building gaming pc

[Firestarter]

Hello all again,

Building gaming pc this summer, and would like any comments and suggestions please. Trying to keep the total cost of everything around $1000 or less.

**note** all prices taken from www.newegg.com and rounded up to whole number


AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - OEM $373

or

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail $274
**
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $142
**
ATI 100-435500 Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - OEM $295
**
RAIDMAX ATX-822WBP Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail $42
**
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA II Hard Drive - OEM $100
**
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $80
**
Keyboard and Mouse owned: generic and wireless
CDROM Drive owned
Floppy Drive owned
DVD R/RW owned: external
Speakers owned
OS owned: XP Home sp2

Total w/o cpu = $659
   with 3500+ = $933
   with 3800+ = $1032


So what do you think?

[neb1211]

Overall that looks like a fairly nice rig.  I would suggest that you go with the 3500+.  The performance gain you will get from getting a 3800+ isn't really worth the extra $100.  Also retail processors come with a 3 year warrantee and OEM processors only come with a 30 day warrantee.  Getting a retail processor will offer you a little more protection on your investment.

[Firestarter]

Thanks for the advice neb. I think I will go with the 3500+ retail.  

[mipadi]

Don't forget that buying a copy of Windows XP will add anywhere from $75-$200 to the final cost.

[neb1211]

Don't forget that buying a copy of Windows XP will add anywhere from $75-$200 to the final cost.

According to his post he already has XP Home SP2.  However firestarter, is that copy of XP used on another computer?  If it is you may have some trouble activating it on your new computer.

[Firestarter]

However firestarter, is that copy of XP used on another computer? If it is you may have some trouble activating it on your new computer.

The copy of XP I have is for use with multiple computers. At least that is what they told me when I bought it. I use it now on both my laptop and wife's computer. I don't know if I will be able to register it with 3 computers. If I can't, my wife's computer will not be using the internet so I will put ME back on her computer and register my built computer with XP.  

[neb1211]

lol.  Just out of curiousity, how much did you pay for that volume license?  Also what color is the disk?

[Firestarter]

i don't remember how much i paid for it, but the disc i have is blue. i got it the same time i bought my laptop so the price was incorporated with everything. it's a hp pavilion xt4316wm i bought from wal-mart and was sent to me while i was in iraq. is it the right disc? i hope so cause i have it on my wife's pc and registered it with out a problem. i never really paid attention to it, but not that you asked, maybe it is a good idea if i find out exactly what i do have.

[neb1211]

Did it come with the laptop (in the laptop box) or did you buy it seperatly?  If you bought it seperatly then something fishy is up because OEM and Retail XP discs have a silver hologram that covers the whole disk and volume licensed copies of XP have a gold hologram that covers the whole disk.  To my knowledge there are no blue XP disks.

[pcgeek]

who the hell pays for microsoft's [FILTER]crap[/FILTER]  anyway
 

[neb1211]

who the hell pays for microsoft's [FILTER]crap[/FILTER]  anyway

A lot of people do...

[Firestarter]

Well then.....lol  I'm thinking Wal-Mart may have messed up my order, and with me ordering it while I was in Iraq, I really wasn't paying too much attention. I was just glad I finally got everything. That being said, I guess I will be adding that $75-$200 for XP. Thank for the eye opener Neb.

[neb1211]

Microsoft Windows XP Home
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16837102151

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16837102153

Windows XP Pro 64-bit edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16837102034

Also just a quick note.  Before going out and buying the 64-bit edition of windows xp, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check and make sure that all your hardware has 64-bit drivers.  I will check on this for you when I have some time later.

[mipadi]

Did it come with the laptop (in the laptop box) or did you buy it seperatly?  If you bought it seperatly then something fishy is up because OEM and Retail XP discs have a silver hologram that covers the whole disk and volume licensed copies of XP have a gold hologram that covers the whole disk.  To my knowledge there are no blue XP disks.

Might be an HP-branded disc, neb. I know the XP CD that came with my Dell desktop is blue.

[neb1211]

That could be but in that case, it can still only legally be installed on that computer.  It can't be installed on as many computers like the wal-mart clerk said.

Also HP rarely includes disks with any of their computers anymore.  For the past 3 years at least they have been creating a restore partition on the hard drive that you use to restore the computer.  Dell is also beginning to adapt this practice as well
 

[Firestarter]

Thanks for the info with the added addresses. No need for you to put a rush on the 64-bit drivers information. It looks like I won't have the money to build the pc this summer. My wife and I are planning on moving back to the states so all my money will be going to that. After all the complaining she did about moving to the states, now that I want to build my pc, she wants to move to the states finally.    Women, go figure...  

Well thanks again for the information and help.    

[neb1211]

That really sucks that you won't be getting a new computer but I know from experience that moving over seas can be a huge expense.