I am looking to build a new PC for my son. HE is 5 and will be getting a hand me down DFI Lanpart cfx3200-dr, Google it!!!! Along with 1 gig Corsair XMS3200 CL2 Ram, WIndows XP pro. HE likes to play games Like Blue's Clue's and Star Wars Lego II and some tonka truck Game.(He is only 5 years old) Keeping in mind what he does on it which would you recomend. HE will not be upgrading to Vista in the near future. I will over click the machine just to do it for my knowledge and the MB should overclock liek crazy depedning on the CPU chosen.

Question 1:
Athlon 4000+ $80 OEM + Artic Freezer Pro 64 $30 or
Opteron 165 with stock HSF $153

Question 2:
Case Options Please Advise....
Need 120's 1 in front one in rear Top and Side optional in it No PSU needed HE will Get a Ernemax 500W Modular PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811208009
I was looking at the above case and like the design now it doesnt have the 120's i was looking for but i like the apperance of it. Reveiws are mixed but most of them are unless you get into some high $ casesd which I am not trying to do. HE does prefer Blue over Green but I have a Green Cold Cathod light he liked and I was going to put it in the case for him. your thoughts / suggestions please

Question 3:
Video Card: I am Taking his old machine with a 3500+ and a ATI 1300 PRo and turning it into a media machine with MCE. I will put an older x800xt AIW in it. LEaves me a x1300 pro to sell. I was lookign at putting him a 1650Pro in his new machine.
Cost is a Factor here. Reading the forums here I see in the under $100 it will fit the bill what do you guys think?
I have a 1 Gig stick of Ram that will go into his old Machine to make the Media Machine
Question4:
HDD I was looking at the SATA 250GB Seagate 7200.10 OEM from the Egg for $80 What ya think or I can go with the SATA WD 160GB @ $55 or so.
Last Question: I am looking for a new Monitor for myself and I want a 23" widescreen, looking at the 24's and the price doubles. Who should I go with. Doesnt Samsung Make Dell's Monitors? What about the apple one? I would like to keep it under $400 and I have to wait till i get my next bonus at work for this purchase.


I am looking to keep cost @ around $400 or less.
I need a Case, HDD, Video CArd, and CPU.
Thanks for your input...

qustion1 go for the 4000
qusetion3 go for a 7600gt, they can be found for under 100$ after m.i.r.

as for the hdd,s the 160gig should work fine.

I go with the opty hands down, the opty's oc to 3ghz on air easy, and the 165 is dual core, so I don't see any reason not to get it

case: antec 900
and the x1650pro is a fine card, but this is nice too as sirheck said
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150182

yeah but if he goes for the opty it is around 50$ more.
and he may not get a good oc out of it.

the 4000 is singlecore but still worth it for 80$
its basically an fx proccesor.

and for gaming the 4000 will beat the opty
if both are stock.

the opty is 1.8 stock i believe, so it would have to be oc,ed to
2.4 to match the stock 4000.

true, but if you have the opty oc'd, then you have an insane rig. As I said, people are getting the opty's up to 2.8ghz on stock cooling, and 3.2ghz with water or highend air. If the money can be spared I'd have to go with the opty. Plus, lots of new games are multicore supported, so games like half life 2 that can use dual core, will take a lot of stress off the gpu for physx calculations etc

yes the dualcore opty is better suited for the future.

the op said (cheap) so i just figured.

I understand, but their are somethings that if you think about it are better deals, especially considering s939 has been officially dead for a while now. So to find a s939 dually would be hard, or to replace the entire chipset for a conroe or x2 in the future for a cheap dually would cost more than the difference between the two cpu's

HE is only 5 he is not playing any hardcore games as of now. By the time his Hand Eye Cordination is high enough I think he will have my current machine. Another problem I seem to come across is the very little info on the opty and the MB.


I would like the Antec 900 but cost is a factor wife is limiting the money I spend and she wont be happy I am spending any so I must keep it as low as possible.
If i go with the 4000 then i can go with the higher end case but lesser video card also. I can get both the 7600 or the x1650pro around the same price on the egg.

save some money and go with the 4000.

i have the 3700 and a dualcore x24400.
both computers have the same videocard.

i play most of the newer games and see no difference
between the cpu,s

absolutly none.

bf2, fear, call of duty2, oblivion, f.s.x.

they play the same on both computers.

Get the 4000 then, that should be more than enough, and your son should consider himself lucky to get a computer for himself at that age, I didn't get a nice computer until I was 12, and the 4000 cpu beats my old athlon 3000. But I suggest getting a lighted case at the least, even a cheapo aspire case, I know that I really liked neon lights when I first built my computer

He has had is own PC since he was 3 LOL he just didnt do a whole lot with it.
Ok ill go with the 4000+ then!!!

Ill try an over clock it and post results. I will have to get the articcooling 64 pro since its a OEM chip.

Now for video card. It has to be PCI express so liek i said earlier I was looking at the 1650pro because this is a ATI chipset board that runs both pci slots a x16 instead of both x8 when 2 cards are used. Now I wont be using 2 cards unless i get one for free.

lucky kid. But I don't think you really need to put in a nice gfx card like the x1650pro, and also know you can put nvidia cards on ati boards and vice versa, so you could always get either an x700pro a basic nice card, or a cheap 7300le if you wanted to

So i should go cheaper on the video card. I figure he will be playing some of my older games soon. So i was going for a semi decent card but I guess I could go a little lower end card. and he still be able to play some games out now. I guess that means I can go a little more expensive on the case.

Trust me, my baby sister (only 7) enjoys games like reader rabit that play smoothly on integrated graphics and a 600mhz celeron. I think you'll be fine for a 6 year old's rig. I highly doubt he would like today's games until he's older anyways, because most of the new ones are so violent, either they wouldn't appeal to him, or you probably wouldn't want him playing them.

opty 165 and 7600gt are your best bet for a decent computer that will last a while without needing upgraded any time soon, then you could get a couple of 250 drives and use it also as a storage server for anything you needed seeing as most of the small children's games use very little cpu or gpu power but it will also allow him to continue to use that computer for when he gets older and wants to start playing big kid games as he gets older so you wont have to fork out more money at that point to upgrade to dual core

yeah, but guess what, by the time he gets to be 10 and is really interested in gaming (not even guaranteed he will be), the opty 165 and 7600gt will be more outdated than my dad's old celeron 600mhz with integrated gfx. I say save the money, buy another cheap rig if necessary in the future, as that rig won't be compatible with a lot of the games anyways with dx10 being the next big thing

then why not just buy a 3200+ and a 7300gt and save more money

I am looking at the 1300 pro then I can get one for 50-75 save myself the $25 differnce. He also plays reader rabit. He like the Starwars lego games also. He currently has a 1300pro AGP. I also want to try out the DFI board and see what it can do. Thanks for your input I_Love_Tacos. I will go cheaperr than I thougt i would but thats good.

As for the HDDs I will consider doing 1 now and add more later I have several HDDs in my own pc for storage. But I can get 160gb cheaper or at same cost i can get 80Gbs.

4000 + $80
1300Pro = $75
HDD = $55
Case = ?

Still looking out there.

Any thoughts on the Wide Screen Monitor?

Thanks everyone for your input

Well I have a 3500+ I could use in this boad and throw the 3200 in the Media PC Looks liek I Might havea winner @ $57.50 saving another $22.50

Again which could go into the case because it will be used for much much longer period of time I figure.