Good Deal?

[saltynay]

the 8600gt is a dupe card get an ati x1950 if your looking for a card in that price range

 

[blyver]

Yeah nagasama mentioned the possibility of doing sli with the 8600s, but from what I've read a single 8800gts far outperforms the 8600 sli. So I'm definitely going to go with the 8800gts. What do you think of the rest of the setup saltynay?

 

[saltynay]

well I would swap the graphics card for whichever 8800gts is cheapest buy a good brand which normally is an EVGA one you can overclock at home no need to buy one they have done at factory. All manufacturers start with the same card and graphics chip they just stick there own sticker on the cover and have different factory clock settings. I only picked my BFG one because I thought the man looked cool lol and that is the honest reason.

The Psu I would go with a corsair 520HX

The hardrive I would swap for a samsung spinpoint jusst because they are marginally faster and probably cheaper. If data reliability is of the upmost importance then you might want the 5 year warranty of the seagate though both are great manufacturers

 

[blyver]

Well the corsair psu is $60 dollars more and it would be good to keep the price down - but if you think it will make a huge difference then I'll definitely spend the extra. Is there a big problem with the coolmax one that I have listed?

I swapped out the 8800gts i had for an evga - Newegg.com - EVGA 320-P2-N815-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail - actually I think this one is overclocked as well because I believe I've read that the factory setting is 500. But it is cheaper (286.99) and looks good. Since this is cheaper it does leave me a bit more room to update the psu if you think that would be necessary.

I'll probably be swapping the seagate for a samsung, as several people have recommended it.

 

[saltynay]

nevermind then the price gap is too large coolmax are a so so brand usually quite good but with such a large price gap it isn't worth changing. the fortron or tagan perhaps have a slightly cheaper psu I would trust them more then coolmax.

you may want to add an after-market cpu cooler lower temps not only mean overclocking potential but also allow for a more stable chip and increase the life of it. The arctic freezer 7 is a very worthy hsf.

Seagate barracuda: reliable 5 year warranty their 7200.10 series is marginally faster then hitachi and western digital equivalents. The 7200.11 will be coming out about august with drives from 500gb-1tb. Major producer

Samsung spinpoints: the fastest data transfer 7200 drives, relatively small in the hdd world but are suppose to be reliable but only a 3 year warranty

Western digital Caviar: slower then the seagates and samsungs nothing special about the caviar series quite reliable though. Introducing a new 750gb drive in the coming weeks if not already which will be the fastest 750gb drive available but slower then the upcoming seagate. The jewel in WD's crown are raptor drives which are extremely quick 10,000rpm drives but expensive and in my opinion not worth the cash. Major producer

hitachi deskstars: relatively small in the world of hdd's mixed reports on reliability, only company currently offering a 1tb drive.

Maxtor: Dead company was bought out by seagate still producing a limited stock under the brand name, they are suppose to be the seagates rejects the drives that didn't pass quality testing but still are workable thus very unreliable but extremely cheap. Good for a file server where you need lots of cheap high capacity drives, I would only reccomend for a raid setup with data security so RAID0+1 or at a push RAID5

 

[Law]

Here's what I got. For $1350 you will get a better rig than that Gateway. I stick to this build below.

CPU (Comment: If you want to wait until the Q6600 goes down to $266 you can.)
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Motherboard (Comment: Best bang for the price, I would not go any lower or higher because of your budget.)
Newegg.com - MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

RAM (Comment: Better than what they will give you for the Gateway.)
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Video Card (Comment: IMO, if you aren't gaming much I would start off with an 8600GT but since you said you might want an 8800GTS)
Newegg.com - EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

PSU (Comment: Rosewill are good PSU for lowend to mid range build, I've build 3 rigs with Rosewill between 50 and 70 dollars and they have given me no problem and I've own them for more than a year, so this can save you some money. This PSU should do you well for now.)
Newegg.com - Rosewill RT550-135-BK 550W 135mm Fan SLI Ready - ATX V2.2/EPS12V Power Supply 115/230 V UL/CUL/CB/TUV/CE - Retail

Hard drive (Comment: It's a Samsung, SATAII, 16MB of cache. It's probably better than the Gateway's HD.)
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

CD/DVD Burner (Comment: I left this out because I wasn't sure what color case you'll be buying, but this should not cost you more than $30 for the same thing as the Gateway and probably better) Here's an example:
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM

Speaker (Comment: Good for the cost, if you want 5.1 you can add about 20 more bucks, which I think the 5.1 is worth it)
Newegg.com - Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 Black Speaker System - OEM

Monitor (Comment: Love this monitor for the price.)
Newegg.com - Acer AL2016WBbd Black 20" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 800:1 - Retail

OS (Vista Home Premium 64bit)
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM

Total: $1,295.81 - $65 rebate = #1230.81

So you'll have $70 bucks left to buy a case. Hopefully you can afford a decent keyboard and mouse which should not cost you more than $50. I didn't include the printer though. But this build kicks the **** out of that gateway for under $1350.

 

[blyver]

Saltynay: Great info, thanks.
Law: Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. Here's the build I'm currently on, after considering all the advice so far:

LG Dvd Burner: $30.99
Newegg.com - LG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM

Cooler Master Case: $44.99
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Samsung Spinpoint 500gb: $109.99
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Hanns Widescreen 19" LCD monitor: $169.99
Newegg.com - Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built in Speakers - Retail

EVGA Geforce 8800gts: $286.99
Newegg.com - EVGA 320-P2-N815-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

Rosewill 550w PSU: $60.99
Newegg.com - Rosewill RT550-135-BK 550W 135mm Fan SLI Ready - ATX V2.2/EPS12V Power Supply 115/230 V UL/CUL/CB/TUV/CE - Retail

GSkill 2gb ram: $104.99
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI mobo: $108.99
Newegg.com - MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Core2 duo E6600 processor: $222.90
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7: $34.99
Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

Total: $1175.81, $1225.49 after shipping


Law: I've decided to leave off Windows Vista for now to save money - although now that I think of it, does XP have widescreen support? Will everything look stretchy with a widescreen monitor on XP? If so then I might have to consider getting Vista. Also, the acer monitor you recommended looks nice, I'll have to consider that. Maybe since I'll be getting the 8800 gts it might be worth it to get a screen bigger than 19" to take advantage of higher resolutions. I already have speakers, so I don't need to buy those. I am interested in the motherboard you recommended - it is very similar in name to the one in my current build, except yours says "Platinum". Do you think there is a big enough difference between the two to warrant the extra $36 dollars or is mine good enough.

Do I need any extra case fans or does the case come with those? Any second opinions on the Rosewill power supply that Law recommended?

 

[blyver]

Also, any recommendations for a good sound card, which won't bring the price up too much?

 

[Law]

I totally didn't believe I miss that, The only thing I can tell between the Platinum and yours is that the Platinum has 1 external SATA and comes with a little more SATA wires. No I don't believe it's worth the extra 36. It's basically the same thing in spec other than the nice heat pipe. I would stick with yours for the budget.

Wide screen will work perfectly in XP, actually it looks very nice with wide screen. That Acer I chosen for you is 1680 x 1050, much better than your Han 1440 x 900. Plus the Acer is 800:1 and it's only $10 more. I recommend you get at least 1680 x 1050 to enjoy the wide screen. Your 8800GTS will perform very well also at that resolution.

Your case is OK, with the back 120mm fan as an exhaust. However there should be one more fan to blow cool air into the case. I don't really like the style, I usually buy case that looks nice with room for expansion but that's up to you to choose the case since we all have different taste so I can't really help you there .

I also wanted to add, if you are patience that Q6600 will be $266 in just 20 days. If you swap the E6600 with the Q6600 on the 21th you will kill that Gateway. The reason I told you not to buy the Gateway is:

1)For a Q6600, that Gateway will have to sacrifice a lot of it's hardware to be under $1300.

2)I would not sacrifice hardware just for a Q6600.

3)That 8800GTS will blow that 8500 away on the Gateway, plus after the 21th, your system will be close to the Gateway's price but you have better hardware and an 8800GTS

4)Better hardware.

5)If you need more juice you can opt for more watts, that Rosewill will get the job done but when you start adding more parts it might not do so well because of your 8800GTS.

 

[blyver]

Yeah, I actually didn't even pay attention to the look of the case, lol - I just saw the cheap price and added it. Actually I like the look of this one better, and it is only $5 more:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

I think I'm going to pass on the Q6600 - from what I've read it runs hotter (obviously with the 4 cores), is harder to overclock, and doesn't result in much of a performance difference (unless you're running software like 3d studio max, which I'm not). I guess maybe the next gen games will take advantage of it... but I think I'll stick with the e6600. I don't anticipate adding many more parts, at least not any time soon, so I think the 550w will serve me well. I replaced the hanns monitor with the acer one for the higher resolutions. So here it is again - I think this may be it!


LG Dvd Burner: $30.99
Newegg.com - LG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM

Cooler Master Case: $49.99
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Samsung Spinpoint 500gb: $109.99
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Acer Widescreen 20" monitor: $179.99
Newegg.com - Acer AL2016WBbd Black 20" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 800:1 - Retail

EVGA Geforce 8800gts: $286.99
Newegg.com - EVGA 320-P2-N815-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

Rosewill 550w PSU: $60.99
Newegg.com - Rosewill RT550-135-BK 550W 135mm Fan SLI Ready - ATX V2.2/EPS12V Power Supply 115/230 V UL/CUL/CB/TUV/CE - Retail

GSkill 2gb ram: $104.99
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI mobo: $108.99
Newegg.com - MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Core2 duo E6600 processor: $222.90
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7: $34.99
Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail


If anyone objects speak now or forever hold your peace!