So, I've decided to build myself a new rig, and I want your opinions. These are the parts I'm planning on using. Grand total of $916.91, not including shipping. Keep in mind, I know jack-shit about building a computer (this will be my first time), so I'm not sure if all the parts are compatible. Thoughts?

Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
HITACHI Deskstar E7K500 HDS725050KLA360 (0A31619) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
GIGABYTE GA-MA69GM-S2H AM2 AMD 690G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Sony NEC Optiarc Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM
Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL 550W SLI Ready-ATX12V V2.01 Power Supply - Retail
G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5S-2GBPQ - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX6000CZBOX - Retail
Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM

 

Nice, a few things, don't spend that much for just a case, get more than 2 gigs of ram, might want to consider getting a better Processor or Graphics card depending on your gaming preferences and i myself wouldn't waste money on an OS if you get what i mean .

 

Case: Get the antec 900, if you're air cooling its the best out. Period. It stays within a few degrees of my H2O setup, even 300$ later. That case is a good bare case, but it's not the best. And that is a fine price range for a case, you get what you pay for most times, the only time that's not true is with Lian-li shit. THAT stuff is overpriced as hell.

Antec 900: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

HD: Seen one, seen em all.

Stay the hell away from AMD. Anything Intel has in the current lineup at a similar price range walks the dog on it.

Better memory. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565
Crucial is a divison of Micron. The guys that MAKE the RAM others uses. They save the best d9 shit for Crucial. 2gb is fine. Xp can't use more then 2.8 anyhow, so it's a waste to go higher unless you go 64bit, and even then it's not worth it.

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188017
Proc: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

The graphics card itself is fine so long as you don't turn on antialiasing or AF. If you do, it'll choke itself and preform badly. The 640mb version of the GTS is what I have, and there's only one game out that gives it trouble fully cranked up, and that's Crysis.

 

CPU: Intel E8200
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35-DS3P
RAM: 2 x 2GB Kit DDR2-800
HDD: 500gb Western Digital
GPU: 512MB Generic 8800GTS 512mb
Case: Coolermaster RC-690
PSU: Corsair HX-520 520W
Optical Drive: ASUS BLT-2014 Lightscribe SATA
CPU HSF: Noctua NH-U12P

E8400 if you can find stock. If you have more money, get a better GPU and RAM.

Midknight: XP can address up to 4GB of memory, RAM and video memory included. It's not 2.8GB of RAM. You usually get around 3.5 or so depending on the amount you have on your video card and other places.

The E6xxx series is last years product, E8xxx series is much better performance and value wise, don't settle for anything less.

SLI is a waste of money, single card solutions are always much better than dual card solutions, thus SLI motherboards are a massive waste of money, the mark up for just having SLI is ridiculous. A P35-DS3p will compete easily for a lot less money.

Decent RAM is only useful for when over clocking, other than that you will not notice a difference, other than with the warranty. 800Mhz minimum, decent brand, nothing insane, GeiL or similar usually does the job, 4GB minimum because it's so damn fucking cheap.

 

Thanks for your help, Murton, Middy. I'll be getting a summer job, so I hope I can pay for all of this by the end of it.

 

Everything Middy said. Especially about nVidia and Intel. They're hands down the best performance for your dollar if you want to game.

I picked up one of the few Lian Li cases worth the money, the PC-7S. When I was doing computing on the cheap tho, any old case would do. I just took the side off it and placed an el cheapo 30cm fan there. I've never believed in spending much money on cases unless you have specific requirements (like keeping low temps, noise, form factor, bling, etc).

Quad core processors. They're not worth paying extra for. I have one, it only seems to use one and a bit cores for most tasks. There's no real advantage to them at the moment, a dual core is just fine.

If you're not looking to overclock, then ram is ram. Size is all that matters. If you do want to overclock, then you have to start looking at CAS timings (lower is better), etc.

I have the same basic 8800GTS 640MB video card as Middy. I bought mine pre-overclocked by the manufacturer for not much more money than a stock card. It goes great. There's been a bit of movement in the video card world since then though.

I interpret this to say, from a purely performance view point for mid-range cards, 8800GTS512 > 8800GT > 9600GT512 > 8800GTS640. USA prices will of course be different. Find out which one you can afford. Stretch your budget for a good card. I think you'll be happy with any of those four.

What are you doing with your old case, hdd, and OS? You can save money there. If you already own XP, then use that one instead. You might be able to re-use your case. And an old hdd makes a great dedicated cache drive for a Windows box.

Yak.

 

PSU: Corsair HX-520 520W

No. If aything, get the 750w version, or anything that has a SINGLE RAIL with good amps.

Maybe, but I personally get 2.8 ghz using a 8800gts 640mb. Either way I noticed no noticable difference upping from 2gb to 4gb, in 3dmark, and barely any difference in Sandra tests. It's just not worth it. Spend the extra 80 bucks on a higher quality PSU that'll be good until you outgrow it.

The E6xxx series is last years product, E8xxx series is much better performance and value wise, don't settle for anything less.

Looks like he was budget shopping I gave him a chip in the same price range. *shrug* One again, the guy's looking at AMD shit for an upgrade, so EVEN the e6xxx is going to blow that shit out of the water.

SLI is a waste of money, single card solutions are always much better than dual card solutions, thus SLI motherboards are a massive waste of money, the mark up for just having SLI is ridiculous. A P35-DS3p will compete easily for a lot less money.

eh, I don't SLI mine, but mine overclocks better then any board I've seen. I'm pushing 3.7ghz on a stock 2.4 chip. Friend is doing the same. Is the p35 a major confirmed OCer? Then again.. if he's not goign to OC, go with a cheaper dependable brand, but 100$, I think it was super lower with a rebate, is cheap man, check the price.

Decent RAM is only useful for when over clocking, other than that you will not notice a difference, other than with the warranty. 800Mhz minimum, decent brand, nothing insane, GeiL or similar usually does the job, 4GB minimum because it's so damn fucking cheap.

We'll disagree on that. 80 bucks for another decent set of 2gb makes the difference between a shitty GPu and a good one, or a good PSU and one that kicks ass, or a whole nother step higher of chip. You're just not going to see XP use the extra 2 gbs worth a fuck to make it worth it. Ever. Link me some benchmarks testing saying otherwise incase something changed, but everything I've ever read says it's not worth it. It IS worth it in 64bit Vista, but ONLY because Vista literally drinks RAM.

 

Corsair PSU's are great quality PSU's in a decent budget range, there is nothing in the gap between generic and crap and high end performing PSU's other than the corsair HX range. Their wattage ratings are also alot more efficient than your generic ones. The HX520 or even HX620 is more than enough for the components in a ~$1000 system. Spending more for a better PSU when you are buying a budget PC is silly. If you are buying budget now, why would you buy a better PSU at the cost of other things when the next time you upgrade, the better PSU you bought isn't even good enough for the upgrades you buy.

PSU choice should match the components you are buying now with headroom for any possible expansion, i.e. hard drives etc, as well as being quality, appropriate amps on the rail/s for your components.

Also the HX range is modular, no annoying leads which aren't used.

I think you mean 2.8GB of RAM. There can be memory in other components, sound card, motherboard etc etc which will lower the amount of usable RAM. You will only notice the difference in amount of RAM is you can use, benchmarks are useless in determining the amount of RAM. Of course we all know Vista will chew through any amount of RAM it is given. XP can also do this if your requirements determine thus. I could easily max out 4GB of RAM on XP due to the programs I use, audio editing/production. Any video encoding applications will also love having more RAM, plus having 4GB now days allows headroom to upgrade to Vista in the future when it's finally forced upon us.

Also try and go for 2GB sticks as it allows you to expand your RAM without having to buy it all again due to your motherboard.

RAM is so cheap at the moment it is worth it.

True he's a budget shopper, but the 8 series is so damn cheap. $200US for an E8400? Hell yes. You'd be silly not to. The E8400 outperforms a Q6600 on dual core applications easily. Plus it's based on the 45nm process, which has been seen to OC like CRAZY. 3.6Ghz easily. 4Ghz with some effort. 4.2/4.4Ghz if you are lucky. That's an insane over clock and with the heat sink I recommended, easily within reach. You'd be silly not to go with an 8 series now days, only thing stopping you is stock which is why I recommended the E8200 unless you could find E8400 stock. Thanks to the world shortage from Intel, all stock in Australia got a massive $100 price premium due to retailers gouging us consumers. I don't think that price rise has hit the US yet.

The P35 chip set is a decent over clocker, nothing insane, but it's probably the best you could get for hi price range, balancing features and over clocking ability and price. They are a great buy. They're a dependable brand, intel make good chip sets. The other alternative is an ASUS P5K which is also pretty decent.

Pretty covered everything in this. Allows headroom for when vista is released or depending on your usage. It all depends on your usage and the amount of funds available. Of course benchmarks aren't going to show a difference at all. More RAM = more multitasking. And it is so damn cheap at the moment. Also 4-4-4-12 is preferable, though 5-5-5-15 is acceptable. The difference in RAM benchmarks are so small that benchmarks don't really do them justice. Only get more expensive RAM when over clocking as it will allow for a better OC, other than that the normal user won't notice a difference between branded 1200Mhz DDR3 with ultra low timings /w heat spreaders and RAM coolers and generic 667Mhz DDR2.

 

Corsair PSU's are great quality PSU's in a decent budget range, there is nothing in the gap between generic and crap and high end performing PSU's other than the corsair HX range. Their wattage ratings are also alot more efficient than your generic ones. The HX520 or even HX620 is more than enough for the components in a ~$1000 system. Spending more for a better PSU when you are buying a budget PC is silly. If you are buying budget now, why would you buy a better PSU at the cost of other things when the next time you upgrade, the better PSU you bought isn't even good enough for the upgrades you buy.

Trust me I know they're great PSUs. But recommending him something in the 500 watt range just isn't going to cut it anymore. 500 watt with my system and even my OLD system lead to lockups once I added more then 1 HD and cd burner, or even added in a freaking CCFL. There's no excuse to ever, ever go uber budget on the PSU. With as cheap as THEY are, it's a crime that the PSU is the very, very first place that people fuck up and go cheap on. IRL that I've seen/fixed, 9 times out of 10 you get folks with good systems, then they have weird lock ups and crashes due to their dumbasses grabbing a cheap PSU, or hell even a good one that can't support their PSU.


PSU choice should match the components you are buying now with headroom for any possible expansion, i.e. hard drives etc, as well as being quality, appropriate amps on the rail/s for your components.

Also the HX range is modular, no annoying leads which aren't used.

The truth right there. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
I wish I'd of noticed it wasn't modular =/ I dremeled out a small chunk of my case though to hide the wires. I wound up not using any buy 1 molex connector for my water pump, and only 3 sata connectors.


I think you mean 2.8GB of RAM. There can be memory in other components, sound card, motherboard etc etc which will lower the amount of usable RAM. You will only notice the difference in amount of RAM is you can use, benchmarks are useless in determining the amount of RAM. Of course we all know Vista will chew through any amount of RAM it is given. XP can also do this if your requirements determine thus. I could easily max out 4GB of RAM on XP due to the programs I use, audio editing/production. Any video encoding applications will also love having more RAM, plus having 4GB now days allows headroom to upgrade to Vista in the future when it's finally forced upon us.

I still say it's pointless. And not to mention if you're THAT worried about future proofing yourself when you upgrade to Vista, you wouldn't be wasting time on DD2 anyway. If he's going on a tighter budget, it's a waste to recommend 4 gbs, he's not going to ever run into a situation where he'll miss the extra 2 gbs, ever. Now if he's heavy editing, *shrug* knocking a few seconds off ain't worth the extra 80 bucks. And if he was, he wouldn't be going budget.

Also try and go for 2GB sticks as it allows you to expand your RAM without having to buy it all again due to your motherboard.

Truth if you're going to use it.



True he's a budget shopper, but the 8 series is so damn cheap. $200US for an E8400? Hell yes. You'd be silly not to. The E8400 outperforms a Q6600 on dual core applications easily. Plus it's based on the 45nm process, which has been seen to OC like CRAZY. 3.6Ghz easily. 4Ghz with some effort. 4.2/4.4Ghz if you are lucky. That's an insane over clock and with the heat sink I recommended, easily within reach. You'd be silly not to go with an 8 series now days, only thing stopping you is stock which is why I recommended the E8200 unless you could find E8400 stock. Thanks to the world shortage from Intel, all stock in Australia got a massive $100 price premium due to retailers gouging us consumers. I don't think that price rise has hit the US yet.

True, but like I said I quickly popped to newegg and looked in that range.



The P35 chip set is a decent over clocker, nothing insane, but it's probably the best you could get for hi price range, balancing features and over clocking ability and price. They are a great buy. They're a dependable brand, intel make good chip sets. The other alternative is an ASUS P5K which is also pretty decent.

What's the price? My mom's 650i takes her e6600 to 3 ghz easily, and my 680i goes 3.7. 650i you can get for as low as 40 bucks after rebate, the 680i's still in the upper 100's.


Only get more expensive RAM when over clocking as it will allow for a better OC, other than that the normal user won't notice a difference between branded 1200Mhz DDR3 with ultra low timings /w heat spreaders and RAM coolers and generic 667Mhz DDR2.

Aye. The only reason I buy more expensive RAM is so I can lower the timing retarded fast. I run my 1000 DDR 2 for example @ 3-3-3-6 756mhz 1T. Running it half speed, at those timings, in synch with my mobo, actually boosts my performance quite abit. Pretty much the only standard for RAM for me is, A)Crucial, B)Heatspreaders, and C) double what I want speed wise. Then again.. I can take the same RAM and run it 4-4-4-8 @1300 2.3vs but it gets too hot after awhile, lol.

 

750 watts is completely excessive. A system with an 8800GT and a X6800(65nm extreme) draws 266 watts under full load. Another site shows that figure at 181, with the 8800GTS at 215, and the 3870X2 at 290. Those all give the 520HX >200 watt overhead.

Also, NVidia rates the 8800GT as needing a 400 watt or greater PSU, and SLI'd 8800GTs at 450 watts. The HX520 is fine.

http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NywxMSwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3209&p=12

 

Hmm, I just got myself a new video card, a 8800GT to be exact and it is significantly more powerful than the 8800GTS's and is also a lot cheaper. I am also running it on a 300 watt power supply with absolutely no problems and it has handled everything I've thrown at it so far with out a single stutter.

 

Problem with that is there are no power supply's with the required PCIe connections under 600w if I remember correctly. Also you must take account of the rest of the system's needs. Also extreme edition 6 series = massive lulz. The 8 series draws less power than the 6 series, being based on the 45nm process, but the motherboards and other components you pair with it are usually higher in quality due to price coming down thus you power requirements are a little bit higher than those sites are presenting, although it's still within your estimates, 750w is excessive unless you have the other components to go with it or SLI/CF(x).

 

ROFL. Try that real world while overclocking and tell me your results. My PC stutters or flat of fucks up with anything less then a 600 w.

Take what Murt said and then add in the draw of fans, water pumps, lighting, extra hard drives, extra dvd drives, take into account the massive power spike DVD burners and hard drives suck in when they're overly active, take into account the same thing for graphics cards and CPU. NEVER go low on your PSU, always overkill it by 100 watts +++ of what you think your max load is. Not to mention, unless you're using a 80%+ PSU, you're not getting anywhere fucking NEAR what your PSU is supposedly rated for.

They test the PSUs under shady ass perfect conditions when they rate them, not under 70-80 degrees ambient outside air, 90 degree inside case air, poor airflow, or anything else a real world case would have. That's why the new crop of PSU's you've got to get on that's quality. Murt will agree with me on that, even if he doesnt agree on how far extra you should go.


8800 GTS uses around 250 w when used in a 3dmark05.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/644-9/nvidia-geforce-8800-gtx-8800-gts.html

My e6600 uses around 150-200 watts overclocked. So we're at 400-450w without even considering RAM, mobo, drives, fans, lights, pumps. Nothing.

 

Yup, it's when you're overclocking where you really need a quality PSU and if you get a 6 or 8 series chip with a decent HSF, read: Thermalright 120 extreme or that nocturn HSF I suggested then you'd be crazy not to overclock.

Again, anything over 600w for a 8800GT and E8 or E6 non extreme system is kinda overkill. Unless you plan on adding in SLI in the future, have a tonne of hard drives, multiple optical drives, lots of cooling or want to cover any future expenses if you so choose to do so.

 

MrINBN: Are you going to be heavily overclocking this pc?

Are you doing any liquid cooling, or intensive fan-based cooling?

Are you going to be stacking a lot of extra drives (hard drives, dvd drives, etc), or just the two you mentioned in op?

Are you going to bling your case with lights, glowing fans, etc?

These are the kinds of things that require heavier power supplies. I'm guessing your answer is 'no' to all of the above. If you want to do any of that in the future though, then keep your eyes on the PSU and RAM requirements.

Hang about a minute. You won't be buying this until after summer? The market will have changed by then anyway. Especially the prices and selection of CPU, Video, and RAM.

Come back and ask at the end of summer break when you nearly have enough money. August or September isn't it?

Yak.

 

You should check out www.tomshardware.com before you buy. By far the best reviews out there. If you want a good baseline to look at check out the April $500 Gaming PC.

 

Meh.

The e2160 overclocks like hell. Get a better HSF, Zalman or TT, the RAM's el cheapo, but alright for a budget PC.

One good thing to always remember though, and one of the reasons I try to buy the best parts I can. You can usually 90% of the time, carry quality parts over from one build to the next. I had a 600w power supply I bought in like freaking 2000 last up until last year in my mom's PC. Was state of the art when it fell off a truck into my hands, heh.

Now, buying DDR2 if you're getting a budget build is alright, because DDR3 just isn't worth it money wise right now, but say, in a year, you shouldn't be buying DDR2 anymore. Unless you're really stretched for cash, if you buy the pc hell 4 months from now, you should go DDR3, so at least in 2-3 years when you upgrade again, if you're one of those types, DDR 3 will still be mainstream and you'll be able to save cash porting over the dimms until you get better stuff.

 

Here's a neat comparison chart of various Intel Core 2 chips. The article ranks the chips based on performance in various games and applications. My Q6600 still isn't too shabby.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=499&pgno=0

 

Those articles are worthless if you try to use them for price vs performance comparision though, for the simple fact that the higher chips often barely overclock, while the cheaper chips you can often add at least 800 mhz onto them, and save yourself hundreds of dollars.

For the superPi run for example, I can do it in 15.5 seconds. That puts my e6600 over a Q9950, and I'm not even stressing my chip yet, I've got a ton of stuff running,etc.

 

Obviously they're only comparisons for chips at stock speeds. That's how the vast majority of people run their gear. So, it's a useful comparison chart for the vast majority of people.

Price wouldn't be included in an article like that because they fluctuate continuously. Once you find the chips that fall into your price range on NewEgg, then you can use the easy comparisons to see how they stack up against each other.

Frankly, if you're a buyer looking to overclock, then you'll have chosen a chip based on it's overclocking abilities vs. price and the usefulness of such a comparison chart vanishes. Most people don't buy for overclocking though. Mr INBN never mentioned non-stock heatsinks or fans.

edit: You're using liquid cooling aren't you Middy?