new computer

[masterorion]

about a week ago, i added more ram to my computer. would have been a total of 2 gigs. i boot up my computer and windows comes up to tell me "there have been major changes to the hardware in your computer, you must reregister" so i let it attempt to finish booting and it hangs at the splash screen. i hit the reset button and it comes up with a corrupt system file...grr. so after re installing and all that fun stuff, i get back online and all that goodness. a day or so after, i go to the local computer shop to look at heatsinks (my old computer would run at 54 degrees) so i figured i would try a new heatsink. but i got bit by the "wanna build a new computer" bug after seeing all the new MB and proc. that were available.

i send alot of business toward the owner of this shop so he lets me walk out with all of the parts needed to build a new computer from scratch...without paying for any of it at the time. so here goes.....

MSI K9N SLI platinum- crazy ass motherboard in my opinion...2x 1gig ethernet ports, will hold up to 8 gigs of ram, 2 pci-e video cards.

amd athlon 4200 64 dual core (2.2 gigs easily overclocked)

nvidia geforce 7600 gt

2x 1 gig sticks of ddr2 memory (dual channel)

500w power supply

new antec case.

runs like a dream. played BF2 with all of the settings maxed and it doesnt even hiccup.

 

[CmdrFly]

Why stop at a 4200+? The 6000+ is only $120 more (cdn), 3ghz per core at stock, and double the L2 per core (1mb vs the 4200's 512k).

It's process is 90nm vs the 4200's 65nm but still well worth the price. AMD swiped all their CPUs with a freakin huge price cut earlier this year.

 

[masterorion]

i would have had to order all the parts to do that. if the 6000+ isnt an AM2 socket, i wouldnt be able to have the MB i do. im happy enough with this tho

 

[exodusamphi]

Thats a pretty decent upper-midrange comp you have yourself. However, I would have gone the Intel route. Besides that it looks almost like mine. The graphics card is the best bang for your buck too!

 

[masterorion]

im an amd fan. i like the fact that amd runs more efficient and can be overclocked with less troubles. not to knock intel...they have fast chips, but they also run hotter/less efficient to get those speeds. i didnt really want to get an nvidia vid card, but i didnt want to wait for an ATI to come in the mail.
eventually ill probably go the sli route with another identical card

 

[CmdrFly]

I hear that part... even if they're currently holding the crown I still wish nothing short of torrential plagues on Intel.

 

[exodusamphi]

Never had a problem with my chip... E6300 1.86 stock running at 2.8 fine stock cooling too.

 

[masterorion]

my old amd chip was like a 1.6 gig. at one point, i had it OC'd to 2.2 (amd of course)
my new one is 2.2 un-overclocked. with this MB, they put settings in so you dont have to manually do settings for OCing which is really nice. it allows you to choose a percent. im half tempted to see what i can push it to