Looks like a found a great forum for opinions. I bought an eMachines T6212 three years ago for $400 with an AMD Athlon 3200 if I remember correctly and immediately upgraded to 4GB RAM, ATI X800XL, new PSU, SATA drives, and then replaced the chip with a AMD FX-55 when the price fell down sharply (I also sold the 3200 on eBay and got some money back). All in all, I spent right at $1,000 for a decent machine at the time.
I liked that I could upgrade chips easily on the mobo when I originally bought it so I am trying to apply the same logic with this one and the X38 board (i.e. 45nm chipsets when they come down in price). The Cosmos chassis gives me room to mod the PC for future upgrades.
QTY DESCR PRICE
1 ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T - Retail $37.99
1 COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 $30.00 Mail-in Rebate $189.99
2 Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM ($169.99 each) $339.98
2 SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($104.99 each) $209.98
1 ENERMAX Galaxy EGX1000EWL Power Supply - Retail $50Mail-in Rebate $309.99
2 CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500) $40.00 Mail-in Rebate $308.00
1 ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $229.99
1 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor $279.99
1 Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM $179.99
2 AeroCool Streamliner-Silver 140mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail ($12.99 each) $25.98
3 Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm Case Fan - ($13.99 each) $41.97
1 ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail $21.99
With $14.44 shipping Total: $2,190.28
I'm also adding 2 Diamond 3870 512MB Crossfire's when they ever become available and when the price gouging stops. In the interim, I'll probably just use my X800XL for a short time. It's been a good card to me.
So, there it is, all laid out. What do you think? Yeah, the PSU is probably overkill and I could probably tweak here and there but I'm looking for future proofing and best bang for the buck.
BTW, I do a lot of video editing, games (primarily COH, FEAR, Ghost Recon and other FPS games, and it looks like I'll have to get Crysis), web development, photoshop and image editing, burning DVD's, and a lot of miscellaneous multi-tasking in apps.
Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.
Not sure which RAID level I'll setup.
I liked that I could upgrade chips easily on the mobo when I originally bought it so I am trying to apply the same logic with this one and the X38 board (i.e. 45nm chipsets when they come down in price). The Cosmos chassis gives me room to mod the PC for future upgrades.
QTY DESCR PRICE
1 ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T - Retail $37.99
1 COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 $30.00 Mail-in Rebate $189.99
2 Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM ($169.99 each) $339.98
2 SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($104.99 each) $209.98
1 ENERMAX Galaxy EGX1000EWL Power Supply - Retail $50Mail-in Rebate $309.99
2 CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500) $40.00 Mail-in Rebate $308.00
1 ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $229.99
1 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor $279.99
1 Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM $179.99
2 AeroCool Streamliner-Silver 140mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail ($12.99 each) $25.98
3 Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm Case Fan - ($13.99 each) $41.97
1 ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail $21.99
With $14.44 shipping Total: $2,190.28
I'm also adding 2 Diamond 3870 512MB Crossfire's when they ever become available and when the price gouging stops. In the interim, I'll probably just use my X800XL for a short time. It's been a good card to me.
So, there it is, all laid out. What do you think? Yeah, the PSU is probably overkill and I could probably tweak here and there but I'm looking for future proofing and best bang for the buck.
BTW, I do a lot of video editing, games (primarily COH, FEAR, Ghost Recon and other FPS games, and it looks like I'll have to get Crysis), web development, photoshop and image editing, burning DVD's, and a lot of miscellaneous multi-tasking in apps.
Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.
Not sure which RAID level I'll setup.