Building a PC January Progress
It's only a few more months until I will make the final decision about the PC components that I will place in my new computer. I think I will finalize everything in the second quarter of 2008. But before I do that I list once again the components that I want to use in the new PC and hope to receive feedback if you think anything is missing or misplaced.
All components are chosen from the online store Newegg to be able to compare them with previous months. I will use a best-price-finder before I buy the computer to find the best prices and shops for the components.
Some thoughts. I made several changes to last months components. I changed the memory for instance slightly which added $10 to the costs. The benefit is that the new Dual Channel Kit has a latency of 4 instead of 5.
The video card has been changed as well. This one costs roughly $60 less and is faster than the previous one from Asus. Since most Geforce 8800 GT cards are sold out it remains to be seen which will be available when I make the purchases.
I reduced hard drive capacities from 500 Gigabytes each to 250 again which lowered the price by $100. I have plans to either purchase a third big internal hard drive with a capacity of 1 Terabyte or an external hard drive with at least 500 Gigabytes.
The Solid State Disk is still giving me headaches. I have to make sure that it really lives up to the promise of delivering this incredible speed gain over normal hard drives. The new one that I selected costs almost $700 for 32 Gigabytes. I hope prices are falling fast for those drives and that some magazines or websites will test them so that I have some benchmarks that help me select the right SSD.
| Type | Name | Quantity | Price |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6850 - Retail | 1 | $279.99 |
| Motherboard | MSI P35 Neo2-FR LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail | 1 | $99.99 |
| Memory | G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail | 1 | $109.99 |
| CPU Cooler | ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail | 1 | $21.99 |
| Video Card | XFX PVT88PUDD4 GeForce 8800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail | 1 | $229.99 |
| Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM | 2 | $139.98 |
| Hard Drive | Ridata SSDR32G-SAT25-2 2.5" 32GB SATA Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - OEM | 1 | $699.99 |
| 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 | AeroCool ZERODBA ZERODBA-S500 ATX12V / EPS12V 500W Power Supply - Retail | 1 | $89.99 |
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Here’s an online calculator for PSU wattage that may be helpful:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/powercalc.jsp
Man, you’re not really rolling with the times are you? Core 2 Duo is so last year, go with the Q6600 instead. Get a better MB too, although the MSI board you selected is great you should spring for something more stable like the P6N SLI Platinum to give yourself more options. Dump that AeroCool crap while you’re at it, get a CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX for a few more bucks… believe me, you won’t regret it.
Here’s my recent Q6600 build for a customer:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775
Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 (PC2 6400)
MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel
Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 520W
EVGA GeForce 8500GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16
Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower
SAMSUNG 941BW Black 19″ 4 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD
This baby ROARS! Sad thing is, although the client wanted everything to be high-end components, he’s mostly going to use it to work on spreadsheets. Life’s not fair.
A 500 watt PSU is NOT enough for today’s new machines. 8800 series cards draw a lot of power. Don’t be penny wise & pound foolish. Get at least 700 watts. And make sure you have enough amps for the 12V rail.
Why are you buying a 65nm CPU when the 45nm models are coming out now or shortly (Phenom)? They will use less power and perform better.
In mobo’s, the X48 models should be out prior to your build date. P35 will be 2 release old by then.
I like the Enzotech Ultra-x cooler for about $60. It has copper pipes and a 120mm fan that blows down into the board, which helps cool not only the CPU but also the board components such as the northbridge.
I would suggest hanging out for a few weeks at the mobo support forum for the board you choose. You will see what problems are being reported and what components are causing problems. You might decide to change your choice of boards even.
I built a new IP35 machine a few months ago with he following components:
Cooler Master 690 case
Abit IP35 Pro mobo
Intel Duo-Core E6750
Enzotech Ultra-X CPU cooler
2 GB Corsair HDX 6400 RAM
BFG 7950 GT OC 256MB x256bit bus graphic card
Pioneer 18x SATA CD/DVD DL
Corsair HX 620 watt PSU
MY old LSI Logic I/O board w/2 U320 SCSI 10k RPM disk drives
1 old 300GB Maxtor SATA 1 drive
1 old Hitachi 75GB PATA drive
I just added 1 new Seagate SATA ST303204N1A1AS (320GB) drive
I have had nothing but problems with the Abit board. I went through 4 mobo’s. The first board kept getting C1 memory errors. The 2nd through 4th boards have a problem with ONLY ONE SATA port and the Maxtor drive (no problems on this port with the Seagate drive). I’d stay away from Abit boards. Abit boards (new ones at least) are having a lot of problems. Their direct technical support in the USA sucks. Their user forum is helpful though.
You should read the review sites to help you choose components. For example:
http://www.pcper.com/index.php
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/
http://www.frostytech.com/
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/
http://www.legionhardware.com/list.php
http://www.legitreviews.com/index.php
http://www.guru3d.com/
A couple of good forums are:
http://forums.guru3d.com//index.php
http://www.rhcf.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
Why not get a quad core q6600? You can get so much out of it. Yes most programs don’t utilize it but think of the future. Also you can overclock that beast to 3.6ghz stable.
Sorry for double-posting – it didn’t seem to work the first time around. (This theme’s confirmation messages – including “awaiting moderation” – don’t seem to be reliable.)
Martin, could you delete the first version please?
About the SSD: $700 for 32 GB, that’s insane – and definitely not worth it. Nevertheless, why 32 GB in the first place? 16 GB should be plenty, as long as it’s only used as boot/OS partition.
As for HDD storage: If you can afford it, get a Drobo (though you’ll still need the HDDs) – GeekBrief.tv has been raving about it for months, and I trust their judgment on this.
By the way: I have decided that my next computer will not be a desktop PC anymore.
Instead, I will buy a laptop with a docking station – that way I can have the desktop experience (two regular monitors, mouse and keyboard) at home, while I can always have my data with me (no more sync’ing Thunderbird, or anything!).
However, that’s only possible because I’m not a PC gamer anymore – I don’t believe laptops are gaming-ready yet.
Kevinn you are right, I overlooked that the card is only having 256 Megabytes. Will have to change that because I want to go for a 512 MB card.
The PSU is highly effective and should not have difficulties handling the needs.
I’d say drop the SSD for now… at that price, you won’t gain anything.
Why did you settle for the 256mb 8800 GT? Where the standard 512mb part would give you more headroom in the long run. BTW, these cards would need 550w PSU as a bare minimum. I got a 750 watter, just to be sure.