Critique this hypothetical PC...

lost_soul on 22/12/2010 at 03:50

Power supply: $55 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016)

Case $20 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154095)

CPU: $200 (http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Phenom-Thuban-Six-Core-Processor/dp/B0041G50LI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292989435&sr=8-1)

Mainboard: $60 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138179)

RAM: $60 (http://www.serversdirect.com/product.asp?pf_id=RM5414)

total sans graphics card, HDD and DVD drive: $395. I would recycle a 1 TB eSATA drive and get some decent video card. What do you think?

Ostriig on 22/12/2010 at 14:52

Just a heads-up, your mainboard link's broken. Off the top of my head, I would have to wonder how much future-proofing the 550W Antec would provide. I assume you could fit in a decent graphics card now, but couldn't it end up a bit limiting in the long run?

lost_soul on 22/12/2010 at 17:03

Fixed motherboard link: (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138179&cm_re=A770E3-_-13-138-179-_-Product)

With a 550 watt PSU, I would only be able to run one video card (and that is all this board supports). I do care about energy consumption though and I'm looking for the best bang for the buck. My current desktop is an Athlon 64 3200+, 1.2 GB of RAM, and a Geforce 7600GS. To be honest, the only thing this machine doesn't do well for me is play TDM. It drops to about 7 FPS in some outdoor missions. I try to get five years or so out of my hardware investments, which is why I want a board with lots of ram slots.

Also, AMD's new CPUs will be out soon and they will require a whole new motherboard, so I wouldn't want to buy an expensive board now, only to be left out of the new CPU experience.

june gloom on 22/12/2010 at 19:14

So much wasted potential. :(

Renzatic on 22/12/2010 at 20:03

For that price, you might as well spend an extra $230 or so, and get a (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167035) decent SSD.

You'll boot whatever flavor of Linux you've got in 5 seconds flat, and never have to wait on anything to load. It's one of the best upgrades you can currently make for overall computer performance.