https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wi ... w+Computer

What do you think? Can I have some opinions about maybe a better set up?

Any particular reason you picked that motherboard?

has wi-fi and it had a 76% overall happiness rating or w/e. and it was one of the top sellers on newegg.

Why would you build a system that is 1333 mhz and then hamper it by putting in 800mhz memory?

Get the HD 3870 from Sapphire, it beats the GTS in practically every bench out there and its $120 cheaper... and if you want, you can add another one in the future for Crossfire. You can't add a second nVidia on an Intel chipset... Save the $120 and get 2gb of G-Skill PC10666 1333mhz memory.

Also, I would go to Frys if you have one. That case is on sale there about once a month for $79 and no rebate.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

You do realize that 667Mhz DDR2 (PC5300) in Dual Channel is enough for a 1333Mhz FSB if don't overclock right?

wonder if dust would settle more on a top vent on a case


that case is pretty sweet though.

And you do realize that this board won't take DDR2 memory, right Finlania?
It is DDR3 only. He would need to get the GIGABYTE GA-X38-DQ6 to be able to use DDR2.

Why bottleneck yourself right out of the gate. When for the same final price you can fairly future-proof (at least for a time) yourself during the initial build.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

I didn't check the board he chose. I was refering to your comment about 800Mhz memory "hampering" a 1333 system bus when in fact 800Mhz memory in dual channel is good enough to up to 1600Mhz system bus.

But one thing is sure, he won't be happy with a DDR3 board with DDR2 ram...

So what would you get if you were aiming to keep around 1250$ish or so -- the best bang for the buck?

Intel DX38BT MB $200
E6750 2.66ghz $189
G-Skill 2gb DDR3 $200
500gb WD drive $100
HD 3870 Video $225
Antec 900 case $79
OCZ gamer extreme 700W PSU $99

Thats $1092 total and will even run Crysis on Vista at around 30fps.

More punch, grab 2 WD Raptor 150s for around $320

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Video card: 8800GT

Spec'd vs the 8800GTS: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=7
8800GT vs the 3870 ATI: http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=703&p=8

8800GT wins x2. Best video card price/performance.

Edit: Nevermind. Saw you picked the G92 GTS and not the G80, so the G92 GTS would beat the 8800GT. But I still like the 8800GT for the price.

And it is almost $100 more than the 3870 at $319. If you can find one of the 512mb models that is...

The minimal performance increase over the 3870 doesn't justify the $100+ price tag. Not to mention, Toms hardware when doing their comparison benches used a 8800 GT OC'd model. They didn't even include the stock 8800 GT. Add in the fact that if he wants to add a second in SLI later he can't and the 3870 is his best choice for his budget.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Guess I was lucky to get my BFG 8800GT OC for $232

Actually you were. They are going for between $310 and $350 now.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

So would this be a good deal?

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/543431 ... IN_RSLT_PG - bfg 8800gt oc 279.99$
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5475029 - 4 gig memory, 800mhz ddr2 - 70.99$
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/526611 ... IN_RSLT_PG Abit IP35 Pro Core 2 Duo Socket 775 - 189.99$
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/529414 ... IN_RSLT_PG - Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6750 - BX80557E6750 - Box CPU - Socket LGA775 209.99$
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/517845 ... IN_RSLT_PG - Antec P182 Super Mid Tower - 159.99$
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/501660 ... IN_RSLT_PG - OCZ ExtremeGamer 700W - 129.99$

1039.95$

I know you have 4gb memory but... you may want to add a HDD on there somewhere.

My suggestion is get whatever makes you happy. I prefer Intel boards for their reliability and stability. They may not OC as well as some but I don't ever have to worry about them right out of the box. You are paying way too much for that PSU and case. Shop around, case sells for less than $100 if you get the P180 and can live without the polished aluminum sides. Also, if you look hard and that PSU goes for less than $100.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Well, I have a case now that I may use, and I have a 600W PSU. I don't know if I necessarily need to get new ones.

If I do buy a new case / PSU, I will pretty much get a case that functions well and is < 100$. I will get an HD that is on sale most likely as well. I don't anticipate the CPU, Motherboard, or Video Card being on sale so those are the most important ones that I find the best deal on in the store.

(I'm looking to actually buy from the store, not order online. I hate waiting, even if it saves me 20$ or so.)

Right now at Frys, they have the P180 for $109 w/$40 rebate making it $69. I have an P180 and love it. It is very quiet and keeps everything nice and cool. My only issue with the P18X series is the cable routing, it is hard to keep stuff tied down or move it once it is in. The pull out drive bays are probably the best part to it.

600W PSU is plenty for that board and VC if you don't OC anything.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

didn't go with this setup

That's a good baseline system but a little pricy. But it will play most games out there at a decent frame rate. But not too much upgradability with that MoBo. Why go with the 8800 GTS vs the 8800GT or the GTS 512mb G92? THe GT is cheaper and blows the GTS away on every benchmark? Not to mention it is an over clocking monster.

Does it come with an OS?

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Here's what I picked up this weekend:

ASUS P5N32E-SLI Motherboard
4 Gigabyte (2x2048) Corsair XMS2 DHX DDR2 800mhz
NVidia GeForce 7900GTX x2 (SLI)
500 Gig Hard Drive (SATA2)
22" Widescreen Samsung Syncmaster Monitor
20x DVD-/+R Lightscribe
Intel Core 2 Quad E6600 8mb Cache 2.4ghz 1066fsb
Thermaltake 600w PSU
Coolermaster Full-tower case

That's about it. I stuck in my old HD's (250x2) so I have a lot of space, the computer is smokin fast, and the grand total was a bit under 1300. I had Windows Vista ultimate prior so I didn't include that in the price since I bought it at launch.

they were free. they're 500$ video cards. 512 megs each. whats wrong with them? they were all reviewed very well.

If they were free, as in 0$, then great but they are certainly not worth 250$ each. (that what you meant right?)

Yes, I got them free and yes, they would be 500$ for the pair. I will be upgrading to 8800GTX in March or thereabouts.

There's nothing wrong with them, I don't think at least.

Nothing is wrong with free but for the system you went with those are incredibly underpowered, last generation bullshit and the SLI will not even make up the difference of 1 8800 GT card most likely...

That's probably what Fin was trying to say.

Looking at some of the reviews for the 8800 series, the 7900GTX outperform a couple of the 8800 models.

I will be getting a couple 8800GTX in a month or so, but for now they were free -- but I realize they are the last generation of video cards.

I was also looking into building one after all the price drops on the Q6600 so was looking for some input,

Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128059

Graphics Card:EVGA 8800GTS G92 (Already own)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130325

Processor:Q6600
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6819115017

Processor Cooler: Tuniq Tower 120 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... ower%2b120

Case:Antec Coolermaster 690 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119137

RAM:Gskill 4x1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231098

Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6817341002

Hard Drive:WD Raptor 1.5GB/s 150gig -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136012

Why get Raptor when you can buy two standard SATA and Raid it? Similar performance and way better bang for the buck.

i ended up with:

intel core-2 quad 6600 (270$)
p5n32-sli-deluxe (170$)
4gigs corsair xms2 ddr2 800mhz (80$)
2 nvidia 7900gtx (free, upgrade from a friend who went to 8800gtx) (0$)
coolermaster case, (80$)
psu thermaltake somethin-or-other 750watt psu (120$)
speaker for mobo (2$)
(500g sata2 hd) (100$)
22" widescreen lcd samsung syncmaster (300$)

=1122$ or so. probably around 1250/1300$ ish range.

I didn't have to pay much for it, it was on sale for 70 so 100 dollars off. I also got my QQ6600 on sale and I bought the Antec 900 instead of that case because it was on sale too for the exact same price as the cooler master. I got the 4gigs of ram for 60bucks. That mother board was on sale and the power supply was also on sale with a mail in rebate too.

QQ600 Retail:190
WD Raptor: 70
Antec 900 Case: 80
4Gigx1 GSkill = 60
Motherboard: 70
PSU After Rebate: 90
8800GTS After Rebate: 200
Tuniq Tower 120:45

I am using an old monitor, Acer which was also on sale at the time 22" WS for 130 After rebate. I am using my speakers though and a DVD Burner left over from my last computer

You are right, even though I got the raptor discounted it still seems to be low gigs, I think I might return it and get

WD SE16 750gigs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136131

It really depends on how "loud" it is, I doubt i'll have a heating issue with it


Anyone use a modular power supply I really am thinking about returning the OCZ 700W for a modular version but it's almost 100 dollars more and im not sure if it's worth it, I mean sure it would be nice for the cables not to be every where but damn that's quite a price just for it to look better.

Forget the modular power supply im just going to cut out some holes in the cases tray that will be more fun =) and cheaper.

I got this drive WD Caviar SE16 640GB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136218

I am going to return the Raptor, I don't know how newegg does returns though but I was told as long as I don't touch the raptors packaging I won't be hit with a restocking fee. I am assuming I will be charged for return shipping but I don't know how much that is.