Building a PC March Progress
We are coming closer to the finish line. I'm thinking of making the purchase of the new PC components in the next month or the month thereafter. I would like to thank everyone for their great and valuable comments which pointed me into the right directions concerning some components.
I decided to go for a slightly larger PSU to accommodate all the needs of the components. I also decided to purchase the new Intel Wolfdale CPU running on 45nm instead of the 65nm of the older CPUs. My last decision was to forgo the purchase of a Solid State Disk. The technology is incredible, the only problem is that the new faster disks are not available yet or so expensive that some would cost more than all other components combined in the PC.
Other components have been changed as well. I switched to the Gigabyte motherboard which saves me $10 and received great ratings across the board. The RAM was changed slightly from DDR2 800 to DDR2 1066 which increased the price by $50.
| Type | Name | Quantity | Price |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail | 1 | $239.99 |
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard - Retail | 1 | $89.99 |
| Memory | G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail | 1 | $144.99 |
| CPU Cooler | ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail | 1 | $26.99 |
| Video Card | MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail | 1 | $219.99 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000AAKS 400GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM | 2 | $189.98 |
| Computer Case | COOLER MASTER CAVALIER 3 CAV-T03-UW Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail | 1 | $59.99 |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic USA SeaSonic SS-500ES ATX12V/V2.2, EPS12V/V2.91, 500W, PFC, 80+, 2PCI-E (6Pin), Power Supply - OEM | 1 | $69.99 |
I might get a nice audio card as well, maybe the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer. All other components are still in my old PC and will be used in the new one as well. This includes Samsung DVD writer, Logitech Mouse and Keyboard. I'm thinking of purchasing a new 24" monitor to replace my old 19" Samsung monitor.
Any thoughts on this setup ? The PSU should be sufficient to handle everything smoothly. The overall costs are $1,031.91 at the moment.
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If you’re using Vista Ultimate as the OS, than you might want to look into quad core CPU’s. My database and spreadsheet programs do see a noticable difference the more cores I have.
Hi Martin. Your list seems to be a perfect. The only suggestion I have is to change video card to new type NX9600GT with 512 MB RAM. About reviews it seems to be more powerful and chipper as well.
Excellent choice on the cpu cooler, arctic coolers are awesome, push a ton of air and are quiet as church mice.
All in all that looks like a pretty solid system.
I agree with what dip says, supposedly the xifi music and xifi gamer use the same chipset, I think the gamer just comes with a game bundle or a daughter board?
Anyhow Good luck, I plan on building a new machine soon also…
you are taking your tiiiiiime over building this martin… get it done already ;)
p.s. i dont like your msi card… …try gainward of bfg :P