What would you guys do?

[knaia]

OK I priced out my computer, and after rebates it comes to ~$1,000. I want to order it and I badly need it as the hard drive in my PC died over a month ago and I absolutely refuse to buy a new one. The problem is, my dad wants me to buy only the bare minimum needed for now so I can have it, because I don't have all the money and they won't fork over money. He says use parts from my old one, but I explained it's sold old I can only use the DVD Rom and DVD Burner from it. He still wants me to buy only parts of it, but that won't work because I'll only have half a computer. I even told him about no payments until January 2007 with Newegg and that buying a pre-built PC at a store around here with those specs would be ridiculously expensive. Also explained buying parts around here at retailers would be at least $300 more.

I have ~$600 right now, but if I go to Florida this week the ticket is gonna cost me $175 plus whatever I spend down there, so I'll come back with about $300-$350. I could order some of it with that.

What parts would you guys get? Or what would you do if you had to do this?

Link To Setup: http://knaia.level6hosting.net/pc.htm

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820227210

The RAM I want is out of stock at the moment, so I couldn't add it to the cart.

I am staying solid on that setup, as it is what I can afford, and I like the parts in it. Unless all of you agree that one part isn't that good and I swap it out, that is what I am getting.

Thanks,
Kevin

[POE_UK]

based on facts m8 i know corsair make the best ram, ati the best gfx cards and samsung spinpoint are the quietest hard drives. hope this helps

[knaia]

So what would be the equivalent to what I have in Corsair RAM, ATi Graphics Card, and Samsung Hard Drive?

[POE_UK]

samsung spinpoints are good cheap drives 80gb x 2 for a raid setup would only cost £65 from www.overclockers.co.uk as for a corsair alternative i cant find one and ati i have always stuck with em as have had no probs at all

[knaia]

I like nVidia over ATi. I would rather have a single 250gb, for more storage and I don't care for RAID unless I am doing RAID 5. I'll just stick with what I have, but what would you do in my position?

[2JSC]

I'd go with what you got there and upgrade little by little later. Its a s939 which is great, plenty of options in the future for a faster chip. and the 7900GT is an amazing card for the price. and for under $1k thats not a bad set up. I'd be happy with that, they when I have the money, I'd upgrade a couple of things.

[knaia]

What would you buy if you had to buy that setup only a little at a time is the question I am asking. That's what I am getting pushed into doing, even though no payments till January 2007 would be fine because of Christmas and my Birthday in January so I could easily pay it off.

[2JSC]

If I had to buy a little at a time?

Asus A8N SLi Premium
AMD 3700+ (san diego)
2gb ram (of choice)
7900GT vid card
250GB SATA HDD (of choice)
DVD Burner (of choice)
Enermax Liberty 500watt PSU

would all be about $1100(not including supplies for the mod project lol)

[Decadence]

i think you should spend a bit more on the cpu to get a dual core such as the AMD X2 series.

[bobvillain]

if you can only spend $300-$350 at first, i would have to suggest buying a geforce 6100/6150 or radeon xpress 200 chipset for now with 1 gig of ram, that processor, and whatever size hard drive you can afford after that. it won't be a gaming rig, but it will get you up and running again (if you can use your current case/psu). you can use the onboard video at first just to do whatever you need to for school/internet use then buy a 7900gt when you have the money for it.
but if you don't need it to be running asap and just want a gaming rig, wait and save up your money to buy it all at once. prices generally go down and there is no point to having components lying around. the only thing that may go up in price is ddr ram, since ddr2 is coming up to be the standard. and that will only affect you if you go for s939 and not am2.

[ỒĊBłůē]

++ Amen to what Bob says.

There'd be nothing worse than spending money on components you can't use yet, then have to look at them in their boxes and watch as the price you paid drops because newer hardware is being realeased.

Either get your current rig running cheaply and save up for a better one, or get all the components at the same time.

[POE_UK]

AMD are withdrawing support for socket 939 very soon (july 2nd)

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28250

http://digg.com/hardware/AMD_Plans_to_Stop_Production_of_Socket_939_Process ors

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about3741.html

http://67.19.9.2/?article=32014

[bobvillain]

umm... so what? i've still got socket A machines running fine. i'm using one right now in fact. i've also got a socket 370 machine still kicking for that matter.

[knaia]

Alright guys I decided I am just gonna save up and get it all at once. Going to Florida this week is gonna hurt. So I'll wait till around Christmas and then pick up the rig. I wish I could spend a little more and get at least a x2 3800+ but my dad is already seeing this as an insane price. Maybe if everything goes down in price to come under $1,000 by then I will get one.

Thanks Guys,
Kevin

[POE_UK]

umm... so what? i've still got socket A machines running fine. i'm using one right now in fact. i've also got a socket 370 machine still kicking for that matter.

hey calm down theres nothing wrong with skta i gave my brother one xp3200+ with a gig of corsair dual channel and hes more than happy with it m8

[Decadence]

On July 24th with the release of the new conroe core processors, all of AMD's cpu's prices will be dropping as much as 50%. Lemme see if i can find the link to it.
Here it is: http://dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800

[bobvillain]

hey calm down theres nothing wrong with skta i gave my brother one xp3200+ with a gig of corsair dual channel and hes more than happy with it m8

i wasn't trying to be defensive, i was just saying that 939 is still a solid platform, discontinued or not. and like socket A, s939 machines will run stuff for years to come. :thumb:

[knaia]

I'm getting it on Newegg's 6-month no payment option. YAY!