With Black Friday in the air, I want to build a new PC and havent been in the market in awhile, so not sure what's good and whats not. My current PC is about 3-4 years old and still runs, but is hinting at failure as it seems to be rebooting by itself in the middle of the night...
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. Gaming and surfing the internet. Current setup I am running two monitors, 90% of the time I am playing WoW on the primary monitor and surfing the internet on the second monitor while on ventrilo (and have the lobby window open there).
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread. Want to spend btw $650-750.
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA, most likely newegg.com
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture. I am a fan of nvidia and intel.
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. Just my two monitors, speakers, and XP install CD. Both monitors are 19" LCDs (samsung and MAG).
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Not too much. Couldnt find anything too relative.
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Havent been a big overclocking fan, usually just run default.
8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within a month.
I just want a new machine, not looking to be cutting edge. I will be running Windows XP (havent been sold on Vista). I am thinking I want 4gb of memory (even if I cant use it all).
Ok, so I bought the following this morning:
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $60
Antec earthwatts EA430 430W ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS PFC Power Supply - Retail $35
This is what I have in mind:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $160
mushkin 4GB (2x2GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - Retail $64 after rebate
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q - OEM $28
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HD - OEM $42
I really am not sure of what MoBo. Looking at
ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $97
ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $135
I have an EVGA GeForce 8800 in my current rig and I love it. I really like the two monitor setup. I am looking at getting for the new rig:
EVGA 512-P3-N884-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ Superclocked Edition 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $200
Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. Gaming and surfing the internet. Current setup I am running two monitors, 90% of the time I am playing WoW on the primary monitor and surfing the internet on the second monitor while on ventrilo (and have the lobby window open there).
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread. Want to spend btw $650-750.
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA, most likely newegg.com
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture. I am a fan of nvidia and intel.
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. Just my two monitors, speakers, and XP install CD. Both monitors are 19" LCDs (samsung and MAG).
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Not too much. Couldnt find anything too relative.
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Havent been a big overclocking fan, usually just run default.
8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within a month.
I just want a new machine, not looking to be cutting edge. I will be running Windows XP (havent been sold on Vista). I am thinking I want 4gb of memory (even if I cant use it all).
Ok, so I bought the following this morning:
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $60
Antec earthwatts EA430 430W ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS PFC Power Supply - Retail $35
This is what I have in mind:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $160
mushkin 4GB (2x2GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - Retail $64 after rebate
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q - OEM $28
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HD - OEM $42
I really am not sure of what MoBo. Looking at
ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $97
ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $135
I have an EVGA GeForce 8800 in my current rig and I love it. I really like the two monitor setup. I am looking at getting for the new rig:
EVGA 512-P3-N884-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ Superclocked Edition 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $200
Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
