[Scrilla]

Wanting some advice from the awesome people here at geeks2go on my current ideas for my next machine.

HDD- http://www.newegg.co...x...d_-Homepage
HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725032VLA360 (0A33435) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Mobo- http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813130179 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128358
Here I can't really choose... or convince myself that I should even go with either one... major suggestions needed here.

CPU- http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115037
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

CASE- Not sure here either... suggestions?

MEMORY- http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231144
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Not sure about this one either.

PSU- http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817371009 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817139005 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817341002
These all look good to me... opionions please

CD-DVD WRITER- http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135164
ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache E-IDE/PATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - Retail

GPU- http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102796 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814143139
Someone recommended these and commented: "Now u need prolly need a new case, since u want a better gfx they are all big"
So this is totally up in the air as well.

My computer died 2 nights ago and am really missing having my own, and I've been missing out on quite a few games due to the performance of my old machine. The sooner I can make these decision and order my parts the happier I will be. Any help/suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated. This is always the place I come for the best advice, so thanks a lot for you time geekstogoers!

-Scrilla

Edited by Scrilla, 09 November 2008 - 10:40 AM.

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no help?

[Scrilla]

no help?

[kamille316]

Hi Scrilla,

Please do not bump your thread. We have The Waiting Room section in the forum where you can post a reminder that your thread has not been replied to after 3 days of no replies. It is also the weekend and a lot of people are busy with other things and also the time difference between you and other people that frequent here.

Now to your request, your links do not work for me. Can you please fix it so that other people reading your thread can look at your choices?
What is your budget for this? Do you overclock or want to do it in the future? There are a few things I would change but I need your answer first to these questions.

Thanks,
Kamille

[Scrilla]

Thanks for the reply... very odd about the links, they should be fixed now. Apologies for the bump wont happen again.

I have about 800-1000 for this build. Not too familiar with overclocking but will probably be looking into it. Only thing I've ever overclocked was my old GPU which was done through VTune.

[kamille316]

Great, the links work now.

Here are my suggestions, there are a couple that I left in there from your first post and then some that I replaced.
Coolermaster CM 690 - $74.99
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P - $136.99 (with a $20 MIR)
HIS Radeon HD 4870 - $249.99 (with a $20 MIR)
Corsair 650W - $99.99 (with a $20 MIR)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - $164.99
Mushkin 4GB (2x2GB) - $54.99 (with a $15 MIR)
Samsung F1 320GB - $54.99
Samsung 22X DVD drive - $24.99
Microsoft Vista Home Premium 32-bit - $99.99

Total is $961.91

Computer case is a personal preference, the one above is what I currently have and I know all those components will fit but I don't know if you'd like the look of it so find one that you would like.
For the motherboard, if you're taking advantage of the Mail-in-Rebate then that one is a good deal however to save money now, you can go with Gigabyte EP45-DS3R for $126.99.
I went with an HIS brand for the ATI 4870 video card as they are a great manufacturer with great customer support, stay away from Sapphire as they'll give you headaches first before helping you.
The Corsair PSU is a good choice.
For the RAM, you could go with the one you had but this is not that much expensive and you get extra 2GB. A PC2-6400 (DDR2-800) should be enough for your needs even if you tackle on overclocking, this would be enough.
Samsung drives are great.
The DVD-drive you selected is IDE only and the I suggested is SATA and is much better.
For the OS, you can go with 32-bit Home Premium or the 64-bit as it is the same price. If you're going with 4GB of RAM, I suggest the 64-bit so you'd be able to use all your RAM rather than just ~3.2-3.5GB with the 32-bit OS (this applies with 32-bit XP as well).

Hope that helps.
Kamille

[Scrilla]

Your the best Kamille!! I've heard talk that AMD is best paired with ATI cards and Intel with nvidia, is there any truth to that? Do you recommend installing some extra fans in that suggested case? I'm going to need to buy some thermal paste as well correct? Stock heat sink sufficient? Thanks again for your help you've been great!

Edited by Scrilla, 09 November 2008 - 02:38 PM.

[kamille316]

Your the best Kamille!! I've heard talk that Intel is best paired with nvidia cards and AMD with Intel, is there any truth to that?

I'm unsure of what you're asking here. Usually, its better to pair an Intel chipset with an ATI video card as Intel chipset supports Crossfire (2 ATI cards, if you have 2 PCI-e slots). Nvidia chipset is best to pair with an Nvidia video cards as this chipset supports SLI (2 Nvidia cards, if you have 2 PCI-e slots). If you're going with single video card configuration then it wouldn't matter which chipset you have. However, Intel P45 chipset is favourable here as it performs very good for its price.

Do you recommend installing some extra fans in that suggested case?

The case comes with 3 fans already, mine has 5 case fans and its working great. You can add more cases if you'd like but 3 should be sufficient.

I'm going to need to buy some thermal paste as well correct? Stock heat sink sufficient?

The stock heatsink should be sufficient if you're not overclocking the CPU right now. Also, the stock heatsink comes with the thermal paste pre-applied so you don't have to worry about that.

[Scrilla]

Wonderful! Time to place my order! The HD has a combo deal with Vista Ultimate 64-bit and a 50 mail in rebate on top of that... sound like a good idea?

[kamille316]

I don't see how you're saving money with that combo because the hard drive is $54.99 and then Vista Ultimate is $179.99 which would be $229.98, with that combo you're saving $5 + $50 MIR. If you need the extra features Ultimate has then it is a good deal but if you don't then the Home Premium would be better that costs $154.98.
I still see no benefit to going for Ultimate but if you think its worth $20 more then go ahead.

Here's a comparison of both Vista version: Windows Vista Compare Editions