Best performance-for-money PC to last several years

[Poobah]

Hey guys,

I'm wanting to build the best-performance-for-money computer I can get, and I want it to last for several years and be nice and stable and reliable.

I'll be using it for general use and casual gaming, but since I plan on owning it for years, I want it to run current sort of games well, such as TF2.

At the moment, I'm thinking of getting:
-Intel E8400
-GeForce 8800GT 512MB (should I go 1024MB?)
-2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz RAM, not sure which brand (or should I get 4GB?)

I am going to keep my current old HDD, disk drives, monitor, mouse, keyboard, game controller, etc.; I'm just getting a new computer itself.

I need advice regarding which motherboard, RAM and PSU I should get. I don't plan on using SLI at the moment, but having it available in the future might be useful if I want to squeeze some extra life-time out of the system. I'm not sure if should bother getting a PCIe 2.0 motherboard. If I want SLI, does that mean I have to get nForce? Are the Intel or nForce chipsets better in areas such as stability, value, and performance? And if I get nForce, which chipset should I get? What are the differences between the 680i LT and non-LT versions? (I looked them up on the site, but it's just full of stupid jargon.)

If I get a graphics card that is "PCIe 2.0", will I actually need a motherboard that supports PCIe 2.0, or will it work fine with PCIe 1.0/1.1?

I also plan on buying a new case, since my current one is a bit cramped and I think it only supports up to micro-ATX form factor, and I will of course be buying regular ATX.

I am willing to overclock if it's going to increase the performance-for-money ratio and isn't too complicated or risky.

 

[spotless]

for gpu 1024 is just a marketing scam, search for 512, or if you playing in <1600 resolution people seems fond of getting 8800GS with good reason.

 

[akhilles]

Def. get 4 gig of ram. 3-3.5 will be used in 32-bit os. That will give your games/apps a little boost.

GA-P35-DS3L or DS3R with RAID, P5K-E or with WIFI, IP35-E are some of the best bang overclockers.

If you prefer nvidia chipsets, don't settle for anything less than 780i. 790i does only overpriced ddr3. 680i doesn't do Yorkdales.

PCI-E 2.0 cards are backward compatible.

 

[zenmaster]

I would seriously consider the Q6600 over the E8400.

Extra Cores will become more and more used in a short time.
The Q6600 should see a nice price drop around April 20th.

 

[Poobah]

I'm still not sure about the quad-core stuff, but I'll consider it. Why is a price drop occurring around April 20?

 

[Zorg]

I would seriously consider the Q6600 over the E8400.

Extra Cores will become more and more used in a short time.
The Q6600 should see a nice price drop around April 20th.

Agreed, if you are going to keep it for a while the Q6600 is the way to go. Skip the SLI and get a P35 mobo and you will get a trouble free OC to 3G/1333 that, with a nice cooler, will last for years no problem.

 

[Poobah]

Ok, I'll wait 'til the Q6600 drops in price and give it a shot. Are you sure skipping the SLI is a good idea?

Could I please have some recommendations for coolers and motherboards?

I'm currently considering either Crucial Ballastix 4GB DDR2 800MHz 4-4-4-12 RAM for AU$200 or Patriot 4GB (exact same specs) for $130, but I'm not sure which to go with, since I could be paying for better reliability with the Crucial memory.

EDIT:
What's the difference between the Q6600 G0 and B3?

 

[akhilles]

It's your money. It's up to you what you buy.

P35 is much cheaper than 780i and overclocks better. If you get 2 cards right way, then yes, SLI is the way. I see it over and over that the buyer rarely added a 2nd card as they were either outdated or discontinued. The result is an overpriced 780i board + 1 whimpy GPU. What's the point in that? Unbalanced.

Patriot isn't guaranteed good o/c ram. Go with Ballistix. If you want other brands, they're more expensive with the same chips. Like G.SKILL HZ, Firestix, etc.

G0 takes more heat than B3. G0 is better for overclocking.

 

[Poobah]

Ok, I'll give SLI a miss. If I get:
-Intel Q6600
-GeForce 8800GT 512MB
-4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM

What sort of PSU will I need? I'm thinking about getting an Antec Earthwatts or NeoPower one. But what sort of power rating should I get? 430W? I'll just be using an additional PCI card (Sound Blaster), CD Burner, a DVD Burner/CD burner combo drive and one HDD.

I'm thinking about getting Cooler Master Hyper TX 2 HSF, and an Antec P182 case. Any opinions/recommendations regarding these?

 

[evongugg]

With that setup you will need 23 amps on the 12v rails. (Not valid for SLI dual card). Look at the label of the PSU.

Top Tier PSU:
http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1460

Silent PSUs
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html

Certified SLI-Ready Power Supplies
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

 

[blackwater11]

Q6600 GO - Because GO are the selected wafers over the B3 out of that particular batch. They can handle more current and overclock to higher freq.

4g of DDR2 high density D9 ram preferably 1066. Get the aftermarket ram 3 fan cooler from Corsair, it will work with any ram. - Because high density ram overclocks easy and will last a lot longer. D9 Ram are the selected wafers out of that particular batch.

750quad PC Power&Cooling PSU - Make sure you have at least 60amps on the 12v rail. - Because this power supply will power anything in SLI and their customer service is awesome.

EVGA 680i mobo - Because they overclock easy, drivers are polished and are user friendly.

8800GTX - Because if you are running high resolutions 768mb of memory will serve you no problem and 384 bit is nice as well. The drivers are polished for every game and this card is cheap now. I would wait for Nvidia to wake up and buy the next gen GPU's because Nvidia is just riding the surf on their (G92) platform. Listen, you could SLI 512's and spend close to $500 and will not see much of a difference in performance over a single GTX - why spend more money when both scenarios will get the job done with every game out there except Crysis? Buy cheap now and upgrade when the next gen comes out.

Cooler Master Cosmos - Because the fan setup can all be upgraded to 140mm and there is enough space to work.

Wait on bluray.. they just hacked it to pieces - the prices will fall shortly..

This whole system will cost you around $700 and can play Crysis @ 30-40fps which is as competitive as it gets. Or you can spend $3500 on a QX9770 / 790i / DDR3 2000 RAM / 9800GTX/ULTRA / 750Quad PSU / Cosmos and get 40-50avg FPS in Crysis (That's to say they have the drivers ready) and get bent over the railing by Dr.Nvidia and Mr.Intel without any lube.

Good luck,

Blackwater11

 

[blackwater11]

Oh yes.. I would be doing you a disservice by not stating that in my opinion your hard drive is one of the most important components of a good system. Get a 10,000 rpm raptor drive you will not regret it. My OS boots fast... very fast.

Unfortunately Crucial doesn't make high density DDR2 ram anymore as of last month so be careful with that situation. I have 2g of Crucial PC2-8500 1066 ballistix as Akhilles recommended, but they are D9's and not their new garbage. Their DDR3 ram is top notch.

You don't have to wait for the Q6600 to drop in price... It has already dropped in price so low they are practically begging you to buy em.

Blackwater11

 

[lunyone]

Here is what I'd do:
CPU - q6600 as you stated.
Mobo - Gigabyte DS3R (has about everything you'll need)
RAM - I'd get at least 2x1 gb's of Crucial Ballistix for under $30 right now (CAS 4 DDR2 800 mHz), or even get 2x2 gb's for around $100.
GPU - 8800gts (g92) at the minimum or get a 3870x2 for better performance. I believe the 3870x2 around $400 will last longer than the 8800gts (g92) and isn't over priced like the 9800gx2.
PSU - I'd go with at least the Corsair vx550w PSU. It has 41A on the 12V rail (which is more than enough for any GPU out there) and is going for $65 after $20 MIR. It also has a 5 yr. warranty, which is really good.

That is pretty much what I'd do. It'll give you plenty of stability and should last you quite some time, for the $ spent (especially if you get the 3870x2 for your gaming needs).

 

[aevm]

Here is what I'd do:
CPU - q6600 as you stated.
Mobo - Gigabyte DS3R (has about everything you'll need)
RAM - I'd get at least 2x1 gb's of Crucial Ballistix for under $30 right now (CAS 4 DDR2 800 mHz), or even get 2x2 gb's for around $100.
GPU - 8800gts (g92) at the minimum or get a 3870x2 for better performance. I believe the 3870x2 around $400 will last longer than the 8800gts (g92) and isn't over priced like the 9800gx2.
PSU - I'd go with at least the Corsair vx550w PSU. It has 41A on the 12V rail (which is more than enough for any GPU out there) and is going for $65 after $20 MIR. It also has a 5 yr. warranty, which is really good.

That is pretty much what I'd do. It'll give you plenty of stability and should last you quite some time, for the $ spent (especially if you get the 3870x2 for your gaming needs).

Totally agreed.

Maybe get a 620HX PSU, it's a good match for the P182 because it's modular and has long cables.

Add a Tuniq Tower or Xigmatek HDT-S1283.

I think 4GB is a smart idea, because programs will keep getting bigger over the years. Also, DDR2 is really cheap now.

 

[spotless]

xp sp3 its enough, you can rev. the graphic all the way up to max.

 

[zenmaster]

Note: Prices are Dropping around April 20th because Intel is dropping their official Tray Price to $224 from $266.

The E8xxx Series will not be seing a price drop at that time from Intel.
The result will be that the price difference should shrink quite a bit around that time.

The other thing to keep in mind in regards to Quads vs Duals.
The Quad will not OC quite as high, but the final speed difference may only be about 10% which is not great and will likely not yield a very noticable difference in programs that onyl support two cores.

However, when you do have a program that can use four cores, the performance difference can be significant.

 

[SuicideSilence]

What a second everyone. He said he wants this build to last severaly years. Shouldnt he go the amd route? LGA 775 is going to be dead by the beggining of next year. AM2+ will be around for a while.

 

[Zorg]

I think he meant several years without throwing money at it. A Q6600 will last him several years with no upgrades. Who cares when they are changing the socket.

 

[SuicideSilence]

O I thought he wanted to upgrade it throughout its years.
sorry
A q6600 would be good then

 

[aevm]

I think he meant several years without throwing money at it. A Q6600 will last him several years with no upgrades. Who cares when they are changing the socket.

I hope he meant that. That's what I'm doing too. I'll change my Q6600 for a 16-core 5 GHz $300 toy some time in 2011

 

[zenmaster]

What a second everyone. He said he wants this build to last severaly years. Shouldnt he go the amd route? LGA 775 is going to be dead by the beggining of next year. AM2+ will be around for a while.

Also AM2+ being around for a while is not very relevent.

All that means is that in 2-3 years he could upgrade to a PC as fast as others have today.

And there is no way of knowing if the new CPUs will work in the old mobos.

Just like many AM2 boards can't handle Phenom's even though in theory they could.

There is just no financial incentive for Mobo Companies to add support for new processors on very old boards. This costs them sales of new mobos.

 

[einstein4pres]

Regarding PSUs, I have a
Gigabyte P35 DS3L
E2160@2.7GHz
8800GT (EVGA SC)
2GB
Antec Earthwatts 380

What you're talking about won't eat (much) more power, so a low wattage *good* psu should suffice, and then some.

500W would be *plenty*.

 

[Zorg]

I hope he meant that. That's what I'm doing too. I'll change my Q6600 for a 16-core 5 GHz $300 toy some time in 2011

Same here, 4 cores @ 3G is enough for me.

All that means is that in 2-3 years he could upgrade to a PC as fast as others have today.

:lol: Truth.

 

[cisco]

Not as fast but would be a nice SLI setup at an insanely cheap price
8800GTS 320mb for 114.00 a piece after rebate.

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

 

[lunyone]

Not as fast but would be a nice SLI setup at an insanely cheap price
8800GTS 320mb for 114.00 a piece after rebate.

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

that is the OLD technology. It'll consume way too much power. I wouldn't suggest getting older technology GPU's.