Hello Folks,
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Maybe around September 2010 (I'll probably go around in circles for awhile before pulling a trigger)
BUDGET RANGE: hopefully $400-500 initial cost to get up and running. (I'm willing to spend what it would cost me to buy a previous generation mac mini on ebay, which is around $500. I can't justify Apple on this go around, not enough under the hood for the dollar). Theoretically, I'm may go as high as $700 (cost of a new mac mini) if I can come up with enough justification.
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Surfing web, video editing/compressing/converting, image manipulation, mild gaming, random geeky stuff.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Mouse, Keyboard and Monitor should not be considered.
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg (prefer to order everything from them for simplicity sake, I don't care about a few dollars difference to keep it easier).
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: I thought all of this stuff was made in asia somewhere? point of purchase will be USA. USA headquartered or made products would be preferred but not required.
PARTS PREFERENCES: AMD, Nvidia,
OVERCLOCKING: unlikely
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: SLI or neither
MONITOR RESOLUTION: up to 1920 x 1200 maybe. 1920 x 1080 is probably the maximum I'll ever get.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: ........
I just decided to go ahead and join TomsHardware so I could get some feedback on this. Since my interest has been "sparked" again on computer hardware I'll probably get sucked in for awhile anyways!. It's been 5 or 6 years since I've built a computer, and the last time I built myself one was almost a decade ago. I've tried to keep up by stopping in here at TomsHardware and read a few things a couple times a year but I'm probably pretty rough around the edges.
I suppose I'll go ahead and admit, I've been making do for ~8 years with a 1GHZ G4 eMac with the dual display hack (so it's on a 17" internal and 19" external CRT). The machine is obviously far past it's useful life and is finally exhibiting some hardware "flukes" that concern me.
I'm planning on going back to running Linux and hopefully doing some more computing intensive tasks. (I ran Slackware back in the late 90s and early 2000s). From what I have seen, modern distros are much easier to get up and running, and most common software is available in package style installs similar to the commercial OSes.
With linux in mind, I'm leaning towards an Nvidia based build (I guess some things never change, lol), however, I also really *want* a quad-core or better configuration. I'm a big fan of finding the "sweet" spots in price to performance, so AMD makes sense at this time. I realize I probably don't need quad-cores for anything I do, but it's one of those build requirements that will make me happy so I've decided on what appears to be a more rare build combo, the AMD/Nvidia alignment. I'm not too interested in hacking some cores to life (sounds like that's popular these days), I want everything to be working as intended.
Current build plan. (rough)
MSI NF750-G55 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard ~$100
The plan would be to use the on-board video "for now" until I can afford to start slapping a card or 2 on there. From what I understand, I could drop just 1 card on there and it will do hybrid SLI with the built in 8200.
I'm not too worried about the 8X operation of the PCI-Express slots in SLI mode, form what I understand, only the very high end cards will need that much bandwidth. (right?)
Crossing my fingers that the MSI brand doesn't give me as many weird problems as a MSI board I used in a build WAY back in the day.
Wish it had built in 1394a, my old handycam still works! I'm sure I can just pick up a PCI card for that someday.
AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz ~$100
Propus processors appear to be the most bang for the buck. I think I can live without an L3
Will use included heat sink and fan. I don't really intend to over-clock (might do like 10% just for kicks if it's possible on the mobo but I don't really care either way). It just needs to work correctly.
A-DATA Gaming Series (2x2GB) 240P DDR3 1600 ~$90
Looks like these should be reliable. I'm guessing 4GB is enough to get started these days. (Not sure to be honest though).
Cost doesn't change much going to a lower speed. I guess the only battle I have to do in my head on this one is whether I want 1600MHZ w/CAS 9-9-9 or 1066MHZ w/CAS 7-7-7 or some other trade-off... hehe, I doubt it matters enough for me to waste any time worrying about it.
Buy in pairs for dual channel right?
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB SATA ~$75
Looks like the SamSung Spinpoint's are making some real competition for WD at this time. Even though a 320GB drive would be more than enough for my needs at this time, $75 for a 1TB with good reviews and everyone raving about price/performance ratio is a no brainer. Oh, and as a bonus, I can bug my WD obsessed friend about what a great deal this drive is, lol....
Asus DVD Burner Model: DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS ~$25
I don't no jack about picking a DVD drive, so I just picked one
LOGISYS Area 51 CS51WBK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower 480W PS ~$50
Seems pretty cheap, reviews aren't too bad... Might need a bigger PS later on down the road depending on which video card/s I put in.
12CM case fan ~$15
The case has an un-used slot for a 12CM fan. Might as well right?
------
So that's coming in at under $450. I can see throwing another $400+ at it as needs arise (video cards, memory, power supply).
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Maybe around September 2010 (I'll probably go around in circles for awhile before pulling a trigger)
BUDGET RANGE: hopefully $400-500 initial cost to get up and running. (I'm willing to spend what it would cost me to buy a previous generation mac mini on ebay, which is around $500. I can't justify Apple on this go around, not enough under the hood for the dollar). Theoretically, I'm may go as high as $700 (cost of a new mac mini) if I can come up with enough justification.
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Surfing web, video editing/compressing/converting, image manipulation, mild gaming, random geeky stuff.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Mouse, Keyboard and Monitor should not be considered.
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg (prefer to order everything from them for simplicity sake, I don't care about a few dollars difference to keep it easier).
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: I thought all of this stuff was made in asia somewhere? point of purchase will be USA. USA headquartered or made products would be preferred but not required.
PARTS PREFERENCES: AMD, Nvidia,
OVERCLOCKING: unlikely
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: SLI or neither
MONITOR RESOLUTION: up to 1920 x 1200 maybe. 1920 x 1080 is probably the maximum I'll ever get.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: ........
I just decided to go ahead and join TomsHardware so I could get some feedback on this. Since my interest has been "sparked" again on computer hardware I'll probably get sucked in for awhile anyways!. It's been 5 or 6 years since I've built a computer, and the last time I built myself one was almost a decade ago. I've tried to keep up by stopping in here at TomsHardware and read a few things a couple times a year but I'm probably pretty rough around the edges.
I suppose I'll go ahead and admit, I've been making do for ~8 years with a 1GHZ G4 eMac with the dual display hack (so it's on a 17" internal and 19" external CRT). The machine is obviously far past it's useful life and is finally exhibiting some hardware "flukes" that concern me.
I'm planning on going back to running Linux and hopefully doing some more computing intensive tasks. (I ran Slackware back in the late 90s and early 2000s). From what I have seen, modern distros are much easier to get up and running, and most common software is available in package style installs similar to the commercial OSes.
With linux in mind, I'm leaning towards an Nvidia based build (I guess some things never change, lol), however, I also really *want* a quad-core or better configuration. I'm a big fan of finding the "sweet" spots in price to performance, so AMD makes sense at this time. I realize I probably don't need quad-cores for anything I do, but it's one of those build requirements that will make me happy so I've decided on what appears to be a more rare build combo, the AMD/Nvidia alignment. I'm not too interested in hacking some cores to life (sounds like that's popular these days), I want everything to be working as intended.
Current build plan. (rough)
MSI NF750-G55 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard ~$100
The plan would be to use the on-board video "for now" until I can afford to start slapping a card or 2 on there. From what I understand, I could drop just 1 card on there and it will do hybrid SLI with the built in 8200.
I'm not too worried about the 8X operation of the PCI-Express slots in SLI mode, form what I understand, only the very high end cards will need that much bandwidth. (right?)
Crossing my fingers that the MSI brand doesn't give me as many weird problems as a MSI board I used in a build WAY back in the day.
Wish it had built in 1394a, my old handycam still works! I'm sure I can just pick up a PCI card for that someday.
AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz ~$100
Propus processors appear to be the most bang for the buck. I think I can live without an L3
Will use included heat sink and fan. I don't really intend to over-clock (might do like 10% just for kicks if it's possible on the mobo but I don't really care either way). It just needs to work correctly. A-DATA Gaming Series (2x2GB) 240P DDR3 1600 ~$90
Looks like these should be reliable. I'm guessing 4GB is enough to get started these days. (Not sure to be honest though).
Cost doesn't change much going to a lower speed. I guess the only battle I have to do in my head on this one is whether I want 1600MHZ w/CAS 9-9-9 or 1066MHZ w/CAS 7-7-7 or some other trade-off... hehe, I doubt it matters enough for me to waste any time worrying about it.
Buy in pairs for dual channel right?
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB SATA ~$75
Looks like the SamSung Spinpoint's are making some real competition for WD at this time. Even though a 320GB drive would be more than enough for my needs at this time, $75 for a 1TB with good reviews and everyone raving about price/performance ratio is a no brainer. Oh, and as a bonus, I can bug my WD obsessed friend about what a great deal this drive is, lol....
Asus DVD Burner Model: DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS ~$25
I don't no jack about picking a DVD drive, so I just picked one
LOGISYS Area 51 CS51WBK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower 480W PS ~$50
Seems pretty cheap, reviews aren't too bad... Might need a bigger PS later on down the road depending on which video card/s I put in.
12CM case fan ~$15
The case has an un-used slot for a 12CM fan. Might as well right?
------
So that's coming in at under $450. I can see throwing another $400+ at it as needs arise (video cards, memory, power supply).
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
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