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Recent content by Zoelef

  1. Z

    $800 new build suggestions

    $179 - Phenom II x3 720 + Gigabyte MA770T AM3 Motherboard $110 - Sceptre 20.1" Monitor $100 - Sapphire HD4770 $100 - Windows 7 x64 Pre-order $83 - Antec Sonata III Case w/Earthwatts 500W PSU (with coupon in item description) $70 - 4GB OCZ DDR3-1066 RAM $55 - Seagate 500GB HDD $33 -...
  2. Z

    AMD processor upgrade - which should i go for? buying today!

    X3 720 on a budget, X4 955 if it's not an issue.
  3. Z

    Parts Guide

    In retrospect, most of these builds aren't fair because I utilize combos and you don't. On the flipside, if you were building an entire system from scratch and used Newegg to any degree, you have to at least try and see if any are useful. Me, I'm a filthy, filthy combo degenerate. That said...
  4. Z

    Parts Guide

    When I theorycrafted this up, I chose the case/PSU first and built outward from there. Personally, I look for cases with significant airflow and 80 PLUS power supplies from top-tier companies regardless of budget. So, I settled on the 300 Illusion/430W Earthwatts combo and worked outwards from...
  5. Z

    FITS can find you a deal on almost anything!

    $66 - Athlon II X2 245, AM3 chip, free s/h. I doubt you can get a Phenom II for that price upfront; IIRC someone was selling a Phenom II X2 in the Sale forum a month ago at ~$80-85, but it's closed now.
  6. Z

    15% Off Hard Drives @ Newegg! 72 HOURS ONLY!

    $10 / 0.15 = ~$66.67 So the sale code loses value once the hard drives costs more than $67. Still, $60 for a WD64000AAKS is nothing to sneeze at.
  7. Z

    Parts Guide

    Because the extra memory is relatively pointless on the 4830...you don't start seeing meaningful gains until you reach the 4870. My beef with the 4830 512MB these days it that it costs as much a 4850 512MB, which begs a good question: Lower power consumption and smaller card size. When not...
  8. Z

    Parts Guide

    My recommendation for <$500 AMD, as I believe DDR2 is more appropriate for that budget: $120 - Gigabyte GA-MA785G-US2H Micro-ATX AMD & 4GB G.Skill DDR2-1066 {combo} $110 - Antec Three Hundred Illusion & Antec Earthwatts 430W PSU {combo} $110 - Sapphire HD 4770 $66 - Athlon II X2 245 $50...
  9. Z

    Need help planning an upgrade!

    The 4830's problem isn't its price, but that it sucks up 25-40 watts more than either the 4670 or the 4770. Since your power supply isn't a new 80 PLUS one, I'd pass on the 4830. If you can't decide, your onboard HD 4200 may be an improvement on the X1300 XT, so ride that onboard chip until the...
  10. Z

    Need help planning an upgrade!

    $120 - Gigabyte GA-MA785G-US2H + 4 GB G.Skill DDR2-1066 $66 - Athlon II X2 245 $65 - Sapphire HD 4670 512MB Subtotal: $251 The 4670 isn't the most powerful video card but you'll have plenty of headroom with an older 380w PSU. The HD 4770 also warrants consideration; Newegg's cheapest one costs...
  11. Z

    Just for fun build!

    It should be good, if you want a bit more power, go for either of: $66 - Athlon II X2 245 (2.9 GHz) $76 - Athlon II X2 250 (3.0 GHz) But I shy away from the Phenom II class since it stars at $90, which is almost $25 above the X2 245 (my choice given the slight price cut).
  12. Z

    Just for fun build!

    $120 - Gigabyte GA-MA785G-US2H + 4 GB G.Skill DDR2-1066 $61 - Athlon II X2 245 If your case supports mATX motherboards and you can get snag a copy of the Win7 RC Beta, you're set (for now) at under half your $400 budget. The onboard HD4200 might give your X1900XTX a run for its money as well.
  13. Z

    HD4850 vs HD3870

    If this is the only computer part you're purchasing, then this is the best per-$ purchase you can make today. You probably won't notice the 1GB RAM, but the shipping is free on this card, making it cheaper than its 512MB counterpart. The cooler on the card appears to be the Arctic Cooling...
  14. Z

    Upgrade advice needed

    $55 - 4GB G.Skill DDR2-1066 and that's it. Besides RAM, I don't think you can upgrade in a meaningful way on a $200 budget right now. The easiest way to upgrade would be a new PSU + new GPU and the weakest way I would do that would be: $80 - Antec Earthwatts 650W $160 - XFX GTX 260 Core...
  15. Z

    Need cheap gaming rig

    Newegg: $140 - Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P + OCZ ModXStream 600W PSU $65 - Athlon II X2 245 $58 - 4GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CAS 9 SuperBiiz: $84 - Powercolor HD 4850 w/code AWESOME10; ground s/h will be ~$10 and slow, though. Subtotal: $347 According to Gigabyte, the GA-MA770T-UD3P supports...
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