Barebones

[kingcboy]

I am a student at YCSTECH and i have to do a grad project. i am in computer reapair and like to mess around with computers...i want to build a computer and i have 500 bucks to work with. Anyone know of any good bare bones out there and i want it to be a good semi gaming/ high end computer...with 2 or more gigs of ram and a nice quad core or a i7 processor or anything in the middle that is fast and overclock able...well please and thank you for u help....

[Donziboy2]

Um gona need more info. When you say gaming and $500 i kinda hit a wall lol.
What kind of performance are you after?
Do you have an OS already or are you buying one?
When you say bare bone are you talking about those dinky little Shuttle box/mobo/psu things that you can fit 3 to a shoe box or are you talking about a microATX case?
And where do you plan on getting your parts? Newegg/fry's/compusa or some other place?
What kinda resolutions are you shooting for?
And it wont be an i5/i7 since a mobo/cpu would be like $300-$430 for the cheapest parts. If you did you would have plenty of CPU and a small gpu.
You could probably go with a low speed wolfdale Duelcore and get a good OC out of it. That would give you plenty of CPU for gaming and would be enough to power a decent GPU setup.
Maybe someone who is up to speed on AMD can chime in also since i'm out of the loop with AMD cpu's/mobo's

[juneau]

Um gona need more info. When you say gaming and $500 i kinda hit a wall lol.
What kind of performance are you after?
Do you have an OS already or are you buying one?
When you say bare bone are you talking about those dinky little Shuttle box/mobo/psu things that you can fit 3 to a shoe box or are you talking about a microATX case?
And where do you plan on getting your parts? Newegg/fry's/compusa or some other place?
What kinda resolutions are you shooting for?
And it wont be an i5/i7 since a mobo/cpu would be like $300-$430 for the cheapest parts. If you did you would have plenty of CPU and a small gpu.
You could probably go with a low speed wolfdale Duelcore and get a good OC out of it. That would give you plenty of CPU for gaming and would be enough to power a decent GPU setup.
Maybe someone who is up to speed on AMD can chime in also since i'm out of the loop with AMD cpu's/mobo's

+1 to all this.

DualCore is the way to go for gaming. No point in buying a Quad. Still don't think you'll have a good enough budget though. You might be able to build something decent for $750.

[Donziboy2]

Actually juneau I have run into a few games that where CPU limited. But I was always able to play them well.
Usually it just limited how far I could push the GPU's. But for the most part Duelcore can handle it easy.
It is duable as long as he already has things like OS, Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor.

[homosapien15]

I just built mine for about 800, and if you have a monitor, you can subtract 150 from that. No need for a TB of hard drive either if you're stuck on 500 dollars. ATI graphics cards are pretty cheap, radeon 4870 would be pretty cheap (I believe 99 bucks on newegg, don't quote me) and still a powerful card.

I think you can do it, provided you have some of the basics mentioned (OS, keyboard, mouse)

[juneau]

Actually juneau I have run into a few games that where CPU limited. But I was always able to play them well.
Usually it just limited how far I could push the GPU's. But for the most part Duelcore can handle it easy.
It is duable as long as he already has things like OS, Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor.

Just read the OP again. States that their needs are semi good gaming / high end pc. Which to me says his 'high end' is for something else. So maybe a Quad is needed, but unless we get some more info and a higher budget (if he does want to go quad) then we'll/he'll never know.

[WalkinTarget]

kingcboy is my protege, guys. I posted a few years back about helping a student to get involved in PC building/repairs and now two years later this is the young man that is here on the Lair looking at building a rig.

I was hoping to get his budget up a bit higher, but its just too low to buy what he really wants to buy. He had selected a Tiger Direct bundle for $999 that was a good build, but with no OS or video cards (plus a crappy Ultra 750w PSU) it was not the bundle for him.

Since I've gotten away from PC hardware and into woods riding, my PC knowledge of whats new and is currently the best bang for the buck has rapidly deteriorated to the point where I am not as much help to him as I had hoped to be.

Any help would be appreciated on this one, and I even sent him a nice build for around $600-700, so I can post that tonight and let you guys dig into it and see what we have. Keep in mind that I can contribute some valuable parts as well (full tower case with PSU, OS license) which would shave a minimum of $150 off the overall price.

[WalkinTarget]

Added a quick hardware list to get things started:

Intel 15 750 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9115215&cm_mmc

Gigabyte GA P55 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...3128400&cm_mmc

OCZ Gold 4gb kit - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0227479&cm_mmc

Corsair 450w PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...7139003&cm_mmc

ATI 4850 1gb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127435

Cost:
CPU - $200
Mainbd - $170
RAM - $76
PSU - $45
Video - $99

Total - $590

[Donziboy2]

The impression i got is he is building it for school project.

But I did manage to slap something togeather from his original post.

E5200 Wolfdale Should be good for atleast a 50%OC

ASUS P5KPL-CM LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail No thrills but does the job.

Patriot Viper II 4gb kit PC8500

Sapphire Radeon4870

Raidmax 530w PSU Your PSU looks nice to.

Rosewill ATX midtower$19 W/handle

WD 500gb Caviar Black

Ended up at $477 just needed upgraded CPU fan/heatsink and another case fan or 2.

Based that setup on he said in his first post.

But I would like to know what he wants to use it for. Does he need CPU uberness or GPU uberness or something in between?

That 4850 is about 25% slower then a 4870 and hopefully the price will start to drop soon since ATI just started shipping there new midrange GPU's. (5700 series)

[WalkinTarget]

Donzi, you are correct. This is for his grade for the semester at a Tech school, so he is assembling it (with my guidance for the scary parts) from nothing.

Honestly, it is sooo easy to build a rig these days, no DIP switches on the cards, no port conflicts due to Plug n Play, no memory chips on the mainboard to populate .... its just ridiculously easy to do compared to what it was in 1988-1990.

As far as CPU or GPU discussion, kingcboy is just getting started in this, and his only gaming experiences have been at my place playing CoD4 or UT 3 on the LAN. I will toss in the Orange Box after he is finished to keep him busy on the gaming end, and you guys KNOW that any Valve game from that box will play extreeemely well on the modest hardware that we have spec'd for him.

That 4850 can be had for $80 at the 'Egg, but I went with a factory OC model for a bit more, but it is entirely adequate given the usage. Even so, it would be the first thing I would upgrade, so the 4870 is a better choice in the long run.

[juneau]

Do you have any really good 2nd hand PC forums in the US? I use OcUk forums for most of my 2nd hand PC gear. I also buy used A/V gear from AVForums.co.uk (believe their is a US version of that too).

If this isn't the case then i'd buy new. Don't even bother with ebay.

Will the Quad be put to any use WT? If not then it will be pretty much lost in a gaming system. You'll be over spending on CPU, RAM and Mobo for the sake of latest tech, when you could go for the Wolfdale route as Donzi posted. You could then up the gfx card to say a 4870 with the money saved. Or just save the money.

[kingcboy]

well i was talking to my mom and dad and they said im out of luck cus all they are going to give me is 500 bucks..but i got more in the bank for my car...so i will u se it..also i want to start some gaming like cod4 and games like that style...i found this barebones and i was wondering if it was good so i can learn how to tell if they are or if they are just junk... heres the url to the place...........


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...4-_-components

[Donziboy2]

That quad is 1 of the oldest models they make and its a power hog. Its rated at 125watts. It would be a bear to overclock due to hug amounts of heat.
8gb o ram is overkill for about 90% of modern games. Since there are very few games that can use up 4gb and even few 64 bit games out.
500gb hard drive is the 5200 rpm model.
Its a nice bargain system for an Average Joe.
But using there build as a template i did come up with a few modifications.

AMD x4 620 quadcore $100 Little faster stock and it uses less power which should make OC later on easier. It will also run cooler on less powerful hs/fans.

Biostar AM2+ mobo $80 Solid motherboard if you need Crossfire im sure they have 1 in same price range.

OCZ pc6400 4gb kit $64

Seagate 500gb 7200rpm model $55 5200 rpm drives just dont cut it for gaming.

Coolermaster 500watt PSU $35 No worse then any other PSU out there in its range, but if you go with a crossfire video card i would think about a more powerfull PSU or atleast when you buy your second card think of upgrading to 600-700watts. Never draw more then 80% of what a PSU is rated for or its your own @$$ when it dies and takes your hd/cpu/mobo and everything else with it, ive been lucky with my psu's as to never killing one with heavy loads they usualy just stop working when i next try to use them.

Apex ATX case 30$ Same case they listed im not to pleased with it but using tigerdirect cases i went with this one. Just consider it a placeholder until I can really go threw there listing of cases.

You will loose 4gb of ram and gain better HDD performance. And it gives you more room for other things.

Ended up at $363.94

Hope a few others will chime in here with ideas.
You dont have to buy these exact parts, but if this was what i had to work with its a start. Im just trying to give some advice. But I cant be there to build it with you

BTW i can do the same thing with newegg and they have better parts selection (ram and cases and HDD). Just wish they had the OCZ ram instock atm.

Very good place to go to learn about the hardware in a PC

[WalkinTarget]

Juneau, he doesn't need the quad, he just .. err ... wants the quad ! He wanted to dabble in virtual PCs, but again I say lets not jump too far ahead of his skillset.
What I'd prefer to do is put it together with an eye on expansion, but not add too much that inflates the price but will never get used ! I have an older Kenstfield Q6700 OC'd to 3.5 easily, so it may be an old model in a gamers eye, but it still runs the snot out of anything I toss at it.

I like the AMD suggestion, simply because its nice to open up the buying alternatives with what is a good buy for the price with that chip. It doesn't have the panache of an Intel i5/i7, but its very capable nonetheless it this price point.

[juneau]

Can he have your Quad? Would make things a lot easier.