How's this build look?

U

Ulyaoth

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Well I'm finally going to get a new computer, was going to back in January but ran out of money soon and wasn't so dead set on it anyway, now my cpu got all screwed up and is a lot slower and the computer is randomly shutting off, so I need a new one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136038
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102747
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
As for Hard drive I'll be using my current 160gb Barracuda, I'll get a bigger one whenever this one fills up since I'm not even half filled now, though I bet getting a bunch of new games I will do so fast.

How's it look? My budget once I actually saw the price in the cart and seeing what I can deal with is about $850 after taxes and shipping. Few things I'm not sure of.

First, I don't have Vista, but I plan on getting it in a few months or so, but would 2 gigs be fine for now and 4 plenty for the next couple of years? Or should I upgrade to the 4gb(2gb*2) of the same type of RAM? My main thing is if I'm spending this money I don't want to have to touch it again other than what more RAM if I get the 2gb or another hdd. Really I'm asking is if you think in a year or two 4gbs will just be getting by and you really should have more?

Also, motherboard, is it good? I based my choices on reviews and price, and this seemed good but kinda cheap and lacking stuff, I'd rather not spend a lot more if I don't have to, but again I don't want to have to upgrade things for at least like 2-3 years to get maybe a graphics card, and don't want to be having problems either with compatibilty or something.

Last, power supply, is 650 enough? Room for new videocard later on/maybe overclock?
 
The CPU is a good choice, no question about it.
The gfx card is also very good, especially if you get that rebate.
I suggest a Gigabyte motherboard, as I have had a better experience with them. Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337
The case is mainly your choice, but if you have the money I suggest an Antec 900 instead as I have also had good experiences with that case.

The PSU should be fine for single card and a slight overclock.

As for memory: Buy the other 2 gigs when you get Vista, and for now just stick with 2gb.
 
The benefit of the Q6600 in a few select apps is not worth the performance hit taken in games which at most utilize 2 cores.
 
stickciv said:
The benefit of the Q6600 in a few select apps is not worth the performance hit taken in games which at most utilize 2 cores.
Click to expand...

The benefit of the E8400 in a few select games is not worth the performance hit in general use.

Most games are GPU-limited anyway, nobody gets an E8400 instead of a Q6600 to play games at low detail at 1024x768.
 
Except with that rig you wont be playing games at low detail and 1024x768 res.
 
Ok, so 2 gb will be fine for now.

About the motherboard, How's this one look? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

It's a little bit cheaper, and has a ton of good reviews, and most the bad reviews seem to just be about the location of plugs. Also, is the chipset good or should I get something else? like the p45 or nvidia.

And I checked and the q6600 is only $20 more than the E8400, and I don't overclock but I guess I could get a better cooler later and do it. Anyway, it's mainly going to be for gaming but I will also be using cad and some other programs for school on it so I don't know if those are demanding at all.
 
Ah, if you're gonna use CAD and etc, then the Q6600 will be much better as afaik, most professional CAD programs are multithreaded.

I suggest this motherboard instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337&Tpk=GA-EP35-DS3L
It is essentially the same but a bit newer and should also use a bit less power. That and its nearly 30$ cheaper.

(I think I actually suggested this one in a post above)

In any case, if you get a slightly faulty mobo, you can always RMA it as newegg is good with that.
 
Oh, that mobo's the same thing? I just thought since the one I posted was more expensive it must be better, motherboards confuse me, there's too damn many.

Edit: that saved me about $30 off the total price, so I could either get the 4 gb of RAM, the Q6600, or a better heatsink and overclock, I'm leaning towards the heatsink.
 
Before buying a power supply, read this wiki article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_power_supply

Using a power supply that is larger than necessary can significantly increase operating costs by wasting energy. Many overestimate the size of power supply that is needed; several of the online calculators overestimate as well. Typical desktop computers, even those with power hungry processors like the Prescott P4 or a hot GPU, use a maximum of 200 to 250 W or less at full load.
Click to expand...
 
Newegg has a power supply calculator tool that seems to be pretty accurate. Plug in a Core2Duo, regular motherboard, 8800GTS, 2GB ram, Combo optical drive and 7200RPM HDD, and you just about hit 400 watts. Make it a high end motherboard and a quad core, and it's 500 watts. Make it two video cards and 4GB of ram and you're at 700w. Considering that the wattage ratings on PSUs are nominal vaues, and different units function at different efficiency levels, it can be safe to leave a little headroom.

As for the system altogether. You want to futureproof it is what you're saying. Unfortunately this means buying good, expensive components. Which means buying good, expensive components to support them. Right now it looks like if you want to stave off obsolescense as long as possible, the quad-core is a better choice, even at a lower clock speed. Clock speeds don't really rule the decision anymore, and are primarily only good for comparing processors in the same family.

If you don't want to open up the case, get more ram. whatever motherboard you settle on will probably have four slots; go with 2 modules of 2GB ram. You don't need the really fast stuff, DDR2 800 should do just fine and memory is cheap right now. Later you can add one or two more gigs. If you're running vista, you want all the ram you can afford.

The video card is a great deal at that price point. Unfortunately they're a component that obsolesces the fastest. I relaly don't see much point in you spending more money on that component. At the same time, I'm not sure that it'll last much longer than a $150 8800GT 512. You might be able to save a few bucks there.

With all that, you want a good motherboard and power supply. Look for reviews on motherboards, it's hard to tell much just by specs. Layout is very important though, take it from someone who had to remove the ram every time he wanted to take out a hard drive. where things are placed on the motherboard can have a huge effect on how easy the system is to build, airflow, etc. The power supply you chose looks good. Maybe a little overkill but I think it's okay to spend more than you need on a PSU. The wattage looks right (you can probably get away with 550-600w) but you might be able to find the same quality for under $100.

If you're not overclocking, don't bother with an aftermarket heat sink/fan. In fact, the stock coolers are even good for light overclocking on most cases (tom's overclocked the 2160 to 3.0ghz on the stock cooler, IIRC). Check out the fans on that case. It says one rear and one top. You might want to get one for the front. The PSu mounts at the bottom, so the excess heat it generates will rise. That top fan should be exhaust, I don't know why you'd draw air in there just to immediately exhaust it out the back. So a 120mm fan in the front should draw some cool air in and get it moving across and up. I honestly relaly don't like cases where the PSU mounts at the bottom, but I guess the designers know more about this stuff than I do.
 
The Antec Nine Hundred has a rebate for $40 so I think I'll get that one now, only ten dollars more now, but it doesn't have the air filters. Would they really make all that much difference?

I think I'll just save the money on the cpu heatsink for a while, I can always take the motherboard off later and put one in, I'll save it for a gpu cooler for the 4850, since it apparently runs hot.

No psu calculators I've tried even had the right stuff(the 4850) on them, but I've gathered they would probably generally suggest about 500w for me, but I think I'm fine with the 650 watt, it's down to $50 off and still has the $20 rebate, pretty good price.
 
Ulyaoth said:
The Antec Nine Hundred has a rebate for $40 so I think I'll get that one now, only ten dollars more now, but it doesn't have the air filters. Would they really make all that much difference?
Click to expand...

I guess they'd stop you from getting so much dust in the case. But then you'd have to clean the air filters since all the dust trapped in them will block airflow from your fans, so either way you're opening up your case to clean stuff. I open mine regularly enough that I just blast it with a can every time and that works fine.

I think I'll just save the money on the cpu heatsink for a while, I can always take the motherboard off later and put one in, I'll save it for a gpu cooler for the 4850, since it apparently runs hot.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt you'd need that, you're gonna have tons of room in that case for air to move around. If you're worried about cooling just make sure you have an intake fan in the front. Any money you save could go toward something like another 2G of ram.

No psu calculators I've tried even had the right stuff(the 4850) on them, but I've gathered they would probably generally suggest about 500w for me, but I think I'm fine with the 650 watt, it's down to $50 off and still has the $20 rebate, pretty good price.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't see you needing more than 550w. But again, any money you save can go toward something else, so why not look at good 550w PSUs? One of the reasons to build your own system is to get a better price, so why not do it?
 
Yeah, my last psu fried itself after putting an X850Pro in my computer that it obviously couldn't handle, luckily nothing was damaged. My Antec's done fine so far and if I'd gotten a higher wattage like I should have maybe I could have saved money and just put that in. Anyway I'm going to a computer store later to check out if they have anything for cheaper or the same price as Newegg so I could at least save on shipping, have a place right here I could go to for help if I run into any, advice, you know. Because even with that rebate the 900 is still like $20 more in taxes and the extra shipping cost. And I did a quick check of 550w psus yesterday and they were pretty much the same price so why not as well get the 650, sure it'll bug my mom with electric but I actually turn my computer off unlike most other people, so it shouldn't matter too much.

Edit: Found another site that doesn't charge tax and has stuff cheaper anyway, so, getting the 900 and the psu from this place is saving me $70 over if I got it from Newegg, even getting the $40 back from the rebate I save $30 over newegg.
 
Ulyaoth said:
Edit: Found another site that doesn't charge tax and has stuff cheaper anyway, so, getting the 900 and the psu from this place is saving me $70 over if I got it from Newegg, even getting the $40 back from the rebate I save $30 over newegg.
Click to expand...

You might want to check pricewatch.com too, kind of hard to navigate but sometimes you can find awesome deals.
 
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