# Looking for a new comp build.



## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Well earlier i posted a computer build that I was looking at getting but I want to see if you guys can drum up something "better."

I will be using this computer for serious gaming. My current computer "gets by" playing WoW :sigh:. I'm looking for a serious gaming machine. I'm looking to play games such as BF2, CS:Source, Half Life 2, FEAR, and WAR when it comes out.

My budget for the new computer stops at about $1600-1800 (I need a decent monitor included in this price.)

Thanks guys! :wink:


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## carsey (Aug 19, 2006)

I deleted your other post. Also, I reinserted the text from this post.


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## taker4mdb (Aug 6, 2007)

This is what I would build... comes to around 1,300 without shipping/tax:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4Ghz
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115003

Motherboard: Gigabye GA-965P-DS3
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813128012

RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 1-GB sticks) DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231098

Video: EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130082

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 3 GB/s SATA
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817182030

Optical Drive: Lite-On DVD-R + LiteScribe
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106073

Case: NZXT Apollo
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811146025

Power: Rosewill RP550V2-D-SL 550W, SLI-ready
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817182030

UPS to protect it with
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16842107113

Monitor: Hanns-G 19" widescreen LCD (5ms)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16824254005

Windows XP Home, OEM (I'd avoid Vista for gaming right now.. up to you)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16832116056


And that's pretty much it I think.
You could double up the ram for $90 more to 4GB, but XP will only see just over 3GB of it (32-bit Windows).
You could also go for a 16MB cache hard drive for better performance (not sure on price off-hand).

But get a UPS! Costs $120, but it can save you hundreds more (fried motherboards and/or components)

Oh, and also, the case is a matter of choice 
I like that one because it's not too expensive and offers nice cooling, by way of 3x 120mm fans (front, side, rear).  But you would have to buy one more 120mm fan for the front, as it only comes with the side and rear fans.
Plus, it looks neat.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

overall the "Taker" spec a decent system


I would get the E6750 instead of the E6600 as the E6750 is 1333 fsb instead of 1066 and about the same price as the E6600 is not cheaper :wink:


I would avoid the rosewill PSU though, they are bad NEWS

*Antec Trio Rail 650 watt *

ram looks good

dont overlook the coolermaster cases that are around $50.00 for a mid-atx
"if" you need to cut a few bucks off the tag at the end!

the motherboard spec is a solid choice for sure >>>>>

if you can squeeze the money >>>> I am not sure, but keep in the back of your mind to get the 640meg version of the 8800 GTS *if you can*

but your budget might not allow ???????????????? 

as for video card maker >>>>>>> thats EVGA all the way!


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

that apollo case does look nice ray:


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## taker4mdb (Aug 6, 2007)

Good call on the processor. *modifies his build list* Get that one 

As for the PSU, I'd listen to him too. I haven't owned either one, so it's just newegg and guesswork on my part. 


This was a spec I made to be a $1,000 or so computer (not including monitor or Windows). But with the extra $300 or so allowed by your 1600 budget (after the monitor and OS), upgrade! The 8800GTS with the 320MB will definately run the games you listed. But it will show its age faster than the higher-memory version, for sure, as newer and newer games hit the market.



But yeah, I like that other processor.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

*taker* is correct >>>>> nice spec for the money ray:


the 320meg will run all the games you want NOW and next year

the 640 will last you longer ???????????????????


enjoy


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Ya just looked over the build at the first thing that bit me was the 320 MB video card. I'd fork over the extra $200 or so dollars to get a 512 or 640.

Thanks guys.

Now i just need to find someone who cant put it together.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

And i think i'll upgrade to a 3.0GHz processor for an extra $80-90 or so.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115028

EDIT: btw are all of these products compatible with one another?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Keep in mind that upgrading the processor today will have much less an impact on gaming performance than upgrading the video card. But the 8800GTS will have more than enough power for most of today's games. if you want to spend that extra money wisely, I would go for the 8800GTS 320MB or 8800GTX.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

TheMatt said:


> if you want to spend that extra money wisely, I would go for the 8800GTS 320MB or 8800GTX.


Ya i menat a GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Bump


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## Nik00117 (Jan 8, 2007)

Seriously spend the extra $$$ and get the geforce 8800GTS 640 MB. 

Several reasons
1. Sure your saving 80 bucks now (typically) if you donj't go with it, but in 2 years will you save 80 bucks when you gotta upgrade again?
2. Higher resolution the more ram you require. 

My only advice is to get a larger mointor  22 inchs, are very nice.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Question remains...are these all compatible?:normal:


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

Yes they are


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

yes they are all good selections,but if you are getting a 1333fsb cpu.you should get a board to match.a board like this  GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L would be a better choice.

a little side note that is the same ram i use,and i love it:grin:


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

the GA 965P-DS3 revision 3.3 is a 1333mhz board ???????


and it has been "out" and used extensively by the computer world, they have for the most part ironed out all the bugs, this is a very solid and mature board

the GA 35 may well be a great board too ?????? havent used one yet ?

I generally try to stay clear of the *super* new stuff, let others identify and wait for fixes ??

with gigabyte once you get to revision 2.0 they are solid


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

And the Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4, which also supports the 1333 MHz FSB. I personally own this board. No issues. What problems are you referring to Joe?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

no issues directly actually matt


when the GA965P-D3 first came out their were numerous reports of needed voltage mods, in particular the need to up the ram voltage from 1.8 to 2.2 

they subsequently corrected that as well as added many other great tweaks

revision 2.0 saw the addition of 1066 mhz FSB and more overclocking settings

revision 3.0 got 1333 FSB and a few other tweaks


I would not hesitate in any way to try the board Matt stated above,

I would however be leary to jump into a P35 board seeing as how 45nm CPU's arent even released yet! and thats what that board is "really" all about >>>>> so in essence how can all the bugs and tweaks get corrected until a massive amount of people can buy and try them for what they were designed to do ???????

the 680 chipset was a purrrrrrfect example, I got to try two of those last january EVGA boards >>>>> wow you talk about unstable and flaky
whewwwwwwwww I was sooooooo happy its was my customer who was so adament about buying that board, I got to just sit back and shrug my shoulders each week more and more troubles were surfacing on the net with that board

in summary>>>>> my only point is a mature release will have more options and should be expected to be more stable ????


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

the gigabyte 650 DS4 Matt just posted got this review conclusion


*The above table pretty much sums up the whole story. With the prices and offerings from each of the 3, it is a no-brainer which one to pick. On the same price level as the ASUS, the Gigabyte beats it with better overclocking in FSB and PWM, and way better voltage options in BIOS. For USD$10 more buying the Gigabyte over Abit, you get better overclocking in FSB and PWM, and better voltage options in BIOS. There is no consideration when one is looking for a 650i SLI board - The Gigabyte is the choice!*




[Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4 650i SLI Review]
Page Title: Conclusion 
Category: Chipsets & Motherboards 
Type: Reviews 
Posted By: Shamino 
Date: May 2, 2007, 1:38 am 
Source: Gigabyte 
Actions: Print Article Email Del.icio.us Digg 




Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4 Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI ASUS P5N-E SLI 

Overclocking 
520FSB 475FSB 486FSB 
CPU PWM
6-Phase 4-Phase 3-Phase 
Voltage Control 
Best Average Average 
Price 
USD$140 USD$130 USD$140 

The above table pretty much sums up the whole story. With the prices and offerings from each of the 3, it is a no-brainer which one to pick. On the same price level as the ASUS, the Gigabyte beats it with better overclocking in FSB and PWM, and way better voltage options in BIOS. For USD$10 more buying the Gigabyte over Abit, you get better overclocking in FSB and PWM, and better voltage options in BIOS. There is no consideration when one is looking for a 650i SLI board - The Gigabyte is the choice!



The Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4 would be closer to perfection with a BIOS update so that it will be able to recognize a 266FSB strap via the LGA BSEL setup. This will help the E4300 overclock better. We have already seen it's amazing overclocking capability with the 266FSB processors. The performance of the board is so close to it's competitors, the hairline less than 1% difference will not be noticable. The overclocking on this 650i board puts even many of the 680i boards to shame...


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

anyone got a review for Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L ?????


I love the motherboard solid capicators they use now though! ray:


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

The only thing I don't like about the N650SLI-DS4 is that it doesn't have a removable BIOS chip, so if you plan on messing up the BIOS, look for another board. :wink:

Also, the passive cooling design and absolutely massive heatsink on the northbridge are a bit of a disappointment because you are limited on heatsink choices. I would be hesitant to put a Zalman 7700 or 9500 in.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

the bios is soldered in on that board ??????? :upset:



I dont mean to sound anything, but please tell me it aint so 

I am so Dependant upon removable bios, the thought of an unremovalable bios scares me!


which cooling solution are you using Matt ? The zalman 9500 is just as good as the 9700 in my experience, I havent found where the 9700 performs better even when overclocking


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Stock Intel cooling gives me perfectly fine temps. And even that just barely fits. Take a look:


Keeps my temps down though (Temp 1 = Northbridge, Temp 2 = CPU):


I don't have a good pic of the BIOS, but it is soldered in as a BGA flash ROM chip.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

hard to knock what works :wave:


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

So can someone post a new build....just for the sake of clarity ( remember i want a monitor)

Oh and I want Windows Vista for DirectX 10 :wink:


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Yep. :smile:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - $179
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115030

GIGABYTE GA-N650SLI-DS4 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - $127
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128044

Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - $88
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220071

Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136062

LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe - $36
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106073

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130082

mushkin 550150 ATX12V 750W Maximum Power; 650W Continuous Power Power Supply 115/230 V - $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817812005

Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133154

Acer AL2016WBbd Black 20" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 800:1 - $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009108

Sorry, I don't have time to total it up ATM. Also I left out the OS So you could pick it. BTW The WD Hard drive has a 5 year warranty. :chgrin:


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Would you say it is worth getting Windows XP for DirectX 10 despite the known issues it has with video games?


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## Wake[of]tehbunT (Aug 13, 2007)

did you mean "Vista"?? coz DX10 is the new technology brought by Vista, not XP.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Oops typo...ya what i meant to say was:

"Would you sait it is worth getting Windows Vista for DirectX 10 despite the known issues it has with video games?"


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## Wake[of]tehbunT (Aug 13, 2007)

Those issues will go away - it wont be a forever thing like some people dramatacise, and there are fixes some people have reached with proper settings and workarounds for the time being - in those cases of problems.

Google sends me to this forum for some of the fixes even  booyah

But if you are like me, and focusing on getting next-gen games for a vista machine? They theoretically should have NO issues whatsoever, since its specifically geared for Vista conditions.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I would sill go with XP. You will still get the benefits of the unified shader architecture of the card.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Well im going with vista..but what is the difference between 32 and 64 bit?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

The registers in the CPU are larger. Basically, its like the CPU can execute twice as many instructions (really the instructions are twice as large, but the effect is the same) and is twice as fast.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Well i heard 64-bit is tougher on computers than 32-bit so im probably gonna pick 32-bit.

And with your build (switched 320MB video card for this 640MB card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130071) 
EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

and shipping with windows vista 32-bit home premium it comes to *$1,686.70*


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Looks good. :smile:


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## Ihaorb (Aug 12, 2007)

32 bit supports backwards compatibility straight back through windows and does not require "windows genuine product". 32 bit however can only support 4 gigs of ram (this includes graphics card ram, so if your graphics card is 512, your 32 bit can recognize and use 3.5 gigs of ram). 64 bit can support vast amounts of ram (which is pretty much pointless for the general population at this point) and is technically more secure because hackers don't bother to make 64 bit viruses very often. At this point I see no point in getting 64 bit because it is too restrictive and has too many issues.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Ihaorb said:


> 32 bit supports backwards compatibility straight back through windows and does not require "windows genuine product". 32 bit however can only support 4 gigs of ram (this includes graphics card ram, so if your graphics card is 512, your 32 bit can recognize and use 3.5 gigs of ram). 64 bit can support vast amounts of ram (which is pretty much pointless for the general population at this point) and is technically more secure because hackers don't bother to make 64 bit viruses very often. At this point I see no point in getting 64 bit because it is too restrictive and has too many issues.


Awesome explanation. ray:

If you want to try out 64-bit, try out some 64-bit Linux distros like Kubuntu AMD64.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Roughly how much does it cost to have a computer put together? One because I dont really know how to and two because i wouldn't want to jeopardize such a costly investment in the hands of an idiot (me lol :tongue


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

It depends where you go. Roughly it might be around $100. Shop around a bit at the local computer shops and see what the best price you can find is.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

their are plenty of fellas that hang around the college computer centers that will put it together very reasonably and you can participate and learn :wave:


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Thanks for all the builds and suggestions guys. I will be buying these parts as soon as i am able :grin:

Can't wait to get it now :smile:


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

And im gonna try and fit it into my budget to upgrade the monitor 

22" ftw 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009094


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Well i just went to newegg again and changed a few things from matt's build:

8800GTS 6 640MB by EVGA (in place of 8800GTS 320MB by EVGA)
320 GB hard drive from Western Digital (in place of a 160GB hard drive from Western Digital)


OS still not decided, im kinda scared to buy Vista cuz i hear you need a really top notch system for it to perform decently. Im afraid that with this system it will run slowly  So w/o OS it comes to:

*$1,293.91* Before Shipping

*$1,343.59* After Shipping


EDIT: when buying an OS what is the difference between a retail version and an upgrade version? Upgrade is cheaper...but I think that is only for upgrading to XP if you have an OS like ME or older...am i right?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

OEM OS's have more stringent rules for system hardware


Retail versions are the least strict 


Commericial versions (volume license key) is the least restrictive


OEM versions are the type that large companies like DELL, HP, Gateway etc use to load on their machines, if you have any problems you are suppose to go to the OEM Maker.

I highly suggest you get the retial version of either Win XP Pro or Vista ??

your machine will have plenty of muscle for Vista, and Service Pack One for Vista will be coming out VERY soon >>>>> thats when you can begin to "expect" stability


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Skaarj said:


> And im gonna try and fit it into my budget to upgrade the monitor
> 
> 22" ftw
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009094


That monitor is awesome, I have the 20" version of it. Just something to note - it is so bright you will likely have to turn down the brightness because it will hurt your eyes.


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## Skaarj (Aug 2, 2007)

Lol i wonder if the extra 2" makes a huge difference. I imagine it should.. or i could save myself like $30-40 =P


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