Hey all. A few months ago, the motherboard on my gorgeous computer died . I'm pretty sure it's the motherboard, since the psu works fine when switched out, so does the hard drive. Now, since I really didn't feel like buying a new motherboard and some crappy components to replace what I currently have (since my only ram is DDR, not ddr2, and my processor is junk), I started to look around for some new PCs. The cheapest decent thing is a low-end AMD quad core at best buy for 579. It's got 4 gigs of ram, and a 750 gig hard drive, and integrated radeon 3200 gfx. I spotted a deal on AMD Phenom X4 9750 2.4GHz, for 137 dollars. It pretty much blows away everything in the same pricerange (hooray for sales!), so I jumped on it today. As for the rest of my components, Here's what i /think/ i'm going to buy: Case: My old case is just fine. Works good. Hard drive: My old 200 gig hard drive works just fine. Im using it right now. I also have an 80 gig hard drive from a dead laptop that I'm going to hook up, just for kicks. Oh and Ive got a 500 gig external as well as a couple assorted ipods. So storage space isnt an issue. CPU: Like I said above, AMD Phenom X4 9750 2.4GHz Quad Core http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... u=A79-9750 Powar Supply: My PSU is kinda sketchy. I'm not sure if this 480w one i've currently got works or not. I've been re-buying them a lot lately, since I keep buying crappy 30 dollar ones. I think I'm going to go with this 550w from BFG for 60 bucks: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=1079 Ram: Here's where I'm unsure. The guy that helped me configurate recommended this OCZ Fatal1ty ram, which runs 56 dollars, down to 46 with Mail-in-rebate (which you can NEVER count on): http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=2264. However, I don't know a lot about ram, to be honest, and I'd be open to other suggestions. I really only want 4Gb for now. ANything else is kind of overkill for me at least. I'm going to be running XP. /maybe/ vista, i have to think about it. Motherboard: This Gigabyte motherboard that runs 96 dollars (86 with mail-in-rebate): http://www.infonec.ca/site/main.php?mod ... &id=443682. It looks great to me, seems there's nothing in the pricerange that's better. Graphics: Don't give a crap for the time being. the onboard 3200 radeon on the mobo is fine for me. Oh and dvd drive I can salvage from the old pc. Let me know what you guys think. Keep in mind, it's Canadian dollars, not american. so take my price, multiply by .83, and it's equivalent to your prices. Seems like what I've configured here is about 340 before tax. Better than spending the 580 at best buy for a worse pc. Edit: Sorry, I forgot to add this somehow. I use my computer, at the moment, generally for instant messaging, browsing the interwebz with firefox, playing music, and playing videos with vlc media player. Of course, I download music and videos. Also, I skype from time to time with webcams. I havent been using photoshop lately, but I WILL be, quite soon. By next September, I'm going to be doing CAD and programming (actually, programming starting NOW). Once Starcraft II/Diablo III come out, I'm going ot be gaming. Right now, the only gaming I do is Warcraft III and Diablo II, and neither is graphics intensive. I don't ever plan to play FPS games.
What do you plan to use your computer for?? Like computer games, interwebz, im, hosting(whether a game server or a website), etc...
For RAM, if you're not the kind of computer guy who always wants the latest stuff, I would suggest getting 4x 1 gb chips. You'll want 1066 RAM with low latencies and whatnot.
I'll have to do some google research but if I recall correctly, 4 x 1gb should be faster than 2 x 2gb. But again, it all depend on how the board handle the ram slots. Some board run better using only 2 slots...