[callistra]

I've been saying I'm going to build myself a computer for about 2 years now. I should finally have enough saved up in the next six months.. my birthday is in June and whatever I have left I'm sure I'll get in money then. At the time I'd done a lot of research and thought I knew what the best was. But it's been a while and I feel out of the loop. I really especially need reccomendations on the motherboard and chassis. Since this is my first build I would like something that is fairly easy to assemble. I'm not a novice.. I've been upgrading computers for years, but I've never installed a motherboard or cpu before. This makes me nervous because I hear you can fry a mobo if you install it wrong.. something about the prongs on the chassis hitting the wrong places..? Also, the chassis should have some good dust filters. I don't know why but my house is a dust magnet. We have professional cleaners come in and still.. anyway. As for the motherboard, I don't plan to overclock. I just want something that runs well, is stable, and has room for future upgrades. I was dead set on a mobo at the time, but there have been SO Many new ones come out that I feel a little lost. This is what I have in mind, but I'm very open to suggestions:

CoolMaster Stacker 830 Black
Asus P5N32-E SLI
Intel E6750
PCP&C 610w
WD2500AAKS
WD1500AHFD
Zalman CNPS9500 LED OR 9700 LED OR ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm
Rosewill/ Koutech digital card reader + floppy
Some kind of tv tuner.. recommendations? Looking at WinTV-HVR-1800 or WinTV-PVR-350


Own:
BenQ DW1655
Creative XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
EVGA 7950GT KO Superclocked
2gb CRUCIAL pc2 6400 RAM

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In the next six months you will be changing your ideas on what you need. That is how fast computer hardware does change nowadays. If you were building this computer today it would be pretty good. Six months from now, it will already be somewhat obsolete.

On to the hardware.

I have had so many problems with ASUS MB's that i quit buying them. Abit, or Gigabyte, is my choice of MB's to use. I have had too many brand new ASUS mb's returned for replacement when they would not bootup. My record so far i 1 out of 8 do not boot. Far too many when its my cost to send them back.

Why not buy 2 identical hard drives instead of different sizes? Makes no sense to me.

Digital card readers? i found i really don't use any other cards other than SD/MMC cards so i just have a single USB card reader that i use for all my computers. A multicard reader is useless if you don't need it. I have 3 of those laying around that i don't even bother installing in computers.

I do use a WinTV PVR and have had no problems with it. One thing is i found i needed more HD space than i thought and now have 2 500 Gig drives in the TV recording computer. Just can't do without those TV shows.

In six months that Benq will be superseded by a faster dual layer 20x lightscribe burner or better.

A 7950 Video card is already obsolete and i am sure there will be even better cards than the 8800's out right now.

Same thing for the RAM. DDR3 is almost here and six months from now there will be even faster memory.

A thought on building your own computer from me is: GO FOR IT. There really is not a lot to go wrong. Just read all you can on build computers on the net. and just be careful and exacting in your own work. I do remember being apprehensive about building a computer my first time. I was lucky that it went so smoothly that i decided to build another right away for my wife. I've never looked back and continue to build my own computers. Usually one new one every six months for myself and the wife. This way i can sell the old computer and reasonably get some of my money back on them. Every computer i build for myself costs around $1000 to build simply because i cannot stand On-Board anything. Good enough is NOT for me, they must be the best available for the price.

Yes, a computer build can be very frustrating when things go wrong, but you have to chalk that up to just getting experience.

SRX660

[SRX660]

In the next six months you will be changing your ideas on what you need. That is how fast computer hardware does change nowadays. If you were building this computer today it would be pretty good. Six months from now, it will already be somewhat obsolete.

On to the hardware.

I have had so many problems with ASUS MB's that i quit buying them. Abit, or Gigabyte, is my choice of MB's to use. I have had too many brand new ASUS mb's returned for replacement when they would not bootup. My record so far i 1 out of 8 do not boot. Far too many when its my cost to send them back.

Why not buy 2 identical hard drives instead of different sizes? Makes no sense to me.

Digital card readers? i found i really don't use any other cards other than SD/MMC cards so i just have a single USB card reader that i use for all my computers. A multicard reader is useless if you don't need it. I have 3 of those laying around that i don't even bother installing in computers.

I do use a WinTV PVR and have had no problems with it. One thing is i found i needed more HD space than i thought and now have 2 500 Gig drives in the TV recording computer. Just can't do without those TV shows.

In six months that Benq will be superseded by a faster dual layer 20x lightscribe burner or better.

A 7950 Video card is already obsolete and i am sure there will be even better cards than the 8800's out right now.

Same thing for the RAM. DDR3 is almost here and six months from now there will be even faster memory.

A thought on building your own computer from me is: GO FOR IT. There really is not a lot to go wrong. Just read all you can on build computers on the net. and just be careful and exacting in your own work. I do remember being apprehensive about building a computer my first time. I was lucky that it went so smoothly that i decided to build another right away for my wife. I've never looked back and continue to build my own computers. Usually one new one every six months for myself and the wife. This way i can sell the old computer and reasonably get some of my money back on them. Every computer i build for myself costs around $1000 to build simply because i cannot stand On-Board anything. Good enough is NOT for me, they must be the best available for the price.

Yes, a computer build can be very frustrating when things go wrong, but you have to chalk that up to just getting experience.

SRX660

[stettybet0]

I agree with SRX660 that it would be pretty pointless to plan a computer that you will be buying 6 months from now.

However, a few things I want to point out:

1. The reason the OP choose two hard drives of different sizes is that one is a 10000rpm Raptor X, and the other is your run-of-the-mill 7200rpm drive. Makes plenty of sense, although Raptors are a bit pricey.
2. DDR3 memory is already available and has been for some time. It is very expensive, but in 6 months it should come down quite a bit in price.

However, to reiterate, I recommend that you come back to us in 6 months with your build ideas. I would be surprised if every item isn't different from what you have now.

[callistra]

Yeah.. one is a Raptor drive for increased speed in gaming, and the other is larger for storage purposes. Can I ask if there's anything faster than the Raptor? I heard there are a few Seagate SCSI drives which can blow it away..

Thanks for the imput.. I'll come back right before I'm ready to buy.

Edited by callistra, 25 December 2007 - 10:01 AM.

[james_8970]

Yes Seagate SCSI drives will blow them away, but they are way to costly.
Just get a single terabyte hard drive, then everything is in one drive. Besides, in many instances they are faster then the raptors.
The raptors are out of date, so much so that WD has admitted it and within your 6 month time frame a revision of these drives will have been released and then I might be able to suggest them again. But the price is likely to go through the roof as well.
James