Greetings,

I want to build a new gaming PC. I don't want to get the "best" of everything rather then get all the best "reasonably" priced components. For instance, I don't want to pay spend $999 for an Extreme processor when I can get a 10% slower processor that costs 90% less! (this is just an example).

My budget is $1500 (I can spend more if its worth it) that's for only the CPU (no Monitor or accessories included). I want a system that has a good quality/price value and a system with components compliments each other. I don't care much for SLI technology, I'm satisfied with 1 VGA card. The 8800GT 512 is what am looking for.

I need to know which parts should I go for:

1. Processor
2. Motherboard
3. Power Supply
4. RAM
5. VGA
6. Hard Disk

I don't think it's a good idea to buy a Case online since I don't live in the USA. I've found a Mozart tower case near where I live that I can buy.

Can you guys help me?

May want to move this over to the "Homebuilt Section". You'll get a much better response.

Anyways, try something like this:
1. Intel E6750
2. GA-P35-DS3L or DS4 if you need more features
3. Try something from Corsair, OCZ, PC Power & Cooling (In the 500-600W range)
4. 2x1GB of DDR2 800 (PC6400) RAM or 2x2GB if you plan on upgrading to a 64 bit OS. **There really is no point in using DDR3 at the moment** (If you need brand names - Crucial, Gskill, Mushkin, A-data, Corsair, and Patriot are all great)
5. 8800GT 512MB or the new G92 GTS 512MB are both great cards.
6. Go for something 7200RPM w/ a 16+MB Cache. You could go w/ two Raptors in Raid 0 for extreme loading speeds, but expect to pay a lot more for those 10k drives. (Plus they have limited capacity)

This should all come well under your $1500 budget. $1500 would kind of be "the best" stuff kinda range.

Thanks rgeist554!

You really helped me eliminate many things. I already have the P35 DS3L GIGABYTE motherboard on mind. I was going to get a 850w OCZ powersupply but I think 700w is good enough for me. I used to be focuse don 2GB ram but now that I learned I can use up to 3.33GB on my windows XP pro I think 4GB is worth it specially since ram is cheap.

One question though, why do you call it E6750 instead of a Core 2 Duo 2.66?! the E6750 name is hard to remember. Is there something I must know about these names? I'm just used to the old x.xxGhz when I choose a processor.

Thanks again

Just becomes common lingo once you talk about a lot of chips. Plus, it's easier to find it while ensuring that you are getting the correct chip.

Wouldn't want someone going for the Pentium D 2.66Ghz which is also a dual-core CPU, but doesn't perform any better than a Pentium 4 at the same clockspeed in single-threaded apps.

I agree with the poster above on everything except the CPU. If i were you i'd plump for an Intel Q6600 instead. It's the same clock speed as the E6750 and is quad core and should fit in your budget.

I myself helped a friend build a system a couple of weeks ago and had almost those exact specs apart from going with the Antec Sonata III case which comes with a 500W Antec Truepower II PSU, which is fanatastic and is also great value for money. 500W is more than sufficient for almost ANY system. You can run SLI cards on a DECENT 500w PSU without a hitch.

If you are going for a P35 Motherboard, a 500w PSU is more than enough for you. Most P35s are not great for SLI or CF and those are the only reasons why you might need a PSU that is 600w+.

My parts came to about $1000 Canadian Shopping at NCIX and using Pricematch through Shopbot.ca. The only thing in my specs not included in this purchase are monitor, DVD burner, and Windows. I LOVE this system!!!

The E6750 runs at 2.66Ghz. The Q6600 runs at 2.4Ghz. I'm very sure about it.

Anyways yeah, get the Q6600 instead and overclock it. I should ask if you are overclocking...are you?

I don't know how to overclock and I don't feel good about overclocking I don't know why. I just had bad experiences playing with the hardware that results in a bad thing somehow somewhere. Is the E6750 good or would I need to get a better processor?

Its actually easier to overclock than one might think, a small OC requires little effert say from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz. The only thing you must do is just make sure the temps are within a range and run a stability test for about 14 hours. Most of the time just setting the Vcore voltage and simply run Prime95 for 14hours.

If you were to get an error at which the program will stop, then you would just up the Vcore a little more and run it again till you get no errors during a 14 hour test. We could help you along with your OC if you want to OC. Normally getting a better CPU cooler if your going to OC your processer. One like this one>>>>



By systemlord at 2007-11-13



By systemlord at 2007-11-13

Those coolers look heavy as hell. How do you know they stay flush on the cpu? Do they mount securely? They look like they wanna bend downward and not mount flush on a vertical surface. I'm sure they prolly look heavier than they really are. And what's in those copper tubes? Just hollow? Sorry to hijack the thread...

I would personally pass on the quad cores. They are good but they're still pretty new. I never like being the first one on the block to jump at something brand new- especially in electronics where everything is continuously and rapidly advancing. Give them time to "bake" a little and see what improvements come of them (and for the price to come down).

And with that said the dual cores are excellent right now. I have an E6750 and couldn't be happier with it. For gaming, from what I've read, the quad cores and dual cores perform basically on par. There's still plenty of life left in the dual core technology so don't feel like your getting something inferior.

They Are heavy. Here is an interesting video however on how they are mounted securely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhA0X6_z3lY

However with my case setup I get 3.4 ghz on the retail cooler with decent temps.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/1 [...] age12.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] -p35c-d3sr

Good Luck. The last article tells how to get a simple overclock just by changing the FSB. Read first few pages of the article!

Go Quad Core. I have the Q6700, which is 2.66GHZ. The whole business of quad-cores being real new is rubbish. They have been on the market for over a whole year. Plus, they use the same Core 2 architechture as the E6750. With your budget, you would be short-changing yourself if you don't get a quad. Get the Q6600 if you are going to overclock. Get the Q6700 if you are not planning to OC (Or if you are planning on it and don't mind spending a couple hundred $$ more...)

For hard drives, I would recommend the Western Digital WD500AAKS (500GB) or WD 750AAKS (750GB). They are very fast drives. Get two and put them in RAID 0 if you want faster performance. The Hitachi Deskstar's have also made a comeback. Look for the 7k1000 series (500GB, 750GB, 1000GB).

In the future, it would be very helpful if you post what you want to use the computer for. It makes a difference in recommending processors/RAM, etc. For instance, if you are mostly playing games, then having more than 2GB of RAM doesn't help much except for Crysis...in which case, having a Quad-core will help more than the 4GB of RAM...and so on.

I built my current system recently enough and it came to about $1200 (converting from Euro), and I got some pretty decent parts in it.

I put a Q6600 into it, and bought a Scythe Ninja cooler, with Arctic Silver 5 paste to overlock it. Got it to a nice stable (and cool) 3 GHz, so that was CPU speed sorted.
Picked up 2 GB of DDR2-800 RAM, along with a Gainward 8600 GTS (256 MB) graphics card, and a 450w Point of View Black Diamond power supply. Mounted it all on an Asus P5KC motherboard, and it all runs very nicely. More recently I picked up a Western Digital Raptor (150 GB) but that's just an addon, you can pick up WD Caviars fairly cheaply these days, if you don't mind settling for 500 GB.

All in all I'd say the Q6600 is the way to go in terms of CPU, and 2 GB of RAM is plenty, unless you have a 64-bit operating system, in which case if you can get 4 GB for a little extra cash it'd be worth doing. And don't forget about the thermal paste, the stuff you get with CPUs isn't worth the time it takes to apply, in my opinion.

Graphics cards are getting cheaper all the time, and I personally love my 8600 GTS. Sure it won't play Crysis over Medium at 1280x1024, and it won't make Supreme Commander all pretty at 1920x1080, but it runs the games that I play.

Motherboard, something that's got the future in its design is always a bonus, something with a 1600+ FSB, DDR3 support, and SLi if you think you'll be making use of it are all things to look for.

If you're not going down the SLi path, 450-500w is more than enough power. I have 3 hard drives in my PC and my Black Diamond pumps out enough juice to keep everything happy.

Hope this helps

These coolers are more sturdy than one might think, they have a metal back plate on the underside of the mobo and sandwitch the two together using springs for pressure. Really simple to install when compared to the stock Intel cooler, where one has to apply great pressure to get those plastic pegs through the holes in the mobo. When using the Tuniq Tower 120 all you have to do is simply twist all four thumb screws until the springs are almost fully compressed, and thats it.


The Intel stock cooler just hangs off the mobo which I don't like.