Entry Level Buyer’s Guide, July 2005
by Jarred Walton on July 20, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Memory Recommendations
RAM prices have mostly stabilized after some major price cuts over the past few months. We're going to go with 2x512MB for all of the configurations, though you could disperse the cost over a few months if you want to start with a single DIMM and add a second DIMM later. We wouldn't recommend getting anything smaller than a 512MB DIMM as RAM requirements are only going to increase in the future.
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Price: $83 shipped (Retail)
You can check out our prices for 2x512MB of PC3200 DDR at our Pricing Engine. Any of the brands listed there are safe bets - Corsair, Mushkin, Kingston, Patriot, Crucial, OCZ, GEIL, G.Skill, etc. - and we've gone with the lowest price on CL2.5 RAM for our recommendation.
If you're going with the socket 754 system, you could even go with a single 1024MB DIMM instead of two DIMMs - there is no dual-channel support on socket 754, you may recall. Prices for 1GB DIMMs are slightly higher than 2x512MB, and timings are generally slower with 3-3-3-8 being typical of GB DIMMs compared to 2.5-3-3-8 for the RAM we chose. Most people wouldn't notice the difference, however.
Click image to enlarge.
Price: $143 shipped (Retail)
For our upgraded DDR configuration, we're assuming that you're buying the Athlon 64 system. The reason why that's important is that Athlon 64 allows for a wider selection of CPU :RAM ratios, and 1:1 overclocking is not as important. Generally speaking, you want 2-2-2-7 1T timings at the fastest speed that your memory can handle. You can grab the OCZ VX or Mushkin Redline for 2-2-2 1T at higher speeds provided that your motherboard can supply the required voltage, but DDR400 with 2-2-2 1T is generally sufficient - maybe a few percent lower than higher clocked 2-2-2 RAM, but it's nothing to lose sleep over. This OCZ Gold uses Winbond BH5 chips, so you'll need to provide 2.8V to get 2-2-2-5 1T timings at DDR400. Intel users are better served by 1:1 ratio overclocking, but since both Intel setups are using 533FSB, any PC3200 RAM is going to be sufficient for reaching up to 4.0 GHz (assuming that the CPU can go that high).
Click to enlarge.
Price: $131 shipped (Retail)
While you can find faster DDR2 RAM - there are even PC-8000 DIMMs available - they are priced too high for a Budget Guide. We've gone with some reasonable RAM rated at DDR2-533 with 3-3-3-8 timings. You could go for RAM rated at DDR2-667, but with the processor that we've chosen, it won't matter much. Integrated graphics also stand to benefit from the faster DDR2 memory, but the difference is a case of slow graphics vs. not quite as slow graphics, so it's a minor point. By default, the RAM should run at DDR400 with the bus set to 133 MHz (533FSB), a ratio of 2:3. Raising the bus speed above 175 MHz (700FSB) might require you to adjust the memory ratio down to 3:4 in order to keep the RAM at or below the specified PC-4200 rating. Worth noting is that good quality DDR2 is now slightly cheaper than good quality DDR, so that's one less barrier to choosing DDR2.
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OldPueblo - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - link
Doh. Anyway, the Asus website has the specs listed and they do say 700Mhz. Is the website wrong then? http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=Extreme%20N620...Graphics Engine NVIDIA GeForce 6200 w/TurboCache
Video Memory 64MB/64bit DDR onboard
Effective Memory Size 256MB
Effective Memory Bandwidth 128bit
Engine Clock 350MHz
Memory Clock 700MHz(350MHz DDR)
RAMDAC 400MHz
Bus Standard PCI Express 16X
Max Resolution 2048x1536
VGA Output Standard 15-pin D-sub
Vedio Output Composite
DVI Output DVI-D (Available only in TD model)
2nd VGA Output N/A
Adaptor/Cable bundled N/A
OldPueblo - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - link
Calin - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - link
JarredWalton, I would buy a 17" LCD - however, I think the resolution is just too small. So I will have to wait for a 19" LCD that has the same resolution, but the text has a readable size, in order not to experience all those artifacts generated by non-native resolution.Zebo - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - link
I still say a sub $75 TC videocards like you recommned is worthless for gaming, even at low res 1024x768 featured on 15" LCDs it studders.. Need 600/700pro or 6200/6600 minimum. Again what's wrong with $50 mobos with inegrated graphics for a budget setup? Millions of Americans who shop at Dell get integrated graphics every year and could care less. But I do bet they opt for 17" or even 19" LCD's with thier package.BPB - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - link
Geez, how'd I miss that? I was specifically looking for the RS480M2-IL too. Sorry.BPB - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - link
Geez, how'd I miss that? I was specifically looking for that too.kmmatney - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - link
They really need some Semprons for S939 - the MSI RS480M2-IL is not very compelling for a budget system without Semprons.JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - link
14/38: the MSI board is mentioned as an integrated graphics alternative. No OC'ing features at all, so not everyone will like it, but I did mention that the cost of a discrete graphics card basically makes the MSI+939 the same price as the budget mobo+CPU+GPU and you get a faster CPU. (See page 2, last paragraph.)BPB - Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - link
#14, I agree with you. Got the MSI RS480M2-IL and built a very nice system for my daughter. With the saving on video card got a better CPU. When she needs it I'll get her a better video card. I started out with the same hard drive as the article and then added another, bigger drive. For a monitor she has the Samsung 17" 730B purchased at Staples, on sale for about $200. Very happy with everything. Also, the MSI board supports the X2 CPUs so it has great upgrading potential should I decide to use it for my video editing system and build something else for her.JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - link
Due to an error in specifications, we have changed the budget GPU recommendation to an X300SE - the cheapest PCIe card with DVI that we could find. It turns out that the ASUS does *not* have 700MHz RAM - in fact, we couldn't find any 64-bit 6200TC cards with 700MHz RAM. The price of the better TurboCache models is getting dangerously close to that of faster models, so we decided to simply cut the price $20 and go with a cheaper card. The graphics page and summaries have been updated accordingly. If you can find a card that offers substantially better performance in the $50 to $65 range, send me an email.(Grumble: The overlapping specs on the low-end graphics cards is a nightmare of confusion. /Grumble)