New build, need to get the price down a little

[fezhead24]

Pricing out a new build and need to get the price down a little bit. Heres what I have so far,

vid card - MSI 8800gts 512 $200
CPU - e8400 $200
RAM - mushkin 2x2gb ddr2 800 5-4-4-12 $75
HDD - WD SE16 640GB 7200rpm $115
Mobo - GA-P35-DS3L $110
case - Antec 900 $120
PSU - Corsair 520HX $80
CPU cooler - tuniq tower $50
OS - vista ultimate $170

Total $1120

I want to try and get that down as close to 1000 as possible. I would like to try and keep the 8800gts and e8400 in so everything else is fair game to change. This build will used primarily for gaming and I'm planning to OC to 4ghz if possible.

I'm thinking the parts I can save on are the HDD, case, and CPU cooler. Any recommendations for a cheaper case with good cooling? I don't need the 640gb so a smaller HDD with good performance will also do. As for the cooler, how would the arctic 7 compare to the tuniq, would i still be able to reach 4ghz? I can also downgrade the OS to home premium if need be, though I would like to stay with vista.

Updated list

vid card - MSI 8800gts 512 $200
CPU - e8400 $200
RAM - mushkin 2x2gb ddr2 800 5-4-4-12 $75
HDD - WD SE16 320GB 7200rpm $70
Mobo - GA-P35-DS3L $110
case - coolermaster 690 $70
PSU - Corsair 520HX $80
CPU cooler - xigmatek 1283 $40
OS - vista home premium $100
DVD - pioneer 20x $30

Total $975

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

1. get a 9600gt & overclock
2. get a E8200 & overclock
3. get the GA-EP35-DS3L ($89)
4. Get the 900 case w/ a rebate
5. Get a arctic cooling freezer pro (or 7), or a zerotherm nv120
6. Get Vista premium- $100
7. get a 32mb cache, 250gb drive (check newegg- sig. cheaper than 115)

 

[NoelS]

fezhead,

First, I would eliminate that Tuniq Tower cooler - the E8400 comes with a good stock cooler that will suffice until you can afford a better cooler. The stock should be able to get you to at least 3.5 from the 3.0... Maybe you'll have to wait for that 4.0! Then downgrade the OS and upgrade later. That should get you to $1,000... Last would be the HDD.

Also search for some RAM with a rebate. I just bought 2GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 6400, 4-4-4-12 for $79 from Newegg with a $40 MIR, total including S&H, $39. Search around, especially at Newegg for Corsair.

Noel

 

[BlueAcolyte]

1. Get an 8800GT and overclock, none of this 9600GT crap.
2. Keep E8400, he says he wants it.
3. Sure, why not.
4. Ok, but an alternate is the Cooler Master 690, $65 not including shipping at newegg right now.
5. Xigmatek 1283 instead of either.
6. Yea, good idea.
7. No, 32mb is overkill. If you must shrink the drive, buy the 320gb western digital drive and hope you get the single platter.

 

[DSF]

First, as popnfresh said, go with Vista Premium if it's really $70 less. As MarcVenice is a fan of saying, if you don't know what the difference between the two is, you'll be fine with Premium.

If you're playing on a monitor smaller than 20" I would definitely consider going with a 9600GT as a cost-saving option, although it might not be the first thing I'd do. After the OS my first suggestion would be to drop down to an E7200. That alone will save you $65, and the chip will easily go past 3 GHz. In a build primarily for gaming that will be plenty of CPU power.

Edit: If you chop $70 off the OS and $65 off the CPU you'll be under your $1000 mark. For what it's worth, when I was buying my computer I was debating between the E4500, E6550 and E6750. I went with the E4500 and overclocked it, and I'm glad I did. It runs Crysis as well as either of the other two chips would've, and saved me money. Same story here - the E7200 is going to have plenty of oomph for a while to come, especially once it's overclocked. Games today are generally much more GPU-dependent than CPU-dependent.

 

[fezhead24]

Heres the updated info.

Changed case to cm 690.
Changed HDD to WD 320gb hoping for single platter.
Changed CPU cooler to Xigmatek 1283.
Changed OS to home premium.
Added a dvd burner.

New price is under 1k, just what i was hoping for. Do you guys have any other comments or does the system look good to go?

 

[chinaman1472]

E7200 + 8800GT would lower the price considerably.

 

[fezhead24]

I don't need to get it down anymore. My price range is $1000 so I just need to keep it around that. Now, since it is primarily going to used for gaming should I consider dropping the e8400 to a e7200 and upgrading to a 9800?

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

meh, I would only go so far as the 8200, mainly to preserve the cache. you can always overclock to add speed, but nothing will add cache to a chip. I think before jumping to the 9800, i would check out the 3870 from ati- newer driver releases should optimise it's potential. but we might see a 4850/4870 released in the summer...

 

[Urtho]

The 9800 is a waste as even with deals it'll still run you around $100 more than what you can find a 8800GTS for. Is an average 5% - 8% gain in FPS worth $100 to you? Not even a consideration for me, but it's your money. Your build is just fine now, it's basically what I built for myself aside from a few personal touch differences (case). I'm very happy with mine and you should be with yours as well.

 

[fezhead24]

What case did you go with Urtho? Im still not sold on the case and the CM 690 happens to be the most recommended fitting the sub $100 case range. Does anyone think there is a better case fitting that pricerange?

 

[Urtho]

I used the CoolerMaster Centurion 534 for this build. I've also used several other cases from Coolermaster in that general price range on previous builds. I've looked at the 590, 690, and the Caviler on an older build and been mostly happy with each of them.

When it comes to cases it's almost entirely a personal taste type of choice. I haven't had any major complaints about any of the cases I've mentioned (although the top vents on the 590 make me somewhat nervous due to the possibility of spilled beverages). You really have to pick this part yourself.

 

[Winterpool]

What sort of timetable are you operating on? If you can wait a bit, you'll probably see a deal on an Antec P180/P182 or Nine Hundred. It's fairly common to see their prices drop below $100.

We never really learnt why you wanted Vista Ultimate originally... Personally I've no need for the Ultimate extras, but I do need Active Directory support, which is why my choice was always between Business and Ultimate. If you were going to spend nearly $200, I'd have recommended you obtain a discounted TechNet subscription: at slightly over $200 you could have got Ultimate, Server 2003 and 2008, Office, etc, for permanent 'evaluation'.

If you're a gamer, jah, you need the cache, so stick with an E8000 series. By the way, have you considered the Gigabyte EP35-DS3L? It's supposedly the same board but with energy-saving tech; it costs about $20 less than the old P35 (whose price is rising owing to end of life?).

The Pioneer 215s are excellent burners. By the way, why not pick up a 500 or 750 GB hard drive on sale? Plenty of them at $100 or less. Though I suppose you're trying to achieve an optimal platter density for speed (not sure how well that works out in real life though).

 

[chinaman1472]

An OCed E2160 to 3.0GHz can almost keep up with an OC Q6600 to 3.2GHz. By this means, cache means virtually nothing considering Q6600 has 2x4 while the E2160 has 2x1 (http://www.tomshardware.com/re...-upgrade,1928-15.html). You're still better off investing in a better video card. The only problem is the 8800GTS is too good for the price compared to the 9800GTX.

 

[fezhead24]

I dont really need Ultimate I just added it so that If the price was taken dow any other way I wold have some extra features to play around with. Ill be fine with home premium though. I did consider the EP35 but read users were having problems OCing with the energy saver utility, even when it wasn't active.

After doing some more research on the case i think ill be quite happy with the CM 690, i didn't look at it enough before I made my above comment but it looks like a really nice case.

I would have liked to order today but it looks like buy.com is sold out of Corsair 520's, guess i'll have to wait a little bit seeing its 40$ cheaper than any other site.

 

[fezhead24]

Quick question, the only thing that is holding me back from ordering today is the psu being out of stock. I found a corsair 550VX for only 10$ more. Is there any reason i shouldn't go with VX quality wise?

 

[Billy Idol]

The 550VX is plenty good. The lack of modular cables is a downer but some seem to think they're just one more cause for concern. If you're anxious to pull the trigger I'd say go for it.

 

[musicetime101]

Yes indeed the 550VX is very good, go for it.

 

[DSF]

The cache is not that big a deal. My E4500 handles anything I throw at it. CPU power is not the most crucial thing for most games nowadays.

 

[fezhead24]

Pulled the trigger just now. It should be here by the end of the week. Thanks for all your help!