Well, I told myself that BloodRun would be the last thing I'd build before college. And, I've kept to that promise. But, I decided this weekend that I needed to start planning for my next build. Here are the constraints.

- Must be below $1000

- Must use atleast two new technologies (PCI-E, DualCore, x64, DDR2, etc)

- Must have some decent muscle

- Has to look good

I tossed together a parts list on Newegg the other day, here are the results.

Spire SwordFin SP-9007B Black Metal SECC/Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail - $53.99

DFI nF4-DAGF Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM - $53.99

eVGA 256-P2-N549 Geforce 7600GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $114.99 ($99.99 after mail-in rebate)

Sunbeam PSU-BKS-480-US ATX12V 480W Power Supply - Retail - $15.99 After Rebate

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model - $297.00

SABRENT SND-P8CH 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail - $18.99

Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker - Retail - $81.00

2 Tyris T701DB Black 17" 8ms DVI LCD Monitor - Retail - $159.99 each

Logitech Cordless Internet Pro Desktop 967461-0403 Black USB RF Wireless Slim Desktop Mouse Included - OEM - $23.99

Subtotal: $979.92


Suggestions are welcome, with the following exceptions:

- I want to keep that Spire case on my list. I think it would look killer with the paint-job I have in mind.

- No brand bashing! I have my right to choose whatever manufacturer I want, and "nVidia sux j00 n00b!" isn't going to change my mind.

- Keep me budget in mind. Please don't recommend a $500 video card, when you know my price-tag is under the discretion of my college fund.

- Also, while I want to stay with Newegg on this one, I will consider other stores, but only barely.

Otherwise, any tips are greatly appreciated.

do you have a laptop or portable computer already? because being able to carry your computer with you and use it where ever on campus is quite an advantage.

the mobo you list has 7.1 onboard audio you can probably ditch the sound card since it doent really feature a real DSP core anyways.

The only thing I could suggest is a small detail, but you may want to consider fan filters. When I lived in the dorms, I was constantly cleaning out my case because of dust bunnies. I had a fair amount of heat build up because of fans and heatsinks getting clogged.

Do you already have hard drives? I don't see it listed (unless I over looked it).

I don't like laptops - laptops are so easy to steal.

And I might even advise that if the rig is going to college you don't advertise "My rig pwns j00!" because that's the rig they want to steal. Your rig should say "Damn I sux dude - steal something else".

Take that Spire case, paint it up real nice, AND LEAVE IT AT HOME.

Get a damn dead dog uglyass BIG [big is key] old Compaq and hide your hottie components inside. F Up the front bezel like this is a PC that did two tours in Iraq. And anybody who asks tell them "Yeah - it belonged to my dad and when they got a new one I got this POS. Its barely a Pentium."

No one will want to take it. No one will want to borrow time because they are too lazy to get their own box or go to the lab. No hassles.

-MF

Quote: Originally Posted by Monsignor Funkibut I don't like laptops - laptops are so easy to steal. And I might even advise that if the rig is going to college you don't advertise "My rig pwns j00!" because that's the rig they want to steal. Your rig should say "Damn I sux dude - steal something else". Take that Spire case, paint it up real nice, AND LEAVE IT AT HOME. Get a damn dead dog uglyass BIG [big is key] old Compaq and hide your hottie components inside. F Up the front bezel like this is a PC that did two tours in Iraq. And anybody who asks tell them "Yeah - it belonged to my dad and when they got a new one I got this POS. Its barely a Pentium." No one will want to take it. No one will want to borrow time because they are too lazy to get their own box or go to the lab. No hassles. -MF

It's called a heavily guarded Windows password. But, then again, you have more worried... I plan on going to a small school, but even so, is it a genuine worry that my gear will be stolen?

Also, I did miss my harddrive.

Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR 400GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 RAID-specific Hard Drive - OEM - $177.99

I got rid of the sound card and speaks. (I have a 2.1 system, which really is enough for now.) If you're wondering where my RAM is, I have a GB of Patriot in this rig. I can use that and add more later, if need be. That DFi has 4 RAM slots.

New Subtotal: $1,057.92

Next question: Video cards - More? Less? I do moderate gaming, here's a list of what I have and what I want:

Have:

- Guild Wars
- Doom 3
- Halo
- NFS Underground


Want:

- GW Factions
- Doom 4
- Halo 2
- BF2 (Maybe?)

If you seriously want to cut down on cost, you might want to consider going Intel and getting an 805D, that'll seriously lower your processor budget.

EDIT: But then again, I'll admit to not knowing jack on intel mobos and overclockability and prices they have.

I'd cut down the CPU to a good single core and get a reliable power supply since that component has the ability to literally burn the rest of your parts if it fails.

Get a low-cost Antec, it's better than a computer burnout.

Quote: Originally Posted by carbongraphite do you have a laptop or portable computer already? because being able to carry your computer with you and use it where ever on campus is quite an advantage. the mobo you list has 7.1 onboard audio you can probably ditch the sound card since it doent really feature a real DSP core anyways.

Yeah, that was gonna be my first question. Most of the college-bound types usually have laptops... ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE DOING ANY CISCO CLASSES!

I'm looking at signing up for some college classes next fall (nothing like overloading a full schedule... but I'll be caught up a bit by then... I hope). I'm thinking laptop... of course, you'd probably wanna expand your budget constraints a little, $1000.00 for a new laptop is usually a guaranteed Ford Tempo in a Corvette world...

Gzim is onto the winner there...

Get yourself a Pentium 4 D 805 and a BEEFY heatsink (Think Scythe Ninja...) and clock the Shiznit out of it!

CPU wil be nearly half the price i would imagine. Also with the latest Intel northbridge chips it would be pretty future proof as you could just plop a nice new Conroe chip in there when they come out.

THEN... with the money you have saved...

Get yourself a decent PSU... its been said TIME and TIME again but do not ever get budget PSUs for decent components... its like feeding 100m sprinters Big Macs all days... not good for them! You want a quality supply of juice for your nice expensive components and also want to know that if there is a big old power spike there is at least some protection for your PC. Antec, Hiper etc go with a well reviewed and well respected model. Worth it - i promise you!


Mark

Dorm suggestions:

If you're gonna have (either your own or a roomie's) stereo, buy a $3 cable and pipe the audio into the stereo; might only be 2.0, but you don't need 7 channels to fill a dorm, and the extra speakers will just be a space issue.

Live-at-home suggestion: what about a secondhand 21" CRT instead of a 17" LCD? If space isn't a premium, you'll get more visual quality and massive screen space for the same or less money (depending where you buy).

General suggestions:

If you're not doing SLi, why go NF4? K8T890 is almost as good for that, and is fanless, so it's one less part to fail.

For a 7600GS, pick a fanless one for the same mindset. The one you selected qualifies, but there are some fanned 7600GSs I think.

For a laptop, what about an older laptop with a replacement battery? That's what I did my last term of school-- Athlon 1200 then XP2000+ desktop at home, and a PII-266 to take to school. If it was ripped off, I was only out $300.

Quote: Originally Posted by markwalker84 Gzim is onto the winner there... Get yourself a Pentium 4 D 805 and a BEEFY heatsink (Think Scythe Ninja...) and clock the Shiznit out of it!

Thanks are welcome in the form of +reps...

Quote: Originally Posted by Gzim If you seriously want to cut down on cost, you might want to consider going Intel and getting an 805D, that'll seriously lower your processor budget. EDIT: But then again, I'll admit to not knowing jack on intel mobos and overclockability and prices they have.

That seems like the better idea. I was looking at AMD because of the fact that all of these "fan-boys" are gasming over the Opterons. Why not see what the hype it about? But, I see now that that Intel price tag is far more buyer-friendly.

Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 533MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core,EM64T Processor Model BX80551PE2666FN - Retail - $124.99

ECS C19-A SLI (1.0A) Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce4 SLI XE ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $79.99

Total: $204.98 (About $50 less than the cost of my CPU alone!)

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-480 ATX12V 480W Power Supply - Retail - $77.00

Let me do some number-crunching... I'm at school, so I can't access my account to edit my wish list.

EDIT: Looking at this mainboard, it functions on DDR2, making more to add to my list. ><

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWIN2X1024-5400C4 - Retail - $102.99

New Subtotal: $755.93

This Includes:

- Spire Swordfish
- Geforce GPU
- 400GB HD
- Intel CPU and Board
- Antec PSU
- RAM
- Mouse/KB

I'm looking at CRTs now.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kratos It's called a heavily guarded Windows password. But, then again, you have more worried... I plan on going to a small school, but even so, is it a genuine worry that my gear will be stolen? Also, I did miss my harddrive. Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR 400GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 RAID-specific Hard Drive - OEM - $177.99 I got rid of the sound card and speaks. (I have a 2.1 system, which really is enough for now.) If you're wondering where my RAM is, I have a GB of Patriot in this rig. I can use that and add more later, if need be. That DFi has 4 RAM slots. New Subtotal: $1,057.92 Next question: Video cards - More? Less? I do moderate gaming, here's a list of what I have and what I want: Have: - Guild Wars - Doom 3 - Halo - NFS Underground Want: - GW Factions - Doom 4 - Halo 2 - BF2 (Maybe?)

If you want a sure-fire way to keep it from getting stolen, chain/cable-lock it onto something sturdy in your dorm room that can't be moved and integrate the hardpoint for the lock into your case. Be certain to put locks on any part of your case that allows access to the inside of your computer. During my sophomore year in college (after I moved out of the dorms) at a school with no more than about 1800 people on campus at any given time, some kids broke into the dorms over a long weekend using a master key and stole everything out of the rooms of an entire hallway in the building except a handfull of computers that were locked down with heavy security cables or chain (of course that's more a reflection on the poor quality of security on campus than anything else). The more low-key that you can make your computer look on the outside, the less likely it'll get stolen if somebody breaks into your room.

I don't know if this was asked, but what's your intended major? I'm a Computer Science Major and have to do AutoCAD and Simulation stuff for first year because of Engineering, so I need a laptop that says "I will eat you for breakfast." AutoDesktop Inventor alone takes up 500mb of ram, and like 5GB of disk space, plus EATS at the CPU. Plus Photoshop isn't to RAM friendly either.

PS: My F@H sig still isn't updated

Quote: Originally Posted by The Captain I don't know if this was asked, but what's your intended major? I'm a Computer Science Major and have to do AutoCAD and Simulation stuff for first year because of Engineering, so I need a laptop that says "I will eat you for breakfast." AutoDesktop Inventor alone takes up 500mb of ram, and like 5GB of disk space, plus EATS at the CPU. Plus Photoshop isn't to RAM friendly either. PS: My F@H sig still isn't updated

It's a thoughtful question to pose. If you happen to be a mechanical engineering major, you'll eventually have to do your fluids and thermo homework using your computer which involves some software that can eat 2.6GHz opterons and 3.8GHz Xeons for a snack (depending upon how good you are at preparing the software). If you're going into a specialized area of mechanical engineering or aerospace engineering, you'll likely be doing simulations for weekly-level homework that will either require hours after classes on campus on a workstation running simulations, supercomputer time, or a personal rig that most people would consider to be a mirage taunting them off in the distance. I.E., my work involves full-body aerodynamic simulation of high performance sportscar/racecar models, including internal ductwork, moving boundary regions, transient domains, thermal interface compensation, and a dynamic engine model all in the same simulation case (this is what I was expected to do at work by the co-op employer I had as of the beginning of my Junior year in college). This sort of work eats my Dual Core, Dual Opterons for breakfast and eats supercomputers such as Cray XD1's for dinner. I know it's not typical as few engineers actually get to the point of doing R&D at such a hardcore level, but if you are majoring in engineering...especially if you're majoring in a field with the intention of getting deeply involved with the most advanced tools on the market, be prepared for a computer that may, at times, feel no more stable than a 486 DX2 66Mhz trying to run Windows XP.

some suggestions...

first of all, dont get that psu

second, come off the case a little, consider the one i suggested simply because it includes a 450 Watt Antec brand psu that will -for sure- power this system instead of being a ticking timebomb...

third, that monitor you are wanting is on back order, meaning your likelihood of getting one any time soon is kinda low

Prices include shipping and rebates...

$120 Case = Antec Sonata II Incl.450 Watt SmartPower ATX2.0 Dual Rail PSU
$145 Video = Sapphire Radeon X850XT 256MB PCI-E X16
$116 RAM = 2 x Pqi TURBO 1GB 240Pin DDR2 533Mhz SDRAM
$64 MoBo = ECS 945PL-A
$45 DVD-RW = LITE-ON 16x DVD+/-R DVD Burner
$86 HDD = Western Digital Caviar 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA3
$33 Sound = Creative Audigy SE 7.1 Channel 24Bit 96Khz
$129 CPU = Intel Pentium D 805
$162 Monitor = Wise Wing Black 17" 8ms
$30 KB, Mouse = Logitech basic stuff
$90 Speakers = Creative Inspire P7800 7.1
===============================================
$1020 Total
-has "Muscle" in spades
-video card uses 256Bit GDDR3 instead of 128Bit GDDR2
-also has 16 Pixel Pipelines instead of 12
-is Dual Core, 64Bit, DDR2, and PCI-E
-has audio that isnt a joke
-includes hard drive
-also includes DVD Burner
-has 2 Gigabytes of ram, which will take care of the newer games (including Battlefield 2)
-really, it includes everything you wanted earlier but ended up chopping out

and to cpjam, man, you have a whole lot of good stuff to say that probably doesent get ready by a whole lot of people because you cant seem to create a paragraph for anything...press the enter key, at least once or twice....pls...

Quote: Originally Posted by The Captain I don't know if this was asked, but what's your intended major? I'm a Computer Science Major and have to do AutoCAD and Simulation stuff for first year because of Engineering, so I need a laptop that says "I will eat you for breakfast." AutoDesktop Inventor alone takes up 500mb of ram, and like 5GB of disk space, plus EATS at the CPU. Plus Photoshop isn't to RAM friendly either. PS: My F@H sig still isn't updated

I plan on going to Pittsburg Technical Institute in Oakdale, PA. They have a course in Network Administration, which is more or less my field of choice. The main reason why I dont' want a laptop is because of the fact that finding any laptop comparable to my current desktop config would eat my wallet and beg for more. If I were to bump $1500 on a laptop and tote along my current rig, I'd be laughed at. Also, I did plan on leaving this machine behind for my little brother.


@ Fu3lman:

Thanks for the list! I can drop those speakers and make everything work under budget (I plan on keeping my 2.1 audio setup, as it's the uber-sweetness for no added investment.)

I'll scrap both old and new list tonight and see what tweaks I can make.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kratos I plan on going to Pittsburg Technical Institute in Oakdale, PA. They have a course in Network Administration, which is more or less my field of choice. The main reason why I dont' want a laptop is because of the fact that finding any laptop comparable to my current desktop config would eat my wallet and beg for more. If I were to bump $1500 on a laptop and tote along my current rig, I'd be laughed at. Also, I did plan on leaving this machine behind for my little brother. @ Fu3lman: Thanks for the list! I can drop those speakers and make everything work under budget (I plan on keeping my 2.1 audio setup, as it's the uber-sweetness for no added investment.) I'll scrap both old and new list tonight and see what tweaks I can make.

wow how ironic ill be there starting in october
and im gonna drag my dual case water cooled sempron into the Housing they have, there is no dorms, and its a Housing develpoment with a curfew as well as a gate, and neighborhood watch, not really the dorm like place

PS: ill have to pwn that intel with my sempr0n while were there

Quote: Originally Posted by Kratos I plan on going to Pittsburg Technical Institute in Oakdale, PA. They have a course in Network Administration, which is more or less my field of choice. The main reason why I dont' want a laptop is because of the fact that finding any laptop comparable to my current desktop config would eat my wallet and beg for more. If I were to bump $1500 on a laptop and tote along my current rig, I'd be laughed at. Also, I did plan on leaving this machine behind for my little brother. @ Fu3lman: Thanks for the list! I can drop those speakers and make everything work under budget (I plan on keeping my 2.1 audio setup, as it's the uber-sweetness for no added investment.) I'll scrap both old and new list tonight and see what tweaks I can make.

Whew....consider yourself lucky then as far as needing to get a system based upon your major/educational decisions.

Quote: Originally Posted by s1ugh34d wow how ironic ill be there starting in october and im gonna drag my dual case water cooled sempron into the Housing they have, there is no dorms, and its a Housing develpoment with a curfew as well as a gate, and neighborhood watch, not really the dorm like place PS: ill have to pwn that intel with my sempr0n while were there

Hell, no! Heh. I'll have to look you up in a year and three months when us freshies show up! This is all provided I can make my desicion. Still no clue about whether or not I'm going to that school, but I want to be in the Pittsburg area.