New "performannce" rig for a poor college student

Y

YelloFelloJP

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 7, 2004
Messages
66
I dug up this configuration on Newegg earlier today. Let me know what you guys think

Code: 
Antec P182 Case                                      $169.99
CORSAIR 620W PSU                                     $169.99   -$40 rebate
ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP Mobo 	             $194.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420                               $186.00
Scythe Mine CPU Cooler                                $32.99
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB                           $279.99   -$20 rebate
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB PC-8500                             $230.00   -$30 rebate
(2x) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB             (2x) $79.99
Koutech 3.5" Floppy Drive & Multi Card Reader         $27.99
DVD+/-RW                                             On Hand
CD-RW                                                On Hand
SB Audigy Platinum (can I still use this?)           On Hand

Subtotal:                                          $1,451.92
Total Rebates:                                       -$90.00

Final Price:                                       $1,361.92

I'm planning on a 3.2ghz OC on the CPU and RAID 0 with the HDD's. I'll be running XP Pro and hopefully playing awesome PC games! yay crysis!!!!!!
 
Damn that RAM is expensive, Newegg typically is on that stuff. Ouch...

Wait 1.5 weeks and get a Core 2 Quad for ~$266, pretty sure it could do 3.2 GHz with proper cooling.

If you keep checking with Fry's online, they'll probably have the 500GB Seagate SATA II 7200.10 drives for $89.99 any second now... literally. :) Lot more storage for not much more money.

The Audigy will work just fine. I'm sticking with the Audigy 2 ZS I have in this Dell box for a long time to come; I see no reason to purchase a new soundcard with all new bells and whistles when this thing will be useful for a long long time to come.

If you do go for the quad, you might consider bumping the power supply up to a 750w or better if possible.

Just my suggestions...

ps
You do realize that while you can play Crysis with XP, you won't get any of the kickass DirectX 10 features, right? Seems the whole point of Crysis is really showing off the DX10 effects, but I guess under DX9 it'll be fine too. Just won't look as pretty. :)
 
As much as I hate to see this forum slow down, this post is more intended for the General Hardware section.

This forum is for pre built computers and consumer electronics :)

and on topic...

OH DEAR GOD SKIP THE REBATES! :O theyll screw you over later... :p

I think the e4400 might be better suited to OCing than the e6400s... higher multiplier and all :)

Floppy Drive? WTF? I hope you're buying it for the card reader :p
 
Whoaa... go with way cheaper ram. That saves a $100 Start off with just one Harddrive and get another later if needed... Saves $70. Get a cheaper case, unless you're hell bent on that one... one around the 100 mark. the p180 right now is 119 or so with free shipping from newegg. so thats $50 right there. If your just going for 3.2 OC i'd getter a lesser Mobo.. around the 140 range. and possibly lower.cheaper chip would reach that... I'd wait a couple weeks and get the quad core.. with all the money I just saved you ;)

I'd stray away from rebates to.
 
Yes, I figured this would be a $600ish build...but that goes to show, one man's definition of 'poor' is another man's definition of rich...
 
Thanks for the input guys, the last computer I built was a 3 grand+ machine from over four years ago, so this <$1500 machine isn't too hard on the wallet to me. For goodness sake, the last videocard I owned was a GeForce ti4600!
I had no idea that performance components were so cheap these days (sub $200 CPU, and sub $300 GPU for amazing benchies), and from all I'm reading, it seems that the C2D's overclock like zomgwtfbbqlololol. So I figured getting a low-end C2D and overclocking like mad on higher end memory and mobo would let me run all the apps and games I want for now,and leave me room to upgrade the CPU down the line with the money I save (assuming 775 sticks around and DDR3 doesn't get any better).

@bbz_Ghost: If the Quad cores are going down in price, then where will that put the E6420?

@0mega: The reason i'm choosing the E6420 over any of the E4XXX chips is because of the 4MB L2 cache. I don't want my 3ghz cpu choking out on certain apps just because I don't have the two extra megs. The prices aren't that big a deal either. I'm willing to throw down a jackson or two for the extra cache. Mind you i'm not going for an astronomical OC either. 3.2ghz is the ideal I'm going for but realistically, I'm probably looking at 3.15 or even just an even 3.

@f1y: What kind of RAM would you recommend that would be $100 cheaper and still good for OC with C2D? I read that I need fairly high quality RAM considering how far these C2D's go. And also, what mobo would you recommend for me? I chose the one with built in wireless because I didn't want to use up an expansion bay for networking when I might need it later down the line for SLI and PPU when I become not poor again. Ideally I need my mobo to be SLI ready, with wireless, with OC options, and with RAID controller.

@Blakestr: What goes into a $600 performance machine? I'm very curious now, seeing that my dad always buys those $400-$600 budget boxes at Costco. I could probably use your build for my dad's next box.

And what's wrong with rebates?
 
Go for E4400 - I OC´ed mine to 3.4Ghz without problem and only app where I noticed slowdown because of 2MB cache is F@H.
Some 800Mhz memory would be enought - taht will allow you to raise FSB to 400 so with 6420 is 3,2Ghz with E4400 ist more than you need (you cant get to 4Ghz with E4400).
 
Rebel44 said:
Go for E4400 - I OC´ed mine to 3.4Ghz without problem and only app where I noticed slowdown because of 2MB cache is F@H.
Some 800Mhz memory would be enought - taht will allow you to raise FSB to 400 so with 6420 is 3,2Ghz with E4400 ist more than you need (you cant get to 4Ghz with E4400).
Click to expand...

A good $800 machine is...

e4300 - $115?
8800gts 320MB - $250
2gig RAM (Don't pay over $100 for it with all the price drops going on) - $100
Case - sub $100 (or resuse one) - $100
mobo - Gigabyte's DS3's are low $100's now - $125?

Spend the rest on PSU, speakers, mouse, keyboard, etc

Should work out okay. Don't quote my numbers, was pulling from memory of the past few weeks prices.
 
f1y said:
Whoaa... go with way cheaper ram. That saves a $100 Start off with just one Harddrive and get another later if needed... Saves $70. Get a cheaper case, unless you're hell bent on that one... one around the 100 mark. the p180 right now is 119 or so with free shipping from newegg. so thats $50 right there. If your just going for 3.2 OC i'd getter a lesser Mobo.. around the 140 range. and possibly lower.cheaper chip would reach that... I'd wait a couple weeks and get the quad core.. with all the money I just saved you ;)

I'd stray away from rebates to.
Click to expand...

I agree.

Unless you need crossfire, don't bother with the P5W DH Dlx. Look into the P35 boards if you plan on upgrading to a quadcore in about a year or so.

Wow, after getting my revised P180B (nearly identical to the P182) for only $50AR (Fry's), its hard to see that $170 price tag. I don't think the P182 is worth that price premium over the P180.

2GB DDR2-800 is all you really need, and should cost you around ~$85. Theres not much difference between CL5 and CL4, so don't pay a huge price premium for lower timings. With an E6420, you can reach 3.2Ghz easy. If you want to go past that, just get a kit with Micron D9GMH chips instead; they'll OC to 500Mhz easily. The extra cache on the E6420 vs the E4400 only improves performance on current apps by as much as 5%, according to the anandtech article.

No need for 620W PSU with your current build list. The 520W will handle it with ease. Also, I'd go with the Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B (scnj-1100p) instead of the Mine.

Quad cores are the only CPUs getting price cuts ($266 - Q6600), and server chips. Intel will leave pricing on current chips, but introduce new chips at similar pricepoints -- so you'll get "better" chips for your money. Instead of the E6420, the E6750 should be around $183, so go for that instead.

What do you need SLI for? The P5W DH only does SLI with hacked drivers. What size monitor do you have? SLI is only needed with 24" or larger monitors. Otherwise, just stick to a single card solution.

$600? Quickly, off the top of my head: E4300 ($113), P6N SLI-FI Open box ($65), 2GB DDR2-667 ($65), 8800GTS 320MB ($270AR), dvd-rom ($15), 160GB ($55), Ultra case (FAR), 500W Ultra PSU (FAR). Prices may be out of date, but you could find similar stuff.
 
I would go for the XFX XXX 8800 GTS 320 ($320)
Ballistic CL4 6400 mem (clocks to 1Ghz @ CL5) (CHEAPER/Better)
E4400/E4500 is going to be near the same performace, and cheaper also.
Tuniq tower if you can fit it in the budget, its a monster of a cooler.
Gigabyte 650i SLI is a great mainboard, built a dozen machines with that board, the XFX 650i SLI mainboard is also a good choice, and low cost.

You pay for the Wifi/Sound card on the asus stuff, and there are much better PCI/USB versions for both.
 
you can get 300GB seagate for $60 shipped from frys and people were reporting they were receiving 7200.10.
 
If you really want the P182, then get it cheaper from this site:
Antec P182 ATX Case - $125

RAID 0 isn't worth the hassle nor the risks involved with the RAID since you stand to lose ALL of your data if one of the drives die. The Seagate 320GB is pretty fast for a drive of its price and size.

If you want a good overclocked CPU, then stay with the E6420 CPU. The Q6600 aren't great overclockers.
 
I ordered the P182 today on the cheap thanks to Danny Bui, $145 shipped. I'll wait on the other components for now.
And for all you saying that I'm spending too much on the case, let's just say I'm a real stickler for a quality case.

So when is this CPU price drop happening? Hopefully within the month (please)?
 
I'm working with a Viewsonic VP191b right now (19.1" 1280x1024) but I plan to go either for a 24inch widescreen monitor or 720p HDTV in the near future. I think 320MB should be enough for that? Maybe I'll go the SLI route if I bite on the 24" down the road.

About the new CPUs coming out, do we know anything about the overclockability of these new units? I mean, besides the fact that they are C2D architecture. And what about this 1333mhz FSB? Is this considered much of a jump from 1066?
 
I say go for the 640 GTS then. It should be more than adequate for a 24" screen.

AS for the new overclockability of the these new units, no idea. As for the 1333Mhz FSB, it isn't too much of a jump from 1066.
 
So if the E6420 isn't going down in price, and the only new features of the new units will be the 1333mhz FSB which you say isn't that big a deal, I can pretty safely make my purchase now, no?

P.S. Why no rebates?
 
Hmm I guess so. However, on July 22nd, you'll be able to get an E6750, a slightly faster E6700 CPU, for the same price as an E6420. The E6700 does beat the E6420 in terms of performance. So that means you can get a better and faster CPU for the same price of a slower CPU. But I don't know how well the E6750 will overclock since the newest batch of E6600 CPUs can barely hit 3.2Ghz. Hence the bigger interest in the E6420 right now.

So to sum things up: if you want a sure thing in terms of overclockability, then get the E6420. You can easily hit 3.2Ghz on the stock heatsink with the E6420. You could probably reach higher speeds with the Scythe Ninja. While the E6750 may be faster than the E6420 at stock speeds, no one knows how well the '50 series of C2D CPUs will overclock.

EDIT: IGNORE THAT LAST PARAGRAPH!

I was wrong. People DO know how well the E6750 overclocks. I forgot about the E6750 preview articles (linking straight to the overclocking parts):
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3012&p=10
http://www.hothardware.com/articles/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E6750_Performance_Preview/?page=2
http://techgage.com/article/intel_core_2_duo_e6750_preview/7
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=425&type=expert&pid=8
http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/core2duo-e6750/index.x?pg=14

Man do they overclock freakin' well! Definitely Wait for the E6750.
 
SLI doesn't give you more VRAM, which is the major issue running native res on a 24" screen. In SLI, 320+320=320, because the buffer, texture data, and other info gets mirrored on both cards. If anything, there's a little overhead for SLI as well.

With that in mind the 640MB card is a far better option. If you plan to use SLI as an upgrade path (which some will suggest is a bad plan, but the debate rages...) you can add another 640MB 8800 GTS for more shading/geometry power, and not be VRAM limited.
 
Wow, nice find!

Sounds like I'll be waiting until the 22nd. Using the Scythe heatsink, I'll be able to OC to at least 3.5ghz with luck. yayyy
 
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