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Yep, another "First Build in 4+ years assessment!"

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Yep, another "First Build in 4+ years assessment!"

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Long time lurker, first time poster! So...be gentle!

Ok, It has been a long 4 years that this aging monster has lasted me, and it still has some life left in it...but not for what I want to use it for. So...I am cutting the fat, and injecting shiny new collagen and some beefy silicon implants!

Ok, first the Old...

MOBO - Asus something or other...cant remember exactly, but it was high end 4 years ago lol
CPU - P4 3.2GHz
RAM - 2GB Corsair DDR PC3200 Dual Channel Kit
Video - GeForce 6800GT 256mb
HD - WD Raptor 74GB 10k RPM

Now, the New...

MOBO - GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L
CPU - Core2Duo E8400 3.0GHz
RAM - 2 GB CorsairXMS DDR2 PC6400 Dual Channel Kit
Video - XFX GeForce 8800GT 512MB
HD - keeping my old drive for a boot/os drive, but adding a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s for storage, games, etc.

Re-Using -
Voodoo Custom Build Case
Corsair HX 620W PSU
DVD/CDRW Drives
SB Audigy 2FX (unless onboard sound is good enough, less cards = less heat)
WinXP Pro
Samsung 193p 19" flat panel monitor (1280x1024)

The point of this was to run the current games of today well enough, and be able to run the future games reasonably well. This platform has good room for upgrades in the future as well, making it a solid platform today, yet able to upgrade to handle the future games as well...right? lol

Any thoughts, criticisms, or suggestions?

My price point was originally $500, but I decided to splurge a little due to their only being about $30 difference between the 8800 gt and the 9600 gt and went for a slightly higher cpu so I didn't have to OC right away. Current cost is $580.

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The items you have chosen look pretty good.

I would suggest an after-market cooler for the E8400 - it's a beast and easy to overclock (even moderately). I realize you said you don't want to overclock right away, but it's a pain to have to take all of those things out to install an after-market cooler later. You can get a pretty good one for less than $50.

I would also suggest getting more memory - it's dirt cheap to get 4GB (2x2GB).

Good luck with the build.

Reply to huron

Iron_Chef_Batali wrote :

Any thoughts, criticisms, or suggestions?

Welcome mate
You still need HS and Fan if you'll OC, another 60-75$
Don't know you V00doo Case, Hope it has enough space and fans, can take the big HS such as TRUE
Everything else is OK
Congrads

------------------------------ LianLi PC-A70 Case/Enermaqx Galaxy 1000W/Asus Rampage Formula/E8500/Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Lapped/Scythe S-Flex SFF21F/Crucial Ballistic Red Line DDR2800 PC6400(2X2)GB/8800GTS 512MB/WD Raptor2X150GB/ViewSonic VX922(1280X1024Max)
Reply to kad

Everything looks pretty good. Just a piece of advice here, I got an XFX 8800 GT and the model I got is extremely noisy. It's a single slot model and the fan speed isn't adjustable whatsoever. Going for dual slots model might be a good idea as far as heat and noise are concerned. I don't know if XFX does them but I would personally buy another brand if they don't.

Reply to fatcat

like Kad said: modern vid cards are huge, is case big enough.

Look at the core 2 duo e7200 @ $130 it is a deal. I have mine at 3.8Ghz - 1.31v on air. The e7200 runs cool OC'd, so a $20 HS&F will do.

I second huron's ram comment: get as much RAM as you can afford. It is cheap cheap cheap.

I just built my first build in 3+ years. Went from a HP P4 to (see sig). Mine cost $800 plus, but i went with a x38 mobo and 800w psu for future. I kept my HD, case and opt drives.

Message edited by 50bmg on 05-24-2008 at 02:41:37 PM

That system looks fairly similar to mine. I play almost anything on max at 1440x900 with well over 100fps average and get a 3dMark score of 12k so that system should be fine.

The others have given good advice though, theres no way I would trust that stock cooler on my CPU even if I'm not overclocking. They are very cheap and it is a massive pain to install one later.

If you can afford 4GB of RAM it will help a little, and a GTS would provide slightly higher performance than the GT. But all in all that is a killer little system.

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http://valid.x86-secret.com/cache/banner/440348.png

Reply to theTHiiiNG

get a least a 8800gts 512mb or 9800gtx

Reply to darthvaderkenneth

Wow! Thanks for all the helpful replies!

I did end up going with a different manufacturer for the vid card, I got the eVGA dual slot design 8800GT.

I will look into the e7200. I might end up getting that and an after market cooler for the same price as the e8400. My only concern is with the much smaller cache size and slower bus speeds of the e7200. All I do is game on this machine.

For the RAM, I do not need more than 2gb since I am running WinXP Pro and I do not want to upgrade to Vista at this time.

The case is one of the custom built ones that the Lian Li people made for Voodoopc.com It is the Omen. very solid case, heavy as all hell, but it is a tank and will last forever. great air flow, custom paint job and custom windows so I wont be getting a new case until absolutely necessary

I haven't made the purchase yet, waiting for my "Stimulus Check" so keep the advice, if any, coming

Reply to Iron_Chef_Batali

Ok, here is my current shopping list. As stated I have been out of the market for quite a while so i had no idea on what after market HSF to get for the cpu, so I checked a few and went with one with over 1700+ reviews and very few negatives.

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/ [...] tle=Voodoo

not bad for $550?

Reply to Iron_Chef_Batali

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