the $500 budget benchmarker

[iNF3rN0]

me and a couple buddys are gonna have a budget OCing competition. we have a $500 budget befor taxes, and that 500 bux only includes, CPU, RAM, MOBO, VID CARD, and cooling.

i have no idea what i should choose. its such a hard budget for max benchmarking results.

We will be benching in 3dmark 01, 03, 05, 06, and PCmark 05
For realworld benches, were not sure yet... we wanted to keep it fairly simple without to many games but we are thinking maybe Far Cry, Quake 3, and CS:Source

ANYTHING GOES as far as overclocking. volt mods will be more than likely done ;) as long as i can keep CPU,MOBO,RAM,VID CARD,COOLING under 500 bux BEFOR taxes.



now that you know what im after, please make suggestions...
Im thinking somethin along the lines of intel 8200, Asus P5k se, 2x1gb Corsair XMS2 Xtreme 2GB PC2-5400 675Mhz at 4-4-4-12

but that eats up almost 400 bux. what the hell would I use for vid card then? the two main factors would be cpu and vid card. I could drop the corsair for basic adata and save like... 15 bux... maybe go with a gigabyte board and save 30 more dolla.... i need advice.

OR if i went AMD ide go with a 5000 black box, hyper212 cooler, Abit NF-M2 nView, corsair or adata memory, and still... no clue what i should use for vid card.

i guess i could go with a 8600gt maybe? or the x1950gt... which is better overclocker? ive done research but im tired now and gonna go to bed.

thnx for any help
iNF3rN0

[zakelwe]

me and a couple buddys are gonna have a budget OCing competition. we have a $500 budget befor taxes, and that 500 bux only includes, CPU, RAM, MOBO, VID CARD, and cooling.

i have no idea what i should choose. its such a hard budget for max benchmarking results.

We will be benching in 3dmark 01, 03, 05, 06, and PCmark 05
For realworld benches, were not sure yet... we wanted to keep it fairly simple without to many games but we are thinking maybe Far Cry, Quake 3, and CS:Source

ANYTHING GOES as far as overclocking. volt mods will be more than likely done ;) as long as i can keep CPU,MOBO,RAM,VID CARD,COOLING under 500 bux BEFOR taxes.



now that you know what im after, please make suggestions...
Im thinking somethin along the lines of intel 8200, Asus P5k se, 2x1gb Corsair XMS2 Xtreme 2GB PC2-5400 675Mhz at 4-4-4-12

but that eats up almost 400 bux. what the hell would I use for vid card then? the two main factors would be cpu and vid card. I could drop the corsair for basic adata and save like... 15 bux... maybe go with a gigabyte board and save 30 more dolla.... i need advice.

OR if i went AMD ide go with a 5000 black box, hyper212 cooler, Abit NF-M2 nView, corsair or adata memory, and still... no clue what i should use for vid card.

i guess i could go with a 8600gt maybe? or the x1950gt... which is better overclocker? ive done research but im tired now and gonna go to bed.

thnx for any help
iNF3rN0

Interesting dilemma! I think you need to concentrate on the graphics side really considering the tests. I'm in the UK so I am not sure how cheap things are over there but normally we pay a big mark up, so given £500 rather than dollars I'd get

XFX 650i motherboard = £60
2GB 6400 CL4 DDR2 memory = £40
2 x 8800GT video cards for SLi = £300
Intel E4600 2MB cache 2.4GHz cpu = £100 with cooler :)

The nvidia boards are not renowned for high FSB but with the E4600 and it's 12 multiplier that should not be an issue. I can hit 3.6GHz on my E4600 ok so that is not bad, 400x9 which will match the RAM. The killer are the two 8800GT's though, that should pack a hefty punch.

Can you get that for $500 in the US though? :confused:

Regards

Andy

PS If the 8800GT's are too much then it may pay to wait for the 9600GT's to pair up in SLi rather than the 8600GTS !

[RPGWiZaRD]

Abit IP35-E maybe? Should be slightly cheaper than P5K SE. If not there's always P31 boards too... I would choose another quite a lot cheaper board than P5K SE and get a better gfx card such as 8800GS/GT 256MB or HD3850.

[scottc19]

What about an 8800gt and a $20 aero cooler and some under $10 ram sinks... then you could volt mod it and get pretty good results for cheap! I got up to almost 900mhz stable, but that was on water, so maye more like 700-850ish depending on your card luck... Still will bench nicely....
Also if you get a rebate is that fair game or... maybe you could save money that way!

[heydo6]

i think gpu is most important also

1...8800gt $200
2...pc6400 ballistix $50
3...p35 ds3 $100
4...cpu would be the only tough choice , so many good cheap cpu's out there . $100 for cpu and $50 cpu cooler .

when is time to bench just drop fans every where on the board and turn up the volts . you should also find a cheap case and psu so when your done with your fun you might even beable to sell it on ebay and make some money .

[blossa]

We have just had almost that kind of competition here in sweden.... The real winner-rigs was the ones with quad-core.

My self had 3850 CF, P5K, cheapest RAMs and E2160 with stock cooler. I lost too much points in 3D06 and SP1M though.