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Please review conroe build

M

MattM76

Member
You may want to reconsider your PSU for future builds, or at least be prepared for more power hungry videocards.
 
You should probably define what you want out of a cheap video card? How cheap, you need to elaborate. I mean you can get a video card for $30. If it really doesn't matter you might consider onboard video with the Intel 965G chipset (probably better than most $30 cards). And if you're not OCing you could save money on the Mobo and get a cheaper 965p or a 945 without sacrificing stability. What are you going to be using the rig for? Seem to be too many variables to give much useful feedback. And as far as DVD burners go, they're all pretty cheap, I mean the options in the $25-40 range are pretty varied, though you're looking at a bit more if you want lightscribe. I've personally used Lite-on, NEC, LG, and Samsung (am currently using all of the above b/t my two systems) and have yet to have any problems with any of then. For the most part on the cheaper end of optical drives quality across brand names about comparable enough that, unless you have special needs, you can pretty much shop price, read/burn rates and access time.
 
Drop down to the 330 watt S12, the 430 watt variant is a waste on a system like that.

The VGA card you have is fine but you might want to consider something with a bit more horsepower if you ever want to run Vista and get the most out of Glass. Something like this x1300 Sapphire would be a healthy step up.

As far as optical drives go I've had good experience with Samsung over the last few years.
 
do you really need 2GB of ram? since you are not gaming, but don't put into the thread what you are doing you may be able to save a bit by going with 1GB.
 
Thanks everybody for useful replies...

I am primarily using the computer for phylogenetics/population genetic simulation. Many of the programs I use are RAM hungry- i.e. R, matlab, PAUP, MrBayes, GeneMapper, Sequencher, etc.

I would like to look ahead to VISTA, but will but not to DX10. In a video card I need basically nothing except dual monitor support. I imagine that there is a $50 card that siuts this need, but also know that there is alot of variability in quality at this end of the spectrum- hence the question..

Same basic issue about the DVD burner . I don't burn alot of DVD's, so just need a simple reliable model.

Thanks, Matt
STD Blog
 
Originally posted by: MattM76
Thanks everybody for useful replies...

I am primarily using the computer for phylogenetics/population genetic simulation. Many of the programs I use are RAM hungry- i.e. R, matlab, PAUP, MrBayes, GeneMapper, Sequencher, etc.

I would like to look ahead to VISTA, but will but not to DX10. In a video card I need basically nothing except dual monitor support. I imagine that there is a $50 card that siuts this need, but also know that there is alot of variability in quality at this end of the spectrum- hence the question..

Same basic issue about the DVD burner . I don't burn alot of DVD's, so just need a simple reliable model.

Thanks, Matt
STD Blog
Click to expand...

as far as a dvd burner - nec, lite-on, benq work well and are usually reasonable in price. should be ~$40 or so - here you go - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...s.asp?EdpNo=2573837&sku=L12-1090%20OEM
 
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