The (new) Official PC building thread!

Hi guys,
I see dreamer 1 has listed for a $1000.00 build, I just finished a $1000.00 build for a friend at work.

This is for burning DVDs and CDs, homework and gaming for his 8 year old son and 10 year old daughter and he likes to play a game occasionally, nothing serious. Also the typical home office usage and web surfing stuff.

Antec Sonata III case with 500W Earthwatts PSU -mwave
EVGA 650i Ultra mobo -egg
C2D 6750 cpu -mwave
Asus X1950pro gpu -egg
2 Gb Corsair 6400C4 ram -egg
Asus Sata DVD ROM E616A3T -egg
Asus Sata DVD burner 1814BLT -egg
NEC floppy drive -egg
WD 320 Gb (KS) HDD -mwave
Creative SB Audigy SE 7.1 sound card
Rosewill 56Kbps modem -egg
WinXP Pro OS -mwave

The build went well, the only issue I had was that the wire for the bios speaker was too short to reach the plug connector on the board. I added some wire and fixed that.
The Sonata case is great otherwise. Very quiet. The included power supply is very quiet and works so I'm not going to complain about it...yet.

The X1950 Pro is not an 8800GTS but for what he's going to do with it it's probably overkill.

I will never use a stock Intel heatsink again. Idle: 34C, 100% Orthos: 63C. I used AS Ceramique from the start. I removed and reinstalled it just to make sure I had it on there correctly and it was.
Excellent DVD rip and burn times.

With the three speed rear exhaust fan set on medium I can barely hear the thing run so I'm happy with that.

I saved about $30.00 or so by buying stuff at mwave instead of everything from Newegg. Total cost for the build, including the OS was $1008.10.

I told him I could build what he needed for about $850.00 but he wanted more so that's what he got.

BTW my C2D 6850 is excellent. I had it OCed stable at 3.8 Ghz on my 680i board. I got my highest 3DMark06 score at 16,280 with SLI 8800GTS 640Mb video cards. That was enough of that though. It's happy and cool at 3.5 Ghz running MS flight simulator now.

Cheers

 

Don't you think that for ordinary use is a little too much?

 

I sure do!
He wanted something that would be faster than his P4 H-P and had $2000.00 to buy a new one. I tried to impress on him that a lot less would be fine. I did talk him down $1000.00 and he got his hot rod. He had enough money left to buy a new monitor, speakers, matching mouse and keyboard and a bunch of software for his kids.
He is in love with the thing and is amazed at how fast it is.

I made $60.00 or so because he let me have the rebates. Woohoo!

 

@abuzar1

Well he is Fasfrank...

@fasfrank
Nice build and A Real Nice Bike...what Track were the Pic's taken from?..

What 680I board do you have?..

 

Let me try on this p/s thing. LOL.

I've been thinking on how to explain the single rail versus multi-rail system. Stab in the dark really but it's how I see it. If I'm way off then let me know. I KNOW YOU WILL!!!

Consider your "electrical box" at the house. It's basically a "single" rail system with "multiple" leads or breakers going out to feed the rest of the house. As we all know if something happens to the main power then the "power" to the rest of the house is interrupted. What I'm saying is if you have enough main power then the "single" rail system makes REAL sense to me. I don't think that a "multi-rail" system is bad but I would much rather have all my power come from one source than many small sources.

NOW on to the "other" power sources. This is where I'm a little "vague" if you will. The 1.38V, 5V, 3.33V and the other smaller voltages get power from another power converter so the 12V rail system doesn't really control the power for the "smaller" voltages but it does work with them for other components. You also want a STABLE "small" voltage system too BUT it does work in conjunction with the 12V system. From the article that Lp provided it seems the power is supplied from the 12V rail and the 5V power supplies the "logic" boards in the component hooked up.

I hope this helps someone and like I said if anything is WAY OFF or "incorrect" please let me know and I'll change my "explanation".

....gm

edit: with help from Lp...changed some info for the better I hope.

 

@greensman

Not Really...The Total wattage and Amperage is a Combination of the Different Voltage Rails...The reason most people talk about the 12v Rail is that is were most P/S have problems...

Power Supply 101...A great article that should help explain it better then I can...
http://www.motherboards.org/articles/guides/1487_1.html

Remember in that PM I told you I did not trust the numbers on that one P/S...the reason was all the amperage was on the 5v rail...54 amps...There is a good explanation of this in P/S explanation #4 in the above article...

 

@Lp531,
The track is Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon. It's about two miles with nine corners when set up for the bikes.
The track is fairly flat and the front straight is a bit over 1/2 mile long so you can get some serious speed built up by the time you have to brake for right hand turn 1, about 90 mph corner entry. I don't know for sure because there is no speedometer on racebikes. Just a tach and oil pressure light. All you really need!


I have an EVGA 680i A1 board. No complaints and it sure is easy to overclock. I had a C2D 6700 in it first then I put in the current 6850 when they first released them.
It's in a huge Gigabyte 3D Aurora case. Lot's of room and very well built. It even has a projector on the front so it spells out "3D Aurora" in blue light on the desk or floor or wherever you can set the monster. Real geeky.
Cheers!

 

@fasfrank
Very Cool...Brought back memories of Sears Point...Laguna Seca...and Willow Springs...2 of my best friends...who happen to be Brothers...use to race AFM back in the 80's at those tracks...GSX-R 1100's...We would go every week...Ricky was the Unlimited Champ in California 3 years running...His Best Friend...at the Track was Killed at Sears Point in a Race...Ricky had a bad crash at Willow Springs...He Lost interest after that Crash...and his Buddies Death...

Glad to see someone with a680i board...that is the next one for me...I am looking at the EVGA...so I am glad to hear that you are not having any problems with it...

 

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your friend. There is always a risk of serious injury or death every time you you get on a racetrack. That's the price. Infineon (Sears Point) and Laguna Seca as well as most major racetracks have been upgraded over the years so there are less things to hit if you should run off the track. The introduction of airfence improved your chances tremendously as well.

I mainly used the 680i because of the SLI feature for two video cards. The EVGA board is popular and there is a ton of info on it. EVGA has excellent tech support and a reasonably good website.

 

Good Deal...
COOLER MASTER RR-CCH-L9U1-GP 92mm Hyper TX2 CPU Cooler - Retail $29.99 minus $14 instant Rebate...$15 Mail-in Rebate...Final Cost .99 cents...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3031&CMP=EMC-IGNEFL092007&ATT=N82E16835103031

Do not Forget to Punch in Promo Code for the $14 Instant Rebate...

 

ok guys. thanks for all ur help. After seeing my budget and concerning everything this is the pc i came with. i know its not the best one but my budget not allowing me to do that.

for psu
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=371926
for case
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=270413
for memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034
for mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128012
for cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
for graphics card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127284
for harddisk
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152052

 

Looks good to me, nice build!

Mwave.com has the CPU and the video card for a few dollars less.



@Lp531,
Those are some good deals.
I bought one of each of those coolers and that big blue case:

 

Not bad, I'm not a fan of either of the cases posted, but they work, personal taste.

 

@Dreamer
The memory you chose is No Longer on Sale...These Are Better Deals Now...

CORSAIR XMS2 DOMINATOR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4D - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145168
$154.00
($114.00 after $40.00 Mail-In Rebate)
Free 3 Business Day Shipping
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CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145177
Original Price: $133.00
You Save: $10.00
$123.00
($83.00 after $40.00 Mail-In Rebate)
Free 3 Business Day Shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145177


@fasfrank
You got me thinking about the Gemini...It would work for a HTCP case...(2) 120mm Fans 6 Heatpipes...Talk about OverKill...

 

this is really off topic, but I just got my P4 from 3.2Ghz to 3.8Ghz! IS that great? I think I might have to take it back down to 3.75 though, the temps are pretty high. Its at 56C Idle right now with a zalman heatsink and fan running on it...

 

3.8Ghz isn't a bad overclock, but suffice to say my Core 2 Duo would eat it alive if I underclocked it to 2.4Ghz.

 

Hey I'm looking to build another PC. To do that I have to sell the PC in my sig. How much do you guys think it can bring? I'm looking to sell it and spend a few hundred more.

I need to know a better PSU, I am using a Ultra XVS 700W right now. Or is this good enough? Sam said the 12v was too low.

 

it's not TOO low, it's just a little on the low side. My personal recommendation is the Corsair HX 520W.
Out of interest, why are you doing a complete replacement? It would be so much simpler to keep half of what you've already got and upgrade.
You won't get much more out of a CPU other than if you get a quad core. I don't know what revision your GA-965P-DS3 is, so I don't know if it can support one.
Even if you have to replace the motherboard and CPU or even the RAM (2x2GB sticks would be nice), you can probably keep the power supply and case, along with your optical drives and so on. Just ebay the other parts, you'll probably end up spending less that way.

 

Yes I know sam, the C2Ds have better architecture... Just cant wait for my quad core 2.4Ghz... Do you think I can overclock that to 3Ghz, or even more? (With stock cooling)

 

I doubt it with stock cooling. why not just go ahead and get a performance cpu hsf ordered? the quad cores don't OC as well as the dual cores. you'll probably be lucky if you can OC to 3.0ghz with a good cpu hsf.