Attempting ~$500 Budget Build

[bovine.baron]

"Attempting" is the key word

Ideally, I would wait and save up more more for a better build but school's already running me ragged right now and I can't find a p/t job; I don't think I can wait it out for another summer on this old P4, either! Other than general use and some light image editing, I do plan on doing some gaming but I am one of those people who value gameplay way over graphics (Oh grue, thou art a cruel mistress) so I don't need to run on high settings. I am, however, looking for upgrade potential in these parts in hopes of better days. In the meanwhile, I'll just have to compensate with some overclocking.

I intend on buying Canadian, preferably local and I don't have any brand loyalties. I'll be carrying over my peripherals, old optical drives (DVD, CD-RW), a card reader, and a 250GB IDE HDD. Other than that, I don't think anything's salvagable. I've read some similiar threads to get an idea of what I should look at and here's what I'm thinking so far:

Intel E5200 Wolfdale Processor $95
Antec Three Hundred Case $75
ECS P45T-A mobo $120

What I've already bought:
Cooler Master 650W PSU w/fan control $70
4x2GB PC2-6400 Kingston ValueRAM $80
(^The RAM was a Craigslist sale and I couldn't resist :P)

What I'm most unsure about right now is the mobo, so advice on that is especially appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[cadaveca]

I have instaleld a couple of those boards...don't expect much in overclocking options, but was cheap and nice and stable.

[JD]

Personally I'd go with the Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L (or the UD3L) or EP45-UD3L. Same price and a way better board IMO.

I'd order everything from NCIX and take advantage of their price matching option. Use Canadian Prices: Search. Compare. Buy. - Canadian Online Shopping Search and Comparison! to help you find the lowest prices.

And $80 for Kingston ValueRAM? You got seriously ripped off. Could of gotten G.SKILL or OCZ for $50 and they have heatspreaders too.

What about a video card?

[cadaveca]

Um, he got 8GB for $80...not fantastic, but not a bad deal....I'd prefer 800mhz valueram over any branded, oc'ed in the box, 800mhz ram any day.

But yes, if you can find any other board for the same price from gigabyte, ASUS, MSI, etc, you'd be better off...

[geokilla]

Definitely change the motherboard to a Gigabyte EP43-DS3L. That leaves you with about $100 for a GPU. Get the ATI 4830 and you're good to go.

[bovine.baron]

Thanks very much, broskis, I'll go with the Gigabyte EP43-DS3L and a 4830. You guys are the best.

About the RAM, I figured it to be a pretty good deal considering they were BNIB and retail for about $10 more per unit. As I understand it, heatspreaders are mostly a carry-over from the days of RIMM and RDRAM but, in modern rigs with good airflow, only provide a marginal cooling advantage. If I'm wrong, I figure I could always get aftermarket spreaders and jdrom gets rights to laugh at me

[JD]

lol my bad...

Thought it was 2x2GB

Oh and I like the "looks" of things even if heatspeaders aren't super effective, they still help dissipate heat faster.

[bovine.baron]

I will admit, if I weren't tight on cash I would have gotten OCZ. The copper is so pretty and shiny~

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by jdrom17

lol my bad...

Thought it was 2x2GB

Oh and I like the "looks" of things even if heatspeaders aren't super effective, they still help dissipate heat faster.

Heh..I thought you missed that...


I'm partial to Valueram, as it's generally bought by people/businesses that run thier systems 24/7, with poor/stock cooling, so tolerances would be a bit better, IMHO. If it wasn't for the lower-grade PCBs, I'd never buy branded ram ever. Ram is binned so tightly nowadays that even overclocking is very limited depending on what you buy...

But Valueram generally comes in boxes of 20-50 sticks or so, so is less likely to be binned, IMHO.



Sry for the slightly-off-topic, but I jsut wanted to highlight that your purchase was in now way a poor one!

[bovine.baron]

Thanks, cadaveca, I'm pretty new to the scene so the reassurance is appreciated