Recommended Computer Parts Guide

**serverguy** · #46 07-07-2008, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by Carbon

Well, the only way I could do that is to compile prices for certain pieces of hardware in US, then the UK, take the average and spit it out every week. I'm willing to do that, but time may not permit, and I think you'd end up with a lot of numbers. I don't think a lot of numbers is going to be very useful for non-technical people, but I'll think of a way to possibly work it in.

You don't necessarily need to mention actual prices, just ball parks.

Just an overview of what happening in the hardware world.

**thingie2** · #47 07-07-2008, 11:02 PM

Isn't that what the Newsbot does though?

**serverguy** · #48 07-07-2008, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by thingie2

Isn't that what the Newsbot does though?

Kind of, but can you keep up with all the posts he makes?

**thingie2** · #49 07-07-2008, 11:13 PM

All the ones that interest me, yes, however, even if you try to sum it all up yourself, it will still be just as much stuff, so won't rearly make it any better, but if you feel like you can, by all means, go for it

**Bubba** · #50 31-07-2008, 04:34 PM

Hello Carbon,

This is Death Stalker from the steam forums. I would send this via PM but i can't lol so here's hoping you read this.

I'm building a computer for a friend. His HDD fried through a lightning strike and he was ready to upgrade anyways. If you remeber, the only thing i have built was a high end gaming computer and he doesn't need anything like that, no one in his family games. He has a teenage son who just wants to download music and video's, his wife does catering so she wants to be able to design fliers and such and he doesn't do much of anything lol. His budget is somewhere around 700 bucks or so.

I read your recommendations but can't find the P35C on either Newegg or Fry's. I want to give him upgradability (with value of course) so I want something capable of FSB up to 1600 and able to use DDR3 when it becomes cheaper.

With the price of the Q6600 dropping so much would you recommend it over the E8400 now? ($169.00 for the E8400, $179.00 for the Q6600 as of today on Newegg).

Soundcard: How were you able to get your Xfi to work with Vista? Write your own drivers?

Radeon vs NVidia: I've heard the nVidia GFX cards are better for gaming while the Radeon for movies and such. Any truth to that? If not then do you have a recommendation of one of the cards you suggested over the other, or just get the one that is cheaper when we buy?

2 GB's of the 800 RAM should be more enough for them shouldn't it? I'm also thinking (without having seen the dead computer) that the DVD and floppy should be reusable. LOL I don't even have a floppy in this machine.

Thanks in advance and I can't wait for the guide part 2 to come out.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot the PSU. I also forget what you think of Thermaltake. I'll see if Fry's has the Coolermaster, but if they don't I know they have Thermaltake. (Here is Georgia, there is a "tax holiday" today through SUnday for "back to school" items so I'll try to pick stuff up locally rather than Newegg if the prices are comparable).

**Carbon** · #51 31-07-2008, 11:55 PM

1600FSB won't really matter, you want 1333FSB. 1600FSB is for stuff like the Extremes, it's quite unlikely we're going to see any more Core 2 stuff at a higher frequency. Worst case scenario is that you can just up the FSB on the new CPU (most will say 1333, 1600 supported through overcliocking)

Really, it's not that the Q6600 was overpriced before, they're really neck and neck. Neither processor is going to edge out the other - the quad _might_ be better for multitasking, but the dual _might_ be better with the higher clock speed. I would go for the E8400 if the son wants to learn a little and do some overclocking - it's a fun project. You might very well consider a E7200 here though.

My Xtremegamer worked with the beta drivers 100%. Biggest problem I've had is it showing the menus in Japanese because I have non-unicode programs set to use it, which is a stupid mistake on Creative's part.

There is no difference in video fidelity between the two. There was a large argument about this on the Steam forums and we came to the conclusion that they're exactly the same. I would get a 9600GT or cheap 8800GTS 320 or something so that he can game later. You could also buy a cheap PCI-E card off eBay too.

2GB will work, DVD will work (every motherboard out there has at least 1 IDE channel). Just don't get a IDE hard drive or you'll have to mess with master/slave on the cable which is annoying as hell.

If you've got the Corsairs at Fry's, get those. I was in Seattle a few days ago and their Frys had the 450W Corsair CM450, so I think you'll be able to find one.

In this scenario, I would usually just say buy a secondhand PC. But if the family ever wants to make it into a media center PC or their son ever wants to get into gaming, this is good too. You may want to consider building this as micro-ATX or into a small case, that way if they want to do the former it'll be easy.

**Bubba** · #52 01-08-2008, 02:46 AM

Oh yeah, thanks. That E7200 at $119 is quite enough for him and with what they want to do, much better than the $179. I was also thinking of a smaller case, maybe an Antec 300. Bad news is the first person they took the fried computer to threw it away (I got to talk to the dude, it was a 6 year old HP or something like that and he said that nothing was salvageable, except for the DVD but he didn't look at it because he didn't know they had replaced the original one). Good news is that Newegg has a decent R/W burner for 24 bucks today lol.

Fry's had a Coolmaster PSU, 500w or 450, I forget (I went today after I posted) at a reasonable price so since you think 450 would be enough we'll probably go with it.

Since you don't think he will ever use the 1600MHz capability of the Mobo I spec'ed or the DDR3, have you a suggestion for a cheaper 1333 one? Correction, I didn't spec one, I used another post on this thread and priced out the GA EP35C DS3R. 139 Newegg, 159 Fry's. As always, I appreciate your advice.

On the Soundblaster/Vista thing......... I have more to say on that as I did extensive research on it and wrote an article about it, but now is not the time or thread. If/when I ever get PM privileges here I'll shoot you one off on the subject.

SIDE NOTE: I didn't know what a micro ATX was but after googling it, I think it is a viable option for them. If I am reading and understanding correctly, the microATX has onboard Graphics, audio, and ethernet, thus saving the cost basically of a graphics card since the ones I looked at have the other two lol but that is at roughly 200 bucks for the GFX card alone. Have you a suggestion for a Micro ATX? One of the articles I read was this one http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...re-2,1366.html

Is it an accurate portrayal of what you are reffering to?

**Bubba** · #53 01-08-2008, 03:21 AM

Thanks carbon. I wrote another reply but it seems to have been auto snagged. See if I can remember the high points........

Think the E7200 will be a good fit for them. Gotta suggestion for a MicroATX? There was MUCH more but I really hate having posts deleted for reasons I don't understand so I really don't know where go or what else to say. I obviously, inadvertently, in my quest for information stepped on some British toes but I have no clue what or how. Just damn.

**evilfantasy** · #54 01-08-2008, 03:46 AM

Originally Posted by Bubba

Thanks carbon. I wrote another reply but it seems to have been auto snagged.

Approved

**Carbon** · #55 01-08-2008, 03:50 AM

If you did something wrong they'd tell you, likely the forum just ate it.

P5Q-EM is the best MATX board right now, G45 has a serious problem where the max PCI-E slot speed is x4. However, I don't even think it's available in the US.

Therefore, the old MATX standby is the GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L. Anything based on the 945GC northbridge is OK too.

edit:

Approved

Oh, so you guys screen all the "New Member" posts? That makes sense. Let me address that post too, hold on..

edit 2:

Originally Posted by Bubba

Oh yeah, thanks. That E7200 at $119 is quite enough for him and with what they want to do, much better than the $179. I was also thinking of a smaller case, maybe an Antec 300. Bad news is the first person they took the fried computer to threw it away (I got to talk to the dude, it was a 6 year old HP or something like that and he said that nothing was salvageable, except for the DVD but he didn't look at it because he didn't know they had replaced the original one). Good news is that Newegg has a decent R/W burner for 24 bucks today lol.

Antec 300 is nice. Small ATX would be just as good as a MATX, I suppose, just depends on how small you want.

Fry's had a Coolmaster PSU, 500w or 450, I forget (I went today after I posted) at a reasonable price so since you think 450 would be enough we'll probably go with it.

I don't like Coolermaster - they make a lot of mediocre stuff and do like dual 16A rails, which is not very good. If you see a single-rail PSU of a decent brand over 30A (or, really, 25A), get that instead!

Since you don't think he will ever use the 1600MHz capability of the Mobo I spec'ed or the DDR3, have you a suggestion for a cheaper 1333 one? Correction, I didn't spec one, I used another post on this thread and priced out the GA EP35C DS3R. 139 Newegg, 159 Fry's. As always, I appreciate your advice.

See below, that one's good too but a little outdated. P41 and P45 are good choices, as well as X38/X48.

SIDE NOTE: I didn't know what a micro ATX was but after googling it, I think it is a viable option for them. If I am reading and understanding correctly, the microATX has onboard Graphics, audio, and ethernet, thus saving the cost basically of a graphics card since the ones I looked at have the other two lol but that is at roughly 200 bucks for the GFX card alone.
Is it an accurate portrayal of what you are reffering to?

Sort of - not _all_ MATX motherboards have those things, though. It's just a standard for smaller machines. They're nice for HTPC stuff, but some ATX cases like the Antec 300 are smaller than a MATX "Full-Tower" or "Desktop". If you're looking for a case smaller than the length of a motherboard + PSU, MATX is a good fit.

**serverguy** · #56 01-08-2008, 09:30 AM

Oh, so you guys screen all the "New Member" posts? That makes sense. Let me address that post too, hold on..

I think its just when they include a link to an external site. So stops spammers in their tracks.

**Bubba** · #57 01-08-2008, 02:59 PM

Thanks again Carbon, you too Evilfantasy and servergod for the explanation. Makes sense except I'm too stupid to be a spammer. I'm a Stalker LOL, I stalked Carbon here from another site. (J/K, he referred me over here, and I went by my "gaming name" Death Stalker over there).

On another note: I KNOW I will have specific problems/questions on this build not addressed in the building tutorial thread. Of course I will search through other threads before I post a new thread, but should they be here or in the software section as the questions will more than likely address both software AND hardware? I don't want to do a bunch of threads or get of topic ON a thread but I'm still too new here to have PM capability. (IE: THIS note/question on this thread lol).

EDIT: my friend thanks you as well Carbon, you saved him $170 PLUS the cost of a GFX card on the MoBo and chipset alone.

**Dave Hybrid** · #58 01-08-2008, 03:08 PM

We screen new member posts with live links to prevent spam.

**serverguy** · #59 01-08-2008, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by Bubba

Thanks again Carbon, you too Evilfantasy and servergod for the explanation. Makes sense except I'm too stupid to be a spammer. I'm a Stalker LOL, I stalked Carbon here from another site. (J/K, he referred me over here, and I went by my "gaming name" Death Stalker over there).

On another note: I KNOW I will have specific problems/questions on this build not addressed in the building tutorial thread. Of course I will search through other threads before I post a new thread, but should they be here or in the software section as the questions will more than likely address both software AND hardware? I don't want to do a bunch of threads or get of topic ON a thread but I'm still too new here to have PM capability. (IE: THIS note/question on this thread lol).

EDIT: my friend thanks you as well Carbon, you saved him $170 PLUS the cost of a GFX card on the MoBo and chipset alone.

If its a question about actual hardware (like plugging things in) then it goes in the hardware section.

If its anything that involves using the computer and screen, then its software.

But either way, I'm sure someone will help you out.

~~matthewforu~~ · #60 01-08-2008, 05:57 PM

I agree with the above quote.