Custom Built PC

[Finance Savior]

Alright heres the deal I designed the PC but I havent really been checking up on the latest tech so I would like to hear some opinions about the build or if I should change anything around.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Modmodder/rig.jpg

[_Allan_]

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive OEM (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=26387&vpn=ST31000340AS&manufacture=Seagate) $153.06 ($138~ w/ $15MIR)

What will you use the FDD for?
Will you use SD/TF/MMC/MS flash cards?
Lian Li cases are usually better quality, and while not as "hot" as the other, will run much cooler due in part to the design ... see here (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=31396&vpn=PC%2DK10B&manufacture=LIAN%2DLI).

[Finance Savior]

Yeah I need the Card reader and by FDD im guessing you meant Floppy Disk Drive. I dont really need the floppy drive but there are rare times when I sometimes need a floppy drive.

I heard Western Digital has an edge on Seagate performance wise is this true?

[_Allan_]

The WD has 16mb cache ... the Seagate has 32mb cache ... that's double.

I have a WD and a SG drive, and I find the Seagate drive faster and better quality then the WD.

[FroogleDude]

The WD has 16mb cache ... the Seagate has 32mb cache ... that's double.

I have a WD and a SG drive, and I find the Seagate drive faster and better quality then the WD.

Would have to agree with Al on that. http://**************/img/1856/y08m1110mhmd/2.gif What are you mainly going to be doing with the computer?

[d_16_85]

u get a much better pc if ur spending close to $1500 on it....keep looking around guaranteed you’ll find better deals

[noxe2]

You can get a core i7 system if you have 1500 bucks to spend, I'd suggest you take a look at www.infonec.ca --> look at the parts and put together a price list, should be much cheaper (considering you are in GTA area)

[rp_guy]

You can get a core i7 system if you have 1500 bucks to spend, I'd suggest you take a look at www.infonec.ca --> look at the parts and put together a price list, should be much cheaper (considering you are in GTA area)

he's paying for the OS..


but there's definitely cheaper places to buy parts. for example, newegg.ca still has ocz pc8500 4gig dual kit, $80 - $20MIR = $60.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289

look around some more..

[takumi111]

Western Digital 640GB Black or the newer Seagate 7200.12 series for the hard drive, IMO.

You should be OK with some cheaper DDR2-800 RAM from reputable companies, higher frequency not really necessary unless you're overclocking (correct me if I'm wrong).

[sheepdogexpress]

I recommend you just get vista home.

But this is a system I suggested to another person.

Ram and mb bundle at ncix $430
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...5&promoid=1058
CPU i920 $330
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...8&promoid=1058
HD 1gb samsung. $100
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...1&promoid=1058
gtx 280 $320
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...0&promoid=1058
Pc power and cooling silencer 750w $110
Dvd drive = 20
Thermalright true + 1366 adaptor kit.
= approx $75
Case = up to you.
1365 + case

Atleast a couple hundred dollar more expensive but much faster in every way.

It will take a liquid nitrogen cooled Phenom II to keep up with this system once its past 4 ghz.

You could easily take the price of the system i suggested down by a couple hundred dollars by using the same videocard as the one in that system. A 9800 gt. However in that case a 4830 would be a better deal for about 20 dollar more.

So in this case, the system would be about 1200 dollar plus a case, but being core i7, it would slaughter the Phenom II and you will be far far more future proofed as AM2+ is soon to be a dead upgrade path.

SO 1200(with 4830) + vista home(110) + case(100) = 1410.

[nx6288]

$1500 and only a 4830?

[joepinchpenny]

pricematching and looking at NCIX's sale page will save you a bundle.

also, like everyone said, if you're going to spend $1500, look at i7 or phenom II builds. 4870 512mb and GTX 260 216sp go on sale all the time, id save up and look to get one of those.

[mr_raider]

Spend an extra 60$ and get a Phenom II. Since you are getting a 4830, the onboard graphics is useless. I would get the gigabyte ga-ma770-ud3 board instead, which offers no IGP, and single GPU support.

The price on the case and PSU are a bit high. I paid less for my Seasonic 650W back in January '08. Look at the Coolermaster CM690 case. Big mid tower case with good ventilation, and a lot cheaper.

If you are not averse to building yourself, you can get similar components from other outlets by price shopping. You loose the convenience of a single order.

Yeah and Vista Ultimate DVD OEM? Forget it. This is a better option

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488CVF

Personnally, I would get 32-bit home premium upgrade edition. Use the MS alternate media program to get the free 64-bit disc, and then do the double install trick.

[mr_raider]

Check out these combo deals:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819103472&SubCategory=343&SortField=0&PageSize=10&page=1

I see half a dozen ways for you to save money.

[Snicla]

You're not seriously thinking about getting a floppy drive?!

[terrybear]

yeah go for at least a Phenom II 920,

also there is better deals out there on motherboards, new egg actualy has a jetway & biostar 790gx that are great preformers at a $120-130 price point,
definatly go DDR2 1066,buying some OCZ products is not a bad idea if you like the idea of quick rma's to markham in short time.

Otherwise looks good !! :)

[user01]

$50 for PC Assembly and Testing, hmmmm... Get someone to do it for you, lol... :razz::razz::razz:

[Piro21]

Why are you using such a big, expensive case when you only have one hard drive? Buy an Antec 300 (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=29812&vpn=THREE%20HUNDRED&manufacture=ANTEC) and save yourself $133. You can use the money to buy yourself a 4870 instead of the 4830 (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35521&vpn=AX4870%20512MD5&manufacture=PowerColor).


And seriously, a floppy drive? Don't waste the 25 bucks.

[betamaxman]

You can run the windows 7 beta till august. I have been using it for a few weeks now and it is much better than vista. Ya ya it is a beta but imo it is as complete as it needs be. Everything works fine for me. Also linux is a very viable option with cedega for gaming being the only cost to be concerned with. Anyway with win 7 being so much better than vista and likely to ship soon after the beta or rc1 termination date I would hold off paying for vista.
http://www.cedega.com/gamesdb/

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

[Finance Savior]

Thank god for RFD. I dumped the floppy drive and the old processor for the Phenom II. I also switched the case and down graded to windows Vista Home. As for paying for the installation. I can do it myself but I havent done it in two years so Id rather pay someone who actually has alot of experience putting PCs together.

Also for the hard drive I selected Samsung Spinpoint F1 Series HD103UJ 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 8.9MS 32MB 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Wrnty which seems to have a good price but are they as reliable as Seagate.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Modmodder/rig-1.jpg

[Snicla]

If you're set on using Vista at least take advantage of Microsoft's School offer. You can get Vista Ultimate 64 for like $80 you just need to know someone in school.
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-ca/default.aspx

[magical]

Why AMD and not a intel E8400?

You should check out pricecanada.com and pricebat.ca and make sure you are getting the best price on all your components, you usually can shave off about $50-100 off even NCIX sale prices. (Using NCIX.com's Pricematch System)

My favorite case right now, and I like the Lian-Li's, is the antec 300 case, it has very good airflow, but I usually throw in 4 120mm yate loon case fans, replacing the two antecs it come with cause they are POS antec crap, antec has decent designs but there case fans have to be the worst in the business, not only are they loud, but they usually die prematurely within a year, I've also given up on antec P/S although they have been fixed.

Also the samsung hard drive, might not be the best choice, personally if not going with seagate (which quite frankly right now isn't the best choice) I'd go with the Western Digital Black Series, they are extremely robust.

Also make sure that the ATI card you pick has a robust cooler on it or you'll end up with a overheating video card, some of the models come with a inadequate cooling solution, which forces the card to run extremely hot and fry itself over time.

[magical]

The WD has 16mb cache ... the Seagate has 32mb cache ... that's double.

I have a WD and a SG drive, and I find the Seagate drive faster and better quality then the WD.

you must not be referring to the 7200.11 series I hope.

[Snicla]

Instead of the video card you have there get the Diamond Radeon for $329.99 after the $70.00 instant rebate.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33214&vpn=4870PE51G&manufacture=Diamond

[magical]

Instead of the video card you have there get the Diamond Radeon for $329.99 after the $70.00 instant rebate.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33214&vpn=4870PE51G&manufacture=Diamond

I wont touch another diamond product ever again, they are the ones that screwed me on my 4850 that is sitting on my desk waiting for rma.

They not only are going to replace it with the same defective card (the heat sink solution is inadequate for the card) they are making me pay a handling fee to ship the new card to me, its almost $25, this is UNHEARD of.

I accept the fact that I have to pay for the shipping to get the card to them, but now I have to pay more money to receive a new card, BS!

Take my advice and steer clear of this company, plus they don't answer the support tickets on the web site, you must call them and wait 30 minutes to get any response out of them, they are a deadbeat company.

[nfuz]

Jeezus, I got my core i7 system for cheaper than this outdated AMD build.

OP: Look around, if you're intent on spending nearly 1400-1500... there's aboslutely no reason to pick AMD.

Even the AMDs Phenom 2 940s are utterly dominated by the Intel Core i7s... and for that price range, u can get a much better system.

Also, $150 for an OS? Pick up a legit visa key for like $50 and get the iso off MSDN

I personally wouldn't pay more than 900 for that system, so for 1400-1600, I'd expect a LOT more out of that.

[Snicla]

I wont touch another diamond product ever again, they are the ones that screwed me on my 4850 that is sitting on my desk waiting for rma.

They not only are going to replace it with the same defective card (the heat sink solution is inadequate for the card) they are making me pay a handling fee to ship the new card to me, its almost $25, this is UNHEARD of.

I accept the fact that I have to pay for the shipping to get the card to them, but now I have to pay more money to receive a new card, BS!

Take my advice and steer clear of this company, plus they don't answer the support tickets on the web site, you must call them and wait 30 minutes to get any response out of them, they are a deadbeat company.

I've never dealt with them, just saw the better price.

[13sundin]

this is even better...

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36003&promoid=1058

if you pick the parts individually it would even be cheaper

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1038/afdsafcg4.th.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=afdsafcg4.jpg)

and this is before price matching

[magical]

I've never dealt with them, just saw the better price.

just letting the OP know my opinion on the brand.... and everyone else know my experience with the product.

[Finance Savior]

Jeezus, I got my core i7 system for cheaper than this outdated AMD build.

OP: Look around, if you're intent on spending nearly 1400-1500... there's aboslutely no reason to pick AMD.

Even the AMDs Phenom 2 940s are utterly dominated by the Intel Core i7s... and for that price range, u can get a much better system.

Also, $150 for an OS? Pick up a legit visa key for like $50 and get the iso off MSDN

I personally wouldn't pay more than 900 for that system, so for 1400-1600, I'd expect a LOT more out of that.

Alright so dont go for the Phenom II instead go for the Intel i7. If I do go that way id have to change the motherboard also which would be a good way to go.

[mr_raider]

I can do it myself but I havent done it in two years so Id rather pay someone who actually has alot of experience putting PCs together.

Nothing has changed significantly in PC assembly in two years. BIOS upgrades are even easier now, since most makers now support flash from USB.

[nfuz]

Alright so dont go for the Phenom II instead go for the Intel i7. If I do go that way id have to change the motherboard also which would be a good way to go.

A lot of people swear by the gigabyte ex58-ud5.
I bought two of these, and have had nothing but problems across the board, they're utter garbage, some of the problems include my keyboard not being detected while in the "boot option" mode. (I tried several keyboards, keyboards that all work fine on all my other computers).... Its just not worth the headache.

Their support is also garbage.

I'd avoid those, and pay the extra $10-$15 for the reliable Asus p6t.

[nfuz]

Alright so dont go for the Phenom II instead go for the Intel i7. If I do go that way id have to change the motherboard also which would be a good way to go.

To add to my post above...

You'll also have to change the ram to DDR3.

I also noticed you went from the 4830 to 4870...

Are you planning on doing a lot of computer gaming? Cause if not, that's kind of a waste.

By when do you need this comp? If you shop around for parts and pick em up on sales and pricematches, youll save a ton.

The WD Caviar black is a better purchase than the Samsung HDs, and cab be had for cheaper than the $150.

I also noticed you bumped up your original 640gb to 1tb... thats great but... are you actually going to use that, if not, you may be better off just getting a 500gb 32mb cache HD, and pocketing the savings, or actually using the savings in other areas (blu ray burner later on?... blu ray player?....)

Just as long as you know what you NEED, and what you're getting, you seem to be changing items quite drastically...

DOnt make an impulse buy

[Piro21]

How come you're getting the case and power supply separately? You don't need anywhere near as much power as the one you've chosen will give. You can save yourself a lot of money and have a case that's very easy to work with and that contains a very good power supply if you go for an Antec Sonata 3 (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24294&vpn=SONATA%20III%20500&manufacture=ANTEC). It's the third revision of a very renowned case, and the power supply included is a 500W that's over 80% efficient, and very quiet to boot. It'll save you 87 bucks and some labour.

You're also spending a lot of money for that 4870, there are other ones that are cheaper, like the Asus (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35588&vpn=EAH4870%20DK%2FHTDI%2F1GD5&manufacture=ASUS), Sapphire (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34161&vpn=21133-04-20R&manufacture=SAPPHIRE), and XFX (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35755&vpn=HD487AZDDC&manufacture=XFX) 1 gig versions. Those will save you $38, $50, and $60 respectively. The XFX one is also factory overclocked and warrantied as such, whereas the Asus and Sapphire both have better coolers than the normal card.

[ben_liu]

I wont touch another diamond product ever again, they are the ones that screwed me on my 4850 that is sitting on my desk waiting for rma.

They not only are going to replace it with the same defective card (the heat sink solution is inadequate for the card) they are making me pay a handling fee to ship the new card to me, its almost $25, this is UNHEARD of.

I accept the fact that I have to pay for the shipping to get the card to them, but now I have to pay more money to receive a new card, BS!

Take my advice and steer clear of this company, plus they don't answer the support tickets on the web site, you must call them and wait 30 minutes to get any response out of them, they are a deadbeat company.

Was on the same boat...except, I never got a replied back :)

As for NFUZ's idea with the Core i7, ins't a bad Idea. Look at 13sundin's post

[Mark099]

this is even better...

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36003&promoid=1058

if you pick the parts individually it would even be cheaper

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1038/afdsafcg4.th.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=afdsafcg4.jpg)

and this is before price matching

Go with this. The Core i7 920 can be price matched down to $348.99.