Build me a computer?

[Brad]

Looking for someone to spec me one, best bang for the buck for 500 - 600 USA

Don't need CD/DVD/BLU-Ray or Hard drives. So..

-Case - (This can be cheap as hell idc really) - Black Please
-Power Supply
-Video Card
-Motherboard
-Processor
-Memory

Spec on newegg.com please.

Needs: Must be able to play 1080P/I Video flawlessly. (h.264)
Minimal Gaming, so decent video card.

Thanks Guys

 

[Seth]

Newegg.com - Rosewill R220-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - MSI N9800GT 512OC GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI
Newegg.com - APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor


$554.94

But I say go to micro center to buy the case newegg and others alway over charge for shipping..

 

[CASHMON3Y]

WAAAAY over speced. You only need 2Gb RAM. And thats over kill for a videa card. A dual core E8400 will play any 1080p video just fine, so theres no need for quad core. Also not everyone has a Microcenter. Its actually funny seeing that since we live close together and I shop there too.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

WAAAAY over speced. You only need 2Gb RAM. And thats over kill for a videa card. A dual core E8400 will play any 1080p video just fine, so theres no need for quad core. Also not everyone has a Microcenter. Its actually funny seeing that since we live close together and I shop there too.

These days I would recommend 3gb minimum, 2gb just doesn't hold up well for certain tasks

 

[twelve]

These days I would recommend 3gb minimum, 2gb just doesn't hold up well for certain tasks

Depends what the PC is for. No gaming and no photoshop then 2GB will be just fine (it's what I have in my Media PC, if I was running XP on it I'd probably have gone with 1GB but Vista MCE is so much nicer). But as Brad said "Minimal Gaming" I'm going to say yes 3GB is very justifiable.

With RAM being stupidly cheap there's little reason not to go full on and get 4GB. Price per MB it's much more cost effective.

 

[CASHMON3Y]

Depends what the PC is for. No gaming and no photoshop then 2GB will be just fine (it's what I have in my Media PC, if I was running XP on it I'd probably have gone with 1GB but Vista MCE is so much nicer). But as Brad said "Minimal Gaming" I'm going to say yes 3GB is very justifiable.

With RAM being stupidly cheap there's little reason not to go full on and get 4GB. Price per MB it's much more cost effective.

I can't believe theres people out there who still use Windows MCE... Do your self a favor and check out xbmc.org! I can't recommend it enough!

 

[Brad]

Newegg.com - Rosewill R220-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - MSI N9800GT 512OC GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI
Newegg.com - APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor


$554.94

But I say go to micro center to buy the case newegg and others alway over charge for shipping..

I was looking at the benchmarks on that cpu even tho it has the new lower power consumption technology it performs less then older models. Thoughts?

 

[twelve]

I can't believe theres people out there who still use Windows MCE... Do your self a favor and check out xbmc.org! I can't recommend it enough!

Any chance you could stay on topic for a change?

Windows MCE works out the box I dont need to install anything extra, it updates it's listings automatically, it works with the Microsoft remote. Why would I use anything else?

I was looking at the benchmarks on that cpu even tho it has the new lower power consumption technology it performs less then older models. Thoughts?

Get a Q6600. It's old but it's gooood.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

Any chance you could stay on topic for a change?

Windows MCE works out the box I dont need to install anything extra, it updates it's listings automatically, it works with the Microsoft remote. Why would I use anything else?

Get a Q6600. It's old but it's gooood.

Bingo on all your points (MCE and Q6600). I have the Q6600 and love it Brad, you can't go wrong with it It was actually going to be what I suggested, it has come down to a nice price point and provides a lot of power

 

[Tommi]

Agree with the Q6600, may be a bit old, but it's still a good chip.

 

[Seth]

I was looking at the benchmarks on that cpu even tho it has the new lower power consumption technology it performs less then older models. Thoughts?

I found a good post by someone else that kinda sums it up..

The main drawback of the Q8200 is the 7x multi, which will make overclocking past 3.2GHz difficult.

At stock it should be similar in performance to the Q6600. Its clocked slightly lower (2.33GHz vs 2.4GHz) and does have a smaller L2 cache, but the 45nm process is ~5% faster per clock than 65nm so that evens things up somewhat.

Being 45nm based it'll also run a lot cooler than the Q6600, plus it has SSE4.1.

So basically, for anyone looking at serious overclocking, the Q6600 remains the best choice. The Q8200 however is no 'POS', it does have several advantages over the Q6600 as I pointed out, its just not suited for heavy overclocking.

Does that help? But really there both really good...Both the q6600 and 8200 are great..

If you want Replace that 9800 with a 9300(It the gfx card I use) it handles my videos just fine..

You can build something for 400 that will play 1080p flawless...

Here some bench marks I was looking at...
PCGH - Review/Benchmark: PCGH Review: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 versus Q6600 and Phenom X4

Also a big fan of Boxee...

Also it be wise to go with 4gb of ram..Unless your being real cheap there no res not to go with 4gb for 40 bucks..

 

[Brad]

Got some more cash so I'm gonna future proof me processor wise. Gonna get the new Intel socket and a i7 Link. Motherboards for the new socket are pretty overpriced atm but that's what you get I guess.

I'll prob grab the 9800 GT still.

 

[Sullivan]

WoW! I thought the i7 would be more then 300$! Nice.

How does it compare to a regular quad?

 

[Brad]

WoW! I thought the i7 would be more then 300$! Nice.

How does it compare to a regular quad?

Benchmarks - Encoding and app wise its allot faster.

Gaming only slightly cause of the whole games not taking advantage of the cores ect.

 

[Hardrive]

Got some more cash so I'm gonna future proof me processor wise. Gonna get the new Intel socket and a i7 Link. Motherboards for the new socket are pretty overpriced atm but that's what you get I guess.

I'll prob grab the 9800 GT still.

Yeah, I'm pretty pissed that I just built my rig a few months ago with the Q6600, and then Intel goes along an unveils a new socket and motherboard line. DAMN YOU TECHNOLOGY!

 

[Brad]

Yeah, I'm pretty pissed that I just built my rig a few months ago with the Q6600, and then Intel goes along an unveils a new socket and motherboard line. DAMN YOU TECHNOLOGY!

I'm kinda stuck atm. For one this is just coming out so prices are high. My choices are either buy a new tv (I don't have HD TV) or new PC. I have a PS3 now and I wanna take advantage of it.

Thinking I may buy into the new PC a few months down the road. Thoughts?

TV or New Comp, take into consideration I'm a multi media kinda person. Streaming video to PS3 =

 

[Sullivan]

Hows your current pc setup? Bad?

If its stable, I would go for the TV.

Truely, I would wait to build one, because they just came out. Wait a while, the prices should drop but not significantly but a little.

 

[Brad]

Hows your current pc setup? Bad?

If its stable, I would go for the TV.

Truely, I would wait to build one, because they just came out. Wait a while, the prices should drop but not significantly but a little.

Its dated but does what I need. But when I say that its using most of its juice to do it. I can play 720P video but not 1080I/P

 

[Sullivan]

Well that for me would be fine. I don't know, if you plan on watching the high def video, I would just stream it to your "NEW HDTV". lol That's always an idea. I use NERO to stream and video format to my PS3 using the Media Server option. It is actually pretty cool, I don't have to convert a thing.

 

[Seth]

Got some more cash so I'm gonna future proof me processor wise. Gonna get the new Intel socket and a i7 Link. Motherboards for the new socket are pretty overpriced atm but that's what you get I guess.

I'll prob grab the 9800 GT still.

Not really what over priced is the DDR3 1600 most of these motherboard uses...

Bump: A 180 bucks for 2 gb of ram...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145220

Bump: A 180 bucks for 2 gb of ram...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145220