Building a PC April Progress
This is the final month of my Building a PC series that details the components that I will purchase for my new computer. To be able to compare components and prices I selected Newegg as the online shop for all components. Newegg does not always carry the best prices though and I will definitely research the prices to find the best one for each component considering shipping and handling of course.
Some new items have recently been introduced, for instance the Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drive that will most likely be the fastest SATA drive on the market when it comes out in Mai 2008. The question that I have to ask myself is if I really need to buy that 300 Gigabyte drive that is definitely faster than any other SATA drive that I could buy for roughly $300 or invest in more space and less speed.
Since I'm not that much of a gamer anymore I decided to not buy that hard drive. The same holds true for my choice of video card and cpu. I do not need the fastest, I need reliable hardware that runs Linux and Windows plus the applications that I need. I need Windows to test software for Ghacks and for the occasional game that might come out that sounds interesting, Starcraft 2 anyone ?
Some other thoughts: I always choose a low noise level over performance. That means I tried my best to find pc components that produce the least amount of noise possible. I'm not talking about passive cooling here although that would probably be an option as well but about components that have been developed to be less noisy than the usual pc components.
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| Type | Name | Quantity | Price |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail | 1 | $204.99 |
| 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 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail | 1 | $74.99 |
| CPU Cooler | ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail | 1 | $31.99 |
| 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 | $174.99 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM | 2 | $109.99 |
| Computer Case | COOLER MASTER CAVALIER 3 CAV-T03-UW Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail | 1 | $54.99 |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic SS-500ES ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 500W Power Supply - OEM | 1 | $72.99 |
All components for that pc cost $844.92 which is more affordable than I thought it would be. That leaves enough money for a better LCD monitor and a sound card. I know that some components are not the fastest like the video card. Nvidia and ATI are pumping out new video cards every three to six months it seems that are faster and more powerful than those that have been released just a few months ago.
I don't need to play games on highest settings and the card that I have chosen is perfectly capable of delivering a good gaming experience on my Samsung Syncmaster 19" lcd monitor. Did I miss something, would you change something in the setup ? Let me know, this might be the last chance to change components.
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dip it’s a solid, cheap and excellent PC case. I really do not need those high end big cases. The only reason for switching to another case would be if that new case would provide excellent noise dampening capabilities.
Hey Martin, could you tell us why you decided on the COOLER MASTER CAVALIER 3 case?
I just bought my new pc today: cpu E8400, mobo Asus P5K SE, ram PC2-8500 OCZ, hd seagate barracuda 7200.11 320GB 16MB sata, dvd+-rw sata, graphic GeForce 8500 GT 512 Mb DDR2 Passive, psu antec EarthWatts 430W. I already have case and audio. I hope it could help, since I choose every single part of my new computer
>I would add one more HDD, I always have two drives with two functional Win installed, if something goes wrong I just change boot order and I’m back in working win from where I can either roll the other one back with Ghost or do whatever …
> as for CPU I think you would be better with Quad core because as time comes you will be ready and Quad is now easy to get for around $170 on ebay if you try a little so there’s no point of having Dual core albeit a bit faster, with Quad and enough of RAM 6-8GB you will be ready for some serious multitasking.
>also you could add some multi card reader in lieu of floppy drive slot (I know nobody use those anymore)and make sure it is SDHC compatible
Dante Quad- or Dualcore was one of the decisions that I had to make. I decided to go for the new Wolfdale CPUs because they consume less power and I really do not need four cores yet. Heck, I’m perfectly happy with my Athlon 3000+ :)
The big changes this month have been the change of hard drive to one hard drive with 640 Gigabyte which should be enough for all my data. Everything else remained untouched more or less. I will check the review sites one more time before I make the purchase and decided on all components at that time.
It could very well be that I make a decision to change on or the other component just a day before purchase.
Glad to see you’ve chosen a motherboard that doesn’t use Nvidia chipsets. They’re buggy as all heck. But you might want to think about getting a Quad Core CPU. Intel just announced a price drop http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsID=12048&pagtype=all