New PC for the Wife for Christmas

SRB442 · Dec 6, 2008

My wife would like a new pc for christmas. I am trying to decide weather to build or buy already built. She will use it for some games,internet and some home stuff. I built the one she has now which is identical to the one in my sig. except 2.8,geil ram and no raid 0. I would like to use her case.power supply with a newer asus p5q pro p45 775 board,intel q6600,ocz ddr2 8500,ati4870,vista 64 bit home premium and a 500gig WDdrive. This would cost the same as a dell xps 420. I feel I get a better quailty pc if I build it. I have some questions.

1. Will a 420 watt ps be enough to run this.
2. I notice that a lot of the motherboards have watercooling on them. Do I need to use this? Also do the newer motherboards bolt up to the older cases?
3. Does the parts I picked seem like a good choice?

I only build once in a while but enjoy doing this and reading the forums. Any and all opinions greatly appreciated. Steve

Evilsizer · Dec 6, 2008

what kind of games will she be playing? what is "home stuff"?

SRB442 · Dec 6, 2008

I should have been more specific. Mostly word games and nothing with a lot of graphics or action games. Home stuff is finances,photo albums,records. The machine she has should be fast enough but if she wants a new pc its a win,win for me. It's makes shopping for her that much easier and I enjoy it to. Steve

ou_phidelt · Dec 6, 2008

Your plan is major overkill. I would do something much simpler and cheaper.

E7200
P5Q Pro
4GB's PC6400
ATI 4670
A 430W PSU would be plenty.

It will do everything you are describing while costing less and using much less power.

Evilsizer · Dec 6, 2008

since this is for your wife im going to assume for the moment you wont oc it. you would then want to use a different board. something with features she might use but based on what you said any basic motherboard will do. there is no need getting a mobo with ocing options and features she wont use.

i would suggest you go with the Asus P5Q,E5200,2x1gig DDR2-800 cas4,ATI 4650 or something lower end like the 4350. depending on the psu brand/model, the 430watt would be more then enough.

Trap05 · Dec 6, 2008

You could save even more going with an AMD and onboard graphics. You don't need dedicated video to do what you said HD3200 would be plenty

SRB442 · Dec 6, 2008

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I am looking at a asus p5q se p45 board,ati 3850 card,4 gig of pc6400 memory and a Q6600 cpu. I am also going to use the 64 bit vista home premium. Steve

Mr.DLucey · Dec 6, 2008

SRB442 said:
I notice that a lot of the motherboards have watercooling on them. Do I need to use this? Also do the newer motherboards bolt up to the older cases?

Water cooling is not necessary, air is just fine so is the stock Heatsink and Fan you get with a retail processor as long as you know it will limit you highest overclock. Bet thats not a concern for your wife, a stable system is what she wants. Old case, well depends on what was in it before. If it was a P4 system you should be OK as thats a "ATX" case. Older cases like a P2 would be to old as thats a "AT" case. What kinda of computer is (was) in that case you want to reuse?

SRB442 · Dec 7, 2008

Mr.DLucey said:
Water cooling is not necessary, air is just fine so is the stock Heatsink and Fan you get with a retail processor as long as you know it will limit you highest overclock. Bet thats not a concern for your wife, a stable system is what she wants. Old case, well depends on what was in it before. If it was a P4 system you should be OK as thats a "ATX" case. Older cases like a P2 would be to old as thats a "AT" case. What kinda of computer is (was) in that case you want to reuse?

The case is a Thermaltake Xaser V which will work as long as the standards for ATX are the same. It also has 420 watt p/s that came with it (silent pure power). My wife tends to have multiple windows open all the time 4 plus is not uncommon so that it where I think it slows it down. She is running XP pro with 1 gig of ram,asus p4c800-e deluxe 2.8 p4 and ati 9800pro 128 video card. Steve

SRB442 · Dec 7, 2008

I think I am close to getting this done. I have picked the following parts. I know this is overkill but may try overclocking it a bit.
1. Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P MB
2. 4GB (2X2GB)OCZ pc 8500
3. Sapphire 3850 512 video card
4. Q6600 2.4 CPU
5. WD 500GB hard drive
6. OCZ StealthXStream 600 watt P.S. (my current p.s does not have a 6 pin 12 volt video car connection)
7. Vista Home Premium 64bit

Does this look like a plan or is there something that is not compatable? Thanks Steve

Trap05 · Dec 7, 2008

Get the WD 640GB drive instead. Its faster

GT3mich · Dec 8, 2008

SRB442 said:
I think I am close to getting this done. I have picked the following parts. I know this is overkill but may try overclocking it a bit.
1. Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P MB

ExtremeTech raved about this board last week.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2335930,00.asp
I built a PC for my brother last week using this same board and I started OC'ing it yesterday. It has so many options that its hard to decide what to change. I have a P35 board in my PC and can get my Q6600 to run stable @ 3.5 on air but I can't get this thing to run even @ 2.6 and this has the Go stepping Q6600 in it. I'm sure I need to read through the manual again.

SRB442 · Dec 8, 2008

Trap05 said:
Get the WD 640GB drive instead. Its faster

Thanks for the information. Is it the WD6401AALS black drive you are talking about?

The Gigabyte board is easy to install other than the overclocking? I have alsways used asus board but wanted to try something different. Steve

Trap05 · Dec 8, 2008

Yes this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

SRB442 · Dec 9, 2008

Trap05 said:
Yes this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

Thanks Steve

SRB442 · Dec 10, 2008

Just placed the order from newegg for the upgrade parts for my wife's pc.

ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512 Video card
OCZ StealthXStream 600 power supply
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC28500) Memory
WD 640GB Black 7200 Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit

Thanks everyone for the help. I know it is overkill but my wife wants somthing fast. I went to asus because the gigabyte boards are out of stock and know the asus better. Steve

Trap05 · Dec 10, 2008

She should be happy with it...if not you'll hear about it lol

White_Pawn · Dec 10, 2008

SRB442 said:
Just placed the order from newegg for the upgrade parts for my wife's pc.

ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512 Video card
OCZ StealthXStream 600 power supply
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC28500) Memory
WD 640GB Black 7200 Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit

Thanks everyone for the help. I know it is overkill but my wife wants somthing fast. I went to asus because the gigabyte boards are out of stock and know the asus better. Steve

it is definitely going to be fast. I'd grab a cheap aftermarket cooler like the xigmatek S1283, keeps the chip cool, even if you decide to not overclock.

Evilsizer · Dec 10, 2008

i would actually get the 4670 or the 4830 over the 3870. that is if your buying new parts, if the 3870 is a hand me down, then don't worry about it.

SRB442 · Dec 11, 2008

Thanks for the comments and advise. I should get it built after Christmas. Steve

New PC for the Wife for Christmas

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