Help building a system.

Cages · January 6th, 2009, 02:38 AM

Hi, I need some help I've only have a hundred dollars to spend and. I'm confused on what ram to get. I mean is too much ram a bad thing? Should I go with 400Mhz, 533 MHz, 667MHZ, 800MHZ or 1066? How much ram should I get? Is it possible to buy 1 stick and than buy the same stick again to upgrade? Would it be better if I used an ATI 3870 over a Nvidia 9600GT? Since this is a MicroATX motherboard, can I use an ATX power supply?

This is what I own so far.

OS: Windows XP 32bit
Mother Board: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
Processor: AMD Anthlon 64X2 6400+
Big cooling device for processor glued onto procesor
Video card: EVGA 9600GT
Regular DVD Drive
300 GB Seagate sata hard drive

If I can get this thing up and runnin for under a $100 I would be very much obliged.

TheCrazGod · January 11th, 2009, 12:25 PM

Quite a few questions:

Reading the specs on your motherboard:

I see that it takes up to 16GB of DDR2 8500 800/667 ram. It also support Dual Channel (as do most boards these days) Since you are running a 32bit OS then it won't make sense to put more than 4GB in since that is all that will be recognized. If you plan on moving up to a 64bit then you can get more at that point.

Just looking briefly online I found that you can get around 4GB for $100 on Newegg.

The question of what and how much you should get really depends on what you are planning on doing with your machine. If you are going to be running things that will present a heavy load to your system then it is a good idea to put as much RAM as you can in. However if this is a machine that you are just going to use for word processing then that will be overkill. based on your video card I'm guessing you are going to be gaming on it and in that case I would go with the most RAM with the best quality I could.

As I mentioned, 4GB is around $100. $97 to be exact and that doesn't include shipping. So yes you could order one 2GB stick now and another down the road. I would recommend getting at least 2GB if you are going to be doing any gaming.

As far as the video cards go, from what I've read there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between the two. One may have features that are better for certain games but overall they appear to be fairly evenly matched.

The 3870 got an overall score of 10399 where the 9600GT got a 9925.
In a FPS Benchmark at 1680x1050 the 3870 had 464.9 where the 9600GT had a 434.

In both tests it looks like 3870 out paced the 9600... but only by a little.

As far as your power supply... The size of your board won't matter much here. What will matter is the type of case you have. If your case is a micro ATX then you will need a microATX power supply so it will fit. If you have a full ATX case then you should get a full ATX power supply.

Cages · January 13th, 2009, 10:22 AM

Thank you for helping me. Concerning a 64bit OS. How is that possible? I bought a retail version of Windows Vista Home Premium, I know it will be 32bit when I install it, but how do I upgrade it? Or is there an option to select 64bit?

pullmyfoot · January 13th, 2009, 10:31 AM

Any links to your purchase site? Go Intel. For the same price AMD really can't compete. That piece of technology you picked is 4 years old.

As for the OS, the 32 bit version only supports 4gb total. This includes things like your video card ram and bios and other things like that too. So you usually have about 3-3.5gb in the end max if you get 4 gigs.

TheCrazGod · January 13th, 2009, 06:06 PM

A 64 bit OS is not the same thing as a 32bit so it wouldn't be an option on your current copy of Vista. You would have to buy a separate 64bit copy an it typically isn't cheap. I replied below under the premise that you wanted to stay under $100. Otherwise there would have been other recommendations. I would consider extra RAM and a 64bit OS as an upgrade option when you plan on spending more than $100 bucks.

Cages · January 13th, 2009, 07:18 PM

Well thanks for looking out for my budget TheCrazGod, if Microsoft wants more than $100 for an upgrade from 32 to 64bit. Than they can keep it.
I can live with a 32bit Vista OS for now, I bought it on sale at Staples like a year ago Staples®- Office Supplies, Electronics, Furniture, Ink, Toner, Copy Paper.
I'm waiting for my ram modules and PSU to arrive from Newegg I got some 2x1 GB 800MHZ sticks of kingston and a Power Silencer PSU.
I'm putting this system in a Full Tower Case and hoping for the best.

KarmaKiller · January 13th, 2009, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCrazGod

You would have to buy a separate 64bit copy an it typically isn't cheap..

No you don't. You can turn in your 32bit key for a 64bit key. For ~$10
Info: Got 32 bit OEM by mistake? You CAN get 64 bit OEM! - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

TheCrazGod · January 13th, 2009, 09:42 PM

Cool, I had never heard of this before. Its 30 dollars for US residents but still... Nice Post

And your welcome Cages... Hope you enjoy your new rig.

JPMiller · January 13th, 2009, 10:42 PM

A. 4 Gigs shouldnt cost any more than $50...
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
B. The power supply is quite important if your getting a decent videocard, its important either way... but the higher end components will stress a PSU more than a low-end setup...
I suggest THIS or THIS at under $50 as well

Theophylact · January 14th, 2009, 10:05 AM

Also, of course, 64-bit Ubuntu Linux is free.