Friend wants a good rig. Decent budget. Help

[RESmonkey]

He picked some stuff at a tigerdirect store (didnt buy). He chose a 680i mobo.

Should he change that to a P35 mobo from MSI?

Also, can u config a rig?

 

[Zepper]

Why not use the guides from over on the Anandtech side for a starting point? I avoid TD like the plague.

.bh.

 

[jkresh]

don't buy from tiger, list the budget and what he will use it for and you will get recommendations, just saying decent budget and good rig is not particularly helpful.

 

[RESmonkey]

How about this: What would YOU buy for a budget of $1500-$2000? He has already chosen a quad core proc that was priced at $300 something.

I know, I* would not buy at TD. But a new one just opened here, and their fam wants to buy retail (I know, I know).

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: DSF
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 ($175)
This should be plenty of processor until the end of 2008. If he's willing to overclock (or if you're willing to do it for him) he can almost certainly shoot even lower on the CPU. The stock heatsink should be fine for his purposes, but spending a little more dough for a performance cooler is an option too.

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L LGA775 Motherboard ($100)
If he needs high-end features like integrated Wi-fi in his motherboard then this won't be the right choice, but it's an excellent value motherboard. No onboard RAID capabilities, but my recommended build only has one hard drive anyway. If he wants RAID, he can step up to Gigabyte's GA-P35-DS3R for only $30 or so more.

RAM:
2x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 ($50)
or
G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2-800 ($150)
RAM is cheap right now, and some people would say to just go ahead and grab 2x2GBs. It might not be bad advice, and he could certainly reuse it when he rebuilds/upgrades a year or so down the road.

Video Card:
nVIDIA 8800GT PCI-e 2.0 512MB Video Card ($270)
Any manufacturer is fine, whatever he can get his hands on. It might not be a bad idea to wait a few weeks though - ATi has new cards coming soon which are supposed to be slightly less powerful than the 8800GT but at a significantly reduced price.

Case:
Coolermaster Centurion 5 ($50)
Computer case is one of those things that can boil down to personal preference more than anything else, but if he's on a tight budget this one is generally recommended as a good value. Watch for sharp rebates on more expensive cases though.

Power Supply:
Corsair CMPSU-450VX 450 Watt Power Supply ($65)
Corsair's new power supply line comes highly recommended by just about everyone. This one should have plenty of power for a mid-range gaming computer.

Hard Drive:
SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive ($120)
500GB is right about the sweet spot at the present time for $/GB. If he wants to save some money and doesn't need the capacity, he can go a little lower here. Generally speaking though, a larger drive will give him better performance due to higher data density. I picked the Samsung here, but any 500GB drive from a major manufacturer should be good, and shopping around might give you a better deal than $120.

Optical Drive:
LITE-ON Black CD/DVD Burner ($31)
I went without LightScribe here, but you can get LightScribe capabilities for only a few dollars more. Note that both the HDD and DVD drive are OEM, which means they won't have SATA cables included. However, your motherboard will come with a couple. If you want the retail boxed version of either, it will cost a little bit extra.

That's pretty much everything you need. Using the 2x1 GB RAM choice, not counting shipping, and with no operating system, I'm at about $870. I used newegg to show you the parts for simplicity's sake, but shopping around will give you a better price on some of them.

If you don't need an OS, there are a few things you might do with the extra $100 headroom, in no particular order:
-Dedicated sound card
-2nd optical drive or hard drive
-Upgrade the case
-Buy a better CPU heatsink/better case fans
-Upgrade to a PSU with modular cables like the Corsair 520HX
-Go with 4GB RAM
-Put it in the bank

Edit: Fixed messed up link.

That's from another thread. Off the top of my head, since he has a bigger budget, here's what I'd change from my post above:
-E6750 for a faster CPU, and/or get a performance cooler and overclock.
-Get an even bigger drive, like 750GB or 1TB, to get better performance and more storage.
-Go the 4GB RAM route
-Go with an Antec Solo instead of the Coolermaster case
-Get the 520HX

As far as mobos, does he want SLI? If so, get the 680i or wait a few days for the 780i. Otherwise, go with a good P35 board and he won't regret it.

Edit: Forgot you said he's already got the quad core, so ignore the CPU part.

 

[RESmonkey]

He's going to go with a single 8800 GTX. Should he get the 780i or the P35?
He also choose 800mhz ram, this is decent, right?