Building my other sister a PC, need input

If you do not plan to overclock, that ECS P43 board is ok. The only overclockable boards from ECS is their Black Series. The E5200 will definitely be able to hanle 720P and 1080P video playbacks. Even my old 2.81ghz Athlon X2 could do that.
 
No, I will not be overclocking.

My P4 3.0GHz could not do 1080p.
 
Yeah, my old S939 Athlon X2 at 2.0ghz could handle 1080p playback.
 
The LE-1640 may not be able to handle 1080P playback. The cheapest I would go is the Athlon X2 5000.
 
As I said, 1080p isn't a requirement, it's just a nice bonus. :)
 
Still, I would at least get the X2 5000. Most new games and programs now can take advantage of dual core cpu. They will run much better on a dual core. If budget allows, I would still recommend the E5200, but if you want to save a bit, the X2 5000 is still a very nice choice.
 
I love WD hdds but I would not recommend that one as a primary hard drive. I have that hard drive for storing stuff. Its rather slow, especially on startup spin.

Also, you may be paying about $5-$25 more on that disc drive because of that litescribe stuff. If she doesn't need it, then don't get it.

Hope my info isn't too late.
 
Yaco said:
Also, you may be paying about $5-$25 more on that disc drive because of that litescribe stuff. If she doesn't need it, then don't get it.
Click to expand...

Actually, every time I've looked for a DVD-burner drive over the past two years or so, the cheapest ones were either Lite-On or Samgung drives with Lightscribe.

Couple of tips:
1) Upgrade to version 1.2 Lightscribe software and go to a higher contrast setting. (Yes, it takes longer...)
2) Don't bother with HP discs, stick with Verbatim. Holy cow, the difference is huge. Blacks are sooo much darker, and you can get so much more detail out of 'em.

That said, I wouldn't not buy a drive for lightscribe next time...but as long as I have it, I'll use it. The novelty is still there, as long as I'm not hogging the drive, waiting to use it for something else.
 
I couldn't care less about Lightscribe, the Lite-On I'm looking at just happens to have it and is cheap.

Hell, no one in the house has burned a DVD or even a CD in like a year.
 
So I've had at least three different mobo/CPU/RAM combinations. How do I pick one?

I'm horrible at this stuff. :(
 
If you want to build the cheapest comp, go with the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ & MSI K9N SLI-F V2 Motherboard - $129.

If you want it to last a while longer and may overclock it in the future, then go with the E5200 and ECS P43T-A2. If you're definitely going to overclock it down the road, then go with the E5200 and ECS P45T-A Black Series.
 
Will never bother overclocking probably (I'm not any good at it) and while cost is certainly an issue, she still wants a decent PC that will last her a few years.
 
I upgraded from a Athlon X2 4600 (oc'd to 2.81ghz), I really feel that a Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6ghz) will not be fast enough, so I would say go with the E5200, and if you're definitely not going to overclock, then I would suggest the E7300, it's got a little bit more cache (3mb vs the 2mb in the E5200), and slightly faster (2.66ghz vs 2.5ghz of the E5200).
 
Okay, here's what I have so far (I included even the peripherals just for the hell of it). No video card though as the one that was suggested earlier no longer has a MIR (i.e. I'd like a new suggestion). Yes, I realize I don't have a copy of Windows in this list.



That comes to a grand total of:

$743.54 (ow) + $70 in shipping (even more ow)

Suggestions for shaving that cost down are appreciated.
 
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Thanks guys. :)
 
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