System Build - e8400 XP

System Build - e8400 XP - input?

Going to replace my wife's aging laptop. This won't be a gaming box but at the same time I don't want to build a slow box. Any suggestions? Planning to put XP on this box.

Case - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower - 55.00
MB - GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L - 53.99
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - 167.99
RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - 47.00
Video - EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260 896MB - 154.99
HD - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1gig - 99.99
PS - Corsair 650W PS - 80.00
Burner - LG Black 22X DVD+R - 31.00
LCD - Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - 150.00
KB/Mouse - Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 - mouse & keyboard - 22.00
Total 861.96

Appreciate any input.

somegeek

Do you plan on overclocking? Whats your budget?

if you do plan on OCing, I would suggest a better mobo, something with a p45 chipset. The e8400 is a great OC chip, wouldn't want to be limited by the board.

Other than that you have solid choices all around. I know you said it wasn't a gaming box, but thats a pretty nice one if one day you ever do want to play games.

Tsnowflake said:

Do you plan on overclocking? Whats your budget?

if you do plan on OCing, I would suggest a better mobo, something with a p45 chipset. The e8400 is a great OC chip, wouldn't want to be limited by the board.

Other than that you have solid choices all around. I know you said it wasn't a gaming box, but thats a pretty nice one if one day you ever do want to play games.

Click to expand...

I won't OC initially... but it probably wouldn't hurt to get a better mobo. Something like this would do the trick for under $100...
ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard for $87.

Kinda hard to keep a budget and not bump up this and that for $30 here or $40 there. I don't have a set budget... just trying to choose components which are behind the curve pricewise but still have decent performance.

Thanks,
somegeek

If its not a gaming box why the high end GPU? What does your wife need out of the machine?

ou_phidelt said:

If its not a gaming box why the high end GPU? What does your wife need out of the machine?

Click to expand...

My thoughts as well. Something like a 9600gt will still get the job done (works fine for light gaming) and will let you save a few bucks on the power supply too.

Longevity for the most part.

Kicking myself now for parting with an MSI 8800 GTS about three months back or so(sold it to partially pay for my 260).

My advice would be to skip 775 and get a 790GX mobo with HD 3300 ,for a proc Regor 250 x2 . Is she going to take up gaming ? Enthusiast overclocking ? 790GX + 250 going to be a lower power but plenty powerful , 3300 can easily handle 1080 p video and light gaming , i can play tf2 on my native resolution with low settings granted after some ocing .

An AMD setup would certainly be a viable option with plenty of horsepower at a cheap price. If you want to stick w. Intel, an e5400 and a lower end gpu like a 4770 or 9600gt would help out the budget if its a concern.

chevro1et said:

An AMD setup would certainly be a viable option with plenty of horsepower at a cheap price. If you want to stick w. Intel, an e5400 and a lower end gpu like a 4770 or 9600gt would help out the budget if its a concern.

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Thanks for the suggestions guys. I put together two box lists... my orignial faster box and a slower box w/ the e5400/9600 setup. I keep mulling over the $300 diff thinking about this in the long run. I don't think I'll miss the $300 as much over 4-5 years compared to kicking myself down the road for not building a faster box and being stuck with slower components. Damn damn...

why not just get her another cheap laptop or netbook? I mean really what is she using it for? no need for a $1000 box that just browses the internet.

maybe something like a lenovo SL series (starts at $499) http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=393651299AA2442B937039C5DECF1DBF

somegeek said:

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I put together two box lists... my orignial faster box and a slower box w/ the e5400/9600 setup. I keep mulling over the $300 diff thinking about this in the long run. I don't think I'll miss the $300 as much over 4-5 years compared to kicking myself down the road for not building a faster box and being stuck with slower components. Damn damn...

Click to expand...

Ah, just give her the rig in your sig and build yourself a nice i7 rig /plants evil seed in mind...
jk.

chevro1et said:

Ah, just give her the rig in your sig and build yourself a nice i7 rig /plants evil seed in mind...
jk.

Click to expand...

Hah - don't think that that didn't cross my mind... "You know... I could just use my MB fo... no no no."

My wife doesn't need the mobility of a laptop and would like a larger display. A desktop fits the bid for that.

hand me down would definitely be my first move. going with a barebones case/mobo/psu combo could be an option too. i mean its your money, but i don't see it as being worth it to drop so much on a net browsing box.

fyi, my htpc has an AMD x2 @2.9ghz with an Nvidia 9600gt, it handles 1080p blu-ray playback and light gaming (the witcher, WoW, etc) with no problems. It's plenty fast for casual use like streaming and web browsing as well, something like that can probably be put together for around $400.

Thoughts on this combo? $155 AR

Build Combo:
AMD Athlon X2 7550 Kuma 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core Processor
ECS BLACK SERIES A780GM-A AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory
Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

Only used Intel CPUs in the past so the AMDs are a bit of a mystery to me regarding decent bang for buck.

i'd go with a seagate perpendicular recording hdd, and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207 for ram

The AMD Kuma's are probably equivalent to a low end C2D like the 5200. The cpu in the combo deal is oem, so no cooler, though with a decent aftermarket that Kuma should be able to hit 3ghz at least. The Corsair xms2 is good stuff, I've used it in several builds. I think that combo deal would be pretty tough to beat for $155 AR. If you want to go one step up you could look at something like the AMD x2 250. The Kuma's = Phenom I, the Athon II's = Phenom II, fyi.

I pulled the trigger on that Kuma deal... it was ~$150 after Bing Cash Back and a flat $7 shipped.

Picked up an ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler which had an unadvertised 80mm Arctic cooling fan thrown into my cart for $0.

Ordered this power supply for $33 shipped after rebate and cash back: OCZ OCZ500MXSP 500W SLI/CrossFire Active Power Supply Retail

Ordered the three hundred case for $54 shipped from compsource.com and the above linked monitor from Newegg for $136.50 after cash back shipped.

Thanks for the replies all. My wife should be happy with this build.

Wow, that is gonna be a great bang for buck build. Are you gonna stick with the onboard video? Might as well try it out, and then if your wife requires something with more power, add in a budget card later.

This is the stuff I ordered in whole...

Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower(via Bing link) $55.28 shipped

PS: OCZ OCZ500MXSP 500W SLI/CrossFire Active Power Supply Retail $35.00 shipped after rebate

Build Combo - $162.00 shipped after rebates:
MB: ECS BLACK SERIES A780GM-A AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
Video: on-board ATI Radeon HD 3200
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 7550 Kuma 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core Processor
RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory
HD: Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

HSF: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail w/ Free 80mm case fan w/ purchase - $30.00 shipped

LCD: Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - $140.00 shipped

KB/Mouse: Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 - mouse & keyboard - 24.00 shipped(part of above order)

Total CashBack via Bing: $13.00
Total Cost $433.25

Last item I need to get is a SATA DVD burner.

If interested, the easiest way to get the Bing discount is to go to newegg.com via a Bing shopping search(given you're logged into your bing account) and it will automagically note all items you purchased for that session and note you have the cash back coming. I thought you had to drill down to each item via bing.com to get the discount but was pleasantly surprised when I got a bing.com email stating I was getting cash back on the (8) items I purchased at newegg.com on a single purchase session. Can drop the cashback into your paypal account or whatnot after a month or two.

somegeek