Planning on building a new "general entertainment" system

[makken]

Hi guys,

I'm considering building a new rig for general entertainment purposes, and was wondering if I could get some input on my component selection. I'll confess that I've been out of touch with the desktop world for a long time (last rig I built, the P3 Coppermine was king, there were huge debates pitting the voodoo 3 against the TNT2, and people with 128MB of PC100 SDRAM were envied) so i'm a bit out of touch the latest tech.

Anyways, here's my copy and paste from the FAQ:
PLEASE when you POST threads asking for input on system builds tell us...

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
General usage - web browsing, movies, music, some gaming (mostly TF2 and Dawn of War 2)

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Trying to keep it under 1k

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

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.
No preference, I am more familiar with Intel and ATI products though

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Starting fresh - no parts whatsoever

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

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
I'm not opposed to OCing, but would prefer to stay at defaults if possible

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within the next 2 months

EDIT: See updated build below

 

[makken]

quick update:
after reading around a bit, I changed a few components around, here's what I ended up with:

COOLER MASTER Elite RC-331-KKN1-GP
BFG 550W PSU
Asus P5QL
Intel E5200
Corsair 4GB
MSI Radeon 4850
Samsung HD642JJ 640GB
Acer 21.5" LCD
Samsung SATA DVD-RW
Windows Vista 64bit
OCZ keyboard
OCZ Mouse

$854 total

For AMD, I'll probably go with this combo:
AMD Phenom II X3 710 + Foxconn A79A-S 790FX
which will push my total to $886

I'm considering holding off until after ATI releases their 4890 to see if there's gonna be any price drops on GPUs, but part of me doubts I'll see anything significant considering ATI already slashed prices.

I'm also considering the Antec 300 as an alternative, but the Cooler Master has free shipping

 

[videogames101]

http://accessories.us.dell.com...=en&cs=04&sku=320-7825

that monitor will destroy the acer, especially for multimedia.

(it's an e-IPS vs the acer's TN panel)

 

[makken]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I'll rather stick to a cheap, high resolution TN panel over a lower resolution e-IPS. Hell I'm already not too happy that the acer is 1900x1080, but I couldn't find any 1900x1200 LCDs in my price range.

This forum seems pretty dead these days, there are no thoughts or recommendations on the AMD setup? only reason I'm even considering it is that I'm worried about the performance of the E5200. Obviously I could OC it, but I would rather not have to take my chances relying on OC, and the next higher intel is double the price.

I'm also a bit worried about the PSU, everywhere I look, i'm being told to go with at least 650W if I intend to have any decent video card in there.

Finally, anyone have any experience with that hard drive? I originally thought that it was part of the spinpoint F1 series everyone was recommending a while a back, but it doesn't seem like it anymore.

thanks.

 

[videogames101]

The difference between the e5200 and the 710 is benchmark to benchmark, it all depends on what your use is. For gaming, the 710 usually wins out, but for encoding and file compression, the e5200 usually wins.

Benchmarks:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=84&p2=66

As for the PSU, you don't need more than 550W, but thats from a quality PSU, and I'm not familiar with BFG PSUs. This would beat it out if you could swing it http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817139005

As for the hard drive, nowadays the fastest drives are WD Black Caviars.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136319 640GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136283 750GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136284 1TB

 

[heyheybooboo]

Phenom II 720BE / Biostar 790gx

 

[Blain]

Get the Antec 300 case.
I've got the CoolerMaster and it's a bit flimsy. I don't really care since I got it free after rebate.

I'd also bump up the PS to a better quality...
Corsair or PC Power & Cooling

 

[makken]

sweet, one of my friends is "donating" his old gigabyte P45 mobo to me, looks like I'm committed to intel now =P
I'm also going with the antec 300 case, but I'm probably gonna drive down to the local fry's to pick it up, since newegg doesn't offer free shipping on that.

I'm planning on buying tomorrow; I figured that whatever price drop the ATI cards get from the 4890, it probably would be around the same amount that I'm going to be getting through the numerous MIR that's expiring on 3/31 anyways.