rate my build! suggestions?

[delirium330]

that acer one that someone posted is a good one. If that's the size you want of course.

yea that is nice, what about this ASUS one under 200? a bit bigger... do they make a good monitor?

ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers - Retail

 

[Gilles]

They do. Just get whatever size you want.

 

[hikaricloud]

That ASUS is a pretty sweet deal for under 200 bucks.

I may pick one up myself when I have the cash.

 

[delirium330]

one last question regarding the case i am getting. it comes with three 180mm fans and im going to buy one 120mm for the rear. can you turn off the LEDs on those? i checked for replacement fans and the only 180mm version is made by XCLIO, same company who makes the case and it has LEDs too...

XCLIO Coolbox Advanced Fully Black Finish 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

 

[hikaricloud]

Normally you can't turn the LEDs off. But you could always get a better case that doesn't have LED lights in it, or has normal sized fans you can replace.

Check some of these out as examples:

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

Personally, I like the Antec 300. It comes with a 140mm top fan and a 120mm back fan, both aren't LED lit. But if you want a window, my favorite is the NZXT Apollo. All similarly priced to your current case.

 

[kmote]

That case appears to be the weakpoint of this build. In fact it looks suspiciously like a $40 CM elite 330 which is a decent budget case but if you have $60 you can do a lot better.

 

[hikaricloud]

I'm still iffy about the Q8xxx quad...

While this is a decent build in general, I'm highly tempted to price out an adequate x4 940 build, because of the crazy combo savings with motherboards right now. Not to mention that he doesn't really need amazing video, since he's getting the 9500GT. With the x4 940, you could have a full fledged quad with an onboard video that is on par with the 9500GT. If you want, I can come up with something, and it would be easy to keep under 1000 bucks.

 

[baron5]

oh man, i was just about to post this build, started b4 you mentioned x4, was going to surprise him. But anyway why get a old intel quad build, when you could get this uber cool x4 build thats so much better!!!!

Newegg.com - LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - CD / DVD Burners
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
Newegg.com - ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers - LCD Monitors
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100248L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies
Newegg.com - Rosewill RCR-102 52-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port - Card Readers
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 - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

This is so much better then the original build, go with this for sure. great deal on the 3850 too.

 

[hikaricloud]

Lol, sorry to ruin the surprise. That's a nice build, but there's really no need to buy Vista right this second, with Win7 RC being free for a year. Buy the time it runs out, the full fledged Win7 will be out, and you can buy an OS then. Also, you didn't include both HDDs he wanted.

I have a build that's a little cheaper here, a bit optimized for what you want to do.

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
Newegg.com - LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - CD / DVD Burners
Newegg.com - Rosewill RCR-102 52-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port - Card Readers
Newegg.com - ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers - LCD Monitors

Total is $836.26 after shipping, then you get back 30 bucks back in rebates.

I know you preferred intel, but trust me when I say that in the current price range, the Q8xxx series isn't all that great. The x4 940 is a great processor, speedy, with 4 cores.

You still get 4gb of RAM, both of your hard drives, a good PSU (combo'd with the 500gb HDD), monitor, all the stuff you wanted that wasn't associated with the intel parts. In this build, you also don't need a video card, since the onboard 3300 is more than adequate. If you ever needed a new video card, you could easily upgrade. But you should be fine with that, so no need for a dedicated card like the 9500GT.

 

[baron5]

Lol, sorry to ruin the surprise. That's a nice build, but there's really no need to buy Vista right this second, with Win7 RC being free for a year. Buy the time it runs out, the full fledged Win7 will be out, and you can buy an OS then.

Thats one way of looking at it, but windows 7 is still a little buggy, although my experience is on a p4 system. For editing and things like that it's good to have a stable reliable system. Also i would recommend getting dedicated graphics since it is within your budget to do so, it will keep less heat on the motherboard and give you some leeway in terms of grapahics performance. Of course if you were on a blower budget then it would be different.

EDIT: it's alos not ideal becuase drivers etc, are not certified or officially support for 7 RC in most cases yet. And troubleshooting for these problems can be the worse when there's no help availible.