Help me assess this rig for a friend please!

[Banli]

I'm building a gaming/family computer for my friend Bon: he's looking for a computer
will be powerful to play games for a while, will require little upgrading in the future,
and will work reliably and also he does not want to spend much more than $900-1000.
He does not want to have to worry about lag or hard drive/ram issues for quite some
time. Keeping all this in mind, and I selected some components, and was hoping to get
some feedback on them.



Processor: Either the Q6600 Kentsfield or Phenom 9600

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017 Kents $275
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103225 Phenom $240

Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel P35

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059 $100

Video Card: EVGA 320-bit 320mb 8800 GTS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130082 $220

RAM: Crucial Ballistik 2GB PC2 8500 DDR2 1066

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148070 $111

Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073 $100

Optical Drive: Samsung DVD burner

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153 $30

Case: Rosewill ATX case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147010 $30

Power Supply: Antec 550W Neopower or Rosewill 550W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103941 $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182017 $57

All in all, the price comes to around $900 without shipping.



A few quick questions:

1) Is the Kentsfield worth the extra $35 over the phenom 9600?

2) Is Crucial a reliable brand of memory? I've mostly dealt with Corsair and G.Skill in
the past personally.

3) Is the Antec Neopower worth the extra $40 compared to the Rosewill 550W? Does anyone
know of a good alternative to the two that's not much more than $50-60 and provides
the wattage this rig needs?

4) Is a quad core worth getting over a dual core?

5) Is this good/will it work? I've not built a computer for a few months and want
to make sure I havn't made any silly errors.


Thanks for your help,
-Kevin

 

[rickpcnerd]

Oh, yes! Intel kicks Phenom 9600 so bad. AMD Phenom is another failure with a nasty bug it decrease cpu performance by 10%, and not even close to a Q6400 performance.By the way you only listed one motherboard, an INtel Platform. To make it clear, this motherboard only supports Intel cpus only and not AMD. There is no motherboard in the world that support both platforms if that what u had in mind. The most important is the power supply. You dont want to go with a cheap PS, go for a $90 or $110 PS or your friend will regret in a few months. Drop 8800 gts 320 and get 8800 gt 256 or ATI 3870. This are faster cards than 8800 gts 320.

 

[g-paw]

Agree, go with the Antec PSU. Crucial is a top mfg, you won't go wrong. At this time I would only consider AMD for a very low end, inexpensive machine. For gaming the E6750 would work and save a little. If he's doing something like video editing, i.e., CPU intensive, the Q6600 would be better.

 

[chuckm]

This Crucial ram is all you'll need.$40.00 after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820148076
Here's a good deal power supply,
http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsair-VX-450w-Power-Supply/q/loc/101/205466485.html

 

[Banli]

Is the difference between 800 mhz and 1066 mhz RAM a big difference? Is it worth the ~$45 difference in straight up price between the one chuckm posted and the one in my original post?

Btw, I didn't post an amd motherboard as I basically assumed intel would be favored for a rig of this sort, I know there are few, if any motherboards around at the moment that can use both. (I feel like I read about one a while ago in maximumpc that could with some slight changes inbetween)

Thanks again
-Kevin

 

[g-paw]

Is the difference between 800 mhz and 1066 mhz RAM a big difference? Is it worth the ~$45 difference in straight up price between the one chuckm posted and the one in my original post?

Btw, I didn't post an amd motherboard as I basically assumed intel would be favored for a rig of this sort, I know there are few, if any motherboards around at the moment that can use both. (I feel like I read about one a while ago in maximumpc that could with some slight changes inbetween)

Thanks again
-Kevin

At this time the 1066 is probably not worth the extra money. If the above is referring to mobo that can run both Intel and AMD, as far as I know there is no such animal. To do this you'd in essence need 2 mobo in one

 

[jitpublisher]

Drop the 8800GTS, 320 meg video card you have listed like it was on fire!
Get either the 8800GT for a tight budget, or if you can spend just a little more, the NEW GTS version with 512 meg of memory and the G92 chipset really is the way to go.
Either of these 2 cards is superior to the old 320 meg version of the GTS you have listed.

If you don't mind running ATI, the 3850 and 3870 are very nice too in the price ranges, and both better still than the old GTS.

 

[Banli]

After further refining from consulting with various people/forums, I've come to this list.
What do you think of this?

Processor: Q6600 Kentsfield

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017 Kents $275

Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel P35 $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

XFX 8800 GT 256mb $220

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3509851&sku=P450-8820

RAM: A-Data 4GB PC2 6400 $87

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211188

Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

Optical Drive: Samsung DVD burner $30

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153

Case: Rosewill ATX case $30

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147010

Power Supply: Ultra X-Finity 600W $55

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2974309&Sku=ULT31848%20K

All in all, the price comes to around $900 without shipping.


Thanks for your help,
-Kevin

 

[PCKid777]

Go for the 512Mb version of the 8800GT if you wanna stick with a NON-Sli setup. If you wanna go dual graphics cards someday, then get a 3870 GPU and a Crossfire compatible board. Then, when you want extra horsepower, you can add another 3870 since Crossfire scales better then Sli.

 

[orangegator]

I'd go with a better psu. The Corsair mentioned before looks descent. I have that same Ultra psu and it works fine. But I got it for $10 after rebates and would not pay more. I'd go with this casehttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147058 instead. Comes with 120mm fan, front and side mounts for two more, front air filter, and no cheap psu to throw away. I've used this case on a few builds. I'd personally get different ram. I get 2x1gb ram that is CL4 and cost <$50. Having 4gb is nice, but I don't really think needed. I think having CL4 ram will give better results. And I would avoid buying anything from tigerdirect. Usually you can find cheaper deals elsewhere and I've heard a couple bad customer service stories. Also, I'd get an after market heatsink and overclock the Q6600 to at least 3Ghz. It is easily done. Other than that, looks good.