samurai nightling

Wait, Canadians are real people? I always thought they were made up, like Oompa Loompas or something.

oh ok cool. thanks guys, and yes thanks cujo! But i was already a fan of the antec truepower series since ive been using one in here. Oh wait, Cujo u basically helped me build this computer too. Dangit...

Ugh so i think i wont be able to buy this stuff til after some of the combo deals are expired. I have to wait until November at least to find out if i have to start paying back student loans or if i get a Economic hardship deferment since I'm still interning this year. If i have to pay them back then i doubt i can afford a new build lol. I should get it though, they kept telling me i would...

thats the PSU i had chosen anyway! good deal man, thanks for showing me this.

Nice stuff, yeah I'm basically just looking to go a bit faster than all that, in hopes that i won;t need to do any type of computer building for some years to come. The more i think about it though, the more spending $1500 sounds less appealing to me. I'm looking over everything again and seeing where i can go cheaper without losing too much performance.

Man, not to wanna be a copycat, but thats a sweet case. I like the cooling it would provide with the fan placements.

yeah i noticed that 8mb cache also. Its great if you really really have to save money but need the space. However, I'm not buying it becasue im going for more performance but thanks preacher.

Ugh i still need to decide on a case. What do you guys think about the Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case?? People say it has a brittle top fan though.

ive searched that so many times, I've never seen anything like what Shrop was talking about...

I mean...

Crap

Quick question, will the Asus P5Q-E board that preacher suggested run 8gb of 1066 Ram even though it says its standard is 1200? Wasn't completely sure if its backwards compatible but i think a guy who wrote a review said he was using DDR2 800 ram in it.

A 1990? I would imagine everything on it is about starting to die, fail, break apart, rust etc. after 240,000 miles. Exactly what kind of condition is the vehicle in besides a dead engine?

bah whatever, Seagate, WD, i got them confused. I haven;t set up raid before so I will read up on how to and see about getting 2 HDD.

I was only getting the MX518 cuz its cheaper than most of the newer gaming mice, but i haven't made any life commitments to my mouse yet lol. i still use a MX310 and it seems to still own most people, a mouse is a mouse is a mouse as long as you know how to adjust the sensitivity to your liking IMO, why waste money on it.

I also found some cheaper Mobos. Asus Striker Formula (open box though)

EVGA LGA 775 FTW (looks like a decent deal and board)

Ok, so here is the stuff that I'm looking at seriously for the build now, thanks to all the input from everyone!

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor

ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (2 sets of these for 8GB total)

EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (I might think about one of those WD 640GB 32MB cache ones, seems to get better reviews)

Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 64-bit English 1pk for System Builders

Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical 1800 dpi Gaming-Grade Mouse

I'm still looking at cases, and I'm looking for a decent one with good cooling. And Preacher that's the exact monitor i was looking at today. I saw it and saw the price and was like "wow, not a bad deal at all!" so i might get it, but I'll start off with this 19" one.

So how's everything look? I know the video card is prolly still overkill, but it isn't quite as fast and saves me some money. The RAM seems like a good deal to me to get 8GB of it for like $170. The total after shipping comes out to about $1,441.64, but thats without a case, monitor, or keyboard. I'm gonna throw my Sound Blaster Xtreme gamer X-Fi sound card into it, along with the DVD burner from this computer, i have a spare CD drive i can put in here. More suggestions or thoughts would be great!

Ok well i think im getting the Vista business 64bit for system builders, since its so cheap compared to retail. And yeah, that RAM is really slow preach, and getting 8GB of it wont make me want to buy it anymore lol. I am getting 8GB of DDR2 1066 G. Skill memory, at like $80 a set. I'm also cutting back on the video card, getting the same model but at a lower clock speed to save some money and since i wont need all of it. I do want to keep that card though because i might buy a 22" Hanns G. monitor like the one i have right now for my 19". I think i have most of it figured out and i will post each of the links when i get home, im at my gf house right now. When i get home tonight I'll post up what i'm getting and you can give me some more suggestions from there. Thanks again for all this info guys.

true preacher. and mav i would like to point out that in your build you failed to add in the cost of RAM since you didn't include any lol. the build will be a couple hundred more than $1500.

all this vast knowledge i did not know! thanks guys. im pooling all of these ideas and parts and combining the ones i like the most. What advantages does a 64bit Vista have over 32bit Vista besides recognizing all of the RAM? Does it actually run faster or make money grow from trees for me? If i get the 32bit Vista I'll still be ok getting 4-8GB ram because it will still use it, just not recognize all of it?

Also, should i get the cheaper version of Vista for System Builders or should i get retail so that Windows will actually provide me with support for the OS? I'm just worried that if Vista goes haywire, that i would be stuck trying to figure stuff out without Microsoft's assistance.

yeah that's true Tek, but im looking to build so that i don't have to for at least another 5 years, without too much upgrading in between, so when things start using quadcore more, I'll already be set.

I'm a Best Buy fan also, and that dumb chick was well, simply put, a chick, who doesn't know didly squat about computers except what they made her read and learn in their nifty difty 50 page packet of information you need to know to tell customers. I'm not ripping on girls here, as I just noticed this thread was started by Ebildustbunny lol cuz there are some that know a lot about computers, just prolly not your 16 year old girl at BB trying to remember what they told her to say. I never buy computer hardware from best buy because they do have way higher prices than Newegg will ever have. I will maybe buy a mouse or keyboard from them, and things like PS3 games because those are the same price wherever you buy them mostly.

ok so i did decide against the 10000rpm HDD and decided on a seagate 500GB 7200rpm one, but ill look at the WD ones for price/quality comparisons

I also had an Asus P5E3 deluxe mobo i had already chosen for DDR3 memory and I will most likely get an Asus if i go DDR2 also, which brings me back to the biggest decision in this build.

I know DDR2 is way cheaper and so are the mobos for it, and getting 8GB would be sweet cujo, but i also wanted to ask how much memory does windows vista premium recognize? thats the OS im gonna buy and will it recognize 8gb because i know that people say XP only recognizes up to 4gb or something like that.

If I do end up getting DDR2, im getting the fastest speed which is like DDR2 1200 (PC2 9600) speeds.

Cujo, my monitor right now is a Hanns G 19" LCD 1440x900. The video card i was looking at is the EVGA geforce GTX 896mb card. A little cheaper and not as much overkill, still pci-e 2.0

Thanks for the input guys, keep it coming because i could use all the support i can get lol.

What are you talking about? Like i would actually try to rick roll people in this thread of all threads. psh, no lovin

good news, today it dropped to from the $2.56 i mentioned to $2.49

some good stuff threre, and also cheaper in price. i still think i might go with the Q9550 or Q9450 because they come with the 12mb L2 cache over the 6mb cache on the q9400.

im also glad to see the G. skill ram because i have 2GB G. skill right now and it seems to run great at stock speeds.

The case would definitely need a fan in the back, but that's fixable.

Not sure if i need a 1TB harddrive, i dont store movies on here, and as far as music goes, well i fit all of it on this 120GB i have right now. I would cut back on the HDD i think.

Does getting a 10000rpm HDD from western digital make a noticeable difference from a 7200 rpm HDD? Cuz i can go cheaper with a 7200rpm one from seagate or something.

Thanks preacher for all the great stuff, i might just use alot of it in my build when i decide to buy.

So i saw this youtube video of this guy who rick rolled his friend using his

how much do you have to spend on the rig? and in the future the hardware section is set-up for threads like this

lol sorry. but at least in here more people are maybe likely to see it, and as far as price goes, i was estimating around $1500, but that's not really including the little extras, just the computer itself. Im gonna maybe use some things out of this one, like my soundblaster X-fi extreme gamer sound card, and prolly the DVD drive, speakers/headset, maybe monitor also? Reusing what i can ya know

Ok so i know this place is filled to the brim with people who know a lot about computers. I built this one, but it is now 4 years old and well, i want faster now. I've been researching stuff alot, and I just wanted peoples suggestions on good parts for a new build. I'll lay out some basics I've decided I want and you guys can maybe tell me how it things sound or what to change?

Things i wanted or am thinking of getting are:

- Intel quad-core Q9550 12mb cache

-pci-e 2.0 in the mobo

-4-8GB of DDR2 1200 ram OR the new DDR3 ram, this is a big place where im stuck on deciding since its either save money and get old, or spend money but get new.

-a geforce graphics card at least around or above 756mb-1gb (doubt i really need sli)

-maybe an Antec power supply? This truepower series one ive had in here has had no problems so i trust Antec so far.

-possibly a SATA 3.0gb/s 10000rpm Western Digital Raptor HDD, 300GB or whatever i remember it was on newegg. I haven't set up RAID before so im unsure of multiple HDD's.

-Mobo suggestions based on the DDR2 or DDR3 ram?

-I can handle keyboard, monitor, mouse, DVDrom and all the little accessories, so i don't need much help there.

I basically want it to be pretty dang fast. The memory is where im having the hardest time deciding. I wanna build a comp that will be fast for at least another 5 or so years as this one has held out. What do you guys think? Comments are all welcome

$2.56 in Cincinnati, OH. And I have heard rumors from people that yes, it will reach around $2.00 come december, but im not sure if it will go below that, and im sure soon after it will start to rise since it always goes up when it gets toward summertime.

the other day when i was playing in the CS:S Test server, it seemed to register very well. granted the most people we had in there at one time was 12 i think, but it was still running very smoothly, i liked it. i know some others were saying it was crappy for them though, like vovik i think it was. so we will need more peoples input i think.

the wizard looks totally awesome. but of course my favorite class in D2 was the flame sorcerers, totally overpowered but amazingly fun. I'll prolly play as a wizard when it is released.