Budget Conroe build

[Drizo]

This build will incorporate recycled items such as the case, which is a full tower that was my old PII gateway. I know some folks might ask why reuse a gateway case... but its in good condition, just needs some cleaning, and its steel except for the plastic front cover which is pretty durable compared to the cheaper plastics used on alot of cases these days. Also being recycled is the floppy drive thats housed in the case, don't really need a new one anyway.

Also what you'll notice is that I didn't opt to have a higher end HD such as a WD Raptor, I'll buy one down the road, and use the one I chose as the secondary storage when I do. Then theres the older video card, I don't play many games, just titles such as the GTA series or Simcity 4, and I mainly use a CAD program, so I won't need a high end GPU anytime soon. This way I'll upgrade to a DX10 card when they're out and reasonably priced.

Oh and the motherboard itself was pretty cheap, plus I'm going to want to have a dual nvidia setup someday, so this fit into my requirements, and I don't plan to do any major OC of the cpu, maybe just OC it to 3ghz. Get the motherboard if you're wanting a good SLI board, since alot of etailers are backordered on them, ewiz has them still I think, so act fast.

Other items which I already have on hand which will be in this build is the CPU, and hsf.

Here are some pics of the Case I'll be reusing:

One thing about the case's limitation is that I might have to buy a USB hub. If this case needs major modifications, which I don't think is necessary, then I'll end up getting a more modern case.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40ghz $379.99 (purchased from Microcenter)

Scythe Katana HSF $24.99 (also from Microcenter)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185018

Asus P5NSLI Core 2 Duo nForce 570 SLI DDR2 SAT2 RAID A&GbE ATX Motherboard (This board is LGA 775 - Core 2 Duo ready) $112.27
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-P5NSLI#

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $177.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231073

SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2504C 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16822152025

eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT KO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card $159.99 ($139.99 after $20.00 rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017

Mushkin 550200 ATX12V 550W Power Supply $89.99 ($79.99 after $10.00 rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817812002

NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Beige IDE Model ND-3550A $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152059

Total $1015.20

 

[Dr DMoney]

Mushkin isn't a very good brand name. Try this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

 

[Drizo]

The Antec psu is a very good choice, I probably will end up getting an Antec or enermax, it'll blend in with the back of the case which I never thought about. Though I was going to get the Mushkin since they're new to PSU's, so I figured they'd offer an awesome product with quality to match to leave a good imprint in the segment, plus Xtreme systems gave the 650 watt psu a pretty good rating.

 

[Dr DMoney]

Maybe you sould give them a try but it is ricky...
I am going to get that psu on my next build, I can't wait...

 

[Drizo]

The **** with it, I'll get this case instead:

SILVERSTONE TJ07-S Silver 2.0mm aluminum body ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811163057

I wanted to be cheap so I could get a barebone ASUS laptop, so I could build one similar to a macbook pro and sell it on ebay or to a college kid or soldier locally, and have some drinking money, but oh well.

 

[Drizo]

Update: I scrapped plans to reuse my old gateway case, and also scrapped my plan to purchase a Silverstone TJ-07, instead I picked this bad boy up yesterday from Fry's and paid $79.99 plus tax.

SILVERSTONE TEMJIN SST-TJ06S - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811163039

Compared to my old gateway, the silverstone case doesn't feel as solid since its aluminum rather than steel like the gateway... but if I stuck with my original plan then I would have had to have more work done such as cleaning, repainting, etc.

Now I'll just be waiting for the rest of the components to arrive.