Budget SFF gaming system

[KillerPotato]

I'm a college student, and because I fly home for the summer / for vacations, I'd like something that I can stuff into a carry on luggage padded with dirty clothes. I'm currently using a 2007 macbook pro as my main computer, and its a great laptop, but it just doesnt cut it anymore for the recent games, especially now that I have a 24" monitor hooked up to it as the main screen (if anyone has any suggestions how to move the monitor, plz help :[ ).

I'd rather not spend more than $850, and I don't plan on upgrading that much; I usually stick with whatever I buy for like 3 years and then build a whole new system. That said, I don't mind playing with lowered settings, as long as I can crank up the settings on most games in the near future to make me feel like the purchase was justified.

I'm shipping to california, and with newegg's sales tax, I've started looking at tigerdirect for parts. Regardless, I just have what I've thrown together in newegg so far:

The total comes to ~$885 with the tax and shipping, but I can get the hard drive, processor, and probably comparable video card on tigerdirect to dodge the tax. Still I'm a little unsure of a few things:

1. Will the 400w psu be enough for all this? I know its a cheap move on my part, but I had a hard time resisting the "add to cart" button for only $30 after MIR. And I keep reading that super high wattage PSU's are overrated.

2. If its not enough, would dropping the video card to something lower make it enough? And is the video card even a good choice? I'm wary about going too low because I don't plan to upgrade for quite a while, but would a GTX260 be a better choice, even if I have to step up the power supply a bit?

3. The motherboard. I didn't like the more expensive/more popular asus boards because they come with integrated video and sli, neither of which I even plan to use. Is there some other glaring downside to this board that I'm not seeing? I don't really plan to overclock, but I hear the E8400 overclocks with no sweat. Would this board keep me from being able to overclock at all?

If there are any other clear places I can knock off a few dollars, or if I'm being entirely unrealistic, please feel free to knock some sense in to me. I have mouse/kb and audio stuff, so no need to spend more on that. Thanks in advance!

For reference:
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131288

 

[Dangman]

1) Not that 400W PSU. That's a very cheap PSU, not really meant for a gaming rig. I wouldn't trust that PSU with anything higher that a 9500GT card. Spend the extra $15 for this decent quality modular PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103941]Antec NeoPower 550 550W Modular PSU - $60

Also people who say that getting a higher wattage PSU often forget this key facts:
[Basic Power Supply Info]

Yes and a quick search would turn up this topic a million times over. Here is the recap:

1) APFC can fool Kill-A-Watts into giving you abnormally low readings (some times giving better than 100% efficiency)

2) Power supplies derate with temperature anywhere from 2w/c above a nominal rated at value to 10w/c.

3) Kill-A-Watt's and most power meters sample too slowly to catch transient loads (the Transient load from our tests is 117w and is COMPLETELY missed by Kill-A-Watts).

4) Power supplies last longer if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

5) power supplies are quieter if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

6) Power supplies are cooler if you stay in the 40% to 60% range of their output.

The power meters in UPS software are just as bad. You have to spend some change before you get anywhere near an accurate power meter when your PSU has APFC.

2) Like I said above, don't bother with that Silverstone PSU. Totally not for any gaming system. In addition, the modular cables of the Neopower will help out a lot with cable management with ANY SFF case. Graphic cards wise, the GTX260 and HD4870 1GB perform about the same. So just get the cheapest of the two cards. Yes the HD 4870 1GB or GTX260 cards are good choices for 1920x1200 gaming as long as you don't expect total maxed out settings. You should be able to get mostly high settings with either cards.

3) Ummm, there aren't any Asus mATX mobos for Intel CPUs that have SLI. In any case, that Asus mobo you chose is low-end. So it may be missing certain settings necessary to OC the E8400 well. Despite the fact that E8400 is a easy overclocker, it does depend on the mobo itself. Looking at the price and cooling on the mobo, just don't expect that high of an OC with the E8400.

Try to get some of your parts direct from Amazon.com. They don't charge tax for us CA residents and most of those parts have free shipping.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU - $165 FS no tax
Western Digital Caviar WD1001FALS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $120 FS no tax

Just getting the two above parts from Amazon.com shaves off $30 of your total. At the very least, the only part you'd need to order from Newegg would be the RAM since Amazon.com has a terrible selection of RAM.

 

[NichoTL]

It's a pity to assemble a rather nice rig like that and choose that mobo. I'd rather spend a little less on the HD (The caviar blue 640 AAKS comes to mind) and get a proper board like the P5E-VM HDMI. All the mATX boards have integrated graphics (except the DFI P45 of course) so don't worry about that. Of course if you never plan to OC then I guess the board is OK, but in the event that you'd want to get your hands dirty, then you might as well have a proper board from the start. Get a good PSU because that 4870 needs power (good doesn't necessarily mean high wattage).

 

[KillerPotato]

If I get the modular antec 550w, the asus P5E-VM HDMI, and the 640GB, with the mobo, hard drive and processor from amazon, I can bring the total to ~$904, which is pretty tempting. Still, it's a bit much for me atm so I may wait a bit.

With core i7 and DDR3 making its way into the sff scene, is now a good time to buy a long term computer? On one hand, all the older stuff is really cheap, but will it last as long from the date of purchase as some of the low end newer stuff if I wait a few months? Thanks again for the help so far!

 

[Dangman]

With core i7 and DDR3 making its way into the sff scene, is now a good time to buy a long term computer? On one hand, all the older stuff is really cheap, but will it last as long from the date of purchase as some of the low end newer stuff if I wait a few months? Thanks again for the help so far!

Well first of all, how long a system lasts is completely and totally dependent on YOU not the actual hardware. With that said, the lower end new stuff, coming in late 2009 looks like, will last a bit longer. How much longer depends on the needs of the user but it will last a bit longer no doubt. Whether or not that extra bit of longevity is worth it for to wait 6 to 8 months for that lower end new stuff is totally up to you.

 

[MassiveOverkill]

I can tell you that that Lian Li case will definately not fit on a plane. Those things are huge. Your only bet for carrying on a plane are a Sugo\Lanbox or MicroFly\QPack2 or smaller case.

 

[KillerPotato]

Thanks for the advice Danny Bui. I hate sounding like I have no clue, but having not built a computer for the last 5 years, I really don't have a clue and I'm a bit antsy about spending such a hefty chunk of change. I'm probably going to scout out the upcoming games, see how dawn of war 2 runs on my laptop, and I'll bump the thread back up when the time comes.

Also, I'm pretty sure the lian li will be fine for a carry on. Southwest's limits are 10x16x24in and the case's dimensions are listed as 14.7x10.9x10.3in, and while one is a bit over on one end, Southwest is usually super lenient about what I carry on. I might just go for a cheaper Silverstone case though for the sake of taking another $40 off the pricetag.