Computer buying advice
 

Hello all, I was hoping someone could take a look at this list of stuff and see if it looks okay. I don't really want to buy all this crap if it is all incompatible. It all should work together from what I can tell, but my knowledge is limited.

Thanks!

• Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD
• Processor - AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500BPBOX
• RAM - CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400
• Video card - GIGABYTE GV-NX66T128D Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
• Power supply - XG Vigor PSVG-450 ATX 450W

Btw, that video card does support SLI, so some time in the future when I have more money I want to buy another. I also need to buy a hard drive, but that will also have to wait.

BTW, all of this is from Newegg.com and totals up to almost exactly $600.

For "casual" computing that should do just fine. Even if you plan on gaming a little and/or doing video editing. My Athlon 64 2800+, 1 GB Ram and 256MB AGP 8X works great but I don't game at all. I use it mostly to import videos from my digital camcorder to make home DVDs.

Well pretty much all I am going to do is play games, but I don't really want and can't afford a monster machine.

I am only going to be able to use this machine for gaming for about the next year, so I am buying a comp more for price than I am for gaming. That was the best I could find for $600.

Looks good. If you wanted better overall performance, you could knock the processor down to a 3200+ and upgrade the videocard. Everything else looks fine.

-Lasereth

Hmm, yeah I may do that. I was pondering getting the GeForce 6800 anyway, but I may as well get the 3200+ if I can save some money.

Thanks for the replies.

Blast, he beat me to it. I was going to say the same thing as Lasereth. The 3500+ is probably extraneous for your purposes (gaming, I assume), and the graphics card could use a little help. The 6600GT isn't a bad card, but the 6800 is much better. Your money would definitely be better spent on upgrading that instead.

And do you have a case? And a hard drive that you'll be using?

And in regards to SLI... buying a second card and putting it in SLI is a lot less cost effective than buying a better card. If you really want top drawer graphics performance, save for a bit and get a 7800 GTX. Don't even both with two 6800s in SLI - it will cost more and still not be as fast. Most applications don't even support cards in SLI mode yet, anyway, and trying to make it work is really not worth your time, effort, or money. Of course, that's merely my opinion.

I bought some el cheapo $20 case, and I have a 160 GB Western Digital hard drive that I got for $80.

As far as the video card, I couldn't find a 6800 that was as cheap as I could get the 6600GT for. Going from the 3500+ to the 3200+ only saved me like $20, and the cheapest 6800 I could find was like $60 more than the 6600GT. Plus none of the 6800's support SLI, whereas the 6600GT does. And I only plan on buying a second video card later on in the future, so I figure SLI support should be better by then anyway. The 7800 GTX was just way too much. It would have been like $200 more. I suppose I could wait and get a better price, but further down the road I couyld wait and get a better price also. Prices are always dropping, but I'd rather buy my comp now.

I appreciate the advice though. I wish I could get a better card, but my budget is exactly $600, and I couldn't make it work with the better cards.

Although the newer video cards have built-in fans on them, you may still want to add some case fans on the cheapo $20 case.

Yeah that's a good idea. I hadn't thought about that.

Where exactly do you plug extra fans in at? Directly into the power supply, or what? Will it be obvious once I actually get my hands on the case?

Most fans have a molex connector on them that connects directly to the power supply cords. If not, the fan will have a connector that hooks onto the motherboard so it can be a system or chassis fan.

And sorry about the CPU recommendation earlier -- I didn't know the prices were so close. Definitely get the 3500+ if it's only a few dollars more. :)

-Lasereth