing I don't because the core components have heatsinks+fans built in?

(I am -such- a computer n00b it's not even funny -.- )

That case comes with 1 80mm front fan- but it's a good idea to buy one 120mm fan to mount on the rear of the unit.  The CPU comes with a stock cooler with a thermal paste pad already set on the heatsink.  The intel stock fans have 4 push pins that are a pain to set in correctly- but if installed properly, works fine.  The PSU has a fan built in for itself.

It's a good build for the money, but if it's out of your budget, I'd skimp on the CPU/mobo by going back to the AMD route.  The X2's are good processors for the money, but they aren't on par with the newer core 2 duo's clock for clock- and don't offer as much L2 cache which does aide in gaming performance.

It's up to you.