Friend getting a new rig

[hneaz]

My friend is getting a new rig. His budget is between $700 - $900 with no peripherals. he wants a Core 2 Duo cpu, at least 2 gb of ram, and 320 gb of hdd. im not sure which gfx card and mobo he wants. i came up with this list of stuff i was sure about.


CPU - E6300 ($165
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115005

Ram - CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ($131
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording (Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($75)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140


GPU - not sure about this, either geforce 8600 gts or the x1950xtx 512 mb (dx 9). card must be good enough to play dx 10 games

mobo - not sure

psu - not sure

case - not sure

wat do u guys think?

 

[hool10]

TBH I'm not sure myself either! Right now all the review sites and hardware mags are all saying different things while the consumers are saying completely different problems. The most complaints I see is:

1. Shoddy hardware like DOA.
2. Bad tech support.
3. Bad drivers (sometimes no drivers).
4. Just plain everything bad that's priced higher than the competition.

I thought the Antec 900 case was good until I read about the placement of the PSU and it's loud. Other people are saying otherwise though. It seems like the only straight shot right now is the CPU because there is only 1 quad core. Even then I heard that water cooling is a must with quad cores! :rolling: What I'm doing is watching the prices and watching what happens with these reviews. Most of the stuff out now seems like experimental crap that's overly priced. I can offer a suggestion though and say your friend should tough it out till July 22nd. The prices are coming down a lot. In fact the quad cores ($533) are coming down to $266. This goes with quad cores, dual cores, etc.

 

[hneaz]

oh yeah, the price cuts, i forgot about that. i told my friend to buy in august cuz that way, the parts would be cheap, not sure by how much but cheaper than now.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

tell him to get an 8800gts instead, assuming enough money is present.

 

[The Brick]

Wait for the price cuts.

If by then he can afford a quad core (q6600) the P35 chipset mainboards are a must (or the p38 if they're available by then). If not, a good p965 chipset board will do nicely. Look at the Asus P5B and the Gigabyte ga-965p-ds4.

The corsair 520HX and 620HX are very reliable and high quality PSUs. He should consider the 620W version if he plans to keep it in the future.

A case is a personal decision. Antec makes nice cases. Just get one without a PSU so you don't waste money on that.

If he can, the 8800gts 320mb is a monstercard for the price.

 

[Gray Fox]

Wait for the price cuts.

If by then he can afford a quad core (q6600) the P35 chipset mainboards are a must (or the p38 if they're available by then). If not, a good p965 chipset board will do nicely. Look at the Asus P5B and the Gigabyte ga-965p-ds4.

The corsair 520HX and 620HX are very reliable and high quality PSUs. He should consider the 620W version if he plans to keep it in the future.

A case is a personal decision. Antec makes nice cases. Just get one without a PSU so you don't waste money on that.

If he can, the 8800gts 320mb is a monstercard for the price.

Why are p35 boards a must? Lets say even if someone was not planning on upgrading to the new 45nm intel chips would the p35 still be a good choice? And I also heard the asus p5b is getting an bios update to run at an increased fsb 1333 I think?

 

[hool10]

The bios on all these motherboards are all ****ed up. They say the 680i motherboards were the best and had tons of features. Then I hear the bios is messed up. The Gigabyte one has way too much heatsinks on it that do nothing and does not perform that great. Which one is the best?!

 

[The Brick]

Why are p35 boards a must? Lets say even if someone was not planning on upgrading to the new 45nm intel chips would the p35 still be a good choice? And I also heard the asus p5b is getting an bios update to run at an increased fsb 1333 I think?

The p35 boards are a ton more stable with the quad cores than any other chipset. Especially with overclocking. I don't know much about the penrynn chips yet. And the p5b already supports the 1333 strap.

 

[Xendance]

Man, I wish I had the knowledge on these things like you guys have.

 

[hool10]

Man, I wish I had the knowledge on these things like you guys have.

I was the exact same way. The way I found out how to build pc's are by guides on the internet: http://www.google.com/search?q=how+...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a. The best ones have pics for each step. Mainly it's about comparing and reading reviews until you your blue in the face lol. A computer is like a house. Once you find out how each compnent works you will get a much clearer sense. The hardest part about building a pc is just compatibility issues and money.

 

[hneaz]

quad core and a 8800 gts? would those fit the under $900 budget?

 

[The Brick]

In a month, yes.

 

[staticprimer]

Late July, the combo will total about $560. Pretty damn cheap if you ask me.