My big list V2

This is now divided into 3 sections.

I encourage others to make their own post like this. Saves the fingers

1/13/10
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For the reasoning behind these choices, please see my general guide, linked in my signature at the bottom.

Here is my list. It's what I like, and sometimes I'll even tell you why. I try to keep it updated. Rather than post here, if you would send me a PM if you see an out of date link, I would appreciate it. Posts live for years here so there is no need to bump this one.

All the parts are provided with a link to Newegg. You might find better deals elsewhere, maybe. Newegg is fast and complete so it's easy to point at. It pays to shop around.


Section one
Online retailers by country

USA
Newegg USA
Circuit City Nice return policy. Good place to order a monitor if you need to get one online.
buy.com
Amazon
Tigerdirect
ZipZoomfly
Provantage
ewiz AKA SuperBiiz
Frozen CPU great for cooling supplies of all kinds and case mods.

Canada
NCIX
Direct Canada
Newegg Canada

UK
Microdirect
Aria PC?
Overclockers UK
Misco I need feedback on them... they look good.
Pixmania Just a gadget store but they have some good memory at good prices, and other stuff.
ebuyer
Dabs
http://www.scan.co.uk/

Europe
PC Look (France, has English version) Well organized, have some very high quality parts.
Komplett
Hardware versand

India
Swami PC
Techshop
Shopmania

Australia
MSY
Techbuy good selection?
PC Superstore
PC Case Gear
Mwave Australia
Umart
Scorpion Technology
IT Estate

International
Conrad International These guys will ship anywhere. Selection is probably better than where you live, if you need them

Section Three
My Parts List - second half


Power Supplies
We can't tell you exactly what PSU you need until we see your final build. A good quality PSU is more important than wattage. Here is a big list of some of the good ones. MOST PSU brands are not consistantly good throughout. You have to look at specific models.

Seasonic Very high quality, and they actually make the PSUs that other companies sell, such as Antec, PC P&C, etc. The two listed here are some very serious PSUs... dead silent and extremely efficient. They are very new and may be out of stock atm.
X650
X750
S12D 850W Incredible deal right now, $110. If you are looking for a PSU just get this. Doesn't matter if you need the power or not as it's very efficient at low loads. Not modular though.

Antec Signature - Once the best, now they have competition. Certainly among the best.
Signature 850W
Signature 650W
JonnyGuru Signature review

Other Antecs - Mostly very good. The "Basiq" line is cheap but probably won't explode or anything.
(To be clear, I am not currently recommending any "Trio" or "Neo" or "Basiq" Antecs) Earthwatts and True Power Quattros seems to me good for now.
Antec EA500W
TP-550 Modular at a good price.
Antec EA650
Antec EA 750 MODULAR Great price on a Delta built modular (or semi-modular) PSU.

Corsair - Very good quality at good prices, all of them.
Corsair 750TX Hard to beat this in quality vs. price.
650TX Big sale, get em while they are cheap.
550VX
Modular 850W Corsair
About as good as it gets. Super high quality equal to Antec SG850.
1000HX

PC Power and Cooling - Very good quality, all of them.
Silencer 500W
S75CF 750W VERY GOOD DEAL

OCZ - Good PSUs at usually great prices. Always seems to be some exceptional deals.
OCZ SXS 600W

BFG
LS-450W LS line is generally decent and a value.


Cases
Just some of the many fine cases.

Micro ATX tower
COOLER MASTER Elite 341

REALLY BIG cases
Antec 1200 Combos often make this a nice choice. Specifically quality Antec PSUs.
Cooler Master HAF
CM Storm Sniper Very good value in a case that is roomier than the pics make it appear. Looks good and cools almost as well as the HAF
COOLER MASTER ATCS 840 Looks very nice. Slide out MB tray. Excellent cooling. Very roomy. No side window but you can buy one here.

BIG cases
Antec 900
Antec Illusion like the 300 only with all the needed blue fans. Great buy.
CM 690 A bit more than the Antec 300, but really a better case with more room.
CM Storm Scout Just enough room with good cooling. Full sized but handles make it more portable. great value and looks good.
Cooler Master Cosmos Older design still works well due to sound dampening and looks.
NZXT Tempest
Silverstone TJ09 Only adequate cooling but extremely well built, and a good water cooling case. Very pricey.
NZXT Adamas Like a TJ09 only less expensive. Inferior knock-off perhaps, but saves $100

Budget cases
Antec 300 Excellent budget case.
NZXT Beta Not bad for 40 bucks.
LIAN LI Lancool PC-K56 Very impressive at this price. Roomy, cable management, 2 fans.

CPU Coolers

Sunbeam Core Contact for you brits that can't get the Xiggy, but mind the clips. May be very hard to install on some boards.
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LGA 775 and AMD
Xigmatek Dark Knight It's the same cooler as the S-1283, but comes with the bracket and a fancy nickel plating that looks real purdy
Sunbeam CCTF For budget Intel boards and ALL AMD boards. Does not play well with large heatsinks on more fancy P45 boards.
Scythe Mugen Really good for any build but big.
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LGA 1366 - Need an i7 cooler?
This CM V8
Vigor Monsoon III LT Dual 120mm Fan
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 120mm
Scythe Mugen Really good for any build but big. Great i7 value.

Corsair H50 Small water cooler for the CPU, Easy installation and can cool as well as the above air coolers with an extra fan (for a push/pull arrangement on the radiator). It's for people that have space constraints or aesthetic issues.


Thermal paste
TX-2
MX-2
Arctic Silver 5

Video cards
Sapphire 4670 Good low budget card with minimal power requirements.
XFX 4850 Good price, good warranty.
XFX 4870 1Gb
Sapphire 4850X2 2GB
Sapphire 4890
Sapphire 5770 DX11.
XFX 5770
5850 Low availablity
5870 Low availablity


Hard drives
Samsung 500GB F3
Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3
WD 640GB Black Just a bit more pricey than the older model, but apparently worth it in performance.
WD 1TB Black Good drive if you have to have 1TB.
Looking for a very fast drive at a great price? The days of the Raptors are ending:
OCZ 60GB Vertex SSD
Top rated inexpensive solid state drive. Far faster than any platter type drive you can buy... but not problem free just yet.
OCZ Agility 120GB not as fast as others, but this to my mind is the ideal blend of value and speed. if you are gaming, an SSD is not much good unless it's big enough to stuff your games onto is it?

Optical drives
Samsung DVD burner


Monitors
This is a very authoritative thread on monitors that is found over at Anandtech. Some of my recommendations come from there.

Acer 19"
ASUS VH222H Black 21.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen 1920X1080... for full hi-def. Great price.
ASUS VW224U Black 22" 2ms(GTG) Widescreen Better than the above ASUS for gaming.

Serious gaming monitors
LG W2286L Black 22" 2ms Extreme gaming monitor. Very fast, very bright, great price.
LG W2353V-PF Black 23" Just as good as the 22" only bigger. All of the "2ms" monitors from LG seem to be good gamers.
SAMSUNG P2370 High glossy black 23" Maybe just a bit slower than the LG, but better color.
I strongly recommend this LG 24" 2ms monitor:
http://www.circuitcity.com/applica [...] 8&CatId=12
Circuit City seems to have an excellent return policy, also.

Some updates

Added thanks.

I feel that the I5 750 deserves a place in your list...
It is a very good choice for people who want to go SLI...The only other alternative for a good SLI board is X58, that would be costly...
An i5 mobo like the UD4P from gigabyte can support SLI and cost ~$150...

And as for online retailers, www.amazon.com? I have seen cheap i7 6GB kits on sale there...

gkay The i5 750 is one of the best things to come out since sliced bread.

Ya I was noticing last night how out of date this is. I'll get to it soon.

^ You are the perfect fanboy for Intel they should make you their brand ambassador
But jokes apart...more than the i5, I liked the LGA 1156 socket because of its ability to support both SLI and crossfire...

There we go.

+1

ASRock X58 Extreme Reviews

http://www.motherboards.org/review [...] 923_1.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 368-3.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/m [...] treme.html

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3593

My ASRock is 4 years old, nothing wrong with it.

But I won't buy another due to poor OCing.

I think - http://www.hardwareversand.de - should get a mention for a european seller. Great pricing and it's in english to.

Updated.

The result of my poll was pretty surprising though There were a lot of ASRock votes. Not very scientific, but it was enough for me to recommend some ASRock boards.

These days, I look very closely at voltage regulation on boards I recommend.... that reminds me, I need to put this link into my guide:

Hardware Secret's "Everything You Need to Know About The Motherboard Voltage Regulator Circuit"
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/616

Wait up, I have an objection to the ASUS P7P55D because OP put it under CF. That board only had 1 PCIe X16 and PCIe X4. Definitely not a a ideal CF solution in my opinion.

Oh, um another mistake (actually more of a typo), under high-end P55, you linked the P7P55D Deluxe, but named it P7P55D in the forum. and under P45, you linked a GA-EP45-UD3P but named it only Gigabyte. The ASRock P45XE and GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P is deactivated in newegg. The rest of the Intel boards are fine (meaning link the correct board).

Amen. I think the 932 is best for water cooling, and the 1200 (Which I have) is best for air.

The 1200 has perfect Push/pull/lift airflow, but the 932 is a little strange...

Fixed. For under $200 you can get either a 5770 with DX 11, or a faster 4890 without.

in australian stores
you should add MSY Technology
Great value computer hardware store

I made some updates. There are new LGA 1156 boards out that have Lotes sockets.