New System for Christmas

V

VGplay

Gawd
Joined
Jun 12, 2006
Messages
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My Socket A system has served we well for 4 years, but its showing it's age. Plus I've been building up the rest of my setup for a while now and its now time to add the final piece. My monitor's a Westinghouse TX-42 (1920x1080) and I'll be reusing my X-Fi XtremeMusic.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 ($280)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
No reason not to go quad. I'll probably buy from somewhere else for a guaranteed G0. How is the stock HSF? I'm trying to keep the cost down, so unless there's an aftermarket HSF around $30 worth getting, I'll live with a modest overclock for a while.

Motherboard - Gigabyte DS3L ($90)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059
Came down to this and the Abit IP35-E, but then I read of the Abit having issues with Corsair PSUs, and that was the deal-breaker for me.

Memory - Corsair 2x2gb DDR2 800 ($180)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184
I'm a big Corsair fan, so they're my first choice. If there's better deals to be had, I'll give them a look.

Hard Drive - Seagate 7200.11 500gb SATA ($120)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288
I like Seagate and the 500gb is about what I like to spend on a hard drive. I also have a 7200.10 320gb SATA I'll be bringing over from my current computer.

Video Card - eVGA 8800GT ($270?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130303
The 3750 is nice, but people have had issues with ATI cards and 1080p. And I'm not a fan of ATI's drivers.

Power Supply - Corsair 520HX ($125)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001
Kinda have my heart set on it, but open to better deals.

Optical Drives - Lite-On IDE DVD Burner and Asus IDE DVD-ROM ($50)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106055
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135097
I'm a fan of a dual-drive setup. On the choice of IDE over SATA, the DS3L only has four SATA ports. Two optical drives and two hard drives and I'm full out of the box. I'd like to have some upgrade path available for internal storage.

Case - Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 ($170)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233013
I love this case. Huge and not gaudy looking at all. Probably more then I should be spending on a case, but I've seen it in person and it just made me want it more.

Operating System - Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit ($105)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116204
Driver problems seem to have been ironed out and I'm looking at getting 4gb of RAM, so I need 64-bit.

Rounded Total: $1400 + Shipping

Any suggestions are welcome. If you see a way to get it closer to $1300 I'm all ears. Now all I need is to find someone to buy my current system for $400-$500. (Wishful thinking? Probably.)
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145

G.Skill is a pretty solid brand, and while they don't have Corsair's name, they are fairly well respected. Don't need to hassle with a rebate and is rated at 5 5 5 15 timings at DDR2-1000. I would have recommended this kit, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122 which seems like a bargain but it's unfortunately out of stock (80 bucks after rebate for 4 gigs? Woulda been nice.)

If you are looking for guarenteed G0, try ClubIT: http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1938452

I woulda recommended to nab the 520HX for 99.99 from ClubIT also but they are out of stock also. Black Friday effect I suppose. If you are really digging for ways to get a bit cheaper you can go with the 7200.10 instead of the 7200.11, as it should be about 10 bucks cheaper.
 
I agree with Anchen. If you can, wait for those DDR2-800 G.Skills for $80AR.

Stock should be ok for a very modest OC. Here are some HSF Recommendations, in case you want to go higher:
$35 - Scythe SCNJ-1100P Ninja Plus Rev.B CPU HSF (optional $7 Thermalright LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit; recommended if using w/ quadcore)
$45 - Tuniq Tower 120 CPU HSF
$46 - Thermalright Ultima 90 CPU HS + FBA09A12M - Z ($3)
$55 - Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme CPU HS + Scythe S-Flex Fan SFF21E ($15)
 
I like that $80 AR deal, noticed they're back in stock. Too bad the rebate ended today, but I'm sure they'll have it again sometime before Christmas. Didn't know the Ninja was that cheap, but at over $50 after the bolt-thru kit, I'm probably going to have to wait on that one

Thanks.
 
Yah, the ninja is great for low airflow cases. The bolt thru kit also makes it much easier to install, provided you have a 5" long screwdriver, hehe. My Ultima90 still performs the best, though (nearly identical performance as the Tuniq).
 
I picked those up in-store. Great, FAST drives!!

65MB/s, 13.7ms: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB
 
I like the dual 320gb idea. I'm satisfied with the speed of the one I have, and having separate drives would really help with how I like to organize my data.
 
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