Initial build, help lower the cost

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mmatney

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Dec 19, 2007
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Hi here is my initial build (prices off of newegg.com) I want to reduce the price while not reducing gaming performance more than nessecary. also if anyone sees anything missing/ non-compatible please say something (i left mouse/cd/dvd drive/keyboard etc out of list)


CASE COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail 39.99......24.99 after 15 rebate

HD Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM 49.99

Monitor Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail 169.99

vid EVGA 256-P3-N791-AR GeForce 8800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail 214.99

mobo GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail 89.99

CPU Intel Pentium E2140 Allendale 1.6GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E2140 - Retail 69.99

RAMCrucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail 74.99.....49.99 after 25 rebate

PSU Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU ATX 12V 2.0 500W Power Supply - Retail 59.99....34.99 after 25 rebate

total = 789.82 that includes shipping and is after rebates including some case fans, mouse, keyboard, cd/dvd drive.
Thanks for your help!
 
You could save about $80 with a Gigabyte P35 DS3L unless that mobo has something you need. The HSF that comes with the retail CPU should be fine unless you're going to seriously overclock. Only other 2 areas you could save would be a lower level CPU and/or video card. For gaming I'd keep the video card and get a lower level CPU given the video card is more important for gaming. How much do you need to shave?
 
Gigabyte DS3L mobo.
HD 3870 video card.
450/500w PSU.
Step down the CPU, E4600/4500/2200/2180.
COOLER MASTER Centurion case incl. 2x 120mm fans - $40.
OEM cooler is fine and handles decent O/C - try it first.
 
I checked and it seems the a-data ram is working with the mobo listed.

Another question I have now is, is it worth the 65 dollars for the E6750, its FSB is faster(1333 compared to 800), it has a larger L2 cache (4mb as compared to 2)and its speed is also faster(2.66 compared to 2.2). It seems to me that it will be worth it (seems I could use it longer, which is good because I'd rather spend a little more now if it will save more in the futuer), but I'm not positive.

Also I have never OCed anything but I might be willing if it would save a good amount of money.

I think I'd rather go w/ the 8800 GT than the HD 3870, from everything I've seen the 8800 GT seems better, and like it will be usuable longer.
 


If your not planning on upgrading to a quad core in the near future, within 6 to 9 months, the E6750 would be worth the money. Otherwise it would make sense to go with something like 2180 nhobo suggested.
 
I would go with the E2160 or E4500 to save the money now.
Both of those Chips OC to give great performance.
You can't future proof.

If money was not a concern, go with the E6750, sure.
However you can't future proof and the less will not be great.

Even if you bought the E6750 today, you will wish you had the E8000 series in Jan. And next December you will wish you had the Nehalm.
 
Rosewill is on tier-5 ("Do not buy") of the PSU listing at http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon.
FSP makes some models that are on tier-3 and not too pricey. For a little more, a Corsair VX would be a great choice.

Otherwise I agree with nhobo.
 
Here's what I did which is quite similar to you. I spent less than $600 and let me tell you... it's blows away my brothers E6750 machine.

E4500(OC'd to 3.0Ghz)
Gigabyte P35-DS3L

Everyone encouraged me to get this board for its supreme overclocking ability at an extremely cheap price (currently $79.99 at zipzoomfly). My god they werent kidding! In fact, it's quite possibly and idiot proof overclocking dream! Going into the BIOS and just setting them FSB up leaving everything else on auto it worked fine. ( I later lowered the VCore and tweaked other settings) It's worked GREAT and I spent $210 for the mobo and processor together! Oh, and Intel just released the E2200 which is the same as the E4500 with only 1 MB of cache. It's a good chip and it will save you another $30. I don't have the study on hand but the general rule is your lose 5% of speed going from 4MB to 2MB cache and another 5% going from 2MB to 1 MB. 10% loss in speed for 1/2 the price of the E6750 is a no brainer IMO.

2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR-800

I went with 2 GB Ballistix DDR-800 (unless you are running Vista or XP64 it's not worth going to 4GB due to the fact you can only use 3.5GB's) BTW, I overclocked it to 1066 without raising the voltage at all!

8800 GT 256MB

The monitor I currently use is a 19 in Viewsonic LCD I bought 6 years ago for $500. Yea I know... how times have changed! Anyway, unless you plan on running a res higher than 1280 x 1024 it's really not worth getting the extra RAM. You can save yourself $50-$75 by buying the cheaper one with 1/2 the RAM. In fact, I just did some checking on your monitor, it only supports 1400 x 900. You will not benefit at all from having a 512 MB 8800GT over a 256 MB 8800GT. Go with the 256 MB model and save the money.

Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU

DO NOT GET THE ROSEWILL! They are terrible and you won't be happy. As everyone else has suggested, buy one thats Tier 2 or 3 and you will be happy! Sometimes you can find good ones for around $50 (I got mine for $40 after $40 MIR).

In short:

E2200 $95
P35-DS3L $80
160 GB HD $50
8800 GT 256 MB $210
Antec 500 W PSU $50
2 GB DDR-800 RAM $50
Rosewill Case $20
Hanns 19 in 1400 x 900 $175
Keyboard and Mouse $20 (if needed)
$750

I don't know about anyone else, but to think of how damn cheap that machine is for what I know it does makes me sick seeing people spending $2000 on machines that are only slightly better.
 
I'm not familiar with Hanns LCDs...it certainly isn't considered to be a tier 1 LCD in the retail world, but someone please correct me if I am wrong. I see it is listed for $175...I imagine they are going to charge you 10-15 bucks to ship...You might want to check out the Dell 19" widescreen. It ships for free, and it was $183 last week, so you might save $5-10 bucks, plus it is a sweet, name brand LCD. I have that one at work, and it blows me away...plus it is pretty good for gaming.

Just my 2 cents...other than that I think you have a nice setup. If you don't want to do a heavy OC, you might want to buy the e4500 or the e6750. You can still OC it, but you won't have to be as aggressive to hit 3.0GHZ...
 
OK went to the 256 vid card because in comparison they are very similar until higher resolutions

went with 2 gigs or crucial ram...i trust crucial more than a-data and the ram is faster. is there any time where i would need more than 2 gigs though?

changed the PSU to a teir 3 one i think.

And the moniter I have picked out seems to be pretty good, it won the voters choice award on newegg. I couldn't find a moniter on dells site that was 19" for less than $225

I kinda think this might be as low as the price will get. One more thing, should I wait till after the holidays to buy? I've heard prices sometimes go down.
 
Ok, went with the E2160 because its a bit cheaper and still preforms well when OCed from what I've read.

So yeah I guess I've decided on definitely OCing.
 
Only reason I say to go with the E2200 over the E2160 is the ability to use a 11x multiplier instead of only a 9x (of less if you choose) on the E2160.
 
if i were you i'd skip the rebates. That will lower your initial cost, and half the time you don't even get the rebates back. and it's just my opinion that that proc is going to be a bottleneck for games using the 8800gt... well the 512 8800gt anyway, if you are going to go with a 512 release and are planning on running a windows only system, i would check out ati's 3850 and sits at a lower price. also the 2900gt is between 125 and 150 dollars that proves to be an interesting card as well. They both did pretty good in benchmarks and what not, especially for 256meg cards. Also, you may want to consider an amd build, you can get more procesor bang for your buck. not to mention that sitting at a mere 120 dollars is the 2.6ghz black edition that is overclockable up to 3.3ghz without a high end cooler. 😛 now that's a dual core proc for price!
here, let me send you a few eg links for you.

proc 130
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103194

mem 50
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231098

mobo 95
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131022

the hd you picked out... 50

any given sata 2 dvd burner 30


there is a gigabyte mobo with similar features to the posted asus for a little less... you may want to check that out as well...

oh and at 90 bucks.... this case and psu might be an option...
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811156062

personally, i'm using a cardboard box temporarily... but then again, i'm currently unemployed... 😛

that and most decent games are going to require a 2.0ghz proc minimum.

all that turns out to be about 615 i think, IF you go with the 170 dollar card... tack on your 170 dollar monitor... you're looking at about the same price for MUCH faster build than you originally stated. and no rebates to speak of... just discoutned items. that and you could shave a few bucks here and there, by going with a gigabyte mobo, or go with a cheaper case and psu, but the psu is your big concern because of the video card... if you want to game you have to build it up so the video card isn't bottlenecked and has enough power to run it... 😛

hope i helped, this is about the fastest deal you're going to get for the money right now that i can come up with.... i mean, you can tweak up or down... but you're going to get more speed/dollar with amd, especially with the black edition proc.
 
and i have the hanns G 19" widescreen you speak of... it's not bad at all. good price for results... i'd presonally prefer a 22inch though. 😛 Got one for my dad a while back.. it's nice. no dead pixels... go for it.. I didn't write a review on newegg for it yet... i'm waiting to see how it does... oh and i got one for a customer build up too... and that arrived with all of it's pixels as well.
 


I have (2) 19" HANNSG and they are great.
I sit behind them all day and am perfectly pleased.

They seem to get nothing but great reviews.
 

I have applied for about 20 rebates over the last several years and received everyone. About about 50% of the time I get them without further action - usually a little later than promised. About 25% of the time I have to make one follow-up contact. And about 25% of the time I have to make more than one follow-up. They are a nusiance, but hard to argue with when they provide free software or significant reductions on hardware. I think the processing seems to be getting better lately - probably because of the complaints received.
 
I'd go for the 512MB HD 3850 over the 256MB 8800GT. The COOLER MASTER Centurion case ads $20, but you get much better quality and some actual ventilation with 2x 120mm fans. You'll regret the cheap case far more than you will the extra $20. The better case will give you a much better overclock. If the budget is really tight, drop down to the E2140.

Aside from that, looks good.
 
I don't mind the rebates, but it won't break my bank if they don't come. But I will be willing to invest time to make sure I get them.

I decided to go w/ the nicer case esp. since it was only 5 more w/ rebate.

I can't make myself go w/ the HD3850, its only like 15 cheaper, and it gets significantly outperformed on all the tests I've seen. It may only be 256mb, but that doesn't really affect anything at the resolutions capable on the 19" monitor. When I saw it get beaten out by the 512 mb it was always at a very high resolution which I am not interested in playing at.

Also does anyone else feel the E2200 will bottleneck my video card. I plan on OCing it, and most people are getting over 3 ghz with stock cooling. I'm still unsure if I should go w/ the E2160, but for only 15 more the E2200 just seems worth it. I just saw nhobo suggested going to the E2140 which would cut 25 off the price, which may be worth it. Can anyone give me some idea of what I would be losing for the reduction in price...or do they all OC to about the same speed or something? The main thing I want to know is if I can OC the E2140 to 3.2, which would put the FSB at 1600, while still working with my mobo which says its FSB is 1333/1066. Also keep in mind I would like to only use my stock cooler...so if I have to pay over 25 for a cooler to make the 2140 do the same as the E2200 if won't be worth it. I'd like to hear more on this if anyone is willing.

I could also save 15 by going to the DDR2 667 version of the ram. Anyone have a comment on that. I plan to run at the 1:1 ratio with my cpu, and unless I do some crazy OCing I can't find where I would need the 800 version (esp since I've heard of people OCing the 667 to 1ghz).
 


I've never had an issue with rebates, but I think the issue also is with the company offering the rebates.

If FlyByNight, Inc is offering a rebate I would not count on it.
If it's a well established and reputable company there should be far less of an issue.
 
I've again changed my mind, I'm going w/ the E2140, which seems to be regularly over-clocking to 3.2 ghz on stock cooling, which is what I want. That surely won't bottleneck the video card will it?
 
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