The (new) Official PC building thread!

I don't think they celebrate Thanksgiving in England...its one of the uniquely American Holidays...

Last year got a Sony (Re-badged Lite-On) for $10...I think I'll wait till the on-line sales hit...

@greenie
What Drives on Sale were you talking about?..I did not see them...

Post the Good Sale...when you see them...

 

It's not a sale, but a chance to win an awesome PC.
http://pc.joystiq.com/2007/11/20/joyswag-win-this-5k-dollar-gaming-rig-from-falcon-northwest/

 

LP531

my opinion is the optical drive market has pretty much bottomed out price wise so the deals are harder to come by

 

Why such a cheap-ass cooler?

 

Yeah they should have watercooled or gone with a Thermalright 120.

 

I mean, or at least the 9500. To put into perspective, the 9500 beats the 7700, which in turn beats the 7000. There's a full copper version of the 7000, or there's the half and half version which is even cheaper. The 9700 beats the hell out of all of them, and the Thermalright Ultra 120 beats the hell out of the 9700. What's worse, the Ultra 120 isn't even expensive any more. And look at the GPUs, a pair of 8800GTs. I would have expected GTXs in a system worth $5000. You'd have to win that system, it just isn't worth paying a small fraction of its RRP for.

 

If I got it I would probably sell it and then build myself another one. I don't need a 5 grand PC which will perform less than a 3 grand one.

 

just finished building mine....runs very well.
vista home premium
XFX Gforce8800gts 320mb
750gb barracuda 7200
ASUS p5k3 deluxe/wifi mob
intel core 2 duo quad q6600
thermaltake 750 watt psu
sound blaster x-fi xtremegamer 7.1
2 gb corsair DDR3 sdram
thermaltake Soprano black case
dvd burner
cd burner
and yes...a floppy drive
my vista performance spec is 5.6 ....

 

Let's see, I don't know how much the case is worth, but I bet you could build a PC to that spec over here and it cost less than the currency equivalent of that PC. (You know, after the VAT and import taxes etc). That means it has to be done for less than £2428.

Silverstone Strider 1000W: £175.31 (What a waste of money, a 500W PSU would suffice)
EVGA 680i board £139.83
E6850 CPU £164.84
The CPU cooler's outclassed by a Freezer 7 Pro, so I'll just use the cost of one of those, £15.73
2GB Dominator PC6400C4 £55.98
2x 8800GT £352.22
Hmm, "Creative Labs X-Fi". Nice and ambiguous. Let's pick the Extreme gamer one, even though it could just be the standard model. £58.52
2x Seagate 500GB 16MB £137.46
Lite on 20x DVDRW Lightscribe £23.74
Mitsumi Media drive £14.68
Vista Home Premium 32bit £65.68
G15 Keyboard £53.65
MX-518 Mouse £32.89
The page is corrupted where they tell you which 22" Viewsonic it is, so let's go with the most expensive one just in case, the 2255WMB at £266.22
X-240 speakers £25.31
So let's see, total price excluding the case and the t-shirt, an unremarkable £1582.06

Custom made cases are quite expensive, so let's leave a broad £200 in there for that. Around £1800 total. That's a 35% markup before we add VAT and then the import tax which increases the cost of UK components. You're looking at around a 55% markup on that PC. That's right, over a third of the entire cost of the PC is profit margin.

So this is basically a plea for people who are after high end PCs, for god's sake, do it yourself!

 

:claps hands: Finally you say something worth listening to sam....hehehe...j/k. I've been telling a friend of mine the same thing. He's looking at a HP or something with low end everything except the HDD and he can build a computer that'll run circles around it for the same money or just a few pennies more. ....about $800 USD btw......

@Lp531,
Click on the link provided in my previous post and it includes the ODD's with free shipping from the EGG. You don't see many deals cheaper than that. Most of the drives are $35 delivered or less one or two are even less than $29 delivered.

.....gm

 

may be a good day to pickup that extra Pioneer DVR-212 i was wanting

 

I finally bought some RAM!!! Anyone wanna buy my 8800GTX as well? lol

 

Hi,
I've got most of the parts on order for my Phenom build. I thought I'd present the list and see what you think so far. I'm trying to keep it under $2000.00, so far that has gone well.

Motherboard:
GA-MA790X-DS4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128075
One of the first boards with the 790 AM2+ chipsets. This is one of two listed at Newegg. I wanted a Gigabyte so this is it.

RAM:
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820148069
Basically it matches the motherboard specs and is reasonably priced as well as being recommended here. Thanks!

HDD:
Samsung SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152052
Sam recommended this instead of Raptors in RAID 0. This was much less expensive! Thanks Sam.

PSU:
Thermaltake W0116RU 750 Watt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153038
750 Watts, modular cabling, $70.00 rebate, Good reputation.

Case:
Silverstone Kublai Series KL02B-W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811163094
Subtle looks, A clear side to display the excellent parts, 120MM fans. A reasonable price for a Silverstone I think.

DVD burner:
Samsung S203B
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151153
Very quiet and fast enough for the 8X DVD media I burn.

DVD ROM:
Asus SATA E616A3T
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135151
I have four of these already. This will be #5.

Floppy:
Samsung
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103203
$6.99.

OS:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116059
XP Pro. One day I will try Vista.

Total with shipping from Newegg: $936.22.
It should be here Monday.

The Phenom 2.2 Ghz is backordered at Tankguys. Cost with Shipping is 286.95.....

Items I haven't bought yet.
Video cards:
2 Radeon HD 3870 cards in Crossfire. Mainly because I can't use crossfire with 8800GTs and even if I could the cost would be more than I wanted. I suspect the HD 3870 cards will be adequate for Flight Simulator X. Listed for $219.00 at Newegg. Hopefully that price will hold or drop but I'm starting to doubt that...$438.00 for two. No stock until Nov 26th.

CPU cooler:
Zalman CNPS9700 LED:
This will be adequate for moderate overclocks and is eye candy...$59.99

Sound Card:
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio:
Meh, I just want something that sounds better than the onboard audio. I may use it in another PC if it causes airflow problems for the video cards.... $45.99 after $20.00 rebate.

Happy thanksgiving to all my friends at AD. This is our unique U.S. holiday, a time to reflect on the good things in our lives. I hope all of you are doing well and may your blessings be many and misfortunes few.

 

The CPU is more important for flightsim than the GPU. Many times the 8600GTS will outperform the 8800 ULTRA, just because it doesn't rely on the GPU much.

 

Hi abuzar,
I've got Flight Sim on my E6850 with 640 Mb 8800 GTS cards in SLI. That's what I'm hoping the Phenom will match. I did order the slowest Phenom so I can upgrade when faster versions become available next year. I think the mobo/RAM platform is sound and will give whatever Phenom I put in a chance to keep up with a C2D. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'm also hoping that newer drivers will become available for the 3870 card and improve it a bit. It still looks like a better value than the 8800GT to me at this point.

Edit:
Newegg has the Phenom 2.2 in stock:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103226
I'm ordering it along with the sound card and heatsink. All I need to get are video card(s).

 

I would go with the ATI card also. I've heard Sam say that it has better image quality, and isn't that the point of video cards, that games look better?

 

@frank
The New 32MB seagate H/D is on sale at ZZF...Double the Cache...second generation perpendicular technology...
SEAGATE ST3500320AS 500GB SATA 7200 RPM 32MB Hard Drive Bulk $119
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005939

 

Unfortunately I have some bad news regarding Flight sim X:
firstly, SLI and Crossfire don't work with it. Secondly, the game is completely CPU limited, and locked to the drivers. Consequently with an E6850, nvidia cards are locked to a max of 25fps, and ATI cards locked to a maximum of 20fps (but most of the time don't exceed 18)

The HD3870 is better than the 8800GT in my opinion almost all the time, but for Flight Sim X, a single nvidia card is pretty much the only way the game is at all playable at most settings. ATI drivers simply can't handle the game.

 

Hi Sam,
How do you tell what you are getting for frame rates in Flight Sim? I've got the frame rate slider maxed out. I know that doesn't mean a thing as far as what I'm actually getting. It seems like I'm getting more than 20-30 fps though. Wouldn't it look choppy?

 

AT 18fps, it certainly would look choppy, yes. Those readings were for Ultra quality though. lower down, you may not have such issues.