My faithful computer of over four years recently suffered a permanent breakdown, totally unrelated to punching out Osama bin Laden. I think salvaging its surviving parts at this point would be more trouble than it's worth, especially since, relatively cheaply, I can build a system that shouts "My dong is bigger than yours" at my roommate. I want to build a computer that will last another four, hopefully five years. Let's start with the system itself (I'm not necessarily getting everything from Newegg, but for reference we'll use their prices and links), and then deal with questions about the power supply after, and then hopefully people will flame me in witty and informative ways:
Motherboard: MSI P35 Neo2-FR LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX for $126.60 with s/h
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813130098
Possibly the most aggravating part to research. The only thing that seemed clear to me was that the P35 chipset was a best bet. Beyond that, I don't need many bells or whistles, and I'm never going to RAID any hard drives. Of the low end motherboards, MSI had the most expensive, but the only one with a) six USB ports and b) more than just one PCIe x16 slot. Of course if I'm missing something important, I'm more than willing to change my mind on this part.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 for $194.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115029
Go down a speed notch and save just a little; go up a notch and spend another $85. I think that means this is the sweet spot.
RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) for $62 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145034
Hard to argue with $40 off. I'd actually like to put faster RAM into this thing to take advantage of the maximum FSB speeds, but the prices get too crazy. I was considering trying to get away with using my old 1GB of DDR RAM and just waiting for prices to go down, but I'm not sure I can do that, and I'm not sure prices will go down that much anyway. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
Video Card: MSI NX8600GT-T2D256EZ GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI for $95.32 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814127293
Tom's Hardware just rated this thing (gotta make sure it's the DDR3 version) a best buy for its price range. I only game a very little bit, and this puts up some decent numbers for the price. Also, DirectX 10 compatible.
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s for $65.28
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136062
I may get yelled at for this one, but I don't care. I just don't need the extra storage, as I'm not hardly pressed for space as it is with my 120GB drive. It's aging though, and it's IDE, so I'm replacing it. If bigger hard drives had the same performance as single platter drives like this one, I'd go for it, but the smaller Caviars are just significantly faster, and I'll take that over space I don't need any day. Besies, I can always add a second drive.
Chassis: My old Antec 660AMG. For free.
Optical Drives: Blah blah blah, hardly worth mentioning. A standard DVD-ROM and a DVD burner (both SATA) are in order, but the one thing you may care about is the current $30 off Plextor's DVD burner.
Here we get a little iffy . . .
Power Supply: XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S4P4 650W ATX12V 650W Power Supply for $127.83
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817189008
Of different computer parts, I know the least about power supplies. Searching the forums has made me absolutely paranoid that I could blow my system by seeing the PSU's performance degrade over time, and I really have no idea how to estimate the amount of juice needed for my new system, especially long-term. Everyone seems to be recommending scarily powerful units for new system builds, and I don't know what qualifies as overkill. This PSU has modular cabling, so some clutter will get cleared up inside the chassis, I think it's powerful enough (god I hope so, if anything I thought I would need something more like 500W), and it's listed in tier 2 (see http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon for the list), or in other words, has a good reputation.
Is there such a thing as having too much power, and having a lot go to waste when a system never needs to draw on that much? And if so, how do you know how much is too much? This power supply is roughly twice the price of what I see some other PSUs going for, so I'd rather spend less if spending more doesn't net me either a lot of extra stability, longevity, or efficiency. That's mostly what I was hoping you guys had insight into.
Motherboard: MSI P35 Neo2-FR LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX for $126.60 with s/h
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813130098
Possibly the most aggravating part to research. The only thing that seemed clear to me was that the P35 chipset was a best bet. Beyond that, I don't need many bells or whistles, and I'm never going to RAID any hard drives. Of the low end motherboards, MSI had the most expensive, but the only one with a) six USB ports and b) more than just one PCIe x16 slot. Of course if I'm missing something important, I'm more than willing to change my mind on this part.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 for $194.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115029
Go down a speed notch and save just a little; go up a notch and spend another $85. I think that means this is the sweet spot.
RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) for $62 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145034
Hard to argue with $40 off. I'd actually like to put faster RAM into this thing to take advantage of the maximum FSB speeds, but the prices get too crazy. I was considering trying to get away with using my old 1GB of DDR RAM and just waiting for prices to go down, but I'm not sure I can do that, and I'm not sure prices will go down that much anyway. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
Video Card: MSI NX8600GT-T2D256EZ GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI for $95.32 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814127293
Tom's Hardware just rated this thing (gotta make sure it's the DDR3 version) a best buy for its price range. I only game a very little bit, and this puts up some decent numbers for the price. Also, DirectX 10 compatible.
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s for $65.28
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136062
I may get yelled at for this one, but I don't care. I just don't need the extra storage, as I'm not hardly pressed for space as it is with my 120GB drive. It's aging though, and it's IDE, so I'm replacing it. If bigger hard drives had the same performance as single platter drives like this one, I'd go for it, but the smaller Caviars are just significantly faster, and I'll take that over space I don't need any day. Besies, I can always add a second drive.
Chassis: My old Antec 660AMG. For free.
Optical Drives: Blah blah blah, hardly worth mentioning. A standard DVD-ROM and a DVD burner (both SATA) are in order, but the one thing you may care about is the current $30 off Plextor's DVD burner.
Here we get a little iffy . . .
Power Supply: XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S4P4 650W ATX12V 650W Power Supply for $127.83
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817189008
Of different computer parts, I know the least about power supplies. Searching the forums has made me absolutely paranoid that I could blow my system by seeing the PSU's performance degrade over time, and I really have no idea how to estimate the amount of juice needed for my new system, especially long-term. Everyone seems to be recommending scarily powerful units for new system builds, and I don't know what qualifies as overkill. This PSU has modular cabling, so some clutter will get cleared up inside the chassis, I think it's powerful enough (god I hope so, if anything I thought I would need something more like 500W), and it's listed in tier 2 (see http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon for the list), or in other words, has a good reputation.
Is there such a thing as having too much power, and having a lot go to waste when a system never needs to draw on that much? And if so, how do you know how much is too much? This power supply is roughly twice the price of what I see some other PSUs going for, so I'd rather spend less if spending more doesn't net me either a lot of extra stability, longevity, or efficiency. That's mostly what I was hoping you guys had insight into.