Computer Building Blues

[Juno]

Well, my birthday is coming up this week and my gift from my parents is a new computer, which I will assemble. Wonderful news because I haven't been able to play games, including MTW:II, for months.

Then came the awful truth: With so many choices, what do I do?!

I have a $1,000 (U.S. Dollars) limit with my eye on this CPU.

So the question remains, help me TWCenter, you're my only hope.

[mrmouth]

Man I am burnt out with these threads, no offense. Someone will come along and show you the path to glory.

For starters though, go with core 2 duo and a nice motherboard to complement.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003

[Juno]

Man I am burnt out with these threads, no offense. Someone will come along and show you the path to glory.

For starters though, go with core 2 duo and a nice motherboard to complement.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003

I apologize, but this is just one of those topics where you can't rely on the information posted on older threads because of how fast technology moves.

[mrmouth]

Yeah, I just haven't eaten yet, and its so hot out right now I'm going to lose my mind. So overall I just don't have the patience to get into this right now, but I'm sure one of the regulars will come along soon.

[Juno]

Haha, I hear ya.

Your avatar is great by the way.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Get an intel...

(seriously - I have used AMDs for ages, but right now, it's just wrong...).

[spartan_phalanx]

At stock the new E6550 is right on par with the AMD X2 6000+. Now add in how well the core 2 duo series overclocks and AMD is left behind. Now you could also get the E6300/E6320 or E6400/E6420, overclock it and it would still be better and use less power.

The sweet spot for price/performance/ocing is the E6750 I think.

[mrmouth]

Same price as the 6600, nice find spartan_phalanx.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029

What else do you need Juno? Monitor, interface (keyboard-mouse)?

[Juno]

I've got a sweet 19' monitor. The keyboard I have is fine, but I want a new mouse. Don't have much space on my pull-out, so I was thinking of a ball mouse.

And yeah, I'm thinking I should try out the E6750.

Hmm, looking at graphic cards right now.

[mrmouth]

And yeah, I'm thinking I should try out the E6750.

That would be a nice choice at a good price.

Follow spartan_phalanx's link and choose a motherboard, I like the 680i motherboards myself.

I might look at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131073

Or maybe a cheaper EVGA board.

DDR2 ram prices are on the rise again, In a couple of more months dual channel kits will be up around $150.

I found this though, some great ram for the price:

OCZ Platinum revision 2/2x1gb dual channel kit, price is $63.99 using coupon code EMC622DOCZO
at checkout.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227139
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227231

[Aristocrat]

Does that thousand also include money for a monitor, keyboard, case, etc?

Either way, your system should include a Intel core 2 duo, and, if it will fit under your budget, an 8800GTS.

Hmm, I'll have a look, why not.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E 6550 2.33ghz - $183

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-N650SLI-DS4 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - $125

Video Card: eVGA 8800GTS 320mb - $260

Ram: Geil PC6400 2GB Dual Channel Kit - $65

Power Supply: Coolermaster 600Watt PSU - $50

Case:CoolerMaster Centurian 5 Case - $50

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 320gb SATA - $95

Total: $828

If needed:

Monitor: Sceptre 17" 8ms LCD - $150

Keyboard/Mouse: Microsoft Standard PS2 Mouse and Keyboard Combo - $17

New Total: $995 (Plus Postage handling, probaly meaning around $1100 at the very most, most of it has free postage, but the case and monitor will be about $50 postage together).

If you need an operating system, I suggest you use your parents windows cds.
If not, then Windows XP Home OEM is $90, Bringing you to $1085 (Plu Postage and handling is about $1150).

Edit: Damn, I will change some parts then and post later.

[spartan_phalanx]

Well since I posted before it has gone up, was $225. Newegg runs dynamic prices and they go up as stock goes down. Anyway you can get it elsewhere for cheaper though. Check pricegrabber. Also remember that your going for the newer faster FSB processor so you need a motherboard that supports it (P35/G33 or 650i/680i).

[Juno]

Based on your suggestions (which I appreciate so much, thanks), I have picked out all the parts I need for my new computer. Like I said, I already have a 19' LCD monitor, mouse, and keyboard. I'm going to reuse my old 200GB IDE HDD along with a 80GB SATA drive a good friend of mine gave to me.

CHASSIS - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$49.99

PSU - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-600-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 600W Power Supply 115/230 V Safety Nemko, TUV, cUL, CE, BSMI, FCC, CCC - Retail
$89.99 (Rebate = $49.99)

MOTHERBOARD - MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$149.99

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
$229.99

RAM - OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
$129.99 (Rebate = $89.99)

OPTICAL DRIVE - SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner With LightScribe Technology - OEM
$36.99

VIDEO CARD - EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
$279.99 (Rebate = $259.99)

TOTAL ESTIMATE - $886

So what do you guys think? Are there any extra parts I would need? Thermal paste comes to mine, perhaps this system needs some more fans? Thanks again.

[spartan_phalanx]

Maybe a third party heatsink/fan if you will be overclocking. It can be hit or miss with the stock ones. Also I'm not sure if you know but that motherboard is currently out of stock @ Newegg. I have never owned OCZ memory but the buzz is that they do not honor mail-in-rebates so just be aware and follow the instructions to a T to get it.

The E6750 went up again ($234.99), so you might order it if you haven't. On a side note the E6850 dropped below the E6700 price.

[Juno]

The E6850 is very tempting, but seems a bit too much for me. :x

Anyways, the motherboard is back in stock, thankfully. I think I'll take my chances with the RAM, I've read up on OCZ's website and it just seems they have some very strict guidelines.

I was thinking of buying some thermal paste instead of the pads. I plan to overclock the CPU later when I have more money for a better fan.

[Aristocrat]

OCZ ram is fine, some members here rave (good way) about the stuff, and OCZ's warranty.

Artic Silver 5 or Artic Silver Ceramique is the best thermal paste out there.

[Juno]

Ah, that's what I've been hearing.

[mrmouth]

For me the cost/performance ratio with OCZ is great, and you can usually overclock the crap out of it, its become very popular with overclockers in general. Also the timings are generally spot on right out of the box, you can spend $150 on a dual channel DDR2 kit and find that many times the timings are below advertised.

Here is some killer memory though:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...70&dcaid=17070

Look s like a nice PC Juno. I recommended the Asus board because it is essentially a no frills striker extreme.

Edit: I know that PSU looks like a good deal, but I would seriously look at something else. I know very well that PSU is crap and it has a $40 rebate for a reason, it also doesnt support PFC, which is pretty much standard these days. If you want to go with a CoolerMaster PSU with your CM case, just look at a little better PSU from them. I own a CoolerMaster case and they are pretty good at engineering them to fit most PSU's so dont worry about having to go with a CM PSU.

Good Deal on a highly regarded PSU, just create a google checkout account (very fast and easy) and get the Corsair 520 for $89.99 (free shipping). Very small PSU, will fit in any case, very quiet, 3x18A 12v rails, 5yr warranty.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...53&dcaid=17653

[Juno]

Man, reading this thread really bums me out because it turns out my parents were only going to give me a $400 budget. :-/

[Roman Clone]

You cant even buy anything with 400$.