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First Time Builder Needs Help

Good suggestions guys, just want to +1 on a P45 mobo, and also +1 on the GTX 260 or HD 4870 1Gb. If you shop around, you can find GTX 260's for $199 if you're lucky. Also, do you really need that sound card? An Audigy SE is plenty fine for the vast majority of people (Hell, even onboard has come a long way).
 
Here's a different build to consider:

$95 - Antec Three Hundred & NeoPower 650 combo deal (free shipping on both)
$7 - Two Yate Loon D12SL-12 fans (from Jab-Tech; for Three Hundred)
$250 - Intel C2D E8400 & Asus P5Q Pro combo deal (free shipping on both)
$38 - Xigmatek HDT-S1283 & ACK-I7751 retention bracket (free shipping & $10 mail-in rebate on CPU cooler)
$64 - OCZ Platinum Edition 2x2GB DDR2 1000 kit (free shipping & $20 mail-in rebate)
$25 - Samsung SH-S223F DVD burner (free shipping)
$75 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS HDD (free shipping)
$290 - Asus HD4870 1GB ($20 mail-in rebate)
$100 - Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM (free shipping)
=====
$944 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

The whole point of this exercise was to give you a few different options. The key changes I made were with the processor (a dual core is more than enough for gaming, though you may want to consider a quad core for the long term); the motherboard (a P45-based board for some future options, plus the P5Q Pro has a $30 discount when bundled with either the processor or the RAM); and the video card (I was thinking more about your long-term plans of getting an LCD monitor later than of keeping everything under/around $1000).

Of course, you shouldn't (always) mess with perfection -- some of the other components that I've listed have been recommended by several people in this thread alone.
 
tiraides, how are those Yate Loon fans? I've never used them. At 28 db they are a little loud for me, but I'm in the market.
 
To my ears, they're pretty quiet. (They were almost inaudible compared to my PSU fan.) They also push a pretty good amount of air for low speed fans. I chose them because they offer good performance for their value -- however, several people have noted in the past that only Petra's Tech Shop offers "true" Yate Loons direct from the manufacturer. (I haven't tried, nor do I care to verify that part.)

Noise is very subjective -- since 28dB is loud for you but quiet to me -- so don't take my word for it.
 
Ok, what would I lose by getting the Biostar TPower I45 mobo compared to the others?

Also, does everyone recommend vista 64 over Xp 64?

Thanks for the guidance & builds.

Oh yeah, how much more performance are these $1k area builds for gaming than the XB360?
 
MAULxx said:
Ok, what would I lose by getting the Biostar TPower I45 mobo compared to the others?

Also, does everyone recommend vista 64 over Xp 64?

Thanks for the guidance & builds.

Oh yeah, how much more performance are these $1k area builds for gaming than the XB360?
Click to expand...

1) You'd lose more money, two SATA ports, a second LAN port, firewire, and optical/coaxial connector. You can see another comparison here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16813131299,N82E16813128358,N82E16813138118

2) Yes

3) Umm, performance isn't the reason why people build gamings PCs rather than a 360. It's the fact that we get significantly better graphics than the consoles. I've played the 360 and PC version of Bioshock and the PC version was sooooo much better looking, even on the 7900GS I had at the time. Now it just looks beautiful with my 8800GT.

Besides you can't compare performance between the two considering they have significantly different hardware and setup.
 
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