Spring RTS Engine

And buying a new rig. As a student, im trying to keep it under 800 dollars. I'll have to purchase a monitor also, as ive only ever used laptops. Any recommendations on a decent, cheap LCD would be great.

What im currently looking at:

Intel E6420 and Asus P5K Bundle

$336.98

A-Data DDR2 800 240pin 2GB Kit (2x1gb

$42.98

XFX GeForce 8600GT nVidia 8600GT Chipset (540Mhz) 512MB (1.6Ghz) GDDR3 Dual DVI PCI-Express Graphics Card

$139.99

Cooler Master Elite 330 Mid Tower Case

$41

Seagate Barracuda (ST3160815AS) 7200 SATA NCQ 3.0Gb/s 160GB 8MB Cache (OEM)

$56

Antec TRUEPOWER TRIO 550W TP3 ATX12V 120MM FAN 4 SATA 2 PCIE FCC

$90

LG (GCE-8525B) 52X CD-Writer, Black, W/ SuperLink, OEM


$20.99

Total $724.42 Canadian

Remember WinXP doesnt support more than ~3300MB memory (i tried), so that one mem stick is kinda useless.

Also i suggest changing that powert supply unit:

There was also mention of some Asus P5 (Intel) series boards not working well with some NeoHeE samples. Incompatibilities with other Intel boards from other brands were also mentioned. There was even talk of damage to a few motherboards.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article273-page5.html

Also here is list of PSUs which you shouldnt touch (useless crap):
Codegen
Q-Tec
Macron
Colors-IT
Deer
Micro-One
KME

Dangerous:
Deer DR-A300ATX
CP4 CTX350WCE
Macron MPT-350
Tagan TG330-U01 (ToPower)
EuroCASE 300X1 (Codegen)
Maxpower PL-350
Sweex BA000040
Ezcool ATX-400JSP
Gembird CCC-PSU4


IF you really are out of money, get smaller HD, they are very cheap.

Edit:
Also, be sure your parts are compatible to each other. Especially motherboard and PSU.

And i would rather buy good PSU (no cheap ones), instead of noticing after one year that my computer blew up because of bad PSU :P

Be sure your CD reader/writer can also read (and write?) DVD's. Some media, including games are in DVD format in these days.

Thanks, changed build accordingly.

I doubt you're going to find an LCD under 100$, let alone one worth buying. The monitor market is kind of queer right now, but generally speaking the starting point is somewhere around 160 for 17 inch, and it's difficult/impossible to find smaller cheaper monitors. Also, if you skimp on a monitor you're going to feel it. low quality LCD have a huge range of problems from dead pixles to shitty color quality.

[EDIT]

I think i can get a cheap 17" CRT from the university. Will there be any picture quality loss from using a DVI -> VGA cable converter?

Sheekel wrote:I suppose there's no way to use my laptop as a monitor until i get more money?

Hmm, if i remember correctly, there might be some video input in laptop, maybe you could connect your videocard to there?

Just an hunch, i dont have much experience with laptops

Sheekel wrote:[EDIT]

I think i can get a cheap 17" CRT from the university. Will there be any picture quality loss from using a DVI -> VGA cable converter?

Not noticable imo
Although you may have to tune the image size etc like on a CRT

TradeMark wrote:Hmm, if i remember correctly, there might be some video input in laptop, maybe you could connect your videocard to there?

Laptops usually only have video outputs, so this is unlikely.

its probably a better bet to get a radeon 2850 rtaher than a 8600GT - much better performance for a small price increase i think.

also i recently bought a widescreen monitor for my sister at uni, it was under £100, and the quality was fine...

Cabbage wrote:its probably a better bet to get a radeon 2850 rtaher than a 8600GT - much better performance for a small price increase i think.

also i recently bought a widescreen monitor for my sister at uni, it was under £100, and the quality was fine...

CRT? If you're talking about an LCD did you happen to get the licence number of the guy who pulled it out of his trunk?

Swift, £ != $

Indeed, £100 ~= $205

A quick look on newegg(does newegg work with Canadian orders?) turns up a lot of fair Acer monitors in the 150-200 dollar range. Of course, Acer is a low-end brand - you get occasional DOA's, and their service department is a POS, but going through newegg means you can deal with newegg's much better return department rather than going to the manufacturer. Still, something to be cautious about.

The lowest-end Hanns-G might be nice- anyone have any experience with the brand?

Erom wrote:does newegg work with Canadian orders?

No. Ncix.com is the preferable choice for us.

SwiftSpear wrote:

Cabbage wrote:its probably a better bet to get a radeon 2850 rtaher than a 8600GT - much better performance for a small price increase i think.

also i recently bought a widescreen monitor for my sister at uni, it was under £100, and the quality was fine...

CRT? If you're talking about an LCD did you happen to get the licence number of the guy who pulled it out of his trunk?

Yeah it was LCD, its nothing special but theres nothing bad about it, and £100 = over $200 so i guess its not that strange maybe..

I just walked into a shop to buy it, as i didn't have time to get it online, the same sort of thing was going for about £75 on a few websites

I'd try to get a good LCD for a good price. I can recommend mine, it's about 250 CAD (according to shopbot.ca) or 260 CAD on ncix, and it's worth the money.

I have the 19" version of rattle's, its a good monitor.

SwiftSpear wrote:

Cabbage wrote:its probably a better bet to get a radeon 2850 rtaher than a 8600GT - much better performance for a small price increase i think.

also i recently bought a widescreen monitor for my sister at uni, it was under £100, and the quality was fine...

CRT? If you're talking about an LCD did you happen to get the licence number of the guy who pulled it out of his trunk?

I don't think they make widescreen CRTs. That would be a sight.

If your buying computers in Canada, NCIX is the way to go. Tiger Direct too if you dont mind them only shipping with UPS couriers.

Sheekel wrote:Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Socket LGA775, 2.33 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache, 65nm (Retail Box) BX80557E6550)
$183.99

I suggest you get the e6420 instead. It goes to 2.4 GHz with no overvolt...I have mine at 3.2 (1.45V), maxing out at 63C and completely stable.

Peet, is that the Core 2 Duo @ 2.13 GHz standard?