[My Best Wishes]

My dad is looking to update our family computer, the main machine, but won't do so until I give him some specs etc, since I'll be the main person to use it, he works for an IT distributor company that stocks almost every major brand so chances are he is able to pick up most parts for cheap.
Could you guys give me some points/tips?
(He hasn't given me a budget which makes it harder, so if you suggest something, have like a higher cost item and a lower cost one, if that makes sense.)

I pretty much want:
A lot of storage (maybe 400GB)
A lot of Ram (Depends if running Xp or Vista I guess, maybe about 2-3gb??)
Usb 2.0 (or if there's anything higher)
We've had our existing computer for 8 years, and its still going, so something that won't need to be replaced in a hurry.
I'll mostly be using the computer for downloading, burning CD/Dvd's (DL included) Itunes (think about 100gb of content), Photoshop, maybe some games, probaby newer ones (Use Bioshock as an example).
Help appreciated!!

[Folcon]

I can try to send this to a guy a know that builds computers and see what he recomends and get it back to you in a few days. If you want.

[My Best Wishes]

Yea that'd be a big help. I'm clueless about Hardware.

[Folcon]

Alright, I'll shoot him an e-mail tomorrow.

[Toasty]

I've been working on getting parts together for a computer of my own, and I've been putting together a parts list for a high-end gaming machine for a frined of mine. His is probably going to run between 3 and 5 grand. Mine is closer to $200. XD

I can have a spec sheet with parts from newegg within a day if you'd like. (there's a lot of reviews there, so you get a good idea of which parts are good and which aren't)

[EDIT] So far I have three parts lists. One mid range, one high end, an one top end. The top end will likely cost 5 grand or more. High end somewhere between 2 and 5 grand, and the mid range will be less then 2 grand. I've already got a budget list (one that I had before, but it cost too much for me) that can be tweaked a bit. I'tll probably cost $800 to $1500. USD of course. I'll probably have the lists finished around 6PM tomorrow, give or take an hour.

[Max]

Unless you give a price range, it's really hard to recommend specific parts. I mean, I could give you a list for an $800 computer, all the way up through a $10,000 computer.

[Nick Presta]

This is a build that I'm thinking of in a couple months (obviously adjusted when I buy it due to price decrease, etc).

Motherboard: EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW Motherboard
Video Card: BFG GeForce 8800GT OC2 nVidia GeForce 8800GT Chipset (675Mhz) 512MB (1950Mhz) GDDR3 Dual Dual-Link DVI PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
Power Supply: Antec EA-650 650W ATX12V V2.0 PSU 120mm Fan
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket LGA775, 3 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache, 45nm
RAM: Crucial Ballistix (BL2KIT12864AA804) DDR2 800Mhz CL4-4-4-12 PC2 6400 2GB Kit (1GB x 2) 240-pin
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar (WD5000AAKS) 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Buffer

I'm reusing my Case, two DVD R/W drives, and monitors/keyboard/mouse.
All that comes to just under $1000 CAD, most likely cheaper in a couple months.


I think it is a decent budget build, powerful enough to do what I want without any trouble.

[Toasty]

I don't trust Western Digital. I've heard too many bad things about them, And I've run into problems with mine before as well. Only heard/experienced good thing about Seagate though.

[My Best Wishes]

Max, on May 19 2008, 11:18 PM, said:

Unless you give a price range, it's really hard to recommend specific parts. I mean, I could give you a list for an $800 computer, all the way up through a $10,000 computer.

I know, that's a problem with my dad. I asked him again after the post, and all he said was "Give me the specs and we'll work something out".

Thanks Nick, that kind of information is exactly what I was looking for. What would be the life on that computer do you think?

[Max]

That computer Nick spec'd will be able to do basic word processing and internet browsing for years and years to come. It will probably only be able to play "new" games for the next 3-4 years or so, with a steady drop in settings levels.

If you go with Windows Vista, I'd recommend going with 4GB of Ram (2x2GB), as the price difference is very small for a noticeable improvement (even if only on a 32-bit OS). Otherwise everything Nick wrote looks fine, depending on your budget. Reusing monitors, mice, and keyboard is another way to save money, though you probably don't have a spare case like Nick does.

[Nick Presta]

My plan is to usually keep my computer for a couple years, salvage what I can, and rebuild (most of the time, upgrading CPU, Video Card, and mobo). I figure it should be able to play all (normal) current games at High/Very High settings (I play at 1680x1050 resolution) and most near future games at High.

If you aren't worried about playing the latest and greatest, I'm sure there is a cheaper solution we can come up with. List your goals for this machine, your future plans for it (do you plan to keep it forever, upgrade in a couple years, etc) and we can figure out something.

[Toasty]

The GeForce 8800GT will keep you playing new games with good settings for quite some time. By the time it'd need to be replaced, the 9800GX2 will probably be about $200 give or take, and that'll keep you in buisness for another 2+ years (obviously depending on compatability, and if the average game suddenly changes it's system requirements by a lot).

As for the processor, a Quad core will keep your system in the competition for a long time. Though Intel is supposed to be comming out with 8 core CPUs sometime in the next year or something. 64 cores projected to hit in 2010/2012, or something like that. The quad-core Yorkfield is pretty expensive right now (Q9300 is about $250 to $300, QX9770 ~$1500), but I'd imagine you could get the Q9300 for about $175 - $225 next year.

Here's what I have so far:

Motherboard: Intel BOXDX48BT2 ATX
It's an Intel board, so overclocking isn't going to be amazing, but most people don't overclock anyway do to possible system instability and voiding the warranty on some parts. X48 chipset supports two full speed PCI-Express x16 2.0 slots, so you can go SLi/Crossfirewith your video if you want to. Also supports DDR3 RAM at up to 1600MHz. A bit more expensive, but offers better performance. Plus, I'd imagine that Intel might even be able to update the BIOS to allow the Nehalem processors to work on this board, though that probably won't happen. First Nehalem CPU's are due Q4 this year to Q1 of '09, so it might not be a bad idea to wait.

This board also has 8-channel audio with an optical SPDIF out for it to boot. Yay for surround sound. :D

CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9300 (Yokfield core)
The Nehalem cores are due about 6 to 10 months from now, and they're going to offer a lot more power, so I would actually wait, but this CPU should drop in price by the end of the year by at least $50.

GPU: BFG Tech GeForce 8800GT (512MB)
The 8800GT is the best bang for your buck as far as nVidida goes, except for maybe the 9800GX2 which is the absolute best in nVidia's line, and bottoms out at about $500. Also, BFG Tech is awesome. This 8800GT will keep you playing games for a while, even more-so if you buy a second one for SLi sometime in the future. Though not all games support SLi, so you might just want to upgrade to something in the 9 series when they come out with something better than the 8800GT for a decent price.

Hard Drive:
Either
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB (better quality) $64.99
or
Seagate Barracuda ST3250410AS 250GB (better price) $79.99

With

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630S 500GB $79.99
or
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB $129.99

Or you could just go with the 500GB drive, but usually smaller disks have faster write/seek times. All are 7200 RPM drives, and all have great performance (the first two write/seek 1.5 times as fast as most 7200RPM drives with average latency being 8.5ms and 10ms respectively). Plus, Seagate is a great brand.

RAM: For right now, I can't seem to find list of supported DDR3 RAM for the motherboard, so this is my best guess (it works on Intel's X38 board)
G. SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-pin DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)

The main drawback with DDR3 right now, is that it's prices are crazy. I don't know enough about G. SKILL to give you an accurate description of their quality, and on top of that, I'm not even 100% sure that these sticks will work in this board. Though this whole setup would probably be more feasable in Q4 of this year or later once prices drop. Hopefully by then, 2 2GB sticks of DDR3 won't cost $400. D:
This is, however, the best I could find for close to or under $100.

Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750 Watt PSU
Corsairs PSU's are pretty good, and this one should be able to provide all the power you'll need. If you don't mind spending some extra cash though, PC Power & Cooling has one that hits 825 Watts.
Both are 80 PLUS certified (80% or better efficiency) so you'll waste less energy and spend less money on your power bill. Both have great reviews, but PC Power & Cooling has the superior quality here.


Case: RAIDMAX AZTEC ATX Black/Yellow SECC Steel
If you're not using you're old case, I'd suggest this one. I'm intending on getting one myself as it's gotten great reviews, it's a decent price, and the features it offers are awesome. The motherboard tray folds out so you can install everything without the rest of the case getting in the way, it has tool-less drive installation, and it has a fan directly over th GPU (plus a retainer for said GPU). On top of that, it comes in a few different colors, and looks pretty cool imo.
Orange (has a $20 rebate if you get it from newegg)
Blue (has a $30 rebate if you get it frm newegg)
Silver

So that's the setup I have for you. It'll cost somewhere between $1075 and $1250 before mail-in rebates (that's if you got this stff from NewEgg. I'm too lazy to scour the web for the best prices on these parts. :D).

$1075 gets you the Corsair PSU with 250GB of storage, and $1250 gets you the PC Power & Cooling PSU with 1TB of storage (using the 750GB dive and the better quality 250GB drive).
I'd buy it myself if I knew for ure the RAM would work wthout any problems what-so-ever. Dang DDR3....

Nick's setup looks pretty good though. the 750i chipset from Nvidia should be fine for what you're looking at. Plus, DDR2 is by FAR less expensive.

I'm assuming Nick meant this board, so there's some pictures of it for you. The only thing I'd change in his setup, would be getting some faster RAM, and using the 500GB Seagate HDD I linked to earlier in this post, as it has faster access times (plus, it's Seagate. :D)

The Core 2 Quad Q9300 wouldn't be a bad upgrade either if you can spend the extra cash.

[My Best Wishes]

:D I'll be honest Toasty, I didn't understand alot of what you just said, but it sounded neat, and I do appreciate the effort you put in.

Nick Presta, on May 21 2008, 08:00 AM, said:

If you aren't worried about playing the latest and greatest, I'm sure there is a cheaper solution we can come up with. List your goals for this machine, your future plans for it (do you plan to keep it forever, upgrade in a couple years, etc) and we can figure out something.

What I want for the computer is:
Have an almost infinite amount of space (won't need to worry about space issues, currently thats the biggest problem).
USB 2.0 (or above if it exists)
Have more Ram then it needs for awhile.
It needs to be able to run MYOB (Accounting software)
I would like good video and audio quailtiy (although I guess audio is more speakers)
To be able to run games smoothly for a few years, I don't think that in 2-3 years I'll really be a avid gamer, not that I am now. Probably not high end games, I don't really have any examples.
To be able to multiple tasks at once, eg, syncing a Ipod, transcoding a video, playing a game.

The life of the computer would most likely exceed 5-6 years, as by then I don't think the need for one will be so great (I'll be gone, parents have laptops), so long life and cost awareness are a factor.

[Toasty]

Video decoding/encoding takes up a lot of processing power, so you'll want an extra core for that.

But really, Nick's setup with the adjustments I suggested would be pretty good for what you're looking for. Definately a better deal than what Dell or any other computer manufacturer would offer. Especially if your dad can get the parts at discount prices.

If you ever need any more storage space in the future than what that setup will offer, you could always buy another drive. By then, a 500GB drive will be even cheaper.

[Nick Presta]

Newegg has a deal on 750GB drives for $129. Free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148298

[Toasty]

It's an AS model, so it's not as good in quality as the more expensive NS model, but since it's a 7200.11 model it'll run faster. Plus, a 32MB cache is a lot. It's a really good deal.

[Lemontime]

As has been said before, don't get Western Digital hard drives, they suck ***!
Mine died after about a year :S

[Max]

To be fair to WD, Lemontime, I've exclusively bought WD drivers for almost 5 years now, and have not had any problems with them. That's about 4 or 5 drives, all large capacity 7200RPM models, and they all continue to work just fine. If your drive dies after a year, it should still be under warranty and replaceable.

[Nick Presta]

Ars put out this article recently. Perhaps you can use the Budget build (or a variation of the Hot Rod)?

[My Best Wishes]

Thanks for the find Nick, I'll send that through to my dad. I also gave him the parts that you and Toasty suggested and he's going to give it to his IT guys to have a look at.