Is right now a good time to put together a new desktop PC?

These are good builds and I'm debating a system upgrade myself but I'm probably just going to wait for 2011 when all the new stuff comes out.
 
That's nice, Goran, but are you trying to suggest that the OP do the same?
 
only thing I know about would possibly the ati 6xxx series and may be an nvidia refresh, the new cpus/chipsets coming out in that time seem a bit lackluster if you ask me. no real sense in waiting that long unless you're going to scan sites for the best deals.
 
Well, i think i'm just about ready to pull the trigger (again).
But real quick, i found this 1.5V set of Gskill ram with tighter timings for 15 bucks more... considering i might want to try my hand at overclocking the CPU that'd be good wouldn't it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

I'm very close to a gut check situation, though. I'd like to gun it by tomorrow so i could have a good chance of all the parts being delivered before the week is out.
 
are you set on a motherboard? because I know newegg has some good mobo+ram combo deals that should be able to shave off 20~30 usd for decent stuff (I remember seeing that ram in a few of the deals, but forget which boards it was paired with).
 
CompletelyClueless said:
But real quick, i found this 1.5V set of Gskill ram with tighter timings for 15 bucks more... considering i might want to try my hand at overclocking the CPU that'd be good wouldn't it?
Click to expand...

Not really. Post a final build list before you buy.
 
With a last look at my rig i have (yet more) questions...
How's the audio on the motherboard? Because i can't recycle my old PCI card since the PCI slot space will be gobbled up by the two vid cards... I'd have to get a PCI-e card
And if i spend 50 dollars on a CPU fan, why not go with a tuniq tower like mentioned very early in the thread?
 
CompletelyClueless said:
With a last look at my rig i have (yet more) questions...
How's the audio on the motherboard? Because i can't recycle my old PCI card since the PCI slot space will be gobbled up by the two vid cards... I'd have to get a PCI-e card
And if i spend 50 dollars on a CPU fan, why not go with a tuniq tower like mentioned very early in the thread?
Click to expand...
While your XFI is better; onboard these days is quite good quality. Few people have sound setups or ears that allow you to audibly tell sound quality difference.

The downside, is no hardware acceleration with onboard. These days... not many games use it. OpenAL acceleration is available for use in Vista/7... but most devs seem to be going the custom software driven route. There's obviously ALchemy for old EAX/Directsound3D games, if you use/value that ability.

With the power of today's quad core and up CPU's... not much of a performance difference. Just effects on the small handful of games that might use it.

In general though, onboard is totally sufficient as long as you don't get any quirky interference from other nearby onboard integrated components.
 
Well i suppose i'll just forgo the audio card for now. If the sound quality for onboard audio isn't abhorrent then i shouldn't mind.

I can't really post a link to my shopping cart right?
In that case i'll post some photobucket later...
 
CompletelyClueless said:
And if i spend 50 dollars on a CPU fan, why not go with a tuniq tower like mentioned very early in the thread?
Click to expand...
Because the Tuniq is an old HSF and there are better HSF for the money.
CompletelyClueless said:
I can't really post a link to my shopping cart right?
In that case i'll post some photobucket later...
Click to expand...

Dude, just copy and paste the names of the parts you want to buy into a post. Clean it up a bit. Simple as that.
 
Some really great advice in this thread. It's nice to see such an active, helpful community.


I may have missed it in the thread, but is there some reason you are going for the blue led HAF 932? Essentially the same case + windows for $30 cheaper (plus no $19.99 shipping) .

HAF Black + Win 97


I would also probably spend $17 for a Noctua fan (which was just used to set a 5ghz world record on an i5) but the Hyper 212 is a solid performer if you do not plan on overclocking too heavily.

$60 + Shipping on Noctua U12P



Good luck Clueless.
 
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Notleh: Would you believe me if i said "aesthetic purposes?"
I thought if it was just a 30 dollar difference, which i thought with three additional LED setups might be worth it, but i completely overlooked the free shipping thing...
 
don't buy the coolermaster hyper 212+ from newegg.com, it can be found at other places for $25~30. if you really want to order an hsf from newegg.com for whatever reason, I'd highly suggest the cogage true spirit which normally goes for ~$40 for performance beyond the hyper 212+ and on the level of higher priced coolers like the U12P (unfortunately it looks like newegg.com is out of stock currently... lol).

for minimal overclocking the hyper 212+ at $25~30 is your best deal though (I'm sure you can find these prices with google easily).
 
CompletelyClueless said:
Notleh: Would you believe me if i said "aesthetic purposes?"
I thought if it was just a 30 dollar difference, which i thought with three additional LED setups might be worth it, but i completely overlooked the free shipping thing...
Click to expand...


haha...totally. I have paid a lot more for a lot less!
 
Found the Spirit for like 46 dollars inc. shipping on amazon. I guess i'll go with that? I'll lurk the cooling subforum here for more research i guess...
I really need to order tomorrow though... Processing takes a day then takes 3 days for shipping... then the weekend is right there...
The rule with these things is not to expect them until *next* monday if i order this monday...

And Notleh, i feel glad i'm not alone with that sentiment, heh.
 
Skull_Angel said:
don't buy the coolermaster hyper 212+ from newegg.com, it can be found at other places for $25~30. if you really want to order an hsf from newegg.com for whatever reason, I'd highly suggest the cogage true spirit which normally goes for ~$40 for performance beyond the hyper 212+ and on the level of higher priced coolers like the U12P (unfortunately it looks like newegg.com is out of stock currently... lol).

for minimal overclocking the hyper 212+ at $25~30 is your best deal though (I'm sure you can find these prices with google easily).
Click to expand...

Actually, I looked around a bit before I recommended the Hyper 212 Plus. Amazon has it for $30, but you'd have to wait at least a month on it. Most of the other major retailers seem to have it OOS as well. That said, I agree that the Cogage TRUE Spirit is an excellent choice for a Socket 1366 build, and it's available at many places (unfortunately for the OP, however, it's not available at NewEgg).

CompletelyClueless, go ahead and get the TRUE Spirit.

And again, NO on the G.Skill PI Series RAM. Just get the plain red kit; it'll perform just as well.
 
Well, it's done. Pulled the trigger on a monstrous build just yesterday.

I want to thank everyone in this thread for helping me cobble together something over the last week, especially tiraides and Danny Bui. Much was learned and much was appreciated.

Now to wait a few days for the fun part - putting this beastie together!

/salut
 
I take it that you've bought everything that you listed in post 53?

Or did you make some (or all) of the changes that we recommended earlier?
 
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