Trying to put together a system in a hurry

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Thuban

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Dec 6, 2005
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My little brother want a new computer system to play the lastest games. He's 17 and a fairly creative guy and is interested in animation and computer graphic. He got a summer job and has about $1500 for it. He has been asking me to put one together for about a month now but I've kept delaying because I'm real busy at work and was waiting for SharkyExtreem to put up their system guide so I can work off that, but my brother is getting impatient and want a system soon. $1500 for the complete system with monitor, keyboard, mose, operating system.

I put this together at about 1am last night based of the TechReport system guide. Any suggestions, corrections, anything missing, or mistake on part selection? I'd like to order this today and put it together next weekend.

Intel® Core 2 Duo E6400 $226
Abit AB9 PRO P965 Core 2 Duo Pentium/Pentium D 1066FSB LGA775 DDR2 ATX Motherboard $165
Corsair VS2GBKIT667D2 2GB Kit DDR2-667 PC2-5300 Value Select Memory Retail $221
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive $102
NEC ND-3550A 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive $38
SAPPHIRE 100168L Radeon X1900XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 $240
Antec Sonata II Case $120

Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard & Optical Mouse Combo $25
Samsung 940Be-Black SyncMaster 19in LCD Monitor $249
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition $90

Total about $1476
If there's anythign I can shave some money off then I'll add a set of 2.0 or 2.1 speaker.

Should I get 1GB ram and get a better graphic card? Is the monitor a good choice? He'll be playing online game like BF2, is a wireless network card ok or should I connect it with cable? If I go with wireless which card should I get?

These are part that i'll probably buy with my own money to help him connect to the internet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833181218
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833156175

and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833156141 for the adapter.
 
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Thuban

Member
Dec 6, 2005
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bump

Should I get a different MB? I can't find much about the ABit AB9 and what I find aren't very kind. Choosing the MB always seem the hardest to me because it affect so much in term to features, setup and ease of installation.
 
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Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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No, 2GB of RAM is needed for systems like this, the X1900XT should be good, I have a 7900GT and the performance is impressive, the X1900XT must be amazing.
 
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pyrosity

Member
Dec 20, 2004
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(edit: added something at bottom. please read.)

I was in the same situation as your brother a couple summers ago, just with less cash. I wish that I had posted my prospective build on here so I would have learned a bit about some poor decisions I made...but then again, once one learns the hard way, it's difficult to make the same mistake.

Looking over your specs, I can say that you ought to have a pretty happy brother. You might talk to him about audio, though.

I question the case because of its high price, but then again I have not looked at what comes with it/what features it has, etc.

I would recommend just sticking with the onboard ethernet unless if he has a wireless network at home and will likely receive excellent signal strength. If he's going to play BF2 online, wireless interruptions could get aggrevating. Seeing how it's a desktop, and thus less mobile, I would just go with the integrated ethernet.

Can't comment on the monitor.

You'll have a happy brother.

(added) About the OS, you might also look into pricing for XP Pro. The university that I attend requires it--a very, very tight network is run. I recognize that not all educational institutions are going to require Pro, but the extra features are good to have. I bought XP Pro for $10 from my cousin who attends Indiana University...so I would recommend questioning yourself and your brother about whether or not you have any friends that attend public universities that offer great discounts on software/OSes.
 
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Thuban

Member
Dec 6, 2005
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Thanks guys, I'm going to order this now.

About the OS. It would be nice to have XP Pro but I can't think of any feature that's necessary and thought it would be a good place to shave $50. WinXP Home does support 2 core right?
 
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Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,128
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Originally posted by: Thuban
Thanks guys, I'm going to order this now.

About the OS. It would be nice to have XP Pro but I can't think of any feature that's necessary and thought it would be a good place to shave $50. WinXP Home does support 2 core right?
Click to expand...

correct. Many cores as a matter of fact.
 
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Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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Originally posted by: myocardia
XP Home supports a maximum of two cores, and a maximum of 1 processor.
Click to expand...

hmm really, it appears that there could be like 16 cores, but I forgot that 1 CPU is the max.
 
myocardia

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
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I'm not sure what Micro$oft says about XP Home, but the people who've tried it say that Home doesn't like 4 cores at all, even with only 1 cpu.
 
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Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,128
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Originally posted by: myocardia
I'm not sure what Micro$oft says about XP Home, but the people who've tried it say that Home doesn't like 4 cores at all, even with only 1 cpu.
Click to expand...

Why do people say micro$oft?
 
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AnotherGuy

Senior member
Dec 9, 2003
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If ur brother will be playin online games like BF2 I wouldnt go with wireless.... u definitly need a fast internet for games like that.... and the system seems pretty good to me... just so u know PING is very important for games like that.... and wireless connection will just frustrate ur brother to death.... well thats maybe too tragic but yes u need wired internet


And does Vista require only XP pro if u want to upgrade? Id look into that 2 if u r interested in Vista...
 
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Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,128
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Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
If ur brother will be playin online games like BF2 I wouldnt go with wireless.... u definitly need a fast internet for games like that.... and the system seems pretty good to me... just so u know PING is very important for games like that.... and wireless connection will just frustrate ur brother to death.... well thats maybe too tragic but yes u need wired internet


And does Vista require only XP pro if u want to upgrade? Id look into that 2 if u r interested in Vista...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I used to play bf2 on a wireless network, I stopped playing bf2 until I get a better connection, the lag will just frusterate you a lot.
 
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customcoms

Senior member
Dec 31, 2004
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Monitor is a good choice-samsung makes excellent screens. I would definatly get a copy of OEM Pro over the regular home-OEM is the same thing as regular with some limits on number of installs. You could drop down to the E6300, save a few bucks and still have very good performance. I don't know much about that Abit board, but I believe the only top notch Abit board for intel is the Abit AW9D-MAX and its not out yet. I would get either the Gigabyte DS3 or S3. Are you planning on overclocking? I alsom reconmend the Xlio 500 watt goodpower PSU for $50 at newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189005

zipzoomfly has two Gigabyte DS3 boards listed, one is $20 cheaper than the other. Anyone have any ideas?
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322342
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322342-OP
 
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Kinslayer777

Senior member
Sep 16, 2006
202
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I use wireless, and find in a multi-story house its not recommended. I have to tweak my computer for a good signal even with it being in 1/3 of the range of the booster.

Wire isnt that bad, you're plugged in anyway ^_^!


The system looks great as far as my stupid knowledge knows. I might attack it and theive things for my new one =D. Wire is also faster.
 
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Thuban

Member
Dec 6, 2005
45
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I made a few change to the part list including getting a bigger monitor, XP pro and the ram bobsmith1492 suggested above. The part arrived Friday and I put it together Friday night and Saturday. Man it was stressfull, I ran into all sort of problems but managed solved most of them.

There's still one glaring problem with the ram. I had trouble installing XP and keep hitting a BSOD, so I ran memtest86 (had to strip a floppy drive from my bro's old computer). Within minutes, a screen full of red pop up. At first I didn't realize what it was, frankly I've never ran into a memory error in the past. After a few minutes I realized that the red addresses displaying on the screen are error message, thousands of them. I'm really panicking a little, I've never RMA anything and don't want to start now. I was hoping that updating the MB' BIOS help and it did. After the BIOS update I was able to install WinXP and run the memtest again. The first pass it encountered 2 error on test #6. The second pass produce 7 more errors on the same test #6 (Moving inversions-32bit patterens).

So, is this caused by some setting in the BIOS or the BIOS itself? Is there anything I can do to eliminate this problem or is the ram bad and I should RMA it?
 
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bobsmith1492

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2004
3,875
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What speed is it running at, and what timings? Maybe the mobo set it up automatically and incorrectly.
 
GuitarDaddy

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
11,465
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Yes, check to see that the ram is running at the correct timings and voltages per SPD. Some boards undervolt the ram, you might try bumping the ddrvolts a little
 
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Thuban

Member
Dec 6, 2005
45
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I finally have some time to do some testing. Reading you guys' suggestions I turned off all auto setting regarding the ram in BIOS and set everything to the advertised spec manually. It got less error about 1 every 2-3 pass and I've seen it go up to 5 pass without error. I still couldn't figure out why until I check the voltage monitor in the BIOS and learned that even though the voltage was set to 1.80v it's only getting 1.77v. I didn't think .03v make a big different but I upped the setting to 1.85v and showing 1.82v in the voltage monitor. I left it running overnight and it did 20 pass without getting an error. Thanks for the help guys.
 
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ForumMaster

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2005
7,792
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here's my suggestion:
Get a Core 2 Duo 6300 and OC it past the extreme edition speeds.
Instead of the Antec Sonata which is expensive, get the CoolerMaster Centurion 5. very nice case for only $50.

with the money you save, get perhaps the ASUS P5B Deluxe which has unlocked multipliers which will let you OC very well.
 
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