Yet another please-look-over-the-build thread

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gwai lo

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I have 1000 dollars, please build me comp to run crysis at max.









.....just kidding. One of my friends down the hall is assembling a new rig. He's pulling out his hard drive and reusing all the peripherals, all we need is tower and innards. He does medium amount of gaming, but we're preparing for the heavy stuff anyway just in case. He has a 17" screen, but is thinking about picking up something next year...but in the 20" arena. Went with the 640MB version of the GTS for if/when he goes to the 20". Overclocking is a yes, either he'll do it or we'll do it for him :p

Ideally he wants to be around 1000, less is better..but not to a loss of performance.

Q6600 $271
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?&scriteria=BA23383
IP35-E $89 and $69 AR
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?&scriteria=BA23929
8800GTS 640MB $370 and $350 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130071
CorsairHX 520W $100 and $81 AR
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA6200026
2×1GB DDR2-800 $85 and $55 AR
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4330509
Random optical drive, $31
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827106055
Enermax Chakra $70
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5..._Case_w_250mm_Side_Fan_-_Black_ECA3052-B.html
3×Yate Loon 120mm L
http://www.jab-tech.com/YATE-LOON-120mm-Case-Fan-D12SL-12-pr-3009.html
Thermalright Ultima 90 $45
http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?productid=3852
Debating between S-Flex and Yate Loon, Yate Loons are cheaper but S-Flex performs a little better.

Total after shipping ( before the rebates ) - 1111.02

Better deals anywhere? Anything a horribly bad idea?
 
What else is he planning to do with the new PC? If your friend isn't doing a lot of media encoding or extreme multitasking, drop the CPU down to the E6750:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 CPU - $189

Other than that, looks good to me. Get some pics of that baby when it's up and running!
 
S-Flex for the CPU fan, Yate Loon for the case fans. The S-Flex is more reliable, therefore you need it on the CPU.

See, when a build list is so good, you sometimes start to nitpick... so I'm just nitpicking...

17" now? When next year is he getting the 20"? Another option with regards to the vidcard is to get an X1950GT ($115) for now, and play Crysis in DX9 mode until he upgrades to a larger monitor. When he upgrades to a larger monitor, sell the old card/monitor and pickup a new vidcard, which will most likely kick the 8800GTS' ass, depending on when he plans to do all this.

The reason I'd throw this option out there is because the vidcard is the fastest depreciating component due to its short life cycle. Theres a new card out almost every 6-8 months. Keep in mind, the 8800GTS replacement is due out in November, the 8700GTS 512MB with a rumored price of $250+.
 
Yeah I was debating the video card and processor as well. I went with the higher end options because I'm not sure how much he wants to play with things later, as some people don't really like to upgrade or touch their rigs once it's assembled.

I'll talk to him today after we're finished with class and see what he wants to do. If it was my rig I'd cheap out on the video card now and wait until G90 and the monitor upgrade as well.

Processor is pretty much the same deal, more power now...or upgrade later when needed. It goes back to how much he wants to play with it...so yeah I'll post the final decisions later today. We assembled this thing rather quickly last night and I figured we should sleep on it just in case.

As for the fans, I'll go with the s-flex then.

Thanks guys. :)
 
Go for a lesser power supply, like the Corsair VX450. E6750 or less. Tuniq Tower 120.
 
lamboman said:
Go for a lesser power supply, like the Corsair VX450. E6750 or less. Tuniq Tower 120.
Click to expand...
Ultima 90 is matching or beating the Tuniq Tower and the Tuniq Tower *might* not fit in the case ( we're guesstimating ~3mm or so of clearance after foruming and checking dimensions of everything ).

Reviews:
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3068
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=137838

Power supply was to maintain the system within the middle of the efficiency curve with the quad and the 8800GTS, but if we're dropping to the E6750 we might be able to drop the power supply. However, at this point we decided to go with the higher end power supply just for the ability to drop whatever else it is we need in there later. I tend to keep my power supplies for a long long time and rotate them around systems, but he doesn't mind the extra 30 dollars..so we're probably sticking with that.

As for the video cards, we were talking about it and he was looking at reviews of the X1950 cards and they're not running Oblivion and something else all too well at 1280×1024. Since the monitor does not have an ETA he's going to go with the 320MB version for now and then we'll see what's up in a year or so when he gets a new monitor.

I had some initial reservations about the processor ( I fold, he doesn't >< ) and video card and you guys confirmed them. We're dropping the quad and dropping the 8800GTS a step down.

Anyway, final build:
E6750 ( grabbing the deal from Fry's ) $175 shipped
IP35-E
2×1GB DDR2-800
CorsairHX 520W
eVGA 8800GTS 320MB
Ultima 90 + S-Flex
2×Yate Loon 120mm
Enermax Chakra
Random optical drive

Thanks for the replies guys. :)
 
Looks good. Well thought out build. I got a question... what do you guys like about that enermax case? just curious, hehe.
 
Well, I helped pick out the innards, and then I told him to go nuts on frozen cpu or something and find a case. He liked it, I dunno. I suggested a Lian Li cuz I'm a sucker for clean cases :p Different people different cases? haha, I thought it looked funny *shrugs* shhh, don't tell him.

Thanks again for the help.:D
 
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