Build me a 3k computer

[lianregnif]

Bare with me since i still consider myself a newbie at this.

Background:
I have only built 2 computers before with no overclocking experience or indepth computer modifying.

What I need this computer for:
I would like to use this computer for games/photoshop/web developing and of course word processing, internet and stuff like that.

Things that I don't need:
case, speakers, hard drives, floppy, sound card, and ethernet card

Things that i would like to have:
LCD monitor, dvd burner, and a very very very veryyyyy quiet computer. I would like to stay away from watercooling systems because they seem very complicated even after reading the sticky under the watercool section. Although not completely ruling that out....i'm still open for suggestions.

I have been out of the loop for a year and i have no clue what is "hot" on the market these days...so any help for this newbie is welcomed. Thanks.

 

[Outlaw]

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=1125535

I've saved room for an Nforce4 motherboard (when they come out the should be around $200) and you can pick your favorite flavor of LCD, though the Sony 23" is a bit too pricey to fit into the budget with the above listed components. If you feel like you only need one videocard now and can wait for the other, then you could get it now and grab another 6800GT when prices drop to reasonable levels.

Sony 23" LCD
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=24-006-084&depa=1

see the new dell 20" monitor
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...y_id=5194&first=true&page=productlisting.aspx

Compare to the old one that everybody seemed to love:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...y_id=5194&first=true&page=productlisting.aspx

You mentioned that you didn't need a case, but this one can help cut noise down.
Queit case:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-140&depa=1

soooo yeah. This should be a good starting point for the other forum folk's to tweak and modify and whatnot.

 

[mohammedtaha]

LCD monitor --- Go with Samsung ... you can never go wrong with Samsung

DVD burner --- Check anandtech they had a DVD burner round-up

Processor --- FX-55 or 53 or A64 4000+

Mobo ---------- Neo Plat. 2 or wait for nforce4 boards when they come out

Videocard --- X800XT PE or 6800 Ultra

Memory ------ 1 GB of PC4000 or faster or anything using Samsung TCCD chips

HSF ----------- XP120 won't fit but the Zalman 7700 copper might fit .. anything that has 120 mm fans are quiet

PSU ----------- If you're lookin for looks ... go with the Ultra X-Connect psu's .. they are nice and shiny

that's it i think ..

GL

 

[ScHpAnKy]

LCD monitor --- Go with Samsung ... you can never go wrong with Samsung

DVD burner --- Check anandtech they had a DVD burner round-up

Processor --- FX-55 or 53 or A64 4000+

Mobo ---------- Neo Plat. 2 or wait for nforce4 boards when they come out

Videocard --- X800XT PE or 6800 Ultra

Memory ------ 1 GB of PC4000 or faster or anything using Samsung TCCD chips

HSF ----------- XP120 won't fit but the Zalman 7700 copper might fit .. anything that has 120 mm fans are quiet

PSU ----------- If you're lookin for looks ... go with the Ultra X-Connect psu's .. they are nice and shiny

that's it i think ..

GL

Don't get a samsung LCD unless it's their 16ms model or 23" model, all models between suck. Look into Dell's 20.1 and widescreen models, they have a nice, thin, bezel and their response times are great! Also take a look at Viewsonic, their monitors don't ghost and have great color reproduction. Don't get an MSI board, their placement of vital components suck, also don't get my motherboard if you overclock (It has a Vcore limitation of 1.725), but otherwise it's great. If you want a REAL motherboard, get the Abit 939-pin, I believe it's the ABit AV8. For video card, grab a 6800U or GT if you wanna save some pennies. Memory... Grab some GeIL PC-4000 (DDR500), it can pull 260FSB @ Cas 2 Latency without breaking a sweat (or changing vdimm... hehe). As for a heatsink, the zalman's suck for Athlon 64's... go for the XP-120, it has little known compatibility with the AV8, and it's cooling performance blows away the Zalman due to it's heatpipe design. For a power supply, I agree with the X-Connect 500W, it's modular design and stable (POWERFUL!!!) rails are more than enough to power any system out there today.

I believe that's my $0.03

 

[Xilikon]

Althrough a X-Connect is very nice (i got one myself), for this amount of money, i'd suggest a PC Power & Cooling PSU for the best of all.

 

[GeForceX]

My experienced suggestions:

DVD Burner - Any from Plextor, Sony and Liteon. Well known and Plextor's always quality.
Processor - You mentioned 3K... Get the FX-55. You'd be happy, very happy.
Motherboard - Abit's AV8 or MSI's Neo2 Platinum Motherboard.
Video Card - Since we can all agree that nVidia is leading the competition today, 6800 Ultra.
Memory - You do not really need 4000, unless you are actually hardcore overclocking. A set of extra low latency PC-3200 RAM is enough (At least 1 GB). Corsair's or Crucial's Ballistix or so on...
HSF - Of course, XP120's.
PSU - You won't need looks if you're buying that Antec black case (for quietness). Go for PC Power and Cooling's 510 PSU. This will be long term and you won't ever need to replace it in the near future.

This mean computer will last you for years and very quiet, even keeping you competitive.

-J.

 

[Talonz]

Don't go with the PCP&C power supply unless you buy their quiet model which is very expensive. Those things are very loud from what I hear (no pun intended). Look into the Seasonic Super Tornado (yes, it's quiet) or some other PSU that's built for quiet PCs.

 

[Ricedaddy]

Holy crap...

with three grand I could go crazy.

Basically, it seems that you could go crazy and get the best of the best inside your box.

I know this isn't much help, but go to newegg, read some reviews and just get the best stuff you can find.

I'd get a gig or two of corsair xms or kingston HyperX, as well as an FX-55 and an Abit board. I'd throw a Radeon X800 XT PE in there too.

 

[HardD99]

ill sell you my pc for 3k, its all almost brand new

Case: Lian-li PC6089
PSU: Enermax 431W EG465P-VE with dual adjustable fans
Mobo: IC7-G Max-III Advanced
CPU: P4 HT 3.4Ghz Northwood @ 3.6Ghz right now
RAM: Corsair XMS DDR 1GB PC4000 Platinum Edition Dual-Channel
Graphix: ATI All-In-Wonder 9800PRO
Drives: 1-160gig HD, 1-120gig HD both 8M cache drives
Roms: 1-8x DVD burner, 1-4x DVD burner, 2- 52x32x52x16 dvd combo drives
Lcd: Viewsonic 20.1" LCD VP201b
Speakers: Klipsch Promedia 4.1's
Printer: HP Laserjet 1012
Fan Controller: 3.5" bay 4 fan controller

ill even pay for shipping

 

[mohammedtaha]

sorry but i would say dont go with this setup ^^^ ... u dont need most of the stuff he's selling plus u can't compare an fx-55 to his computer ...

the problem with the msi platinum 2 is that u can't use the xp-120 ... so i would suggest the abit av8-3rd eye ... although u wont be able to use dimm1 .. but 1gb of ram is more than enough ... although i think they're talkin about ram with heat sinks .. if that's the case .. remove the heat sinks since they will get cooled by the xp-120 annnnyways

IF you do have a lot of money to go ... GET BOSE SPEAKERS ... ur goin for high end .. grab some Bose and u'r gonna marry ur pc ...

 

[ScHpAnKy]

my opinion is the best still, so-far, go for it!

 

[lianregnif]

these are some great suggestions, thanks guys. I will throw in what i want in my shopping cart and let you guys know before i check it out.

 

[GeForceX]

No Bose, please. They are not that great compared to Klispch's or Logitech's lineup. I do not know one person with a Bose system, and for a good reason.

-J.

 

[mohammedtaha]

No Bose, please. They are not that great compared to Klispch's or Logitech's lineup. I do not know one person with a Bose system, and for a good reason.

-J.

ur not serious are u ? ... are u comparing Bose to logitech ?

 

[gamekid]

if u truely want a quiet pc, look into watercooling more. you can afford it and if u do it right, it looks good in a case with a window too.

 

[lianregnif]

This is what i have so far:

suggestions or improvements is welcomed

Lite-On 16X DVD Dual Drive, Model SOHW-1633S $67.99
GEIL DDR2 Series 240-Pin 1GB DDR2 PC2-4300 $292.00
ViewSonic VP912B 19" LCD Monitor -RETAIL $699.00
ABIT "AV8" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 939 $111.00
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, 64-bit Processor 939 Pin $811.00
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3 $409.00
460w 0 dBA Luxurae PSU - $279.95
Thermaltek XP-120 $70.00
total $2370.98

i'm confused on which ram is compatible with the motherboard. Also...i am wondering that my powersupply might be a little overkill. What is a recommended good Wattage rating for this kind of system?

 

[Outlaw]

This is what i have so far:
GEIL DDR2 Series 240-Pin 1GB DDR2 PC2-4300 $292.00

i'm confused on which ram is compatible with the motherboard.

This memory is DDR2 which will not work with your motherboard. You need plain jane (tm) brand DDR, or 184 pin DDR ram. Newegg has a search option for that on the left.

For an A64 (at stock speed) you generally want low latencies more than bandwidth (what the 3200 means in the PC3200 rating. that is 3.2 Gb/s bandwidth, per channel)
single stick of low latency PC 3200 Corsair:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-521&depa=1

[H]ard link from the dream system write up on the main page of this site:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=20-145-474&depa=0&CMP=OTC-ocpultimate


As far as the Bose vs Logitech, I think he means that Logitech computer speakers are better than what Bose offers. For home theater, I think that the reverse is true.

 

[gamekid]

for ram, go with the OCZ EL platinum Rev. 2, i am pretty sure it is better then that $350 stuff and is a bit cheaper too

 

[mohammedtaha]

This is what i have so far:

suggestions or improvements is welcomed

Lite-On 16X DVD Dual Drive, Model SOHW-1633S $67.99
GEIL DDR2 Series 240-Pin 1GB DDR2 PC2-4300 $292.00
ViewSonic VP912B 19" LCD Monitor -RETAIL $699.00
ABIT "AV8" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 939 $111.00
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, 64-bit Processor 939 Pin $811.00
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3 $409.00
460w 0 dBA Luxurae PSU - $279.95
Thermaltek XP-120 $70.00
total $2370.98

i'm confused on which ram is compatible with the motherboard. Also...i am wondering that my powersupply might be a little overkill. What is a recommended good Wattage rating for this kind of system?

u mean thermalright xp-120 ... and OMG .. i just got it today ... it's so damm quiet ... im serious .. get the silenx120 mm 1800rpm fan ... u need to get a fan cause it doesnt come with one .. this thing is amazing and silent ... as for the video card .. if u wanna spend a little more ... get the ultra or the xt platinum or just XT ... don't get me wrong, the gt is fine


as for the ram ... u should get DDR not DDR II .. cause ur board supports DDR only ....

MANN i wish I had the money .. i would love to have a new pc ..

 

[Apologenetic]

....mmmmmm bose....... *wets pants*

 

[Stiletto One]

ur not serious are u ? ... are u comparing Bose to logitech ?

I would. And how credible are you supposed to be if you're using "u" instead of "you" and "ur" instead of "your"?

Anyway, read this. There's a reason educated audio people (I'm not going to say audiophiles, because then I would start on another unrelated rant) actively disrecommend Bose.

For that matter, what's wrong with Samsung's new 12ms displays? The things are beautiful, both in aesthetics and in graphical performance. (I'm terribly fond of the 5/7/9-10 series monitors...DAMN...and the -11s just came out, for even more LCD goodness.)

 

[rolo]

I would. And how credible are you supposed to be if you're using "u" instead of "you" and "ur" instead of "your"?

Anyway, read this. There's a reason educated audio people (I'm not going to say audiophiles, because then I would start on another unrelated rant) actively disrecommend Bose.

For that matter, what's wrong with Samsung's new 12ms displays? The things are beautiful, both in aesthetics and in graphical performance. (I'm terribly fond of the 5/7/9-10 series monitors...DAMN...and the -11s just came out, for even more LCD goodness.)

Hey I actually read through that whole thing (an amazing feat considering my attention span lately). I knew Bose was crap but didn't really know why.

 

[Specialist[X]]

IF you do have a lot of money to go ... GET BOSE SPEAKERS ... ur goin for high end .. grab some Bose and u'r gonna marry ur pc ...

bose is in no way competitive to the logitech z-5500 or the klipsch promedia ultra 5.1s -_-

 

[Specialist[X]]

This is what i have so far:

suggestions or improvements is welcomed

Lite-On 16X DVD Dual Drive, Model SOHW-1633S $67.99
GEIL DDR2 Series 240-Pin 1GB DDR2 PC2-4300 $292.00
ViewSonic VP912B 19" LCD Monitor -RETAIL $699.00
ABIT "AV8" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 939 $111.00
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, 64-bit Processor 939 Pin $811.00
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3 $409.00
460w 0 dBA Luxurae PSU - $279.95
Thermaltek XP-120 $70.00
total $2370.98

i'm confused on which ram is compatible with the motherboard. Also...i am wondering that my powersupply might be a little overkill. What is a recommended good Wattage rating for this kind of system?

no ddr2 for a64s... get ballistix... and why not fx-55? a little extra. dont get xfx, try bfg, or evga instead, or maybe asus v9999 ultra. thermalright?

 

[mohammedtaha]

I would. And how credible are you supposed to be if you're using "u" instead of "you" and "ur" instead of "your"?

Anyway, read this. There's a reason educated audio people (I'm not going to say audiophiles, because then I would start on another unrelated rant) actively disrecommend Bose.

For that matter, what's wrong with Samsung's new 12ms displays? The things are beautiful, both in aesthetics and in graphical performance. (I'm terribly fond of the 5/7/9-10 series monitors...DAMN...and the -11s just came out, for even more LCD goodness.)

Sorry for the thread hijack but some of us are just biased and believe what we read..

ever heard of short hand ? .. do i haaaave to spell out every letter to be credible ? do i have to impress you to be credible ? ... it has nothing to do with credible .. it's just that i have an opinion and it doesn't match YOUR'S ...

I have listened to BOSE and LOGITECH ... and if you're gonna say that some speakers they manufactured weren't that good cause of 1 site saying so ... then I'm sure I can go to another site that says that LOGITECH isn't that good either ... I went to Futureshop ,if u check the internet u'll see it's a big company that we have here in Canada that sells electronics ... Man's Favourite Store .. Annnywho ... I listened to some logitech speakers .. and ofcourse they were cheap but they were shitty ... I was also walking around and stumbled upon an expensive Bose system with only 2 speakers ... after that thing was turned on ... i was a believer ... u think car manufacturers pick Bose for the name ? NO ... they pick it for quality .. that thing was like a movie theatre's speakers LOUD and small

anywho ..

peace and enjoy that computer

 

[Stiletto One]

STUFF

This isn't a chat room, it's a forum. Most of us prefer reading proper English.

***EDIT***
Rant deleted, it rambled. A lot.
***EDIT***

OK, so you say that Bose speakers are better than Logitech speakers?

Try using them in a pinch as monitors. Even with nice rackmount EQ and amp gear, they're hopeless. Logitechs (considered the crappiest of the "good" computer speakers) can at least iron out most of the lumps. Bose, you get holes and spikes, not lumps. And you can't do anything about their weird cabinet acoustics.

 

[GeForceX]

Thanks for laying out that article, Stilleto. I didn't want to go all the way to prove him wrong. But of course, sound quality is subjective. I was going to say that a 5.1 speaker set of Logitech's of some type would be easily better than Bose. My dad today told me he was thinking about getting the Bose Wavesound box. I simply asked him why. He said he read in their brochure about all the "fantastic" things it says. I asked him if he knew that Bose wasn't even at all THX-certified. He said nope. I said, there you go. Funny enough Logitech's and Klipsch's are. Go audiophiles!

-J.

 

[Stiletto One]

^^^

Aye. And Klipsch's actual HT line (not their multimedia line) speakers are GREAT. (Damn, give me $1300 to get a receiver/amp and Klipsch 5.1 speakers, I would not be complaining.)

Right, side note: multimedia THX certification isn't anywhere near as rigorous as home theater THX cert. Before someone nitpicks that.

 

[rolo]

2 years ago I bought a set of Logitech Z-560's ... they're pretty good, I like them. Then again, I think they were $150 and not $1300.

 

[Talonz]

ill sell you my pc for 3k, its all almost brand new
... specs ...
ill even pay for shipping

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but HardD99, in your other thread, you said your friend wanted to buy the computer and you were wondering what price it should sell for. I don't have a problem with that, but I have a problem when you're now offering your computer for sale in this thread. There is a For Sale/For Trade forum here, and there's a purpose and a use for it.

Don't bother trying to sell your computer here. There are thousands of people who are on this forum to help people build their own computers. Trying to make money off users here isn't what the [H] is about. Thanks.

 

[kevinf]

ur not serious are u ? ... are u comparing Bose to logitech ?

isn't bose suppose to be better than logitech and klipsch

 

[Jicks]

u think car manufacturers pick Bose for the name ? NO ... they pick it for quality ..

It's pretty funny you mention that.

Car manufacturers DO pick Bose for the name... and the name only! "Bose" automobile headunits are made by Clarion. And they still sound like garbage. But don't take my word for it! Here's a link of several people who own factory installed Bose audio systems in their cars: http://www2.autospies.com/article/index.asp?articleId=2592&categoryId=9

Hmm. It doesn't seem like they are too happy!


A little story about my experience with Bose:

I used to think Bose was good too. I was impressed with their little demos in the store and everything. I owned a set of floorstanding 501's for years. After a while, I started to notice something was up. I went over to my friend's house and his Paradigm Mini Monitors kicked the shit out of my Bose speakers and cost 2/3rds as much. Then I started to do research online and found I wasn't the only one who had been tricked by Bose.

I sold my Bose 501 speakers for $300, and went down to the local Hi-Fi audio store and decided to pick the best pair of speakers I could find for under $500. This time, I decided to ignore everything I thought I knew about "brand name quality" and just went with the speakers that sounded the best to me. For about a half an hour, I just started switching speakers back and forth on the little switchbox in the demo room. I settled on a pair of B&W DM601 bookshelf speakers for $450. Best audio purchase i've ever made. I highly reccomend them. If you want to save some cash, my second pick was the Paradigm Mini Monitors. They were almost as good, except I felt the B&W's reproduced vocals much better.

Also, I would go as far as saying that any Klipsch or high end Logitech multimedia speaker system is far superior to Bose, at any price point.

 

[Stiletto One]

I settled on a pair of B&W DM601 bookshelf speakers for $450.

Bastard.

 

[Om1kron]

my system set up is far below the cost of 3 grand... imo its not worth wasting that much money on a cutting edge system as the shit will get outdated fast.

case - lian li v1100B
psu - zalman zmb400b
motherboard - Asus A8V Deluxe Rev 2.0
Processor - AMD A64 3200 939pin 90nm with oem cooling... im not overclocking it
memory - corsair twinx 1024x4000 pro
video card - blow all the money you want here.. 9800xt with 256 megs of ram is just fine for me I dont need anything to brag about.
sound - Audigy 2 ZS (would've gotten the value card since no firewire was included and ill never use it. But the gold connectivity jacks are not on the value model)
Storage - I have a 250 gig wd caviar drive. This particular part of a computer is more user preference. I plan to upgrade to two wd raptor drives...
DVD ROM - drive is just a random old sony drive I had laying around, its nothing special...
BURNERS - If you do a lot of cd burning then I highly recommend the yamaha burners over PLEXTOR anyday!!! the 8mb buffer instead of 2 comes in handy. Plus "firmware updates"
If you do a lot of DVD burning if you are into that type of thing I definately would go with sony since they have a drive out with an 8mb buffer.

I have a NEC FE950+ I scored for 150 bucks off of a friend, normally if you already have a computer monitor a new one is a waste of money if its not a visual upgrade or a size upgrade. I personally wouldnt mind the sony monitor in a dual monitor configuration running an sli setup with the raedon 850's. BUUUT lcd monitors still have blur problems and bulbs that die. Because of that I still dont trust buying one.

That set up alone should cost you under 3 grand and about 3 short of 2.

Good luck with whatever you do, I am an asus whore. But I like MSI's package bundles, they're hard to beat. But included gigabit lan and a satalite for wifi is a plus with the asus board.