Critiques needed for a sub $1200 build

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pkkevin

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Oct 18, 2007
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I have been spending some time looking into hardware reviews on the net and posts here for the past few weeks. And this is what I have come up with so far and I would like to know what you think about it.

The plan is to build a new rig, mainly to game, and to improve from my pass-down-from-my-brother 6+ years old Intel P4 1.7Mhz desktop. The period for me to build this computer will be after Thanksgiving so I think I still have some time to think about it more. The games I wanted to play are primarily RTS. So I am looking at Supreme Commander, World in Conflict, Company of Hero, War Hammer 40K( this is an older game) and maybe some MMORPG. Not really into FPS but I am looking into bioshock. However, I am also on a budget of around $1000 and cannot exceed $1200 at all. I am not looking into maxing out all the setting and in highest resolution, (my budget won’t allow me anyway…) just want a satisfying mid-to-high setting on a 1680*1050 native resolution.

Here’s what I am looking at:
Intel E2160 ($85)
I want to save some money, as I am thinking about upgrading to a Penryn quad a year or two from now when quad become more mainstream and more software utilizing its multicore. I will be over clocking this processor for sure and I will probably play with it quite a bit.

Abit IP-35 pro ($167)
For motherboard, I need 1394, and would like to have raid. Since I plan to OC quite a bit to push the performance level of E2160 I believe it would be a good idea to have decent chipset cooling and I personally am not that interested in third party cooling solution. The reason I didn’t chose Asus is because I read that Asus mobo draws more power and I didn’t really find a suitable Gigabyte mobo for me. Plus, I really like the layout of the board.

Hard Drive ($2X75=150)
This is the part that I haven’t really looked into yet, the plan is to do raid 0 with 2 SATA drives and I am waiting to see if there is any good deal on HD during this black Friday sales.

Acer AL2216W ($235)
I am still doing research on this and I’m also waiting to see what is offered on Black Friday, however, I do have this monitor in mind for $235 shipped on newegg.

nVidia 8800GT ($250)
I originally wanted to go with X1950pro to save some cash but I think 8800GT is simply a must have card that is still in my price range. I’m in no rush to get it though, because I am still waiting to see what ATI has to offer. (So much waiting for me….)

Here are the stuff that I already got, the main reason I got these is because they were really good deals and I doubt that this holiday season will have any effect on the price and I believe that I haven’t made any big mistake yet.

Corsair HX520w ($70 AR)
Read it is one of the best and at this price, cannot complain at all.

Crucial Ballistix Tracer ($55 AR)
This is DDR 800 and I kind off jumped on this before really thinking too much, good thing that this is also quality ram I believe.

Cooler master hyper TX2 CPU cooler ($1 AR)
I simply can’t resist this price, I might get a better one down the road though. But right now I would like to get myself familiar with OC first and then go from there. (it should be better then stock cooling anyway right?)

Cooler Master CM-690 ($40 AR)
Good airflow IMO and cheap.

Asus SATA 1814BLT DVD burner ($26 AR)
I want to play with lightscribe.

All these comes down to a little less then $1100, which is kind of pushing my budget but hopefully I can get some good deal from BF, if not, I might just shave off a HD and look at a 20in LCD.

I apologies for the long post and I thank you for taking your time to read all this. It is long because this is the conclusion that I came to after around 3 weeks of looking around, and in this three weeks I seriously learned a lot.

Thanks in advance for all the advice.
 
why are you even bothering with raid 0 (if you must do raid, i would advise against raid 0 if you plan on having anything important on your pc)? going with a single drive would save you 50-100$, depending on the size you want.
 
thrawn86 said:
why are you even bothering with raid 0 (if you must do raid, i would advise against raid 0 if you plan on having anything important on your pc)? going with a single drive would save you 50-100$, depending on the size you want.
Click to expand...

I don't really NEED raid, just that I read it would be faster and could potentially help load time in games. But to be honest, I can wait a few seconds. It is just an idea, like I said in the end my post, if I didn't get any good deal on HD this Black Friday, I would do what you suggested. Just go with one HD and save some cash.

I don't think I will be doing anything important on my desktop, it is usually on my laptop.

Thanks for the input.:)
 
Looks good to me. Most of the parts you've chose are the same ones I would've recommended to you. Good luck on Black Friday!
 
I woudl say spend a little bit more and get the 6420 and OC it. It look's good other then the CPU.
 
Battl3fr0nt said:
I woudl say spend a little bit more and get the 6420 and OC it. It look's good other then the CPU.
Click to expand...

Since he plans on picking up a Penryn family chip soon, I'd suggest spending as little as possible... even lowering it to the E2160 instead. :p
 
Well, This is exactly what I will be doing. Get a E2160 and OC it as much as it will allow me. (hopefully I can get to 3.0Ghz and above) And if I really saved a lot on HD and monitor, I might consider a E4X00 CPUs.

enginurd said:
Since he plans on picking up a Penryn family chip soon, I'd suggest spending as little as possible... even lowering it to the E2160 instead. :p
Click to expand...

So it looks like that I am on the right track, and thanks for all the input. However, I still have some questions in mind.

1) I suppose this build will be able to play mid to high setting on 1680*1050 resolution for the games that I mentioned above? What about FPS games if I want to go into that?

2) I was looking at different places to shave off some cost and it looks like to me abit IP35 might be a board that I can consider. It looks to me that the only difference is the cooling, Dual LAN, few extra USB/1394 ports and a extra PCI-e? Is there anything else that I missed and for OC, is there a difference?

Thanks
 
1) Should be able to handle games at that resolution for your RTS and RPGs. Same with FPS games except for Crysis. That game is a mean bitch to PCs. But fun though.:)

2) The IP35 should be fine though it will be slightly limited in OCing, But I'm pretty sure that you can hit 3.0ghz with the board
 
To add to Danny's post...

2) The IP35 is still good for OC'ing, but the one thing it lacks (unless they included it in a new BIOS) is the ability to save BIOS profiles. This is a huge convenience for overclockers, and I'm quite surprised Abit left it out of the non-pro boards. Gigabyte included it in their lowest DS3L model, so why not have the same feature for the vanilla IP35?!? In any case, you can't go wrong with either board. I have them both, and they both serve their purpose and OC great. The heatpipe cooling for the chipset/mosfet on the IP35 means you can take the FSB a bit higher before needing active/better cooling for the chipset/mosfets. If you go with the DS3R, you'll definately need a fan or a better heatsink (like the HR-05/SLI) and/or a fan, if you want to reach above 425Mhz FSB SDR.
 
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