Love your advice in buying a new machine

[keepon]

Good evening everyone, time to give my Intel 3.2 to my son and go and get myself a present. I have been looking around in stores that build pc's. Everyone preaches for their parish, so I am completely confused. Been reading on the site about different setup's and I always said, you have to have trust in someone to help you make your final decision. I am willing to go for around $2000.00 Can. I just want to make sure I get my money's worth.

I would greatly appreciate if you guys can help me in selecting my next computer. At the moment I don't want to over clock my system, because I have no idea what to do and scared I would damage it. But I would like to buy with the option, if someday I get the guts, I would be able to. Products I am sure I like are the case Thermatake , I was told, I need a 500W power supply. Processor, for sure, Intel, biggest as possible. Some where in the area of 6600 or 6700. If you can give me a idea what quad core is and if there is a big different in price and speed.
2 gigs of ram, a dvd burner dual-layer, mother boards, I always had ASUS. Half decent video card. Looking for 2 good hard drive around 250gigs. I play around with music alot. PCDJ, so a sound card would be cool. What ever recommendation you give me, I will look in the stores in my areas. As mentioned, I am not looking to save 100.00 bucks, I just want my money's worth.

 

[deusex]

I'm Assuming that that's ~$1800 USD - a good Price vs Performance rig.

Will that include a Monitor/Speakers?

If not, I suggest: ($USD - please convert at own risk!)

E6600~$320 (quad core is ~$800)
2GB Corsair XMS2~170 for cas lat5, 200 for cas lat4
Asus P5B-E/Deluxe~150
Soundblaster X-Fi (with a rebate, one of the top $100+ cards becomes~$80)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATAII ~$75

Check out PSUs at tomshdwguide, and cases - A flashy one would be the NZXT Apollo (great case), or a Thermaltake Soprano.


I would rec. a 8800GTS 320MB if it could fit in your budget - If not, simply, get an eGA 7XXX, and upgrade via step-up to a 8600.


If you can wait, I would wait until May and get a 8600/RD600.

 

[keepon]

I have went to the store just now, aand ask the guy to put a system together to have a foundation to work with. I understand that it is easier for you to give prices in US. I will just convert 20% more. I need nn monitor or speakers. I just bought 2 - 19 inch Samaung 931BF

Intel core 2 Duo 2.4G 4M 1066 S775 - $411.40
He tells me that the 6700 cost much more, for the different, is this true.
Quad core he hasn't played with this. I can see its much more bucks. Is their a big different in speed.

Kingston 2x1GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 - $320.00
He tells me high speed of 1066, cost much more, and I wouldn't see a big differents.

Asus P%B Deluxe WIFI-AP Intel Ready Core 2 Duo - $261.00
He has not much experience with this board. I was thinging of a intel board, but he says that they had problems in the past with intel boards.

Antec P160W Aluminium with no power - $157.00
I saw one in the store, it looks cool. There would be two fans in it. Would that be OK...But I am going to look more at Thermatake.
Antec Fan 120 MM Bleu 3-4 pin 3 speed switch - $24.50
SP-500-Antec Power Gamer 500W - $99.30
Pioneer 111D Black DVD Burner 16X +/- D Layer +/- 8x OEM - $48.90
Is this any good, I find it to be a cheap price for a DVD burner.

Segate Barracuda 250GB 7200RPM Sata II 16 MB 3GB/SEC NCQ - $107.00
My intentions is two have at least two hard drives. I was thinking of getting a Western @ 10000 for my Windows and applications, thinking this would give fast speed. And have two others for my music and files.
Asus EN7600GS HTD 512MB - $175.00
He tells me that a 8800 is alot more, and I am not really a gamer, but I like to have good shit. One day go Vista, and maybe created a partition for my son to play once in a while Call of Duty II.

 

[skyguy]

Check out DirectCanada.com. They usually have the best prices in Canada and if you don't live in BC, then you only pay GST and it's free shipping on orders over $300. That'll save you $100 right there

-whatever case strikes your fancy, something in the $50-$80 range will do nicely - $80
-Core2Duo 6300 - $230
-ASUS P5B-E mobo - $160
-2 gigs OCZ DDR2-800 RAM (Canada Computers has a great deal on OCZ Platinums right now) - $230
-2 Seagate Barracuda's 7200.10 w/16 meg cache (Direct Canada has a big sale on these right now, VERY good drives) - $190
-Samsung SH-S182 DVD/RW drive....very nice, quiet, inexpensive - $40
-OCZ GameXstream 600w power supply - $125
-EVGA 8800GTS 320mb graphics card - $340

Still money left over for a very nice monitor too You can upgrade to a better case (Thermaltake Armor highly recommended) and a 6600 CPU if you want. I don't think it's necessary but your call.

This setup will get you well under $2,000 CDN, will be VERY fast, will let you do some great overclocking later, and won't go out of style quickly.