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Well it has been a few years since I have looked at building a new computer. my file servers mobo took a dump and I nothing to replace it with except my curent computer (unless sombody has a EPOX 8RDA3+ they can sell).

So I guess its time to build a new computer from the foundation up. I don't know whats good to use any more so im looking for input on what to build. Mu current computer is a AMD 3000 64 with a gig of ram and a X850XL video card.

What I will be buying will be a new mobo, CPU, RAM, and a video card. I don't need bleeding edge stuff, but I am willing to spend more for quality or slighty better peformance that will make it last longer. I am not willing to do SLI unless it gives a 100% increase in speed (due to 100%+ in price) and i dont need a super good video card. this 850XL has been good to me.

I dont care about intel / amd. I dont know if chipset is still an issue with stuff. I have been running Nforce chipsets since they came out wiht no problems. So if there is somthing as good as that or better I would be willing to change. hell im probbly going to have to since they probbly dont even make that any more.

Thanks for the input.

What is this computer expected to be used for mostly?

i went from almost the same rig you have to a core2 duo 2ghz and ended up with an 8800gt - in the end it is almost three times as fast for gaming.

Like it has been said, gaming. But i dont need anything super fast. Well i can figure out what speeds i want, im mainly in the dark with as to what parts to use now. what video cards are worth a crap, and what mobo cpu ram combos to use.

This is still one of the best "Bang for the Buck" video cards on the market.. GL!

eGo

Quad core and 8800GT baby!

Executioner wrote:Quad core and 8800GT baby!

ok, who makes a decent mobo? and thats AMD? so i take it a Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz is near the best thing out there now?

Here are the video cards ranked in performance order with the lowest prices I've seen.
ATI 4870 X2 - $600
Nvidia 280 GTX - $400
ATI 4870, Nvidia GTX 260 - $250
ATI 4850 - $150, Nvidia 9800 GTX $175
Nvidia 8800 GT - $100, Nvidia 9800 GT - $140

Here's a good review with most of the video cards:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341

Here's a review with the 4870 X2 and other cards in SLI (2 Nvidia cards) and CF (Crossfire 2 ATI cards)
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3354

ok that CPU i picked has a Hyper Transports: 4000MHz but none of the mobos have anything over 2600? so thats bad right? or am i missing somthing now due to ddr2 or ddr3?

it seems DDR3 is intel only? and super expensive it seems. So i take it im going to want to stick to a DDR2 system? and what quad core is better the intel or AMD?

Pugsley wrote:ok, who makes a decent mobo? and thats AMD? so i take it a Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz is near the best thing out there now?

The Phenoms don't overclock very well even with the Black Edition you're lucky to get a 20% overclock. A lot of people are getting 50%+ overclocks out of the Intel Quad Cores plus they are about 10% faster clock for clock then the Phenoms. You've got to directly compare the prices of the CPU and the motherboards.

$260 Phenom 9950 Black Edition equals performance of $199 Intel Q6600 at stock speeds. Phenom 9950 only overclocks from 2.6 to 2.8-3.0 where the Intel Q6600 overclocks from 2.4 to 3.2-3.6. If you don't overclock it's not an issue.

Here's a link to the HardForum Official Intel Core 2 OverClocking Database:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1138241

CPU:
Stick with Intel right now. Best bang for the buck in what I suspect is your price range would be one of these:

Dual Core E7300 2.66GHz 1333MHz FSB 3Mb L2 cache for $140 retail: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115132

Dual Core E8200 2.66GHz 1333MHz FSB 6Mb L2 cache for $165 retail (this has double the cache of the E7300): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115038

Dual core E8500 3.16GHz 1333MHz FSB 6Mb L2 cache for $190 retail: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115036

Quad core Q6600 2.4GHz 1066MHz FSB 2x4Mb L2 cache for $190 retail: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115017

Unless you're overclocking (and I see no reason to nowadays) buy retail - it's a $10 difference which is worth it for the heatsink and the full warranty.

I'd go with the dual core instead of quad. For the same price you get a faster clock and FSB, and honestly (having a quad myself) nothing much really makes use of a quad core except a couple of video transcoders out there.


MOTHERBOARD:
I'd stick with Asus for a mobo. This is a nice price on the feature rich Asus P5K Pro. It's crossfire which you don't need, but it's a nice mobo for $105 (I assume it's on sale): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131275
You could probably find a less expensive mobo - maybe someone else can recommend one, but realistically I think you'll be close to $100 for a decent one unless you come across a sale. NOTE: Be aware this mobo is really designed for SATA drives. It does have one EIDE port (a rather slow ATA100 port) but it's intended for an optical drive, although it should also boot a hard drive from it. Pretty much all modern mobos are SATA now.


MEMORY:
Yeah most mobos still use DDR2 unless they're very high end enthusiast boards. Honestly, the performance difference is nil unless you buy an expensive high-end CPU, and DDR3 is more than double the price of DD2. You can get 2Gb (2x1Gb kit) for $42 or a 4Gb (2x2Gb kit) of DDR2 for $86 from Crucial. Stick with Crucial if you're not overclocking. Nothing more aggravating than having memory timing issues. If Crucial's online database says this memory works on your mobo, it WILL work without having to fiddle around with BIOS. You can get away with 2Gb and if you use a mobo with 4 slots, you can install another 2Gb later on if you want (although you will only see 3Gb if you run a 32bit OS): http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts. ... =P5K%20PRO


VIDEO CARD:
NVidia 8800GT is still a great video card for the money. This PNY 8800GT for $110 uses the reference design and should be rock solid: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814133232


POWER SUPPLY:
You need a PSU with dual 12 volt rails rated at a minimum of 18amps. The wattage rating of the PSU is meaningless nowadays, it's the amperage of the 12 volt rails that matter, although generally the wattage rating for a PSU in that range is somewhere between 550 and 650watts. 2 x 18 amps for a total of 36 amps is the MINIMUM for a modern gaming system IMO. More would be better. This is a nice deal on a Rosewill 600W PSU with 19 amps on each 12 volt rail for $80 (and they have a $30 rebate for it): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182032


I'm assuming you are going to re-cycle your case, hard drive and optical drive?

So to sum up, this would be a nice system:

E8200 CPU: $165
Asus P5K Pro mobo: $105
Crucial 2x1Gb DDR2 RAM: $42
PNY 8800GT Video for $110
Rosewill 600W PSU: $80

TOTAL: $502

Not too shabby for a nice gaming rig. Comparable to what I'm playing on right now.

This at least gives you a base system to start from. I'd really recommend going for the E8500 CPU if you can spare the money, but since you're not looking for a powerhouse even the lowly E7300 would do a good job for you if money's tight.

I'd also shop around for combo specials on Newegg, TigerDirect (much as I hate those guys personally, they do have good deals) and some others. For instance Newegg has a combo deal on that mobo with a computer case.

Hope this helps...

This is the exact board and processor I got from TigerDirect ($299):

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3896468&Sku=MBM-680-Q6600B

I've have no problems from the board or processor. You'll need to add a CPU heatsink in order to be able to return the processor to TigerDirect.

This is the heatsink I have ($29.00). It's fairly quiet and cools well:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2844210&CatId=493

For memory stick with Crucial PC 6400. A 4GB kit is $89:

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=270A4217A5CA7304

I recommend the 8800GTS as a video card. Newegg has the EVGA 8800GTS for &129 after rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130317&Tpk=8800%20GTS

Assuming that you'll recycle everything else in your computer, you're looking at ~$550 less shipping.

That's not a bad deal for the mobo/CPU combo from TigerIndirect, but in this day in age I would avoid mobos with fans on the Northbridge or else cough up the extra $10 for a Zalman Northbridge fanless heat sink.

Thanks FP, thats the info i was looking for. Im not on a budget, but I don't like to waste money on crap i don't really need. I was in the right ballpark then with what i was looking at. Thanks again for the help.

Would a 10k drive be loud? right now the loudest thing in my computer is the HD and was wondering if it would be worth it to get a 10K drive for the OS and games?

Thanks

EDIT.. skip 10k.

Has anybody used any of them 5400-7200 auto spin drives? was thinking of getting one of them due to the fact my computer sits and folds for 5 days out of the week and the HD is not needed that often. that and noise.