Ready to replace 2 year old gaming desktop - been out of the loop for 2 years.

I built my (budget) gaming rig (in signature) two years ago and it's starting to show it's age. I've been thinking a lot about building a new computer only to realize I know very little about new hardware.

I'm planning on using this computer mainly for games and college. I'd also like it to be portable enough to take it to a LAN party.

Now on to some hardware I've looked at:
CPU:I was reading in the CPU forum about people asking about the E6850 and the Q6600. I know I don't need a quad-core, but

Some of my considerations (read: optional):
-10,000 RPM Hard drive RAID w/ with a massive 7,200 RPM Hard drive

Budget: $1200-$1300, If at all possible I'd like to keep it around $1200.

Side Note: I already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers, so everything I'm thinking about is the Case, Mobo, CPU, HSF, HDD(s), Optical Drive, Case fans, sound card, Video card, RAM,and PSU. And I'm not going to make the mistake of buying "High Performance" RAM again.


To make this clearer, here's what I'm thinking right now:
CPU: E6750 (Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe 2.66Ghz 4MB Shared Cache) - $194.99
Mobo: ?
HSF: ?
Case: ?
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $104.99
Optical Drive: ? (not worried about that)
Case Fans: ?
Sound Card: My old Audigy 2ZS - $0.00
Video Card: Open Box:MSI NX8800Ultra-T2D768E-HD-OC 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 - $540.92
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Black) EPS12V 750W Power Supply - $179.99
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - $89.99

Current Total - $1,110.88

Not trying to highjack, but have you considered the option of dropping in a dual-core Opty and a better video card? An overclocked Opteron 170 or 175 along with an 8800 of any variety would seem like a whole new machine.

Yes, I have, but my motherboard is starting to crap out. A couple days ago a USB port went dead, and before that I can't use a couple of my PCI ports, so I'm not too sure how much longer it's going to last.

Edit: And EPoX isn't supporting this model motherboard anymore.

That's a serious bummer.

If you want portability, would you be open to the option of a micro ATX board? And do you have any preference between AMD and Intel?

What are your Plans with your old Rig?

To keep costs down I'd Purchase the cheapest Case on the market and toss the old rig into it, the use your Lanboy Case as your new rig case.


with a 1200 dollar Budget, I'd forget RAID really if you are just playing games and College 1 150Gb WD Raptor would be enough space for you in the HDD realm.

Now I'll be honest I'm not much of a Gamer anymore, I'm not ontop of What games utilize what hardware, Look at the games you play, and the company's that make the Games you like. ARE they programming for Multicores? are they programming SSE3 are they planning SSE4?

the best "bang for your buck" will depend hugely on the software you use now more then ever before.

Hopefully someone has some pointers for your CPU/Mobo combo



MY purchase if I was getting back into desktops would be
$230 - CPU Intel E6600

$180 - Mobo ABIT IP35 Pro

$170 - RAM CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB)

$180 - Power supply PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad // I love PC P&C PSU's only ones I use now.

$260 - HDD 150GB Raptor

So I have you sitting at 1020 still No Videocard. IF you really must stick to the sub 1300 budget I'd drop the HDD and use the HDD from your old rig as well as the Optical drive

deRusett said:

What are your Plans with your old Rig?

To keep costs down I'd Purchase the cheapest Case on the market and toss the old rig into it, the use your Lanboy Case as your new rig case.


with a 1200 dollar Budget, I'd forget RAID really if you are just playing games and College 1 150Gb WD Raptor would be enough space for you in the HDD realm.

Now I'll be honest I'm not much of a Gamer anymore, I'm not ontop of What games utilize what hardware, Look at the games you play, and the company's that make the Games you like. ARE they programming for Multicores? are they programming SSE3 are they planning SSE4?

the best "bang for your buck" will depend hugely on the software you use now more then ever before.

Hopefully someone has some pointers for your CPU/Mobo combo



MY purchase if I was getting back into desktops would be
$230 - CPU Intel E6600

$180 - Mobo ABIT IP35 Pro

$170 - RAM CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB)

$180 - Power supply PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad // I love PC P&C PSU's only ones I use now.

$260 - HDD 150GB Raptor

So I have you sitting at 1020 still No Videocard. IF you really must stick to the sub 1300 budget I'd drop the HDD and use the HDD from your old rig as well as the Optical drive

Click to expand...

e6750 is newer and cheaper than the e6600. Why would he need such expensive ram too?
e6750 or the q6600, or buy a cheap one like the e2140 and wait for the new intel procs to come out.
P35-DS3R or Abit p35-e
2GB Crucial Ballistix
512mb 8800 gt
CM 690 case, add yate loon fans.


For heatsink....Ultima-90(smaller/cheaper, almost as good) or Ultra-120 Extreme(the king)
For sound card, the X-Fi XtremeGamer is workin well for me.

I have to put one in for the Dominators. I have only built one rig with them but man oh man are they great! You will have no problems OCing them and they run MUCH cooler than the Ballistix. At $130, it isn't a bad deal and I would say if you have excess money, go for it!

That Raptor that Rusett listed is way too expensive though!

No kidding. 150 gig Raptors are not for the budget-minded. Pick up a 7200rpm of your preference and put the savings towards a textbook for one of your classes.

My plans first and foremost are to experiment with my old computer as a server. Other than that I plan to sell off the parts I don't use.

I had an idea to use my current RAM in the new build, but I'm not sure if that will be a bottleneck.

On motherboard and RAM: I'm not looking for an overclocking motherboard (eventhough this is an overclocking board), or RAM. I've also decided that I'm just going to use my soundcard I have. I'm happy with it and a server has no use for a sound card.

As much as I'd love a 10,000 RPM Raptor, it's totally optional.

ancalime said:

I have to put one in for the Dominators.

Click to expand...

Which processor are you referring to?

Edit: In reality, I think I'm just going to pick up a $100 500GB HDD.

Edit 2: I just realized I never answered your question Wayward_Son: No. I haven't built enough computers to have a preference. My only preference thus far is performance.

I'm referring to RAM. Corsair Dominators that Rusett posted.

If you've been waiting 2 years, you might want to consider waiting another few months until Penryn comes out. I recall reading somewhere its a 10% clock for clock performance increase. Oh yeah the prices are great too.

Another question I forgot to ask: How long until those come out?

Edit: I'm really in no real rush to buy a new computer, I could wait a couple of months depending on if the new stuff is worth it.

Edit 2: For the next few days I'll be window shopping. Suggestions welcome. Also, I'd like to know how long until the new hardware kayson was talking about comes out.

I have not seen any press releases as of late as to when the Penryn is coming, in Q107 it was slated to arrive in Q407 but we still have not seen it, so I think there are production issues, or delays, I don't think the price point will be there for the Penryn's they will bring the price down on the Kentsfield and Conroes but they will be at a higher price then the CPU's you are in the Market for.


Why Dominators vs Ballistix?

Donminators Run significantly cooler the Ballistix, and in a closed AIR cooled case You want the cooler running Ram. NOW I do see that price is very much the issue here and Overclocking seems to not be in the cards, SO I will suggest different RAM this time, as you can afford to run a bit hotter, and we want to save the coin for your Graphics Card.

For those who commented against the Raptor, have you owned one? I do not have a 150Gb Raptor, but only the 72Gb version, the performance increase from a 7200RPM 2Mb HDD was substantial that in my notebooks now ALL I notice is how slow my r/w times are compared to my former desktop. and I get 7200RPM in my Notebooks.
I really do think it is a Worth while investment to get the 150Gb Raptor, if you start running out of space 6 months down the road invest in a cheap 250Gb HDD to store your Data on like MP3's Movies, Archival school data.


Especially in a NON OC environment you want the speed boosts you can get that will be significant, the Raptor is that Boost.


Now for my revised Selection

$195 - CPU C2D E6750
// Reason for the E6600 or the E6750 is that the L2 Cache on them is 4M instead of 2M, they are the lowest end chips that offer the 4M L2 Cache, and that is worth the extra coin, EVEN if you are an overclocker, boosting the clock speed of a lower chip to that of these will still not match the performance because of the cache difference.


$180 - Mobo ABIT IP35 Pro
// My mobo choice remains the same, Good reviews, Solid company, Though with out overclocking plans, you could look for an Intel combo deal with Intel Mobo/CPU but they don't seem to be as popular anymore as they were a couple of years ago.

$98.00 - RAM
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB
// This RAM does have a $40 Mail in rebate making it only $58

$180 - Power supply PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad
// Same power supply, I feel one should never cheap out on the heart of the system, and this my friend is what keeps the juices flowing in your system, other companies have come a long way, but PC P&C are power supplies they don't D*ck around.

$185 - HDD1 150Gb Raptor OEM
$70 - HDD2 250Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
// NOW I found a cheaper price for the Raptor for you, I still hold strong that the Raptor is the way to go, But the Barracuda I suppose it a good second choice, though it is Half the speed of the Raptor. Ultimately this is your choice.
Average Seek Time ->Bar -8.5ms Rap -4.6ms
Average Write Time ->Bar -10ms Rap -5.2ms
Average Latency ->Bar -4.16ms Rap -2.99ms

I'm not going to suggest a Videocard, because Most people already have that part thought about long before the rest of the system, I used to, though now my first choice is the Mobo, I find the Perfect Mobo, then the the CPU then my HDD, Ram, and what ever I have left goes to a Graphics Card, because that is something you can upgrade later, and is more portable to new/older systems then your other components.

My 2 cents?

Save yourself some money and drop the raptor for a 7200 RPM drive. The only advantage to a high RPM drive is lower seek times. You're only going to see faster performance when you're dealing with lots of small files. If it's a gaming rig, that really doesn't fit the bill.

i have a buyers guide right here in this section of the forum that you might be interested in looking thru.

and for video card, you might want to read all of the reviews of the 8800 GT that just got posted today. You can get 2 of them for the price of that 1 ultra.

The Penryn CPUs are supposed to come out Q1'08. Since they've been working on it for quite a while I'd tend to think it would be early Q1 rather than later.