Building a PC for my mom

[Seria]

if you decide to go for Ultimate.....

I'm still trying to find out the true advantages to ultimate VS home-p. because ultimate is still $30 more even after my $50 mail in rebate.
I need all the networking capabilities and administration control I can get (without getting a ‘server' OS obviously).

......stick with the PI Black set(for $50 rebate), if not, the pc2 8500 set is fine too.

what makes the PI Black better for vista? I can get the $50 rebate on vista from my HD or my CPU. So if its strictly a price thing, it will save me $20 to get the PC2 8500.

1) If the data is that important you should really consider raid 1 since it will give you the most redundancy.

The data is not the end of the world so much as speed of downtime recovery. I already have 2 other data-backup systems in place for the data drive.

I'll think about the video cards when I get a more refined look at the total price of everything else I've got. I know its only $25... but its $25 that she might not even notice (as opposed to the possible benefits, she or I, might notice that $30 could get with the purchase of ultimate VS home-p).

 

[Fat.Clown]

ultimate comes with more features, features that you can obtain with 3rd party programs easily if you had Home Premium

strictly a price thing, from what I've read, they are both very good sets

 

[Seria]

ok, I have updated the list of parts(found on page 2) with a couple of replacements.

when the difference between vista ultimate and home-p is only $20, I decided to go with ultimate and so..... instead of ultimate32 here's ultimate64
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD for System Builders - Operating Systems

and here's the new ram. Its faster and it has a $30 rebate ^_^
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

I had an OS HD picked out with 16MB of cache, but I decided that the money would not be noticed, so I went back to the 8MB HD I had picked out before.

I toyed with the idea of getting a 9800GT vs the 9600 I've got picked out... but I don't think that would be noticed either (I know, I'm sorry this machine is so boring.... when I build MY computer.. we can go crazy ^_^ )

this brings my total price up to: $745.89 ($860.89 before the rebates)

so, I'd say that's not a bad price tag to get my mom out of the ol' AMD ATHLON XP 1300+ she's using now ^_^

before I start ordering... does anyone see any problems?

 

[saltynay]

Windows Ultimate won't bring any extra features which your mum will use....

You do realise that alot of your build is geared to overclocking; the ram, the cpu, the motherboard choice so an aftermarket cooler for the cpu would be worth its weight in gold.... Core contact freezer or a Artic freezer 7 pro

 

[Seria]

here's where I get to before I don't know where to go
Newegg.com - $10 - $25, LGA775, CPU Fans & Heatsinks, Fans & Heatsinks, Computer Hardware

I noticed that there are a lot of options that include LGA775, should I be looking for other things before I sort down to the LGA775 so that I don't prematurely limit my options? (what are those other things I should be looking for?)

I was going to get one because I have never trusted stock CPU fans.... however, I was told that it wasn't necessary... but for $13... I might as well....

this is the one I saw
Newegg.com - Open Box: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

I never would have come up with this choice on my own... what kind of things are you supposed to be looking for when it comes to CPU fans?

EDIT Just noticed that fan is an open box... so... I won't get that one... so my above question is even more important.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

This cpu cooler is good and is relatively cheap.

Newegg.com - Rosewill RCX-Z775-LX 92mm Ball CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

Also if you want good thermal paste Tuniq TX-2 is the best.

Newegg.com - Tuniq TX-2 Cooling Thermal Compound - Thermal Compound / Grease

 

[Seria]

oh man! I was about to start ordering everything and the PSU is out of stock...
Newegg.com - Antec earthwatts EA500 500W ATX12V v2.0 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

what is a PSU that will be great with my system for something near the price of the one I picked out?

how about this one?
Newegg.com - Rosewill RP550V2-D-SL 550W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - Power Supplies

 

[Puddle Jumper]

This one should be fine.

Newegg.com - Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply - Power Supplies

 

[Fat.Clown]

how about this one
PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS370X 370W ATX12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
with the promo code its 9 dollars off

or PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS420X 420W ATX12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
for 45 after MIR

 

[Seria]

The Order Has Been Placed! *^_^*

ok, the final build is complete... *^_^*
Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg

the order has been placed.... and I hope to get everything soon.

final updates:
*) apparently the $30 rebate deal with the ram+mobo combo ended... so I missed that
*) the PSU I chose went out of stock, so I had to switch to the one in the wish list
*) even though this PC is for my mom, I couldn't bare the thought of getting an OS HD with only 8MB of cache... so... I went back to the one with 16MB
*) I threw a CPU cooler in at the last minute


*^_^*