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**rugbydude** · 03-15-2003, 03:15 PM

P4 solution: Granite bay mobo chipset
pc 3100 ram
radeon 9500 or 9600 or ti4200
P4 2.4 ghz (can overclock to near 3ghz!!)

Athlon solution:Nforce 2 chipset
2 sticks of DDR333
Athlon 2700+(overclocks quite well too)
radeon 9500 or 9600 or ti4200
Hope this is a good guideline:thumb:

**XBoy** · 03-15-2003, 03:26 PM

Here's where it's @ for a good fast cheap machine! The prices are straight from newegg:

ECS K7S5A $55 bucks (Onboard LAN, Audio)
Athlon XP 2200+ $97.00 maybe a 2600+ for $219.00
KINGSTON KVR266X64C25/512 512MB DDR PC2100 - OEMCL2 $52 bucks, I would double up on the 512's and go for a gig of PC2100 (The boards max, but quite more than enough :O)
SBlive! or Audigy (Cause the onboard audio sucks!) $35
Lian-Li PC-7B USB, 12-Bay, Aluminum Cases. Color: Black/Silver $107 dollers
Lite On 48x24x48 CDRW Model LTR-4824S OEM $47 bucks
Chaintech Geforce4 4600 "GT61" VIVO Retail with games $213
WD WESTERN DIGITAL EIDE HARD DRIVE 40GB 7200RPM MODEL # WD400BB -CAVIAR OEM, DRIVE ONLY $69 bucks
Viewsonic E70B 17" - Retail CRT Monitor $125
Logitech Mouseman Dual Optical - Twin Optical Sensors USB and PS2 $31
ORtek MCK-800 Multimedia Keyboard. BEIGE. PS2. Built-in 16 Multimedia hot keys (6 Programmable keys). $9 bucks

This all adds up to 1012 dollers with the 2600, and the 2 sticks of DDR. W/out subtract about 150 dollers, from 1012 you get 862. And you probably have spare things such as a CRT monitor and keyboards and/or mice that you want to use! If you build this system it will be a beast :O) It may look very similar to mine, but let me tell you it's great :thumb:! And you surely do get the best bang for your buck, something that I am always looking for! My Current box runs GTAIII the smoothest I have seen it run on any box around, with absolutly no slowdowns whatsoever @ 1024x768 resolution, and 16 bit color. Let me tell you that in itself is a feat :bounce: You can always get some cheaper parts, especially the lian li case, and end up with it costing you around 750 total still with the Athlon XP 2200+, and 512 of kingston DDR, and ALL the other parts. This is just a model of what do build your system around, but it's gaurunteed to give you the performance you want! For windows I recommend XP Pro for this board, and for Linux any i686 optimized distro should suit you well. (The system makes an EXCELLENT linux performer :O) My box screams right now and I am very happy I built it the way I did. A little note though is that you always want the latest stuff especially the BIOS in the ECS K7S5A which I recommend the HoneyX modified BIOS for maximum stabability and the ability to overclock. If you don't overclock this has to be the best deal on earth you could get :O) Either that or pick the Nforce series of motherboards which I hear are excellent and rather cheap! But I would stick with the ECS K7S5A, if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

EDIT: Take note that the best bang for your buck deal is going with an AMD system, I would steer clear away from a Pentium based board, as they ummm have the tendency to spontaneously
combust :wink:

**bigjackusa** · 03-15-2003, 04:46 PM

Since it sounds like: you will not be doing oc'ing, are looking for quiet, and could use performance out of the box, I would suggest:

PC2700 512mb cl2 2ea. @ $62 = $124

XP2500 (333mz,512mb L2) retail (includes quiet stock fan) $173

MSI K7N2-L motherboard (N-Force chipset) $84 (free shipping coupon on Pricewatch)

Total = $381

All prices from Pricewatch this date and include shipping.

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