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Building a new computer, give me your knowledge :)

J

JHallas

Member
Ok, so I've built a bunch of computers before, but haven't upgraded my rig in about 2 years. Currently have a athlon 64 3000+, and I want to play bioshock 😛.

Tentatively I've picked out the following items:

Processor: E6600 or Q6600 is the quad worth the extra $60, if so, why?

Motherboard: I'm in the dark here, I'm willing to spend up to $300, but preferably in the $200 range. I want something that's stable, good support, decent RAID support, decent OC support, all around good board. I'm changing from an AMD man on this build, so I have no clue. Whats the difference between 975x and p35? Which is better?

Graphics: EVGA 8800GTS 320MB

HD: 2x500GB striped. Not sure of brand, haven't noticed much of a difference between them in the past, any suggestions? Expecting to spend about $100-$120 on each

Memory: 2x1GB, a suggestion to go with the motherboard depending on what it can support. willing to spend $50-$150

I already have a dvd burner from my old rig.

I'm guessing I should get a 500-700W PS for this b/c of the graphics card.

Think that about covers it, any suggestions would be helpful as I haven't kept up on this stuff in a while.

I've been getting my prices off of Newegg and pricewatch, any other sites would be helpful, I'm hesitant to order all from Newegg because of tax in California.

Total cost willing to spend: $1000-$1400

Whatcha think guys?
 
I think the quad argument depends mostly on your uses and your upgrade cycle...soo...I personally think the quad is a better choice if you have long upgrade cycles...but if you have relatively short upgrade cycles ( every six months or something ) then a cheaper dual core is probably a better alternative. If you do go dual core, get an E6x50. The E6600 was EOLed and coupled with the price cuts of the E6x50's, it's more expensive and does not perform as well as it's counterparts.

P35 is a newer chipset that seems to run cooler, overclock better ( arguable ), and has support for newer chips. I think those were the differences with the most significance. Gigabyte, Abit, and Asus so far have the leading offerings...Asus' boards are rather overpriced in their "premium" range though. Really depends on what features you're looking for, check out http://spreadsheets.google.com...kbu6ico9GjOjFKWR6AmgCw">this</a> link.

WD and Seagate both have the leading desktop drives I believe, AAKS and 7200.10 respectively.

Power supply, Corsair's HX 620W should be good for you.

Check out clubit, mwave, and zipzoomfly in addition to newegg. Newegg doesn't quite have the best prices anymore and I've seen savings of over 100 dollars just from shopping around.

Oh, and I think sales tax is only charged to those who live in TN, NJ, or CA. I don't think there's tax if it's shipped elsewhere...at least that's what it sounds like from their FAQ. I live in LA so I don't know what it's like without tax.
 
If you buy an item from out of state, they don't charge you tax. Newegg is partially based in CA, which is why we pay tax. I'm trying to find suppliers with free shipping and no tax because I'm a cheap skate, but if it doesn't save me much, I'll probably go for quicker shipment.

Thanks for the quick response, don't think your link works yet. I'll probably get a quad core as my upgrade cycle is like 2-3 years. Thanks for the rec on those sites.
 
argh, sorry I don't post on AT much so I don't have the code worked out. I usually post via quick reply, here let me try again.

http://spreadsheets.google.com...kbu6ico9GjOjFKWR6AmgCw

About the tax, yeah...but if you're in CA I think you get charged on tax from everywhere though. I order from mwave, zipzoomfly, clubit, and newegg and I get taxed everywhere.

edit: just looked through all my reciepts and Monarch, SFF Store, FrozenCPU ( hey there were the cheapest for what I was buying at the time ), and coolerguys didn't charge me tax.

Mwave, ZZF, ClubIT, newegg, and SVC do.
 
Solid caps just help ensure longevity because they maintain voltages better I believe. As for how that's possible, I don't think I'm qualified to speak about that. 😛

I think the most significant difference between ICH9R and ICH9 is that the former has RAID, it also has two extra SATA ports.
 
Even the mobos that have ICH9 support 0/1 RAID, just not 5/10. I'm gonna go take a look at the mobo forum to see if there's already people arguing over the best board. 🙂
 
Yeah I think those are add ons from the 3rd party manufacturers. Anyway, I would check the mobo forum too, there are a lot of choices and it really comes down to what you want. Personally, I would look at the Abit IP35-Pro and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
 
Yea, just looked, I think the IP35-Pro is the one for me.

Just checked prices; I didn't know how much Newegg has fell behind in pricing. Guess they already got everyone shopping there so they don't need to compete as much.

Gonna go check for memory now!
 
Since you said you wanted a board that overclocks fairly well, I'm assuming you're going to overclock...which in that case, yes.

Thermalright's Ultra 120 is arguably the best out right now. Next up there are the Tuniq Tower and Scythe Ninja Rev. B.
 
FYI, if a store has a physical presense in the state, they will charge state sales tax. The only etailer that could compete with newegg that wasn't in CA was monarch, but they're now gone, lol. NCIXUS.com is a non CA choice, as is directron.com and tigerdirect.com.

Get the G0 stepping from clubit.com for the Q6600. The B3 can reach around 3.3Ghz, and the G0 can reach around 3.6Ghz.

For RAM, go with any DDR2-800 kit. If its a CL5, 2GB kit, don't pay more than $90 for it, PRE-rebate. If its a CL4 2GB kit, don't pay more than around $70AR. If its a 4GB kit, it'll probably be around $230.

What size monitor do you have?

15" - 17" (1024x768): 7600GT
17" - 19" (1280x1024 or 1440x900 ): 8800GTS 320MB or X1950GT
20" - 22" (1600x1200 or 1680x1050): 8800GTS 640MB or X1950XT
24" - 27" (1920x1200 or 1920x1080): 8800GTX or Ultra
30" (2550x1600): 8800Ultra, 8800GTX SLI, or 8800Ultra SLI

As for HDDs, all the 500GB drives seem to perform well. Samsungs are the most quiet, WD AAKS are also quiet, but Seagates are loud.

If you want to save money on the board and don't mind giving up uGuru sw, then go for the GA-P35-DS3R instead.

The Scythe is the cheapest and quietest. The Thermalright is expensive, but the best. The Tuniq is almost as good, but not as quiet (only $47 @ svc.com). I'd go for the Tuniq.
 
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