Part shopping

RPGC Assistance Forums Technical Support Forum
#1

I’m in the process of deciding on what to put in a new box and have am beginning to realize just how out of touch I am with the hardware market now a days. I’m looking to spend between $1000 and $1500, but I have no idea what would be good and would last 2-3 years with reasonable upgrades over the course. This box will be used for more or less everything: games, homework, coding, etc. Right now I’m thinking 1-2 gigs of ram (I need something that won’t choke on Netbeans…) and a 250 GB HD to join my current 200 GB drive in holding my warez.

I have no real clue what is good in terms of mobo, processor and video card these days. I’m also in need of these parts working well and being easy to setup under linux, as one of my projects for the summer is to put a more serious effort into migrating away from windows.

#2

amd am2 ftw…
on the gfx front theres only one and thats nvidia 7 series

#3

Ok, after looking around I think this looks like a good system:

Fujiplus FP-988D Silver-Black 19" 12ms LCD Monitor - Retail

eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail

  ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Socket 939 ATI CrossFire Radeon XPRESS 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

2x512 MB of PC3200 ram

a 16x DVD±R/RW drive

I have no clue how to go about a case and PSU, I don’t want to go nuts, I just don’t know what I really need. I will need a some extra in the PSU, as I will have 2 7200 rpm drives in it now and will probably add at least 2 by the time I retire this machine ~3 years from now.

#4

Here. It wasn’t written for this thread, but it should give you a general idea about what would be a decent computer.

Why on earth buy a CrossFire mainboard when you’re going to use a GeForce? It’s a waste of money. If you’re going to use GeForce you buy a SLI not CrossFire.

Make sure the PSU is around 400W ( or more, of course ), and you’ll be fine. If you’re willing to spend a little extra, Lian-Li makes some gorgeous cases, otherwise I’d go with Antec or AOpen.