Help Building C2D Rig - Minimal OC'ing, Need Monitor & Windows XP/Vista, Under $1,000

[PerlAddict]

Help Building C2D Rig - Minimal OC'ing, Need Monitor & Windows XP/Vista, Under $1,000

Well, a buddy here at work who doesn't know much about computers needs a new computer. He wants something he can do a little gaming on, but his games are more along the lines of that Deer Hunter game you always see on Wal-Mart's shelf, not Unreal Tournament.

He was looking at buying a Dell, but I wanted to see if I could build him a better rig for a little less. He likely won't be overclocking at all, so he doesn't need a motherboard with a lot of BIOS options - just something steady. We'll probably go with an E4300, so if there's a board that can handle 1066 FSB instead of just 800, that might be nice since we could just bump up his FSB a bit and get a few hundred more mhz out of it without any real work. So I'd like a board that can handle 1066FSB, has built-in LAN ports, onBoard sound, and has PCI-E, but that's about the extent of the requirements on the board.

Here's what he'll need in his system. Can you give me a hand? Mostly need help on choosing the motherboard and finding deals/combos for the other components:

CPU (E4300 most likely)
RAM (1GB of Kingston DDR2-667 for ~ $70 or 2GB Super Talent DDR2-667 for ~ $130)
PSU (Something with a PCI-E connector and 24-pin. Naturally need something better than Dell's crap, but doesn't have to be a top of the line beast by any means)
Motherboard (???)
Video Card (Probably a used 7900GS or 7900GT from the classifieds here, so figure $150 or so. 7600GT if budget gets to be a problem)
Monitor (17"+ digital LCD, looking at Dell's offerings currently, but suggest better deals if you know them. Personally, my Dell monitors all have looked better than my L90D+ or BenQ FP91G+, so that's why I'm leaning him that way)
Hard Drive (SATA, 80GB minimum, prefer 160GB+)
DVD+/-RW ($35 here for something like an NEC, I'd imagine)
Case (I'm upgrading and can give him my old one, so $0)
Operating System If they're going to be paying for an O/S, I figure they might as well future proof themselves and buy Vista now. So Vista Home edition (she's an art student, he's a mechanical technician, so I doubt they need anything other than Home Basic or Home Premium, though I admittedly don't know the differences in the - what is it, six? - flavors of Vista. Best place to buy OEM?)
Random fans, keyboard, optical mouse (Figure another $50 for this stuff)


I think that's about it. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I'm sure someone can jog my memory if I am. The most expensive part is probably the monitor, which is why Dell becomes an attractive route since you can get nice discounts on monitors when they're bundled with systems. But if he gets a Dell and wants to upgrade his video card later, that means he'll need a better PSU to be able to handle the load, too, so I'm hoping this will be a little more future-proofed for him.

Dell had some alright deals ... right now you can get the following for $750 + tax:

Dell Dimension E521-AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
-1GB DDR2
-250GB SATA
-16x DVD±RW
-Vista Home Premium
-22" LCD

Not horrible for a student and someone who doesn't play much in the way of games at all, especially if you downgrade the monitor to 17" or 20" widescreen and bump up the CPU to a 4200+. But it only comes with integrated graphics (or X1300 or 7300LE cards, which isn't much better) and something like a 305W psu.

I'm sure people are sick of "help me build" threads by now ... but hey, help me find some parts and see what we can do better.

The other Dell system we priced out for him was as follows for $879 + tax:

E4300
1GB DDR-533
Vista Home Premium
250GB SATA
17" Ultrasharp LCD
X3000 integrated graphics
16x DVD±RW

 

[attack]

E4300 is 160
Gigabyte S3 is 110
2gb of DDR2 130
PSU (not certain on this but I'd say 75)
Video card...yeah a 7900/7800GT would be nice, but I'd say go with an even cheaper X800 for around 75, this allows some wiggle room for a better stuff later on.
19" widescreen LCD, 150 after MIR at newegg
Vista OEM home premium is 130
HDD...65 at most for 250gb
35 like ya said...that gives us:
930
don't skimp on the keyboard and mouse, they're something that gets used all the time and are personal preference. If they like natural styles I recommend the MS ergo 4000, I think it's like 25 bucks after MIR...for a mouse I have a razer which I like but thats just me, something cheaper would probably work for them.

A beefy video card isn't that important and I would actualy try to score an el cheapo PCI-e for 20 bucks and upgrade to a 20" widescreen LCD (1680x1050 over 1440x900 is a decent increase). Later on if they find themselves wanting more HP for games they can ask you for a video card and give you a decent range. But since this isn't primarily a gaming rig I'd say a 20" widescreen is a worthy upgrade.

 

[PerlAddict]

I'd agee with you on the monitor. He's actually hoping to keep it near $800, so I kinda doubt he'll spend more on a monitor, but we'll see. =)

Any links to places you can buy at those prices? Was hoping someone might know of some stores with deals or combos going right now.

 

[atomic ferret]

You'd save lots of money by nixing vista and going for ubuntu or another simple distro of linux. My friend built a computer for his uncomputer-savvy 14 year old brother equipted with Ubuntu and he got by fine. If your friends don't mind using Openoffice instead of Microsoft office, I'd say save the 150 and go for Linux. Also, depending on the school, I bet you could go to a computer technician at the school and ask for a copy of windows for "educational purposes" and they might bite (It has certainly worked for me). If they are really intent on vista though, I suppose there's no arguing with them.

About the Dell issue, I would try to find a C2D instead of an AMD at the moment. Also, if there are some budget constraints, maybe just pick up an old CRT for now and get an LCD later instead of settling for a small (17") LCD now.

 

[PerlAddict]

They do mind, so that's not an option. Especially since I know nothing about Linux, and if I build it, guess who's going to be getting called everytime they have a question? I don't need that kind of headaches and worrying about program compatibilities and whatnot. But I appreciate the thought. =) I told the guy to have his wife check out the campus school, as I remember getting some killer educational discounts when I was at UT. Never checked out MTSU's store, but being the largest university in TN, you'd think they'd surely have some sort of educational discounts.

I'd prefer a C2D hands down at the moment, too. They're not really intent on Vista, but all system builders have pretty much switched over to only Vista offerings for pre-built systems. And if they're going to pay money for XP, then it's a bit of a waste to buy it now, and then have to shell out the money again to upgrade to Vista once it gets ironed out a little. I remember being anti-XP when it first came out, too, but eventually you'll need to migrate if you stay on a Windows system, so might as well jump on early and ride out the initial hurdles.

 

[PerlAddict]

Looked at CyperPowerPC.com a bit, seeing as they have pretty high ratings on resellerreviews.com. Too bad you can't just leave out some items, as they have some nice customization options, but force you to chose something from every option so you can't just leave out ram or a video card to lower the price a bit.

 

[atomic ferret]

I see what your saying, I suppose im just biased against vista at the moment. I'm pretty sure you'll get some kind of discount from school. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this on this forum, but you can usually download a pirated copy of windows or just use a disc that's already being used and call microsoft up and just say its malfunctioning. They usually end up giving you a new code. I know this may seem a little immoral, but I hoenstly think shellingout a couple hudnred for an OS is rediculous. A lot of people do this as far as I can tell, including my high school whose software is all pirated.

 

[PerlAddict]

Yeah, you can't really talk about that on here. Regardless or morality, piracy isn't an option. If you're building something for someone else, it's always best to make sure it can function with minimum input from you. If they put in a new hard drive in a couple of years and suddenly need to reactivate, guess who's getting called? And guess who would rather have a valid key to get reactivated when they call MS.

 

[MVC]

They're not really intent on Vista, but all system builders have pretty much switched over to only Vista offerings for pre-built systems. And if they're going to pay money for XP, then it's a bit of a waste to buy it now, and then have to shell out the money again to upgrade to Vista once it gets ironed out a little. I remember being anti-XP when it first came out, too, but eventually you'll need to migrate if you stay on a Windows system, so might as well jump on early and ride out the initial hurdles.

Actually, I'll second (third?) the suggestion to stay on XP unless they really have a need for DX10. MS has already said that XP will be supported until at least 2012 so they'll probably be replacing that machine before they can't get support for XP. And, sticking with XP at this point will save you all the headaches folks are reporting with Vista right now (and probably for at least the next year or so). Also, MS has built a lot of DRM crap into Vista so in the long run it may be a lot more crippled when it comes to letting you do what you want than XP does. I hate trying to predict the future, but....

FWIW, I work for the City University of New York and we haven't even started testing Vista yet--the published reports have so far been enough to tell us it just isn't a viable replacement for XP. At least not yet.

 

[PerlAddict]

I'm beginning to think that's probably a wise idea.

However, it's all a moot point because he just informed me this morning that he went ahead and ordered the computer. Paid $987 for it, and got a Pentium D dual core. *sigh*

He was happy because he said, "Yeah buddy, I upgraded to the highest video card, so now I can finally play my games." The highest video card they offer on those systems is a 256MB X1300, I believe. Ouch. And the goof didn't even search online for a coupon, even though I told him to never, ever pay the website price when ordering from Dell because they always have markdowns with a coupon available.

Hate it, but guess it's one of those things were it's better to just let them ignorantly enjoy it then say "You just spent a quarter of your money on Vista, another quarter on a monitor, and the last half on an overpriced bag of crap for what you got."