Have to build another, more updated PC

[dataDude]

I have some games that I want to play (e.g. F.E.A.R.), but my current technology really isn't up to par with at least one of them. I have a Radeon 9700 AGP video card that I'm becoming painfully aware is not what I need for my games, not just speed-wize but after asking around found out that one or two of my games doesn't work so well with ATI video technology. I figured all I needed to do was upgrade the card to something more updated and more in the NVidia category, but it would seem that what I really need is something more PCI-X, which my mobo doesn't support. Ultimately, I'm looking for cheap but truthworthy parts (have very limited funds). I don't have a ton of time to look everywhere so I figured if any of you could share what you trust I would be grateful. This is what I have so far:

motherboard - $59.98
http://www.3gplaza.com/estore/contro...265&srccode=PW
processor - $178.75
http://www.pcboost.com/store/viewite...dproduct=13785
proc fan - $8.50
http://www.eaglebit.com/ProductDetai...00101&Click=14
memory - $78.01
http://www.partspc.com/ProductDetail...26&ProdID=6358

Help with finding a decent ATX mobo would be great too.

Not quite sure yet what I want for the video card, so suggestions on that are welcome on that as well. I already have the drives, cables, and chassey.

[Katreat]

What PSU do you have? if you change Mobos and your existing one is older you will likely need a new ATX 2.0 PSU also. Unless you are planning on OC'ing the system the standard Heatsink/fan that comes with a retail processor will be fine. Using aftermarket coolers also voids the warrenty on the CPU. I have not done anything with AMD in a long while so I will leave specific suggestions to the experts. You might try putting the system together at one site like Newegg that has a very complete selection. You can then shop around for the best deal. Also, remember that you get a big combined shipping discount if you buy from one vendor so add shipping costs in before you decide one store is a buck or two cheaper.

Kat

[dataDude]

How could I have forgotten about the PSU?

http://3btech.net/ch550wadufan.html

I'll keep your idea in mind, Kat. In the meantime, do my selections sound ok?

[Cricket]

Let's start from the beginning...just how much do you have to spend?

Your parts list makes me nervous, especially that cheap crappy power supply you linked to...you never want to use a low quality power supply in your computer. If it dies suddenly (which cheap low quality power supplies tend to do) it could kill other components in your computer too.

Do you plan to reuse parts from your current computer? If you are, what kind of computer do you currently have? Home built or name brand?

And if possible you want to buy everything at one time from one vendor to save on shipping and make returns easy for you. My suggestion is to check out Newegg.com.

Cricket

[dataDude]

Yeah, I know I listed a bunch of cheaper parts, but originally I had also basically said that I'm keeping an open mind about other prices. I have about $500 or so to spend, though I can maybe stretch to $600.

The system I have right now has an AMD Athlon 64 3400+ on a Gigabyte M1689D mobo. Currently I have 1.5 GB RAM (via 2 sticks PC3200). It's all home built.

I already have all the drives I need for the new system, so it's the critical internals that I'm looking at here.

Maybe I will check out newegg for this.

[Cricket]

So all you need is the motherboard, CPU, video card, RAM and power supply. I'm not familiar with the AMD side of things so I'll let another forum member help you with the parts selection. $500 to $600 should get you a pretty decent upgrade that will play the games you're interested in with ease.

Cricket

[dataDude]

Well, I found everything I was looking for and will be excited when I am able to actually put my purchase through. I guess I put in the wrong password one too many times and now I have to wait about 24 hours to do it again! Darn it Newegg!

Anybody have ideas for any other sites?

[andper10]

Why don't you post your list before you buy it so that we can look it over?

[andper10]

I would recommend:
$122 - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115013

$75 - ASUS P5L-MX LGA 775 Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...041&Tpk=P5L-MX

$76 - CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145098

$37 - FSP Group (Fortron Source) ATX400-PA ATX12V 400W Power Supply OEM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104952 - Good low priced PSU with 2x18A 12V rails for plenty of power for higher end video cards.

$21 - Rosewill R220-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147074 - This case is pretty cheap, but with your budget you will probably have to cheap out on something and personally I would recommend the case. Reviewers have good things to say about this cheap case, and they say it comes double boxed, so that should increase your chance if it not being damaged on arrival. It also has 2 120mm fan slots which is phonemonal for a budget case. You could use the included 1 120mm fan or you could grab this 2 pack of blue led 120mm fans and add a little "bling" and additional cooling to your case: $10 - COOLER MASTER R4-L2S-122B-GP 120mm 4 BLUE LED LED Case Fan - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103022

Video Card: If you can stretch your budget to a little bit over $600 you can grab an 8800GTS video card and you will have a HUGE upgrade in the video card department:
$289 - EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082 - If you are into Mail In Rebates it comes out to within about $1 of $600 if you send in the $20 MIR for the 8800GTS. That price is before shipping. However, sending in MIR's will void your newegg warranty for that part, so you have to decide if it is worth it. If you want to say around the $500 (or if you need to get a new OS and stay around $600) then I would recommend an X1950XT (if newegg ever gets them back in stock) or an 8600GTS

Also, what Operating System were you using on your old build? Was it an OEM version for system builders, or a Retail / Upgrade version? If you are planning to use your old build for parts you should be able to use the OS if it is a retail version or an upgrade. If it is an OEM version, it is tied to that computer and you will have to buy another copy of XP, which will set you back $90: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116056 (or maybe more if you want to get Vista)

What are the specifics of the hard drive and cd/dvd drive(s) that you already have? For hard drive: what brand, what size, what interface (IDE or SATA I or Sata II) how much cache, etc. For optical drive what brand, what interface (IDE or SATA), what can it burn, etc.
Enjoy your build!

[dataDude]

I already have the chassis (casing). I also have a copy of Windows XP, so no prob there. Also, for the kinds of parts I'm after, a 400W PSU seems a little weak. Maybe I'm wrong? The parts I found from Newegg are as follows:

mobo:
PC CHIPS A11G V1.0 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

video card:
BFG Tech BFGR7950256GTOCE GeForce 7950GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

PSU:
Broadway Com Corp P4-OKIA600-BLACK ATX 600W Power Supply - Retail

RAM:
Crucial 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model CT12864AA667 - OEM -> 2 of these

processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADX6000CZBOX - Retail

processor fan:
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

Altogether totals $520.93

[dataDude]

Here are the links to the above, to make it easier to find on Newegg.

mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813185084

video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143090

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817162017

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146571

processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103773

processor fan:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185125

[andper10]

With PSU's more wattage isn't always better. You need to get a good PSU brand or else you are comparing apples to oranges. With good brands you want to look mainly at 12V Amps (combine them if they are on seperate rails). That Okia only has 24A on the 12V rail, not enough to run a modern video card. They put 50A on the 5V rail (you don't need half that many amps on the 5V rail) in order to sell it as a "600 Watt" PSU. Good brands would be: Antec, Corsair, FSP (Fortron Source
), OCZ, PC Power and Cooling, Seasonic, and Sparkle power. I got that info from the good/bad PSU rating thread: http://www.forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195 . As you can see your Okia PSU is on the bad list.

PC Chips is a bad motherboard brand. Try to get an Asus board.

CPU fan is unnecessary. One comes with the retail CPU.

[dataDude]

Y'know, I think I'll get this video card instead: (NVidia 7900 GTX) http://www.barebonekit.net/itemdesc....VC512GF7900GTX

Only about $25 more than the other I was showing and the framerate capability is 69 fps as compared to the 7950's 60.9 fps. Sounds pretty good to me.

[andper10]

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=710&chart=291

There isn't really much real world preformance gain.

[dataDude]

I don't run any flight simulator games, but I do play Doom 3 and if you look at the benchmarks for that game you'll see what I was referring to.

Given the specs I've shown, do you still recommend the one you said before? I can usually be confident in many of my computer choices up until it gets to the part of the PSU, which for some reason confuses me.

[andper10]

Either one will be fine. The games that have a lot of textures will probably benefit from the 512MB of memory on the 7900GTX. Just know that the 7950 series is a more "recent" version.

Honestly I would get an X1950XT if you can find one (for under $180). I have one in my computer and it is great. However, I looked for about 10 minutes with no luck finding a store that had them in stock.

[andper10]

The newegg page ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814130279R ) for that video card says to have a minimum of a 400W PSU, so you should be ok, especially since the one that I recommended is from a high quality manufacturer. However, that PSU that I suggested does not have active PFC, which helps to keep voltages in spec when the PSU is under heavy loads. So if you start pulling more power than the PSU is rated for you could get reboots, but I think you will be ok. If you want to be sure you should pm one of the more experienced users like Cricket or Alaron.

[dataDude]

I have decided to make a decision change. Instead of running with AMD here, I'm gonna go for an Intel C2D e6600 instead. After reading some of the stuff in various forums, I found out it has better future upgrade ability, consumes less power, runs cooler, and very slightly outperforms the Athlon 64 x2 6000. The price alone is so close too I think the difference is negligible.

So, Intel chip, board, GeForce 7950, DDR2 RAM, and a good PSU. Sweet.

[dataDude]

This may sound like more a noob question, but I wanted to be absolutely sure about it. I found the processor I wanted and had a connection rate with the FSB at 1066 and the mobo had an FSB at the same speed. The RAM though says 800. That will work, right? I'm just too excited to think straight right now. LOL

[andper10]

Good news for you. The E6600 has been replaced by the faster, cheaper E6750: $200 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...5030&Tpk=E6550 . Or the E6550 preforms just a hair better than the E6600, and it is only $176 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...5030&Tpk=E6550 . There is an error on the CPU chart so it says E6650, but if you look at the drop down menus it matches with the E6550: http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_20...=873&chart=419

For your origional question 1066 Mhz FSB CPU's can run from DDR2 533 if they need to. Because it is DDR (Dual Data Rate) you double the Mhz of the ram to see what FSB it can support (someone correct me if that is wrong). So DDR2 667 is the minimum ram speed for the new Intel 1333FSB CPU's and DDR2 800 will just give you some extra headroom for the future, or for overclocking.

Honestly, I DO NOT see how you will ever be able to make a $600 budget work with the components you are picking out. With the video card and CPU only, that is over $400. Add a good motherboard (Asus P5K) and you are well over $500, without a PSU, Ram, Hard Drive, and Optical Drive. Could you please post what you are planning to buy now that you have made the switch over to intel?

[dataDude]

Well, I found out that with all the parts I want I'll have to spend a little over $600. I'll find a way to deal with that. In the meantime though, Newegg's site isn't allowing me to log in. I know I'm using the correct user ID and password (the password after talking to the tech support a couple of days ago). I tried resetting the password, but only got an "Incorrect Password Reset Link." error message. I tried calling again, but it's just after their office hours. I'm soooo upset over this. I've been looking around today for the particular video card and almost everyone else is sold out of them. Now I get a chance with Newegg and their site refuses to recognize me. Argh Newegg!!!

[shadowpr]

https://secure.newegg.com/MyAccount/...ssistance.aspx

just enter your email address

[dataDude]

Already tried that, the site doesn't accept the password change. Only received this:

"Incorrect Password Reset Link."

[dataDude]

Update:

Found out that it was just an issue with the one computer that I had been using. When I came back home from work today I found the other computer's monitor wasn't working (but I didn't know it was just the monitor at the time). After getting frustrated with Newegg and pondering other places to look, I decided to see what would happen if I switched monitors and lo and behold, the other computer will successfully log in to Newegg. I'm back to excited mode again.

[dataDude]

I just received my parts this morning. Thinking about the safety of building the system (I'll have to wait til tonight to do it), can wearing Latex gloves along with an ESD wrist strap help any more to prevent ESD damage?

[blue60007]

I wouldn't bother with gloves. You can use the wrist strap but I find they get in the way. I usually just touch the case every now and again to discharge any static build up. Also, simple things like not wearing wool socks while working on carpet (a bit extreme, but you get the idea) helps a ton.