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I'm gutting my old boat anchor...New build

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - I'm gutting my old boat anchor...New build

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Just to give you an idea of what I have now.

MSI motherboard model MS-6728
Intel P4 2.0 GHZ
Win XP Home service pack 2
512 MB ram
Gigabyte Radeon 9200SE AGP 128MB
40 Gig WD
6 Gig WD backup
HP CDRW
Sound is on the motherboard

I have not tinkered with this thing for about five years. With that said I'm a little out of the building game. This is kinda like my first build all over again.

My wife said that $350 to $400 should be the budget. I blew that right out of the water! LoL I spent $700 Listed below is what I ordered off the Egg.

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R LGA 775 INTEL P35 ATX
Sapphire 100196L Radeon X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 PCIE X16
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4 GHZ LGA 775
Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240 Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Zalman CNPS7700-CU 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan

For the time being I will reuse my 40 Gig WD HD. In the next 3 months I'll get a DVD drive and a new SATA HD. Maybe a graphics cooling fan as well.

I know this isn't top of the line stuff here. However I think I made a fairly decent compromise between high end parts and my wife's budget.

What do you all think?

Thanks,
rvdaks

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I take it that you want the new rig for more than just surfing the web.

It should be able to play the latest games, but you didn't say which monitor you'll be using with it.

Is should be a high-end CRT monitor or an LCD monitor with a fast pixel response time for gaming.

If it is a DirectX 9 card, which it appears to be, it should last a couple of years for gaming even though DirectX 10 cards are coming out now and some games are using it. Most DX10 games play on DX9 cards, but when DX10 becomes the current standard that won't be the case.

I take it that you'll be using Vista Premium, because 2GB memory is the sweet spot for it. 1GB is the sweet spot for XP.

Reply to Ericlegge

You could get by with 256mb on the vid card. I have seen several credible reviews to back this up. Since most of the newer games will also still support DX9, you can wait a while for DX10.

Here is a good deal on better RAM IMO.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] Code=85236

Here is a slightly better deal on a slightly better cooler IMO.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835186134
Although, unless you are going to overclock substantially, the Intel stock coolers are very smooth and quiet. You also will not need the Arctic Silver for the stock cooler, although it is handy if you have to reseat the cooler.

Lastly, you did not mention a Power Supply. Your new system is going to run about 225 watts under normal use, and a up to ~ 300w during games. Your video card also requires a 6 pin PCIe connector, and the newer CPU's need good stable power. To be safe, you need a 400w or better PSU. Here are a couple that will do. They are not high end, but they are solid. I am partial to Antec myself.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817103935
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817104953

Reply to tlmck

I've used that second PSU (the FSP) in three recent builds. All have been solid.
As to the rest of the parts that the OP has already ordered, looks nice. That Zalman cooler will be nice and quiet; I've got one and run it at full speed all the time and barely hear it.
It's been a while since I bothered to check my CPU temps because they always stayed low.

I'm guessing you're staying with the XP Home; better choice than Vista until Vista is actually ready for release.

If you can swing another $60 or so, get the SATA hard drive.

Reply to jtt283

Quote :

1GB is the sweet spot for XP.

not for gaming, I have several games that run like cack on 1GB, they really need 1.5GB... though that's an odd number and the low cost of DDR2 now it really makes sense to have 2GB

Reply to andybird123

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