Feb 192008
O.K., this old ‘puter is beginning to get on my nerves. So the search has begun for a new system. I’ve built my own systems for many, many, many years but the prices for hardware today is so high I may even consider a Dell or HP.
So I would like to see what some of you might suggest. If you built or bought a computer right now what would it be?
Here are my ‘specs / no specs’:
Intel Chipset and CPU, single video card (not onboard), I don’t overclock anymore.
Please list at least the basic specs (feel free to add to this)
Motherboard:
CPU:
Memory:
Video Card:
16 Responses to “If you built or bought a computer right now…”
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For an off the shelf computer there is the Velocity Micro line. This company supplies high end computers for stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. They get very high ratings from users and are considered the fastest ‘stock’ ‘puters around.
You can also get one from Velocity directly with the options you want.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard, $90
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor, $275
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400), $90
Video Card: EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT. PCI Express x16, $85
That’s what I have for my new rig. The processor is great. I don’t overclock or do any heavy cooling yet the processor never goes above 30 C. The GSkill memory is great for the price. Video card is excellent. When I go to build a new computer I just search Newegg. I also just browse a particular hardware item (like motherboards) and have them ranked by number of reviews and I tend to find excellent hardware that way.
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L $90
CPU: C2D E8400 $240
Memory: G.Skill 4GB(2x2GB) DDR2 800 $90
Video: EVGA 8800GT 512MB $238
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Total (approx.): $658
Notably, the 2 component lists above omit cases, power supplies, and drives.
I just bought a modest Dell Optiplex 755 with a dual-core Intel processor, 2 g memory, 250 g HD, and 2 DVD drives for about $1,000. Very satisfied. It’s not a super-box, but it could be upgraded pretty easily. It didn’t have a lot of useless crap loaded on it either.
I just put the following system together for a co-worker for under $1k. Right around $900 currently for everything. This is just the basics with current prices from Newegg. It’s just going to be a basic home office rig running Windows Vista Ultimate
ASUS P5K SE LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail $89.99
EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI $99.99
Antec Neo Power 500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply – Retail $99.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model $189.99
Crucial 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit $94.99
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM $49.99
I would get this computer add quad core processor and and upgrade the video card and memory myself and come in around $650 shipped http://slickdeals.net/?sduid=98002&t=739238&u2=http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=eep&cs=2236&eep_orig_cs=2236&sm=2&oc=ADDWFB2&link_number=17970622
Antec Solo, Zilver
Corsair CMPSU-450VX,450Watt
Intel Core 2 Duo,Boxed, E8200
Arctic Freezer 7 pro
G.Skill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ,4096MB, 800MHz, DDR2. PC6400, 2x
GigaByte GA-EP35-DS3
GigaByte Radeon HD3850,GDDR3, PCI Express x16, 256MB
Scythe Floppy – Card Reader Combo
Samsung SpinPoint F1,7200RPM, SATA II, 32MB, 750GB
Samsung SH-S203P
Save yourself some space and go SFF.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 if you do any video encoding
Motherboard: ASUS P5E-VM HDMI
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK
Video card: MSI NX8800GT 512M OC
Power supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX
Case: Ultra Microfly w/o power supply
Hard drives(2): Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB
3.5 Bay: MITSUMI Black 1.44MB 3.5″ USB 2.0 digital card reader w/Floppy Drive Model FA404M BLK
DVD Burner: LITE-ON DVD Burner Model LH-20A1L-05
staknhalo knows what hes talking about
i would wait until the new q9xxx series of processors come out, their quad core and offer much more performance and are more future proof than dual cores
TBH I don’t see the point of quad yet unless you’re doing encoding or folding. This coming from a Q6600 owner.
Gary S. – Don’t know much about Velocity Micro. I did a little research and they are in the same city I’m in! Got any connections there?
jam – Uh, no to SFF.
Both the Gigabyte and Asus boards look just about right.
staknhalo – Agreed, but if the price was right…
Well, in that case I suggest the q9450 when it drops (2 weeks give or take).
If you mean the Asus board I posted, you may want to look into one of the other versions of the P5K board as well. The P5K SE that I used in that one is the bargain basement model, and doesn’t have a lot of extra features. For instance it only supports 4 internal SATA devices. If you want some extra frills there are a couple of versions of that board that are a little more expensive, but have some nicer features. The guy I was building that for didn’t need anything extra, so I saved him some money and went with the cheaper board.
Even if you don’t like the idea of SFF, the parts list wouldn’t change much:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 if you do any video encoding
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK
Video card: PALiT NE/960TSX0252 **from the [H] article**
Power supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX
Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP
Hard drives(2): Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB
3.5 Bay: MITSUMI Black 1.44MB 3.5″ USB 2.0 digital card reader w/Floppy Drive Model FA404M BLK
DVD Burner: LITE-ON DVD Burner Model LH-20A1L-05
The video card market is likely to change by the end of the month with Nvidia coming out with several cards this month.
The Q6600 prices are supposed to be dropping to around $200 in the near future.
CPU: Intel C2D E8400 “Wolfdale” @ 3.00Ghz 45nm 65W
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R (Energy efficient rev.)
RAM: Gosh… Any decend 800Mhz DDR2 2x1Gb CL 4
PSU: Antec NeoPower HE 550W (Dead silent, incredible stable voltage on all rails, Active PFC, long life/warranty. also has ~85% efficiency ;) )
Video card: Asus 8800GT 512MB with decent cooling as the early releases tend to realy heat up;
HDD: At least one Western Digital 1Tb “Green Series” (GP) for storage and a A Western Digital Caviar 500Gb for system partition/performance applications.
A Coolermaster CM Stacker 810 (if you can find one that is) I found it to be a incredibly good case, and suprisingly silent as well
The rest is not as relevant
Eric,
Martin at ghacks.net has been going through the same exercise on his blog; you can find the configuration he just settled on here:
http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/11/building-a-pc-march-progress/
Thought you might be interested.
Dan