1st Budget Build: Opinions wanted!

Hey guys! Back again, after a long absence from the forums!

My Inspiron 9300 just blew it's second vid card, necessitating a rapid assessment of the current PC market. Since Dell wants to charge me $320 + shipping for a refurbished card, , I'm thinking I'm going to go ahead and try building my own tower instead. The laptop hasn't moved off the desk much in the past 14 months anyways.

In building this system, I'm keeping an eye on expandibility and bang-for-buck. Realisticly, I don't use many high-drain apps or do too much gaming. If the system can handle the TF2, the WoW expansion due in November, online poker, and a little CS: Source, then I'm probably good to go. Ideally, I'd like to be able to SLI the cards, later on, to extend it's gaming viability 18 months down the road, but if PSU/Mobo/cooling requirements become too big a PITA, it's not that big a deal to me.

Here's what I'm thinking currently: (Newegg Public Wishlist). I'm pleasantly surpised by how far my dollar will stretch in computing power these days, btw.

I haven't made up my mind on PSU yet, and whether or not I should get a PCU cooler fan. I seem to be humping a gap in the PSU market, with either cheap 430-450w units running $50-80, or 610+w units running $120+. I'd like a nice PC PnC unit I could take into future builds, but that's an awfull big chunk of my budget for a cheap tower project.

I intend to OC lightly, but I understand that this latest generation of Intel chips do that very well, and often without much, if any, increase in voltage. I think I'll only need to go north of 400-450w if I SLI and stick in sound cards, more harddrives, etc, etc. To invest, or not to invest, that is the question! A nicer PSU could carry me through another build, later on down the road, and provides ample room to expand...but costs a big chunk of my budget atm. Whereas a cheaper unit would probably do fine for now, but closes off some doors later on. *sigh*

Anyways, I put threads up in a few forums, on various sites. I'm curious what you guys have to say on the subject.

~Semi

Yeah, that processor isn't set in stone, yet. There are several options I'm looking at.

Didn't realize the mobo wasn't SLI capable. I'll have to check into that.

~Semi

Yeah, I think I'm going to go ahead and give up the ghost on my SLI hopes for the future. Realisticly, for my gaming needs, I'm more likely to just look around at newer, single-card options in 12-14 months (or build a new machine ), than I am to want to upgrade to SLI within a few months.

That frees me up to go with lower-power PSUs. I think the PC P&C 470w should do me fine, at $74.99.

However, the Intel chips are all so close to each other now that it's hard to find a good argument against the OEM Wolfsdale. 6mb l2 cache, great OC potential, reasonable price, etc. Even for my "budget rig", it just seems to make sense, imo. For fans, I'll look at options from Artic Cooling or Zalman.

Likewise, ram/case/mobo options all seem to be pretty close to each other. The only other area to save some cash is in the GPU, and even options like the 384mb 8800gs are $110-120-ish. $150 for a 9600gt seems reasonable.

~Semi

Yeah, I think I do!

I wanted to post a public wishlist yesterday, but Newegg had a small hiccup and I ran out of time. The finished wishlist can be found here.

Highlights include:
-Coolermaster Centurion 590
-Gigabyte P35 mobo
-Wolfsdale (45nm) 2.66 core duo, 6mb cache
-EVGA 9600 GT
-Seagate Barracuda HD, 320gb @ 7200rpm
-PC PnC 410w PSU

Going to do a quick thread-recap here, then check back here in a week or so, before I do my final purchases, to see if anyone had anything else to add before I start buying.

Once again, my goal is to build a fast, cost-efficient rig that will probably last me another 18-24 months either by itself, or with upgrades. I need a GPU that can handle my relatively light gaming loads now (WoW: tBC, TF2, CS: Source) while still scaling well enough to tackle games I may want to try in the next year or more on a relatively large monitor. I'm shopping 22-24 inch monitors now, with intent to purchase in the next 4 months.

For those who were keeping track of earlier threads, I eventually decided against SLI. I figure I'm more likely to just buy a bigger, better video card a year from now than I am to suddenly decide to SLI another 9600 in the next few months. Making that decision allowed me to trim some fat off the mobo and PSU choices, saving me a few bucks here and there.

RAM, Video Card, and CPU cooler choices will largely depend on what quality pieces are on sale/special on Newegg at my time of purchase. That Corsair ram, for example, is down to $30 for 2gb, with their mail in rebate. I'm leaning towards the 9600GT atm, but if 3870 prices keep dropping, or something else comes into view in that pricerange, then I'll probably hop on that instead.

That reminds me. I'm new to custom coolers (laptop user). Is there that big a difference between 120mm CPU coolers, and 92mm? I mean...aside from the obvious physics saying "bigger fan = more air = better cooling", what's the reason for going with a 92mm vs a 110mm vs a 120mm? If 120mm is better, why aren't they ALL 120mm? I find myself wanting to save money here, but I wouldn't make an obviously inferior choice for my system to save $10-20, if I could be convinced of the value. On the other hand, I won't pay $10-20 for fancier colors/LEDs and an "it goes up to 11!" fan-size, if there's little practical value.

Now looking into monitor choices. Basicly...it looks like I'll have a "loaner" CRT for awhile, until I pony up a few hundred bucks for my new monitor sometime over the summer.

~Semi

Guys, I checked around, and nowhere could I find a 610 or 750 within $25-30 of a 410w, though they are within $25-30 of each other. Is that what you meant? 410w to a 610w is almost double the price of the 410w unit.

Happily, it may be a moot point! It seems as though both my budget and my timeline have expanded notably since my last post.

I'm now shopping with a notably bigger budget, and am more concerned about keeping costs low for general tight-waddedness sake than actual lack of funds. I'm looking to be up and running by mid-May, and am looking into expanding the previous builds, slightly, with an eye on parts like the case and PSU (since those are parts I'm likely to take into the next rig). I can also move forward my schedule on the screen a bit, and am now looking around for some 22/24-inch monitors to buy.

Basicly, it looks like I came into an extra $3-4k I wasn't really planning on ( ), so I don't mind breaking off a little more on a rig right now. On the other hand, realisticly, I don't think I need SLI for gaming (WoW, TF2, maybe a little FEAR or CoD:4), though I am curious about the monitor size and want to make sure the vid card can handle it.

New Build:
Cases: The 590 is a workhorse, and probably unbeatable at that price point. I may stay with it, or I may look around for a full tower. I'm open to recommendations within this bracket, up to...say $120-130 or so. The old Thermaltake Armors and some Clio units look pretty interesting to me, atm.

CPU/Mobo/etc: I'm debating upgrading the processor to a E8400, or even a Q6600. Since I don't plan on going SLI, I think the mobo is fine. If you're not going to SLI, and the current mobos aren't going to be compatible with the next generation chips anyways, I don't see a need to upgrade past a proven workhorse. I'm open to thoughts on processors, though. On the one hand, I probably don't NEED the power of even an E8200, but on the other hand, it's only an extra $25-50 to move up. Quad core would give me more flexibility later on in the machine's life, but isn't really necessary atm.

Video card: Upgraded the GPU to an 8800gt. I'm confident this will handle my gaming needs, and relatively sure the monitor high-res won't be a problem. Realisticly, I tend to multi-task a bit while gaming, and will probably play most games in a window anyways.

Monitors: I'm looking for a 24-inch PVA, IPS, or S-PVA/S-IPS screen in the $300-500 range. No TN screens, no resolutions smaller than 1600. I'm not sure about inputs, but I'd assume DVI and HDMI would be good. I've selected one in the build below, but I'm still shopping around in this bracket.

Here's a build I've been playing around with on Newegg: Project 4/08. It's got a 750 silencer PSU, an 8800gt, and a monitor I've been flirting around with. I'm still using the old 590 case, since nothing else has seduced me away yet, and I left out RAM and a cooler for the moment.

~Semi