<$2000 PC build

Brutus · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:54 pm Post subject: <$2000 PC build

Similar to the <$200 build, Im doing a <$2000 build. NEVER paid so much for a PC but I need to ride that bleeding edge now. Sad

What's worse is Im rusty and the tech has changed a little. :/

Anyway, all this came to about $1700. Thoughts?

Intel Core2 Duo 3GHz (775) - E6850
MSI P35D3 Plat Mobo - P35, 775, ATX, Audio, PCI-E, LAN, eSATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB 7200 SATA-300
Corsair XMS3 2048MB Dual Channel PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory
Samsung SH-S203B (DVD RW)
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS Extreme, 640MB DDR3, PCI-E, 600 Mhz
OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply
Logitech X-230 / 2.1 / 32Watt / Black / PC Multimedia Speaker System
Vista (64 bit)
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Drunken Monkey · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:22 pm Post subject:

the comp im building is just a little more, 2,100 and has 2 individual duel core 3.0GHz gaming CPUs, but your comp looks like it will have an even better cost v benefit factor Smile

good luck, hope it works well for ya, does look good
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Atomiktoaster · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:47 pm Post subject: Re: <$2000 PC build

Brutus wrote:

Similar to the <$200 build, Im doing a <$2000 build. NEVER paid so much for a PC but I need to ride that bleeding edge now. Sad

What's worse is Im rusty and the tech has changed a little. :/

Anyway, all this came to about $1700. Thoughts?

Intel Core2 Duo 3GHz (775) - E6850
MSI P35D3 Plat Mobo - P35, 775, ATX, Audio, PCI-E, LAN, eSATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB 7200 SATA-300
Corsair XMS3 2048MB Dual Channel PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory
Samsung SH-S203B (DVD RW)
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS Extreme, 640MB DDR3, PCI-E, 600 Mhz
OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply
Logitech X-230 / 2.1 / 32Watt / Black / PC Multimedia Speaker System
Vista (64 bit)

The 8800 GTS 640 is not the best bet. You want to go with one of the new G92 chips, which means an 8800GT 512 or a 8800 GTS 512. What resolution is your monitor? If it's not 20" or bigger, you can probably get away with an 8800 GT 256. The 512 mb cards really shine at the ultra high rez. It might be worth waiting for the 9800, which is rumored for February sometime. If you're willing to OC, some of the high multiplier allendales really shine, the E2xxx series esp. Socket 775 is supposed to be obsolete by the end of the year when Nehalem comes out, so your motherboard doesn't have to be too future proof. I'm not sure I'd go with a DDR3 board, because the Core 2 Duo won't see much of a difference between that and solid DDR2-800 (if you get good stuff, you can OC it to 1200). The other thing about the MSI board is that it supports crossfire, but you're going the Nvidia route (which is where the best high end performance is for the foreseeable future). If you want the dual card option for the future, you'll have to go with a 680i chipset board. As far as PSU, the name that gets thrown around a lot in that wattage range is the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W. You might consider a Western Digital Raptor 10k RPM drive in addition to put your OS and games on.
Do you have a case you're looking at?

Sharky Extreme does a rotating feature where they build $1000, $2500 and $4000 PC builds. The last $2500 build was in September, so there's another due in a couple days. I'd check that out. Here's the old one.

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/10707_3701166__8

Let us know how it goes.

massive · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 2:15 pm Post subject: Re: <$2000 PC build

Brutus wrote:

Thoughts?

Intel Core2 Duo 3GHz (775) - E6850
MSI P35D3 Plat Mobo - P35, 775, ATX, Audio, PCI-E, LAN, eSATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB 7200 SATA-300
Corsair XMS3 2048MB Dual Channel PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory
Samsung SH-S203B (DVD RW)
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS Extreme, 640MB DDR3, PCI-E, 600 Mhz
OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply
Logitech X-230 / 2.1 / 32Watt / Black / PC Multimedia Speaker System
Vista (64 bit)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB 7200 SATA-300 x2
Corsair XMS3 2048MB Dual Channel PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory I'd do 4GB
Samsung SH-S203B (DVD RW) Why not double layer?
Vista (64 bit) UGGH - I loathe vista (e.g. 7 clicks just to change the time or date!)
What case??

All in all a nice system... I prefer AMD tho
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Brutus · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:07 pm Post subject:

Wow you guys are fast, and good! Very Happy

I will probably wait for the next-gen video card if its coming in February. I figured something was about to break there. I currently have dual 22" and 19"CRTs but will likely go to a single 30" wide screen soon.

Dont i need the high mobo bus speeds if I want to use higher speed RAM?

I'll check out Sharkyextreme for an update. If you see something pop there though please post it here as I will likely forget if its not there today. Rolling Eyes

For a case Im looking at the Rosewill line.
Rosewill R5604-TBK 0.8mm SECC Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower was my favorite when I made this list.

I had two hard drives at first with a 0+1 RAID configuration. Then I said eh... I do think I will go that route in the end though.

What is double layer DVD?

4GB, yeah probably huh... Shit is only going to get crazier and my 1GB is getting totally swamped already.

I think I NEED Vista (probably home premium 64-bit). I want the 64-bit support for my new artsy programs and directX-10 support for next-gen games. That requires Vista right? XP 64-bit doesn't cut it and XP wont support DirectX-10 architecture needs IIRC...
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RK-Mara · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:48 pm Post subject:

I'd still go with DDR2. DDR3 is simply too expensive.

You can get 2Gb DDR2 800MHz for $45 and 2Gb DDR3 1333Mhz for $240. Especially if you are going with 4Gb, it would just get too expensive.
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Atomiktoaster · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 6:37 pm Post subject:

Brutus wrote:

Dont i need the high mobo bus speeds if I want to use higher speed RAM?

For a case Im looking at the Rosewill line.
Rosewill R5604-TBK 0.8mm SECC Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower was my favorite when I made this list.

I had two hard drives at first with a 0+1 RAID configuration. Then I said eh... I do think I will go that route in the end though.

With an intel CPU, what you need to do is match the Ram bus speed with the CPU speed, taking into account that Intell lists its processors specs for a quad pumped bus and DDR is for a double pumped bus. To make it simple, CPU FSB/4 < RAM DDR2 rate/2. So since the highest rated intel CPUs are FSB 1333 (=333 MHz) then DDR2-677 (=333 MHz) would suffice. Higher rated RAM allows you to overclock, and can give a small performance boost.

As far as cases, the RAIDMAX Smilodon, Coolermaster Stacker and Antec 900 come up a lot. Worth a look. I've heard bad things about Rosewill PSUs, but the cases could be alright.

With RAID, RAID 0 is really all that makes sense to me for home use. RAID 1 provides uptime, but backing up to an external regularly is better file security, in case of a virus or lightning strike or something. RAID 5 requires a dedicated controller, or else you lose performance due to the CPU doing the parity calculations. RAID 0 does increase speed, but also increases the risk of file loss. Here's a good sticky post on RAID from Tom's Hardware Forums.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/43125-32-raid

Brutus · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:06 pm Post subject:

Sweet info. Thanks!
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ChrisT · Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:35 am Post subject:

I agree with toaster.
hold off for the gfx card, I just hooked up my quad core, but I need to get some memory tomorrow, I'll let you know how well it runs. As for vista I would stick with it, everything is going that way. I have had a Raid 0 array for years now and it has worked wonders, you should backup anything pertinant on a external drive anyway.

as for dual layer discs, your writer ought to do them, however they are a waste. The discs are much too expensive, and anything you want can be compressed to a single layer disc anyway. I don't really know ayone that uses them.
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Brutus · Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:33 am Post subject:

Slaughter wrote:

I agree with toaster.
hold off for the gfx card, I just hooked up my quad core, but I need to get some memory tomorrow, I'll let you know how well it runs. As for vista I would stick with it, everything is going that way. I have had a Raid 0 array for years now and it has worked wonders, you should backup anything pertinant on a external drive anyway.

as for dual layer discs, your writer ought to do them, however they are a waste. The discs are much too expensive, and anything you want can be compressed to a single layer disc anyway. I don't really know ayone that uses them.

Cool. Ill wait. I agree with the backup stuff elsewhere. Im a menace with my machines. More balls than brains = frequent full installs.
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ChrisT · Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:52 pm Post subject:

I need an external floppy drive or an external enclosure for a floppy Crying or Very sad

My mobo doesn't have a connection for an internal and I need to install raid drivers.
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Atomiktoaster · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:09 pm Post subject:

Can you install the RAID drivers from a USB flash drive or slipstream them into a CD? I think it depends on the motherboard.

Raed · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:30 pm Post subject: Re: <$2000 PC build

Brutus wrote:

Similar to the <$200 build, Im doing a <$2000 build. NEVER paid so much for a PC but I need to ride that bleeding edge now. Sad

What's worse is Im rusty and the tech has changed a little. :/

Anyway, all this came to about $1700. Thoughts?

Intel Core2 Duo 3GHz (775) - E6850
MSI P35D3 Plat Mobo - P35, 775, ATX, Audio, PCI-E, LAN, eSATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB 7200 SATA-300
Corsair XMS3 2048MB Dual Channel PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory
Samsung SH-S203B (DVD RW)
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS Extreme, 640MB DDR3, PCI-E, 600 Mhz
OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply
Logitech X-230 / 2.1 / 32Watt / Black / PC Multimedia Speaker System
Vista (64 bit)

I wouldn't go with that PSU due to the voltage ripple. Check out the bottom of this page. http://jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=35&page_num=2

If you are looking for a PSU, jonnyguru.com offers a lot of thorough reviews.

Like others said, I'd go with an 8800GT and a DDR2 mobo/RAM set because 775 wont have many new CPU's being released. You may want to look into 4GB to take advantage of 64bit Vista.
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Brutus · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:49 am Post subject:

Ok.

I have been reading quite a bit. They say next gen video cards will be much better and should be available (and stable) by mid-year. Based on reviewes Im not even in a hurry to buy the best of the current video cards (based on Vista_GPU performace etc...).

It sounds like my machine will be good until probably 2009 anyway (expected game support for XP and DirextX9).
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nav · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:36 pm Post subject:

Quote:

I think I NEED Vista (probably home premium 64-bit). I want the 64-bit support for my new artsy programs and directX-10 support for next-gen games. That requires Vista right? XP 64-bit doesn't cut it and XP wont support DirectX-10 architecture needs IIRC...

There were rumors flying around recently that DirectX 10 would run on Windows XP, but I'm not sure how valid any of them are. A quick Google search of "windows xp directx 10" doesn't make it look too promising.

If I had a guess, Microsoft is going to make sure that DirectX10 will absolutely not run on anything other than Vista, considering the strong resistance across the board to adopting their new operating system.
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