New Gaming Rig

[bmsardou]

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

I'll be using it for office in order to do schoolwork, gaming for fun, and potentially for CAD design using solidworks.

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

Less than $1000 definitely

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

United States

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.

Anything reliable and price/performance

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

G15 Keyboard, mouse, 19" LCD, Sennheiser headphones, cheap walmart speakers

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

Yea, I have a potential build ready and I think it'll work. It is my first build though so I'm too nervous enough to checkout without a friendly okay.

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

I plan to overclock to 3.0ghz.

A-DATA 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Leadtek GeForce 8800GT (G92) 512MB 256bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP & SLI Ready Video Card Retail PX8800GT 512MB Standard
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard - Retail
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

My current computer:
AMD XP 2800+ Barton
KT-700a motherboard
1gb RAM...some type
2x 5400rpm 80gb drives
128mb 6600gt

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i'd get some ram from corsair/ocz/crucial/patriot instead. a-data is meh.

and you're aware that the mounting on the acf7p sucks right? either invest in a lga775 bolt thru kit or invest in a CPU cooler that has one included.
have u considered getting a 8400 CPU instead? they run a bit cooler.

everything else looks good

 

[MarcVenice]

The mounting on the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro doesn't SUCK, it works just fine for 99% of the people out there, it's easy to use, and can hardly be done wrong. If you plan on overclocking the e4500 isn't a bad choice, but if you need to save some money, you could also get a e2160 or e2180, and overclock those to 3.0ghz. Also, you do realize the Leadtek 8800GT most likely only has 1 year warranty ? Not sure, but you might want to spend 20-30$ extra for an XFX or EVGA card. And, check the hot deals forum for the corsair 550vx, if I'm not mistaken you can buy it for 67$ at buy.com. The ram, hmmmm, I personaly wouldn't buy it, but that's not because it ain't good, but it's because I don't know it. I've been suggesting this ram to people because I know it's good for sure: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231122 no hassle with rebates either.

 

[DSF]

The E4500 is only $110 at Microcenter, but I have no idea what shipping is like:
http://www.microcenter.com/sin...tml?product_id=0277442

Personally, I wouldn't spend $80 on a 250GB hard drive when you can get a 500GB drive for right about $100.

 

[bmsardou]

New slightly modified build:

Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard - Retail
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
Corsair VX 550W Power Supply - CMPSU-550VX -
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
XFX PVT88PYDF4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

I promptly switched out the ram and agree I'm actually more comfortable with G-skill. The hard drive I am slightly worried about going with seagate but my relatives say the warranty is good and because I wanted one with 32mb cache and don't plan on buying a new drive for a long time I upped it to 500gb. I switched to XFX graphics after reading their website's lifetime warranty information which I'd failed to look into well enough. TBH the free game makes me go with them over EVGA (I don't plan to step up) since I have to spend more for the warranty anyways and the reviews are amazingly good.

This system will probably be unchanged for about 2 years until I'm out of college so I'm hoping by spending a little more now I can get by just fine rather than selling myself short and spending more in the long run or by going broke as a student.

Thanks for all your helpful advice and if anyone has anything else I'll make some final changes before I buy tonight.

EDIT: (On the Hard Drive) oops , I think the main point was I was interested in a non-Seagate drive that had a 1 year warranty. Mixed up my warranties seeing the XFX and didn't know it was 5 years.

 

[DSF]

Just FYI, Seagate's warranty is 5 years, not lifetime.

 

[chinaman1472]

Solid build for 2 years.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

go for it

 

[Roguestar]

Looks good. Pull the trigger then put it together and let us know how it went.

 

[bmsardou]

I pulled the trigger last night, thanks for the advice everyone. It's my first PC I'll have built by myself for myself so it should be fun. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

[Roguestar]

Try reading this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=27&threadid=2072469
Contains info and links on how to put it together, etc.

 

[bmsardou]

I still have a lot of reading and work to do but I got my parts later today and started putting it together and trying to see how things fit. I got the DVD drive in with no issues as it's easily the simplest thing.

The power supply I put text facing up in the cage as specified but it says I can orient it either way. I put the fan facing down and haven't tightened anything as I'm not sure how wiring will go or if I'll have to rotate the fan to face upwards in the bay. Dang there are a lot of PSU cables.

The hard drive I put in I think correctly. The bottom of the bay I put it in had four rubber grommets. I used screws with flat space and threads at the end to tighten 4 screws from the bottom of the bay. I didn't put any screws in the side since I figured four would secure it.

I'm not sure about a lot of stuff but I'll take pictures of everything once I get farther along and have more time. At the moment I have an essay due in the morning and not so much of it done.

 

[PolymerTim]

Originally posted by: bmsardou
The hard drive I put in I think correctly. The bottom of the bay I put it in had four rubber grommets. I used screws with flat space and threads at the end to tighten 4 screws from the bottom of the bay. I didn't put any screws in the side since I figured four would secure it.

That's correct. When using the upper hard drive bay, the drive is attached by just the 4 screws in the bottom of the tray. If you use the bottom bay, it uses 4 screws in the sides. Supposedly the bottom bay is a little cooler, but may also be a little more cramped for wiring.

http://www.bit-tech.net/conten...182_case_review/7b.jpg

 

[bmsardou]

Ah god, I planned on putting a lot of it together tonight.

Upon removing the motherboard from the bag the anchors holding the heatsink sheared off and it dropped. The board is fine except for two little plastic hooks that mount it on the CPU but damnit. I'm not sure what to do now if I can find two to replace them and try the board or if I have to send the entire thing back for two little plastic pieces.

 

[bmsardou]

Actually I'm pretty sure that came out wrong. It broke during shipping and only became apparent removing it from the bag. I put the broken parts and the springs for the heatsink in a little baggy and put it all back in the box. I'll figure out tomorrow what to do or how to go about shipping it back I guess.