[Sandwich]

...Help me build my new gaming PC. I'm looking for something that's good (solid) and will last a very long time (I'm currently on an Athlon 1.8 with 512k ram) before I have to upgrade or change anything. I've read what I can, could anybody suggest anything else?


Microsoft Vista Home Premium (64-bit) OEM$129.99

EVGA nForce 780i 775 ATX Motherboard $259.99

Corsair Memory XMS2 DHX 4GB PC-6400 DDR2 Memory Kit (Two 2GB DDR2-800 Memory Modules)$119.99

EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT Superclocked 512MB GDDR3 PCIe Graphics Card $249.99

Antec Nine Hundred ATX Gaming Case $114.99

2x Samsung OEM 12x Double Layer 20x DVD±RW Burner $59.98

Corsair Memory TX 650 Watt ATX Power Supply $139.99

Western Digital 500GB 7,200RPM SATA-300 Hard Drive 99.00

Intel Core-2 Quad Q6600 $199.99

The prices aren't entirely accurate...I intend on asking microcenter to match prices on a couple of items (video card and power supply) plus rebates.

(PS no offense meant by "nerds"...I'm the one building the PC.

 

[BadDNA]

Drop Vista, go XP. No reason to go 64 bit yet either, stick with 32 bit versions for greater compatibility.

 

[BMXman]

Drop Vista, go XP.

Every person I have talked to in the last year has said this..is Vista really that bad??..D

 

[H8R]

Every person I have talked to in the last year has said this..is Vista really that bad??..D

No. It's worse.

 

[Arkayne]

No. It's worse.

I'm with him. Vista....

 

[Sandwich]

what about if I intend on running 4gb of ram? I've heard 32bit OSs won't utilize the entire amount. I suppose it's better to have more and not use it all, but still. It would save me some money, but I don't use a lot of different apps right now, just firefox and the games...

 

[JustMtnB44]

Sandwich, I just built a new computer two weeks ago. Intended use is some gaming, 3D CAD, playback of HD movies and other media. I currently have it hooked up to a LCD TV so it's running at 1920 x 1080 resolution.

My goal was to get pretty good performance in everything for around a grand or so.

Specs are:
Abit IP-35 Pro motherboard
Intel E8400 processor
Arctic Cooling Freezer7 Pro heatsink
OCZ SLI ready 4 gb (2x2gb) RAM
XFX 8800GT 512mb
WD 500gb AAKS hard drive (OS/programs)
Samsung 500gb hard drive (media storage)
Antec NeoPower 650watt PSU
Samsung 20x DVD burner
Antec P182 case (similar in size to 900 but much quieter and stealthy looking since I have this computer in my living room)
Windows XP Pro 32 bit

I'm pretty happy with it so far but haven't really done much with it yet. I have copies of XP and Vista but decided to stay with XP for now as to not worry about program compatibility issues. 32 bit OS won't recognize all 4 gb or RAM, but 3.25gb is still more than enough.

As far as your hardware list goes, thats a pretty good build. You may want to consider something other than the Q6600 processor. I chose the E8400 because it has faster FSB, more L2 cache per core, and is more energy efficient than Q6600 for about the same price. It supposedly provides better gaming performance than the Q6600 when both are in stock form. Many games won't take full advantage of a quad core processor anyway. Do you plan on overclocking this system? Also for $250 you may consider the 8800GTS card, or else look for an 8800GT that is $200 or less.

 

[Sandwich]

I was intent on having them price match the 8800gt to whatever the current e-tailers price is. There's also like a $30 rebate on it, so it comes out to something like 189.

My choice with the Q6600 was more for longevity. It's not as fast as some of the similarly priced dual cores, but it's good, solid, and my concern is that, in the future especially, games and programs will fully utilize the capabilities of the quad core. I don't want to be left in the dust in a year because I picked two cores over four... Plus, microcenter has them for $200, which is even cheaper than on the internets. Should I just stick with a dual core for now? I'd like to still be using this computer in a year or two without any upgrades.

 

[goofy]

Drop Vista, go XP. No reason to go 64 bit yet either, stick with 32 bit versions for greater compatibility.

the only problem with that is if you want to play some of the new games they only work with Vista.

 

[Transcend]

Sandich, a 32 bit operating system cannot address more than 4gb of ram, correct (it's actually 3.82 something GB I believe). If you feel you need more than 4gb of ram, you must go 64b.

 

[Ciaran]

the only problem with that is if you want to play some of the new games they only work with Vista.

Really? List of games with links to system req's please.

Vista is not bad if it's set up correctly from the get go (much like XP) but it is a bigger resource hog than XP.

I only play one game, and I run it on XP. I have talked to others who run it on Vista without issue.

I agree that there's no reason to go 64 yet.

 

[goofy]

Really? List of games with links to system req's please.

Vista is not bad if it's set up correctly from the get go (much like XP) but it is a bigger resource hog than XP.

I only play one game, and I run it on XP. I have talked to others who run it on Vista without issue.

I agree that there's no reason to go 64 yet.

I don't know of all the games but if the game requires DirectX 10 it's vista only.

 

[JustMtnB44]

I'm fairly certain there are tests that show the E8400 is faster than the Q6600 in most, if not all games, due to it's higher clock speed, higher front side bus speed, and the fact that a lot of games (nearly all?) do not fully utilize all four cores. Plus it runs cooler uses less energy than the Q6600. The Q6600 is faster at applications that fully use it like some encoding programs and photoshop and stuff like that. Which one is more future proof, I don't know. If I were to get a quad core I would lean towards something like the Q9300 which uses the new 45nm process like the E8400 and has similar specs but with 4 slower cores.

I don't know of any games that only work with DX10, most are back compatible with DX9 as well but you just might not get all the eye candy that DX10 provides.

 

[JustMtnB44]

So...did you decide on a parts spec yet?

 

[Sandwich]

Well, yes and no.

I actually went in yesterday to pick up all the parts...but I wanted to wait for the guy I spoke with the first time I was there so that he could get credit for the sale, so while I was waiting, I checked to make sure I could price match a few of my parts. The last woman I spoke to said yes, but this guy said no, even after I suggested I was planning on buying $1300 worth of parts, and it was like $35 off, he wouldn't budge, so I left. I wanted to give the live store my business, but not if they're going to be mental on a part that's OVER MSRP.

Anyways, back to the point. They don't stock the retail 8400, but they do have a good deal on the q6600, so I think I'm going to stick with that. CompUSA has the evga 8800gt for like 189 plus $25 rebate, so that's like $155. I was debating about going for a 9800gtx for a while, but the 8800gt is priced too well. I'm swapping the 780i for the 750i FTW edition, since it'll save me $50 and I don't really need the extra features of the 780. I think I'm going to go with the corsair 750tx PSU instead of the 650, since with the rebate, the 750 is actually cheaper, and they are of similar quality. The 750 will give me a little more confidence if I try to SLI it with another 8800gt, which I might since they're so cheap.

I think that's pretty much it. There's some pretty decent rebates on some of the parts, and I think I'm going to add a Logitech g11 keyboard and X-540 5.1 sound system. Any comments on those?

 

[lamp]

I think your power supply may be very slightly overkill, even if you plan on SLI.

 

[Sandwich]

well I finally put this together...it's friggin awesome. Cuts through HL2 with no problems...crysis is a little choppy in open areas...I'm kind of disappointed in that game in general though....

final build:
750i FTW mb
8800GTS video
1066 ocz reaper
q6600
dvd
500gb WD sata
corsair 750w
antec twelve hundred case

I think that's about it. The case is HUGE and it's overkill for my 3 drives, but it's a big upgrade in quality over the 900, and it was $13 more. The PSU is also overkill, and there's so many extra cables, but it came out to $99 with the rebate, and I should be ready to SLI when the time comes, and still be in an efficient operating range. The ram is nice but it's only coming in at 800mhz, so I need to mess with the timings. The processor is a little disappointing, but I'm planning on overclocking it to see if I can get it around 3.2.

Vista is actually very cool. I was skeptical at first, but it runs my office 2000 just fine, and I haven't had any issues, short of trying to get dreamscenes to work, which didn't. In that case, the backup feature worked amazingly. I picked up a razer tarantula keyboard for next to nothing ($34). The last thing is a monitor and surround sound system...but those can wait. Came out to about 1200 without the rebates...should come in at just over 1000 with.