Hi!
So I'm planning on building a new desktop. This would be a first for me, I've always purchased full PC setups before. With that as the case, I'm pretty clueless about a few things. I've done a lot of research, and now I'm looking for recommendations. I'm looking at a budget of $1500 including shipping for pretty much a gaming machine. Here's more details on what I'm looking for...

-CPU: High end 64 bit dual core
(Current top choice: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400)
-Graphics Card: Most important piece. I originally thought high end GeForce 8000 or 9000 series, and then I learned about the Radeon 4800 series, which sounds more appealing. Must have at least DX10 support, DVI, and s-video, although I imagine most (if not all) cards in that range meet those needs.
(Current top choice: VisionTek Radeon HD 4870)
-Hard Drive: I already have a 750 GB SATA drive waiting to be used, so not part of the budget.
-Ram: At least 2 gigs, 4 if the budget allows for it. If not, I'll upgrade it later.
(Looking at the price of ram, I'll almost definately get 4 gigs)
-Disk Drive: DVD burner, preferably with dual layer support, 2 burners if the budget allows for it.
(Current top choice: Samsung SH-S223Q/BEBN x2)
-OS: Vista Ultimate 64 bit, which I can get through work, so not part of the budget.
-Motherboard: This is the part I'm the most clueless about. Should be able to support everything I have listed, 4 ram slots, at least 6 USB ports, standard onboard stuff (sound, ethernet, etc). If I go with the Radeon graphics card, I'd like to have CrossFire support.
-Case: Probably the part I'm most undecided about. Preferably black with as few lights as possible, fairly quiet, at least 2 front USB ports, card reader would be nice.
-Anything else I'm missing that I'll need (fans, power supply, etc)

I've been asking people to pick out the whole thing for me, but thinking about it, I'm pretty much set with the top half of that list. Its the Motherboard, Case, and Other categories that I'm still not really sure about. So, any recommendations for those? Thanks!

(And if anyone wants to throw together a whole machine for me, I certainly wouldn't object )



I've been watching this guy bounce the whole damn time I wrote this, I feel obligated to use him...

I noticed nobody's helped you yet, so, to bump it back to the top, I'll suggest these:

motherboard: P45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813135093,

Case: Antec 900 [even though it has lights]

Power Supply: Corsair 550W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139004

everything else should be fine. the power supply may be a bit under wattage, but i'm sure someone else could help you out if it is? :]

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371009

MOBO
-Go Intel, NVidia chipset MOBO's buggy (hearing but no personal experience)
-P45 Intel chipset if not Crossfiring
-X48 if Crossfiring

I went with the following and quite happy....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131317

GPU
-go 4870, if got the cash 4870x2

MEMORY
-2 x 2 gig (2 gig is not gonna cut it with Vista)
-DDR2 800 from Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin, OCZ
-I like Corsair
-I have and works great with above MOBO.....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] _-20145194

Case...personal choice. I like have Cosmos S for rugrats build (nice) Went Lian Li A7110 build for me . Antec 1200 is upgraded version of 900.

CPU....solid choice

GL

It seems to me from your original post that you could build what you need for about $900.

Are you trying to get the best possible system at the $1,500 price point or are you trying to build a decent machine at the best possible price?

Hi thalandor

- Try an Asus P5Q Pro ($140) for the motherboard, very well used and regarded on the forums. It will give crossfire support, you will loose about 5% on an X48 board at very high resolutions. But you will also save ~$80 over X48.

- You might find an E8500 for on $20 extra.

- If you are gaming up to 24" you will need a 4870. Less than 22" a 4850 and more than 24" a 4780X2.

- 2x2Gb of DDR2-800 RAM is optimum for Vista at the moment. Shop around through Mushkin, Corsair, OCZ, Geil see what is on offer.

- Antec PSU or Corsair 750TX are fine for anything up to 2x4870.

Jeremy

Here is some help with the PSU. You will want to keep in mind the fact that the 2x Cards/Crossfire you are considering will require additional PSU connections if you will be using the 4870 Cards. Also, the power consumption for the cards in Crossfire will use around 175Watts at idle and around 385 Watts under full load. These card run hot and are very power hungry... be sure to have adequate case cooling. Here is an additional chart to help guide you with the remaining configuration:
Component Requirement
AGP Video Card 30W - 50W
PCI Express Video 100W - 250W
Average PCI Card 5W - 10W
DVD/CD 20W - 30W
Hard Drive 15W - 30W
Case/CPU Fans 3W (ea.)
Motherboard (w/o CPU or RAM) 50W - 150W
RAM 15W per 1GB

Processor 80W - 140W

For overall power supply wattage, add the requirement for each device in your system, then multiply by 1.5. (The multiplier takes into account that today's systems draw disproportionally on the +12V output. Furthermore, power supplies are more efficient and reliable when loaded to 30% - 70% of maximum capacity.)
Don't forget to add for any USB 2.0 powered devices such as controllers, headsets, USB drives, ect...

In addition to your build, I would consider the Q6600 Intel processor now at $189.99 from Amazon, see the add above this post. And finally, view this video on the latest comments regarding the Graphics Cards in review (this will be a big help).
http://zdpub.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ziffdavisplayer/flvplayer2.html?show=DLTV&movie=episode239

Please submit the specs for your OS if you haven't yet done so, and don't base your MoBo purchase on the DDR3 memory, as it does not have any real advantages at this time!

You will have trouble registering the Vista from work if it does not have a valid "UNUSED" license! My thoughts are to avoid the 64 bit version and use the 32 bit.

You will need the 64bit edition of Vista to utilise more than 3.5Gb of RAM. There are other advantages which have slipped my mind at the moment. There are now few problems with drivers in 64bit seems a shame to have to pay $100 for a 32bit then find that you want the advantages from 64bit and shell out another $100.

I was wondering if you had any specific applications that would require you to have to run a 64 bit software over the 32 bit processing? Here are some of the applications that would benefit form the upgrade.
The following types of applications could see performance benefits on Windows Vista x64 Edition, provided that both 64-bit application software and drivers are available:

Applications for creating digital content in computer-aided design and digital video editing.
Applications that require mathematical precision and floating-point performance.
Applications that involve large, high-performance databases.
Vision acquisition and analysis applications with large amounts of data moving directly into memory at rapid rates.

If your application does not fall into one of these categories, you should carefully consider the necessity of using Windows Vista x64 Edition. Not every application stands to benefit from the x64 architecture, and it will take time for Windows Vista x64 Edition to gain widespread adoption.

Windows Vista x64 Edition represents the first mainstream 64-bit operating system from Microsoft in terms of general availability and support from third-party add-on vendors. Because of this, moving from a 32-bit operating system such as Windows XP to a 64-bit operating system such as Windows Vista x64 Edition merits serious consideration in many cases.

However, the feasibility of successfully making the jump to Windows Vista x64 Edition depends largely on your application and its requirements. For some, Windows Vista x64 Edition offers much needed performance improvement, while for others, it could needlessly complicate applications designed to operate on x86 platforms or even have a negative effect on performance.
If you are basing your performance applications on the fact that more than 4 GB of ram is necessary with vista 32, you are mis-lead due to the fact Vista 32 will not utilize more than 2 GB for any single application process.

In a Nutshell, only applications written to take advantage of 64 bit technology will benefit from this OS. I believe that the general usage of your PC will have little advantage due to the sparse application available.