New/First PC Build

emilyek

Senior member
Mar 1, 2005
511
0
0
My thoughts:

Get a 965 motherboard like the Biostar T-force 965 or the Asus P5B-E. The 570/590 boards are lackluster.

Get some DDR2 800 (either of the $200 GSKILL sets-- they come to my mind)

Get an OEM version of Windows for $100 less.

Get a 6300 instead of a 6400 for $40 less.

With the extra money, get the EVGA 8800GTS.

O/C to 2.8 on stock cooler and game on.
:)


 

Boyo

Golden Member
Feb 23, 2006
1,406
0
0
That's a nice rig. I would suggest going with an Enermax Liberty 620W PSU. I know it's more, but it's as solid as a rock.

Your CPU is fine if you are looking to save a few bucks. You can always overclock it well past 2.13GHZ. You might want better RAM too if you are looking to overclock.
 

kadean

Member
Nov 23, 2006
71
0
0
For sake of saving money, do you think i could keep the 500W PSU that i have and still have my system work well?
 

Boyo

Golden Member
Feb 23, 2006
1,406
0
0
I'm not sure. I think you should be fine for the present, but if you upgrade, you'll have to upgrade your PSU as well. The 620W is for future proofing. But, try this Extreme Calculator and let it tell you what you need as a bottom line.
 

easytimes

Junior Member
Aug 14, 2006
17
0
0
Below is the compilation of my second build, with the source of purchase, which is on the way to me, right now. It is a complete and exact price list of the whole build.

I finished a similar build for my wife back in September. It had the E6400 processor, a 256 meg ATI OEM vid card, and only one gig of the PC5400 CAS4 ram.

I'm using Win2k on both machines, so gaming isn't our big priority. I have delved in to some modest OC'ing and love the ease with which Abit allows such shenanigans, at least at the levels that I feel relatively safe.

I'm not sure how far I will push my second build, but from my results with my wife's machine, I can't wait for mine to get here. With all the negative comments I saw attributed to the AB9 Pro boards, I have experienced none but having to temporarily disable all but the Intel RAID drivers, then, enable them... after that it's smooth as silk, and the best computer I've ever owned... and that's since 1995. Hope mine does so well.

I use my machines for video, audio, image editing, burning all of that to disk, and anything else I can do to complete my various projects... but gaming isn't totally out of the question... just not a priority, right now. Heck, I'm only sixty... wait till I learn what these 'puters will do.

By the way, I'm using an old ATI Rage Pro 8 meg video card for the ATI upgrade program trade-in. It came on an old computer back in 1998 with a VooDoo2 card, for those of you who might remember such things. Glad I didn't throw that thing away. Something to consider for some of you wanting a discount on a vid card... maybe.

Sorry for the confusing list... it's just how it pasted. I'm sure you get the idea.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 Ghz $319.30 Mwave.com

Cooler Master Fan/sink RR-PCH-S9U1-GP $24.91 Mwave.com

Arctic Silver Ceramique Premium 2.5 oz. $3.50 Mwave.com

Abit AB9 Pro $142.04 Mwave.com

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB SDRAM DDR2 800 CAS4 $285 Mwave.com

Mitsumi 1.44MB Floppy Drive $7.90 Mwave.com

Enermax ELT500AWT Liberty PSU $97.90 Mwave.com

Cooler Master CAC TO5 Blue/Black $45.00 Mwave.com

Western Digital WD2500YS $79.90 Mwave.com

ATI Radeon X1600 Pro PCIe 512MB DDR2 $199.00 ATI upgrade prog.

Liteon SHM-165H6S w/LightScribe $35.90 Mwave.com

Shipping $41.43
$1386.33.
ATI upgrade rebate $ 50.00
Corsair memory rebate $ 40.00
Total $1276.33
 

Boyo

Golden Member
Feb 23, 2006
1,406
0
0
Love the case, unsure bout the PSU. But buy the case for sure.
 

KayKay

Senior member
Nov 17, 2004
690
0
0
Get a 965 chipset board, hopefully that will give you a bit of room to adjust the other parts. from what ive heard, Allendale CPUs (E6300 & E6400) seem to like the 965 chipset better...