PC hardware discussion V1,000,000,000.6

[LathanStanley]

The Q9450 comes out next month,...

it makes the Q6600 look like a piece of trash...

[SwiftSpear]

ORKAY. The mobo on my old PC quit on me, so I've arbitrarily decided that finding another P4 DDR2700 IDE AGP motherboard is a waste of time for now, so I'm going to build my new PC instead. So basically, I now need to find and purchase all my parts by tomorrow, being allowed to use NCIX, tigerdirect, or any other local shop (I consider anywhere in the Vancouver, BC, lower mainland local). Any big advances in the last month or so that I might need to know about? Current review sites that give advice for home build at prices near my budget that people know of?

Review:
Budget: LESS THAN $1500CA
Overclocking: Some, but not much
Important Factors: Upgradeability (lifespan build)

Plz help

[Peet]

How about this time we listen to Peet about the mobo

[SwiftSpear]

Looks good... only question, can I use the ultra DMA to pull all my data backups off my old IDE drives in my current dead PC? The HDDs are still fine, I just need the datas off them.

[Peet]

Yes, only 2 at a time though (oh noes )

[SwiftSpear]

Ok, current build:

Mobo: EVGA Nforce 780I SLI LGA775 ATX 3PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard 279.99
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Kentsfield 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 8MB Retail Box 279.99
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Gamer Case 120.86
GPU: Palit GeForce 8800GT 600MHZ 1GB 1024MB 1.8GHZ DDR3 PCI-E 2XDVI-I HDCP HDTV Out Video Card 329.99 - 40.00 MIR
RAM: Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit 99.99 - 30.00 MIR
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750GB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ 3.5IN Hard Drive 171.72

= 1436.96 after tax (12%CA) and 70$ back in mail in rebates.

I know I didn't include a PSU, I already have a high end 550 watt that should hold that system out until I need to upgrade (SLI or somtin), do I need a sound card with that high end mobo? If so I'd have to either skimp to a lower end mobo or a lower end GPU

[Peet]

The Azalia integrated APU is incompatible with audiophilia, but otherwise fine.

[SwiftSpear]

Ok, I went through some reviews on the mobo... I'm a bit concerned I found a couple seriously slogging the 780i architecture. I'm also not really sure I need a tri-SLI board when, honestly, I'm not sure I'll even ever use SLI in even a duo setup... especially if it means a better mobo out of the deal. The other thing is, is there any information about weather this board will support the 1600mhz fsb quads?

Does the mobo have a front panel audio station (mic in and audio out)? And does the mobo have front panel USB?

[Peet]

Yes, yes, and yes. All of the above are covered by the 680i even

[reivanen]

Go for watercooling. It's a one-time investment since if you get universal cpu and gpu blocks, you can use the exactly same setup even after your next system overhaul.

[SwiftSpear]

I don't plan on clocking at this point in time enough to warrant water cooling... Plus I'd have to sacrifice other components to afford it right now. I'll leave it as a future upgrade for this system.

I am a fan of water cooling though. It's just not quite the right time to invest.

[RogerN]

Personally I'd spend about $100 less on both the CPU and the GPU, and invest the savings in an IRA or something :) I'm sure that the hardware you've selected is excellent, but you're a bit farther on the bang vs. buck scale than I would go.

Unless, of course, you intend to do some really CPU-intensive tasks, such as playing Dwarf Fortress during long matches of Green_Fields with a 5000 unit limit. Or if you need a nice backup server.

[SwiftSpear]

Personally I'd spend about $100 less on both the CPU and the GPU, and invest the savings in an IRA or something :) I'm sure that the hardware you've selected is excellent, but you're a bit farther on the bang vs. buck scale than I would go.

Unless, of course, you intend to do some really CPU-intensive tasks, such as playing Dwarf Fortress during long matches of Green_Fields with a 5000 unit limit. Or if you need a nice backup server.

The CPU I fully disagree on. I DO intend to do some fairly CPU intensive tasks. I fully intend to work running PS and gimp parrallel to blender while having spring games going on in the background as spec and listening to music or watching videos, or whatever other media stuff I feel like. I'd already be doing alot of that stuff if my old PC didn't suck.

The Video card I'm on the fence about... I did some math, and realistically, it's paying $100 dollars extra for an extra 512MB of texture memory (it's arguable how much I'll even use that) and a higher brand name and a nicer factory set for overclocking. That stuff is nice... but I could get a more powerful factory card or some after market cooling with that extra $100, or another 2 gigs of RAM.

Bah, hard to decide

[SinbadEV]

Unless, of course, you intend to do some really CPU-intensive tasks, such as playing Dwarf Fortres.

[SwiftSpear]

Ya, well DF is single threadded still a this point. So it's not like it really requires multi cores. The multi cores are more so I don't have to do things like shutdown spring, and winamp, and steam, and IRC, and GIMP, and FireFox, and Blender, all of which I'd probably have idling in the background while I was playing DF if I had the option to.

[Caydr]

You should set up a RAID if you have any spare cash in your budget. Really bring a lot of peace of mind, and depending on the type you set up it can significantly boost your system performance in various ways.

[SwiftSpear]

I already have a backup drive. I can't afford raid.