Building a new computer

[Shadowex3]

Hmm, I kinda changed it being Andre telling me AMD is shitty.

 

Case: Apevia X-Dreamer 3 Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Side-Panel Window & Temperature Display

 

Power Supply Upgrade: 600 Watts Power Supplies (XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply)

 

CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache 64-bit

 

Cooling Fan: Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V Gaming CPU Cooling Fan

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2H Intel G41 Chipset with PCIe slot DDR2 SATA/IDE MB w/ Built-in X4500 Graphic Core,HDMI,GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio

 

Memory: 4GB (2GBx2) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory

 

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB 16X PCI Express

 

Hard Drive: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)

 

Optical Drive: LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive (BLACK COLOR)

 

$55 Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115&cm_re=cooler_master_elite-_-11-119-115-_-Product

 

$126 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012

$100 Nonmodular: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

 

$259 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041&cm_re=q9550-_-19-115-041-_-Product

 

$90 Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

 

$48 Heatsink: http://www.svc.com/u120e-rt-775.html

 

$215 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434&cm_re=gtx_260-_-14-130-434-_-Product

 

$86 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

 

$56 HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

 

$26 DVD burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106334

 

Total price: 960

 

Total price with nonmodular PSU: 934

 

If you can find a case locally that uses 120mm fans that will get you below $900, the Elite 330 is a $30 case but costs almost that much in shipping, it's a good case though and there's one next to my left leg right now. If you can tolerate using a non-modular PSU, which really isn't that bad, then you can get 750 watts but you'll save a respectable amount of money over a 650 watt modular.

 

I went ahead and bumped you up to the gtx 260 core 216 because of how close the ending price is to your total budget ($35 >P) and since the 250's suck hard in comparison while the 275-280's arent THAT much better. The 260 just wins in price for performance comparisons.

 

The heatsink is a TRUE with a fan that mounts a lot better than their wire clips, and the TRUE is easily one of the top 3 heatsinks. Watercooling is utterly pointless outside of competitive benchmarking (where it's usually refridgerated or something) because it's still using a radiator (read: heatsink and fan) to dissipate the heat, neither watercooling nor a regular heatsink will ever be able to get you below room temperature because of the laws of physics.

 

So congrats on being my second tightest budgeted build ever that STILL got a top end graphics card and CPU. This computer is actually better than mine since I use a q9450 instead of a q9550.

 

This is why I can tell people $60 an hour to build a computer in meatspace and they'll pay it >P

[trakaill]

This is a pretty awesome build BUT I highly doubt you'll fit the heat sink in there..I might be wrong! but the 902 case is 8.6" and Ive read its a really tight fit in there..this case is 7.4". I hope Im wrong!! the Heatsink is 6.3 by it self add the CPU and Mobo to that plus what ever clearance you have between the mobo and case...just pointing it out

But shadow has worked with it so he might be more accurate than I am!

 

$55 Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115&cm_re=cooler_master_elite-_-11-119-115-_-Product

 

$126 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012

$100 Nonmodular: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

 

$259 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041&cm_re=q9550-_-19-115-041-_-Product

 

$90 Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

 

$48 Heatsink: http://www.svc.com/u120e-rt-775.html

 

$215 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434&cm_re=gtx_260-_-14-130-434-_-Product

 

$86 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

 

$56 HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

 

$26 DVD burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106334

 

Total price: 960

 

Total price with nonmodular PSU: 934

 

If you can find a case locally that uses 120mm fans that will get you below $900, the Elite 330 is a $30 case but costs almost that much in shipping, it's a good case though and there's one next to my left leg right now. If you can tolerate using a non-modular PSU, which really isn't that bad, then you can get 750 watts but you'll save a respectable amount of money over a 650 watt modular.

 

I went ahead and bumped you up to the gtx 260 core 216 because of how close the ending price is to your total budget ($35 >P) and since the 250's suck hard in comparison while the 275-280's arent THAT much better. The 260 just wins in price for performance comparisons.

 

The heatsink is a TRUE with a fan that mounts a lot better than their wire clips, and the TRUE is easily one of the top 3 heatsinks. Watercooling is utterly pointless outside of competitive benchmarking (where it's usually refridgerated or something) because it's still using a radiator (read: heatsink and fan) to dissipate the heat, neither watercooling nor a regular heatsink will ever be able to get you below room temperature because of the laws of physics.

 

So congrats on being my second tightest budgeted build ever that STILL got a top end graphics card and CPU. This computer is actually better than mine since I use a q9450 instead of a q9550.

 

This is why I can tell people $60 an hour to build a computer in meatspace and they'll pay it >P

[Shadowex3]

I just bent the sheet metal of the side outwards a bit to accomadate the height of the TRUE, it's not that hard to do so in such a way as to create a bulge that allows the heatsink to never be bonked/scraped by the case side but also does not affect the thumbscrews on the end or how the side fits on the chassis. It's still one of the best sub-$50 cases I've ever used though, like I said there's one sitting next to me right now and it's the second one I've owned. Personally I just set it on carpet and pressed down with my knee right where the heatsink was rubbing but I'm pretty sure with a towel and a hammer (or a rubber mallet or deadfall) would be more precise and possibly aesthetically more pleasing.

 

If you've got a dremel and a steady hand you have an even easier solution >P

[trakaill]

.

 

If you've got a dremel and a steady hand you have an even easier solution >P

 

You mean cutting?? wouldnt a hole be less than ideal for dust? This is a serious question cause I was thinking about doing something similar

[trakaill]

May I suggest this combo deal!! I know I doubleposted but Im bumpping! http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.323341

Its brand new stuff (week old)

 

For more money you can get a bigger mobo if you wanna sly

OR you can also get the the i5 670 which apparently was overclocked at 7Ghz with some kind of nitrogen cooling

 

source: http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,702609/Intel-Core-i5-670-overclocked-to-7002-GHz-with-liquid-Nitrogen/News/

[Shadowex3]

You mean cutting?? wouldnt a hole be less than ideal for dust? This is a serious question cause I was thinking about doing something similar

 

Do you have any idea how small dust actually is? If you've got an air quality problem your comp is going to wind up looking like mine (caked on every surface, f#@%ing chainsmokers) no matter how many filters you try to use, even if it gets in through your opening and closing the CD drive.

[trakaill]

Do you have any idea how small dust actually is? If you've got an air quality problem your comp is going to wind up looking like mine (caked on every surface, f#@%ing chainsmokers) no matter how many filters you try to use, even if it gets in through your opening and closing the CD drive.

 

Good point! What do you think about the new i5 clarkdale I know its only dual core but it seems to have pretty good performance!!

[Shadowex3]

I think dualcore's pointless now that virtually everything is quad-enabled. Orange box engine games routinely use my other 3 cores, most applications and utilities use all 4 cores, other than crysis I haven't played a modern game that didn't use all 4 cores (UE3 games actually load them all evenly too), and even single-core tasks can be locked to a given core with affinity settings.