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Building a comp for a friend

C

Canai

Diamond Member
Alright, I'm an experienced builder, and one of my friends just got back from overseas and is looking to put together a midrange gaming comp. I've spent a few hours at work looking through reviews and such and have come up with the following.

LIAN LI PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model #: PC-7B PLUS II
Item #: N82E16811112099

$119.99 -$30.00 Instant $89.99


ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #: P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP
Item #: N82E16813131182

$229.99 -$10.00 Instant $219.99


EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Model #: 320-P2-N811-AR
Item #: N82E16814130082

$289.99

Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL 550W SLI Ready ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply - Retail
Model #: RP550V2-S-SL
Item #: N82E16817182031

$69.99 -$15.00 Instant $54.99


Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6750 - Retail
Model #: BX80557E6750
Item #: N82E16819115029

$204.99


Patriot eXtreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC22G8500ELK - Retail
Model #: PDC22G8500ELK
Item #: N82E16820220161

$164.99

Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: WD5000ABYS
Item #: N82E16822136143

$134.99


LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black SATA Model LH-20A1S - Retail
Model #: LH-20A1S
Item #: N82E16827106057

$34.99

Subtotal: $1,194.92

And I'm going to let him pick a monitor he wants. It's been a long day (already) so I could easily have missed a vital component heh.

What do you guys think? My last build was in the fall, so I'm a little behind all this fancy new technology they call p35 and 680i and whatnot.

Feel free to call me an idiot or lunatic or whatever 😀

edit: and a Thermalright Ultima-90 for the HSF once I find one 😀
 
Crappy mobo, it's about 90$ to expensive. The normal p5k will suite his needs just fine. Crappy PSU, go with something like an antec earthwatts 500w, corsair 520hx or the corsair 450vx. Good videocard/cpu. Crappy ram, rather buy 2gb of ddr 800 instead for HALF the money. HD, not sure, they don't come cheaper at 500gb? Perhaps 2 320gb for the same price?

Any money saved can be pocketed or spend towards a better videocard, or perhaps 4gb of ram, or a bigger/better monitor.
 
What he said ^^

Except to elaborate on RAM, it's most likely overkill unless your friend is doing heavy overclocking...which in that case he should be doing this himself. 😛 ( 8×533 = 4264 MHz )

As for the hard drive...why not this one, it's a newer revision which performs better, consumers less power, and is quieter. Plus it's cheaper, I think the one you picked out is one of those enterprise or RAID edition drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136073
 
Thanks, guys!

For the mobo, you mean the pk5-v? http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131184 that one? I'd like to stick to p35 chipset if at all possible. I remember reading a while back that it was faster and more overclockable than the other ones out, does this still hold true?

I do have to disagree with you on the PSU, it's the same one I'm running, and I'm running a hefty O/C and have had no problems at all. 😱 Why do you say the Rosewill is crappy?

So what dd2-800 is going to be the best bet? I'm not sure about what OS he'll be running, most likely dual-booting xp/vista. I've got some corsair 677 running at 800 with tighter timings and stock voltage, so I'd lean towards corsair for the 800. Do you happen to know how well the corsair 800 performs?

Thanks for the link to the HD, that one does seem to be a little nicer.

Any money saved will most likely go towards a monitor, as I'm very reluctant to have him spend any more on a video card with the 9800 series slated for November release.
 
I second what the other poster said. I wouldnt buy a rosewill PSU. You can get the Corsair 520HX for $20 more at ClubIT. You may not have had a problem "yet" but why buy budget when you are putting it in a $1500 PC?? Thats like buying a Viper and putting a 4-banger in it.....

That mobo is OVERKILL. Waste of money unless you really need all the little bells and whistles. If he does not need all the extra stuff (Firewire,Raid,etc...) buy the Abit IP35-E at newegg its 115 with a 40 rebate right now i just bought one. Sweet board.

Ram just go with DDR2 800. I got the Crucial Ballistix myself. It was a toss up between it and the Corsair. The more reviews i read on Corsair the farther i moved towards the Crucial however. Lots of people getting DOA sticks from Corsair recently.

If hes buying a 22" or bigger LCD i would bump that video card up to the 640mb version. It is said that you will get a better performance at high resolutions with that card. I have it and am VERY happy i paid the few extra bucks and got the 640 over the 320.
 
PSU's are one of the things that won't show their shortcomings early. If reviewers could have time machines and perform 10000 hour tests, that would be ideal..but sadly we don't have that. However, Rosewill isn't *complete* crap, just..if you're not on a strict strict budget, why not get something a little better? Here's a link for a Rosewill review:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=48

Oh, the IP35-E is ~$70 after rebate at mwave 😛 but yes, I'd think about one of those.
 
I didn't read what the other posters said, so I may just be repeating what others have already statted, but oh well...

Lose the mobo. There's no reason to spend that much on a motherboard unless he is doing some serious overclocking. Even if he was planning on overclocking, there are great boards for ~$130 that are great. I'd personally go for the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R.

That PSU is complete crap. The power supply is the single most important component in a PC. A power supply with unstable rails could cause all types of system problems. Not only that, but if that Rosewill dies on you, I wouldn't be surprised if it took other components with it. DON"T SKIMP ON THE POWER SUPPLY! Spend a decent amount on a quality supply, such as the Corsair HX520.

Lose the expensive RAM. Again, tt won't really benefit him at all unless he's doing serious overclocking and even then there are great sticks that overclock very well for much cheaper. Just go with a 2GB kit of DDR2-800 from a reputable manufacturer. This is $61.99 after MIR and would be great RAM.

With the money saved with the recommendations above, up the video card. The 640MB 8800GTs or the 8800GTX would help out if he plans to run games at high resolutions with AA/AF. If you think he wouldn't benefit from a better video card, save the money for something else.
 
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