sdg3972

I am going to build a new gaming system in a month or two. I remember reading somewhere that it would be better for me to buy vista 64, but I can't remember why lol. Maybe because I am going to have 4gb ram.


*EDIT* Didn't read the sticky up top about things you guys would like to know. I'll add this in here then on to the parts I looked up.

1. Budget: How much money are you willing to spend on the new build? Would love to keep it under $700

2. Brands: Are there any brands of components you want or don't want? Don't care, just want something that is worth my money and runs my online games.

3. Multitasking: Will you be multitasking with this computer and if so, how much? no

4. Gaming: Will you be gaming and if so, how much and how new are the games? This is going to primarily be a gaming computer. I play WoW at the moment. I would love to try some of the newer online games but get so frustrated at the lag I experience on my old computer that I just end up going back to WoW. Would like to build something that will run newer stuff decently.

5. Calculations: Will you be doing any intense calculations or media encoding? no

6. Overclocking: Do you plan on overclocking and if so, how much? I would like to overclock. I haven't done so before but would like to.

7. Storage: How much storage will you need and what will you be storing? I keep some movies and pictures on my HD now, but it's only like 82 gigs so am looking forward to having some more space.

8. Legacy Support: Will you need support for older hardware like parallel, serial, or PS/2 devices? Not really, I am more worried about going forward. I will be reusing my mouse and keyboard if possible.

9. Operating System: Do you want Windows XP or Vista, or Linux compatibility? Back a few months ago when I started looking this up I read and determined that I need Vista 64 but now cannot remember specifically why lol.

10. Case: Do you want help selecting a case and if so, how big do you want it? I will just use my case from my current PC.

11. Accessories: Do you want a keyboard, mouse, or other items included? no

12. Recycled Components: Will you be reusing any components you already have? I purchased a RaidMax 450w PSU at the first of the year. Dunno if that is going to cut it for what I need for a new system.

13. Monitor: If you want a monitor, what size do you want and should it be widescreen? no, got a new 22" LCD for christmas today

14. Stores: Do you have any online stores that you prefer to purchase from? I don't care. I bought all of my supplies online for my current system and didn't have a problem from anyone I bought from.

15. Location: What country do you live in? USA


Here's some of the stuff I found a few months ago, not sure if I am headed in the right direction:

Generic DDR2-800 PC2-6400 4GB Kit DDR2-800 PC2-6400 4GB Kit (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400 4GB Dual Channel Capable 4GB 240-pin NonECC Non-Regisetred unbuffered memory module DDR2-800 PC2-6400 4GB Without heatsink With LIFETIME WARRANTY ddr2-800 pc2-6400 4gb
September 22, 2008 8:57:00
Price $56.75
Ship free shipping

· $56.75 PartsPc.com
866-427-9283 909-547-2108



Western Digital SATA 640GB WD Caviar SE16 drives combine 16MB 7200RPM cache with 3GB/s transfer rate -- WD6400AAKS

Price $79.00
Ship free ground-1 piece only

· $79.00 Memorylabs.com
408-453-2081 408-453-2081



Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Bits of Deals GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L Core 2 Quad/Intel P35/ DDR2-1066/ A&GbE/ ATXMBoard MFN GA-P35-DS3L RETAIL Specification GA-P35-DS3L CPU: Socket 775 SupportIntel Core 2 Quad/ Core 2 Extreme/ Core 2 Duo/ Pentium
September 22, 2008 5:52:00
Price $88.86
Ship free ups ground

· $88.86 eWiz.com
408-934-2500 408-934-2500



Asus P5K SE/EPU Asus P5K SE/EPU Core 2 Quad/Intel P35/ FSB 1600/ DDR2-1200/ A&GbE/ ATXMBoard MFN P5K SE/EPU

Price $93.46
Ship free ups ground

$93.46 eWiz.com
408-934-2500 408-934-2500
Store Profile Reviews



Microsoft Win Vista Home premium 64Bit Microsoft DSP Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit English OEI DVD 66I-00788

Price $109.99
Ship $4.99 free ups ground order $150


Zotac ZT-88TES3P-FCP ZOTAC nVidia GeForce 8800GT AMP! Edition 512MB DDR3 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card MFN ZT-88TES3P-FCP RETAIL Specification ZT-88TES3P-FCP Chipset: GeForce 8800 GT Engine Clock: 700MHz (vs. 600MHz standard) Video Memory: 512MB D
Price $128.46
Ship free ups ground

· $128.46 eWiz.com
408-934-2500 408-934-2500


Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB 1333Mhz L2 Cache Size 6MB L2 Cache Speed 3.0GHz skt 775 45nm 65W Processor OEM-Dual Core Speedstep Tech EM64T1 Virtualization Tech Enhanced Halt State Execute Disable Bit2 Thermal Monitor
September 21, 2008 19:56:00
Price $163.99
Ship free shipping

· $163.99 BZBOYZ.com
877-429-2699 909-547-2109


eVGA 512-P3-N871-AR EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512-P3-N871-AR Video Card EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
September 20, 2008 1:37:00
Price $160.99
Ship $8.97 three day shipping

· $169.96 Newegg.com
800-390-1119 909-395-9046

Any help is appreciated

wrench97

Have a look at these the pricing changes weekly if not daily any more and in 2 months time some of this may not be the best choices based on that.
What case do have now?
As for 32 or 64bit with 32 if you install 4Gig windows will see about 3.2 but can address the upper memory areas for system devices I never actually seen a pc use more then 3gig unless there is a problem with a program stuck in a loop or a bad memory leak.

Link ..................................................................................Disc. Cost Rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...5036&Tpk=E8500 E8500 $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128345 GA-EP45-DS3L $99.99 $15.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148212 2 x 2Gig $43.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130397 9800GT $122.99 $15.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171023 650w $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116488 XP Home $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136073 WD 500Gig $64.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106263 DVD $23.99

$725.92 $30.00

$695.92

sdg3972

OK thanks :) I love this forum am so glad I found you guys :D

sdg3972

My case is a Raidmax I believe, with the see through side. Will that be ok for the new stuff too?

wrench97

AS long as it is a full ATX case and not a mAtx which it probably is not.(mATX)

sdg3972

I think it is a mid tower... will that be too small?

wrench97

Mid Tower should be a atx case.

sdg3972

Yes it is definately atx... just unsure if it is a mid or a full. Will a mid work? Thanks a lot for all your help! I am going with the components you listed and buying tomorrow :D. I am excited! I haven't had a new computer in 5 years lol. The 80g HD I have now cost as much back then as the 500 I will be getting rofl.

wrench97

Mid will work most cases are mid towers full towers are huge like the Antec 1200.

sdg3972

O one more quick question. My current HD has lots of things on it so I am wondering if I will be able to use both. My current one has winXP on it though. Will it be a problem to have the old one connected so I can access my pictures etc. when I want to? Not sure how that works or if this is the forum to ask in either.

wrench97

You could use it as a slave drive on the IDE port(Is it IDE?) just set it to boot from the sata drive and wait until after you install windows to hook it up you can access all the files
on it and delete the windows os off it to free up storage room if you want.

sdg3972

It is a SATA also. I guess my concern was having a different OS on it would mess something up. I didn't realize I could just delete the OS and use it. Thanks :)

gabrezu

Just a question, why not get faster RAM like DDR2-1066. I mean those aren't more expensive.

sdg3972

For about 35$ more I can get

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131299

I picked that mobo just because of the crossfirex. I am just curious if that video card is a lot better than the 9800 because the price difference isn't that much.

*EDIT* Nm, just realized crossfirex is for running 2 or more video cards. But is that video card better? It's not much more expensive.

wrench97

The P5Q Pro is a good board I just like the Gigabyte better.
The HS 4850 is a powerful card and will work with this setup but everytime I look at our video card forum lately I see a lot of posts about HD4000 series cards not that 9800 series don't have posts but there are a lot more Nvidia cards out there then ATI gaming cards

sdg3972

Will I be able to use my current IDE dvd drive? It looks like I can but I want to make sure.

wrench97

Yes it has 1 IDE controller for 2 devices.

Cathedral

If this is going to be used for gaming only, may I suggest the ASRock P45XE. It has the proper Crossfire support, auto PCIe switching for Xfire mode (meaning it supports autmatic switching between a single graphics card in PCIe 2.0 x16 to and dual cards in x8 where as most would run the second at x4), and also alows you to set AHCI drives as removable devices. It has some of the best overclocking capabilities. The P5Q has had some complaints that the board is to thin and also architecturally cramped, just something to think about.

A few other things to consider is cooling not sure how well ventilated your case is right now but with two grapcis cards it is something to consider. Processor cooling, do you plan on upgradng that or are you sticking with the factory heatsink? Also, spend the 6 bucks and get some Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157143
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007

Also, I agree completely with Gabrezu, here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104066

Edit*
Also if you want to run Xfire on a budget may I suggest two of these instead.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121289

sdg3972

Just wanted you to know that I got everything you suggested and put my new system together last night and it is awesome!! I didn't think WoW would really look that much better since it is not very graphics intensive but boy was I wrong. It runs like a champ and I was leery of how hard vista might be to get going but it was easier than xp lol.

Thanks

wrench97

Good to hear you have it up and running good:)