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Thread: The All American Computer Build of 2010

  1. #1
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    The All American Computer Build of 2010

    Redirecting this from the Recent Purchases thread, my original post:

    Quote Originally Posted by Rockefella View Post
    Budget over a few months: $900-1100

    What I want to do mainly: It doesn't necessarily have to handle FarCry at 100 FPS but if a good pc game comes out that requires a solid machine to handle it, I want to be able to play it. I deal with a lot of multimedia but that will probably be covered if it'll handle higher-end pc games. To put it simply, I want a higher-end rig, not a top-of-the-line "holy shit guys check out my spec sheet overclockeddddd!!" computer

    What I was thinking, just a rough sketch of this I guess:

    - Quad-Core processor, last I cared I preferred AMD over Intel but I can definitely use some advice in this department
    - 8 GB RAM, should I go DDR3 (not sure of the prices) or am I OK going with ddr2?
    - HDD I think I'll go with 2 drives. The primary being 160 GB, or 320 depending on how the budget works out but must be a high speed drive. I forgot the exact speed but I think they run at 9600 RPM? (versus 5400 IIRC) The secondary drive will prob be 500GB or so and will only serve as storage space. I also have a 750 GB external sitting around collecting dust
    - Video Card/Sound Card I would like to be on the higher-end of the spectrum, again.. not top of the line but something that offers good bang for my buck. My limit for video/sound cards would probably be $300 combined.
    - Drives aren't too important. I guess 2 5.25" disc drives and a multi-whatever its called bay with card readers and such. Forgot the name of it. DVD-RW necessary, was thinking about BluRay but I'll hold off on that.
    - Motherboard I'm pretty much clueless on and will definitely require some help with
    - Peripherals like mouse/keyboard/monitor/speakers/printer/webcam I'm ok with, already have most of those to begin with.
    - Operating system will be Windows 7
    - I'll need help with buying cables, fans, thermal gels, and such

    Yep, I guess that's all. I don't want to bottleneck anything so all parts should be pretty equal in their respective level of performance

    Cheers
    The same pretty much still applies, but I got to thinking about buying a SSD instead of the conventional HDD. I would hold off on this until the last part of the build a few months down the road but even then I think they're too expensive. My best bet I think would be to buy a case that has SSD install bays and just buy one a year later when it's half the price.

    I figured the first thing I'd buy is the case. Any recommendations? Budget is roughly $100 for the case. I want something that looks good, has good ventilation, and offers a decent amount of expandability/flexibility with drive bays and ports.

    EDIT: Don't want anything uber-flashy, example shown below relates to what I'm looking for. A plexiglass window in the side of the case would be nice so I can get aroused to the LEDs inside while reading my system specs at night.

    Last edited by Rockefella; 03-02-2010 at 01:09 PM.
    Rockefella says:
    pat's sister is hawt
    David Fiset says:
    so is mine
    David Fiset says:
    do want

  2. #2
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    Rocke, you are hilarious.

    You need this.

  3. #3
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    Acer AX3810-U1802 Desktop PC - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz, 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, HDMI, eSATA, FireWire, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit at TigerDirect.com

    You could get this and slash a few things off of your list.

    Is that any good? My parents are looking for one and I've also been looking at the Dell Inspirion 580. Core i3+ 1TB + 4GB DDR3 for $549 USD.
    I'm dropping out to create a company that starts with motorcycles, then cars, and forty years later signs a legendary Brazilian driver who has a public and expensive feud with his French teammate.

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    Make a sleeper.
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by kingofthering View Post
    Acer AX3810-U1802 Desktop PC - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz, 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, HDMI, eSATA, FireWire, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit at TigerDirect.com

    You could get this and slash a few things off of your list.

    Is that any good? My parents are looking for one and I've also been looking at the Dell Inspirion 580. Core i3+ 1TB + 4GB DDR3 for $549 USD.
    I'm sure it's good especially for that price, but I definitely want to get my hands dirty and build it myself. Plus, when I see computers like that at Best Buy or online, I feel like they're sold on

    6 GB DDR3! 1TB HDD! QUAD CORE PROCESSOR!

    which are all well and good, but the quality involved and bottlenecking may be a problem since it's being sold on the flashy numbers. Let me put it in a way we can all understand:

    My plan, to relate it to cars since that is our medium on this site is:

    My budget is 70k, as far as autos go that's pretty hefty and will get me a lot for my dollar in terms of speed, quality, reliability, and overall performance. Will I get a Ferrari or Bugatti for 60k brand new? No. Am I getting a Kia Soul? No. I'd be looking at cars like the CTS-V, C-class AMG, S5, etc. Can I buy a Mustang GT for 30k and dump 40k into it so I'm rolling with 900 hp? Sure, but then what about the suspension, engine internals (strength), wheels, aero, transmission, and brakes?

    Maybe you can see what I'm getting at now. If I build this thing, it should be on the higher end of the computing-power spectrum with all parts being essentially equal in their respective performance field. No point having 8GB of DDR3 RAM if I'm running a dual core 2 Ghz processor on an XP32bit machine.
    Rockefella says:
    pat's sister is hawt
    David Fiset says:
    so is mine
    David Fiset says:
    do want

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rockefella View Post
    My plan, to relate it to cars since that is our medium on this site is:

    My budget is 70k, as far as autos go that's pretty hefty and will get me a lot for my dollar in terms of speed, quality, reliability, and overall performance. Will I get a Ferrari or Bugatti for 60k brand new? No. Am I getting a Kia Soul? No. I'd be looking at cars like the CTS-V, C-class AMG, S5, etc. Can I buy a Mustang GT for 30k and dump 40k into it so I'm rolling with 900 hp? Sure, but then what about the suspension, engine internals (strength), wheels, aero, transmission, and brakes?
    Finally something I can understand.

    So you want an all rounder. Good luck with it.
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  7. #7
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    An SSD drive could be a good idea for the 160GB drive. They can be incredibly fast, and are a lot safer/last longer. Waiting for the costs to drop and just getting a bay for it/them sounds like a much better idea though.

    From what I know/have heard, DDR3 runs faster, especially for I/O, so depending on how I/O intensive your uses will be, that would be a good deciding factor.

    Intel vs AMD.....eh, whatever works with a good motherboard, honestly. As for the motherboard, the higher bus speed the better. I haven't shopped around for one in too long a time to remember/know of any good boards, but another 100mhz in bus speed is probably a better investment than maybe even 200-250mhz in processor speed.
    "I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring" - Richard Feynman, last recorded words.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by CdocZ View Post
    An SSD drive could be a good idea for the 160GB drive. They can be incredibly fast, and are a lot safer/last longer. Waiting for the costs to drop and just getting a bay for it/them sounds like a much better idea though.

    From what I know/have heard, DDR3 runs faster, especially for I/O, so depending on how I/O intensive your uses will be, that would be a good deciding factor.

    Intel vs AMD.....eh, whatever works with a good motherboard, honestly. As for the motherboard, the higher bus speed the better. I haven't shopped around for one in too long a time to remember/know of any good boards, but another 100mhz in bus speed is probably a better investment than maybe even 200-250mhz in processor speed.
    Bolded part noted, thanks. The case that I pictured up top I think I'll buy, just gonna wait around and see if the price drops. The reviews on NewEgg were all really positive. A lot of comparisons to an Antec 920? case that seem to be the 1a and 1b of the case market for that price.
    Rockefella says:
    pat's sister is hawt
    David Fiset says:
    so is mine
    David Fiset says:
    do want

  9. #9
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    I'm just going to say that AMD hasn't properly competed with Intel performance-wise since the introduction of the Intel Core 2 in 2006. Before that any computer enthusiast and/or gamer would have told you to go with AMD.

    The best bang for the bucks on the market currently is the Core i7 920, $289 on Newegg.

    Find yourself the X58 chipset based motherboard that fits your needs better (that chipset is the highest performance motherboard chipset for the i7, won't get into explaining how).

    Then find yourself a good set of triple channel DDR3 RAM kit, of at least 1600MHz. Slower than that tends to bottleneck the system a bit too much, over that is just overkill IMO. So go from there and find the lowest latency/best priced 6GB (or 12GB if you have penis issues) kit.

    Then the rest of the components are up to you. With that combo of CPU-motherboard-RAM you are sure to get away with a very fast build while not spending too much moola.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by fisetdavid26 View Post
    I'm just going to say that AMD hasn't properly competed with Intel performance-wise since the introduction of the Intel Core 2 in 2006. Before that any computer enthusiast and/or gamer would have told you to go with AMD.

    The best bang for the bucks on the market currently is the Core i7 920, $289 on Newegg.

    Find yourself the X58 chipset based motherboard that fits your needs better (that chipset is the highest performance motherboard chipset for the i7, won't get into explaining how).

    Then find yourself a good set of triple channel DDR3 RAM kit, of at least 1600MHz. Slower than that tends to bottleneck the system a bit too much, over that is just overkill IMO. So go from there and find the lowest latency/best priced 6GB (or 12GB if you have penis issues) kit.

    Then the rest of the components are up to you. With that combo of CPU-motherboard-RAM you are sure to get away with a very fast build while not spending too much moola.
    How do the prices look, should I buy now/soon or should I hold off?
    Rockefella says:
    pat's sister is hawt
    David Fiset says:
    so is mine
    David Fiset says:
    do want

  11. #11
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    If you want performance vs cost info, Tom's Hardware's not a bad place to start. They do monthly 'best for $$$' articles, here's last month's CPU and graphics ones. There's also info about selecting boards and whatnot there.
    Life's too short to drive bad cars.

  12. #12
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    Oddly enough, I bought the case pictured in the first post. It was on sale $20 off, looked the best, and had very good reviews overall. It's begun.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119196
    Rockefella says:
    pat's sister is hawt
    David Fiset says:
    so is mine
    David Fiset says:
    do want

  13. #13
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    Techreport does a pretty nice system build roundup

    As for a case the cm690 2 is pretty nice but you've already got one.

    SSD's should be dropping in price at the end of the year,
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  14. #14
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    Fiset, after some research, the stuff you're recommending is going to put me in the $1700-$2000 price range after all is said and done. I was hoping to spend around $1000.
    Rockefella says:
    pat's sister is hawt
    David Fiset says:
    so is mine
    David Fiset says:
    do want

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rockefella View Post
    Fiset, after some research, the stuff you're recommending is going to put me in the $1700-$2000 price range after all is said and done. I was hoping to spend around $1000.
    That's weird, I built a system for a friend of mine based on those specs + decent video card and 750GB HDD, cost $1,600 CDN last July. $2k USD seems a bit off?

    I'm gonna try to retrieve the invoice tomorrow because right now I'm not sober at all.

    EDIT: found the system specs in my e-mails
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    Last edited by fisetdavid26; 03-03-2010 at 01:10 AM.
    Reginald *IB4R* says:
    it was a beautiful 35 seconds.
    David says:
    that's what she said

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