Third Time (build) is a Charm ...now what?

[brianosaur]

I'm planning my third build. Every three years or so I realize I need a new rig and would buy, or now build, a new one. However, since I dont really do too much to the system between those years I fall way behind on tech info.

A few years ago, I remember information hunting as being very overwhelming; and going over huge walls of text just to figure out where to start and what I wanted for the price range I had in mind.

So I figured I'd start reading up again, but in going over the "read this first" stickies around here I see most of them are a year and a half to four years old. I was hope for something a bit more up to date.

Are there any guides you might recommend in finding out what the 'latest' is and what the 'best for the money' is?

I had posted a THREAD similar to this one in 2004 and there where some very helpful folks who pointed me in the right direction.

(THANKS KRAM & HI HO - I see you are still very much here)

Was hoping for the same thing again if you guys wouldnt mind.

Thanks

[gtucker329]

the first question always seems to be what are you going to use it for? That typically sets your costs. No point spending $3000 when $1500 will do it.

[brianosaur]

I was hoping to spend about $1000 for barebones.

I dont need a monitor, kb, mouse or atx case.
I currently have 2 wd 10k sata raptors in a raid 0 and will prob just keep them. (if possible)

I guess I just am looking for a mb (w/ onboard sound), vc, cpu, ram & psu.

Perhaps about:
$200 - mobo
$250-300? cpu
$250+ vc
$125? psu

Not locked in to these $ but there abouts I guess

Do all mobos have sata 2 now and would I need new hdds?

[perkster]

go for the ASUS P5k motherboard.
go for the Q6600 intel quad core (as per your other thread).
go for the Corsair 620W HX modular power supply
go for the EVGA 8800 GT (GTX if you want to spend the extra).
case: your choice
hard drive: go for the Seagate barracuda 7200.10 SATA drive, the 320GB is best GB/$ at moment.
DVD burner/drive: go lite-on retail to get latest sofware, make sure its SATA drive.
for ram go for Corsair 800mhz DDR2 ram.

should do everything you want and be good for another 3-4 years no problem.

you can use your IDE hard drives but not recommended as a lot of boards now have IDE as 3rd party controllers and not native support, touch and go. So best to upgrade to SATA, perhaps buy external enclosure for your old IDE drive to keep in as an external drive?

EDIT; sorry you said you have the SATA drive already, and you said you have a case, so ignore the above in relation to those