new rig

[myname77]

Hey gang,

I'm looking to purchase some new hardware for my rig at home. Want to keep it under $500 for the cpu, mobo, video card, ram.

I'm looking to stick with AMD cpu and 2-4 gigs of RAM. I play some games, so a good graphics card (but not latest and greatest) is a must.

What are your thoughts?

--kevin

[Firewing1]

A guideline I use is never cheap out on the PSU or mobo. I'd look for two that suit you, then budget the other parts accordingly.

The Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 seems like a solid mobo, $100 for AM2+, PCIE16, RAID, Sound, LAN and 1394 (aka Firewire). That way you can get an X2 4200+ for about $70 now and upgrade to quad core when it gets a little cheaper.

For RAM I would buy a 2GB DDR2 667MHz dual-channel memory kit, if you can find 800MHz then all the better. For the graphics card it depends how much gaming you want to do - The 3850 performs great, but if you're not keen on dropping $200 on a GPU then I recommend the Radeon HD 3470 or 3650.
Firewing1

[downhillgames]

what he said

[myname77]

A guideline I use is never cheap out on the PSU or mobo. I'd look for two that suit you, then budget the other parts accordingly.

The Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 seems like a solid mobo, $100 for AM2+, PCIE16, RAID, Sound, LAN and 1394 (aka Firewire). That way you can get an X2 4200+ for about $70 now and upgrade to quad core when it gets a little cheaper.

For RAM I would buy a 2GB DDR2 667MHz dual-channel memory kit, if you can find 800MHz then all the better. For the graphics card it depends how much gaming you want to do - The 3850 performs great, but if you're not keen on dropping $200 on a GPU then I recommend the Radeon HD 3470 or 3650.
Firewing1

Thanx.

Believe it or not, I had this exact stuff in my newegg wishlist. if you were go to nvidia GPU, what would you get? I currently have the 3650 512 meg Radeon in my wishlist, and am looking for an equivalent nvidia.

--kevin

[tjvanwyk]

Hey gang,

I'm looking to purchase some new hardware for my rig at home. Want to keep it under $500 for the cpu, mobo, video card, ram.

I'm looking to stick with AMD cpu and 2-4 gigs of RAM. I play some games, so a good graphics card (but not latest and greatest) is a must.

What are your thoughts?

--kevin
Firewing's comments are great... just some stuff I'd add:

To get under that pricetag (assuming no monitor and peripherals) your best bet would be AMD processor on a MicroATX mobo; MATX boards tend to be cheaper because they have fewer expansion slots and are thus easier/cheaper to make, and AMDs are cheaper because they know Intel is taking them to the whipping post on pure performance so they're trying to undercut with pricing.

On the other hand, gaming on Micro builds would make me nervous because MicroATX boards and cases can be so cramped (especially the ones with greater functionality like a full four memory slots, more than normal PCI slots, etc.). Just seems like it might be trouble from a heat dissipation standpoint.

The only thing I'd differ with Firewing on is Radeon - I just stay away from Radeon for LInux-specific builds. I'd go with nVidia if it's meant for Linux (on the other hand you mentioned gaming so maybe you're looking for a Windows box?).

You can really get a pretty decent GeForce video card for 50-75 on Newegg (even less) if you're willing to go with something from the 7x series of GeForce rather than the fancy 8x, but usually that's going to be a performance hit because a lot of the 7x series I'm seeing on Newegg at the moment are "only" DDR2. So, just something to keep in mind - might be marginally cheaper to look at the Geforce 7 series?

Other than that, right up my alley. :) I've been thinking about building a little home server and I was looking at trying to keep it under $300 (no peripherals because a server doesn't need any permanent peripherals) with similar specs. Yup, it's doable, even with dual hard drives for RAID, but without a graphics card (headless servers don't need one). I think I still have the spreadsheet around yet if you're interested. Let me know and I'll post it as an attachment here.

[myname77]

I'm only swapping out 4 components on my current rig, as the drives are pretty new, and so is everything else.

The four components I'm swapping out are:

mobo
cpu
graphics card
memory

I'm going to stick with the AMD cpu, and have chosen the gigabyte mobo. the video card is the one ally I'm debating over. I've been an ATI Radeon person for years, heck almost a decade with ATI, and have liked them, but yes, since moving to linux 2 years ago, going the nvidia route is a choice. Though I've never really bought nvidia, so I'm not sure what is comparable to the the ATI Radeon 3650, or better yet, what's a good card in the price point of $100- $150. I would like to get 512 meg if RAM on it if possible.

thanx for all your input, and yes, I *may* install a 2nd drive for a windows boot to play CoD4.

--kevin

[Firewing1]

If you're going for nVidia I found these card in the same price range:
8600GTS 256MB 128bit for $170
7300GT 512MB 128bit for $100

I would go for the 7300GT unless you want to do some more serious gaming... My brother has the 7300GS 512MB, and it gives ~50FPS when playing Battlefield 2 (1024x768 high settings, no AA) so that's not bad. tomshardware.com's VGA Charts (http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html) will also help you out.
Firewing1

[F.User_4_Life]

ok i baght the hd 3650 and am wondering how can i install the drivers for it i did the flrgx and it didnt work i would like to try the driver from the web site but how do i run the installer

/ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run

if you can help i would be very greatfull. and thanks for reading

[Firewing1]

cd /path/to/the/installer
su -c 'sh ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run'
That should start up the ATI installer. I just wanted to point out though that if you'd prefer to use RPMs, Livna has some fglrx drivers available in livna-testing.
yum --enablerepo=livna-testing install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx
Firewing1

[F.User_4_Life]

ok so the fglrx is in the testing and how do i install through the fglrx is it still yum install fglrx to install the testing rpm.

[Firewing1]

I'm not sure what you mean - the livna-testing packages use the files contained in AMD's provided .run package but in such a way so that they don't overwrite the Mesa 3D library and you'll be able to get new updates through yum. So if you use the packages from livna-testing, you don't have to use the .run package.

If you'd like to use Livna, first install it (unless you've already done this):
rpm -Uhv http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
(Note, I took "livna-release-8.rpm" because your signature says "Fedora 8" - If you're using Fedora 9 or 7, then change the 8 to 9 or 7 respectively.)

Once Livna is installed, you'll be able to install the fglrx driver:
yum --enablerepo=livna-testing install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx


Alternatively, if you'd like to use the .run package then run these commands:[code]
cd /path/to/the/installer
su -c 'sh ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run'
Firewing1

[F.User_4_Life]

ok i will install the fglrx version cause you said it doesnt affect the mesa lib. i at the moment am running the intergtated gpu but i would rather use the 3650 card so i do appreciate the help ill post what happens if i have trouble.

[F.User_4_Life]

ok so i did the commands you posted and it didnt work i installed it and then put my card in the pc and restarted it and the screen was still black. i still have the dissabling irq #19 and then the screen goes black when it shows the rhgb loading screen what should i do.

[Firewing1]

The fglrx driver is just another name for ATI's driver you can get from their site - So essentially you're running the same driver.
What happens after rhbg? Are you presented with a black screen or with a console login screen? If just a black screen, try connecting your monitor to the other VGA/DVI connector on the graphics card.
Firewing1

[F.User_4_Life]

k as for the screen its just black and i will try the other dvi port as i have two and a extension that i can use for my lcd. so ill post what happens when i switch to a different dvi port.

[F.User_4_Life]

ok it dint work when i changed dvi ports i also get this



starting udev : disableing IRQ 19 and then the screen goes black the back lamp is in as if there is no gfx to the pc i also can view the grub splash and all the other things before the rhgb start running. i get all the scripting before the rhgb. and then the it goes blank.

[Firewing1]

Look like a IRQ problem - Try playing with your BIOS settings.
Firewing1

[F.User_4_Life]

ok i will play with them but what should i play with first?

[F.User_4_Life]

i found out that the card is a 2.0 xpress card and my board is older it requires a 1.0a card for the gfx card. so thank you for the help i installed it in my sisters dell dimension and she loves it.

so again thanks for the help.