Basic system for brother, advice?

[The Zune Guy]

I'm still attempting to piece together a budget system for my brother (word documents, spreadsheets and so forth but also a few games(crysis!)). I'm not expecting it to be capable of High in Crysis, but I want it to produce some respectable graphics at least. Through advice I have cobbled together something decent enough considering the low budget/high prices in Ireland.

- Intel e2180 (AMD 5000+ BE was not available) Dabs Ireland - Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180 2.0GHz 1M Cache S775 800MH (BX80557E2180)

- OCZ Platinum 2GB PC2-6400 RAM Dabs Ireland - OCZ Technology 2x1GB 240DIMM PC2-6400 DDR2 Platinum (OCZ2P800R22GK)

- Samsung Spinpoint 160GB HDD Dabs Ireland - Samsung Spinpoint 160GB 7200RPM S300 3.5" (HD161HJ)

- An old Lite-on DVD-Rom drive I have lying around or this Dabs Ireland - Optiarc (Sony/NEC) 20X DVD+/RW/12X RAM SATA BLACK (7200S-0B)

- The case will be either a modded IQon (Ex-Irish PC manufacturer) case or my old one if I mess it up (and a dabs value PSU that will be coming with my new case Dabs Ireland - Dabs Value Raidmax SIRIUS alu. case + 500w psu (12cm) ATX (CAS-903))

- An XFX 8600gt although I will stretch to an 8800GT if I possibly can
- 8600gt Dabs Ireland - XFX GeForce 8600GT 512MB DDR2 PCIE DVI 540/800 (PV-T84J-YAJG)
- 8800gt from ebay

- Only problem is with the motherboard, I want a cheap enough one but considering the processor I'm using, i need overclocking to release its potential. I was searching google and found out that pin mods are still capable (I thought they died with Athlon XPs). Perhaps a cheap motherboard (610i or Intel 945) would suffice if pin modded. If not how are p43 motherboards compared to p35's
overclocking E2180 with a Pin Mod - boards.ie

 

[Redmo0n]

This would be a better card

Dabs Ireland - Sapphire Technology Radeon HD 3850 512MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI (11121-00-20R)

This looks like an ok cheap board: Dabs Ireland - Gigabyte S775 Intel G31 MATX Audio Lan VGA DDR2 4xSATA11 (GA G31MF S2)

 

[The Zune Guy]

This would be a better card

Dabs Ireland - Sapphire Technology Radeon HD 3850 512MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI (11121-00-20R)

This looks like an ok cheap board: Dabs Ireland - Gigabyte S775 Intel G31 MATX Audio Lan VGA DDR2 4xSATA11 (GA G31MF S2)

Ok, that graphics looks decent, and it's a similar price so thats ok. But in terms of the motherboard, with that price to get any decent board I might just buy an MSI p35 Neo-F or ga-p43-ds3l. At least I know something about BIOS overclocking and its far easier to get tha most out of a system that way. Thanks a lot for your reply, forums aren't that busy today?

PS: What do you think of Irish prices, that store's one of the best value!

 

[philbar71]

no,no,no correct me if i'm wrong but dosent the 8800gt beat the pants off the 3850. and this board Dabs Ireland - XFX S775 nForce 630I/GeForce 7150 DDR2 MATX A L G (MG-630I-7159) might not be too bad on overclocking. but i think there are others out there that are better

 

[Puddle Jumper]

P43's are good overclockers. I would go with the ga-ep43-ds3l.

Dabs Ireland - Gigabyte S775 Intel P43 DDR2 ATX Audio Lan 6SATA11 (GA-EP43-DS3L)

 

[Hussein19891]

no,no,no correct me if i'm wrong but dosent the 8800gt beat the pants off the 3850.

Yeah because its the 3870's that were supposed to compete with the 8800GT not the 3850. If he can find an 8800GT for about the same or within like 10 dollars of the 3850. Then he should spring for that instead.

 

[philbar71]

you should take a look at this site ASUS Radeon HD 3870 512MB G-DDR4 :: TweakTown it takes the 3870 aganst a 8800gt and a few others. but in mosts tests the 8800gt was a little better

but if a 8800gt is a little too much then i would suggest you go with a Dabs Ireland - Graphics products at great prices from dabs.ie it still beats the 3850 by a slight margin in almost all games.

 

[The Zune Guy]

Yeah because its the 3870's that were supposed to compete with the 8800GT not the 3850. If he can find an 8800GT for about the same or within like 10 dollars of the 3850. Then he should spring for that instead.

3870's, of course . I had the 3650's compared to 8600gt and the 3850's to the 8800gt (stupid mistake). Philbar, the 9600gt does look very good although in that price region I could get the Sapphire 3870 (Dabs Ireland - Sapphire Technology Radeon HD 3870 512MB GDDR4 PCIE Dual DVI (11122-19-20R)) and overclock it or what not. Perhaps a better investment, this site seems to think so GeForce 9600 GT vs. Radeon HD 3870 - TechSpot

In terms of the motherboard, would the 610i be ok philbar? I also looked into crossfire as a method of later improving graphics, and found the P35 Platinum available but warranty repaired, however its low price is enticing and it has a 3 month warranty which should cover any risks, pity I don't know what was repaired in it though Dabs Ireland - MSI S775 Intel P35 DDR2 ATX Audio Lan Core2 Duo + Quad (P35 PLATINUM).
Puddle Jumper, the Gigabyte board, as much as I like them is too expensive for him, how about the MSI Neo-F (They're not great boards though)

Thanks again for your help so far. I'm getting close to finalising things, just need to drag it down to €260-270 if possible.

Big difference between this and my own system refurb (Q6600 and Gigabyte p45-ds3r/ asus p5q-e plus my existing 8800GTS, oh and a new Raidmax case )

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I would go for the p35 Platinum at that price. Nvidia chipsets are generally not great at overclocking so I would avoid the 610i.

 

[The Zune Guy]

I would go for the p35 Platinum at that price. Nvidia chipsets are generally not great at overclocking so I would avoid the 610i.

So warranty repaired should be ok, i.e. nothing really different compared to new. I'd say it will be fine anyway, no worries
Also, what does your system run like. It a higher end than what I'm building but uses a similar processor and a GPU I might investigate.



Also, any idea why I can't change my Avatar and Profile picture. It keeps saying invalid file although I'm using a Jpeg or Gif file within the limits