Build Me A PC

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

Well everyone knows I have a crap Home PC. (Yes the single core) Probably the worst in the clan.

With Bad Company 2 not playing at ALL online, and the horrible lag I get with MW2, it is even more apparent that my PC is no longer even meeting minimum requirments.

I am now indulging the idea of possibly upgrading, although money is tight, so I am not quiet sure yet.

My current loadout is

Windows XP on
AMD Athalon 64 3200+
GFI LAN Party PCI-e MoBo
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT
2GB of Corsair RAM
Crap hard drive that is dying
750W power supply (under 2 years old)
Sound Blaster Audigy Card

Then a DVD Drive, DVD Burner, and my 3 1/2 drive that I just like having on there.

I have a Logitech MX518 and a n52te so mouse and Keyboard are not required.

And I have a nice big HDMI 1080p monitor so paying for another one is not neseccary, although I could set up my dual monitor set up again (but would rather save the $$$).

I was entertaining the idea of about $600 for a ceiling though I am not even sure if I would be comfortable going that high. Ill have to check my credt union account.

I was just wondering what you guys thought and see what you all came up with. I might just have to tough it out and go back to playing text adventure games for a while if I can not upgrade so we will see. Any opinions are welcome and appreciated.

-Hand

[||§§|| Sven The Slayer]

The power supply and sound card should defiantly be salvageable. How about the case? I'm going to assume you just want to build off of the platform you already have. So you'll need a new motherboard, and possessor. You're old Mobo is probably DDR and not DDR2 or DDR3 so You'll need that for whatever your motherboard supports... been a while since I've built a PC so I'm not sure what the current anything is.... Oh and let the Intel/AMD and Nvidia/Radeon arguments commence.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

Yea the case is fine it's a thermolite so it's good enough.

and don't worry about the labor, Ill probably just have my wife make Dr.h and his wife dinner and make him do all the work. LOL Still have the Coke Zero for ya bud

[||§§||Dr.H]

Lol I figured I'd be building this PC.

Let's start with the Processor since that will designate the motherboard which will designate the RAM.

The PSU is really good so keep that and keep the GPU for now since it will save you money and can be upgraded latter.

So it's Intel vs AMD... Hmm well my point of view has always been Intel and Nvidia make better parts while AMD/ATI make parts that are close to the same quality at a lower cost, giving them a better value to performance ratio.

But.. when it comes to building a new PC I always try to adjust the price points so I'd rather have a slightly lower end Intel chip over a AMD that might be faster for the same cost.

So we are working with a $600 cap. I'll have to compare some quad cores vs i5's for cost vs performance and if things work out a i7 cpu. I'd prefer to stay with the LGA 1156 socket if we can so that upgrading in the future is easier.

With the motherboard I'd stay with either EVGA or ASUS and the RAM will always be Corsair so that's easy.

Other than that all you need is a good cpu cooler and thermal paste.

I'll work out some prices tonight.

Edit: Wait tell me that hard drive isn't EIDE?? Either way if you want a new drive we'll have to ghost it but a SATA would make life much easier. If not we'll have to either transfer all the info before breaking down the old rig.
Oh EIDE will have about a 3" wide ribbon cable attached to it where SATA will be only about 1/2" wide.

[||§§|| Sven The Slayer]

Keeping the GPU will depend on it's slot type, it'll have to fit into the new motherboard and there are so many different PCEI slots

[||§§||Dr.H]

I believe all the 8 series cards had 2.0 x16 but if it didn't most MB's still have at least one PCIe 1x slot.

[||§§||po1s3n]

very rough set of the types of things you would be looking for:

Intel CORE i5 650 3.2GHz 4MB CACHE LGA1156 CPU [$220.00](AMD phenom II will be cheaper but won't have the auto-overclocking features of the intell i-series)

Corsair VS2GB1333D3 2GB Value Select (1333MHz) DDR3 RAM [$68.00]
(corsair tends to be the most reliable, G. skill is another solid alternative)

ASUS P7H55-M-PRO MB [$128.00] ( Gigabyte is another good motherboard manufacturer)

SAPPHIRE HD5770 1G GDDR5 PCI-E [$191.00] (saphire and HIS are the cheapest, HD5770 is the cheapest way to get DDR5 memory and direct X 11 in a graphics card)

total= $607

NOTE!!!! these are a AUSTRALIAN PRICES!!! thus you could easily buy this stuff for $4-$500 (or less!) and buy a HDD

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

and ill need to buy an OS so the cheapest Win 7 because I have a feeling that ghosting this thing is not going to work.

Is it is good or bad when your HD Whirrrrrs all the time?

[||§§||Dr.H]

There are a lot of sounds a hard drive can make. Some are normal some are really bad. Is the "Whirrrrs" a spinning sound? Could just be the heads.

Either way you might as well go with Win7 if you're ready. I'm actually very happy with mine and I wanted to stay away from Vista. Just the regular Home Premium version is fine since the extra features of the next two versions are not worth it at all. Well XP environment is kinda cool but most people won't use it.
You will need the full version though because there is no upgrade from XP.. $199

Hard drives are cheap these days and you can get away without buying a Raptor.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

I really like W7 on my laptop, but if all else fails, ill just deal with the wirrring HDD and worry about it later.

Playing both MW2 and BC2 on this thing has been getting more and more annoying

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

OK, so from what I can gather I require a new"
motherboard,
quad processor (Or intel i5 or i7 however they categorize theirs now)
Probably 4-6GB or RAM

And possibly a new HDD and W7 OS

Keeping my Case, Power Supply, Audio, and Video card.

ANyone finds good deals or has suggestions on specific types to look for or stay away from are appreciated.

[||§§||Dr.H]

Well I'd say for your cost limit I would go with the i5 cpu and build around that.

CPU
Core i5-750 2.66GHz - $195.00 (Best current i5 and cheaper than the Core 2 Quad Cores)
Core i7-860 2.8GHZ - $279.00
CPU Cooler with fan and thermal paste - $80

Motherboard
EVGA P55 SLI 132-LF-E655-KR - $145.00 (After $35 rebate $20 Instant savings)
EVGA P55 SLI 132-LF-E657-KR FTW $180.00 (After $30 rebate $20 Instant savings)
ASUS P7P55D PRO - $170.00 (After $10 instant savings)

I've switched over to EVGA from ASUS myself.

Memory
CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 4GB - $115.00
CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 6GB - $170.00 (After $20 Rebate)

Basic Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s - $55.00 (Bare Drive comes with no screws or cables but I have spare so saves $15-$20 Also this was only $5 more than the 360GB)

OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full - Retail - $180.00
There is nothing in the higher versions that you will need or use and they all look the same. This is $20 cheaper than buying it local and you need the full version since there is no XP upgrade. I would go with the retail copy vs the OEM to be safe.

Final Prices
Everything with EVGA MB and 6GB RAM = $840.00
Everything with EVGA MB and 4GB RAM = $785.00
Low cost option of EVGA MB, 4GB RAM and XP on new HD = $605.00

You could probably knock a few dollars off by dropping down to some lower end companies or going with AMD but I wouldn't say it was worth it for the savings.

[Nightmare]

You could always just torrent Win7 Ultimate. But it's always better to buy legit. Good luck on your PC Build man. ;)

[||§§||Scorpion]

Also if you are interested, frys electronics here in town has a 1TB Hitachi HD for $68 and a 1TB Caviar Black drive for $99.00. they also have a ATI 5770 for $149.00

http://www.frys.com/product/6169359

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

Ahhh Frys I really wished they came to New England to pick up after Circuit City but no *tear*

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

Windows 7 Premium is $150 at amazon, yay $30 less already LOL

[||§§||Dr.H]

Good deal on that Amazon price!

[||§§||Buzzard]

A buddy of mine jest told me of his frend puting togeather a fast system
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5519&CatId=1587

The mobe was one i had in my list as i was doing a mobo has good overclocking ,and the Cpu that ship with is a 2.80gh on the mobo you can most like get 3.0 out of it easy plus it's got the fan ,not the best but works in a pinch. put some ram in .reuse some of your old parts ,and for the most part your up and runing

[||§§||Dr.H]

That's a good board and cpu but would probably put Hand over the top of his budget by a lot once he adds in everything else.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

yea buzz that actually looks really nice, but i have to factor in RAM and an OS, so Ill check my exact funding, but ill keep that setup in mind if i haave more than i am assuming thanks

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

Okay, not worrying about a HDD or an OS, I can get those separately.

My limit is about $600 for a MoBo, CPU, Cooler, and RAM

[||§§||Buzzard]

We'll if you Do a I7 chip set i got a stock fan you help me out on shipping i'll give it to you

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

Thanks I think i might look into w good fan though if I have H help me (and by that I mean do it for me) OC it. I do appreciate the offer though.

This is what I have so far

Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
$279.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-Processor-LGA1156-I7-860BOX/dp/B002KQ5KE8/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1270501259&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 XMS3 4 GB PC3-12800
$114.99
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CMX4GX3M2A1600C9-XMS3-PC3-12800-Memory/dp/B002LE8D2A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270499442&sr=8-1

EVGA P55 SLI Mainboard 132-LF-E655-KR
$179.99
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-P55-SLI-Mainboard-132-LF-E655-KR/dp/B002N2Z062/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270500700&sr=8-1

Still checking to see if the MoBo is compatible with the CPU

I am going with 4GB to save money now and I will just buy more later if I feel that I need it.

[||§§||Dr.H]

The cpu's do come with stock fans, they don't work great but fit in a pinch.

Before Mail in Rebates/After Mail in Rebates
If he went with the i5 and chose the 6GB Ram it would be $565/$510 or $490/$455 with 4GB . If he went with the i7-920 it would up it to $649/$594 with the 6GB or $575/$539 with 4GB.
This is of course without an aftermarket fan, OS or HD. If he chose to upgrade to an overclocking board it would be an extra $60/$35

I did some more searching and found the best prices for each item and updated my price post. There is some sales on motherboards so I also added the overclocking motherboard.

Hand do you always remember to send in rebates or not?

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

Yea I am good with rebates as long as I do it right away. What did you have in mind?

[||§§||Dr.H]

Lol I must have been editing my post when you commented. You can see the before and after rebate prices I did above.

[||§§||Dr.H]

Right it skipped my mind that when you jumped up to an i7 I went right into the 920 but I forgot that is a 1366 socket which matches the X58 boards, the P55 boards are 1156 socket so you will need to go with the i7-860 after all since that is 1156 also.

The 860 is slightly faster stock and will overclock fine, you're not going to benefit from 920's perks on a P55 anyway so it doesn't really matter. p55/860 is the newer less power hungry line anyway.

So I think that breaks you now down to these parts:

Intel i7-860 (Stock cooler for now?)
EVGA P55 SLI 132-LF-E657-KR FTW
CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 1600 4GB

Windows 7 Home Professional
New Hard Drive - Western Digital is nice
New HP DVD drive - Needs to be Serial ATA connected.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

OK


Intel Core i7 860 Processor 2.80 GHz 8 MB LGA1156 CPU I7-860BOX
$264.99
http://www.buy.com/prod/intel-core-i7-860-lynnfield-2-8-ghz-8mb-l3-95w-lga-1156-quad-core/q/loc/101/212123607.html


Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 XMS3 4 GB PC3-12800
$114.99
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CMX4GX3M2A1600C9-XMS3-PC3-12800-Memory/dp/B002LE8D2A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270499442&sr=8-1


EVGA P55 FTW SLI Motherboard - Intel P55, Socket LGA1156, SLI+PhysX, Crossfire
$179.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5083734&CatId=4720

Total current $560

[||§§||Dr.H]

Looks good

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

and now I wait for the shipment and home installation.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

MoBo just came today, No idea what some of the stuff in that box is for lol.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

sweet the rest came I now have nice boxes for anew MoBo, Processor, RAM, A case blower, and a new OS all sitting on my couch in my office. unfortunately I would screw up installing it all, so I will wait for my personal technician to install it all.

Just have to go out and get a new HD and DVD Drive.

[||§§||Dr.H]

Sounds like BC2 is going to be a go in a short while ;).

[||§§|| Sven The Slayer]

Sounds like BC2 is going to be a go in a short while ;).

You sure? I have not seen ANYBODY on ANYTHING in a while.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

yea I have been kind of busy lately and getting on late, I never see anyone on Vent other than a random WoW person.

[||§§||Dr.H]

I've been mainly playing WoW lately, leveling up an alt but I'm game for some BC2 when we can play as a group ;)

[||§§||Pugilist]

I try to log into Vent as AFK when I am online at all and spent about 20 minutes trying to play MW2 last Thursday before giving up after getting timeout errors and the like.

BC2 has it's own issues, such as single shot weapons that are not sniper weapons being difficult to use so far witht eh iron sights blocking every damn thing but overall it is nice to play games where strategy matters and spawn points are not a complete FUBAR.

I've tried adding folks as friends but apparently requests expire - which is moronic, so we'll need to synch up and make certain we are online and able to respond.

In a realted to this topic note, my son's computer crashed and I'v ehad to order parts whcih came today. It's either the MB or CPU and while both are under warranty, he has a senior project due and I cna't wait for the Manf. repair process so it looks like I'll be upgrading my rig to a trip core fairly soon.

[||§§||Dr.H]

Game time is about there!

Now he has all the parts we're just trying to figure out a good time for me to help Hand put everything together. He lives 1-Hr north of me so it's usually better if we can figure out a time that the wives can hang out together to make the 2hrs of driving more worth wild but while my wife was on vaca last week by the time most of the parts came in Hand and his wife ended up being busy.

lol man figuring these things out can give someone a headache!

So for speed options I either have to eat the drive tonight or Hand has to come down to my house this week but with two young kids and a wife I can see how timing that can be difficult too. We could wait until this weekend but that would be a few days of lost game time lol and I think Hand would try to do the install himself before that.

I have a feeling I'll be taking a drive tonight, I'm going to have to come up with some house repair jobs I'll need his help with this spring :P.

[||§§||Pugilist]

Game time is about there!

Now he has all the parts we're just trying to figure out a good time for me to help Hand put everything together. He lives 1-Hr north of me so it's usually better if we can figure out a time that the wives can hang out together to make the 2hrs of driving more worth wild but while my wife was on vaca last week by the time most of the parts came in Hand and his wife ended up being busy.

lol man figuring these things out can give someone a headache!

So for speed options I either have to eat the drive tonight or Hand has to come down to my house this week but with two young kids and a wife I can see how timing that can be difficult too. We could wait until this weekend but that would be a few days of lost game time lol and I think Hand would try to do the install himself before that.

I have a feeling I'll be taking a drive tonight, I'm going to have to come up with some house repair jobs I'll need his help with this spring :P.


Hmmm, you need someone to look after your wimmin' folk?

It'll be good to game with you guys again - things came to a head with my ex and her spending time with my son at my house so that has stopped whcih means a less complicated schedule for me and I'll be home more often, except weekends, whcih are busy as we get ready for Steampunk in May.

And I'd love it if everyone could make it to the faire at one point this year. I'll have 4 free tickets to donate and can get a discount on additional ones as required. It runs Mid august - end of Oct so everyone needs to plan now or I'll whine a lot.

Hell, I may whine a lot anyway.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

I am going to attempt to build it myself, I got the Proc and RAM in, the Heat Sink is all set up, No rear brackets, it just has four locking pins i already attached to the unit, just have to put the grease on and snap it on. Just have to figure out if the Rocketfish Cooler (http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-260-3-rocketfish-universal-cpu-cooler.aspx) is a sucking fan, or blowing fan on the side, I think from the pics it is a sucking fan it does not specify and the only way to find out is after it is all set up and the power is on. The pic shows the fan on the RAM side, so I wil try it that way.

I will be on vent for part of the install tonight after dinner using my laptop

2 questions I have the EVGA P55 FTW (http://www.evga.com/articles/00502/ftw/)MoBo

Now I have a Sound Blaster Audigy card (http://us.store.creative.com/Sound-Blaster-Audigy-SE/M/B000LP0R3E.htm) but the onboard sound card looks good. My sound card is rather cheap, and the on board might be better, what do you all think?

Second, Should I put the HDD in SATA0 and DVD in SATA1 or the DVD in SATA2 and leave SATA1 open for a possible future second HDD in case I want to try RAIDing it? Does it even matter?

Wish me luck, it seems simple enough, but I am sure I will screw something up.

[||§§||Hand_O_Death]

ok I am currently udating the new rig, but so far it is functioning, next few days will let me know how it is running.
Ill be on tonight some more, Thanks for the over the phone tech support btw H, I would have been totally lost without it.

[||§§||Dr.H]

I have to give major props to Hand for doing the install himself, while it can be a bit tedious and nerv wrecking your first time I think he did a great job. I tried to stay online with him to answer and question and that was interesting, after about 2min on vent his laptop will produce a 5+min delay in responses lol it was getting funny but I'm sure annoyed the hell out of him. We then switched to cell phone but the connection was a bit fuzzy over speaker phone in his basement and if he bent down with the phone it would drop me HAH..

All in all I think his install went well and temps seemed ok. There was a few non essencal wires that he couldn't quite figure out but that's no problem at all and I'll do a quick check over when I give a visit soon. Other than that I think he did a great job and he's about ready to rock some games!!

[||§§||Pugilist]

Well done Hand.

In unrelated news, my son's system took a dump last week and what I had initially hoped was just a video problem turned into a major issue.

But luckily, after all the replacement parts arrived, including a Zalman cooler I will never use so if anyone can use it, let me know:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118059

Be warned, you may have to violate your MBs warranty to install this POS.

Regardless, after the replacement parts arrived I went through the following 3 hour process:

• New CPU in old MB with 8800 – nothing
• New CPU in old MB with 8500 – nothing
• New MB with old CPU & 8800 – nothing
• New MB with old CPU & 8500 – nothing
• New MB with new CPU & 8800 – nothing
• New MB with new CPU & 8500 – success

So I had to order a new video card for my son and went with the Nvidia 260 216 core after reviewing Tom's Hardware for stats.

Because I was able to get an identical MB and CPU, there was no need for a system rebuild on my son's system (changing CPUs or MB can have that side affect) and this means that I will be upgrading to a trip core with SLI 8800s once all the RMA processes are complete - about sometime in 2090 or so.

[||§§||Dr.H]

AH the old switch parts to find error trick ;) it's the best way to figure it out but can be difficult since by the time most systems fry any new parts won't match old ones or people don't have spare mb or cpu to test with.

Glad you figured it all out Pugilist. What was the problem to begin with? Was the system not posting at all? That sounds like it would be the error by what you replaced.

[||§§||Pugilist]

The initial issue was just sudden video death, everything dropped and nothing responded. My first bout of troubleshooting involved popping in a spare video card and disconnecting IDE drives and removing sound and physx cards, disconnecting everything that might draw power or cause a conflict.

I suspect there was a flaw in the MB that blew the PCI-e ports and CPU. One of the IDE drives is reporting errors as well so it all points to a massive failure in the MB. Luckily the SATA HD is fine, which was were my son had his senior project, that he had not backed up.

Kids today.

[||§§|| Sven The Slayer]

I started my computer up earlier in the week and it would drop the video around the time the log in screen was supposed to show up. Booted into my backup windows, same problem. Booted into safe mode, no issues. Pulled out my secondary video card and booted. Problem solved. My crosfired second video card ate it's self and was taking the main board with it apparently.