New build...again

T

Torn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Messages
433
Seems like I do this about every 6 months and still have not had the money for it. Well, as I posted in another thread, the old beast is on its last legs so going to just put it on credit. Anyway, here is what I am looking at right now.

Smilodon case. $69.99
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3Lmobo. $79.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W psu. $99.99
BFG Tech BFGEGTX260896OCE GeForce GTX 260 896MB video card. $164.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz CPU. $167.99
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 RAM. $54.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD. $59.99
SAMSUNG DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223L DVD. $26.99
Windows Vista. $99.99

Grand total (w/shipping): $843.54
If I can get within $50 or so at Frys, I will buy there. Of course some parts will be slightly different, but the basics will remain. This is for gaming first. Media second. Any feedback on this? Thanks!
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
See original post.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
See original post. +/-$100 or so.

3) Where do you live?
Seattle

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Everything except for those listed next.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Mouse, keyboard, LCD monitor (1680x1050). Thats all.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Preferably not, but if I can without much effort then sure.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Using a 21" 1680x1050.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
This week.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Onboard sound and LAN. RAID would be a nice bonus but NOT necessary by any stretch. 4 SATA ports or more.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
See original post.
 
Pick up a used quad for ~$150 instead of that E8400, and buy your GPU used as well.

Forget the Seagate, get a 640GB WD Black or Blue series drive (6400AAKS or 6401AALS). Much faster, more space, doesn't cost much more.

$100 is too much for that PSU -- you should be able to pick up a 750w Corsair or PC Power & Cooling for less.

Don't pay for Vista, run Windows 7 RC1 free for ~6 months and buy it when it's released.

YGPM -- I have some parts you might be interested in.
 
I would suggest getting a Phenom 2 940 build in place of that E8400 as there about even in gaming but the extra 2 cores will help with media encoding times.

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Retail $190

GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $110

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail $95

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail $32

p.s.

silent-circuit said:
Forget the Seagate, get a 640GB WD Black or Blue series drive (6400AAKS or 6401AALS). Much faster, more space, doesn't cost much more.
.
Click to expand...

6400AAKS is not a night and day faster than 12 series Seagate. They have both similar read and write speeds...
 
AMD will give you more bang for your buck, as far as CPU choices go.

I agree with silent, that 550W Corsair is way overpriced. You can get 750W units for around $100.

I prefer WD Caviar Black over Seagate 12th gen 'cudas right now, not only because the 11th gen had such bad firmware, but also because seagates no longer have a 5yr warranty, whereas the caviar blacks do.
 
silent-circuit, I may take you up on those. Really wanting to buy locally for expediency, but if I have to order, I'll get back to you.

lt_shiro, first, I'm more worried about gaming. Thats why I went for a faster dual over a slower quad in the first place. Not sure exactly how much difference their would be, though, with todays machines. Also, would I really need more than the out-of-the-box CPU/FAN if I'm not planning to OC it?

enginurd, I thought it seemed a bit steep, but was not sure. Odd that NewEgg would have such a bad price. Anyway, good info on the HDDs. Had no idea!

Thanks, guys!

<edit>Oh, I have not been keeping up with AMD at all. Had heard their were stability issues on some of their older hardware, though. Current ones a non-issue? Whats the best chipset to use with them? From what I have seen, an AMD of about 200mhz faster than an Intel is about even when it comes to gaming performance. Is that true?
 
Hehe yeah... it's the same as a 500GB drive. For the price of a 500GB drive, you might as well get the 640GB.
 
lt_shiro, so I went to Newegg and specced out a board in Power Search without having memorized which one you had recommended...when lo and behold, which one should come out as the best for me? The GIGABYTE GA-MA790X.
 
Alright, updated with the following.
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB $74.99
GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P $109.99
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB $169.99
(changed from Nvidia to ATI because of CrossFire)
PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W $109.99
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition $189.99
Windows 7 Beta (good till June 2010!) Free

Total of $829.89. Excellent! Going to Frys tonight or tomorrow to see if I can get it close to that there.
 
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So finishing this build up. What speed of RAM should I really go for? When does it stop helping?
 
DDR2-1066 is so cheap anymore I'd just go with that. Used to be you'd go for DDR2-800 cause that was fast enough to get the most out of most C2D chips, and it was a lot cheaper. Not the case anymore.

I don't know shit about current generation AMD overclocking, though, so I couldn't really say what exactly you need for that setup. My last AMD chip was a S939 A64 3500+ single core. ;)
 
Thats what I had planned was the DDR2-800, but I saw DDR2-1200 was out there. Was not sure how much difference their really is. The board supports 1300 (OC I guess) so not sure...
 
Since the memory controller is build into the CPU, I have found anything higher than 2.1v. Limits the FSB overclocking on Phenom 1/2s...
 
I decided to hold off for a week or two and see if anything changed. Nothing really, but I'm thinking I need to scale down a bit to save some money. To do so, I was thinking of going with the AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition. Only a dual-core, but I'm primarily a gamer, so that should not be a big issue. Is this a good choice to shave off $90 or should I change something else? Because the board supports both AM2+ and AM3, I am assuming I still use DDR2 RAM? Can't imagine it working any other way, but better safe than sorry. Thanks again!
 
550 is good choice for its price and overclocking, you should be able to get 3.8 GHz @ 1.4v with cool 'n' quiet enable.
 
Thanks guys. Just want to keep this as close to $800 as I can get since its going on a credit card and I'm already a bit thin right now.
 
Sorry about the bump, but NewEgg came through with their latest newsletter! Can afford the quad with the coupon code for it and my case!
 
Sorry, guess that was...barely English. LOL
NewEggs newsletter has a coupon for about $25 off the processor and $20 off the case, bringing my grand total with shipping to $798.46 WITH the Phenom II X4 940.
 
hehe, I was mainly wondering which CPU you were talking about. Nice... good thing you waited. ;) Don't forget to post pics.
 
ACK! I can't find the e-mail with the processor promo code! And NewEgg changed the one on the front page of the site. It said it was supposed to be good till the 6th...anyone have it?
 
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
$189.99, Your Price: $169.99 With Promo Code EMCLTPL82

Not sure which case you're talking about... this one?
Lian Li PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$99.99, Your Price: $89.99, Free Shipping Promo Code EMCLTPL27
 
Thats the one, Enginurd! Thanks for that.

As for the case, I'm actually going with the Smilodon. Glad I forgot to order last night because todays newsletter had a coupon for the BLACK Smilodon which is the one I wanted in the first place! The other coupon was for the silver one which I don't like nearly as much. Its such a nice case to work with. Fold down mobo tray/back panel. For those curious, free shipping on it is EMCLVLN49.
 
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I whimped out. Went for the x2 I posted earlier. Gotta be more careful with my finances and I don't do much media encoding, just gaming. Saved me about $60. I know its not much, but dangit...I'm paranoid! Almost REALLY got cold feet and went for the 4870 for $55 less, but I stood firm with the 4890!
 
haha, nice -- completely understandable. Don't forget to post pics.
 
Got the notice from the 'Egg that it shipped today. Should be seeing it by the 9th. Hoping I can beat UPS home that day!
 
Its here! I took a picture before opening all the shiny boxes but need to upload it still. Camera was almost dead. Will take some pics of the insides, too. Its all put together, just need to pull the DVD out of this computer and throw it in and its good to go!
 
Still need to hook up my second hard drive and DVD...but for good reason. For some reason, with both DVD (IDE) plugged in, it would not boot from the Windows 7 boot disk I had made and gave me a "NON-SYSTEM DISK" error. Tried it in the wife's computer and it worked just fine. I thought maybe the mobo was having trouble assigning master and slave since I had them set to auto and it seems that I was right. Its all installed now and running. Just patching every patch that they patched now. Oy. At least it works now!
 
Hrm. Having trouble with sound now. It says the digital and analog are working, but I hear nothing. I'll check my connections in the morning, but am positive that its hooked up correctly, colors matched and all. Hmmm...

<edit>Nope...chords are hooked up wrong. Sorry, my mistake.
 
*face palm* OK. The two DVD roms would not work together because ONE was set to cable select...the other to Master. Wow. That was...lame. OK, everything is fixed now. Pics coming soon!
 
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