Critique my Upgrade!

[Triglet]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Primarily gaming. I play a lot of WoW, but will dabble in FPS's, Fallout III, and Empire Total War when it's released.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread.

N/A

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US -- 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.

Doesn't matter.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Will reuse my case -- Antec P180B

And my PSU -- OCZ GameXtreme 700

And my HD's -- 2 X 74GB Raptor's in a raid stripe

And my gfx card for the time being -- EVGA 8800GT

And my X-Fi Sound Card -- ExtremeMusic I think? One of the first ones released. Not available anymore.

Also have two 250GB SATA HD's for storage, but that doesn't matter.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

I've read the system builders guide -- great thread btw. Just wanted to run my thoughts by you to make sure I'm not doing something stupid.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Probably not -- I don't have much time to game as it is, and I don't want to be wasting my time dicking with stability tests and all that crap. If I have too later to eke out some extra Hz for the latest and greatest gfx card I will, but not at first.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Near future -- late Nov, early Dec.


After looking at the system builders guide, and reading on what WoW likes I've decided it's time to leave my Socket 939 4200 X2 behind (it's been a good ride babe...). I plan to buy the following items (taken from that thread) in the next couple of weeks, and then after Christmas invest in a new gfx card if needed, probably a 4870 or something -- around $250-$300.

Mobo -- Asus P5Q

CPU -- E8400

RAM -- G Skill PC2 8500

I'm gonna buy another DVD burner, but I doubt you guys care about that.


So, basically $380 with the burner and the core of my system is upgraded to today's standards. If I need a beefier card I'll buy one at the first of the year -- I don't have a good handle on how week this 8800GT is compared to today's standards.

Couple of questions:

1. Good choice on the CPU/Mobo? Anything else I should consider that's close in price?

2. Any reason not to go ahead and put 8GB of RAM in now? Can't believe how cheap RAM is now...

3. Thoughts on my current Vid Card?


Thanks all! Sorry for the novel... :/

 

[DSF]

No real reason for DDR2-1066, especially when DDR2-800 can be had for $50 or less per 4GB. Stick to DDR2-800 since your overclocking will be modest if it ever happens.

 

[disports]

1) Might as well go with the E8400/Asus P5Q Pro combination on newegg
2) Nope, there is no reason not to go with 8gb of ram. If you want it, get it! Why not get DDR2-800 for $49.99? You're not overclocking anyways. Even if you do, DDR2-800 will let you get to 3.6 GHz.
3) If you're fine with your video card, don't change it.

 

[DSF]

There's very good Mushkin DDR2-800 for $37 after rebate on Newegg by the way.

 

[Triglet]

Awsome -- thanks for the replies.

I've added that combo mentioned above -- good tip, I missed that. And I added 2 sets of that Mushkin you speak of which would be under $100 after the one rebate -- I doubt they'll let me do two rebates, and I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to buy it separately with another address.

I've got a Thermalright XP-90 cooler in my rig now -- I think that'll work with the LGA775. I plan on just using that again unless someone here knows I'll run into a clearance problem or something.

I've read that the 8800GT is essentially the same card as the 9800 GT? Just a die shrink or something? If that's the case I should be ok until I start playing those newer games.

Thanks again all! I'll be buying this stuff this weekend!

 

[disports]

Not sure about the cooler, but I have the Tuniq Tower 120 in my P180. If it's smaller, it should fit!

 

[Denithor]

XP-90 will work on skt775 but you'll need a mounting bracket to use it. I know cause I did the same thing on my e6400 about two years ago.

 

[OCNewbie]

Get THIS motherboard, unless the P5Q has specific things you need on it that the UD3P does not. Very highly rated board, the Gigabyte that is.

It's on sale now for $99 AR/ACC (rebate/coupon code) - Link

And yes, the 9800GT is pretty much identical to an 8800GT, and usually doesn't even include a die-shrink. Most of them have "hybrid-power" which is a power savings feature that works on some of the newest motherboards that have built-in video.

 

[Triglet]

Really? Is it worth getting that board over the P5Q? Especially with the $30 off with the combo from the egg.

Why do you recommend that one over the Asus?

 

[jae]

i myself prefer GigaByte over Asus. Cosair has rebate on 2x2GB DDR2-800.. cant remember what it is tho.

 

[OCNewbie]

Originally posted by: Triglet
Really? Is it worth getting that board over the P5Q? Especially with the $30 off with the combo from the egg.

Why do you recommend that one over the Asus?

If you want the absolute lowest price on the Gigabyte UD3P and the E8400 you can buy on ebay with the 25% live.com cashback. Buy from the seller "techtreasure" (mwave.com's ebay rep). You have to wait 60 days to get the cashback, but final price for the E8400 would be like $131.25 ($170 -25%), and $80.50 for the motherboard ($134 -25%, -$20 rebate). It seems shipping is gonna be around $20-25 depending if you do UPS ground or UPS 2-day air.

If you do everything through Newegg it's about $20 more expensive (since you have to pay shipping on the P5Q). The Gigabyte board is really raved over and I don't like to skimp any on the motherboard. I've heard a number of not so stellar reviews of the P5Q, incompatibilities and such.

Look at the second post in This thread to see some reviews about the Gigabyte board. They're all quite impressed. It has a really high appeal on xtremesystems.org too. There is a link to that thread as well there.

 

[Denithor]

The e8400/P5Q Pro combo at newegg is an excellent deal. I have both in my gaming rig and they play very nicely together. And it's quite a bargain at <$230 ($250 - $6.87 MS cashback - $15MIR).

 

[MagickMan]

If you can't afford the Asus Rampage Formula, which is the best 775 board, get the UD3P. It's almost as good for less than half the price. Unbelievable board/value.

 

[Triglet]

Thanks for the replies fellas -- I think I've decided on the following after reading those reviews on the Gigabyte board.

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

2 Sets of mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail


After the $10 promo code for the mobo it comes out to $427.95 shipped.

There's also $40 in rebates (1 for the memory, and 1 for the mobo) which would put me under $400 which is nice.

I think that'll hold me over quite nicely -- this is the beauty of building your own pc's for sure!