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Need to build a new computer, help!

R

RockStar70

n00b
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
22
Side lined by and auto accident thats left me unable to alot of things. I have a lot of time on my hands to do...well not much of anything. My computer is about 4 years old and yesterday it just died. I checked the power supply and thats fine so I'm thinking its the mother board. SO if I have to replace the mb then I may as well just build a new computer and upgrade everything. But I'm so outta the loop on parts and such, here I am asking for suggestions on mb's and cpu's. I like Intel and have always used Intel, so I kinda wanna stay with an Intel. I don't want a mb thats all different colors (if possible black or as little different colors as possible). My main concern first is picking the best mb and cpu and then everything else after that.

What I do with my computer: graphics and web design, video and video editing, music and recording, Internet (browsing, email and all), Word processing, Finances, and some gaming (Flight Sim and Star Wars games). A little bit of everything I guess.

So if you all could maybe give me some pointers and suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.
 
so the most important question, how much are u willing to spend?
 
$300 Max on MB and $500 max on CPU if possible. I'd like a nice MB and a pretty fast CPU. Not really sure what the prices are at these days. Does this sound about right?
 
well that is just 800 in Mobo and CPU alone. i was expecting the whole sum, something like $1500. Vidcard nowadays can get pretty expensive.

Are u planning to do some overclocking?
 
Oh I know. But I wanna first get the MB and CPU taken care of. As for a video card I'll probablly put that in the $300 price range. So I'm thinking the total price range let's say is $1500 to $2000. I just wanna build a nice pc that'll last me a couple years with just minor upgrades here and there. My old computer was great and really I had no issues. HAdn't even thought about building a new one til yesterday. I haven't ever gotten into overclocking but its not out of the question.
 
I just read your signature. No you aren't the only girl :) And thanks I'll take a look at your suggestions in a little while. I gotta take my pain med and it's either going to hype me up or put me to sleep. I never know.
 
The E8400 is out of stock at various places, including NewEgg, and the few places that still have it available are selling it for around $270. That's too much money for the E8400 -- especially when it's supposed to retail for around $200.

You can go one of two routes right now. The first route is to get the E6750, the processor the E8400 was supposed to replace. It's available at several locations for under $200. The second option is to pursue the quad-core Q6600. There are more programs and games coming that will utilize multiple cores, so the Q6600's long-term potential looks good. Or, you could wait for the new Penryn-based processors to arrive, or you could wait for more places to restock on the E8400 (though I doubt that prices will come down anytime soon).

The only appeal for an X38 motherboard is CrossFire, which is only beneficial if you plan on gaming at a 1920x1200 or larger resolution. Otherwise, a P35-based motherboard will be fine for your needs, and you can find one with a few features for under $200.

I have a few questions to ask before I continue further:
  • Which monitor are you using? What is the monitor's resolution?
  • Which parts, if any, were you planning on reusing?
  • How long do you plan on keeping this rig for? Were you planning on making any incremental upgrades during that time?
  • Are you going to overclock anything?
 
I like tiraides advice and recommendations. It's very detailed and looks at everything as a whole. hehe


tiraides said:
The E8400 is out of stock at various places, including NewEgg, and the few places that still have it available are selling it for around $270. That's too much money for the E8400 -- especially when it's supposed to retail for around $200.

You can go one of two routes right now. The first route is to get the E6750, the processor the E8400 was supposed to replace. It's available at several locations for under $200. The second option is to pursue the quad-core Q6600. There are more programs and games coming that will utilize multiple cores, so the Q6600's long-term potential looks good. Or, you could wait for the new Penryn-based processors to arrive, or you could wait for more places to restock on the E8400 (though I doubt that prices will come down anytime soon).

The only appeal for an X38 motherboard is CrossFire, which is only beneficial if you plan on gaming at a 1920x1200 or larger resolution. Otherwise, a P35-based motherboard will be fine for your needs, and you can find one with a few features for under $200.

I have a few questions to ask before I continue further:
  • Which monitor are you using? What is the monitor's resolution?
  • Which parts, if any, were you planning on reusing?
  • How long do you plan on keeping this rig for? Were you planning on making any incremental upgrades during that time?
  • Are you going to overclock anything?
Click to expand...
 
I'm using a Acer 19" widescreen Monitor at 1440 x 900 resolution.
Only parts I probably will use out of the old computer are the optical drives.
Like to have the computer for 3 to 4 yrs and only make small upgrades as needed.
I haven't ever overclocked but its not outta the question.

I was actually looking at the Q6600 cpu. But I wanted to get some opinions from people who know more about these things than I do. I use to be up on all of these things but work consumed my life for a couple years. Maybe my accident was a good thing in a way, slowing me down a little so I can enjoy the things I use to enjoy and not work all the time.
 
From what you mentioned, I would go Q6600. This quad core cpu can be bought at a decent price these days and for $250 its pretty good. The 4 cores will future proof you for applications that will utilize the extra cores down the road. The mobo, I would just stick to a single PCI-E board. Your res and LCD is small. 1 x 8800GTS 512MB should easily drive that res and screen no problem. Crysis you can run it at 1440 x 900 with all settings on high. I have this setting set for my 8800GT 512 card. My card is slower than an 8800GTS 512MB.
 
I don't really play games other than Flight Sim or Battlefront once in a while and they always played fine on my monitir and vid card. Most of my game playing is done on XBOX 360, Wii and Playstation 3. But I do watch videos and do some video editing so a decent vid card is a must. In my old computer I have a nVidia X1600 512mb card.

So I think for the cpu its going to be the Q6600....now to find a mb....

Thank you everyone whos replied. It helps a lot getting other peoples opinions and advice...I'm starting to get really excited about building this computer...Starting to get ideas for a case and mods and jsut something I can sit and work on to keep me hand and mind busy...cuz being unable to do all the things I love to do and use to do really starts to mess with a persons head...
 
Yes your right. It is Ati Radeon X1600. My mind was thinking one thing and hands typing another.
 
For 2D applications like watching movies, photo editing and video editing, you don't need a high end 3D card for this. A $150 ATI HD3850 or Geforce 9600GT will be fine for your setup. By the time you decide to get this it will be a pretty good price. Or.. even a 384MB 8800GS will be sufficient.
 
I have this exact same card. I am not sure if its Vista or the card. But, my videos and in windows, it looks better on my ATI X1650Pro AGP card as oppose to the 8800GT in Vista 32 bit O/S. Gaming with the 8800GT looks good in Win Vista. But, when I watch a regular dvd on the same lcd, it does not look as good as my ATI card connected to the same monitor.
 
You may want to look at the following setup:

$120 - Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R
$255 - Intel Q6600 G0/SLACR revision ($20 off CPU/mobo bundle promo code)
$46 - ZEROtherm Nirvana CPU cooler ($10 mail-in rebate)
$83 - A-DATA 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 dual channel kit (free shipping)
$230 - EVGA 8800GT 512MB ($30 mail-in rebate)
$75 - Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATA HDD (free shipping)
$85 - Corsair VX550W 550W power supply (free shipping & $20 mail-in rebate)
$110 - Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM (free shipping)
=====
$1004 - Subtotal (not including shipping, rebates, and/or discounts)

I didn't select a case because it's highly subjective. (Then again, all of these parts are. I'm just throwing out one of a myriad of possibilities.) If this setup doesn't fulfill your needs, go ahead and swap out parts as needed.

The motherboard that I selected has a few features and some overclocking options for a relatively low price. (The price becomes even lower with the promo code.) Since you said that you may decide to overclock, I thought it would be best to choose a better CPU cooler.

If you wanted to, you could also transfer your X-Fi Platinum sound card to your new rig; but Vista's drivers have been hit-or-miss. If you don't want to deal with the (potential) hassle, onboard sound has improved to the point that it's acceptable for most users.

You really don't need the power of the 8800GT, but with your budget, you could easily afford it. (I can't vouch for or against its video playback performance compared to ATI's cards.)

If you already have a copy of Windows, then you can omit Vista x64; however, you need a 64-bit operating system in order to fully utilize all 4GB of RAM (otherwise, you'll only "see" 3.2GB-3.5GB of available memory).
 
Here's what I'm looking at so far...what do you think? I know the mb seems a little more than I may need but it gives me the ability to upgrade further down the road, right? SLI maybe?

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N1066SR2GK -

ASUS Striker II Formula LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131255

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115017
 
Why you shouldn't get SLI:
Markyip1 said:
Just some info on SLI / Crossfire: It's absolutely not worth considering if a) you're gaming at a resolution under 1920x1200 (as you'll see no performance benefit over a single card,) and b) if you plan to buy one card now and another later. SLI / Crossfire as an upgrade path is usually a very poor idea, as by the time you're ready to get that second card, a new single card solution will likely be available that will outperform two of your older cards in tandem. Furthermore, there really is no cost benefit to the SLI Upgrade Route, as any additional cost in getting the new card can be easily mitigated in most situations by selling the original. By avoiding an SLI / Crossfire solution when it will not be of benefit, you gain a cooler running, simpler to maintain system and more importantly, access to a much better (and broader) selection of motherboards.
Click to expand...

Also, by this time next year, not a single mobo listed in this thread, in fact any mobo based on socket 775, will be compatible with the new Nehalem CPUs and their new sockets. So getting that Striker motherboard is a bad idea since it'll be outdated in less than a year and it doesn't offer any real advantage in terms of upgrade ability.

In addition, the Nvidia 780i chipset is not that great. There is absolutely no reason, besides SLI, that you should get a motherboard with a Nvidia chipset as motherboards based on the P35 and X38 chipsets are far more reliable than their Nvidia counterparts.

So what features are you looking for in a motherboard? RAID? 8 SATA ports? Firewire? etc.
 
Yah no need SLI. My brother got SLI right away and paid $1100 for 2 cards back then on his AMD socket 939 system. He played some Fear, COD but now, he's only playing Guild Wars. LoL. Man what a waste. He did not utlilize the SLI setup as much. People who should get SLI are the ones who know what games will benefit with SLI/Crossfire and push high resolutions.
 
tiraides said:
You may want to look at the following setup:

$120 - Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R
Click to expand...
I just Ordered that mobo today for my new computer which has a budget somewhere between 500 and 650 (depending on if you count the gfx and hdd that I bought before hand)

Since you have a large budget and are building this computer to last some years, you might want to go with either a crossfire or SLi broad, so you can game at resolutions higher in the future, since I doubt you'll be using a 19" lcd for another 4 years, you might upgrade to a 20-22 or even a 24 inch lcd in the future
 
Unless the OP is a serious gamer, it's not worth the money to pursue an SLI or CrossFire setup. In fact, since there are video cards out now that could power a 24 inch LCD on their own, I'll suggest that the OP waits until she buys a new monitor before even thinking about getting a new video card. The worse case scenario is that she could sell her 8800GT to recoup some of the costs... and historically, the new high-end cards can compete with, if not beat, a previous generation midrange or high-end dual video card setup.
 
Ok I thought that other mb was a little much for my needs but I listened to someone I shouldn't have listened to. That's why I posted here to get opinions from people who really know this stuff.

How about this:
ASUS PK5 Premium/WiFi-AP Black Pearl Special Edition LGA775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Go Stepping Kentfield 2.40GHz 8MB L2 LGA775 Processor

Corsair Dominator 240 pin DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Memory (4GB)
 
RockStar70 said:
How about this:
ASUS PK5 Premium/WiFi-AP Black Pearl Special Edition LGA775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboard
Click to expand...

Good mobo choice but what do YOU like about it? We can help you better if you answer my previous question:
So what features are you looking for in a motherboard? RAID? 8 SATA ports? Firewire? etc.
Click to expand...

Oh and ditch the dominator RAM. It is overpriced and does not warrant the extra costs. Even with overclocking in mind, all you need is DDR2 800 RAM for the Q6600:
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $85
 
To be quite honest I'm so outta the loop I don't know what I'm looking for in a Motherboard. Don't really use Firewire. Not sure what RAID is but I do know the 2 hard drives I have are SATA drives. If that helps. I use to be so up on all this stuff and could tell you exactly what I needed but for the last 3 or 4 yrs All I've done is work work work and not enjoy the things I use to. Sad huh. I can tell you I don't want a colorful MB, I really think the ones with all the different colors on them are tacky (just my opinion and I'm not knocking anyone). So I guess I've really been looking at MB's that are black or little color. LOL Stupid huh?

As for the Memory I was going by what I have been reading about ASUS boards being picky about memory and used the configuration thing to decide which would work. I really want this build to go as smooth as possible. That's why I'm here running everything by you guys before I jump into placing any orders. And I do appreciate each and every reply.
 
RockStar70 said:
Ok I thought that other mb was a little much for my needs but I listened to someone I shouldn't have listened to. That's why I posted here to get opinions from people who really know this stuff.

How about this:
ASUS PK5 Premium/WiFi-AP Black Pearl Special Edition LGA775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Go Stepping Kentfield 2.40GHz 8MB L2 LGA775 Processor

Corsair Dominator 240 pin DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Memory (4GB)
Click to expand...

The fsb for q6600 is 266. So it's unlikely you'll get up to 533 (1066). Get ddr2 800 cuz it is much cheaper.

Did you decide on a mobo yet? the gigabyte is very good. the ds3r is very good. the ds3L is cheaper and works well with the q6600.

What cooler will you get? you'll need at least the arctic freezer 7 to get to 3.2ghz
 
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