12-16-2006, 04:51 PM
I am planning to build a computer for Mr. Gris for the holidays, and as luck would have it the recent storm seems to have killed his old one. I've built a couple of computers before, but always from a parts list put together by a friend. This time, I'm trying it myself, and this is our first computer since the days of PCI express and dual-core processors, so I had quite a bit of learning to do to even get started. I am trying to spend around $800, and have a list that is just a tad over.
He's going to have to keep his old monitor, DVD drive, OS, and extra hard drive to make this fit in the budget. Also, we are going SLI but only buying one video card for now. He wanted dual-DVI outs, just in case he adds a second monitor, someday.
So, take a look at this list. How does it look?
CPU- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core 4200+ retail $172
(this is the 89W, I don't know what the difference is between that and the 65W)
MB- ASUS M2N4-SLI nForce4 Sempron/Athlon $94.99
I'm a little nervous that this board accepts Semprons, but it also takes the Athlon 64, and appears to be the same chipset as some of its more expensive relatives.
VID- XFX PV-T73G-UGD3 GeForce 7600GT 256 MB $149.99 before $20 rebate
RAM- Corsair TWIN 2x2048 DDR2-800 $257 before $40 rebate
OK, we're spending some cash here. It doesn't seem like we want to skimp on memory, though. Please note that this appears to be two 1024 sticks, not two 2048 sticks (silly and excessive)
Power- Seasonic S12 500W $119.99
Should be enough juice to power that second vid card if/when we get it.
HD- Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB SATA II $50.99
He has a couple of old HDs to move over, but wanted a fast one for (at minimum) the OS.
Case- RAIDMAX xB ATX528BP w/ lame power supply $41.99
I'd rather spend the money on a better case without a cheap power supply, but there were no cheaper ones that had front USB ports.
The free shipping from zipzoomfly is nice. Obviously, I'll shop my list around a little when I'm sure that I'm not going to change any parts except maybe the case. I might just get the case locally, too.
Ideas?
He's going to have to keep his old monitor, DVD drive, OS, and extra hard drive to make this fit in the budget. Also, we are going SLI but only buying one video card for now. He wanted dual-DVI outs, just in case he adds a second monitor, someday.
So, take a look at this list. How does it look?
CPU- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core 4200+ retail $172
(this is the 89W, I don't know what the difference is between that and the 65W)
MB- ASUS M2N4-SLI nForce4 Sempron/Athlon $94.99
I'm a little nervous that this board accepts Semprons, but it also takes the Athlon 64, and appears to be the same chipset as some of its more expensive relatives.
VID- XFX PV-T73G-UGD3 GeForce 7600GT 256 MB $149.99 before $20 rebate
RAM- Corsair TWIN 2x2048 DDR2-800 $257 before $40 rebate
OK, we're spending some cash here. It doesn't seem like we want to skimp on memory, though. Please note that this appears to be two 1024 sticks, not two 2048 sticks (silly and excessive)
Power- Seasonic S12 500W $119.99
Should be enough juice to power that second vid card if/when we get it.
HD- Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB SATA II $50.99
He has a couple of old HDs to move over, but wanted a fast one for (at minimum) the OS.
Case- RAIDMAX xB ATX528BP w/ lame power supply $41.99
I'd rather spend the money on a better case without a cheap power supply, but there were no cheaper ones that had front USB ports.
The free shipping from zipzoomfly is nice. Obviously, I'll shop my list around a little when I'm sure that I'm not going to change any parts except maybe the case. I might just get the case locally, too.
Ideas?
Why can't we all just get along
--Pete
--Pete