Building a PC for my mom

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ok, I was going to link the wish list, but for some reason its taking FOREVER for newegg's system to post it as shared. (I don't know what the problem is... does it take 24hours or something?)

anyways... here are the items I have picked out so far,

please take a look and tell me what you think.. and please help me make sure that they'll all work with each other

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32-bit English 1pk for System Builders DSP OEI DVD - Operating Systems
Newegg.com - Sony NEC Optiarc Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R Burner - CD / DVD Burners
Newegg.com - LITE-ON SK-1688A/B Black 104 Normal Keys PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard - Keyboards
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
Newegg.com - G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 Wolfdale 2.66GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - Antec earthwatts EA500 500W ATX12V v2.0 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N860-TR GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GZ-X2BPD-500 Black 0.6mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

Drop Vista Ultimate for Home Premium...

Maybe then get a better GPU like a 9800GT or HD 4830, I agree with Puddle about the HD's
 
ummm, why didn't you guys catch that she had 32 bit OS listed?

to take advantage of all 4GBs of RAM you will need 64 bit OS

http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/difference-between-32-bit-x86-64-bit-x64-171390/#post1349279

god, that set of PI Black for 65 bucks... I am tempted again....

HDD, OS drive with more cache might help? faster boot time? faster overall? maybe, I dunno.
I still like the idea of 2 of those 320gb drives better

also, since you are going with that board, may I suggest you click the combo linky from the board, go to the second page, and select the combo with this ram?
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
cheaper ^^
mobo + ram for 165

are there even cheaper combos?
yes, such as the Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory combo 164
and the OCZ Platinum Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
for 154

so why did I stick with G skill?
1) I like G skill :p
2) that set had good reviews over at XS

+1 for dropping Ultimate for Home Premium

and yes, all the advice I've given is biased
 
I was reading the reviews on the G.Skill ram and I noticed that a lot of ppl were saying that they were only getting slightly over 3BG of ram with these instead of the 4BG they're supposed to be.

A lot of the people I noticed were placing the blame on XP vs Vista and a few ppl were placing the blame on Vista32bit VS Vista64bit. which made me start to think...

what are the pros and cons of getting vista64 as opposed to vista32?

ummm, why didn't you guys catch that she had 32 bit OS listed?

LOL I was posting my question about that as you were writing your post...
too funny
 
LOL I was posting my question about that as you were writing your post...
too funny

and I was just making a long post to answer your question when you posted back

its neither G.Skill nor XP/Vista's fault, it's those people's ignorance
 
Ok, lemme touch on everything a bit.

1) Thank you Puddle Jumper for the suggestion about the single HD however, my dad's business is ran off this computer and having a single HD is a safety risk I cannot take. I need to have the 2 HD's so that if the OS drive fails, I can have the system up and running again quickly either after a fresh windows install or simply replacing that drive.

2) vernong1992, why do you suggest dropping ultimate for home-premium?
I'm sadly an elitist(meaning I like having the best simply because it is the best) and I want to have ultimate just because it's the best.... however! I'm curious as to what makes ultimate better than the rest. Now, I know that I'm about to prove my point in the wrong direction... but when I compared to two, it just looks like it's the difference between price (that's just because the feature differences between them just seemed like “fluff” oe: ‘protect against hardware failure' )

There's got to be more of a difference and a larger advantage to having ultimate VS home-p.

here's the site I used to compare:
Windows Vista: Compare editions
here's home-p64:
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - Operating Systems
here's ultimate64:
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD for System Builders - Operating Systems
(if I get ultimate, I can have a $50 mail in rebate as a combo deal with most of the things I have picked out)

3) here's a 9800 GT:
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N975-AR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
I know it's only $25 more than my currently picked one... but what are the real benefits?
I see the 112 VS 64 Stream Processors...what does that relate to? And then I see the Core clock: 650MHz on my current card vs the 600MHz on the new one.

4) Thanks, Fat.Clown, for the link about the vista32 vs vista64.
My concern is whether or not the hardware I've chosen can support it.
Here is my mobo on asus' site:
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
here's evga's site: I could not find my card. (512-P3-N860-TR) they listed “N861-TR” and “N862-TR” but no “N860-TR”.
EVGA | Products | Product List
here's Intel: (not much information about the CPU's anyways... but it doesn't say that its 64 bit compatible)
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor - Specifications

5) I looked into the HD's and this is what I come up with.
OS drive:
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD1601ABYS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
I know its only $20 more for this than my other OS drive... but I have to ask myself... is this something my mom would even notice?
(I saw this: Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - Internal Hard Drives and started to drool... but... I can get this for me.. I have to keep reminding m'self that this is my moms machine.)

6) The mobo-ram combo deal is an interesting thought. My concern is that my current rams original price is $100 and this new ram's original price is only $80. Is that really the difference in price between a Cas Latency of 4 VS 5? Because the speed of the new ram is defiantly faster than my currently picked one... DDR2 1066(PC2 8500) VS DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) but.... am I really getting better ram?
 
again, my personal opinions,
9600gt will be plenty for your mommy's comp
if I remember correctly, 9600gt can OC to 8800gt speeds, if needed(9800gt is essentially a 8800gt, nvidia's evil naming scheme)

yes, your hardware will support 64 bit

if you decide to go for Ultimate in the end, then stick with the PI Black set(for $50 rebate), if not, the pc2 8500 set is fine too.

again, cas 4 6400 and cas 5 8500 are about same speed
raw speed or tighter timings :p
 
1) If the data is that important you should really consider raid 1 since it will give you the most redundancy.
 
again, my personal opinions,
9600gt will be plenty for your mommy's comp
if I remember correctly, 9600gt can OC to 8800gt speeds, if needed(9800gt is essentially a 8800gt, nvidia's evil naming scheme)

Speed is only 1 part. my 8600gts ssc is sstock at 756mhz and my 8800gt sc is stock at 650mhz..

The stream processors are 1/2 as much, so it'll read 1/2 as much data at a bit faster speed.

So in Folding, my 8600 does 1% in 4m20sec and my 8800 does 1% in 1min19secs. The 8800 is 100mhz slower!

And Memory size is a nother mess as well.
 
okay, guess I was wrong, slightly lower than 8800gt :p
thought memory size didn't really matter till you get to higher resolutions
19 - 9600gt
22 - 9800gt
24 - be ready to throw down some serious cash :)

anyways... i am bored now, and hungry

I tried to reinstall F@H the other day... I couldn't get the GPU client to run on the 4850
and then I read rican saying only get 9800gt over 3870 if you wanted to fold?
guess the GPU client is geared towards green cards nowadays?
 
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