Limited Custom Computer Build

[Skye]

Hey all. (And no, the title is not an oxymoron.)

In a nutshell, I want some help picking out a computer.

I will be getting a brand new rig in the next couple of months with a budget in the ballpark of $2,000 USD. I am not competent enough to build a system from scratch yet (I'm afraid of missing required power cables or physically breaking the motherboard while putting it in), but I definitely don't want to order a standard-Joe rig from any of the normal brand names: they simply can't provide what I am looking for (short of costing $8,000, that is).

I heard about a company called iBuyPower, started in 1996 and based in Los Angeles, California. Basically, they take the same parts enthusiasts use but build the computer for you (and throw in the added bonuses of a three year warranty and lifetime tech-support). Because they are technically a vendor, they buy the parts cheaper than you can purchasing them à la carte, so the prices can be kept reasonable.

I feel bad asking this because I generally answer questions in a way that helps readers discover the answers themselves rather than spoon-feeding them, and I also try to ask applicable-to-everyone questions whenever I can, but I was hoping for a personalized leg up this time. Basically, I am asking for you to check out iBuyPower's website and customize a computer the way you would. The computer will be used for storing (many) photos, editing (many) photos, gaming, rendering digital images (landscapes and abstracts with no original photo), and, naturally, music and word processing.

Considerations:
- Again, my budget is $2,000; could be higher, could be lower.
- I have decided, after research, that I am a fan of the NZXT Lexa for the case, which is big enough, has excellent cooling, and doesn't exactly hurt the eyes. But I am open to other suggestions.
- I am not very happy with iBuyPower's monitor and mouse selection and may want to purchase those separately: idea 1 and idea 2, respectively. These can be subject to change too. Subtracting $300 for these leaves $1,700 for iBuyPower.
- iBuyPower told me over the phone that they can build it to be an internal RAID0 setup even though this is not an option online. That said, I don't think I will ever fill up a combined hard disk of 500 Gbs.
- Several (but not all) of the motherboards offered have an eSATA port built in, which would provide higher transfer speeds than a PCI-added eSATA port. I am sure I will get an external drive before too long, so this would be a nice-but-not-needed feature.
- I could order it in as early as a couple weeks or I could wait a few months if you think it would be wise. DDR3 and SATA-600 may be out soon, and more DirectX 10 graphics cards to choose from never hurts. Is it worth waiting?

I would appreciate any help offered and will be active in researching to find the best build within this price range. Note, I did not specify AMD vs. Intel or ATI vs. nVidia. We will see who can offer the best performance with a workable budget in mind.

Thanks again!

[reidy-]

first off building a pc is NOT hard, its a matter of plugging X cabel's in and screwing the screw's in, there is withn reason no way of damaging any part's.

it would be cheaper to build you'r own by quite a margin.

but anyway here is what I would buy:

Nzxt Lexa Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Original Black More Options [+ $74]


Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply [SLI-Ready] [+ $79]


[=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (4x 2.4GHz/8MB L2 Cache/1066FSB)



Asus P5N-E SLI nForce® 650i SLI Chipset w/6-channel CODEC, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB


512MB [512MB X1] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Mushkin More Options <----mushkin selected


2* 160GB hard drive's


rest is up to you

PRICE: $1,505.00

at this point I am think meh not a bad price, but you can see where they sting you, the RAM! 4GB for 650$ that is way overpriced, so here is what you will do, you will purchase the above pc, and then proceed to buy the RAM elsewhere .

look 2Gb of corsair RAM for 134$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145590

the processor is fine 2.4 is a nice clock, but if you want the extra .226Ghz you have to pay another 500 dollar's, well that's stupid these thing's overclock to over 3.6 ghz, so just stick you'r FSB up a touch and you will be running fine (probably with no over volt) at QX6800 speed's (2.98Ghz)

a beastier PSU might also be advisable,


anyway that'sa nice rig with seriouse performance, you might want to wait for ATI's DX10 card's as they are even faster than the 8800GTX's but's you'r call, any advice just post or PM me

[Skye]

Thank you for the quick reply.

I would imagine that I'd be paying a hefty premium for the quad-core label. Newegg prices the Q6600 at $535, but AMD's X2 4800+ only costs $150, and the X2 5400+ is about $190. I have no doubt that the quad-core is faster, but is it worth triple the price?

I guess I am just afraid of building my own computer without somebody to hold my hand and walk me through the process. I certainly could choose from a larger selection of cases and motherboards if I did it on my own, but then I would lose the warranty and tech support that I may very well need. I think your idea of buying the RAM elsewhere would work out well. I could buy 2 Gbs at 5-5-5-12 for $106 less than 2 Gbs of 5-5-5-15. Unfortunately, this would void the physical warranty that iBuyPower offers. As for price, I will show a comparison below:

iBuyPower Build:

- Nzxt Lexa Gaming Tower Case
- Thermaltake Purepower 700 Watt Power Supply
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8Ghz
- GigaByte GA-M59SLI-S5 nForce 590-SLI chipset
- 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module, 5-5-5-15
- NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS 256MB
- 250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]
- 250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]
- 16x DVD-ROM Drive - Sony
- Sony Q170A Dual Format/Double Layer 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
- Creative Lab Sound Blaster Audigy SE
- Logitech Elite USB/PS2 Keyboard Black
- Logitech G5 Gaming Laser Mouse
- 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
- Netgear Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps PCI Adapter
- Warranty Service Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
- Free Games - Age of Empires III, Rise Of Nations: Rise Of Legend, Civcity Rome, Pirates: Live the Life, Prey, and Railroads
- Free case for games and accessories and two T-shirts
- Tax and Shipping

Bottom Line Price: $1,603.00

TigerDirect Build:

- Nzxt Lexa Gaming Tower Case – $117.22 (shipped from third party)
- Thermaltake Toughpower 700 Watt Power Supply - $159.99
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8Ghz - $189.99
- GigaByte GA-M59SLI-S5 nForce 590-SLI chipset - $187.65 (shipped from third party)
- US Modular Cold Fusion Dual Channel 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB) 4-4-4-12
- NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS 256MB - $194.99 (shipped from third party)
- Seagate 250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache] $69.99
- Seagate 250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache] $69.99
- Vision 16x DVD-ROM - $39.99
- Sony 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - $59.99
- Creative Lab Sound Blaster Audigy SE - $34.99
- Logitech Media Keyboard - $14.99
- Logitech G5 Gaming Laser Mouse - $43.99
- PowerUp Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black - $19.99
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium $141.99
- Netgear Wireless 802.11g PCI Adapter - $45.99

Price: $1,109.13 from TigerDirect and $499.86 from third party websites (tax and shipping included)

Total: $1608.99


The prices are remarkably similar, but iBuyPower will build it for me, make sure everything is compatible and that I have enough wiring, and include the warranty and tech-support. Also, they include $140.25 worth of free software, most of which are games that I would actually play.

But this is just one of many ways to customize it. I will appreciate any other input given. And thanks again!

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi,

What a coincidence. I've heard good things about these guys today while talking to some industry insiders.

The computer I would assemble for myself given the budget and usage (good quality for ocasianally playing games) at IBuyPower:

NZXT TANK Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply
Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply [SLI-Ready]
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600 (2x 2.4GHz/4MB L2 Cache/1066FSB)
Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink
MSI P965 Neo-F i965P Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA, USB 2.0 PCI-E MB
2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand More Options
GeForce 8600 GTS
250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]
18X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Beige

Total: $1,249.00

You will still have to buy a LCD monitor. I didn't like the options available, so I would buy it somewhere else.

It seems that you will have some money left... ;-)

Gabriel.

[Skye]

Thanks again for the response. And yes, that is quite a bit of money left. And seeing as I can't void the warranty by purchasing a monitor from a different retailer, I plan to.

As for cash, I will be given that amount to spend on a computer setup - it is a graduation present to me from my dad. I appreciate it enough to not try to milk him for every penny he is worth, but he can certainly afford to get me a decent setup. If there is a significant amount of cash unused, I will probably put it towards speakers to listen to my computer with.

Again, I appreciate the responses, but one question is still unanswered. Should I wait a bit for technology to ripen?

[reidy-]

hmm don't go AMD, e6600 will wipe the floor with it, and then there's the OC you can get with them 3.2ghz+

if you go c2d make sure you get the intel 965 chipset on it, better FSB stability when overclocking and they support quad core.

significant spare cash= 8800GTX Sli !!!!

that or get a nice samsung LCD tv 28" -- 40" and play some nice hi-def gaming on that thing!

[Gabriel Torres]

Should I wait a bit for technology to ripen?

My opinion on that is the following. Let's say you wait like 2 months for buying I-don't-know-what-new-technology. The problem is that in 2 months from now there will be another new soon-to-be-released technology around the corner, and you may want to wait two more months. And so on, and on, and on. I mean, there will always be a lot of folks talking about new stuff that will be released in the next few months.

Go for it now.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[Skye]

Very true, but sometimes it seems worth waiting. Suppose you end up buying the last processor in a series before they upgrade to a new pin-count. Now if you want to upgrade, you will have to change the motherboard (and hopefully the RAM soon?) to match.

I guess my biggest concern is that I am really liking the up-coming developments by Intel, but I frankly just don't want one on their current lineup. Their best beats AMD's best by a long shot, but when you take two processors of equal price to compare, the benchmarks are really mixed. I feel that I would have more customer satisfaction owning an AMD product.

Well, I'll test the waters for a few more weeks and then buy regardless. Thanks, guys, for the help. And ElXtronic, if you are read this too, don't feel obligated to not post. I like your spin on application that numerical details just can't give. I respect your experience as well.

[Gabriel Torres]

I agree, but believe me, it is not the case with Intel CPUs. The next release won't be a socket but a chipset dubbed P35 that will support DDR3. You may want to wait until June 4th and buy a combo motherboard with DDR2 and DDR3 support if you are interested in this technology.

On AMD side, however, I heard that their next generation CPUs will use a new version of HyperTransport, requiring new motherboards to extract the CPU maximum performance, even though these CPUs will work with current boards.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[ElXtronic]

This conversation will bring in my personal opinions on hardware:

I believe waiting for certain technologies may overthrow the value of other technologies in which are soon to be released. Lets say as of now we have DDR3 coming out, now imo this isnt to big of a deal, its going to cost a lot and honestly, its nothing but a few more pins and a small performance gain in access rate without the backwards compatability available with older banks. Not entirely worth it from my point of view. However as Gabriel stated the new AMD chips sound like value due to the backwards compadibility, if u buy the socket type of the future chip model now using a decent current day chip and then later upgrade to that of the newer Hyper-Trans revision, it will still work without having to buy a new mobo and such, you would still be able to use the new CPU on the current day boards(even though the new Hyper-Trans revision doesn't fully scale itself with the current mobos and only on the newer ones). But even so u can still use the newer processors which would give a increased Hertz rate of course anyways which is still a performance gain and would still be considered preparing in my eyes.

Things you may want to wait for are thing such as the new v2 PCI-E. Said to be released January 2007, not sure if it is now availble or not but this is just an example of wait vs no wait, if this is alittle off on data flow please understand its just an example. v1 PCI-E has half the trans rate(2.5GBps I believe) of the newer v2 revision of PCI-E(5GBps). Now v2 is backwards compatable with v1 "Cards" but v1 cannot provide the trans rates for v2 cards. These types of technologies i prefer to wait on, one that accaully is worth getting a new mobo since u can use you're older parts for now and upgrade later whenever u feal the time is right for u.

I state the obvious in this case just as a reminder of how technology should be bought imo. GL Skye I hope this is somewhat helpful bro.