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Second game/home use build

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Second game/home use build

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I'm looking to build a new system to replace my last homebuilt which is now five years old. I'm mostly intimidated with selecting the right motherboard, but open to suggestions on all components. Last time I had a friend help with the purchase decisions while I did the assembling myself.

Software (ordered by priority):
Windows XP
World of Warcraft
OpenOffice
Thunderbird
Firefox
QuickBooks (multiple versions: 2003, 2005, 2007)
Printmaster card creator
Gimp
PAF
various children's games like Reader Rabbit
WinTV
Stepmania
NetBeans
Ubuntu
Mechwarrior 4 compilation
Empire Earth I
Tron 2.0
Final Fantasy VII
Thunderbird
Lego Star Wars I and II
Sid Meier's Pirates!

Hardware that will be retained:
NEC LCD1712 monitor
Microsoft USB/PS2 Optical Mouse
Microsoft Natural Keyboard (ps2)
HP G85 All-In-One printer/scanner/fax
USB Zip drive
Hauppage WinTV USB2
Nostromo N45 USB gamepad
Linksys WRT54G router (build doesn't have to be wireless. Should I use my existing network card?)
Super Joybox USB Playstation adapter

Other goals (by priority):
budget = ~$1000
Transfer home movies to DVD
Quiet
My ten year old speakers are going, so some new sound. Something modest like 2 speakers and a subwoofer. I have no room for a 5+ speaker setup.
Avoid Vista
No intention of overclocking
Something smaller that a full tower
parts have been on the market for at least six months
Dual boot XP and Ubuntu

Thanks in advance

Add a reply

I gotta commend on your to-the-point no-frills details about your usage, pc, upgrade, likes & dislikes. A few posts here are so long-winded that they may turn off potential helpers.

The NEC 17" has an unusual large resolution of 1248x1024@75Hz.

http://www.necdisplay.com/corpus/3 [...] e_0903.pdf

My newegg.com cart:

Quote :

Shopping Cart
Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price
1
SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model SH-S182D - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151133
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$29.99
1
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811119106
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$10.00 Instant
$10.00 Mail-in Rebate

$49.99
$39.99
2
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250820AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148142
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

$149.98
($74.99 each)
1
EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130062
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

$20.00 Mail-in Rebate

$109.99
1
HIPER HPU-4M480-PS ATX12V v2.2 480W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817128005
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

-$6.00 Instant

$55.99
$49.99
1
Rosewill 2 port Parallel (SPP/PS2/EPP/ECP) Universal PCI card Model RC-304 - Retail - Retail
Item #: N82E16815166007
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$7.00 Instant

$15.99
$8.99
1
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231098
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

-$30.00 Instant

$209.99
$179.99
1
BIOSTAR TForce965PT LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813138037
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

$104.99
1
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115004
Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy
UBISOFT Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - OEM
Item #: N82E16800992001
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$49.99 Combo

$271.99
$222.00
Subtotal: $895.91
Calculate Shipping
Zip Code: Shipping: $0.00

Redeem Gift Certificates
Claim Code:
Security Code: Gift Certificates: $0.00
Apply Promo Code Promo Code: $0.00
This cart qualifies for No Payments for 6 Months with Newegg.com Preferred Account
Grand Total:* $895.91

* Total does not include shipping or taxes, please input your zip code to calculate your order total

The reason I picked 7600gt is that:
geforce has better linux support than radeon
you play not very gpu-intensive games
you're not upgrading to vista/dx10

If you feel it's underpowered for future games, pick 7900gs like:

Quote :

EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail
$169.99 ($154.99 after $15.00 Mail-In Rebate)

The psu is there so that the pc has room for video card upgrades. The rest of the parts were chosen based on your goals. No o/c. Mid tower case. Quiet (GF 7000 series is generally less power-hunger, less hot, & quieter than X1900 series even though the later is faster in most bencharmks). Intel P965 has been out for months & is probably the most popular C2D chipset. I'm sure some Linux module devs can get their hands on it for writing modules. 2 hard disks: 1 for XP/linux (partition it into half at least); 1 for storage or my documents.

Finally, nothing is set in stones. Change anything to your liking.

Reply to akhilles

Thanks for the list!

A couple of questions:
How did you see the two hard drives working together? Do they need some special RAID setup/configuration? Will that work under Ubuntu?

I didn't see a parallel port on that motherboard. How do I plug my G85 into it?

Thanks again!

Reply to atomicpaperclip

No problem.

Sorry i forgot to say both harddisks should be set up as standalone. XP/Linux should see them as normal PATA/IDE harddisks. No F6/driver needed. Another plus is if you screw up the partitions on C, chances are you will, you still have your files intact on D.

Just added:

Rosewill 2 port Parallel (SPP/PS2/EPP/ECP) Universal PCI card Model RC-304 - Retail - Retail

& updated my cart above.

Reply to akhilles

Ok, I swapped out the video card, CPU and motherboard. Please let me know if this breaks anything.

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115003

Mobo
ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131070

GPU
EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130056

RAM
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231098

Hard drive x2
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250820AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148142

DVD drive
SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model SH-S182D - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151133

Case
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811119106

Power supply
HIPER HPU-4M480-PS ATX12V v2.2 480W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817128005

Reply to atomicpaperclip

Looks perfect. Don't forget the parallel card.

Quote :

A 350W PCI Express compliant system power supply (with 12V current rating of 22A or more)

The Hiper 480W 28A exceeds the 7900gs requirements.

Reply to akhilles

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