Hey all,
Newbie here. Lots of experince using pc's but never built my own system before, sure could use help. My teenage son has been a gamer his whole life and has moved off to some braniac high school. He's having DT's and I need to get something set up that he can bring back and forth on his monthly trips home as well as to LAN parties, which I reckon they have a lot of as it's a residence high school. He's always used my work pc, a dell 8400 at the moment, but I want to build a game machine that can also write his papers. Want to keep it under $1000, yeah right. I've got a spare monitor for one site.

Here's your chance to build one all over again!

this is what I'm thinking:
SFF - Aspire Q-Pack 420watts (heard these will not take AMD 64 heatsink - was told to stay with intel)
CPU - P4 ~ 3gig? 5xx? 6xx? dual?
MoBo, mATX, don't know what to do here... SLI sounds good, AGP 8x or PCIe? SATA? gbLAN?
RAM - figure he needs 2gb
Video - 2 cards or 1? 6600? GT? - no clue...

Help is greatly appreciated!
forlbrty

First off, welcome to PR!

I was actually thinking about building an Aspire XQPACK mini rig, but I've changed my mind and want to stick with midtowers. Those things just don't give you a lot of room to work with. If you're interested in buying one, never used, silver, for an uber cheap price, let me know (we have a trading post here at PR, in case you haven't noticed, with trader ratings, etc.).

I can't tell you about any Intels or anything like that, but I can tell you that the mATX form factor SLI motherboards are sort of sparse.

I'd definitely go with PCI-E, because AGP is pretty much going to be obsolete with the new wave of interfaces. SATA is definitely nice.

How about some OCZ, Crucial Ballistix, or something similar? Hope on over to www.newegg.com and browse through their memory option. See what grabs you for the price. The 2GB is probably a good idea.

Dual 6600GT's would be sweet!

Let me know if you want that case.

Sure, might be interested in your Qpack, not sure yet if i'm going to go matx, just seems logical.

I was thinking about making a cheap gaming computer for myself, so I threw this $700 one together on newegg. You could always get a case harness for whatever case you want (even a monitor harness) for easy transporting. That Chaintech VNF4/Ultra mobo can be a little anti noob so you can get something else if you'd prefer(maybe with SLI). If you really want to go with SFF then there is the Shuttle SN25P which is also nf4 (but not SLI), but that would set you back $400 dollars more.

If it were me though, I would get a mid tower too.. nice and spacey and just have a case harness to haul it around. 6600GT is definately the budget gamers card of choice along with an AMD64 bit CPU and at least 1GB RAM.

Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by forlbrty Sure, might be interested in your Qpack, not sure yet if i'm going to go matx, just seems logical.

I'll sell it to you for $50 shipped. I got it from a pimp here for that price, so I'll sell it to you for the same price. Just let me know.

Thanks, that's a start.
What about gbLAN, does it matter? What's the best bang for the buck in the AMD 64's?
He's got to take it on a bus every month, over 250 miles! Maybe I should think of going with a laptop?

Gb lan is a nice feature, but not really important unless you specifically have the network to run Gb speeds.

The best AMD64 cpus for the $$ are the Venice cores. San Diego cores usually run at the same frequency as their Venice counter part but are rated higher because of their 1mb of L2 cache instead of Venice's 512kb. The extra cache costs more money than it performs. Which Venice core you'd want is up to you. The Venice core 3000+ is decent and cheap.

Going with a gaming laptop will cost alot more for the same parts you might find in a desktop and they'll run really hot and most likely loud. If you want to stick to your budget, then a gaming laptop will probly be too expensive. However if you want him to be able to use it while on the bus, then you could get a decent $1000 laptop, but it just won't be able to play very many games. What kinds of games does he play? First person shooters, Role playing games? Does he need lots of fps? Usualy LAN parties would host more first person shooter tourny's than anything else. So that would mean he does need the fps. now i'm just talking to myself, so i'm gonna go...

Quote: Originally Posted by subdismal Dual 6600GT's would be sweet!

Dual 6600GTs on one card is even sweeter

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex Dual 6600GTs on one card is even sweeter

A single 6800Ultra is even better.

Quote: Originally Posted by turbopsi A single 6800Ultra is even better.

Not in my book

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex Not in my book

Well it is, look at benchmarks man. A single 6800Ultra beats two 6600GT's. If he gets a single 6800Ultra, he will also be able to upgrade to SLI later on in the future without having to ditch the 6600GT's.

It's a lot better, and more future-proof.

Of course you could always get a 7800GTX or X1800XT... and upgrade to crossfire or SLI like that as well..but the cost is quite hefty..

Oh, I wasn't disputing that a 6800 Ultra would be a better way to go for him, you'll notice I used the word 'sweeter', not 'better' as you say. Now im my book, two 6600GTs on one card is sweeter than a 6800 Ultra. Ok?

Getting to the newbies original post, yes, a single card solution woud be a better option if your worried about future proofing, and certainly a better idea in a SFF case.

If you're gonna put an SLi solution in a SFF case, be prepared for some serious cooling (usually involves serious noise) and a high power requirement.

Welcome to PR!

Thought all I needed to do was find a nice Asus mobo and figure out what video card to get, life's never simple. But, now I get it, Venice sounds nice. I guess I need to go with a 939 socket to go with Venice? Any Mmobo rec's?

He's not going to use it on the bus, but will need to carry it. I know I wouldn't want to lug my mid-tower on a bus. Should I consider a mATX? The only ones that look ok for the price are the Aspire Q-pack or the Chieftec mini dragon, but I can't find a mini dragon without a bundle:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Tab=0&NoMapp=0
...or just tie a tower on his back?

He's all about fps!

Dont have much to say, but please don't go intel....Athlon64 3500+ all the way... :S

Quote: Originally Posted by forlbrty Hey all, Help is greatly appreciated! forlbrty

Kick back and enjoy the show....its gona have Games in it.....

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I wouldn't get that Chieftec combo mainly because the mobo that it comes with is pretty out dated (can it even run A64?) and since it's an ATX mobo, the case can't really be that small (or as small as a mATX case can be). Also, it only supports agp video cards that would limit your video card choices and upgradability. But it's fine if you don't ever plan on upgrading past GF6800 or X800 series.

Here is Newegg's list of socket 939 micro atx mobo's. All of them should be able to fit inside a micro atx case. Which one you pick should be based on your needs like how many sticks of ram you are putting in, how many sata ports do you need, how many sound channels you want, and all that good stuff. After you have narrowed the list down, look at peoples reviews. Remember to take the reviews with a grain of salt. Just because there are more people saying negative things about one item doesn't necesarily mean that item is worse because the people who recieved defective products are more likely to come back and write a review. Unless of course they are all negative reviews, then you know somethings up .

Some of those mobo's have onboard video. They will be pretty bad for gaming, so just make sure if it has onboard video, that it also includes a pci express port. Good hunting!