I havent built a PC since 2003

S

Sadude

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 20, 2003
Messages
227
Hi guys, im over due for a new pc. I'm currenty running an old AMD Barton chip bout 1.X Ghz range, an ATI Radeon 8XXX Series GTO AGP (I forget exact model) card, 1 gig of ram, a small HD and an SB Audigy Card. I've got an older PSU about 500W and a good case with 5 fans.

I started reading up on the Hardforums again a few days ago in an attempt to refamiliarize myself with the current state of the PC world. And boy am I lost. I'm an AMD guy, but from the little i've been able to gather lots of AMD guys are going back to Intel.

Here's what I do I play World of Warcraft and im running a Flat Panel 24" widescreen LCD Monitor. Easy enough huh? bascially i'm a PC gamer. I plan on reusing my DVD drive, 3.5 disket drive (just incase the need arises), SB Audigy Card, and my case.

So basically i'll be needing the following: Budget $800 - $1000

New CPU
New MoBo
New PSU
New Vid Card (good card)
New Memory (2 gigs)
New cooling (would prefer liquid, but have to stay under budget) Fan
New Harddrive (I dont store a lot 160 - 200 gigs) would be fine i just want it to be fast. SATA

I read FlipFlopSnowmans post and it was helpful. but i honestly dont know where to start. So hopefully you guys can help me put a wish list together then we can start knocking it out & adding stuff together! LETS GO TEAM! I also want to stay witn WinXP Pro. I've been messing around with Vista and it's just too unstable for me atm, is there any disadvantage to this with the newer hardware?
 
Do you plan on OC'ing?
Liquid cooling is only for the hardcore people who actually want to go through all the trouble of setting it up and picking/choosing custom parts, IMO. Otherwise, air cooling is good enough for a great OC on a Core2 Intel chip.

There are plenty of build threads that have the same advice, and nearly the same build lists, depending on your budget. Here, this is to get you started...

$300 - 8800GT
$275 - Q6600
$160 - eVGA NF67-T1 ($30MIR)
$70 - Corsair 450W ($10MIR)
$50 - 2GB DDR2-800
$50 - Ultima90 + Panaflo fan
$65 - Seagate 250GB 7200.10
========
$970 + tax and shipping - $40 MIRs

If you're not happy with your gaming performance, add another 8800GT to the mix for some SLI action -- should help with such a high resolution monitor (24" 1920x1200).

If you don't want to bother with SLI, drop down to a motherboard that fits your needs from the P35 lineups. What features do you need in a motherboard?

If you want to get closer to $800, drop the CPU to a dual core instead of quadcore.
 
Wow, thanks for such an excellent and speed reply. That's about what im looking for. I dont plan on hardcore OC'ing or really OC'ing for that matter. So i'll stick with the Fan cooling. Also duel Vids and an SLI setup would be awesome but that would just put me way over budget. However, having the option to do so in the future would be a bonus for me. Just incase I get the cash for another card.

Im going to putting my wishlist together based on what you suggested and go from thre.
 
Go with a P35 board. Don't touch anything that won't support the new 45nm chips. Upgradability never hurts! Only thing P35 is a bit weaker in is SATA speeds, but unless you're using good flash drives, it's not bad enough to notice.
 
dandragonrage said:
Go with a P35 board. Don't touch anything that won't support the new 45nm chips. Upgradability never hurts! Only thing P35 is a bit weaker in is SATA speeds, but unless you're using good flash drives, it's not bad enough to notice.
Click to expand...

Can you link a P35 Board on newegg for me plz :)
 
I don't feel like picking out the newegg links, but you can find the same boards at newegg if they're linked elsewhere. Links were made in favor of price.

$86 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35
$130 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35
$120 - abit IP35 LGA 775 Intel P35 ($25 MIR)
$127 - Asus P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 Express
$140 - Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35
$155 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P Rev 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35
$175 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35
$180 - abit IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ($30 MIR)

So, what features do you need in a motherboard?
 
These are the more popular p35 boards.

Ip35-e
Ip35 pro
GA-p35-DS3L
GA-P35-DS3R

The p5k series are ok too.

All of these are good, but if it were me, I'd go with the ip35-e for budget, and ip35 pro if I had money to spare.


I wouldn't go with a SLI setup though.. 680i boards are known to be very problematic, and they're also more expensive, with no penryn support.
 
The 680i SLI boards have had most of their issues resolved, especially when you're not OC'ing a quadcore. However, since they won't be compatible with the new Yorkfields, I'd suggest waiting for the new NFORCE chipset. If you don't want to wait and don't plan on using a Yorkfield CPU, then a 680i SLI LT and Q6600 is fine right now. Though, you'd only have to wait a month or so for the new Yorkfields and NForce chipset.
 
enginurd said:
So, what features do you need in a motherboard?
Click to expand...


Not sure exactly what I need as far as specifics. As I stated earlier Im a gamer, so i need a board that performs. PCI-E, Oboard Networking, Don't care for onboard video or sound althought most come with it. I need at least one available PCI slot for for my Audigy Card.

I hope that's clear if there's anything I missed or need please feel free to provide me with input.
 
Sadude said:
Not sure exactly what I need as far as specifics. As I stated earlier Im a gamer, so i need a board that performs. PCI-E, Oboard Networking, Don't care for onboard video or sound althought must come with it. I need at least one available PCI slot for for my Audigy Card.
Click to expand...

Tell me you meant "most," not "must."
 
Sadude said:
Does Newegg carry the Ultima-90 I can't seem to find it :(
Click to expand...

Probably not. Get it from jab-tech.com. Newegg doesnt always have the best prices/selection.

Go for the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L or the Abit IP35-E.
 
Sadude said:
I also want to stay witn WinXP Pro. I've been messing around with Vista and it's just too unstable for me atm, is there any disadvantage to this with the newer hardware?
Click to expand...

Main reason to go Vista is to go Vista 64... which makes having 4gigs of ram worthwhile. (Otherwise you're going to only see around 3gigs since you've got a lot of other stuff that takes up address space... like video ram, etc)

What I've been advising my friends to do is go along the lines of...

$190 - e6750
$90 - Abit IP35-E
either 2 or 4 gigs of ram for around $50 / $100 respectively (DDR2 800)
$70-100 for a Corsair 450VX, 550VX or 520HX
$250-$300 for a 8800GT depending on how long you bargain hunt.
$100ish for a 500gig drive
2 x $30 for 2 DVD burners
$30-100 for a case
Add in extra-periphials/etc as needed.

This should fit right in your budget :)

You may be able to get by with your current PSU, although it's hard to say without knowing how much it puts out on each rail and who makes it. Personally, I'd be tempted to keep the old system intact and keep it around.

As for OCing... you should be able to get the e6750 to run nice and cool at 3.2 (instead of 2.66) with just the stock cooler. This allows you to run with a 1:1 memory ratio (good thing). You're not even having to OC the ram to get this. It's a really simple easy oc and a 20% free boost isn't something to sneeze at :)
 
Sadude said:
Not sure exactly what I need as far as specifics. As I stated earlier Im a gamer, so i need a board that performs. PCI-E, Oboard Networking, Don't care for onboard video or sound althought most come with it. I need at least one available PCI slot for for my Audigy Card.

I hope that's clear if there's anything I missed or need please feel free to provide me with input.
Click to expand...

By features we also mean do you need RAID? Firewire? more than 4 SATA ports? legacy (parallel and serial ports)? high overclock ability? Stuff like that.
 
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