New Setup

[ummdav1d]

Here is the new setup my friend and I worked on for his friend. Would you let me know if you have any suggestions? Of course the main system taxing task will be gaming.

CPU - $372 - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2280512&CatId=2396

Motherboard - $117 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121035

Ram - $255 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034

DVD-ROM - $25 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101131

HDD -$175 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136033

Floppy - $12 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116

Video Cards - $507 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130023

PSU - $168 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341002

Case - $145 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112100

Monitor - $274 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116375

Final Price: $2,050

The budget was $2,000 without a monitor but we ended up doing a little better.

 

[ctrl_alt_del]

What CPU do you have picked out? The link you have links to your Mobo.

As for your ram I wouldn't spend the extra $100 for the cas4 ram I would go with this corsair 2gb cas5

I wouldn't go with a raptor their terably overpriced (IMO). If you want speed I would go with two of these in raid0 for speed it would give you twice the space and save you $50.

And for your video card I wouldn't go with evga (though most people would say their ok) I would spend a little extra and get an xfx one.

 

[shadowduck]

What CPU do you have picked out? The link you have links to your Mobo.

As for your ram I wouldn't spend the extra $100 for the cas4 ram I would go with this corsair 2gb cas5

I wouldn't go with a raptor their terably overpriced (IMO). If you want speed I would go with two of these in raid0 for speed it would give you twice the space and save you $50.

And for your video card I wouldn't go with evga (though most people would say their ok) I would spend a little extra and get an xfx one.

I would save to say CAS4 memory is going to be better than 5 and provide a longer upgrade path.

DO NOT BUY FROM TIGER DIRECT. It is a hellish experience many will echo here. Tiger cancelled a bunch of Core2 orders for no reason at all last week, so I would find someone else for your CPU.

 

[enforcerfx]

What CPU do you have picked out? The link you have links to your Mobo.

As for your ram I wouldn't spend the extra $100 for the cas4 ram I would go with this corsair 2gb cas5

I wouldn't go with a raptor their terably overpriced (IMO). If you want speed I would go with two of these in raid0 for speed it would give you twice the space and save you $50.

And for your video card I wouldn't go with evga (though most people would say their ok) I would spend a little extra and get an xfx one.

I would save to say CAS4 memory is going to be better than 5 and provide a longer upgrade path.

DO NOT BUY FROM TIGER DIRECT. It is a hellish experience many will echo here. Tiger cancelled a bunch of Core2 orders for no reason at all last week, so I would find someone else for your CPU.

Yea, Tigerdirect apparently isnt the place to buy C2D processors. Newegg will have them in stock soon i believe, and hopefully cheaper. Great price on that 7950 though. 500 bucks?! Now thats a bargain. CAS4 memory i guess is apparently better than CAS5. So ill agree once again with shadowduck. You should get a new CD/DVD drive. Try one of the cheap 30 buck BenQ's or NEC's. I have a BenQ, works well, and i have that Sony DVD drive on top of it. Good luck with your new system.

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

If you think TigerDirect.com is bad you should see their actual store! It's very limited in there... all they have are mobos and a very sparse selection of items... It's all online. Yeah... I can see why they cancelled the orders but they could have at least been a little more competent with it. Anyways on to the actual point of this thread.

CAS4 mem will give you a definite increase in performance and do go with larger HDDs in RAID. Normally I would recommend RAID 3 or 5 but with the way RAID 0 controllers are made now I'll recommend RAID 0.

 

[The_Prophecy]

Suggested Changes:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 <-- Like the others said... don't buy from Tiger Direct.

Optical Drive: NEC ND-3550A

Hard Drive(s): Drop the Raptor and get 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 drives. Same performance if you put them into a RAID array, for only $20 more

Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7600GT <--- If your friend REALLY wants good gaming performance right away, get an eVGA Geforce 7900GT KO Superclocked, but DO NOT get a 7950GX2 with the DX 10 cards just around the corner. Your friend is gonna be kicking himself in the ass (and probably yours as well) if he goes with a 7950GX2.

Power Supply: Antec Truepower 550W <--- The 700W OCZ supply is definitly overkill. 550W should be more than enough for this build.

Case: Antec P180 <--- This thing probably weighs a lot more than the Lian-Li you picked out, but the cooling this case is capable of is second to none IMO.

 

[ummdav1d]

Well the thing is, that's what I thought about. Like a 7600 or even a 6000 series card would be fine to have until the dx10s are out, but he doesnt really think he wants to upgrade.

 

[The_Prophecy]

He might change his mind if he ends up seeing one of the DX10's in action...