Son's new proposed computer....

[Rico]

I'm reposting this from another forum.  My younger son (Octeris here) wants to build a new computer.  He is looking for some thoughts on the parts he has picked out so far.  Feel free to comment below....


Motherboard - eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6813188013)

Although I should probably build up from a motherboard, this is the one part I am not completely sure about, eVGA is relatively new in the motherboard area, they are more well-known for their nVidia chipset video cards. Asus is another mainstay I have looked out, but I've heard many of the nForce 680i SLI chipset boards are not very good, maybe I am not looking in the right place.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

A very good value as far as Conroes go, good OCing options, just a very good all around dual core processor.

Memory -  CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Corsair is a very good manufacturer in memory, 2GB is fairly standard nowadays for games.

Hard Drives - OS, Games, Main Drive -  Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150

Fast 10,000 RPM Raptor for everything that needs to be accessed quickly and efficiently.

Storage -  Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache

500GB is a huge amount that will last me indefinitely, storage won't be a problem.

Video Card -  EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16

DX10 cards, without breaking the bank and going for the GTX. 8800GTS is a great middle ground, with OC options to get closer to a 8800GTX.

Sound - Onboard, perhaps I will add a Creative X-Fi at a later point.

Networking - Onboard Gigabit Ethernet.

Case -  Thermaltake SHARK VA7000BWA Black Aluminum ATX

My friend owns a Thermaltake Armor case and loves it. I want the same large space to mount everything in, as well as portability, as I go to LANs quite often. So aluminum is the way to go, and this case has a sufficient amount of room for the imposing 8800GTS. Another option is an Antec Nine Hundred, which is less portable, but offers 3 120mm fans, and 1 200mm fan, a large amount of stock cooling.

PSU -  Thermaltake Toughpower W0117RU ATX12V / EPS12V 750W

Expensive, but better to have too much power, than too little. Going with Thermaltake again insures it will fit in the case. The PSU is the third thing I am not entirely sure about though.

Any advice?

Oh, and any recommendations for optical drives would be most welcome.

- Octeris

[jedijeff]

Sounds like a pretty good system to me. Happy to know that there are other people out there who still like to build and design their own systems instead of buying ones from the big box stores. I would agree about the Motherboard in that it might be a bit of a risk due to them being new to making motherboards. If it were me, I might take the conservative route and go with an ASUS. I would check reviews on the eVGA, and if they are positive, then it might not be such a great risk. I would be interested to hear in the end what this costs you, as I am presently looking at building a new PC.

[Rico]

I've built my own PC's for years.  Many systems.  Now my son who is the "next generation" (hehe) computer geek in the family will be learning.  He had a tech/computer job this past year at his school and did basic repairs, re-imaging, etc. of computers for the school.  Plus he earned some money to build his own PC.  I think he's pretty excited to get started on it.

[Ktrek]

I've built several of my own PCs but this last time I gave in and bought a Sony  Vaio and I have to say I have not regretted it!

Kevin

[Rico]

Well, we ordered the parts a couple of days ago.  Pretty much the same as above except went with an ASUS motherboard.  Should have it all by Tuesday.

[jedijeff]

Sounds like it is going to be a really nice PC. He should get a lot of good use out of it.

[psikeyhackr]

Things have chaned a bit since I built my first computer.



ROFL

$400 for 2 MHz & 8K of memory.  Or was it 4K?  Sorry, no parity.

I don't know how many I have built but these days I suggest to some people that they just buy a used computer.  Replace the hard drive that might have a lot of hours on it and they could be good to go.

I still have a BYTE magazin from Jan 1983.   It has an article with a benchmark on lots of different computers.  The fastest was an IBM 3033 running assembler that cost $3,000,000.  A 500 MHz Pentium running GNU C can match it so 300 MHz running assembler probably could to.

It strange how you can miss the smell of solder.  LOL

psik

[Fanboy]

Cool dude!  That rocks!

[Rico]

Well, my son and I assembled the new "beast" last night.  Went together pretty easily.  Case is very nice that he picked out.  Very roomy and great airflow.  Only took a couple of hours and got Windows XP loaded on it.  I'll try and get Octeris (Eric) to post some pics sometime soon.

[psikeyhackr]

Well, my son and I assembled the new "beast" last night.  Went together pretty easily.  Case is very nice that he picked out.  Very roomy and great airflow.  Only took a couple of hours and got Windows XP loaded on it.  I'll try and get Octeris (Eric) to post some pics sometime soon.

What about benchmarks?

I like having a broad perspective on computers.  This is a benchmark that was used in the Jan 1983 Byte magazine.  It does 10 iterations of the Sieve of Eratosthenes.

http://www.tkscript.de/doc/jit.html

Here is a free C compiler that is a version of GNU C.

http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html

The fastest machine back in '83 was a $3,000,000 IBM mainframe running assembly language.  It would be about equivalent to a 300 MHz Pentium.  My archos PMA400 running compiled C code beats that mainframe running COBOL.

Two hours and no soldering.  They just don't make 'em like they used to.   :roflmao

psik

[Yeoman Mara]

Looks like a very nice machine.  Your son must be in computer heaven now!  :)