new rig

[crustybooger]

hola, figure it's about time to put together a new pc, this old s939 3800+ is showing its age.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
lots of photoshop, some gaming and video encoding.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
1000-2500 tax and shipping not included. I'm pretty flexible with the budget, just don't feel like paying twice as much for a minuscule increase in performance.


3) Where do you live?
bay area CA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
I'm going to need; ram, motherboard, psu, video card, hard drive, dvd drive

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
already picked up a i7 920 from frys for 230 and my old lian li case.

6) Will you be overclocking?
a little

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24in hp

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
no rush, sometime within the next month. thinking about buying all the parts tomorrow while in the office.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
hmmm nothing really

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

yup

well here's what I've come up with so far:
P6T $249 from microcenter
geforce 260 $200 http://www.amazon.com/BFG-Technolog...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236923336&sr=1-4
G.skill 6GB $100 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225
WD caviar black $100 1TB http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236923211&sr=1-1
Corsair 750W $110 http://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-750w-...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236922849&sr=1-1
some random 22x dvd burner $25

not too sure about the video card, I'm either getting the gtx 260 or a 4780 1GB. Don't think I want to go all out now for a video card when I plan on upgarding it when the next batch of cards come out. other then that, maybe add a cpu cooler? different ram? any thoughts would be helpful, thanks!

 

[Dangman]

Since you live in CA, I recommend buying some of your parts from Amazon.com to avoid our CA taxes. The 750TX is actually a bit cheaper as well at amazon as well:
http://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-750w-...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236922849&sr=1-1

For a 24", the GTX260 is an excellent choice. However if you want a bit more higher settings, get the GTX 280:
http://www.amazon.com/BFG-Tech-NVID...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236923100&sr=1-1

Though if you're fine with the GTX260, then I recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/BFG-Technolog...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236923336&sr=1-4

Oh and you can get the HDD from Amazon as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236923211&sr=1-1

Mobo wise, I recommend either Asus P6T or the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P

 

[crustybooger]

sweet, thanks! totally forgot about amazon. now back to researching the different versions of the P6T and the gigabyte boards.

 

[lowteckh]

1000 and 2500 are very different numbers.

 

[crustybooger]

heh, yea. I just figured around a thousand as a starting point for a i7 build. anyways going to pick up a P6T from microcenter