Finally getting a new computer.

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Mattte

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But I need help building it...never really got into the whole computer components thing, so I need some advice. (I'm horrible at knowing whats compatible with what)

Around $800 is probably going to the max I'll be spending. Looking to do some mild gaming (Spore being the main reason behind the upgrade..might get back into WoW for a bit).

Not looking for anything spectacular, but still something thats gonna be better than this Dell. Any help is appreciated.
 
This is a great rig, prices are off teh top of my head.

Antec 900 Case $80
Q6600 Processor $279
p35c MB by Gigabyte (DDR3 support!) $149
2gb ddr3 ram by G.Skill $199
GOOD brand name PSU of your choice $80-130 520-600W

If your trying to put more money into your pc...
Xfi Gamer Soundcard $79
7600gt $79 or 8800gt $269

I'd put it together with a combination of comparison shopping between zipzoomfly and newegg to get the cheapest price.
 
I recently built my computer and wish I would have just bought one of these HPs: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=678341

You can get...

– Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
– Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q6600 (2.4GHz)
– 2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
– FREE UPGRADE! 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS, DVI-I, TV-out, HDMI
– No Modem
– 320GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
– LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
– 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, video, audio
– ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote
– Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports
– Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 - 15 Months
– Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
– HP keyboard and HP scroller mouse
– HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

For $700 with free shipping.

Here is the partlist of what I built yesterday...

[$80] Antec Nine Hundred
[$60] Antec 550w Truepower Trio
[$210] MSI GeForce 8800GT
[$280] Intel Q6600
[$90] Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
[$110] 4gb RAM, 2x2gb G.Skill DDR2 800
[$85] Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb OEM
[$32] Sony DVD/CD-ROM
[$170] Windows Vista Ultimate OEM
[$20] Fan, HS and thermal paste

Total before tax & shipping: $1,137

As you can tell, the only real advantage mine has is $40 worth of RAM (2gb is cheap) and the videocard, which is ~$200. Mine doesn't have a TV tuner or memory card reader, and I'll have to buy an antivirus program pretty soon. Also, I got a pretty good deal on a few things, like the case and power supply (normal price would've been nearly 2x that).

For $800, it'd be really tough to build a comparable Q6600 machine with a legit OS.
 
If you want to save some money I suggest going with a cheaper processor & cheaper ram. That should shave off $150 - $200 bucks.
 
[quote name='seen']p35c MB by Gigabyte (DDR3 support!) $149
2gb ddr3 ram by G.Skill $199[/QUOTE]

The DDR3 support on that Mobo(if it's the one I'm thinking of) is limited to 2 DIMM slots. For the price of getting the GA-P35-DS3L instead of the one you listed you could get 8gigs of or DDR2 which would far outperform 2 gigs of DDR3.

DDR3 is the future, but the DDR3 support on that board is gimped, and at the prices DDR3 is at vs. DDR2, DDR2 seems a better way to go right now.

[quote name='Koggit']I recently built my computer and wish I would have just bought one of these HPs: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=678341

You can get...

-snip-

As you can tell, the only real advantage mine has is $40 worth of RAM (2gb is cheap) and the videocard, which is ~$200. Mine doesn't have a TV tuner or memory card reader, and I'll have to buy an antivirus program pretty soon. Also, I got a pretty good deal on a few things, like the case and power supply (normal price would've been nearly 2x that).

For $800, it'd be really tough to build a comparable Q6600 machine with a legit OS.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but you got better (and twice as much) RAM, better Mobo, better PSU, better case, better HDD, better OS, and you'd be spending that $210 on a video card anyway, the 8400 is crap. So that $700 computer becomes $900, and the difference isn't that much anymore. If you're the only one using the computer you shouldn't even need an antivirus program, especially not Norton. Just use a free one if you're really concerned you're going to get a virus.
 
Think I may have to bite on that HP deal, thanks for the heads up. Beats the hassle of building one myself, and that one seems to fit all of my needs (biggest concern was OS, wasn't really looking to upgrade to Vista and was gonna buy XP Pro)
 
Quad Core? Sounds a lot better then mine for that price, even if no games require it I'm sure it will do you better in the long run. Although Crysis would prolly run great once you update the video card.
 
I think I'm set on the HP deal, just one question. Is there a huge difference in the dual and quad cores? I was thinking of just downgrading to the dual core and maybe adding another gig of RAM or just not adding anything to knock off $100.
 
[quote name='Mattte']I think I'm set on the HP deal, just one question. Is there a huge difference in the dual and quad cores? I was thinking of just downgrading to the dual core and maybe adding another gig of RAM or just not adding anything to knock off $100.[/QUOTE]

It's difficult to say yes or no to that question, as it depends heavily on the application. Multicore optimized programs will see a huge difference, nearly two-fold improvement from dual core to quad core, while programs not optimized for multicore processing will see no improvement at all. Not many programs are multicore optimized right now.

What I personally like best about quad core is the multitasking advantage. Keep in mind "multitasking" for a processor does not always mean the user is doing multiple things at once -- your computer is always doing multiple things at once. Right now, as I type this, I'm watching each of my cores oscillate between 2% usage and 10% usage (averaging 3% or 4%), that's just from background processes that I'm not actively involved in. Because of that division of labor, a quad core will offer higher longevity than a dual core as idle processes evolve and become more taxing.

Also, keep in mind RAM from NewEgg can be purchased for less than half the price HP charges, and would be higher quality. The RAM HP offers is 667 MHz, when you want 800 MHz for the E6750 or Q6600.




The short story: CPU is up to you -- the Q6600 is likely to be a more beneficial later in the computer's life cycle than it is here and now, and definitely don't pay HP any more for their crappy RAM. Extra RAM is a good idea, but instead of paying HP $100 for an extra 2x512mb of slow RAM, wait for a deal like this and replace the two HP DIMMs with it.
 
More cores mean better multitasking... very few programs actually make sure of more than one core today. Actually, I don't think any programs do but I know some games are starting to (Crysis) take advantage of multiple cores.

Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd stick with dual cores for now. Processor upgrades are easy and quad core prices will fall a lot faster as more programs actually start to use them so until it becomes necessary, there's no point.
 
[quote name='Vinny']
Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd stick with dual cores for now.[/quote]

True. The only reason to go with a dual core is if you're a power user that does a lot of data processing or super high end gaming. Any Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2 5000+ will work for someone who doesn't plan on spending more than $1500 on a PC.
 
Your better off getting a faster dual core than a quad core (for the same price) if your doing gaming.
Get windows XP if you plan on doing gaming (vista uses a LOT more resources.... thus meaning LESS resources for your games... also vista has a ton of other issues I won't get into.

Get 2GB's of RAM
Decent video card (something in the Nvidia geforce 8000 series 8600 GTS or 8800 GT or GTS should do ya just fine)
hard drive can be as big or small as you want, I'd go with at least a 160, or maybe a 250 GB, make sure its SATA.

don't skimp on the power supply, get a high end antec, or thermal take or crucial (at least 500 watts)
 
You need a very good CPu if you wanna play Crysis. The CPU handles some I/O, sounds, graphics, and physics all at once. You can run it fine on an 8800GTS but you need a kick-ass CPU. I ran the demo on an Athlon 64 3700+ @ 2.6GHz with 3GB ram and a 7600GS and could only run it on low settings.
 
[quote name='neoMAX']You need a very good CPu if you wanna play Crysis. The CPU handles some I/O, sounds, graphics, and physics all at once. You can run it fine on an 8800GTS but you need a kick-ass CPU. I ran the demo on an Athlon 64 3700+ @ 2.6GHz with 3GB ram and a 7600GS and could only run it on low settings.[/QUOTE]

I think your graphics card is a bigger issue than the processor. I have a X2 3800+ along with a X850XT and Crysis ran well at 1368x768 at medium.

I don't think you'd need anything more than a X2 5000 or a C2D 6400 honestly.
 
First off, thanks for the feedback and help guys.

Well...my only real games that I must play for the upcoming few years are Spore and Starcraft 2 (and maybe some possible Gears), both of which I'm sure could run on my current machine. Reason I'm getting a new one is my parents PC crapped out and they offered $300 for a new one for me and they'll take mine.

I'm pretty set on this build:
  • – Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
  • – Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q6600 (2.4GHz)
  • – 2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
  • – FREE UPGRADE! 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS, DVI-I, TV-out, HDMI
  • – No Modem
  • – 320GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
  • – LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
  • – 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, video, audio
  • – ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote
  • – Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports
  • – Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 - 15 Months
  • – Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
  • – HP keyboard and HP scroller mouse
  • – HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Only thing I keep going back and forth on is the duo or quad core.

I'm a programmer, so do you guys think it would significantly benefit me putting down the extra $100 for the quad (I really have no intentions of upgrading this build very much outside of maybe more RAM).
 
[quote name='Mattte']First off, thanks for the feedback and help guys.

Well...my only real games that I must play for the upcoming few years are Spore and Starcraft 2 (and maybe some possible Gears), both of which I'm sure could run on my current machine. Reason I'm getting a new one is my parents PC crapped out and they offered $300 for a new one for me and they'll take mine.

I'm pretty set on this build:
  • – Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
  • – Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q6600 (2.4GHz)
  • – 2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
  • – FREE UPGRADE! 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS, DVI-I, TV-out, HDMI
  • – No Modem
  • – 320GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
  • – LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
  • – 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, video, audio
  • – ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote
  • – Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports
  • – Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 - 15 Months
  • – Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
  • – HP keyboard and HP scroller mouse
  • – HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Only thing I keep going back and forth on is the duo or quad core.

I'm a programmer, so do you guys think it would significantly benefit me putting down the extra $100 for the quad (I really have no intentions of upgrading this build very much outside of maybe more RAM).[/QUOTE]

Personally, I would go with that exact build (quad core, 2gb RAM, 8400GS).
 
Keep in mind, if you want to upgrade to more ram, you will need to get a 64 bit OS to take advantage of it. I doubt you can do that with the version of the OS that comes with that computer, as it's OEM, and the license is only good for 32bit Vista.

32bit can only recognize ~4Gb of RAM, including your video card.
 
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