AtmaWeapon
08-05-2004, 12:31 PM
While I do make a ridiculous amount of money at my job, I happen to have a lot of debts to pay off this term. I can't really make a budget out before I see my first paycheck, but I think I can probably set aside about $600 for a computer if I don't want to have any money left over after I'm done working.
The dilemma is I'm not really sure how much money I will have. I can build a respectable Pentium 4 system right now for a little over $500, and I expect within 4 months when I buy it it will be under $500. What I have so far is
2.8Ghz HT Pentium 4 (800Mhz FSB)
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9600XT
I already have a motherboard that will accept the chip and the RAM I have chosen, so it is not included in the cost.
The goal of this PC is to be a Doom box. I want to play Doom 3: Flashlight Physics. I don't need to get 60 FPS in high detail, but I would like to play it and I would like it to knock my socks off. The only problem I see is I think the 9600 may be underpowered, but going up to a 9800 means I'm spending too much.
I have a friend who's pretty fanatical about AMD. He tells me that he can build a system that will run circles around any P4 for less cost than the P4 system. My problem is all of the knowledge of CPUs I have is Intel knowledge, so I'm not really sure what is a good AMD chip, motherboard, and so forth.
So in the interests of fairness and budget, I am asking anyone who knows what they are doing to tell me how to build a decent AMD box capable of running Doom 3. Here's some criteria I'm interested in:
* A big plus is if the box is upgradable. I have one more work term next summer, and I will have very little debts then so I can shovel another $600-$800 into the computer no problem then, but I'd really rather spend about $300 unless I splurge on the newest video card.
* I would love 1GB of RAM. Configurations with 1GB of RAM that meet the budget will be very desirable.
* Since my debts are due by the end of the year, I will not purchase anything until I have them paid. This means there's probably a good 3 month period when the parts will drop in price, so my $600 price cap is for expected value 3 months from now.
* I already have a case.
* Suggest fans and heatsinks, but don't include them in the budget estimate unless you are recommending some kind of cooling system over $50.
* I already have a 120GB hard drive, so don't waste budget on that unless you manage to fit some kind of RAID array into the blasted thing <3. I have 10 total bays so knock yourself out.
* A decent CD-RW drive is required. My laptop's drive sucks and I would like at least one of my computers to burn well.
* Don't waste money on a DVD writer. I've had enough experience with them at work to know to leave them alone until a standard format is agreed upon.
If I end up using your specific configuration I'll send some kind of reward, maybe 10 bucks or something, but remember it's going to be months before I can actually buy the computer.
The dilemma is I'm not really sure how much money I will have. I can build a respectable Pentium 4 system right now for a little over $500, and I expect within 4 months when I buy it it will be under $500. What I have so far is
2.8Ghz HT Pentium 4 (800Mhz FSB)
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9600XT
I already have a motherboard that will accept the chip and the RAM I have chosen, so it is not included in the cost.
The goal of this PC is to be a Doom box. I want to play Doom 3: Flashlight Physics. I don't need to get 60 FPS in high detail, but I would like to play it and I would like it to knock my socks off. The only problem I see is I think the 9600 may be underpowered, but going up to a 9800 means I'm spending too much.
I have a friend who's pretty fanatical about AMD. He tells me that he can build a system that will run circles around any P4 for less cost than the P4 system. My problem is all of the knowledge of CPUs I have is Intel knowledge, so I'm not really sure what is a good AMD chip, motherboard, and so forth.
So in the interests of fairness and budget, I am asking anyone who knows what they are doing to tell me how to build a decent AMD box capable of running Doom 3. Here's some criteria I'm interested in:
* A big plus is if the box is upgradable. I have one more work term next summer, and I will have very little debts then so I can shovel another $600-$800 into the computer no problem then, but I'd really rather spend about $300 unless I splurge on the newest video card.
* I would love 1GB of RAM. Configurations with 1GB of RAM that meet the budget will be very desirable.
* Since my debts are due by the end of the year, I will not purchase anything until I have them paid. This means there's probably a good 3 month period when the parts will drop in price, so my $600 price cap is for expected value 3 months from now.
* I already have a case.
* Suggest fans and heatsinks, but don't include them in the budget estimate unless you are recommending some kind of cooling system over $50.
* I already have a 120GB hard drive, so don't waste budget on that unless you manage to fit some kind of RAID array into the blasted thing <3. I have 10 total bays so knock yourself out.
* A decent CD-RW drive is required. My laptop's drive sucks and I would like at least one of my computers to burn well.
* Don't waste money on a DVD writer. I've had enough experience with them at work to know to leave them alone until a standard format is agreed upon.
If I end up using your specific configuration I'll send some kind of reward, maybe 10 bucks or something, but remember it's going to be months before I can actually buy the computer.