hey guys, need some help on a new rig im helping my friend build. he doesnt speak english too well and its been a while since ive built a system so im a little unsure of some things and i dont want to see his money go to waste in some shop or something like that. so I would appreciate some much needed suggestions

country is israel so some stuff will be lil more than in the US but still around the same price.

Budget: $1200 (can go a lil higher but not too much)
some helpful guidelines:
-He will not be overclocking!
-No SLI needed!
-Rig will be used mostly for gaming.

ok here is what i got so far:

CPU: Intel E6400 (should he go with the E6300 and put more into vid card?)

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (open to suggestion would like to go cheaper but not by sacrificing much)

Vid card: Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce PX7600GT Extreme 256MB PCIe

PSU: No idea....need a good suggestion, i know you should not go cheap on this but not to go overboard either.

Memory: Need a really good suggestion, im out of date on the recent stuff so i dont know what to choose. i dont think he can go over 1Gig dual channel at the moment either... with the current budget.

HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS

Optical Drive: NEC ND-3550A

Case: he hasnt decided, so ill leave it open to suggestions, nothing crazy though... wanna put more into memory.

stuff like mouse,keyboard,speakers,screen are not included in price since he will be taking care of it separately.


Thanks in advance for all the help

This might sound funny coming from a Homebuilt section of the forums, but you may want to consider buying it from a place that assembles for you. This would be anything from Dell to someplace like ABS or Monarch Computers.

The only reason that I say this is that you will not run into any configuration problems, and you will not have to try and explain many things via difficult communication.

Having someone else build it does cost a tad more, but in the end, it may actually save you money in this instance.

Now, before anyone slaps me, I do support people building their own machines. You just seem to have a couple of problems here, doing it for your friend. One is distance, and the other is communication.

Dell may even have some sort of support in his native language. You would have to check with them.

hey man thanks for the reply ill clear some things up....


he will be ordering the parts via an established computer shop in Israel therefore he will have warrenty and support for his parts and problems.
he will pay more for the service, thats true.
anyway the only reason im helping him is because a lot of shops stick sh*t into their pre-built rigs and charge huge prices for them, hence since he doesnt know much im helping him with the parts which he will tell the guy there to order and assemble.
this way he knows exactly what he is getting and for how much.

also distance is not an issue i live in israel too, but you are right i told him to do it through a shop as well.

just need to make sure about the parts and get suggestions on the stuff i didnt know about.

You said it's a 'lil' more expensive than here in the US. Well, if a 'lil' is less than 10%, you could splurge for 2GB of RAM (about $225 here in the US), get a decent case like Antec P180 (about $120 US), a good PSU for about $100 and this would put you at about $1050 with the other components you had listed.

With respect to the processor. The E6300 and 6400 price difference isn't all that much compared to the jump to the E6600 (which has the higher cache size). I would go for the E6400 only because he isn't an overclocker. If he were, I would support the E6300.

The video card should remain a smaller portion of cost just because he is going to want to upgrade in the next 1-2 years with the new series of DX10 cards coming out. Any card he has now will last a while, but new features will be something a gamer would want eventually.

A fast, but not overly expensive card in the 7900 series is probably available, and will still allow him to meet his build price goal.

The motherboard seems fine, and a decent price for the company.

I love the Barracudas that I own, so I fully support that choice.

The NEC DL DVD drive is solid. I bought one for my parents. I think the Lite-On drives are slightly cheaper, but not by much.

Antec has decent cases that aren't too expensive. This choice is more of a look AND design one.

Onboard sound is ok if he isn't sporting decent speakers. If he has a good set, you can consider adding something like the X-fi series, but he won't need to get too fancy.

Don't forget the price of XP if you don't already have a copy for him.

Thank you both for your suggestions, maybe you can suggest what RAM he should be looking to get, i read up that the DS3 supports 1.8V 5-5-5 so i found some gskill dual channel ones F2-6400CL5D-1GBNQ

since he isnt overclocking i was thinking these would be stable ones that would run well for a good price.

What do you think?

bumped* for reply, sorry..

If he won't bother OC'ing, no need to get 800 speed. I found these on sale at newegg $200

Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD22G667KH - Retail

going with 667 will provide him a little headroom in case at some point in the future he wants to experiment with OC'ing.

2 questions:

1. so the DS3 does not necessarily require DDR2 800? just 1.8v?
This is of course for non overclocking.

2. will the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 serve the same purpose as the DS3 for a non overclocking system?

reason im asking is because the diffrence in price between the S3 and DS3 boards is not huge but enough to make it an issue since i am looking to help him cut his spending and save up for a DX10 card in the future.

Yes, DDR2 800 is not a requirement. If no overclocking is intended DDR2 533 is a perfect match. As far as the 1.8V is concerned, and someone please correct me if i'm wrong, it would be easiest is you used RAM that is 1.8V b/c that matches up with the board requirements. It's still possible to use RAM of a different voltage but then the voltage must be changed in BIOS to match the new ram.

As far as the S3 vs. DS3 is concerened, if you are trying to save money, go with the S3. That will fit his needs just fine.

ok great, thanks for all your help man and anyone else whose helped so far, you guys are great!

if anyone has any other suggestions for the rig id be more than happy to hear them, hopefully by the middle of next week he will be placing the order

im gonna go right ahead and thank you guys on his behalf since youve helped me help him.

See if your friend has the ability to get the Antec Sonata II. It comes with a 450W PSU. This will suit nicely. It's fairly inexpensive and you get a case and PSU all in one. Some combos aren't that well put together but this case/PSU is similar to the Perf Plus that I currently have and it only has a 350W PSU.

If your budget allows, I'd go with the E6600 if you can save money by going the Case/PSU route above.

As far as memory is concerned, DDRII 533 or DDRII 667 would be the route to take even though DDRII 800 benefits a little over the others in some cases. In fact, DDRII 667 is faster in some applications without overclocking of course.

As a benchmark, Newegg has the PQI Turbo 2x1GB memory sticks for $190, here.

I'd wait a couple of weeks for the X1950Pro to hit the shelves. I heard it's suppose to be $199 in USD. If it does appear at this price point, it will be the best bang for the buck out of the higher end cards and I would recommend it.

If you friend has to have it now, I would recommend the X1900GT at the moment.

If RAID isn't needed, then go with the S3 model over the DS3.

Other than that, the other parts look good.

And don't forget the OS as mentioned. Also, do you need a mouse, keyboard, sound card, speakers, or monitor? If you do need all of these, then I'd suggest going with the E6400 and an X850XT PE video card.

thanks purdueguy, ill look into those suggestions, btw will the 450W PS be enough for the system + future upgrades in the not so far future, im looking to keep his options open with the PS, do you have other suggestions for some good Power supplies that dont break the bank?

btw, i have found this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811156062

through another shop that is having a sale on it. so it works out perfectly plus he liked the design when i sent him the link....

so i guess im in need of a PS suggestion.

thanks again