Gentlemen, what are your thoughts on this system configuration (asap):

[slim150]

[
**** major update see a later post! ****


B]CPU[/B]: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon™64 X2 5200+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

MOTHERBOARD: (Socket AM2)MSI K9N4 SLI-F nForce 500 SLI Chipset DDR2/800 SATA-II RAID MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express

MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory

VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 256MB PCI Express x16

HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

Optical Drive: 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER


SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

extras: a briefcase, t-shirt, 2gb usb flash drive, hdtv tuner

Price: 750.00 Shipped

[tesco]

You're actually gonna buy vista?

[clocker]

Ditch the CPU and motherboard...why would you not go Intel at this point?

[slim150]

Ditch the CPU and motherboard...why would you not go Intel at this point?

thanks for the input.. what suggestion would you have for intel, E6400?


p.s. i sort of fell out of touch with hardware, not up to date on whats great i'm afraid. maybe overclock the e4300?

OK, major update.

CASE: RaidMax Smilodon Med-Tower 420W Case w/ Side-Panel Window

CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4300 CPU @ 1.80GHz 800FSB 2x1MB L2 Cache EM64T

MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core Supports) Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard

MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Mushkin Xtreme w/ Heat Spreader)

VIDEO CARD: NEW !!! NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCI Express x16 (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)

Optical Drive: (Special Price) 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BEIGE COLOR)

SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD

no vista ;)

price 752.00 shipped

[tobb3]

First of all you must have 2gb ram! and I think you should consider buying a larger HD, at least 250gb and try to get one with 16mb cache. And what kind of PSU do get along with that case, u know the psu is very important espcially if u want to overclock! And a better motherboard, such as abit ab9 QuadGT or a Gigabyte DS3 or DS4 since you need it to be stable a high FSB.

that's all good luck :)

[Virtualbody1234]

VIDEO CARD: NEW !!! NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCI Express x16 (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)

Optical Drive: (Special Price) 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BEIGE COLOR)



Why so secretive about posting the make(s)/model(s)? You even made the extra effort to point out that the video card is "(Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)". Why not just say which brand?

[clocker]

Why so secretive about posting the make(s)/model(s)? You even made the extra effort to point out that the video card is "(Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)". Why not just say which brand?
VB, this has to be a pre-assembled PC off the internets...the manufacturer isn't telling him what brand the card is, probably because it changes depending on supply/cost.

The Raidmax case and power supply suck.

OP-
If I were you I'd get on Newegg and start pricing components and plan on assembling this myself.

[slim150]

aye clocker,

what about this psu

parkle ATX-400PN-B204 400W 20/24pin Power Supply
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-FS400PN


or this one:

CoolerMaster SLI Supports Power Supply Unit(600 Watts eXtreme Power)
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-600PCAR

[Shiranai_Baka]

Before all this, is this your own gaming rig or what? and what's your budget?

[slim150]

$750 or less is what I want to spend, and it is going to be my primary gaming pc but aside from WoW I haven't been gaming a lot really (except on consoles) so it doesn't have to be top of the line. I would like it to last a while though, and be able to handle newer games.

I know I need more memory, but I will add that later.

---------------------------------

Thank you all that are reading this and giving me criticisms, its what i wanted.

From suggestions, I've come up with this build.. thoughts..:

CASE: NZXT Nemesis Metal Mid-Tower Case 400W W/ side-panel Window (WHITE COLOR)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146030

PSU: CoolerMaster SLI Supports Power Supply Unit(600 Watts eXtreme Power)

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-600PCAR

CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4300 CPU @ 1.80GHz 800FSB 2x1MB L2 Cache EM64T

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115013

MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core Supports) Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142


MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Mushkin Xtreme w/ Heat Spreader)


VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCI Express x16


HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)


Optical Drive: 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (SILVER COLOR)


SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD


$807

[clocker]

Who is picking your cases- Stevie Wonder?

How about this case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068) (it's our standard build model) and this power supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001) (ditto).

Less money and guaranteed high quality.

[slim150]

ok, buy im gonna go with this case

NZXT Zero
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146029

[Colt Seevers]

Glad to see you made the switch to intel, if I were to upgrade at this point, I would be choosing that route....

[clocker]

ok, buy im gonna go with this case

NZXT Zero
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146029

Unless NZXT has suddenly been absorbed by Lian-li or somebody, their case quality is hideous.
One last try...how about this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119042)- still my absolute fave mid-priced case.

[slim150]

ok, buy im gonna go with this case

NZXT Zero
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146029

Unless NZXT has suddenly been absorbed by Lian-li or somebody, their case quality is hideous.
One last try...how about this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119042)- still my absolute fave mid-priced case.


really? it seemed to have good reviews on newegg.. i liked it because of all the fans. is coolermaster a better brand for cases?

[Snee]

Unless NZXT has suddenly been absorbed by Lian-li or somebody, their case quality is hideous.
One last try...how about this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119042)- still my absolute fave mid-priced case.


really? it seemed to have good reviews on newegg.. i liked it because of all the fans. is coolermaster a better brand for cases?
Yes.

And the Stacker there is brilliant, assuming you've got room for it and all.
It's very easy to work with.

[clocker]

really? it seemed to have good reviews on newegg.. i liked it because of all the fans. is coolermaster a better brand for cases?
The reviews on Newegg are written by morons and should in no way be accepted as the thoughts of someone with brainwave activity.

The Stacker is, as noted by Snee, "brilliant" but I now wonder why you are going for such a large case (even the NZXT was larger than necessary). None of your hardware requires so much room and unless you plan on watercooling, a mid-tower would easily accomodate the PC.

BTW, do not confuse a multitude of fans with "good cooling".
That is simply not how it works.

[slim150]

Well, what started as "can i upgrade a pirated windows with a legit version" (other post) that turned into finding a student version of XP has now turned into me spending $819 on a nice new system!!

I would have bought a p.o.s. system with a genuine version of windows if it weren't for the help of all of you guys. I'm real excited about my pc.. (never had a fancy psu before :P)

ill make a post of the final specs a little later, but thanks again for everyones help!

[clocker]

Is this being built for you or are you assembling yourself?

[slim150]

built for me, only for the 3 year included warranty and free shipping and no tax

[clocker]

This should be interesting then.
Do you know exactly what the warranty covers?

[slim150]

now that you mention it... it says 3 years for shipping damages(?) and defective products.. BUT Motherboard, Hard Drive, CPU, RAM, Video Card are just on a limited one year deal.. lol. Free shipping anyway. and 24/7 tech support that I'd never use

[clocker]

I think you're getting screwed.
Most RAM carries a lifetime warranty these days, HDDs- 5 years, CPUs- 3 years.
This assumes you are the initial buyer, which in this case, you aren't.
Seems like you are actually getting less coverage through this vendor than you would get by yourself.

The 24/7 tech support is probably worthless as well and there is no sales tax on internet sales anyway (I assume you don't live in Cali...) so I fail to see what the advantage for you is.

[Shiranai_Baka]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811165008

That case might work well too. It certainly has a lot of room.

[slim150]

Update, well this is what I ended up getting. I know its not the greatest of setups, but was a lot better than my original. Plus I mean I don't need bleeding edge technology, just nicer than my P4 oven that I have now. Thanks for all your help!

Price: 819 Shipped

Case: (chose the wrong stacker, but I like this one anyway)
XION Stacker XON-791B - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208022
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-208-022-01.jpg

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 CPU @ 1.80GHz 800FSB 2x1MB L2 Cache EM64T

DVD Drive: 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER

HD: 160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

Memory Muskin 1GB PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory

MoBo: Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard

Power Supply: ENERMAX FMA II EG565P-VE ATX12V 535W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194010

Sound: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD

Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCI Express x16

[Virtualbody1234]

I'll mention this again, like my previous post...

Now that you actually got it why don't you post the make/model(s) of the parts used.

These 3 items are the ones I'm referring to.

DVD Drive: 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER

HD: 160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD


Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCI Express x16

I point this out to you because I think it's important that you really know what you're purchasing.

You wouldn't buy a car just knowing it's engine size but totally unaware what make/model it is. Would you?

[slim150]

Oh yeah, I was meaning to wait to post until I physically got it to check it out and see, but that other computer post was around and I wanted that OP to see this one.

Its supposed to be shipped this week, so I'll learn soon!