new computer help

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new computer help

Postby xistareatthesunx » Mon Feb 05, 2007 10:13 pm

alright i think its finally time for me to put my old computer out to pasture and upgrade to a newer computer. All i need for now is a new graphics card, memory, mobo, and cpu.

As of right now i'm looking at a Intel E6600. http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Skusearch.hm ... ia=BA22889

Memory
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Deepsearchdd.hmx?UID=&CID=
either of the corsair ones can someone explain to me the difference between 5-5-5-5 and a 4-4-4-4

Mobo
(good one that is stable and good for overclocking and preferably has minimum 4 sata ports more is a plus)

Graphics card
(something good that will also be good for gaming )

I'm hoping to upgrade those four parts at roughly around 1000 dollars max 1100.

So basically what i am asking is for some recommendations as far as motherboard and graphics card goes and if u have a better suggestion for the cpu and memory i would love to hear it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
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Postby Kariudo » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:07 pm

man I love doin this
you have a nice budget, and it should be easy to find things to suit your taste

cpu
mobo
graphics card
memory

total: $854.98

the cpu is fine, you can go with the e6400 or e6300 if you want to save a few bucks

the mobo has 7 sata 3GB/s (sata raid) and 1 e-sata
it uses the P975 northbridge (avoid the P965 if possible), and I haven't heard anything about ram volatage issues with this chipset

the ram isn't the cheapest, but corsair is compatible with most motherboards and this ram looks like it's a decent overclocker. the difference between 5-5-5 and 4-4-4 is negligable in most cases.
these numbers represent various address lookup latencies (delay from reading one memory address to reading another) lower is better.

the video card isn't the newest or fastest, but it will play games like quake 4, FEAR, etc.

the other price to pay for this mobo is that it has an 8-pin cpu power connector...so you might need a new psu too (like this one)
so with that it comes to $984.97 (before $80 in rebates)
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Postby WC Annihilus » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:35 pm

Aye, no doubt fun to do suggestions. Now it's my turn :)

Now, for the CPU, my personal choice would be the E4300. Sacrifice a few features that aren't really utilized (virtualization) and a bit of cache. However, you gain a 9x multiplier (same as E6600) for easier OCing at nearly half the cost of the E6600. The few people I know who have this thing have reached solid OCs of 3.4ghz

For motherboard, the max is a solid board, but my choice would be this one. Plenty of ports, features, and a solid OCer

For RAM, I'm going with the bigger brother of the one that Kariudo suggested (though it ain't really much, just lower timings 4-4-4-12, same speed). Proven to be Micron D9 chips, proven to be strong clockers.

Graphics card, the 7600GT is solid. Still, due to the extra money from going to an E4300 instead of the E6600, I suggest the X1950PRO. Only a small step below the X1950XTX, nice low price, makes it a killer card.

Now, as Kariudo mentioned, a new PSU will probably be needed, and I concur with the choice he (she? just covering all bases) made with the GameXStream 600W

Total: $935.96 (or if live in CA, $1017 after tax) with possible free 5-7 day shipping, or about $10 2-day shipping
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Postby xistareatthesunx » Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:25 am

thnx for the advice guys.

So far i've already gotten the memory (corsair 4-4-4-4 one) on order as well as the powersupply (gamerxstream) . But i'm going to hold off on the cpu (trying to get the retailer to sell it to me for Q2 price which is about $90 dollars less) as well as the videocard (see if retailer will give me lower price than newegg) and i'm gonna wait to see if my preferred retailer will start carrying the motherboard :P
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Postby Joe88 » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:00 am

xistareatthesunx wrote:thnx for the advice guys.

So far i've already gotten the memory (corsair 4-4-4-4 one) on order as well as the powersupply (gamerxstream) . But i'm going to hold off on the cpu (trying to get the retailer to sell it to me for Q2 price which is about $90 dollars less) as well as the videocard (see if retailer will give me lower price than newegg) and i'm gonna wait to see if my preferred retailer will start carrying the motherboard :P


so which video card side did you choose ?

ATI or nVidia

also what do you mean by Q2 ?
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Postby WC Annihilus » Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:09 am

He's talking about Quarter 2 of this year (March? April?), at which the C2D's are set to have a price cut by a fair margin. I had actually forgotten about that.
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Postby xistareatthesunx » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:14 am

lmao WC is in the loop on business terms ^__^ but yeah i think the retailer is gonna let me have it at Q2 price (starts april ends june) now. But gotta reverify. As for the graphics card, i decided to go with the ATI X1950 PRo 512 MB roughly round 200ish dollars with mail in rebate. I've never had problems with ati so i think its a solid graphics card.

Plus i might be selling my old computer as a set (minus my extra harddrives) so i have to start looking into a new case, dvd/cd burner drive, possibly floppy, monitor and also mouse/keyboard setup :P

so if u guys are bored maybe some suggestions?

Just one thing try to keep the new peripherals to 600-700 dollar price range :P i think that leaves a fair amount of play considering you don't have to consider harddrives. Also i my case has to have good ventilation cuz its usually on 24/7
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Postby xistareatthesunx » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:18 am

oh yeah i forgot to add ease of switching out hd's should be a priority since i tend to swap out hd's a lot ^__^
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Postby Kariudo » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:43 am

alright, lets see if I can do this before class

case
monitor I have this one and it is awesome. you won't find a higher contrast ratio anywhere else...unless you want to shell out $1000. the buttons aren't in the best place...but it works (I believe the 1932 model fixed that)
dvd burner
keyboard and mouse
floppy

total cost $404.95
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Postby Kariudo » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:31 pm

ok, I was in a rush, but it seems that higher CR's arent too difficult to find anymore.

the case may not have as easy access to the hd bay as I thought

my brother has that keyboard/mouse. comes with a nice off button so that you can save battery power (cuz it's wireless, very thin too)
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Postby Joe88 » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:46 pm

xistareatthesunx wrote:I've never had problems with ati so i think its a solid graphics card.
7


alright make sure you get the sapphire edition, there the chepest out of all the cards and actually work very well
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Postby WC Annihilus » Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:43 pm

Real quick, is this going to be a gaming machine?

All right, for optical drive, I would either choose this, this, or the LG that Kariudo suggested. Though if this comes back in stock in time, I would get it for easier cable management

For the floppy, just choose the cheapest really, maybe correspond with the color of your case.

Now, my question about the gaming rig comes into play for the the input devices. If it's a gaming rig, I would go with this and this. If it's not... tbh I would go with those two anyways, but doesn't really matter.

For monitor, I suggest this, this, or this. Take your pick.

Now the case. This thing takes some serious consideration. Color? Size (mid or full)? To start things off I suggest this or this.

Totals to about $600 with $40 in shipping
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Postby WC Annihilus » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:02 pm

Blah, I completely forgot about the hard drive thing when suggesting a case. So here's my off-the-top-of-my-head suggestion with sideways HDD mounts: this or this (essentially the same thing, just one costs more and has mesh side panel. really up to you)
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Postby xistareatthesunx » Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:47 pm

argh just had to post this here never order from zipzoomfly i don't care if their prices may be cheaper and they offer ground shipping for free. If your order gets messed up your screwed their customer service is by far the worst i've seen even worse than best buy and thats saying a lot. No one picks up the phone first of all second the number is not even a 1800 number so your paying the charges while u try to get a person to pick up. And when you do get someone to pick up the phone they are of 0 help watsoever and when u ask to get transferred to a manager you get shuttled straight to a voicemail. Never ever ever order from these guys. Cough up a little more cash and go to a company where you at least know if something happens you can get help
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