Help with about $1,500 budget for best possible work system build

Status
Not open for further replies.
lol....this forum is mostly for gaming ethusiasts. I don't know if we can come up with an exicutive prestation on how good the conroes are. But i will give you an over view so you can get an idea:

P4<althon<operton(except the dual cores)<x2 althon<FX series<core 2 dou

They are much better at gaming and multitasking.

Ok, heres a build for ya:

CM centurion $45
Lite-On dvd burner $32
WD 250gb sataII $80
g.skill 2x1gb ddr2 800 $220
2 x samsung 19" LCD $480
asus p5b-deluxe/wifi $197
TT PurePower 600w $105
core 2 dou e6300 $181
evga 7600gt $140

Total: $1534 (w/ shipping) ; $1514 after mail-in-rebate

Thats the best i can do with 2 19in lcd monitors. If you decide not to include the lcd monitors, then you can upgrade the processor to a core 2 dou e6600 $309 and the graphics card to a evga 8800gts $440.

Total: $1455 ; $1435 after mail-in-rebate

edit: sry meant to post this: ps CS2 benchmarks . The e6300 isn't on the chart but it would fall behind the e6400. But if you can do without the monitors, then you will see some improvment with the e6600.
 
Thanx for that listing, it is a great help.

I went on NewEgg and am thinking the main parts that I need to focus on definately include the CPU, Ram, Power Supply, and Vidcard. Dual monitors however is a DEFINATE for me and CRT's simply won't work on my desk. We can ignore those for now however and focus on the other parts. One way that I might be able to drop price a bit is I might decide to simply use my spare 7800gtx that I have at home that I was intending on selling on ebay. Here is my current list:

CPU
I was looking at this for the CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz -- $309
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003
Features: dual core, 2.4 ghz speed, excellent OC potential, excellent overall processor perfect for graphic intensive programs and multi-tasking.

MOBO
Similar to the Ram issue, I know some about MOBO's for AMD stuff but don't know what would work well with the Conroe. At home I have a DFI Lanparty that I LOVE, I would like something with a lot of features such as that. Please step in with suggestions on this.

Video Card
eVGA 7800GTX that I already have at home.
Features: free, worked extremely well for me at home for a year running Photoshop and games flawlessly including running dual monitors. There will not be gaming at work but I need the best picture quality possible.

RAM
I was a little iffy on the ram that you selected, didn't seem to have that great of reviews. I know plenty about regular ddr ram because I have an amd athlon 64 at home but know very little about ddr2 so please step in with suggestions everyone. I definately want 2 gigs (2x1) because all the Photoshop use would definately benefit from it.

Case
iStarUSA Nitro Ax S-10000B Black Aluminum ATX Full tower case -- $106.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811165008
Features: Large for good ventilation, removable mobo tray, nearly toolless assembly design, 120mm fan in rear, vents on side.

PSU
I wasn't quite into the PSU you chose cause it supposedly has issues with 7 series vidcards with a max 18amps rating so I was lookin at this:
OCZ GameXStream 600w power supply -- $114.99 -- $96.99 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341001
Features: Excellent psu power and dependability, the smaller version of the 700w version I am running at home and have LOVED.

HD
I also liked the hd you chose
Western Digital 7200 rpm 250gig -- 79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701
Features: 250 gigs for plenty of storage, 7200rpm for decent speed, western digital dependable brand, low price.

CD/DVD
I liked your choice for DVD/CD burner
LITE-ON Black -- $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106019
Features: dependable brand, low price, read/burn both dvds and cds.

Floppy drive
Sony 3.5 floppy drive -- $7.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116
Features: dependable, cheap

Total current price of those items = $650.95 if I am assuming I am putting in my 7800gtx for free and still need to add a MOBO, RAM, and Monitors. So I am mainly looking for MOBO and RAM suggestions now and please let me know if anything I listed is a bad choice / incompatible / etc. Thanx!!!
 
well the best ddr2 800 ram would be:

corsair xms ddr2 800
or
g.skill HZ's ddr2 800

But they are really overpriced right now, since the conroes came out. I got the g.skill's for $260 a couple of months ago to give you an idea. The corsair has a mail-in-rebate though if you can spend the extra cash to order it first.

The p5b-deluxe is the best conroe mobo for overclocking the core 2 dous w/o sli. If you want sli then the 680i chipset is the only way to go for the core 2 dou's.

Deffinantly go with the ozc psu, i didn't notice it had a mail-in-rebate. I use the same psu and its rock solid.

Im not too fimilar with the brand of case you picked out. It looks decent for the price, except it looks like they want you to mount a front panel fan behind the HDD cage instead of front which means less air circulation over your HDD's.

Everything else looks good. The monitors i picked out is the best your going to get with DVI connection. The cheaper 19" LCD's won't come with dvi connection and won't come close to the specs of the samsung.
 
OK so I updated this list with a Ram choice. I will likely not go SLI with this system because I need the dual monitors and when you go SLI it forces you to just 1 and I would think you would only need that performance boost for gaming which I will not do at work anway. The case I am not quite sure what you are talking about with the fan stuff, I wasn't planning on adding any additional fans in the front since I will not be going SLI and will not be OCing enough for any 3rd party cooling. Would you recommend I not get this case? Now lastly I am lost with MOBO's. You suggested those 2 kinds but I have no clue what they are, please explain a little more about em and post links so I can look at em and research em a bit. Many thanx!!

CPU
I was looking at this for the CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz -- $309
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003
Features: dual core, 2.4 ghz speed, excellent OC potential, excellent overall processor perfect for graphic intensive programs and multi-tasking, excellent quality for low price.

MOBO
Still need this, suggestions please

Video Card
eVGA 7800GTX that I already have at home.
Features: free, worked extremely well for me at home for a year running Photoshop and games flawlessly including running dual monitors. There will not be gaming at work but I need the best picture quality possible.

RAM
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) -- $309 -- $269 after $40 mail-in rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034
Features: Excellent quality brand, dual channel, 800mhz, stays cool with heatspreaders.

Case
iStarUSA Nitro Ax S-10000B Black Aluminum ATX Full tower case -- $106.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811165008
Features: Large for good ventilation, removable mobo tray, nearly toolless assembly design, 120mm fan in rear, vents on side.

PSU
I wasn't quite into the PSU you chose cause it supposedly has issues with 7 series vidcards with a max 18amps rating so I was lookin at this:
OCZ GameXStream 600w power supply -- $114.99 -- $96.99 after $18 rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341001
Features: Excellent psu power and dependability, the smaller version of the 700w version I am running at home and have LOVED.

Monitors
Dual SAMSUNG 940BX Black 19" LCD Monitors -- $239.99 each, $480 for both
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001080
Features: dvi inputs for excellent picture quality, 5ms response time, 300 cd/m2 color and 1000:1 contrast for excellent picture quality perfect for graphics editing with Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash.

HD
I also liked the hd you chose
Western Digital 7200 rpm 250gig -- 79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701
Features: 250 gigs for plenty of storage, 7200rpm for decent speed, western digital dependable brand, low price.

CD/DVD
I liked your choice for DVD/CD burner
LITE-ON Black -- $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106019
Features: dependable brand, low price, read/burn both dvds and cds.

Floppy drive
Sony 3.5 floppy drive -- $7.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116
Features: dependable, cheap

Total current price of those items = $1,439.95 if I am assuming I am putting in my 7800gtx for free and still need to add a MOBO so now I am just looking at MOBOs.

EDIT: I noticed this was the p5b deluxe one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131028 but it seems to have stuff I don't need like up to 8gb of memory and I was hoping to perhaps get a lower cost MOBO that would still work well. But I still want quality so keep that formost, if this is by far the best quality then i want to keep this as the choice. Just let me know what yall think. Thanx

EDIT2: Oh and with that mobo at a cost of $196.99 my system total would be up to $1,636.94 before rebates and a grand total of $1,578.94 after all rebates.
 
The p5b-deluxe is an awesome mobo with great overclockablity and built specifically for the conroes (the 975 chipsets were out before the conroes while the 965's were released with the conroes).

Heres a link that describes the p5b-deluxe in detail and compares it with other 965 chipsets, if you want to do some research.

The case looks fine for the system you want to build. I just like to stick with the enthusiast cases (like the CM stacker ;) or the TT armor series).

Every thing else looks good. You'll have a sweet system to show off at work too :p
 
jwhat the ****.. why do you need overclocking mobo's and all that??

you shouldnt be overclocking on a work computer??

i say you die down on other things and grab an e6700 and any other core 2 duo mobo instead.... you don't need a high end mobo to work on photoshop...
 
OK so here is my updated list at the moment, please let me know if you have any other suggestions, recommendations, etc. As to the last poster, why would I pay $200 more for an E6700 when I can OC a small amount to reach the same speeds on stock cooling? I am not pushing this system to the limit in any way, I would only do a small OC to make sure I get the performance I want to have with 8 programs open including Photoshop CS2, Flash, Visual Studio, Winamp, etc. etc. etc. which I am constantly working in and switching back and forth between at work. If you have any other ideas, please feel free and post links to what you think I should get, why, price difference, and how it compares overall. Thanks for all the help!!! I LOVE this forum :D

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz -- $309
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003
Features: dual core, 2.4 ghz speed, excellent OC potential, excellent overall processor perfect for graphic intensive programs and multi-tasking, excellent quality for low price.

MOBO
ASUS P5B Deluxe -- $196.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131028
Features: Powerful and energy efficient, reliable and quality company, excellent layout for easy access and good air-flow as well as ease for OCing to increase performance without increasing price while maintaining system stability and temperature.

Video Card
eVGA 7800GTX video card that I have at home and would put toward this project for free so that I am sure to have a quality card.
Features: free, worked extremely well for me at home for a year running Photoshop and games flawlessly including running dual monitors. There will not be gaming at work but I need the best picture quality possible.

RAM
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) -- $309 -- $269 after $40 mail-in rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034
Features: Excellent quality brand, dual channel, 800mhz, stays cool with heatspreaders.

Case
iStarUSA Nitro Ax S-10000B Black Aluminum ATX Full tower case -- $106.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811165008
Features: Large for good ventilation, removable mobo tray, nearly toolless assembly design, 120mm fan in rear, vents on side.

PSU
OCZ GameXStream 600w power supply -- $114.99 -- $96.99 after $18 rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341001
Features: Excellent psu power and dependability, the smaller version of the 700w version I am running at home and have LOVED.

Monitors
Dual SAMSUNG 940BX Black 19" LCD Monitors -- $239.99 each, $480 for both
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001080
Features: dvi inputs for excellent picture quality, 5ms response time, 300 cd/m2 color and 1000:1 contrast for excellent picture quality perfect for graphics editing with Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash.

HD
Western Digital 7200 rpm 250gig -- 79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701
Features: 250 gigs for plenty of storage, 7200rpm for decent speed, western digital dependable brand, low price.

CD/DVD
LITE-ON Black -- $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106019
Features: dependable brand, low price, read/burn both dvds and cds.

Floppy drive
Sony 3.5 floppy drive -- $7.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116
Features: dependable, cheap

Total current price of all items = $1,636.94 if I am assuming I am putting in my 7800gtx for free.

After mail-in rebates, grand total system price would be = $1,578.94

EDIT: I just submitted this item list request to my boss :D wish me luck.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom