Building Computer - Update! Parts arrived and lots of pics of me building it.

[Azuremen]

All right, I have a $500 USD budget for my new computer. I do not need the following: Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, Monitors.

Case - $54.99
Rosewill Tower, 400W PSU
- Its a good case and PSU that I have used in the past and liked.

Mother Board - $56.99
MSI K8N4 AM2
- Its an AM2 board that Tom's hardware liked, and I like the price on it. Yes, I know it only has 2 Ram slots, but I really don't care because I will NOT run a 64 bit OS for quite some time.

CPU - $61.99
AMD
Athlon X2 3600+
- I know people will go "WTF, noob!!" with me opting for the AMD instead of Core 2 Duo. Find me an Intel Mobo and CPU that has the same performance for this price, and I'll reconsider. Why not a faster one? Because the gain in performance would be better spent on a GFX card and Ram.

RAM - $88.99
G,SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC6400
- Highly reviewed Ram thats normally $40 more. Cost generally = quality in RAM I've found. Tell me otherwise, if its the case.

GFX - $99.99
EVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB DDR3
- I don't give a crap about Direct X 10, so don't bring it up as a point for why I should get a 7900, etc. I'm getting this because of the Dual DVI outs and being a fairly good performing card.

HDD - $48.99
Western Digital Caviar 160GB 7200RPM Sata
- Its cheap, its SATA, and I know WD are okay.

DVD/CD - $27.99
LG 18X DVD Burner
- Cheap fast like DVD burner. I just need a device that can read DVDs and burn CDs, this does that.

Total - $439.93
With Shipping - $471.98

Basically, its suppose to play games decently, but more over handle large amounts of multi tasking, programming, and media stuff.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

For ~ $12 more you could get a 250 GB drive and for about $20-25, you could get a 320 GB if you need the space.

 

[Azuremen]

Well, I hopped back on Newegg, and realized I might as well spend 12 bucks more. Turns out the 250 GB storage WD's have free shipping, so its only 6 bucks more. Which is awesome. Now I'll have about 400+ gigs of storage.

 

[GT3mich]

I just lost the WD hard drive in my computer. It was all of 2 days old when windows wouldn't boot. Now I need to find the reciept. That is the 1st and last WD drive I will ever buy. Good luck with your build. What OS are you loading?

 

[Eric.]

I'd suggest going with a Seagate HDD. Five year warranty as opposed to 3 (I think) on the WD.

Also, for less than $50 you could get a Geforce 7900GS or an 8600GT/S. The 8600 is roughly equal to the 7900's performance

 

[Azuremen]

$50 dollar more than my current $100, which when I looked over the performance gains, was not worth the money to me. More so when I consider in the $20 rebate on that 7600 GT. Plus it would exceed my very limited budget, which there is no wiggle room on. I feel the 2 gigs of ram would go further than 5 FPS in Doom 3 as the latest game I plan to play is Half Life 2 and Counter Strike Source (bleh)

Parts are ordered, upgraded to a 250GB WD drive (for the reasons above, including shipping). I've never owned a Seagate oddly enough, though I hear good things about them all the time. The last WD I had worked fine for me, and this one has alot of good reviews, so I am not overly concerned. And while it is penny pinching to save those 7 bucks over the equivalent Seagate, its kinda what I have to do with this build :indef:

GT3Mich, I'll be running Win XP Pro SP2, along with Ubuntu in a dual boot setup. Very much looking forward to fiddling with Linux distros, etc, so I may end up with even more OS's installed.

 

[standard235]

You can do much better than that for the money.

I'm not sure on prices except for some, but I will try.

Intel E2140 1.6ghz for $78
Gigabyte S3L for $86
Super Talent DDR2 667 for $76 (Or DDR2 800 for $83)
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro for $35
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3160815AS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD for $53 (Perp recording)
Rosewill 500W Power Supply for $43
EVGA 8600GT for $120
LG SATA DVD Burner for $30.

I came back and edited a full build in for you. It's more beefed up than your other build, BUT it will spank it in terms of performance. Also, SATA drives for less clutter by IDE cables. Go read up on some sites (www.overclock.net)<--- Is where I learned most of my computer knowledge.

Check out www.tigerdirect.com www.ncixusa.com www.zipzoomfly.com among other good online retailers for prices.

I'm currently saving to go with that CPU/Mobo/RAM so I fully back it. You won't be dissappointed. Also, the build goes over by $25 but you could drop the Freezer 7 Pro if you REALLY don't wanna OC it and only go like $20-$30 over including shipping. Assuming you have a job, it would be silly to not spend a tiny bit extra...

Yes, it's more expensive.. but it will blow the doors off of that Brisbane. Many people have gotten 100% overclocks with similar setups. The limiting factor is FSB walls on the mobos.

At stock, the Intel edges out that AMD by quite a bit. ~17sec Super Pi when OC'ed to 3ghz...

FYI, my AMD rig at 3.14ghz does Super Pi in 29.5 seconds...

 

[Azuremen]

Super Pi doesn't support multi cores, so bleh. And its a horrible benchmark for a whole system performance. Intel mastered making bloated numbers in basic number crunching systems. The Pentium 4 (the basis for the Pentium D) has far too deep a pipeline for real work use. Try running wPrime for a benchmark as well, as it supports dual core properly.

Second, the parts where ordered before you posted (As I said in my post)

Third, I pretty much only bother with Newegg... Tiger's website is a mess and I have yet to be impressed by their prices.

And you forgot a case

Just looked over a bunch of charts. The Intel, when it was faster than the Brisbane, was only a few %, and was only faster in half the tests. Doesn't really merit an extra $50. Getting some stuff done 1:54 instead of 2:03 is really not worth it.

I strongly recommend you take a look at...
www.tomshardware.com

And these charts for sure.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=937&model2=884&chart=419

Its basically a 3% split in performance, that varies depending on test. Plus I can overclock the AMD to 2.5 without changing voltages.

In regard for the GFX card, the performance gains didn't merit an extra 40 dollars. Plus the 8600 GT, with DD3, is only marginally faster than the 7600 GT. I know this is mostly a driver related issue, but as I don't care about DX10, its more of a mute point.

And in regard to the rest of those vendors, Newegg either beats their prices, or in the case of ZipZoomFly, beats them by alot till the MIR is added... but I generally hate relying on MIRs (plus they don't work good when you only have x amount of dollars)

Over all, I spent $480 on my system after shipping. I think its worth the saving for a possible 5-10% performance edge. Plus I get to stay with AMD, instead of getting an Intel.

EDIT: What processor series is your AMD, anyhow?

EDIT2: Just found the Pi thread again, are you still using that old 2400+ Venice? If so, your attempt to cliam the Intel would be faster than the Brisbane, because YOUR AMD is slower than it at the same clock speed, is a completely invalid arguement. Its like saying a C2D at 2.2 ghz will be slower than a P4 at 3.8 GHz. It just doesn't work that way.

 

[Azuremen]

Well, put this bad boy together.

Teh stuff, in boxes.

Mobo and it waiting to go in.

Oh look, its in, and now for the CPU.

Yay, AMD goodness

Flash of doom though...

Seriously, I was amazed at how easy it was to install the CPU fan. A couple years ago it was an ordeal to get these things on, requiring ninja flat head screw driver skills and the likes.

My awesome ram. Note the great translation.

So happy next to the CPU fan of doom.

Removable hard drive cage is handy, makes my life easier anyhow.

Seriously, this crap is too easy now adays. Everything is labeled AND color coded. No challenge anymore.

Excuse my macro mode having a seizure...

LG optical drive - DVD-R, the tools I need for this whole thing. Swiss Army knife is something everyone should have.

I tried my best to keep the wires out of the way, but alas... they nested in the middle of the case.

The GFX card. Its SLi capable (connector up by my index finger), but I'll never bother with that.

SATA cable hooked up - almost spaced on having this, as I got an OEM HDD package, so no cables. Luckily, the Mobo had one with it.

The Box completed and running.

All in all, took me about 2 hours from the point of unpacking stuff to get Windows to boot on this computer. Now adays, its much easier to setup a computer, with most everything having autodetect and being clearly labeled. The days of setting jumpers are gone, along with guessing pin outs and booting up fDisk to setup a new drive.

Kids these days, they have it so easy

 

[Eric.]

We need a "This thread is worthless without benchmarks!" emote.

Most people install the HSF and CPU (in the reverse order ) outside of the case. Makes it easier sometimes, especially with the stupid LGA775 OEM heatsinks.

I expect 3dMark06, Super PI, and wPrime benchmarks within 24 hours.

 

[Azuremen]

Super Pi I'll probably pass on, just because it lacks multi core support

Let me optimize the drivers on it tonight and I'll run some bench marks.

I've never really had much of an issue installing stuff while its in the case, there is quite of room to work with, and I am still use to the good ole days where force was actually required to get things on, thus I prefer to have the board on the mounting brackets. Installing this CPU and Heatsink/Fan was quite easy though. Made me happy inside (I've been doing this for way too long)

 

[GT3mich]

Cool! Another computer brought to life. Enjoy!

 

[Eric.]

You better get that PC on Folding@home too. I can walk you through how to set up two console clients if you want, since that is the only way to use multiple cores.

(you too, GT3mich! four instances for you)