Birthday Present For My Little Brother
 

Hey Guys,

Once Again i call for your help.
My little brother has been saving up all his (pocket/birthday)money in order to buy his own privat "1337 Gaming Machine".

I did the same thing 4 years ago, and i'm still very happy about my custom-made-build-by-myself-troetel-pc.

Our mum agrees to all this computer-extravaganza, IF we promise to build pc's that are decent, and not crazy overpriced (no 600€ graphic-cards and such) and guaranteed to last more then 5-6 years with not too much upgrading going on (one upgrade in 1-2 years seems to be my average).

The first two years, the computers IS a 1337 gaming machine, after that, we just don't play the latest (and still having the same gameplay) shooters here anymore, start using the pc for some "serious work", or we take a look at the soon to arrive nintendo revolution/Wii(!), we are spoiled kids...
(The litttle guy is more of a RPG-adept, he is now hogging MY "1337 Gaming Machine" to harvest levels in Guild Wars.)

So, i'm trying to build a decent pc, not an all out crazed gaming machine/overclocking beast.

Keywords are "fast, silent, decent, guaranteed to last, and vista-capable maybe?"

Here is where you guys come in, and to be more specific, your knowledge of the hardware world.
My question to you guys is: is this the best, and "most effective" buy for the purpose i described here.

example: 3dcard maximum price: 200€
is the one i selected a good one (pro's in my eyes: completely silent, lots of ram) or is there a better choice for the money
and so on and so on...

I'm planning to buy all my hardware at forcom, Belgium, and assemble it at home, that is the fun part, hehe....

So, take a look at the list below, and tell me, what do you think?
Target Price for the entire pc: 1500€
But, i would like to be able to tell to my mom: hey mom, waddaya know, it's only 1200€, computerworld has evolved since your biggest boy bought his first pc...

Anyway, 1500€ to build my brother a luxurious custom-build that gives him "3xtr3m3 P\/\/n493!" over the other kids in school, after all, isn't that's what all us computer nerds (read: 1337 h4x0r5 baby!) want?

Thanks in advance, fellow Shrimpers!


MOTHERBOARD
Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe € 199.95

GRAPHICS
Asus EN7600GS Silent 512MB Tv/DVI-I/HDTV € 149.94
(Maybe The 7600GT?- DDR3 / 265MB)

PROCESSOR
Intel Pentium Dual 930 (3.0GHz) 800MHz 4Mb Boxed (Sckt775) € 189

HARD DRIVES
Maxtor 300GB Sata II 16MB 7200rpm € 99.95
Maxtor 300GB Sata II 16MB 7200rpm € 99.95

RAM
Corsair DDR2 1024MB 667MHz € 94.95
Corsair DDR2 1024MB 667MHz € 94.95

CASE
Not Found Yet => Decent Chieftec Would Be Nice € 150
(Not the one at Forcom)
(BLACK!)

MONITOR
LG L1718S-SN 8ms (700:1,300cd/m) € 199.96

SOUND
Itegrated € 0

KEYS & MOUSE
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110 Black € 32.79

DISC DRIVES
NEC 16X DVD -/+rw Dual Layer ND4570 Black € 37.95

OS
MS Windows XP Home OEM NL/FR € 95

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAND TOTAL +/- € 1450

Wait until September , there are price wars afoot, both Intel and AMD will slash their prices in the coming months up to 30-40%, so buying now is not advised.. strongly discouraged in fact.

then in September, don't buy Pentium D, it's old skool, and it was a bad school.if there are enough available, you should be able to pick up a Intel Core 2 Duo system for €1000 and have a killer system.

there are however components you can already ponder about, let's discuss these/.


Motherboard; in september go for Intel 965 chipset mobo, it should be more reasonable priced, lower than €200, €200 is too much for sure.

Videocard: for any gaming rig, this should be the highest priority, what you save from getting a slightly cheaper mobo and CPU you will recover massively in GPU power; go for nvidia 7900GT, they can be had for €270 something, another alternative is X1900GT from ATI, if the price is right, the nvidia has the edge in power usage, temps and noise, performance is equally good for both. So in the end, I would give the nod to 7900GT.

Hard Drives: would suggest one Raptor HDD for system/game files, the 74Gb version is still plenty fast and not that expensive,then one larger storage drive, WD or Samsung.

Ram; PC6400 or higher DDR2, but Core 2 Duo should be happy with PC6400 and higher rated memory doesn't translate in noticable preformance increase.

Case: you can get a good case for €100, set your target there, €150 is too much in my humble opinion, get one with good aircooling and room for a large PSU

Power Supply: most important part, and you left it out!:) get one rated around 500W with possible single 12V rail at 35A+

Very good tip is to wait for the price war between AMD/Intel. September would be maybe to long to wait, but if u do wait that long, maybe nVidia has allready brought out there new VGA chipset (althought I really don't think it will be that soon).
If u need to buy it quick, I would go with a low end conroe and overclock it (will hit 3GHz I assume), they will hit stores anytime soon.

while Core 2 will be announced soon, it won't be available in larger mass until September and later this year

Are you guys sure that the waiting will be worth it?

Is the Intel D (9xx) series really that bad?
I read a bit into it, and found out that the 8xx was rushed, and not a very good processor.

The motherboard is expensive because its an asus: expensive, but loaded with every feature and port you will ever use (and i used every feature on my asus mobo, before it blew, so i consider the price right.)

So, I'm sure this setup will perform better then my old PIV, but if you guys tell me it will REALLY pay to wait, i'll wait...

edit:
i've just read that the "budget version" of the core 2 duo won't be out until 2007. will i be able to buy a decent core 2duo for the price of an pentium D 930?

Wait ... for ... conroe.... (Or for the madshrimps conroe article tomorrow :))


Conroe makes trash out over Pentium D 955 Xe (and surely out of 920).

If you cant wait, go AM2.

Edit, budget versions will be released at the same time.

yeah, i'll read that tomorrow.
is AM2 a good option, if time is in short supply?

only 200%

wait wait wait, AMD will slash prices. so wait.

It's the best option at the moment. But once again, large price drops up to 40-50 % are announced in a very short time (at the release of conroe)

Patience everyone