Quote Originally Posted by daredog4 View Post
I figure since you guys have been doing this way longer than me you could give me some pointers on the hardware. Here is a list of the parts I have been considering. My only real requirement is that it has to be close to or less than 1000.

Case CoolerMaster Centurion 5 CAC-T05 Black with side window $59.99

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX $119.99

Power Supply Corsair CMPSU-550VX 550 Watt ATX 12v $99.99

CPU Intel E7400 Wolfdale 2.8Ghz LGA775
$119.99

Memory G-Skill 2GB (2x1 GB) 240 Pin DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) $34.99

Graphics Card HIS H467QT512P Radeon HD4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB$74.99

Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB 8mb Cache 7200RPM SATA 3.0$49.99

DVD Drive Sony Optiarc Black DVDR/RW 24x/8x/12x
$26.99

Keyboard/Mouse Logitech LX 710 Laser Black USB
$64.99

Monitor Acer X223Wbd Black 22" Widescreen 5ms
$149.99

Speakers Creative Inspire T3100 2-Way with Subwoofer
$49.99

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 OEM $89.99

Virus/Firewall ESET Smart Security 1 year subscription $59.99
Total
$1,001.87


You did really good for someone that's never done a build before. Let me make a couple of recommendations that will help make this rig a bit better.

Lose the CoolerMaster case in favor of the Antec Three Hundred. It's a dollar or two less, plus free shipping. The other plus is you get more cooling options with the Antec case and it's 3 fans versus the CoolerMaster and it's one "okay" fan. Oh, and sell or give away the power supply that comes with this case .... you won't need it.

Skip the Gigabyte board in favor of an Asus. If you'd like I can give you a couple good model numbers. I'd also lose the G-Skill RAM in favor of some Corsair XMS for about the same price.

For an LCD, the Acer is okay .... I would go with a Samsung. I've got the 206BW and it's about a year old, but it's an incredible LCD.

For the Logitech mouse, try the G5 wired mouse as its weight adjustable, cheaper than the 710, and it's still a laser.

For the power supply, replace the Corsair with one from PC Power and Cooling, like the 650 watt version. This is where alot of people will go cheap and ruin a decent computer with a sub-par PSU. I used to be a fan of cheap power supplies until I had one let go and took a motherboard, CPU, 2 optical drives and a hard drive with it when it exited the building. Your power requirements will run the Corsair 550 watt near it's max so you'll need to bump it up.

Lastly, get AVG for your anti-virus. It's lighter (uses less resources) and you can get updates hourly, daily, or weekly.

I didn't look at the CPU, but make sure you get a "retail" processor instead of an "OEM". The big difference here is the "OEM" version doesn't come with a heatsink so you'll need to drop another 30 to 50 bucks for a good quality heatsink fan combo.

I'd also get a small tube of Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound and use it instead of the stuff that comes on the heatsink. I've had more than a few heatsinks fuse themselves to a CPU .... I've even got some good scars from using a razor knife trying to separate them.



If you need help or advice, just ask. The only stupid question is the one you won't/don't ask.





Kris