Help me build my new PC

brentsg · Jul 20, 2006

Good timing on the CPU purchase... could even get an AM2 X2 5000+ for less than $300 pretty soon.

DanAdamKOF · Jul 20, 2006

brentsg said:
Good timing on the CPU purchase... could even get an AM2 X2 5000+ for less than $300 pretty soon.

I'm looking to spend ~$250 on a CPU+mobo combo. I'm thinking of getting the X2 3800+ (lowest end) and a great mobo, or maybe the next CPU up and a slightly less great mobo.

edit: and indeed I have been waiting for that dual core price drop.

eek · Jul 20, 2006

I would skip the Thermaltake psu and buy a Seasonic instead. Seasonic builds psu for Thermaltake, but Thermaltake supplies the designs. Thermaltake designs are shite. Besides, Thermaltake's ratings on their psu are bogus, they take peak power instead of average. So that 430W you are looking at is more like 300 some. All that info's from my buddy who works for them...

Skip the Chaintech soundcard. Save up for a creative x-fi later.

DanAdamKOF · Jul 20, 2006

eek said:
I would skip the Thermaltake psu and buy a Seasonic instead. Seasonic builds psu for Thermaltake, but Thermaltake supplies the designs. Thermaltake designs are shite. Besides, Thermaltake's ratings on their psu are bogus, they take peak power instead of average. So that 430W you are looking at is more like 300 some. All that info's from my buddy who works for them...

Skip the Chaintech soundcard. Save up for a creative x-fi later.

I've bought them already. And that PSU seems to be well-liked at Newegg.

EVIL NICK · Jul 21, 2006

DanAdamKOF said:
I'm looking to spend ~$250 on a CPU+mobo combo. I'm thinking of getting the X2 3800+ (lowest end) and a great mobo, or maybe the next CPU up and a slightly less great mobo.

edit: and indeed I have been waiting for that dual core price drop.

For $250, it's going to be X2 3800+ , and a decent mobo... the proccy will hit only 149ish. leaving $100 for the mobo...

DanAdamKOF · Jul 21, 2006

EVIL NICK said:
For $250, it's going to be X2 3800+ , and a decent mobo... the proccy will hit only 149ish. leaving $100 for the mobo...

Don't bother with the sad face, that's what I expected anyway.

EVIL NICK · Jul 22, 2006

DanAdamKOF said:
Don't bother with the sad face, that's what I expected anyway.

I forgot to post this last time, but put too much weight on the newegg reviews, they take off the bad ones...

DanAdamKOF · Jul 26, 2006

OK y'all, looking at pricewatch.com I can pick up a AM2 X2 3800+ with an Asus motherboard! Which motherboard should I get with my X2?

It looks like I'd get one of these with my motherboard in my price range:
Asus M2N-E ($261 with AM2 X2 3800+)
ASUS M2N-E Deluxe ($272 with AM2 X2 3800+ (and also Nero 7)) (hmm I can't find a link for it)

I know Nick said to watch out for the reviews on newegg, but I'm gonna look elsewhere for reviews as well. That being said, here's my breakdown of the motherboards as I see it:
The M2N-E has great reviews. It seems to be a solid board over all. The only faults I see are that it doesn't have onboard video (not that big of a deal, I can just use a cheap-o PCI card if my graphics card happens to die), it seems to ONLY like RAM at 1.95V (which I'll have to watch out for if I upgrade), and it doesn't have an onboard Firewire port (which means the port on the front of the case I'm getting won't be useable (but I also don't have anything that uses Firewire so that isn't so bad)). It uses nForce 570 Ultra MCP.

I can't find any information at all on the M2NE Deluxe, hmm. It costs $10 more than the others though.

Help me out here, fellas! This is the home stretch!

DanAdamKOF · Jul 27, 2006

Bump for the above.

Also I can't quite decide between these two cases:
http://directron.com/rcb541skn1.html
or
http://directron.com/cscil8033c43.html

EDIT: uummmmmm nevermind the coolermaster is a mATX case

DanAdamKOF · Jul 29, 2006

Buying these now as I type!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131024
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103735

Bought the case yesterday as well. I promise I'll post pics when I'm all done.

gamejunkie · Jul 29, 2006

Man I can't belive that deal! A few months ago I paid that for a Opteron 144. :oh_no:

DanAdamKOF · Jul 29, 2006

So, after all is said and done...
$110- Hard Drive shipped from Buy.com
$33- DVDRW shipped from Newegg
$300- Video Card, RAM, PSU, Sound Card, Internal Card Reader shipped from Newegg (less rebate)
$42.50- Case bought in person at Directron (inc. tax)
$248- CPU and Mobo shipped from Newegg

$733.50- GRAND FUCKING TOTAL

PRICELE$$- Having a computer that will last me through college and back and play tons of kickass games* at nice settings

*though the tradition at this house is to install UT99 before installing any other games on a new PC

-Hibikster- · Jul 29, 2006

That's pretty damn sweet man, congrats, mind posting the exact specs though?

DanAdamKOF · Jul 30, 2006

OH SHIT.

I just realized.

I ordered the VIA motherboard and not the nForce. FUCK!!!

Cancelling that shit right now. Damnit I was in too much of a hurry aaaugh fuck!

EDIT: OK I think it looks like the order was cancelled. I'm redoing the order with Asus' nForce mobo. After I finish doing that I'll post the specs, Hibikster.

DanAdamKOF · Jul 30, 2006

The specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Socket AM2)
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-E
RAM: PQI POWER Series 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA2 320GB w/16MB Buffer
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon X850XT PCI-E 256MB
PSU: Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W
Sound Card: Chaintech AV-710
Case: ATRIX CSCI-L8033-C43
DVDRW: BenQ DW1650 IDE
Internal Card Reader: LinksKey LKA-CR15B (w/ USB port)
OS: XP Pro SP2
Monitor: Hitachi CM801 (21" enormous and beautiful CRT, fuck the haters)
Speakers: Logitech X 320 (Satellites will be probably be wall-mounted when I'm at college)
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite
Mouse: Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical 1.1A

-Hibikster- · Jul 30, 2006

For about $733 and some change...looks like you got yourself a good deal. I'm especially digging the videocard.

EVIL NICK · Jul 30, 2006

DanAdamKOF said:
The specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Socket AM2)
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-E
RAM: PQI POWER Series 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA2 320GB w/16MB Buffer
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon X850XT PCI-E 256MB
PSU: Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W
Sound Card: Chaintech AV-710
Case: ATRIX CSCI-L8033-C43
DVDRW: BenQ DW1650 IDE
Internal Card Reader: LinksKey LKA-CR15B (w/ USB port)
OS: XP Pro SP2
Monitor: Hitachi CM801 (21" enormous and beautiful CRT, fuck the haters)
Speakers: Logitech X 320 (Satellites will be probably be wall-mounted when I'm at college)
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite
Mouse: Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical 1.1A