What I'm looking for is a CHEAP computer that will still allow me to stay up do date and upgrade with more of the newer stuff that comes out. I'm starting off VERY simple and keeping the price down, then upgrade in time as I need and as cash is available. I'm in Canada and Sadly that means I can't use newegg.com This is what I priced on Tigerdirect.ca I will use my own HDD and CDD to lower costs MSI K8N Neo4-F NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard and an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.80GHz Processor with Fan http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1739996&Tab=2&NoMapp=0 D15-1010 :: Diablo ATX Mid-Tower Case with 450Watt Power Supply, Front Neon Lights, Front USB and Audio Ports http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=720575&sku=D15-1010 C13-2920 :: Corsair Value Select 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1170139&sku=C13-2920 M452-7080 :: MSI Radeon X300SE HyperMemory / 128MB DDR2 / Supporting 256MB with HyperMemory / PCI Express / DVI / VGA / TV Out / Video Card http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1901579&sku=M452-7080 Total Cost - $615.14 (Taxes and shipping included) Trying to keep costs below 800 tax and ship included. Mainly need help with Graphics card.
Not bad. the socket 939 platform with nForce 4 is the most "upgradable". The MOBO you chose is a good MOBO, tigerdirect doesn't say anything about X2 support, but newegg does on the same board, so you should be okay if you wanted to go dual-core later. The graphics card will get you buy, but if you aren't a gamer, you might want to check out a MOBO with onboard graphics but with an available PCIe slot. Save you that little extra money right now, but leaving room for you to upgrade later. Also that board only has 2 sata ports which could restrict upgradability in the future. Many boards come with 4 now.
I play mainly low end games but I do plan to play battlefield. I need a graphics card that will roll thru it with ease. I'm willing to spend a bit more on a better mobo+cpu combo and vid card. I do not plan to go onboard video... I've had computers that had onboard 64mb that couldn't run a game with recommended requirements or 32 and could only get 25fps... So yea, onboard vid is not an option in my mind. I'm glad the comp is pretty decent. I'm just hoping to get some suggestions to get the most of my money.
Here's a pretty good card that will get you through what you need. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828833&Tab=2&NoMapp=0 It's 104.99 after $35 MIR, I guess they ship to canada since all the rest of your stuff is from TigerDirect.
Dot CA for canada... and with that card it my price goes from $92.79 to $227.34 total with tax and shipping... thats too much for now... but thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep it in mind if I have that much to spend right away.