Building a PC February Progress

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 15, 2008
Updated • Dec 2, 2012
Hardware
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15

Another month has passed quickly and I'm almost ready to buy the components for the new computer that I want to build. This article explains the changes that I made to the setup during the last month and all the components that I intend to purchase. I hope that this pc build could be inspiration for some of my readers who would like to build a PC as well but are not that sure about the right choice of pc components.

I'm not saying that this will be a perfect build. It will be a good allround Pc with enough power for all the applications, games and multimedia that you throw at it.

Please add your opinion about this build because I will need at least another month before I make the purchase and there is not a problem to replace a component if a better one is available. I'm using Newegg for price comparision as always.

I still have not made a decision about the Solid State Drive that I want to purchase and use as the hard drive for the operating system. A good one cuts boot time and application launches in half but they are very rare and expensive. Many of them are called SSD but do not have the read advantages yet. I don't want to build a PC without them and buy them later because this would mean that I would have to setup Windows and Linux once again when I make that purchase.

I guess I have to pay more attention to hardware websites in the next month and hope that some will write a few comparisons so that I'm able to collect more information about them.

The price for the computer was mainly reduced because I removed the SSD for now which attributed to $700 last month. I made sure to pick a 512 MB video card this time, everything else remained the same.

Type Name Quantity Price
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6850 - Retail 1 $274.99
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 $89.99
CPU Cooler ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail 1 $19.99
Video Card XXFX PVT88PYHE4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail 1 $259.99
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM 2 $139.98
Hard Drive Solid State Disk Removed for now
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 $99.99
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Comments

  1. tash said on February 21, 2008 at 11:51 pm
    Reply

    I agree with Vance.
    @Martin You should definitely go with the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400. It’s cheaper, faster, cooler, and very overclockable.

    I actually picked one up for about $180 the other day at a store here called Microcenter, and have it over clocked to 4.1ghz with little effort and it runs at ~35c with moderate load. There’s lots of reviews of people getting it up to 4.6 or higher without much trouble too

  2. Kevin said on February 19, 2008 at 8:00 pm
    Reply

    I agree with Dante. Martin, you should spend a little more on your power supply in order to ensure it’s a top quality model that won’t fail on you. I recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001

  3. Saad Ibrahim said on February 17, 2008 at 1:21 am
    Reply

    yup but i wanted to ask if there was any specific reason behind not choosing 45nm

  4. vance said on February 16, 2008 at 10:58 pm
    Reply

    @saad same question that is why I recommend him the wolfdale as you can read above, Its cheaper, faster and has bigger cache.

  5. jojo said on February 16, 2008 at 8:21 am
    Reply

    I made a post here but it didn’t show up.

  6. jopo said on February 16, 2008 at 7:20 am
    Reply

    I think you precisely prepared your compnent list. I wold consider another type of video card based on FeForce 8800GTS 512 MB (that “S” is important) belike, which seems to bo worthy its higher price. BTW, I have found some information about new prepared video card based on GeForce 9600 GT with similar power and better price expected.

  7. Dante said on February 16, 2008 at 2:23 am
    Reply

    As to the power supply, if you leave your computer on for long periods of time, like I do, you might want to consider one of those new 80% efficiency ones. They run quiet and cooler than the plain janes.

  8. Dante said on February 16, 2008 at 2:21 am
    Reply

    Newegg has an 8800GS for US$160 with free shipping.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150275

  9. Saad Ibrahim said on February 15, 2008 at 10:51 pm
    Reply

    why aren’t you getting a 45 nm processor? it will cost you less and a give you a little bit of performance boost

  10. Martin said on February 15, 2008 at 10:24 pm
    Reply

    Arvin yes I’m sure about this. It depends on the SSD drive however, the early ones have almost no advantage while the new ones do have great advantages over normal SATA drives.

    Tom Compact Flash drives are to slow for this.

  11. Jan said on February 15, 2008 at 10:07 pm
    Reply

    Consider hardware that’s compatible with OSX86 – maybe down the road you might be interested in installing Mac OSX onto a spare drive…

  12. vance said on February 15, 2008 at 10:06 pm
    Reply

    why not get “Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 – Retail price at $240 in newegg” this is a newer faster processor with 6mb of cache. Plus you save 30 dollars!

    of course if you can still wait for the e8500 which said to come out by march or april.

  13. Tom said on February 15, 2008 at 9:59 pm
    Reply

    Have you ever thought about Compact Flash (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208389) for the OS instead of SSD? Might be to slow for your PC but i think they run pretty good.

  14. Arvin Bautista said on February 15, 2008 at 9:46 pm
    Reply

    Are you sure about the advantages of the SSD drive? The tests on the Macbook Air SSD seems to show only marginal boosts in performance. I can’t see it being cost effective for another year or two.

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