Attention hardware gurus!

E

Eagle923

Limp Gawd
2FA
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Messages
134
I've finally got the go-ahead from the wife to build a new system. I haven't kept up on any of the new technology, so I'm hoping someone would want to "virtually" spend someone else's money and come up with a system for me.

I will be re-using from my old system: monitor (Dell 2405), speakers, hard drive (Maxtor 300gb sata), keyboard and mouse. Case can be re-used if necessary.

I'd like to buy: CPU, Motherboard, Memory, video card/s. Does anyone use sound cards anymore, or do most use onboard?

I like to play some games casually (Flight simulator X, World of Warcraft, World in Conflict).

I have Vista Home Premium 32 and 64 bit (neither are activated yet).

So, make it easy on me. If you had $600-$1100 to spend on building the core of a new system... what are your builds and whom do you order from? NewEgg for everyonthing? Quad core? Dual core?

Thanks in advance! I hope to order this around Christmas or shortly afterward.
 
I order from where ever they offer the best prices for the part I want.

Before we can help you further, we need a few more questions answered:
- Do you need a new PSU? If not, what PSU do you have?
- Will you be overclocking?
- How often will you be upgrading?
- What do you want in a mobo? RAID? more than 4 SATA ports? Support for legacy ports (parallel ports)? More than one IDE port? Firewire? Etc.

Though right off the bat, I recommend a quad-core and 4GB of G.Skll RAM.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping CPU - $277
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $120
 
Danny,
I do have a PSU that is fairly new, but it wouldn't support SLI or anything I don't believe. So, go ahead and toss in a PSU.

1) I'll need a new PSU
2) I'm done with fiddling with OCing, I want stable and fun.
3) I'll probably not upgrade for a few years. Say 2 years at least, maybe 3.
4) Mobo needs to be whatever works for me. I probably won't use RAID unless its the best choice, but I do have a single drive I plan to use. Legacy ports are a plus but no required (I still use a HP 4L printer!). Lots of USB ports are great, but nothing I have is firewire.

Seems like most are going Quad Q6600... is it just as good for gaming as the dual cores? In general it seems to be the #1 choice.

I'm pretty good with hardware and building PCs, but WOW has the landscape changed since I built my current computer in 2003.


Thanks again!
 
Quad-cores are just as good in gaming as dual-cores. If the game actually takes advantage of quad-cores, then it performs even better.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping CPU - $277
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 Motherboard - $86
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $120
8800GT - $269 or so (Yes this card is out of stock at many places. If you find one, buy it right away!!!)
Corsair 620HX 620W PSU - $140
---
Total: $892 plus Tax and shipping.

I'll go a bit more in depth later. Got an assignment to finish up.
 
Thanks Danny Bui!

I ordered the parts yesterday, total came in at just under $930 shipped to my door. I have a feeling this will be a HUGE upgrade from my P4 2.26 with 1GB PC2700 RAM.

Can't wait!
 
If you got the Quad Core and the 4gb of G.Skill ram, your are in for a surprise. My system absolutely screams and its practically the same as yours!! Enjoy.:D
 
I hope it screams, Vage! I'm tired of playing Call of Duty and CNC Tiberium Wars at less than 15 FPS... haha. My system was pretty decent until my wife suprised me with this 24" LCD and now running at 1920x1200 just really bogs it down bad.

I ordered basically what DB listed, and went with an eVGA 8800GT Superclocked . It was the only one in stock and NewEgg gave me a small discount since I was ordering a number of items.

EDIT: I just saw in your signature that you got the eVGA as well... :)
 
All were from NewEgg. I called a representative and they happened to have one available.
 
Eagle923 said:
All were from NewEgg. I called a representative and they happened to have one available.
Click to expand...

Oh nice. Yah, they put a bunch back on the website last night.

Hmm... you should have gotten the Q6600 from Danny's link instead. O wellz, I hope you get a G0! and I mean it... not being sarcastic. ;)
 
enginurd said:
Oh nice. Yah, they put a bunch back on the website last night.

Hmm... you should have gotten the Q6600 from Danny's link instead. O wellz, I hope you get a G0! and I mean it... not being sarcastic. ;)
Click to expand...

NewEgg definitely has both versions cuz I got a GO from them. If you don't plan to OC though, then its not a big deal.
 
vage said:
NewEgg definitely has both versions cuz I got a GO from them. If you don't plan to OC though, then its not a big deal.
Click to expand...

Its obvious that they have both versions, lol. OC'ing or not, I'd still like a cooler running chip, lol.
 
Cool. Good luck with it!

BTW, get some pics up of that PC when you're done!
 
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