Advice Appreciated!

[Kruel]

I am planning on building my own pc, as it seems the cheapest solution. I have talked to friends about it, and they say go for it. So now I am trying to get as much advice and information about building a pc as I can before I will attempt it.

My budget is $1,300, which is hopefully enough to purchase parts for a suffecient gaming system.

As for specific parts:

SLI compatible motherboard

Core 2 Duo with at least 1,333 mhz front bus speed

200 gb HD

and one geforce 8800 GT SLI 512mb, so I can add a second one if I want to


My concern is getting the right motherboard, I would like advice on that. Also, did you get your parts from the manufacturers site or distributors (if so, then I would really appreciete if you told me a trusty site that ships to canada)? What worries me the most about building my own pc is malfuncting parts, in fact I am VERY scared that something will arrive and not work and I can't get my money back. So if anyone is willing to help me out, that would be awesome.

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[wammy_bar]

newegg.com is probably your best bet, 30 day return policy and you can purchase more warrantys if you wish.

start looking around at processors and such, you're bound to find something, then post it here and we can help you with any compatibility issues.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Kruel I am planning on building my own pc, as it seems the cheapest solution. I have talked to friends about it, and they say go for it. So now I am trying to get as much advice and information about building a pc as I can before I will attempt it. My budget is $1,300, which is hopefully enough to purchase parts for a suffecient gaming system.

A budget of $1,300 will build you a nice basic gaming rig.

Originally Posted by Kruel As for specific parts: SLI compatible motherboard

We normally don't recommend SLi unless you're going to go with two top end video cards (8800GTX or Ultra) go really make the most of it. Doing SLi with two lesser video cards is a waste since a single high end video card will easily outperform the two lesser video cards.

Originally Posted by Kruel Core 2 Duo with at least 1,333 mhz front bus speed

The E6750 is the sweet spot C2D now.

Originally Posted by Kruel 200 gb HD

You may want to go larger on the HDD. 400GB is about $100 now.

Originally Posted by Kruel and one geforce 8800 GT SLI 512mb, so I can add a second one if I want to

If you have your heart set on SLi you might want to see if you can swing a 8800GTX and then get another one later. It's the high end SLi cards that make a SLi system really worth it.

Originally Posted by Kruel My concern is getting the right motherboard, I would like advice on that.

All I can recommend is to go with a ASUS motherboard.

Originally Posted by Kruel Also, did you get your parts from the manufacturers site or distributors (if so, then I would really appreciete if you told me a trusty site that ships to canada)?

We buy from on-line retailers. There are Canadian on-line vendors like NCIX.com

Cricket

[wildfire]

NCIX is probably the best site to order stuff in Canada. They have 4 store fronts too. In fact if you chose the parts, they will build the comp for you if you click into the PC Builder section of the site. Only but during there sales though, they get like a 2week sale every month for some reason. They've had a constant sale one after another for 2 months now and I have no clue why they're doing this.

When they build your PC for a $50 fee, it says this....

Full assembly and testing of the system. (+ $50) HELP
This includes warranty coverage of the complete computer system (excluding monitor options, system options and software options, which are covered under individual warranties) as assembled and tested at NCIX.com. Usually ships in 3 to 5 business days.




How we build your PC

Every computer assembled and tested at NCIX.com goes through a rigorous 5 step testing program, to insure you receive a robust and problem-free computer.

Assembly is done with extreme care, with all your PCs system cables and connectors carefully seated and tidied to insure optimal air flow. All retail packaging and documentation is shipped with your final system.

Each PC is tested with:

MEMTEST86 is run to insure that your memory is error free and working to specifications

To insure your hard drive is functioning properly, a major operating system is installed (it will be removed after testing if an operating system is not purchased with the system)

Each system is started and shutdown at least three times from the OS

Test video and audio using DirectX test

Each PC Builder system is stress tested using 3DMark or Hot CPU Tester (depending on the video options purchased)

This would make sure you'd have no defective parts or worry about doing something wrong to the PC when building it and you won't need to do any RMA [ I think thats what you call it when you mail defective parts back to the retailer. ]

[Kruel]

NCIX.com seems like a really good site, they ship in canada and they accept pay-pal! Thank you wildfire and Cricket for the information.

I looked at some systems on NCIX.com and notices that most of them use AMD's X2 processors. They are cheaper then the Core 2 Duo's but will I notice the difference when playing games and using Photoshop?

[glc]

Right now, the C2D's outperform the AMD's. This may change when AMD brings out their new architecture.

[Kruel]

glc- Lets hope they bring out their new chips soon.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

I came across this bench mark test featuring the 8800 GT compared to all the other 8800s, according to the test reslults the GT seems to keep up very well with the competitors. Plus it is so much cheaper. Any thoughts?

[wildfire]

Yea, getting an 8800GT is the best video card to get unless you got lots cash and can go for a GTX.
The 8800GT is better than a GTS and just slightly worse than the GTX. 8800GT is also cheaper than those 2.
Getting an 8800GTS right now is laughable.
Get an intel core 2 duo is the way to go right now.

[Kruel]

ok, I have finalised my hardware choices and I am hoping you could tell me weather or not this will work . The links are all from newegg.com, but I am planning to ordering parts from ebay, my friend builds all his systems from ebay, if you think that is a bad idea please do tell me why.

MOBO:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-SLI%2bPremium

CPU (decided to go the 1066 fbs, cheaper):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003

GPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130302

RAM(2gb 800 mhz):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034

HDD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148262

Case and Power Supply(I am probably going to get a different case, with a 500 - 600 watt power supply):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811144167

[shadowpr]

Don't get an open box MB.

Get this processor instead. Faster, and cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029

Get ram that's a cas 5.

[flanzig1]

The case you linked is a nice looking case but get a case without a PSU and get a good quailty one. The ones that come with the Apivia cases poor to average.
Would be very carefull buying parts from E-bay, you may not get exactly what you ordered. And if something is DOA, probably will be tough to RMA.

[Kruel]

Shadowpr- everything I am getting is going to be new, they do offer new stuff at ebay, but if I cannot get a legit product on ebay NCIX.com will be my other choice. I think the processor you linked my to is the one I will be buying , thank you.

I found this case and i find it alot nicer then the other one, tell me what you think:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129024

[wildfire]

You're p5n32 only can handle cpu's up to 1066fsb.
It can only recieve 800mhz at OC so you have to buy 667 mhz ram im pretty sure.
Look here. http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...25&modelmenu=1

I'd suggest buying a P5K, it can use up to 1066mhz ddr2 ram, can handle cpu fsb up to 1333mhz. it also uses a P35 chipset. You dont need a p5n32 because it cant handle 800mhz ram, cant use 1333mhz cpu and I doubt you'll be going sli.

[Kruel]

This is the only P5K without Crossfire I could find, it comes with onboard graphics which I don't want. Are you shure this is better in the long run?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131187

[Cricket]

Kruel, you do know that Newegg doesn't ship to Canada, right?

Here's the regular P5K.

Cricket

[glc]

You can run a single card of any brand in a Crossfire-capable board.

Here's the standard P5K:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS

[Kruel]

Cricket- Yeah I do know that they don't ship to canada, I am simply providing the links from newegg because everyone else is .

I know that you can use any card with the crossfire set up... but the MB without crossfire goes for about $100 cad at NCIX.com. So unless ati comes out with some insane crossfire graphics card within the next year or 2, there wouldn't much use spending the extra $40 right?


On another note, my local computer store doesn't carry any ASUS MB's (I will never buy from them anyways..), apperently they had issues with quality.

[glc]

It's more likely that they couldn't get them for the price they wanted to pay.

[Kruel]

glc - they charge an arm and a leg for everything, but they sounded almost insulted when I phoned them about ASUS MB's...

I greatly apprecieted the help so far from this forum, to be honest I didn't expect any at all. This is what I have for my system so far, again if anything doesn't fit advice is more then welcome, no it is needed.

MB:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS

Case + Power Supply:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...ufacture=ANTEC

RAM:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...acture=CORSAIR

CPU:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...ufacture=Intel

GPU:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=eVGA

HDD:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...acture=Seagate

[Kruel]

Does anyone know how much NCIX.com charges for shipping? I coudn't find any information regarding shipping cost.

[glc]

Put your cart together and you should be able to calculate shipping before you commit.

[bd1886]

The Sonata III is an exceptional case. Solid,quiet and comes with a quality PSU. (If it's enough watts for your build.) It's not a huge case so graphics cards can be a tight fit and good cable management is especially important. Welcome to the site.

[joytime365]

Yes Sonata III is a good case ,my friend got one and it is less noisy than my pc .

[Kruel]

Shipping is cheap from NCIX.com, another reason why I am going to order my stuff from there... just another pair of question before I start getting the parts:

Does anyone happen to know the BIOS version of the P5K? Will I need to upgrade the bios in order to use the C2D e6750?

[glc]

The one I just bought from Newegg shipped with the latest bios.