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I was hanging out with my parents today and as part of telling them whats up with my life, I told my folks that my laptop was starting to go on the fritz and I was going to build myself a US$1000 machine to replace it. My dad is convinced that's not enough. I assured him, no, no, it's plenty, I even have it mostly worked out and showed him the window shopping list (see: comments in the last blog entry). But he's hearing none of that.
Long story short, and against all proper protest, as an early birthday present he's going to foot the bill and he's given me a spending cap of US$2500. So, I get to build a much nicer machine. I briefly considered adding my $1000 to his $2500 and making a nearly cutting-edge monster, but I really don't think that's necessary. Anywho, I think I'll need some help making smart decisions, if ya'll are up to that.
Assuming sales tax and shipping&handling will be on the high-side, I think I should have $2100-2200 to play with. Mostly I want to build a nice gaming rig. As mentioned before, I have a nice monitor, keyboard and mouse. So help me spend my dad's money, everybody! I'll continue to edit this blog as decisions are made, but everything remains in flux until I buy the stuff, so keep suggestions coming. If some component on the list is incompatible with another of the components, tell me! Know of a better deal? A more reliable component? Leave a comment!
Case: Antec Performance One P180 ATX Mid Tower-- $129.99
Motherboard: ABIT IP35 Pro-- $184.99
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz-- $289.99
Heatsink: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro-- $34.99
Harddrive(s):
Master: Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM-- $194.99
Slave: Western Digital Caviar 320GB 7200 RPM SATA-- $74.99
Memory (RAM): G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit-- $88.99
Video Card: EVGA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3-- $534.99
Sound Card (if necessary): Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1-- $32.99
Optical Drive: PHILIPS 2-Tone SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner-- $34.99
Wireless Network Adaptor: LINKSYS WMP54GX 108Mbps Data Rate-- $109.99
OS Software: Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B-- $89.99
Speaker System: Logitech X-530 5.1-- $59.99
Power Supply: CORSAIR 620W-- $169.99
Current Cost:
$2031.86
This looks like a lot more fun now that I'm not spending my money... ^^
 
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case: w/e you want, i'm sure someone here knows a good one
mobo: pc 35d
processer: q6600 quad core
harddrive: 500gb SATA seagate should be fine
ram: 2 to 4 gb, 1333 ddr2
video card: 8800gts, unless you want to step it up another 300$ 
sound card: clueless
disk drive: probably whatever dvd/cd writer w/ lightscribe(if you want) that you can find thats cheapest and reliable
wireless: depends on what router you have
os: *cough*torrent*cough* i'd stick with xp unless you want vista
speaker: endless options T_T
power supply: however much you need
I'm sure the leet newb and maleorder bride can help you more, but theres a bit of a basic outline for you
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Physician
United States4146 Posts
there is a ton of threads in the general forum with good advice on this - you might want to browse around a bit..
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Dont waste money on the case, unless you are an audiofile why spend $$ on a soundcard, which then is useless if its not with some fancy speakers.
If you take it easy on the case, soundcard, and speakers then you can get much other shit that really makes a big difference in speed and performance.
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Case: Lian Li
Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe
Processor: Intel® Core 2 Extreme X6800EE
Harddrive: Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD x2 (= 300 GB @ 10000rpm)
Memory (RAM): 2 GB Corsair 1033Mhz
Video Card: Geforce 8800 GTX / GTS
Sound Card (if necessary): Sound Blaster
Disk/CDROM/DVDROM Drive: DVD Burner Logitech
Wireless Network Adaptor: Asus P5B Deluxe = GB Lan
OS Software: Vista
Speaker System: Whatever you want Asus P5B Deluxe supports 7.1
Power Supply: Chieftec or BeQuiet @ 600 W
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3500 is just a sick amount to spend on computers nowadays
completely unnecessary
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decafchicken posted good combo.,
case: I encourage you to buy quality case, something like APlus XBlade CK-1022-5, or Antec of the same price range.
psu: Corsair 620W
mbo: Abit IP35 Pro or Gigabyte P35
processor: Core 2 Quad Q6600,
hard drive: 320 gb Seagate or WD, take 500 gb+ if you need it.
sound card: Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Audio
ram 2x2 gb
videocard: 8800 GTS
optical drive: LG GSA-H30N,
Speakers: Logitech X-230 or creative 5.1
OS Software: This one is tricky, you need Vista if you want to run dx10 games (Bioshock being the only one for now). I suggest Xp +SP2 until Crysis comes out. The situation with drivers for Vista is getting better day after day. When Crysis comes out install Vista 64bit. Or you can try Vista from the very beginning, your call.
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I just bought a new computer, so ill put down all my parts for ya. I'll leave it to you to figure out the price, as im sure it differs from Norway to USA.
Case: Antec Performance One P182 (Heard nothing but praises for this baby)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R (Was mentioned several times in another computer thread here on TL not long ago)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
CPU fan: Noctua NH-U12F, 4 Dual-Heat-Pipes, 120mm (friend recommended)
Graphics: XFX GeForce 8800GTX 570M 768MB GDDR3 (Rather high end card, and i choose XFX because of recommendations once again)
PSU: Seasonic S12Energy+ PSU 650W, 120mm Fan (Was rated highest on the list of PSUs on silentpcreview together with some other PSUs)
HD: Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2
RAM: OCZ DDR2 4096MB Gold GX XTC Dual Channel
I guess that was all, unless i forgot something. Other than "extra" stuff like DVD-rom etc.
Well thats my setup, so far i can't tell you anything about how good it is, as i havent gotten it setup yet. All the parts are still on my table waiting.
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On August 23 2007 18:08 Red_Dragon wrote:
decafchicken posted good combo.,
case: I encourage you to buy quality case, something like APlus XBlade CK-1022-5, or Antec of the same price range.
psu: Corsair 620W
mbo: Abit IP35 Pro or Gigabyte P35
processor: Core 2 Quad Q6600,
hard drive: 320 gb Seagate or WD, take 500 gb+ if you need it.
sound card: Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Audio
ram 2x2 gb
videocard: 8800 GTS
optical drive: LG GSA-H30N,
Speakers: Logitech X-230 or creative 5.1
OS Software: This one is tricky, you need Vista if you want to run dx10 games (Bioshock being the only one for now). I suggest Xp +SP2 until Crysis comes out. The situation with drivers for Vista is getting better day after day. When Crysis comes out install Vista 64bit. Or you can try Vista from the very beginning, your call.
This is not a good choice in my opinion. There is no game that needs a Quad Core plus the fact that the quad cores are not working perfectly together...
8800 GTX when he wants to spend alot... because there are 7-13% difference in the performance which can mean ~10-15 FPS. Seagate has only 7200rpm.. and when he wants a fast system he should take a western digital with 10000.
;O! Also RAM 4GB is not needed.. 2 GB is enough with 1033mhz.
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Well he has MONEY, sure he does not need it now, but it is a investment in future just like 4 gb of ram. Seagate has only 7200 rpm? So what? Show me other manufacturer who has larger rpm? Leave raptor out of this. Anyways raptor is only 150 GB. I rarely see people buying raptor for gaming. I think it would be even better to buy 750 gb barracuda than raptor. GTS vs GTX like it matters if the game runs at 100 or 120 FPS. He might need GTX if he is running games in extra large resolutions.
And investing 1000€ in cpu is not smart at all. wtf?
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Updated the component list. Leave comments, suggestions at will. Any parts I'm forgetting about?
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Taiche
France1963 Posts
About the 4 GB RAM, keep in mind that any 32bit OS can't see it (capped something below 4), so if you invest in 4 GB and want to fully use it, use a 64bit OS.
Anyway, my advice would be to get a "normal" Core 2 Duo + 2 GB RAM + 150 GB Raptor as system disk + any 500 (or whatever you need/want) GB hard drive + 8800 GTX video card + 500 or 600 W power supply.
Other stuff doesn't matter much. For more specific info, I strongly suggest you read recent tests/comparisons to make your own opinion.
To me, there are a couple bad advices in the previous posts like quad core (WTF, no software uses it) or 4 GB of RAM (2 GB is enough and I do not recommend 64bit OS to fully handle 4 GB. Plus you can always add it later on if you ever need it). But hey, that's your money not mine.
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Taiche
France1963 Posts
On August 23 2007 21:02 Tadzio00 wrote:
Updated the component list. Leave comments, suggestions at will. Any parts I'm forgetting about?
Save the money for Vista and buy it later on, when it will really be needed. There's no use today for switching from XP to Vista, especially if you plan on using a 8800 GTX with more than 512 MB RAM on it because of this performance issue that should be fixed on a patch some day.
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Well to be honest, we are buying a lot of stuff that programs or games do not use. For example 64 bit architecture is rarely used in programs or games.
T166 is great drive, the 2 or 4 gb of ram is on to you to decide. Vista takes a lot of ram, 4 gb might be overkill right now, but considering prices it might be smart choice.
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Thanks Taiche. It seems to me that upgrading RAM or and OS is a lot easier than changing out a motherboard and processor, so I'm leaning towards keeping the quad in the list-- I might not have a use for it right away, but I don't think it could hurt, right? I'll probably lower the RAM to 2GB and stick with XP for the time being.
Regarding the Raptor. Are you suggesting that I slave a 500GB HD to the Raptor? Use an External HD for storage? How would this work? 150GB HDD seems large enough to start things off, but I'm generally surprised with how quickly I find ways to fill up harddrives.
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Taiche
France1963 Posts
Yeah, upgrading the CPU might be more tedious so do as you want. I haven't followed the CPU news lately so I might be a bit outdated on what's standard or not.
For the double HDD thing, yes get 2 internal HDD then put the Raptor as master and install the OS + program files on it while putting the second disk as a slave for storage purpose.
150 GB is not that big, considering that system files will take like 4-5 GB + temporary directories + page file (generally twice as big as you have RAM, so 4 GB in your case but I have put only 2 GB on my computer and everything is fine). So you will start off with 140 GB which ain't that big if you like to download and keep some series (last season, Heroes ate like 13 GB on my HDD, but I like to watch the HD versions  ) and play some games (my installation of Half Life 2 is like 4 GB large).
So it depends on your needs but I suggest having a 250+ GB HDD as slave so you don't run out of space as time goes by
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If you are going for 150 gb raptor + one more drive combo you should as suggested (good advice Taiche) keep windows on raptor and games. Games and windows will load faster if you keep them on raptor. You could then use second say 320+ gb drive for storing downloads, movies, music, series.
You should also buy better cooling for processor than the box one. Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or similar.
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Taiche
France1963 Posts
Ah yeah, the original CPU fan is noisy -_-; I don't know which one is good nowadays (again, find some tests and comparisons on hardware websites) but back in last December I bought the Noctua NH-U12F (as suggested above by Magnifica) and it's really awesome (and huge but don't be impressed by the fan's size, it will fit in your case eventually ). But again, I'm not sure which one is good these days, so check out by yourself.
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I recommend you get a crap computer and spend the rest of the money on something useful (or maybe give it back to your dad). For most uses you won't notice the speed increase of a top notch computer compared to a midrange one.
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just get two computers imo
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EPT
