Piecing an early christmas build!

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Shirp

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Oct 1, 2006
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This will have been the third PC I have built, but when I'm not in the market for parts I tend not to read up on anything - hence this thread. However, I am not totally in the dark. This new pc will be use for internet/ light-medium gaming/general purpose stuff. Example of games I am looking forward to playing are Crysis, Assassins Creed, StarCraft 2, Mirrors Edge, Far Cry2, or whatever else peeks my interest. I'd like it to be quick in anything I do though, not simply games. I'd also like this computer to be quiet. My last 2 builds were noisy. This will have much to do with the GPU and case I believe. I'd like to budget around 800-900 dollars, but there is room to move around. Lower is always better.

Here is my most of my current setup:
AMD XP 3500+
1gig of PC3200 Corsair TwinXl
Gigabyte K8SN Ultra
X800xl AGP
2 Maxtor IDE hard drives
1 WD Sata hard drive
That Gamer sound blaster audio card
Samsung 204B LCD 1600x1200 max res


Here is what I plan to get:


I don't wonder into the realm of overclocking other then what RivaTuner can do so OC'ing isn't that big of a deal. However, I plan to pick up an E8500 - I hear they can OC decent on air alone. E8400 might be the way to go if the OC'ing potential is the same.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102795
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262
I plan to keep my 3 old hard drives and install windows on a new HD. Is this one decent?

Motherboard: This is where I am uncertain what to get. I don't plan on going SLI or Crossfire so one PCIe 2.0 slot is plenty. Is ddr3 worth it? Will the video card eat up a PCIe slot i may need?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131295

RAM: again, not sure which. Is 1066 much faster then 1000? The DDR 800's on newegg have lots and lots of good ratings.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298

PSU: I was going to use my old PSU, but I might get a new one for the sake of being new and to handle a 4870.

CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119138
I want this because I like the look and is relatively quiet. However, the price is absurd. Cases have always been tough for me because I want to like the look of the case as well as it being quiet, reasonably priced, and having some USB 2.0, etc connections on top. To save money this will be the thing I will flake on in order to get better components and stay within my budget.

OS: I plan to get Vista, which version I don't know. I can get them cheap through my school.

I don't actually plan on buying any of these components for a few weeks. I like to plan ahead.
 
You're planning too early. It's 3 months till Christmas, which is far too long to plan a PC in advance since a lot can happen in three months in the PC world. Even two months in advance is a bit stretching it.

But to help you out anyway:

Go with the Gigabyte motherboard since the placement of the 24pin connector is a lot better than the Asus P5Q. DDR3 RAM is totally worthless for current Core 2 Duo systems. Yes the HD4870 will cover another PCI-E x1 slot. But more than like you wont need that PCI-E x1 slot.

Go with this DDR2 1000 RAM instead since DDR2 1066 is only 66Mhz faster than DDR2 1000 but costs much much more:
G.Skill F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 1000 RAM - $68

What PSU do you have?

As for which Vista version, go with Vista Home Premium 64bit. Has most of the features that many people need and is a 64bit OS so you can use 4GB of RAM and more.

Also, how much money do you have RIGHT NOW to spend on this build?
 
Thanks for the advice. An early xmas build is just a saying - I'm ordering these parts in about 2 weeks.

As far as the PSU goes, I want to say its an Antec something...Or Ernemax (whatever it is). I will check when I get home.

Right now I have 600 to spend - hence waiting 2 weeks.
 
can u list your parts? i hate clicking lots of links that dont include boobies.
 
Shirp said:
Thanks for the advice. An early xmas build is just a saying - I'm ordering these parts in about 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, gotcha

Anyway, find out what PSU you have. Very important info
 
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz
SAPPHIRE 100243-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready
Seagate Barracuda 7200 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Motherboards - I am not sure. My monitor doesn't warrant getting a crossfire or sli setup, but I tend to keep hardward a while so I was thinking about getting a mobo with 2 PCIe 16 slots just incase I happen to get a nice 30 inch monitor relativly soon. At this point I'm just looking for something that will play nice with my other parts and allow me to OC the e8400 or e8500 a little on air.

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45
ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R LGA 775
 
Any of the mobos you listed work great. You can get a good combo deal by going with an E8400 and the P5Q Pro from Newegg. The E8500 isn't really worth it over the E8400, they both OC to around the same levels.

Be sure to get an aftermarket HSF, the S1283 (or one of it's rebranded variants) is a good choice.
 
If this is a Christmas present/build, I'd highly suggest waiting for Christmas, or at least until Intel releases its new marchitecture. Nehalem, aka Core i7, should be released in Q4'08 with affordable intro prices, contrary to Intel's release history.

CRLane said:
im doing the same. I dont know if i should do ddr3 or ddr2
Click to expand...

DDR3 if you're going with Core i7 (Nehalem), DDR2 if you're going with Core2 (Wolfdale/Yorkfield/etc).
 
I thought I read/assumed that the intro prices for i7 were going to be expensive.
 
Yea...I'll get an i7 when prices drop and I have a real job.



Is there any reason to go with a p45 over a p43? I'm currently reading reviews on 5 or so motherboards I'm looking at that are either p43 ad p45. If I can save some money by going with a p43 and not loose features/much quickness (i doubt i'll loose any) then a p43 mobo seems like a sound choice.


Well thanks for all the input!
 
The P45 boards have more available features, including CrossFire support, than the P43 boards. If you don't need many features, and you don't plan on gaming at a resolution greater than 1920x1200, you could go with a P43 board.
 
That's just it. I don't plan on getting a new monitor or another monitor anytime soon. My 204b max's out at 1600x1200 and I don't know if there is a reason to run games higher then my native res. With my native res I do not see a need for crossfire/sli.
 
Shirp said:
That's just it. I don't plan on getting a new monitor or another monitor anytime soon. My 204b max's out at 1600x1200 and I don't know if there is a reason to run games higher then my native res. With my native res I do not see a need for crossfire/sli.
Click to expand...

Then P45, as a chipset, isn't for you. However, many P45 motherboards comes with features that P43 motherboards don't have such as firewire, extra SATA ports, etc.
 
Do you need RAID? A second Ethernet port? More than six SATA ports? Firewire?

Are you planning a major (e.g., beyond 3.2GHz) overclock of the processor?

If the answer to all of those questions is no, either the Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L or the MSI P43 Neo3-F would be good enough for you.
 
RAID no, 2nd ethernet port would be nice incase something happened to the only one I have. I think I'm ok on the sata ports because 2 of my 3 HD's hard IDE....I have no firewire devices.

As far as overclocking, whatever Ghz I can be stable with on air by simply changing the multiplier or whatever. I'll have to read more about it - I've forgotten what I knew about OC'ing.
 
The P45 boards supposedly OC better than P43, but I haven't personally looked into it yet, so all I can do is spread the rumor, hehe.
 
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