SiLeNtEuPhOrIa

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Jan 7, 2006
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Looking to build a new PC with Great Specs, but need help getting price a little lower!

Product List:

Case: Antec P180 - $125

Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR - $196

Video Card:GIGABYTE Geforce 7800GT 256MB - $325

PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 - $90

CPU: AMD Opteron 175 Denmark - $535

RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB PC3200 - $250

HDD: 2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB SATA2 (RAID 0) - $220 ($110 each)

LCD: Viewsonic VX922 19" - $396

Mouse: Logitech G7 - $63

Keyboard: Logitech G15 - $70

Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic - $115

Thermal Paste: Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - $6

CPU Cooler: THERMALRIGHT SI-120 - $51

CPU Fan: Panasonic Panaflo 120mm Hydro Wave Case Cooling Fan - $17

Speakers: Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watt 7.1 Speakers - $75

Headphones: iCEMAT Black Siberia 3.5mm/6.3mm Connector headset - $69

OS: Windows XP Pro 64 bit Edition - $150

Total: $2741 (NewEgg)


Trying to get this down closer to $2000 than $3000, Need HELP!

This PC will be used for Gaming and other high performance tasks. It will likely be overclocked.

[ALL] Tips, Advice, Substitutions, Etc. will be greatly appreciated!

- Thanks -
 
For starters, ditch the pair of $250 SATA drives, and find a single 250G PATA drive/16m cache on sale at CompUSA for $59 periodically...

There, you saved $440, and will just have to live with 25 sec game load times compared to 20 sec with the RAID 0!

(If determined to have a RAID 0, catch a pair of 74G Raptors on sale!)
All other components look great!

(If you could live with a 2-3% framerate hit (loss of 1 frame/sec, typically!) due to onboard sound, you can save another $125 by ditching the SoundBlaster!

And unless you are *sure* you are going SLI in the future, you can get a non-SLI board for around $90...
 

DS_Grouse

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Jan 17, 2006
23
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18,510
Looking to build a new PC with Great Specs, but need help getting price a little lower!

Product List:

Case: Antec P180 - $125 ***Good****

Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR - $196 ***Fine,msi,asus,DFI non sli for 90-100****

Video Card:GIGABYTE Geforce 7800GT 256MB - $325
***evga 7800 gt co's are on new egg for 295***

PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 - $90
***Good***
CPU: AMD Opteron 175 Denmark - $535
*** newegg has them cheaper i believe 495 if i am not mistaken***

RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB PC3200 - $250
***Fine***

HDD: 2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB SATA2 (RAID 0) - $220 ($110 each)
***Fine***

LCD: Viewsonic VX922 19" - $396
***Take a look at dells 1905 ultrasharp. Very nice monitors. on sale sometimes for 247****
Mouse: Logitech G7 - $63
**fine**
Keyboard: Logitech G15 - $70
**fine**
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic - $115
****ditch just use onboard, unless you can tell the audio quality difference on a proffessional level..***
Thermal Paste: Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - $6
**fine**
CPU Cooler: THERMALRIGHT SI-120 - $51
***neaver heard of it. If your optetron is not oem and not going to be over clocked the retail fan should be fine****
CPU Fan: Panasonic Panaflo 120mm Hydro Wave Case Cooling Fan - $17
**fine**

Speakers: Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watt 7.1 Speakers - $75
**fine**
Headphones: iCEMAT Black Siberia 3.5mm/6.3mm Connector headset - $69
**fine**
OS: Windows XP Pro - $140
***why not 64 bit OS?****

Total: $2741 (NewEgg)


Trying to get this down closer to $2000 than $3000, Need HELP!

This PC will be used for Gaming and other high performance tasks. It will likely be overclocked.

[ALL] Tips, Advice, Substitutions, Etc. will be greatly appreciated!

- Thanks -
 

SiLeNtEuPhOrIa

Distinguished
Jan 7, 2006
51
0
18,630
I would go 64 bit Windows XP Pro, but, apparently, many drivers and programs are not supported which were designed for 32 bit os. I was planning on just waiting for vista, but if i'm wrong, please let me know!

Anyone Else?
 

HumbleGod

Distinguished
Jan 9, 2006
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18,630
Video Card:GIGABYTE Geforce 7800GT 256MB - $325
Like someone else suggested, just get the $299 eVGA 7800GT from NewEgg. It's a hot seller, and for good reason.

CPU: AMD Opteron 175 Denmark - $535
If you can take the slight performance hit, save some money and just OC the Opteron 170. Or save about $200 with an OC'ed Opty 165. The GPU will make a bigger difference for gaming, and the 165 should be sufficient for most other tasks.

Also, look at places other than NewEgg. I got most of my new components from NewEgg this week, but I got the mobo, CPU, and 7800GT from Mwave and saved so much money that I was able upgrade to FedEx 3-day shipping and still save about $40 from NewEgg prices! (And to be frank, FedEx's shipping beat the hell out of UPS.) Check the TG Stores link / Pricegrabber for an idea of where else to shop for components.
 

DS_Grouse

Distinguished
Jan 17, 2006
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18,510
you just down load your drivers onto cd before you install everything. Most new parts have 64 bit drivers.

it will take an hour or two for research is all.
 

SiLeNtEuPhOrIa

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Jan 7, 2006
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I picked the Gigabyte video card that I did because of it's cooler. It is supposed to give it a large performance increase over other 7800GT's.

I was origionally going to go with the Opty 170, but comparing prices, the 175 was only about $40 more than the 170.

More advice appreciated!
 

DS_Grouse

Distinguished
Jan 17, 2006
23
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18,510
the evga 7800 gt co's are 470 and 1100 respectively that's pretty good. with a bit of ocing they will hit 490 and 1200
 

Vascular

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2006
461
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18,780
Looking to build a new PC with Great Specs, but need help getting price a little lower!

Product List:

Case: Antec P180 - $125

Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR - $196 (Abit K8N-SLI $110)

Video Card:GIGABYTE Geforce 7800GT 256MB - $325

PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 - $90 (thermaltake 430w $40)

CPU: AMD Opteron 175 Denmark - $535 (opteron 170 OEM $420 since you are buying a cooler anyway)

RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB PC3200 - $250 (2GB OCZ platinum $200)

HDD: 2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB SATA2 (RAID 0) - $220 ($110 each) (get one drive raid is not that much faster)

LCD: Viewsonic VX922 19" - $396

Mouse: Logitech G7 - $63

Keyboard: Logitech G15 - $70

Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic - $115 (audigy 2 value OEM $42)

Thermal Paste: Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - $6

CPU Cooler: THERMALRIGHT SI-120 - $51

CPU Fan: Panasonic Panaflo 120mm Hydro Wave Case Cooling Fan - $17

Speakers: Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watt 7.1 Speakers - $75

Headphones: iCEMAT Black Siberia 3.5mm/6.3mm Connector headset - $69

OS: Windows XP Pro 64 bit Edition - $150

Total: $2741 (NewEgg) ($2270 or so)

Trying to get this down closer to $2000 than $3000, Need HELP!

This PC will be used for Gaming and other high performance tasks. It will likely be overclocked.

[ALL] Tips, Advice, Substitutions, Etc. will be greatly appreciated!

- Thanks -



Here is a power supply calculator.