Computer Build Help

[jappeX]

I was wondering if any experts could help me with building a computer(desktop) from the ground up. Basically everything but mouse/keyboard.

My suggestions for a good, relatively cheap desktop:

Motherboard
Abit IP35-E

Processor
Intel CORE 2 DUO E8400 3.0GHZ 1333MHz 6M S775

Hdd
Samsung 640GB Caviar SE 3,5" SATA II/300 16MB

Gfx Card
nVidia GTX 260 or radeon HD 4850

RAM
4GB DDR2 800MHz

Case
Antec Sonata III Silent ATX (500W)

DVD
Samsung DVD+-RW Dual Layer, SH-S223F/BEBN

[AIpha]

Originally Posted by Kasumi

@ AIpha

What ASUS card? The only cards you should buy now are Geforce 8800 GTs/GTSes or Radeon HD 4850s. The rest just don't offer a good price to performance ratio. Well, if your budget is below $200 you should just go with a vanilla Geforce 8800 GT or Radeon HD 3850.

But you're getting a gaming laptop anyway right? So just go high-end with your video card.

ASUS GeForce 8800 GT EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M Video Card - Retail

That card, well in order for me to buy a gaming laptop, I would have to sell my current laptop. For what, 600$ Which would leave me about 600$ to come up with anyways. Plus that still only leaves me with one non-upgradable laptop.

What I was going to do is just build my self a system(specs 1st post) for like 500-600$(not counting monitor, but for a while I'll just use a refurbished one or something) or Keyboard(12$?)) Plus I'll have a WAY better system while still having a laptop that can play CoD4 on low@40-90fps, I'll still have it for school, it just seems to make a lot better sense to me.

[AIpha]

Originally Posted by jappeX

My suggestions for a good, relatively cheap desktop:

Motherboard
Abit IP35-E

Processor
Intel CORE 2 DUO E8400 3.0GHZ 1333MHz 6M S775

Hdd
Samsung 640GB Caviar SE 3,5" SATA II/300 16MB

Gfx Card
nVidia GTX 260 or radeon HD 4850

RAM
4GB DDR2 800MHz

Case
Antec Sonata III Silent ATX (500W)

DVD
Samsung DVD+-RW Dual Layer, SH-S223F/BEBN

Do you have a price on that?

[Kustomize]

Video Card : The bang for the back atm is 8800GT, or a 8800GTS for a few more bucks.

if your gonna overclock your 8800GT, it will be better then a 8800GTS.

As far as the company goes, chose EVGA, life time warranty, even if you fry your video card overclocking!

THEY SEND YOU A REPLACEMENT!


CPU looks a little bad, if your gonna be running higher up games, get like a E8400, or even a E6600 and OC that btch to like 3.6 Ez.


CPU fan is good, but a better one would be a Xigmatek SD1283, the one I got, I OC my Q6700 to 4 GHZ and I hit 50C.

THAT'S a HUGE OC from 2.6 to 4 GHZ

Memory, I HIGHLY recommend an OCZ, lifetime warranty, products are always GOOD, im using one right now, no problem what so ever.

Get a OCZ 6400 Platinum Rev 2 Memory, timings are 4-4-4-15 @ 800 MHZ.

I OC mine to 4-4-4-12 @ 950 MHZ, another choice is 4-4-4-8 @ 800 MHZ.

Both are good.




ALL IN ALL,

Video card - 8800GT (higher recommended) / 8800GTS (HOPEFULL U WILL CHOSE EVGA, specially because of their Step Up program, let's you give them your current card, and get an upgrade on one of the newer cards, within 90 days.
CPU - E6600 (can OC this like insane, and get a whole different speed level) / E8400 (probably the best Core 2 Duo CPU out, bang for the buck) / Q6600 (4 Cores, VERY GOOD FOR NEWER COMING GAMES WHICH WILL USE 4 CORES INSTEAD OF 2, THIS WILL BURN ALL Core 2 Duo's WHEN GAMES LIKE THAT HIT THE MARKET.
Memory - OCZ Platinum Rev 2 6400 / Corsair XMS2 6400, i forgot the whole thing, timings are like 4-4-4-12 @ 800 MHZ Stock with E.E.P.


Ask me here, or you can PM, if you need more help.


also, a really good motherboard right now, for OCing is probably P5K or Pk5, don't remember the name properly, or you can get a EVGA 680i SLI, that's only if you plan to upgrade your computer later on, and get 2 video cards, to run games a LOTTTTT more faster, better, smoother!

Also, my system is a ;

Q6700 Oced to 4 GHZ
XFX 680i SLI LT (regret not getting EVGA, not that this gives me problems, just its a better deal I guess)
OCZ Rev 2 Platinum PC2 6400 Memory @ 800 MHZ 4-4-4-15 @ 1.9 V Stock.
EVGA 8800GT SSC, that's Supersuperclocked! XDDDD, runs faster then a 8800GTS, basically it's a 8800GTX on stock, runs a bit faster on lower resolutions, like 1280x1024.
Powersupply I got a 800WATT Power-Up, got a big one for future upgrades.
My case is a Ultra Gladiator.
Xigmatek SD1283
And Seagate Bercudda or w/e Hard Drive.

[AIpha]

Originally Posted by Kustomize

Video Card : The bang for the back atm is 8800GT, or a 8800GTS for a few more bucks.

if your gonna overclock your 8800GT, it will be better then a 8800GTS.

As far as the company goes, chose EVGA, life time warranty, even if you fry your video card overclocking!

THEY SEND YOU A REPLACEMENT!


CPU looks a little bad, if your gonna be running higher up games, get like a E8400, or even a E6600 and OC that btch to like 3.6 Ez.


CPU fan is good, but a better one would be a Xigmatek SD1283, the one I got, I OC my Q6700 to 4 GHZ and I hit 50C.

THAT'S a HUGE OC from 2.6 to 4 GHZ

Memory, I HIGHLY recommend an OCZ, lifetime warranty, products are always GOOD, im using one right now, no problem what so ever.

Get a OCZ 6400 Platinum Rev 2 Memory, timings are 4-4-4-15 @ 800 MHZ.

I OC mine to 4-4-4-12 @ 950 MHZ, another choice is 4-4-4-8 @ 800 MHZ.

Both are good.




ALL IN ALL,

Video card - 8800GT (higher recommended) / 8800GTS (HOPEFULL U WILL CHOSE EVGA, specially because of their Step Up program, let's you give them your current card, and get an upgrade on one of the newer cards, within 90 days.
CPU - E6600 (can OC this like insane, and get a whole different speed level) / E8400 (probably the best Core 2 Duo CPU out, bang for the buck) / Q6600 (4 Cores, VERY GOOD FOR NEWER COMING GAMES WHICH WILL USE 4 CORES INSTEAD OF 2, THIS WILL BURN ALL Core 2 Duo's WHEN GAMES LIKE THAT HIT THE MARKET.
Memory - OCZ Platinum Rev 2 6400 / Corsair XMS2 6400, i forgot the whole thing, timings are like 4-4-4-12 @ 800 MHZ Stock with E.E.P.


Ask me here, or you can PM, if you need more help.


also, a really good motherboard right now, for OCing is probably P5K or Pk5, don't remember the name properly, or you can get a EVGA 680i SLI, that's only if you plan to upgrade your computer later on, and get 2 video cards, to run games a LOTTTTT more faster, better, smoother!

Also, my system is a ;

Q6700 Oced to 4 GHZ
XFX 680i SLI LT (regret not getting EVGA, not that this gives me problems, just its a better deal I guess)
OCZ Rev 2 Platinum PC2 6400 Memory @ 800 MHZ 4-4-4-15 @ 1.9 V Stock.
EVGA 8800GT SSC, that's Supersuperclocked! XDDDD, runs faster then a 8800GTS, basically it's a 8800GTX on stock, runs a bit faster on lower resolutions, like 1280x1024.
Powersupply I got a 800WATT Power-Up, got a big one for future upgrades.
My case is a Ultra Gladiator.
Xigmatek SD1283
And Seagate Bercudda or w/e Hard Drive.

Do you have a possible price though?

The reason I chose my current set-up is because the price is low for what it is. I have a budget of under 800$

[Kasumi]

Intel E2180 $69.99 setting FSB to 300 to reach 3.0Ghz on stock Voltage
ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm $53.99 better cooling for overclocking your cpu to 3.0Ghz
GIGABYTE GA-P31-S3G $64.99
Rosewill R220-P-BK Black Mid Tower $24.99
Rosewill RP500-2 ATX12V v2.01 500W $44.99
SUPER TALENT 2GB (2 x 1GB)PC6400 DDR2 $37.99
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000AAKS SATA 3.0Gb/s 400GB $69.99
Pioneer 20X DVD±R

I'm already with these specs. But I'll change the CPU because overclocking CPUs for newbies(no offense AIpha) is dangerous. You might end up killing your whole PC in the process.

Stick with those specs, but change the CPU to an Intel E8400 which is kinda pricey at $185. IMHO, very fast CPUs aren't really necessary for games. I have a friend who has an Athlon X2 5000+ which costs around $80 and a single 8800 GT and it runs everything turned up @ 1680x1050 and still achieves over 60 FPS in all games except Crysis. But then again, if you're a PC speed freak which values framerates a lot, you'll be getting something faster. I assume you aren't one of them. I used to be one of them but I realized I couldn't really tell the difference between 60 FPS and 70 FPS and it was all a waste of time.

Regarding Kuztomize's setup, it's over $1000 which I think is already out of AIpha's budget since he's also getting a new laptop.

BTW, the Super Talent RAMs, though cheap still offer good performance. Good timing but apparently not so much overclocking potential. They're already as good as they are out of the box.

@ Kuztomize

You speed freak! LOL. =P

[Kustomize]

Originally Posted by AIpha

Do you have a possible price though?

The reason I chose my current set-up is because the price is low for what it is. I have a budget of under 800$

800 is more then enough, let me hook you up with some nice deals.


THIS RIGHT HERE, has EVERYTHING you'd ever want.

Shove a nice EVGA 8800GT or 8800GTS, and your set for a good 5 years.

EVGA nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 Barebone Kit - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz OEM, 500GB SATA HD, 20x DVD±RW, 2GB DDR2 PC6400, ATX Mid-Tower Case, 650 Watt Power Supply in Canada at TigerDirect.ca


Also, here,

Stock EVGA 8800GT, with regular cooling, the one I got. Price = $169.99 USD I think
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards


EVGA 8800GT with their new cooler! It is better cooling! $164.99 USD After male in rebate, yes you do get that, I got mine to, takes about 2 weeks.
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N807-AR GeForce 8800GT AKIMBO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards


Also, Tigerdirect, has an EVGA 8800GT for $139.99 Canadian, shipping might still be for free, since it's over 100$.
EVGA GeForce 8800 GT Video Card - 512MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, Video Card 512-P3-N801-AR in Canada at TigerDirect.ca



And my last recommendation, EVGA 8800GTS Factory Overclocked, "Overclocked version at 670MHz", $199.99 USD After 30 Dollars Mail-in-Rebate.

Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards




AND I brb, have to get my stitches removed, won't reply for a good 2 hours, brb.

[jappeX]

Originally Posted by jappeX

My suggestions for a good, relatively cheap desktop:

Motherboard
Abit IP35-E

75€

Processor
Intel CORE 2 DUO E8400 3.0GHZ 1333MHz 6M S775

155€

Hdd
Samsung 640GB Caviar SE 3,5" SATA II/300 16MB

70€

Gfx Card

radeon HD 4850

$199

RAM
4GB DDR2 800MHz

80€

Case
Antec Sonata III Silent ATX (500W)

110€

DVD
Samsung DVD+-RW Dual Layer, SH-S223F/BEBN

25€

515€, give or take, the other parts from finnish retailers. It's very likely you'll get them cheaper from U.S.
+
$199 for the GFX card


Nevermind the GTX260, sounds like a disappointment. HD4850 is definitely the best call right now.

Ignore the overclocking crap, if you're a newbie, don't even bother. E8400 is the way to go.

[Kasumi]

@ Kuztomize

The new Radeon HD 4850s crush the 8800 GTs and even beats the 9800 GTX in most cases. It's currently the best single card solution at $200. SLIing Geforce cards are better than Crossfiring Radeons though. But with a less than $1000 budget, the HD 4850 is a bang for the buck.

Also, please don't push AIpha with more 'elegant' setups. I've seen too many newbies fry their rigs due to overclocking. Let's just go with what jappex says and give him a straight-forward and simple system.

Ok, so let's start with the CPU.

So it's the Intel C2D E8400.

Radeon HD 4850 for the GPU.

Super Talent 2x2 GB RAM DDR2-800 for the RAM.

It's about $470 now. Mobo? PSU? Hard drive? Other stuff?


Anyway, gotta sleep now. It's 4 am here. I'll be back around 10 hours later.

[Kustomize]

Originally Posted by Kasumi

@ Kuztomize

The new Radeon HD 4850s crush the 8800 GTs and even beats the 9800 GTX in most cases. It's currently the best single card solution at $200. SLIing Geforce cards are better than Crossfiring Radeons though. But with a less than $1000 budget, the HD 4850 is a bang for the buck.

Also, please don't push AIpha with more 'elegant' setups. I've seen too many newbies fry their rigs due to overclocking. Let's just go with what jappex says and give him a straight-forward and simple system.

Ok, so let's start with the CPU.

So it's the Intel C2D E8400.

Radeon HD 4850 for the GPU.

Super Talent 2x2 GB RAM DDR2-800 for the RAM.

It's about $470 now. Mobo? PSU? Hard drive? Other stuff?


Anyway, gotta sleep now. It's 4 am here. I'll be back around 10 hours later.

My setup is $739.98, with an EVGA 8800GT.
But at the same time, my setup will fetch him a good 5 year of no problems with Slowdowns in applications, AND games.
an E8400 would be destroyed, by any Quad Pc, on future games using 4 cores.


There is nothing wrong with Ocing, if your building a good rig, I can almost guarantee, like 100% guarantee, you would OC, specially the newer stuff, they OC like mad.



I haven't read any reviews on the new GPU, the 4850 ATI, if your going with the ATI, i would highly recommend waiting for their new 4870.

Also, 4850, you said was 200, the GT is only 139.99, so there is quite some difference.

I have never heard of Super-Talent before, but if you think, it's good, go for it, I will take your word on it.

Just that I know these manufacturers, and their stuff, it's top notch quality.


And Nvidia is overall better then ATI atm

[jappeX]

Antec Sonata III Silent ATX will suffice for both the case and the PSU. It's a very cheap and IMO a good solution. A standard user doesn't need anything else, especially if he's on a tight budget.

I don't know what I've been thinking when I typed the earlier posts but the 640gb is Western Digital, not samsung. I just bought one some weeks back and it's just as fast & silent as they say.

Intel C2D E8400 for the processor.
Radeon HD 4850 for the GPU.
Super Talent 2x2 GB RAM DDR2-800 for the RAM.
Antec Sonata III Silent ATX (500w) for both the case and the PSU.
Samsung DVD+-RW SH-S223F for CD/DVD.

You may argue these parts if you wish - besides that, my opinion stands with the setup mentioned earlier;

WD640GB Caviar SE 3,5" SATA II/300 16MB - too big?
Abit IP35-E - any alternatives?

Going to sleep now. Work is always as unpleasant when tired.

[Kustomize]

I guess it looks like the New ATi 4850 IS INDEED the bang for the buck, just read a few benchmarks and reviews, it beats the 9800GTX in a FEW games, by like 3-8 frames.

Although the 9800GTX is a very good card, and it's priced about 250-300.

So yea, for GPU, get a ATi Radeon 4850.



I still recommend a Q6600 over E8400, E8400 beats the Q6600 on the some of the games right now, but other games which use all 4 cores of the quad instead of 2, Quad whooooops anything and everything.

[Kasumi]

I've got a Q6600 as well on stock clocks and many of my friends either have overclocked E6600s or some other Core 2 Duo CPU. I don't see much of a difference when it comes to performance except for Supreme Commander (which IMO, can get really messy 3-4 hours into the game). The CPU load of the C2Ds are noticably higher in Supreme Commander and Crysis though, games which utilize more than 2 CPUs. Actually, the C2Ds were faster than my Q6600 in most other games, though it can be hard to tell because of overclocking differences when it comes to our GPUs. I'm just not sure if developers in the future will be forced to make their games utilize quad-core.

The thing I'm considering now when choosing CPUs is to make sure they don't bottleneck the GPUs. But right now CPUs don't really bottleneck in any other game but Supreme Commander. I've also got some friends with Athlon X2 CPUs coupled with 8800 GTs and they still provide that noticably 'beast gaming machine' feel by having everything turned up and still be butter smooth (over or near 60 FPS).

And regarding those Super Talent RAMs, they've got really good preset timings though apparently there isn't much room for overclocking which AIpha isn't likely to do.

Let's try to finalize the rig:

CPU -- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 ($185)

Mobo -- MSI P45 Neo-F ($99) -- That Abit mobo doesn't have a PCI-E 2.0 slot. More bandwidth from a PCI-E 2.0 slot which the HD 4850 will use.

GPU -- Any brand (I prefer Sapphire) ATI Radeon HD 4850 ($200)

RAM -- 2x Super Talent 2 GB RAM DDR2-800 Model No. T800UX2GC4 ($98 -- 2x$49)

Optical Drive -- Any Lite-On DVD-RW burner that uses a SATA connection ($30-40) -- I chose Lite-On because they've got the best compatibility. They're not picky when it comes to discs.

Hard Drive -- Seagate Barracuda 500 GB 7200 rpm 16 MB cache SATA 3.0 GB/s ($79) -- I've never tried Western Digital before. I've always used a Seagate in all my desktops and I know they've got the best seek times among their competition. Just correct me if it's not really the same now.

PSU -- hec Orion XPOWER585 585W ($35)
or a COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR 550W ATX ($69) -- If you decide on adding more stuff in the future

Casing -- Anything you like really. Depends on your budget. But it would be better if you got something branded/good like a Lian-Li (these are good, but pricey) since all their casing are aluminum. Thermaltake, Cooler Master, and Antec are all reputable brands too and aren't that pricey. (Around $25-100 for the casing)

Cooling solutions -- Your choice again. You'll be running these are stock clocks anyway so you can do away with expensive fans. (Around $25-50 for these)


Total: $776 to $972

I really suggest you get a sound card. I'm using a Creative Audigy Value right now with Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers and they sound amazing! The Creative Audigy Value is $25.

Regarding the Antec Sonata III, it's already a complete mid-ATX tower unit with a 500 W Antec Earthwatts PSU. It's a very silent unit but I've never really cared about silence since I have the volume on. The Antec Sonata III is $120-130.


BTW, here's my setup:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
ASUS P5N-D
4x1 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800
2x Inno3D Geforce 8800 GT 512 MB in SLI
Seagate Barracuda 500 GB
Lite-On 18x DVD-burner
Samsung DVD/CD combo drive
Cooler Master Mystique casing
Cooler Master Extreme Power 650 W PSU
Cooler Master fans for the casing and a fan with heatsink for the CPU -- Threw away the boxes so I don't know what models they are

I'm everything at stock clocks to prolong its life. Got tired of tweaking for FPS since I got this.

[AIpha]

AS OF RIGHT NOW--

My current specs are this,
SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model SH-S202J-
$22.99~~

Rosewill R223-P-BK 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$30.99
$25.99~~

HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725032GLA360 (0A35411) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$69.99
$64.99~~

Rosewill RP500-2 ATX12V v2.01 500W Power Supply - Retail
$59.99
$44.99~~

Logitech Office Pro 967452-0403 White PS/2 Standard Keyboard - OEM
$14.99~~

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2
$64.99~~

GIGABYTE GA-P35-S3G LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
$74.99~~

Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model
$69.99~~

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

$26.99~~
---------------------------

Coming to a grand total of
$425.91

Still leaving out a GPU though. I've looked around at gpus, and for 50 additional bucks, the ATI Radeon 4850 DEFINITELY seems like it'd be a better choice than the original 8800.
(Although, I found a deal on the 8800 for 100$ Plus COD4 LOLOL [: )

Idk, So 425.91 Seems to be the best bet. Simply because overclocking the processor FSB to 300 for 3.0 GHz is ezpz.

Anyone know of any deals???

[Kasumi]

@ AIpha

Just a few criticisms.

Pentium Dual Core? You could have at least got the slowest Core 2 Duo instead. Pentium Dual Core is a no-no. But seems like you're overclocking it... Sigh. Clock speed isn't everything. Those C2Ds with 6 MB of L2 cache will thrash that thing even at stock clocks.

That mobo of yours doesn't have a PCI-E 2.0 slot. I'll potentially bottleneck your HD 4850 a bit. And Gigabyte mobos have so-so build quality. I'd go for an MSI or ASUS instead.

I'd switch the PSU for a Cooler Master Extreme 500 W instead. It's $49 BTW.