The $800 Challenge...

[DAFT]

Ok, I know you guys know your DV so lets see what kind of shoppers you are with a limited Budget.
The Challenge is with 800 Dollars at you disposal piece together the best Comp. no monitor and no Comp USA sale, just piece by piece assembly from box to power supply. The reason it's a challenge is because you all have different favorites so it will be interesting to see the variety and controvercy over which system is better. Please Don't make stuff up (giving false prices), I know you guys know DV so gear the sys towards that. Let the Games begin.

[Derree]

hmmmm...I would have no idea lol...I bought my comp already assembed from work lol..I wouldn't have a clue what I would want in there...expect a dvd burniner lol

[Chewy]

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?linkid=110&item=19-103-537

135$

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?submit=property&item=13-131-510R

77$ was 50$ last week

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?submit=property&item=20-144-332

128$

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?submit=property&item=11-119-081

102$

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?submit=property&item=11-119-081

87$

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?submit=property&item=22-148-093

X2 = 170$

100$ change for optical drives and floppy!

[DAFT]

nice work rbrtpl the only thing is don't see is a Vid card. you have 2 dup links so I'm guessing that was meant to be the vid. looks good although do you prefer the use of 2 HD's or One large?to bad this bad boy is out of range.http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/produc...tem=22-111-151

[anonymez]

do you do any heavy gaming, daft?

[anonymez]

ok this one here cost a little over $800, (which is $1100 AU), but you can reduce the hard disk size/cpu, etc to get it down a little if you wish. i get all my parts from this store. i would link to the exact products, but the page does not allow that, so the main (but crappy) site is http://www.gamedude.com.au i'm sure you could match or beat the prices for these products somewhere in the US

note that its is not what i myself would get (i definitely wouldn't have that graphics card), but what i think would be suitable enough for DV, as well as any other demanding tasks, at that price (i'd probably spend every last cent if i was buying a new pc )

the mobo supports athlonx2's, so you can upgrade if you wish. all prices are $AU

AMD ATHLON 64 3500+ Retail Box 939
Compatable with 939 motherboards, DUAL Channel memory controller now on chip!
Price $ 309

2x Maxtor 250 gig 7200rpm DiamondMax 9 SATA 7Y250M0 (Requires SATA power connector) (total 500GB) Total Price $324

Albatron 6200-LQ-128 PCI Express TV and DVI
SPECIFICATIONS
Grapics Engine: 6200 TurboCache
Memory Size: 128meg Supporting 256Mb DDR
Memory Bus: 64bit
Engine Clock: 350Mhz
RAMDAC: 400Mhz
Max. Resolution: 2048x1536@85Hz
Bus Standard: PCI Express
VGA Output: Yes
TV Tuner: No
TV-out: Yes
VIVO(Video-in.Video Out): No
DVI: Yes
Price $ 99

OMNI X-903 White Case 400watt ATX Midi Tower Case, Front USB 2.0 connector x 2 Air-duct
Item Code casOMx903w
OMNI X-903 White Case 400watt
ATX Midi Tower Case, Front USB 2.0 connector x 2
400W Power Supply; 4 x 5.25" Bay, 5 x 3.5" Bay
Air-duct for better cooling
Price $ 79

MSI K8N SLI FI nForce4 SLI Chipset PCI express 7 Channel Audio GigaLAN IEEE1394 SATA
Item Code mbMSk8n_sli_fi

MSI K8N SLI FI Motherboard
CPU
• Supports Socket 939 for AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core / Athlon™ 64 FX / Athlon™ 64 processor
• Supports up to 4800+ or higher CPU
Chipset
• NVIDIA® nForce4 SLI Chipset
- HyperTransport link to the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core/Athlon 64/Athlon 64 FX CPU
- HyperTransport supporting speed up to 1GHz (2000MT/s)
- Supports 2 PCI Express x16/x1 interface
- Two independent SATA controllers, for four drives
- Dual Fast ATA-133 IDE controllers
- Supports high-speed USB2.0 ports
- IEEE 802.3 NVIDIA MAC for 1000BASE-T
Main Memory
• Supports dual channel DDR 266/333/400, using four 184-pin DDR DIMMs.
• Supports a maximum memory size up to 4GB.
• Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM DIMM.
Slots
• Two PCI Express x16 slot (supports PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant) Normal mode
Primary PCI-E slot is compatible with PCI Express x 16
Secondary PCI-E slot is compatible with PCI Express x 1
SLI mode
Primary PCI-E slot is compatible with PCI Express x 8
Secondary PCI-E slot is compatible with PCI Express x 8
• Two PCI Express x1 slots (supports PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant)
• Three 32-bit v2.3 Master PCI bus slots, including one orange slot which supports 2 master for MSI special PCI function card (ex. wireless LAN and bluetooth combo card)
- support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface
On-Board IDE
• An IDE controller on the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes.
- Can connect up to 4 IDE devices.
On-Board SATA
• Two independent SATA controllers on the NVIDIA® nForce4 SLI chipset.
- NV RAID supports 4 SATA II ports with up to 300MB/s transfer rate.
NV RAID (Software) • Supports up to 4 SATA + 4 ATA133 Hard drives
- RAID 0 or 1, 0+1, JBOD is supported
- RAID function available for ATA133 + SATA HD drives or 4 SATA HD
Audio
• 7.1 channel audio codec RealTek ALC850
- Compliance with AC97 v2.3 Spec.
- Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement.
LAN
• LAN supports 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by nForce4 SLI
• Marvell PHY 88E1111 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet
IEEE1394
• VIA 6307 chipset
- Supports up to two 1394 ports. (Rear panel x1, front x1)
- Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps
Price $ 195

CORSAIR TwinX 512meg x 2(1gig) XMS3200 400mhz Matched Pair eXtreme Memory Speed
Price $ 199

[doit2it]

I'd give my list and $500 to the hoods up the street. They'll bring back everything on the list in a day or two. I'll risk running without warranty.

The remaining $300 will go for DVDs and beer

[Chewy]

nice work rbrtpl the only thing is don't see is a Vid card. you have 2 dup links so I'm guessing that was meant to be the vid. looks good although do you prefer the use of 2 HD's or One large?to bad this bad boy is out of range.http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/produc...tem=22-111-151

Any video computer should have at least 2 hard drives as standalone masters.
Sorry about the dup link I had found a refurb 9600XT,
I just built this computer but with only 512 megs of ram, a raptor system drive and 250 gig data drive, added premium heatsink and oc'd the
cpu into the price range for your whole budget.

[Chewy]

@anony,
"2x SeaGate 250 gig 7200rpm 8meg Cache Barracuda 7200.7 ATA-100
Price $ 155 (total 500GB) "

no way, anyway they are ide, not sata

[anonymez]

sorry mate, forgot to add it up

its 155 x 2 = $310

and the description was a typo on their site. now its a sata, which is 162 x 2 = $324