help me build a $3000-3500 computer

[Jet]

I'm starting to understand a little bit more on the hard drives. So, the western digital raptorX 10k hard drive be kind of a nice balance between cost and performance since it is 10k rather than 7.2k or 15k?

Jet, I forgot about a sound card. Will the computer have had no sound without it?

If I want 2 hard drives, should I just order 2 of the same one, or get a cheaper second hard drive. Or is it really not worth it?

You are correct about a 10k being a nice balance between 15k.

You would have had sound, but it just would have been integrated into the motherboard. With a sound card, you get great sound, not just good. Paired with those speakers and a ~24" monitor, you have a high quality home theater system.

If you wanted 2 hard drives, I would put this configuration:
1. Western Digital Raptor 10k 150GB (for main programs, you could bump it down to a 74GB if you are going to be adding another hard drive)
2. high capacity (ie. 500+GB) SATA/7200RPM/16MB cache hard drive (for storage, etc)

 

[Boomer]

i like this thread i'm jealous

 

[tlarkin]

there is always another route...probably going to get flamed for this one, but:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...6034002/wo/sD3TmdaO0Jsr2sSA4Qx1tNrvULp/2.?p=0

* Two 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
* 2GB (4 x 512MB)
* 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
* One 16x SuperDrive
* Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
* Mac OS X - U.S. English

Price: $3,846.00 - shipped.

This has dual xeons, can run windows natively, run windows virtually, run windows applications in OS X via cross over, runs a lot of video games better than windows does. I have seen it first hand run HL 2 and BF2 better than a similar spec'd PC.

Plus you get the best of both worlds, OS X, and Windows. I know its a tad bit out of your price range but when you pay shipping for everything else this will all match up. You can always add cheap things like HDs later on.

 

[jorday]

You are correct about a 10k being a nice balance between 15k.

You would have had sound, but it just would have been integrated into the motherboard. With a sound card, you get great sound, not just good. Paired with those speakers and a ~24" monitor, you have a high quality home theater system.

If you wanted 2 hard drives, I would put this configuration:
1. Western Digital Raptor 10k 150GB (for main programs, you could bump it down to a 74GB if you are going to be adding another hard drive)
2. high capacity (ie. 500+GB) SATA/7200RPM/16MB cache hard drive (for storage, etc)

That's exactly what I was thinking of doing. Thanks man.

My thing about the sound would be this. I have a real nice home theatre in the same room where the computer is, and it cost twice as much as this computer is going to, so I wasn't sure what to do about the issue of sound/speakers.

Can someone help me choose a second hard drive please? I don't understand why there are so many that appear to be the exact same but the price is different.

 

[liquidshadow]

Since you have the funds, why not just go with 4 raptors than high-capacity drives?

 

[Jet]

That's exactly what I was thinking of doing. Thanks man.

My thing about the sound would be this. I have a real nice home theatre in the same room where the computer is, and it cost twice as much as this computer is going to, so I wasn't sure what to do about the issue of sound/speakers.

Can someone help me choose a second hard drive please? I don't understand why there are so many that appear to be the exact same but the price is different.

Since you already have a nice sound system, just get a nice audio card. I would even recommend this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102189

since it has Dolby Digital EX and DTS-EX.

As far as the hard drive, it all depends what size you want. Most of these would be great:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Subcategory=14&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

Since you have the funds, why not just go with 4 raptors than high-capacity drives?

Because he doesn't need them

 

[jorday]

K, here is the tenative parts list...

(2x) SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black IDE Model SH-S182M/BEBN - OEM

LIAN LI PC-60APLUSII W Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

eVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

Thermaltake toughpower W0117RU ATX12V/ EPS12V 750W Power Supply - Retail

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2b w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL6D-4GBMQ - Retail



Now, all I should need is to choose a sound card, monitor and I also need MS office. Am I forgetting anything. Do I need cables or anything to hook the stuff up inside?

 

[jorday]

OK somebody give me one last thumbs up here so I can place my order.

 

[Jet]

K, here is the tenative parts list...

(2x) SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black IDE Model SH-S182M/BEBN - OEM

LIAN LI PC-60APLUSII W Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

eVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

Thermaltake toughpower W0117RU ATX12V/ EPS12V 750W Power Supply - Retail

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Conroe 2.93GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557X6800 - Retail

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2b w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL6D-4GBMQ - Retail



Now, all I should need is to choose a sound card, monitor and I also need MS office. Am I forgetting anything. Do I need cables or anything to hook the stuff up inside?

1. Do you really want IDE DVD-Burners? the extra 2x isn't going to make much of a difference for most people.

2. Don't get the Thermaltake Power supply. The PC Power & Cooling will provide all the power you need. Also, you can't really compare the Thermaltake vs. the PCP&C regarding wattage as the PCP&C is one of the only companies that tells what temperature they tested their Power supplies with.
3. I also would recommend 4 1GB sticks of memory instead of 2 2GB sticks, as 2GB sticks don't have as good timings as the 1GB sticks

 

[jorday]

1. Do you really want IDE DVD-Burners? the extra 2x isn't going to make much of a difference for most people.

2. Don't get the Thermaltake Power supply. The PC Power & Cooling will provide all the power you need. Also, you can't really compare the Thermaltake vs. the PCP&C regarding wattage as the PCP&C is one of the only companies that tells what temperature they tested their Power supplies with.
3. I also would recommend 4 1GB sticks of memory instead of 2 2GB sticks, as 2GB sticks don't have as good timings as the 1GB sticks

1. What's the alternative? 2x means I wanted 2 of them to make copies of stuff. That would work right. You think I should get those liteon drives instead?

2. You don't think the Thermaltake is worth the extra bucks, or are you saying it just isn't as good?

3. Well I was going to get that corsair RAM, but they just ran out of it today.

EDIT: now it says they have the corsair ram again.

 

[Sirius_GTO]

please explain why you decided not to go with the E6600.

 

[jorday]

That was a mistake I put the wrong item down. It should be E6600. I was looking at the list of the intel stuff and must have copied and pasted the wrong thing. Do you understand what he is saying about the drives?

 

[Jet]

That was a mistake I put the wrong item down. It should be E6600. I was looking at the list of the intel stuff and must have copied and pasted the wrong thing. Do you understand what he is saying about the drives?

1. I'm sorry...I wasn't clear. I was talking about the difference between 18X and 16X with the drives. It's up to you which ones you want, both would be okay. Since you aren't wanting to use any old IDE hard drives, the IDE DVD-Burners will be okay.

2. I don't think it is worth the extra, and personally I would stick with PC Power & Cooling, because it is the best Power Supply brand in my opinion. If you wanted to spend a bit more on a power supply, then you could get this one instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703006

The only thing I am concerned about is that any of these high quality power supplies fit in your case.... I'll check this out, if I can find anything.

3. There are two different options for the Corsair memory. This other set is basically the same, but doesn't have the bigger coolers on them:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034

 

[tlarkin]

I still say go with a mac, you can resell it on ebay in a few years to buy a new one, and get around 80% revenue return with it. PCs go down in value too fast. I just sold a 4 year old ibook for 400 dollars, it retailed for just under 1000 when I bought it (though I only paid 250 for it lol).

Just something to look into if you plan on keeping up with technology.

 

[g4m3rof1337]

Koo
heres ur chance to show him ur video!
nice build
nonetheless

 

[jorday]

1. I'm sorry...I wasn't clear. I was talking about the difference between 18X and 16X with the drives. It's up to you which ones you want, both would be okay. Since you aren't wanting to use any old IDE hard drives, the IDE DVD-Burners will be okay.

2. I don't think it is worth the extra, and personally I would stick with PC Power & Cooling, because it is the best Power Supply brand in my opinion. If you wanted to spend a bit more on a power supply, then you could get this one instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703006

The only thing I am concerned about is that any of these high quality power supplies fit in your case.... I'll check this out, if I can find anything.

3. There are two different options for the Corsair memory. This other set is basically the same, but doesn't have the bigger coolers on them:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034

OK, I get it now. Thanks, man.

 

[ceewi1]

PSU wise, the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 610 is more than sufficient for your system, and definitely better quality than the Thermaltake. I'd personally go for the Corsair HX620W, which is better than the PC P&C unit. Same OEM as the PC P&C, but higher ratings all across the board (and it's rated at 50C vs the 40C of the Silencer). The modular interface is also a nice touch.

The Corsair HX520W would also be sufficient for your system, if SLI is not a consideration.

personally I would stick with PC Power & Cooling, because it is the best Power Supply brand in my opinion.

Do remember that the Silencers and Turbo Cools are from different manufacturers. The Silencers are made by Seasonic, and comparable to the other higher quality Seasonic builds. The Turbo Cools are the ones that are often regarded as some of the best PSUs, although from a quality standpoint the Zippy/Emacs server units are at least as good.

 

[Jet]

Do remember that the Silencers and Turbo Cools are from different manufacturers. The Silencers are made by Seasonic, and comparable to the other higher quality Seasonic builds. The Turbo Cools are the ones that are often regarded as some of the best PSUs, although from a quality standpoint the Zippy/Emacs server units are at least as good.

I am slowly learning about PSUs from you. Thanks for the info.

So go with the Corsair.

 

[jorday]

well shoot you guys....I placed an order already before I saw this. Do you think I should try and order the corsair power supply and return the thermaltake?

 

[Jet]

well shoot you guys....I placed an order already before I saw this. Do you think I should try and order the corsair power supply and return the thermaltake?

It's probably already too late, but don't worry about it, the Thermaltake should be fine.