New build for around $1500 and need comments/suggestions

[jason7655]

Already ordered a 22 inch dell so that isn't part of the equation.

Current price is right under $1500.

Any suggestions I'll be glad to take, especially on what could be a better setup. I don't really want to overclock. Looking to do videos of family, gaming, and general use. This will last 3-5 years hopefully. All prices and products are from newegg for simplicity.

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM write and LightScribe Technology Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model LH-20A1H-185 - OEM
Item #: N82E16827106055
$33.99

(x2)Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148140
-$5.00 Instant
$169.98
($84.99 each)

Logitech MX3000 2-Tone USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Desktop Laser Mouse Included - Retail
Item #: N82E16823126175
-$20.00 Instant
$73.99
$53.99

Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116213
-$10.00 Instant
$199.99
$189.99

SILVERSTONE ZEUS SST-ST65ZF ATX12V 650W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817163108
-$20.00 Instant
$139.99
$119.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115004
$222.00

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145590
$40.00 Mail-in Rebate
$189.00

ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131025
$209.99

EVGA 320-P2-N815-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130038
-$15.00 Instant
$319.99
$304.99
Grand Total: $1,493.92

 

[BrockSampson]

My suggestion is that you should get a 680i motherboard... I really like it compared to Intel's offering. Everything else looks great... good solid Power Supply, a great overclocking C2D, good choice in memory (I prefer the Patriot Extreme Performance but still a good choice)... Great Video Card.. the 8800GTS 320MB is a great deal... the only thing I am a little worried about is the choice to go with Vista... if your worried about DRM and driver support you might want to hold off. If you held off you could use the money to get a better CPU.. possible e6600 : ). Good luck with your build and choice of parts and if you have any questions defiantly send me a PM!

 

[jeff_2087]

Pretty good stuff, but a few comments you should consider...

If you're not overclocking you don't need DDR2-800, you'd see no performance increase over DDR2 533 or 667.

Nice motherboard, though unnecessarily expensive. Don't get the 680i as was suggested above though, that's even more unnecessarily expensive. A 965 board like the MSI P965 Neo-F is less than half the price and would likely do everything you need. Features like the wireless are kinda nice, but not $120 nice IMO.

Also you don't really need 650W of power, but it's a good quality PSU and a good price, so you may as well.


You could save a lot of money by getting a cheaper board and RAM, and it wouldn't affect performance. With the extra cash from that you could upgrade to an e6600 right now, or an e6700 after the April price cut and still some left over. Oh yeah I should mention that around the end of April, the e6700 drops to e6600 price, and the e6600 to a bit above e6400. Dunno if you wanna wait that long though.

 

[MEGAWATTZ2000]

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM write and LightScribe Technology Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model LH-20A1H-185 - OEM
Item #: N82E16827106055
$33.99

(1)Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148140
($84.99 each)
(Why 2?) 1 seems plenty ..

Logitech MX3000 2-Tone USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Desktop Laser Mouse Included - Retail
$53.99

Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM
$189.99

ULTRA ATX12V 500W Power Supply ( total of 28amps on 12V)
$59.99
( A lower priced powersupply isn't always bad as they say, I've had this one for over 6 months still running strong) but if indeed you choose to run Sli maybe consider something else ..

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86 GHz LGA 775
$180.00
(Highly overclocker type, yet you don't wish to, but stock it still kicks ass)

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB DDR2 800
$73.99
(I have yet to see any difference in games or benchmark scores with the addition of an extra 1GB of ram) ..

Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 LGA 775
99.99
(Very sturdy board, I have yet to crash the thing ....)

EVGA 320-P2-N815-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked GDDR3 PCI
$309.99

After ...
Rough Estimate $1079.00 not including shipping and tax etc...

 

[jason7655]

Jeff,
1. On Memory:
This is the first PC I've built, and looking at the specifications of the board it said DDR2-800 so that's what I went with.

2. On the board:
Well, on the MSI P965 Neo-F there's the little problem of no firewire, which is something I'd like onboard so I don't have to use a pci slot for a firewire card.

I've tried looking at various combinations on the board to get to the 6600 but it gets more expensive. I'm not really loyal to a specific brand, but I figured with ASUS I could stay safe since that's one of the more popular cards.

3. Combos
I've looked at newegg at some of the combos, and some of them are tempting. My only real requirment on the mobo is that it have one firewire connection.

 

[jason7655]

MEGAWATTZ2000

PSU
A friend recommended the one I selected and said it was a super deal. Probably want to stay with that one.

6300
There's 43 dollars to move up to the 6400, is it worth it?

2 Gigs Memory
Probably going to do Vista even if I dual boot so want 2G's.

Gig board
I'll look at that board.

I'm all about lowering my price, but I guess I have to figure out where I want to sacrifice.

 

[jeff_2087]

Yeah DDR2-800 will work fine, but at stock speeds in the normal sync it'll run at 533MHz because stock FSB is 1066MHz.

Ahha, firewire. You look at the MSI P965 Platinum then, it has firewire and is $75 cheaper than the P5W DH. But there's nothing wrong with the DH, it's an excellent board, I'm just pointing out other options.

EDIT: Don't take the suggestion to drop down to 1 gig of memory. You should definitely keep 2.

EDIT AGAIN: Oh good I see you already decided that.

 

[predaking]

2. On the board:
Well, on the MSI P965 Neo-F there's the little problem of no firewire, which is something I'd like onboard so I don't have to use a pci slot for a firewire card.

well what else are you going to use the pci slot for? you can get a firewire card for $15.

even micro-atx can hold a wide video card and 2 pci cards.

 

[jason7655]

No problem. That's why I posted. If I didn't want suggestions I wouldn't bother asking.

 

[MEGAWATTZ2000]

MEGAWATTZ2000

PSU
A friend recommended the one I selected and said it was a super deal. Probably want to stay with that one.

6300
There's 43 dollars to move up to the 6400, is it worth it?

2 Gigs Memory
Probably going to do Vista even if I dual boot so want 2G's.

Gig board
I'll look at that board.

I'm all about lowering my price, but I guess I have to figure out where I want to sacrifice.

Here was a piece of an article on Tom's Hardwares site on memory that I found interesting ..

Conclusion
The bottom line is that there is not just one single answer to the question of how much system memory you need. However, to help you decide for yourself, we put together the following criteria:

512 MB
There are a few situations where having just 512 MB system memory in your computer can be enough.

If you run your games at low quality settings (small texture size) because you have an outdated CPU and graphics card, or because you prefer FPS over visual quality.
If you only use one application at a time.
If it is your grandmother's computer.
If you are buying a new computer, even if it's a laptop, opt for more than 512 MB - you will never regret it.

1 GB
Indeed, 1 GB of system memory will most likely be enough for the average user and for people.

It will allow you to play new games at their highest quality settings, given that you have an adequate processor and a powerful graphics solution.
You won't have to shut down non-critical applications when you want to play a game.
You can (accidentally) press the Windows button while in a game without dying from a stroke during the seconds it takes to read Windows back into system memory from the swap file.
If you go from 512 MB to 1 GB, you will notice the difference all the time. Starting up Photoshop while working with Word, an Internet browser, e-mail client and Acrobat Reader will go so much faster, and switching between the applications is a breeze.
2 GB
Still there are situations where more than 1 GB is what you want.

If you are a professional user, you might need more than 1 GB for really heavy applications.
If you intend to do heavy multitasking, especially if you have more than one CPU or CPU core. Running RAM intensive games such as World of Warcraft, downloading files via high speed FTP or encrypted protocols, Bittorrent or any P2P program; decompressing large archives and playing large size video files in a window or on second monitor all at the same time can max out your system memory pretty fast - if your CPU can handle it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/13/how_much_ram_do_you_really_need/index.html

I like the E6300 to me it's like the underdog of chips it can touch just about any of the higher end chips with little o/c ability ..

The powesupply although suggested by a friend is nice, but seriously you won't need more than 500W to get the job done ...

Your system will only last a year regardless with the new advancement of technology coming ..

I've sacrificed nothing with my setup and I still have heaps of cash to wait to bring it up .. The most expensive doesn't mean the best in my opinion .. It's a mind game ..

 

[jason7655]

2. On the board:
Well, on the MSI P965 Neo-F there's the little problem of no firewire, which is something I'd like onboard so I don't have to use a pci slot for a firewire card.

well what else are you going to use the pci slot for? you can get a firewire card for $15.

even micro-atx can hold a wide video card and 2 pci cards.

Well, there are a couple of thoughts.

Sound card, modem for a fax, Hauppauge TV Tuner card (which I actually have). That's just the first things that come to mind.

 

[jason7655]

As I've done a bit more shopping, I've found this as an option:
MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130081

It gives me the firewire and extra PCI slots. I'm worried that it only has 12 reviews on there. That means it's not one of the most popular ones. Anyone care to comment? I'm all about lowering the price.

I've also got a new concern on the PSU.
http://www.antec.com/specs/NSK4400_spe.html is the case that I currently own, and looking here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817163108) it seems people are commenting that they had a hard time fitting it in the case. Anyone with more knowledge care to comment?

EDIT: I had the wrong link for the reviews.

 

[adapa]

I'm planing my first build so take the following with a grain of salt;

take a look at
ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Neweggs is having difficulty or I'd link to it. it's $150-$15 rebate. It's got firewire.

I had decided on a e6600 before I heard about the potential price drop.

Which case?

 

[jason7655]

it's the Antec NSK4400 Super Mini Tower Case.