Building New Computer Help Please!

[JustBenHere]

Just got back from being deployed in Iraq for a year and Im looking to spend around 2k (including monitor) of my hard earned Iraq money on a new pc. Im a bit rusty on whats out there and would like some input please. I mainly use PC to burn dvd, mmorpg's, music, and various other games.

Parts so far:

Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz

Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3400620AS 400GB 7200 RPM

SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner

ViewSonic VX2025WM Black-Silver 20.1

GIGABYTE GV-NX88S640H-RH GeForce 8800GTS 640MB

HIPER HPU-4B580-MS ATX12V 580W Power Supply

Also looking for a good place to purchase these. I love Newegg but just doing a quick look around shows they arent the lowest price.

 

[mad-dog]

YAWN...

 

[WR2]

It's a decent looking list. Use Pricegrabber or Froogle to search for lowest prices. Always check the tax and shipping charges as well for the actual lowest cost.
Here is a High-End Buyer's Guide - October 2006 that will help you sort through opptions in your budget range. Of course the 8800xxx video card are just recently on the market and so not in this guide. Your GTS choice is a good match for that LCD monitor.

And by the way..... welcome back!

 

[JustBenHere]

Does anyone have a link to a good building guide? Ive built a computer before but its been about 3 years.

 

[JustBenHere]

Was thinking about getting 2 hard drives for faster seek time. Getting a 100gb HD for OS and games and using a 300 for storage. This a good idea?

 

[shadowduck]

Just got back from being deployed in Iraq for a year and Im looking to spend around 2k (including monitor) of my hard earned Iraq money on a new pc. Im a bit rusty on whats out there and would like some input please. I mainly use PC to burn dvd, mmorpg's, music, and various other games.

Parts so far:

Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz

Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3400620AS 400GB 7200 RPM

SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner

ViewSonic VX2025WM Black-Silver 20.1

GIGABYTE GV-NX88S640H-RH GeForce 8800GTS 640MB

HIPER HPU-4B580-MS ATX12V 580W Power Supply

Also looking for a good place to purchase these. I love Newegg but just doing a quick look around shows they arent the lowest price.

I would highly consider a better motherboard than Foxconn. Look at GIgabyte, Asus, or DFI. Do you really need a 400GB hard drive?

Are you overclocking? If so pick up DDR2-800 RAM. You can also easily downgrade to the E6300 and overclock that.

 

[JustBenHere]

I know next to nothing about over clocking and one of the more expensive Mobos that are good for that may be out of my price range. Im going to tone down the 400gb hard drive to a 300 for faster seek times and hopefully get a raptor some day in the future for OS and main applications/games.

 

[JustBenHere]

Is the 4mb shared CPU's much better then 2mb ones? If so I could down grade and save a $100. I plan on this PC lasting me at least the next 2-3 years though.

 

[Assman]

in games you won't see much difference only 1-3% perf. increase but in encoding media you can see as much as 10% perf increase

 

[Assman]

L2 Cache: 4MB or 2MB