Intel or amd build, need some advice.

[TipsySmile]

Hey been awhile since ive posted.

Got a couple questions about an upcoming build for a friends father. He wants a cheap but reliable rig, mainly for the usual net surfing, office and what nots, but also wants to play some games. Mainly Maden, roller coaster tycoon, and other older games. Budget, prolly around 550 600. But cheap = Better

So i was kinda thinking of some thing along the lines of a AMD athlon Xp 2800+, maybe a gig of ram, 80 gig hd, and a geforce fx 5700 128 mb video card. Question is, whats a decent Socket A mobo? Kinda had my eye on the Asus A7N8X nForce 2 ultra 400 board? any good?

And my other question is, or would i be better off building a Intel rig?

Thanks

 

[waynejkruse10]

I would start with an Athlon 64 3000+ and 512mb Ram.

 

[Elbatrop1]

ASUS P4P800-VM Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $89.50
This mobo includes onboard NIC, sound, and video.


intel Celeron D 315 533MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor - Retail $62.99

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $80.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $62.00

LG Beige IDE CD Burner Model GCE-8527BB - OEM $22.99

XION XON-901 Beige/Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply - Retail $35.99

Total: $354.96

There, thats a nice cheap one that will perform quite well for all things listed. I know that I will get flak for making it an Intel with a Celeron, with onboard video, but if that is all thats needed, then why get more.

If you wanted to upgrage something on this system, you could get a faster CPU, that would be the first thing to go. But, you said the cheaper the better, so here you go.

 

[Hacp]

As for the hard drive, any old ATA one will do. Right now, beset buy has a 80 gig Western Digital harddrive for 30 bucks after rebates. This will be around 37 dollars if you count tax, but no shipping (comon you lazy bumbs). Yes, its Ultra ATA 100, BUT hard drives don't even come close to using 133 Mega Bytes per second. They use around 80-90, so it is defenetly within the 100 megabyes per second interface Ultra ATA 100 gives. This is defenetly a good buy. Heres the Link.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...t&ref=10&loc=01

 

[360Man]

Check BrokenPrices.com and the Motherboards section. They have some cheap combo's in there to get you started.

You might also want to check out their computers section as this might be easier to just buy a 300.00 PC.