[Bizarbus]

I'm a gamer I guess you would say... so I'm pretty sure my plan for college is going to be to get a cheap laptop for the portability and build myself a powerful desktop for my gaming/media storage and whatnot.



First and foremost, I'm looking for a good PC build for around $2000... I like this build http://sysbuild.cors...aspx?id=2&sid=2 except for the dual graphics cards... I think I'd rather stick with just one card (for both price and ease of upgrade reasons). I also think I could probably get away with a cheaper case. What would your suggestions be for a build and/or is that build a good one? Should I wait for Conroe?



Second of all, what software is considered "essential" nowadays for a new computer? (other than the OS, obviously...) Suggestions?



And third... I was toying with the idea of getting an Apple laptop in order to diversify what I could do with the two machines. However, I'm not sure what kinds of problems arise with networking a Mac with a PC running Windows. What do you guys think?



Thanks so much for any and all help.

[Advertisements]

I wouldnt wait for the Conroe...I'd wait for AMD to drop their prices in the upcoming month. Also i agree about the case, its a little pricey for wat u get.

Id rec this case and PSU combo
http://www.tigerdire...p;Sku=TC3J-2145

Also u r wanna go w/ Socket AM2, not 939.

Video wise i rec a x1900xt....they run about 400(US) ..Dual gfx is overated

The new apples based on intel platforms can dual boot...so u can install XP on it and that would deal w/ most probs

[anoobrew]

I wouldnt wait for the Conroe...I'd wait for AMD to drop their prices in the upcoming month. Also i agree about the case, its a little pricey for wat u get.

Id rec this case and PSU combo
http://www.tigerdire...p;Sku=TC3J-2145

Also u r wanna go w/ Socket AM2, not 939.

Video wise i rec a x1900xt....they run about 400(US) ..Dual gfx is overated

The new apples based on intel platforms can dual boot...so u can install XP on it and that would deal w/ most probs

[warriorscot]

Nah much as i love AMD they arent the best choice right now, price drop makes them a viable upgrade to keep alot of 939 users AMD but new builders should use conroe at least until K8L comes out at the end of the year .

[Bizarbus]

Thanks for all the info

I think I'm looking at this now...



CPU/Motherboard - Odds are I'm going to wait for the $500 ish Conroe chip. (Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67GHz/4M) $530 (Outperforms 1000$ AMD FX))

RAM - I guess I would need 2 gig DDR2?

Optical drive - a good dvd writer... this is an easier one to just pick out anyway...

PSU - Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply

Case - Antec Performance I P180 Silver

Keyboard/mouse - still not sure...

Video Card - Some sort of geforce 7900

Sound Card - Probably the cheapest soundblaster card... possible for a future upgrade...

Heatsink/fan - still not sure...

Monitor - The ViewSonic VX924 looks nice...

Hard Drives - Is the 10,000 RPM Drive worth it? I may just get a huge one and another huge one in the future if I run out of room...



Thank's for all the huge amounts of help!

[warriorscot]

10,000 rpms arent worth it, they were a quick fix a while ago but they suffer from draw backs, 7200rpm drives of the 16mb sata2 vareity are a good compromise between speed and size.

The $500 Conroe will be the Extreme Edition i think the 6700 is a little cheaper or it will be once the the EE is out, The FX62 will drop to about $500 as well if AMD follow the price plan.

Gfx something cheaper to bide your time till DX10 if you are going for that muc to spend i would go for an x1900, probably the new DDR4 one coming out, but the DX10s are close enough to make it worth while to save some money and get one when they are released.

[jrm20]

This is quoted directly from xbitlabs.com so I wouldnt have to retype it all again, I have typed it out atleast 2 or 3 times on the site so here is the info.

http://www.xbitlabs....0212234350.html

E6700, E6600, E6400 and E6300 that will operate 2.67GHz, 2.40GHz, 2.13GHz and 1.86GHz, respectively. The E6700 and E6600 models will sport 4MB unified L2 cache, whereas the E6400 and E6300 will have 2MB unified level-two cache. Pricing of the parts is expected to be quite aggressive: $529, $315, $240 and $210, according to some sources. In the Q4 2006 the maker will also add the model E6800 that works at 2.93GHz and features 1066MHz bus along with 4MB cache.


So the extreme edition isnt the $529 chip. The $529 intel conroe is not an extreme edition but it has 2.67ghz with 4mb cache and it beats the fx-60 and fx-62 in every test/benchmark including games as I have stated before.

I herd they will be coming out with a 3.33ghz extreme edition that has 1333mhz processor system bus and with 4mb cache still and about 95watts. The price is not determined yet and it will be alot, all extreme editions are expensive and I highly doubt it under $800.. All of the extreme editions I have seen were around $800-$1000 roughly and even alittle more when it first came out.

Overall Bizarbus, the E6600 is the best deal OVERALL and best speed/performance for the money. It is the 2.40 ghz version and it still has the 4mb cache and it beats the fx-60 and fx-62 also. It will run around $315.

Thats the one I would definatly buy if I was building a new pc soon or by the end of the year.. You can always overclock it to the E6700 like a piece of cake...

[Bizarbus]

Let's try something like this then...

Case – COOLER MASTER CAVALIER 3 ($45 after rebate)

PSU – Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply ($83.99)

RAM – CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM ($164 after rebate)

GPU – eVGA 256-P2-N562-AX Geforce 7900GT 256MB ($237 after rebate) (in anticipation of upgrading to a DX10)

Sound card – Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card ($85 after rebate)

Processor –Intel Conroe 660 ($316)

Motherboard – Conroe compatible motherboard (???$150 or so???)

Hard drive(s) – Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L300R0 300GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache ($100)

Optical drive(s) – LITE-ON Black DVD Burner w/lightscribe ($39)
LITE-ON Black combo drive ($28)

Heatsink/fan – I guess I have to wait for Conroe compatible ones, eh? (???$40???)

Approximate total - $1287.99

I'm still deciding on monitor/speakers/keyboard and mouse
suggestions??

Thank you again!

[sarahw]

I herd they will be coming out with a 3.33ghz extreme edition .

the E6600 is the best deal OVERALL and best speed/performance for the money. It is the 2.40 ghz version......
Thats the one I would definatly buy if I was building a new pc soon or by the end of the year....

"Chandrasekher also disclosed that Intel will introduce the Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor at speeds of 2.93 Gigahertz in July, and a faster 3.2 Gigahertz version later in the year."

Intel Corporation executive Anand Chandrasekher at computex 2006
http://www.intel.com...0060606corp.htm

I'd rather a 3.2 myself, but am prepared to spend the money

Edited by sarahw, 24 June 2006 - 02:37 AM.

[warriorscot]

You might be able to get away with a retail HSF that comes with the CPU, the cav3 is a nice case but its cooling could be better but its excellent for the price.

I looked today conroes are on pre order with the 6600 at £252 and the 6800 at £775. So the 6600 with the price drops on AMD will be competing against the FX60 or 4800+ if the drops are as much as AMD has said. What i think might be AMDs saving grace is the fact that the intel 975X mobos start at £150 and go up to 200 way to much for a mobo especially when the nforce mobos start at under a 100 and dont go much about 120.

[jrm20]

I herd they will be coming out with a 3.33ghz extreme edition .

the E6600 is the best deal OVERALL and best speed/performance for the money. It is the 2.40 ghz version......
Thats the one I would definatly buy if I was building a new pc soon or by the end of the year....

"Chandrasekher also disclosed that Intel will introduce the Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor at speeds of 2.93 Gigahertz in July, and a faster 3.2 Gigahertz version later in the year."

Intel Corporation executive Anand Chandrasekher at computex 2006
http://www.intel.com...0060606corp.htm

I'd rather a 3.2 myself, but am prepared to spend the money

I knew the 2.93 ghz version of the extreme edition was true, but thats why I put "I herd they will be coming out with a 3.33ghz extreme edition". It was more of a rumor it being 3.33ghz instead of 3.2 ghz. They change the speeds of the chips all the time on "Future" cpu's. Thanks for pointing out that it will be 3.2ghz instead of 3.33 ghz that it was first rumored to be.