Das keyboards I have also heard about as being awesome. Good link and looks like solid keyboards, though slightly pricy for my budget.

From what I've heard in the last couple of days the best bet for a cheap mechanical is buying a Model M off of eBay or finding an ABS M1 somewhere (they apparently sold in the $30-50 range for a while).

The best way I've heard of to set up hot keys for media without a keyboard meant for it is to use AutoHotKey.

I'd also be happy with a Scissor-switch type instead of mechanical (this is what is used on Thinkpad Laptop keyboards and a few others, for example) but most of these for desktops are of the ultra-slim variety.

If I haven't found anything by the time I'm building this desktop, I'll probably pick up a LITE-ON to use in the meantime and just keep an eye out for nicer keyboard options until I find one.

As for the Processor/Mobo issue I'm waiting til around Feb. 5th to decide -- apparently Newegg will have a bunch of Combos up around then and I can either pick up something cheaper or decide to wait it out.

 

Next time I build a new computer, I will get that Das Keyboard Ultimate. Just to laugh at all the people in my family who can't touch type who try to use it.

Militis: pckeyboard.com is by Unicomp who sells the current Model M keyboards. Reliable enough, I think.

 

Alright, bumping this thread again since it's been pretty helpful so far.

As most of you know, Intel screwed up the launch of their new CPUs by having some issues with the chipsets. That's getting fixed but sources say that the fixed motherboards aren't going to be available til around May, April at the earliest. Similarly AMD's new contender, Bulldozer, isn't showing up til summer either. That's a bit too long for me to wait.

It irks me greatly that I can't have what I wanted so I changed my plans almost entirely. Instead of trying to buy a CPU/Mobo that I can use for 3-5 years while only upgrading a few parts here and there (like the GPU) I'm just going to back down all the way and build a computer that I intend to give my parents in 1-2 years.

I'm not willing to take a performance hit from my original build unless I'm getting a nice bit of savings as well so I'm trying to be as cost-conscious as possible now while still getting quality parts.

Proposed build:

$239 -- Phenom II x4 965 & Mobo Combo
$180 -- Gigabyte Radeon 6850
$47 -- G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB 1333 DDR3 RAM
$65 -- Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
$90 -- Corsair 650W PSU
$60 -- HAF 912 case
$23 -- DVD Burner

Total: $704 +shipping

I have a Dell U2211h monitor (1920x1080) and I will be picking up some new speakers, a keyboard, a mousepad, etc. as peripherals but those aren't part of the "build" so to speak, so not listing here. I'm thinking around $20 for speakers, $20 for a keyboard (I found some scissor-switch ones by Rosewill that look decent), and a cheap but high quality mousepad to round this out to $750 or so.

I also want to make sure that this is not just an upgrade but a significant upgrade for my parents from what they currently have. Their current computer, a Dell purchased mid-2007, has an Athlon 64 x2 4000+, 2GB DDR2 RAM, and a 256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro. I think it will be great for them, but how can I add a modem for dial-up?

Any comments/suggestions on the new build are welcome. I want to keep the cost to $750 or so not including peripherals and shipping, but obviously the lower the better. I'm happy to make a few minor changes for the sake of performance and quality though.

Thanks again

 

I saw that reading around, but the 965 came out to be $10 cheaper with the combo deal I bought (and the same deal was not available in 955 form). Or I think so anyway -- but even if not I have no intention of overclocking (it does scare me somewhat), but perhaps I should learn.

I was sure to ask them this but I almost forgot -- thanks for the reminder! They said it would be fine and didn't really care what it looked like so long as it would fit in the place they wanted to put the tower (and it will).

I think I have that sorted -- got a copy of Windows Ultimate 64bit via my mom (who teaches computer classes at a college), thanks again though -- forgetting this would really suck.

As for the rest, well, I ordered it this week and parts of it have already arrived.

This seems like a good time to say that I'll definitely post some pics DvorakQ! Thanks for the reminder on that. I am getting excited

Oh, and total cost was $732 or so shipped. :awesome

 

Computer

Well I got it put together on Friday night and got it to turn on. Then I installed Windows and went to bed. Installed a few more drivers and other things yesterday, but was gone most of the day, and now here we are on Sunday and it seems to be running pretty solid.





I know I didn't do as good a job of cable management as I could have, but trust me this looks a hell of a lot better than it did before I re-organized things a bit.

Running Windows 7 64bit Ultimate ^^

Final Parts (3 Combos from Newegg helped with cost)

• AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE
• Asus AM3 870 Mobo
• Radeon 6850
• Corsair 650TX PSU
• 8 GB G.Skill RAM 1333
• 1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F3
• Lite-ON DVD Burner
• Rosewill Modem
• HAF 912 case

Other things I picked up that I didn't include in the actual build are a Dell U2211h monitor I got as a present, a Rosewill RK-7300 keyboard, a basic Microsoft mouse, a Steelseries mousepad, and a pair of used MAudio MV40 speakers.

I can't wait to finish getting everything installed and running properly. Right now I'm being extremely careful about making sure that nothing is starting on start-up or installing extra shit or anything like that to slow me down.

Here's a question: What programs do you all consider overly useful and absolutely worth having? I'm not speaking in terms of "this is really neat" programs so much as things that help you assure the health of your system. Right now I'm installing CCleaner, MalwareBytes, CPU-z, & updated drivers. I haven't picked an Anti-Virus yet, and I'm wondering if I need to be better able to monitor my CPU temp and Hard Drive health, or make sure my RAM is running at the right speed, etc. Also wondering if there is something that can tell me when anything is running in the background or at start-up so I can stop it -- have always had problems with things sneaking in and slowing the computer down that way.

Thanks for all your help DLP!

 

I couldn't live without f.lux and and iTunesControl. <.<

 

Nice responses on programs from everyone!

I'm debating between Avast! & MSE for Anti-Virus protection. I've always used Avast! but their Boot-Time Scan (which cinched it for me in the past) isn't compatible with 64-bit systems as far as I know, so I'm tempted to go with MSE.

7zip is a good suggestion. I already have 1-2 .rar files that I need to get a program to open. I'll go with your suggestion for a catch-all program. I think I've used it before and liked it even.

Gimp! I love that program. I had completely forgotten.

Music player I'll probably use iTunes again if only because I have a damned iPod (it was free). Unless there's a way to manage my music on the thing without resorting to iTunes.

Speedfan -- I shall check this out, thanks.

As far as background processes I wasn't looking for a way to stop them so much as a way to keep them from ever starting -- one old computer I used had so many things scheduled to run at start-up that it took half a day to get the computer up and running.

Dunno what f.lux and iTunescontrol are, but those are now on my list of things to look at.

Finicky answered the question about start-up.

Vuse, Daemon tools, and PuTTy... ok, will look those up also.

VLC media player is a champ -- good to know someone else suggests it. It's been one of my favorites for a while also but I always worry I'm missing out on something better, so thanks!

I don't have enough thumbs-up for you all. Thanks again DLP.

 

f.lux adjusts your mintors temperature depending on the time of day and the likely ambient light in the room at that time to reduce eye strain. Looks a bit weird at first but once you get used to it it's amazing. iTunesControl lets you control music playback and the like with global keyboard shortcuts. For example, if I want to skip a song I hit ctrl+alt+right, or to go back one I hit ctrl+alt+back.

EDIT: Vuse/Azureus is a bittorrent client; Daemon tools is a virtual CD/DVD drive, used to mount disk images; PuTTy is a telnet/ssh client. I'm not sure if you'll ever need to use it.

 

I was asking what everyones essential programs were -- yours included Nukular -- but with an emphasis on things that everyone should have in your opinions.

I got some great answers and input Thanks everyone