Advice on build

6

67Builder

n00b
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Jan 17, 2009
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7
My old faithful p4 2.4 finally died, and i'm looking to get a couple of new items to freshen up my stuff.

Here's the obligitory questionaire stuff.

1) What will you be doing with this PC?
some gaming (getting back into it after a few years), normal interweb usage.
2) What's your budget?
Round a grand.
3) Where do you live?
NY, NY.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Mobo, CPU, RAM, vid card, PSU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Older but good coolermaster aluminum case with 4 fans, good SATA drives.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Looking forward to trying (first timer).
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
24" already have it 2ms, 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Right now.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Raid, not much else other than overclock friendly bios.

Conversations with some folks, and some initial reading on some forums gave me some ideas as to what i'm looking for. But with the mass knowledge base here. I'm hoping to get some confirmation or some pointers in another direction.

Here's what i'm looking at right now.


ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
EVGA 512-P3-N884-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ Superclocked Edition 512MB
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

Thoughts? Ideas?
Thanks!

B
 
If you are not using crossfire, cheaper P43 board (either gigabyte or msi) will work just as well. 9800 GTX is pass its day. For 1920x1200 gaming, I would suggest 4870 or GTX 260. I personally would buy XFX or Sapphire 1GB 4870.
 
For a video card, look for, at a minimum, either the GTX 260 (Core 216 model) or the (1GB) HD4870.

Stick with the P5Q Pro as it's not much more expensive than a P43/P45 board with only one PCI-E x16 slot and onboard RAID. Keep in mind that the P5Q Pro supports dual x8 CrossFire, which only works with ATI video cards.

Go with lowteckh's RAM recommendation, as it will perform just as well as the Corsair Dominator kit you've chosen.

For overclocking, you need a better CPU cooler than the Freezer 7 Pro. Go with the Xigmatek HDT-S1283.

You may want to consider getting a quad core processor at this time. More games and programs are becoming "optimized" for use with quad cores, and both Intel and AMD seem to be focusing on quad cores for their future processors.
 
How do you guys feel about going to this for video?
HIS 4870 card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161247

Or is there a better option in the low 200 ducket range?

With the 40$ rebate on the corsair memory, the price difference isn't really that big for gskill. Do either sets of ram hold any advantage? If the corsair is better, and it only costs me another 20, I'll go with it, otherwise gskill it is.

As far as the dual or quad thing goes. What's a comparable quad to the 3.0 dual? The 3Ghz quad is way expensive, how friendly to an overclock are the quad chips?

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

B
 
67... Great Card from reviews but I warn about rebate. Taken from from HIS Website REBATE . I'm not sure if its been resolved at the moment. I dont have a rebate from them, but someone here may tell you better. Just and FYI.

Guys on SD are talkin about Intel Proc cuts beginning today, so keep that in mind too.
 
The HD4870 1GB is good, and is probably your best bang for buck right now, since the GTX260 216sp is slightly higher priced.

Rebates are never guaranteed and you still have to pay the upfront cost, as well as tax based on that upfront cost. The Dominators will give you no noticeable difference in performance than the G.Skills mentioned earlier.

Gaming at your resolution is more GPU dependent than CPU, so with any CPU at 3.0Ghz or higher, you won't notice much of a difference. The Q6600 is the best value quadcore since it can easily reach 3.2Ghz and tops out around 3.6Ghz. The 45nm quads are more pricey and slightly harder to OC with, but can reach slightly higher, 3.8Ghz+ max. Keep in mind the E8400 can easily reach 4Ghz and beyond.
 
Ima say NV as I'm just hatin' on my ATIs, couldn't even finish BIA Hell's Highway cuz' they couldn't supply the right drivers (8.8, 8.9, 8.10) for it. Dunno about 8.12 but having been "done" with the game for months, I've ditched the game. Ruining one game is enough to toss the towel; NV hasn't posed a single problem for me since Geforce3. GTX260 216 can be had for $221 AR @ http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1385878 - considering it's > 1GB 4870 and is backed by BFG, the $10-$20 premium is well worth it over the lowest priced MSI 1GB 4870 ($205-$210 AR) on the Egg.
 
A friend at work has this card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150329

He loves it, but says i may need a little bigger power supply than the corsair 650. What do you guys think?
In one of the reviews, the guy states he thinks there is a problem with this card and winxp 64 bit, will my 64 bit vista be good with this card?

This is the last decision i have to make, then i'm pulling the trigger on my order.

Thanks again for the responses and the help!

B
 
I think he should melt in a pot for such a ludicrous statement. You won't need a bigger PSU for even two of these.

I wouldn't trust half the reviews on the Egg, esp a guy who uses xp 64bit. Vista 64bit is fine.
 
Thanks lowteckh!
I'll try to find a pot big enough for him.

I'm submitting my order now, with the holiday tomorrow, i'm assuming it won't proces till tuesday, but that should still get it to me before next weekend.

You guys kick ass!

B
 
MLK day. Its a federal holiday, so i think there's be no shipping tomorrow.

I may be wrong about that.

we'll see....
 
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