Building Computer <Need help(semi-noob)

[meshca]

Ok I'm researching all this on my freetime.

My goal
Build a computer
Use it for Multimedia like ProE, AutoCad, 3-d rendering,etc
Run multiple programs^
Run Games on Decent(close to high) settings
Be reliable =)
Be cheap
Be fast

Heh in the automotive world we have a saying,
Cheap, Reliable, and Fast. Pick Two.

My Budget
1200-1500$
(does not include monitor, outside accesorries)
(This budget only concerns the Case &everything in it)

My woes and knows
Not sure to choose Dual vs Quad core
I'm sure i want to use INTEL^
I'm sure i want to overclock it^
Not sure to what Graphics card, Quadro or Gforce,etc
clueless about power supplies
^ motherboards
^ram
Not sure on what case will be good enough for w/e set-up i choose.

This is what my friend suggested.

p35 MB->100-150$
OPs system ->100$
raptor hard drive ->150$ or 70$ for regular
burner-> 30$
gt8800 gforce--> 200-400$
intel->2core E8400 4.0 -> 190$-250$
Power supply-> 100$
RAM 4gb-> 90-120$
case-> 45$-120$ mid-tower
fans->12$ (that's his connections..)
Heatsink ->45$



Any help would be awesome, Also if this is in the wrong section please move it for me =).
I appologize for any noob-questions, or any confusing/lack of information.
Please let me know and i will clear it up, or provide more info as requested.


P.S. Links to products would be sweet too =)

 

[QueBert]

Some will say this is the wrong forum, but you're asking about everything so I'd say here is good. You'll also get a lot of opinions, with your budget you can build a NICE system. I just rebuilt mine, everything inside the case (not case though) for half what you want to spend and it's sweet. you didn't mention OS, so I will assume you need an OS. And as you requested links for what *I* would buy



Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 - $280

DFI Lanparty p35 - $199

COOLER MASTER GeminII (heatsink) - - $30239126100

Coolermaster 120mm Fan (for Heatsink) - $16 *for both*

COOLER MASTER RC690 - $80

EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512M - $239

CORSAIR 520HX * I have it - rocks, ^ great price with the rebate!* 105 A.R.

mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 - $113 A.R.

LG 20X DVD-RW $26

WD 500gb SATA HD - $100

Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit $189



------------------------------

$1377 A.R. would be right around 1,500 before rebates. You could get by spending much less, but I like to spend a few extra bucks and get quality. this system would be really nice, I even put a pretty price (200) MB, but it's just pure bad ass and worth every penny. Vista Ultimate might be overkill, or if you're still XP fan you could upgrade the OS later on. I went quad core because it's not much more expensive really. If I was building a PC today I would get everything on this list except the case, but I'm a nutt who spends 200-300 on a case lol.

This would be a solid build, I'm curious to see what others come up with, know I looked only on Newegg. I knew what I wanted to put on the list, but you might find better deals elsewhere on the same stuff.

whatever you decide to buy have fun building it man.

 

[meshca]

Heh i appreciate it =) thank you for the links too! You got the OS spot on, i just hope by the time i build my setup i dont have to worry about compatibility with vista. I'm going to look over that stuff this weekend.

 

[QueBert]

actually the OS, from what I gather Ultimate is no different than Home Premium outside of costing more. Everything I linked is new stuff and will run great with Vista 64, now the MB is a bit hummm... advanced? I recommended it because it's an 8 phase board, which means it's top quality build wise. TONS of options for overclocking. This setup would SCREAM. only suggestion I might have, if you ever wanted to run dual video cards, the board has an intel chipset and will only work with Crossfire (ATI) you can get the 3850 ati cards for a bit less than an 8800gt and it will be close to as fast.

 

[Peelback79]

If you're not sure you're going to oc then you could save some money on the motherboard. I went with the GA-P35-DS4 Rev.2 It was my first build and I needed a rock solid very user friendly board. Plugged everything in and hit the juice and it's been right ever since. Recognized my Asus cd/dvd drives, and everyhing perfectly. No problems yet. But then again, for only 20 bucks more you're getting the DFI, which is by reputation a schweet board.

Also, if you want a great air cooled case I'll vouch for the Antec 900. It keeps everything as cool as you can keep it with air. Requires weekly dusting though, it moves more cfm of air then my radiator on my car. One of the best cases if you're not going to water cool. I like the design with the PSU on the bottom.

 

[meshca]

Lol thanks for the links. I'm looking at them right now. Yea i'm sure that case can push more cfm then my car radiator too. seeing how it's 14+ years old =D.

Question on the hard drive. If i get the e8400, or a quad core like the q6600 or q6700. would a raptor X (WD) 150GB be better? They're onle ~180$. I'm just trying to find out if bottlenecking would be a problem. That and i already have a 500GB WD external drive that i bough on black friday.. so i don't need a hella lot of internal drive room

Edit1: That case is hard core lol. It even has an all-purpose tray on the top! =D. I think that sold me.

Edit2: Motherboards i think are my weakest link heh. The DFI doesn't sound like a user-friendly card. Although i have a couple friends who are computer gurus, i'm not sure if it's the best choice for me. If the DFI is way better then the GA-p35 then i think i'll get the DFI.

Edit3: Im pretty much sold on the intel q6600 quad core. I was wondering if the q6700 is way better? I might be able to find it for cheap.

I also have 1 PNY 1GB DDR2 I'm prob going to buy the ones linked and maybe sell this.. but if it's usefull i might use it.

 

[sgrinavi]

I do AutoCAD and 3dsMAX about 12 hours a day. At home I have a q6600 running at 3.4 (right now on a P5K board, $100) and a e8400 at 4.0 on my Gigabyte board in my sig ($150).

The quad kicks the duals butt for 3d modeling and rendering. I don't have the 8400 tweaked, but it's about 2/3rds the speed to render the same frame. Even when modeling the quad is superior, I move large models around fairly easily. Even with my 320 mb 8800 GTS on the quad core it still outperforms the 8400.

My dell workstation at the office has a q6600 and a 640 MB GTS, no overclocking there and it still renders faster than the 8400 (by just a tad)

Also, you can do better on RAM, I have 8GB on my modeling stations and use every bit of it.. I picked up 8GB of supertalent pc6400 at ewiz for $146 shipped!

You will do just fine with a $100 board - one of the low end pk5 or gigabyte ga-p35 series., spend extra the money on RAM, a great PSU and GPU -- all return the best bang/buck for your intended use.

As for the raptor.. sure, if you have EVERYTHING else maxed out and like to spend money then go for the raptor... I used to run 15k RPM scsi's in raid 0, it was nice, but not nice enough to justify the cost.

 

[PolymerTim]

I agree you probably want to go with a cheaper motherboard. From what I heard, the DFIs offer ultimate tweakability for those that like to tweak, but the real world performance gains are very small. The mid-range P35 boards can give very good performance for the average overclocker. I would recommend looking at something like the GA-P35-DS3L for ~$90 to get started.

Definitely get the Q6600 if you're buying soon. If you're not buying for a month or two, you may be able to get the Q9450 when it comes out.

As for the hard drive, I have heard that, while Raptors are still king of the hill (excluding SSDs of course), their performance advantage is not as big as it once was. Just ask yourself if you prefer larger, quieter, cheaper hard drives or smaller, noisier, more expensive hard drives with 30-50% faster performance. It's a big enough difference that you have to decide for yourself.

Make sure to get a quality PSU. You don't need anything megasized, but it has to be built well. I would recommend something like Antec Earthwatts, Corsair, or Seasonic are good brands and can offer you something around 500W.

Quad cores produce a lot of heat that will limit your overclock. I would say, to get a good value out of your chip, go ahead and buy an upper end HSF. Given current prices, I would recommend either the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 ($38 AR) or going all out with the Thermalright Ultra-120 extreme ($65 + fan).

 

[krnmastersgt]

I paid a bundle for my cpu cooler but it's rather awesome Peltier coolers rock! Anyways yeah you should get a quad core considering it's 3D rendering, more cores is better, maybe try out Skulltrail for mobo if your CAD programs can use 8 cores

Oh and if you're going air, I prefer the Cooler Master Stacker 830, smaller fans but a lot more of em, and 120mm isn't exactly tiny, very impressive airflow with the right fans.

 

[meshca]

^lol i don't think i'll need 8 cores in a very.. very long time. Plus there's a super-computer on campus i got access too for crazy-huge CAD calculations like fluid dynamics.

1.proccessor Is it really worth the Q9450? it'll prob be ~350$ and i'm not sure on the 12mb cache. over the 8mb that the q6600 offers. Would it just make the programs boot up/run smoother during labor-intensive 'sessions' ? Also.. i'd need a better mobo?

2.The mobo thing.. I'll look into that one board. As long as it runs q6600 OC to ~3.0(stop me if i'm a madman), accepts
~8mb ddr2 =) (sgrinavi thnx heh), and doesn't blow up for ~3 years i think i'll be happy.

3. what powersource size would i need? I'm not sure how the W rating deals with the rest of the set-up (i shouldn't be saying this.. lol i'm a mechanical engineer.. i should know already =D )

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: meshca
^lol i don't think i'll need 8 cores in a very.. very long time. Plus there's a super-computer on campus i got access too for crazy-huge CAD calculations like fluid dynamics.

1.proccessor Is it really worth the Q9450? it'll prob be ~350$ and i'm not sure on the 12mb cache. over the 8mb that the q6600 offers. Would it just make the programs boot up/run smoother during labor-intensive 'sessions' ? Also.. i'd need a better mobo?

2.The mobo thing.. I'll look into that one board. As long as it runs q6600 OC to ~3.0(stop me if i'm a madman), accepts
~8mb ddr2 =) (sgrinavi thnx heh), and doesn't blow up for ~3 years i think i'll be happy.

3. what powersource size would i need? I'm not sure how the W rating deals with the rest of the set-up (i shouldn't be saying this.. lol i'm a mechanical engineer.. i should know already =D )

powersource, you mean powersupply right? the one I linked is sweet, 520 would be fine. but if you feel more is better, Corsair has a 620 watt model.

linky to PSU - $144 AR good deal.

 

[meshca]

^lol yea.. i wrote that way to early in the morning. Yea powersource =)

 

[meshca]

Originally posted by: QueBert
[

powersource, you mean powersupply right? the one I linked is sweet, 520 would be fine. but if you feel more is better, Corsair has a 620 watt model.

linky to PSU - $144 AR good deal.

what about this:
corsair 550W

its 59.99 today =)

24hour sale link with the promo code here

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: meshca


what about this:
corsair 550W

its 59.99 today =)

24hour sale link with the promo code here

Free Shipping too? Nice...

 

[meshca]

Would this RAM DDR2 pc8000
be able to run smoothly with the q6600 without much trouble?.. its rather cheap for 1066.