Building a rig for my brother

[imported_NeedHelp]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
The computer will be used for general computing....no fancy games. He did tell me that he wanted a "Futurproof" rig....being as that is not possible, i think i'll build something that will last for a little while

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
My brother told me that there was no max pricerange, however, i would like to keep it around $1500 or $1600.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
US of A....newegg

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 prefer to stick to amd and DFI as that is what i've been running strong for the last 6 years......good ol' socket 939....hehe

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
All parts will be brand new EXCEPT....he will be using dual monitors that he received from work....please keep this in mind

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have been strategically looking at 'System Builders 2.0 for march' found here http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2283948&enterthread=y

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
No over clocking will be used

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Hoping to finalize parts this week and order by the weekend....



So here is a list of parts that i have put together....so Anandtechers' do your thing and see where i could reduce cost but still have the same performance....

I'm pretty set on the CPU and MB UNLESS some people can convince me otherwise.


CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Retail $225.00

MB - DFI LP DK 790FXB-M2RSH AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $169.99

Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX and below) CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail - $119.00

Vid Card - SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail - $199.99

Hard Drive
OS - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $229.99
Data - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $109.99

RAM - OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $62.99

The parts listed above come to $1,118.....but with no case, keyboard, mouse or optical drives...

Other notes/questions...

Will be buying vvvvista......should i be concerned with any parts of mine?

Since running vvvvista.......Should i upgrade to 6 or 8 GB of RAM

Thank you for your time and effort in resolving my questions!!!

I will pick out 3 cases and he will make the final decision....but do any of you have any suggestions?

Since i will not be overclocking, do i need to purchase a different CPU cooler or can i use the stock cooler?

Anything i should take into consideration when buying an optical drive or two?.....(I've been away from the computer building for quite some time)

I've read many not-so-good reviews on the 1TB drives.....should i be worried?

I've read many different reviews on the 1066 memory....What are your thoughts on that?

 

[Denithor]

Buy a 4890 instead of that 4870.

There are cheaper 4GB DDR2 kits - look for the G.Skill 1066 kit, around $40 shipped.

Optical drive - just pick a SATA drive with good reviews for <$30, you really cannot go wrong on this part. One drive is fine.

Stock cooler is adequate for even moderate overclocking, definitely fine if not overclocking at all.

WD 1TB drives have not had problems - that issue was with bad/faulty firmware on a specific run of Seagate drives.

Pick a nice keyboard/mouse - those are the parts your brother will use daily can make or break his feeling about the computer as a whole.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You could get 2 x 640 GB WD drives and save $180, plus they'll run cooler and quieter. Does he have massive amounts of data?

PC Power & Cooling - many models are noisier than competitors.

 

[Winterpool]

If your brother doesn't go in for 'fancy games', why spend the money on an Ati Radeon HD 4870 (let alone the HD 4890)? In fact, a better way to 'future-proof' the system might be to max out expenditure on the cpu and chipset (dare I suggest Core i7 and X58?) whilst getting a 'good enough' video card (say, the HD 4830 for $80ish on sale). If your brother decides he does want to do something graphics-intensive in the future, I expect he could get a much better video card for $200ish in 2010 than he could now.

Have you any idea what the work monitors might turn out to be?

For performance and reliability, look at the Western Digital 'Caviare Black' drives They have five-year warranties and come in 640 GB and 1 TB models.

Samsung and Pioneer dvd-drives are highly regarded.

Edited: it's difficult to know how much memory would be optimal without knowing your brother's likely applications. 4 GB is fine for most Vista users (and you need 64-bit Vista to employ that much memory anyhow).

Case: I believe the Antec P182 remains very popular with enthusiasts, and it's what I used myself for my primary workstation.

 

[tarbelly]

If you want to be somewhat futureproof, I'd go for the core i7 as well. I just did a build for under $1300 with a i7 920 cpu ati 4890 etc... http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2289256&enterthread=y

 

[imported_NeedHelp]

Thanks for the replies...

I have no idea what kind of monitors he will be using.....what kind of questions should i ask him?

Is there anybody else who would agree that an i7 920 proc would serve me better than i Phenom II 940....WITH no overclocking.......remember no overclocking

Would i mess up any kind of performance sticking in 3 2GB sticks for 6GB vs just 2 2GB sticks for 4GB on my Phenom II 940 setup?