I've decided to build another PC in the next month or so. I will use this PC mainly for school (Office 2007), work (Adobe Dreamweaver/Flash/Photoshop CS3), and light gaming (CS:S if anything). I also have a tight budget of $200 for a CPU/MOBO/RAM.

Here's what I have chosen so far:

BIOSTAR A740G M2+ Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138112

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103062

Can somebody recommend some good memory to go along with this? The standard is DDR2 1066 and there are 4 slots. I will only need 2GB but I plan to upgrade to 4GB within the next year.

Do you think the onboard HD2100 is enough or will a video card be necessary immediately? What card would you reccomend for $100?

Again, I am not looking for anything fancy, I simply need a fast PC that will run 2 or 3 of the above mentioned software at a time. I plan to also purchase a power supply, 160gb sata2, and a dvd burner with a $100 budget (I already have an ATX case and an Audigy SE sound card).

Since it's a budget build and well priced 2x1GB kit should do you well. Get whatever you can get the best deal on. I'd personally say anything from Corsair, Crucial, G.Skill, Kingston, Muskin, OCZ, and Patriot should do the job quite well. Just watch the timings.

The HD2100 onboard chip I'd imagine is probably really slow for gaming. CS:S is an older game but I'd recommend getting a nice cheap videocard if your gonna game from time to time. For $100 you can get a Geforce 9600GSO/8800GS (same exact thing) or for $120 you could splurge for a 9600GT.

Can't go wrong with these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134488

Just don't expect them to overclock well. XD

I don't think your gonna want to do much overclocking on a Biostar motherboard anyway, so inexpensive memory such as that should do you fine. Also I am not sure why that a cheap $50 Biostar motherboard recommends DDR2-1066 when DDR2-800 would make more sense in a budget mobo.

They're just trying to pull in more sales. Why get a "DDR2-800" motherboard when this one is faster at "DDR2-1066?" Windsor is DDR2-800 standard so....

If I were to make one suggestion about the motherboard, I would recommend spending a few more dollars extra and get an ATX board unless your case is for micro ATX. Micro ATX are just so cramped for space.

FordGT90Concept said:
Yeah that's what I figured, as I was pretty sure DDR2-800 was the standard for most current AMD and Intel platforms. I think it would be silly to buy DDR2-1066 ram for that motherboard unless it was the same price as DDR2-800.


I agree, go for an ATX motherboard if you have an ATX case.

If you trying for you budget, you should go with this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135075

The 3200 series wouldn't be as bad as the 2100.

Thank you everyone this is just the information I was seeking. I like that ECS motherboard and the price is good, so I think I may go with it. It will leave me room for AM2+ and DDR2 1066 if I decide to upgrade. I will go with 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM as well (with no intent to overclock).

My sound card (audigy se) would be better than the onboard 8CH audio, right?

More than likely, yes

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135075 -- $69.99

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178154 -- $39.99

CPU AMD x2 5000+ Windsor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103765 -- $69.99

With shipping it comes to $191.57.



Or you could keep your current processor and swap the ram with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Total would be $216 after shipping then

k0rny said:
If you don't have badass speakers, onboard is usually more than enough. The only real advantage of a sound card is that they take some load off the CPU. Since every computer has multiple cores these days, that point that advantage is quite moot. I don't even recommend sound cards anymore unless it is something professional like audio creation or output that will be amplified.

FordGT90Concept said:
I like good sound, and i love my speakers. I have an DigiTech RP150 multi effect pedal that can connect to a pc via USB. I use it to record guitar riffs with lots n lots of distortion. Nothing professional though.. just for fun.

This is my sound:

Sony STR-DE845 Digital Control Center
2 x Klipsch KG 3.5 325W 2-way speakers
2 x KLH B-PRO6 Titan Series 100W 2-way speakers
1 x Sony SS-CN100 80W center speaker
1 x Accurian ASW-5060 125W 8" sub woofer

I already have the sound card - I pulled it from my old pc before I sold it. I might as well use it unless the onboard is better quality.

Mark Curtis said:
Thanks for the links Mark. I will definately go with these two along with the 4600+ (keepin it as cheap as possible )

k0rny said:
I don't know if Audigy SE is better than onboard but I would install it, listen to both, and see which you think is best.

Yeah I definately noticed a difference with my old motherboard's onboard 6CH. I googled the 8CH audio chip thats on the ECS motherboard and found that it was 24-bit so I surely will have to see for myself.

Ofcourse my preference would be Audigy SE. I've ADI 1988 8-channel High Definition Audio on my motherboard, and I've tested it numerous times, in the end my Live! 5.1 has much better sound re-production. So, I would recommend Audigy SE without a doubt!

Ya I would think so too. Thanks!