Hi all,

I am new to the forums and relatively new to custom rig building.  I have done plenty of upgrading and swapping but this will be my first build from scratch.  I am very much a power user - typically when I am at my machine I am hammering the CPU 80-100% a good deal of the time.  I am looking to build a very capable rig without splurging on bleeding-edge or extraneous things.  

Ideally I would like to equip the machine with 4 GB of RAM (though I suppose 2GB will do in a pinch,) and a quad-core processor if I can afford it.  Im also looking for a good quality gaming video card with dual-monitor suport.  I plan to run the system as a 64-bit linux distro (prob Ubuntu) with Win XP by VMware.

My budget is around $1000-1200 for the box, plus another $400 or so for a couple of flat panels and paripherals.

I realize that this is kind of a tough bill to fit but from what Ive seen reading the other posts, you guys are masters at getting bang-for-the-buck.  Any advice / layouts would be greatly appreciated!

-Shadow 

First off let me welcome you to the forum. Now that you have joined I am sure you will grow to love HotHardware as much as the rest of us do. 

Do you already have a case and power supply, or does that need to be factored into your $1000-1200  budget?

Thanks for the welcome :) 

AjayD:

Do you already have a case and power supply, or does that need to be factored into your $1000-1200  budget?

 

 And no, I do not have a case or PSU yet so they would have to fit in the budget as well.

I have a friend who has an LCD readout with CPU and ambient temp and fan speed controls built into his case - I'm not sure if those were aftermarket or part of the case but it was very nice.

I need a decent amount of storage as well, so I am thinking of maybe a pair of 500 Gb drives.

Regarding optical I saw a post on here about a CD RW / DVD RW / Blueray reader drive for ~$169 that would be great.

I hope this is all possible and that I am not just dreaming here...

Thanks in advance for the help guys!

-Shadow 

What size monitor's are you looking to get ?

How much Hard drive space is minimum ?

Do you need a floppy disk drive ?

Any other specific features you need ?

Memory 4GB  http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008035

Case http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10006342

Processor http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80864

Blu-Ray http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007345

Hard drive http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101447

Motherboard http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005475

Video Card http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007595

Power Supply http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=371923

Monitors X2 http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10006079

$1759 Total including shipping

Now I can tweak this number a bit more by cutting corners but Everything I selected I felt confident in the quality of the component. Let me know what you think

 You might want to actually take Flyin Brian's video card suggestion as its a little better "bang for your buck" card but here is what I came up with for you...

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Qty.	Product Description	Savings	Total Price
1	Antec Nine Hundred Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window Item #:N82E16811129021 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Add this item to your cart	-$20.00 Instant	$139.99 $119.99
1	CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W Power Supply Item #:N82E16817139006 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Add this item to your cart	-$5.00 Instant $40.00 Mail-in Rebate	$179.99 $174.99
1	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Processor Item #:N82E16819115043 Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy Add this item to your cart		$299.99
1	ABIT IP35 Pro ATX Intel Motherboard Item #:N82E16813127030 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy Add this item to your cart		$169.99
1	OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Item #:N82E16820227267 Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy Add this item to your cart	-$5.00 Instant $20.00 Mail-in Rebate	$114.99 $109.99
1	SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Item #:N82E16822152052 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy Add this item to your cart	-$5.00 Instant	$109.99 $104.99
1	EVGA GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640-P2-N829-AR Video Card Item #:N82E16814130317 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy Add this item to your cart	$30.00 Mail-in Rebate	$229.99
Grand Total:			$1,209.93

 

Both of those setups look great, thanks guys!
The two 20-inch monitors Flyin Brian posted will work nicely.  As for some of the other items, it looks like I can get a better deal on some of them from Newegg.   That Antec case is sexy :D.

Regarding HD space, 750 Gb should be fine, though I generally feel safer with two smaller drives rather than one monster drive.  I have no need for a floppy drive, but I may want to put in one of those many-in-one memory card readers, and perhaps an extra USB 2.0 hub depending on how many ports the mobo features.  The only other feature that might be nice to have is that CPU temp readout and fan speed controls - anyone know of an aftermarket device like this or a case with one built-in?

I was also wondering about overclocking - anyone know if that is okay to do with a quad core, and if so know a good CPU fan to use?

 Everything's been great so far - I just hope I can get my act together (and my money together) in time to buy this stuff before the deals run out!

 

Thanks agian,

Shadow 

ShadowX:

Both of those setups look great, thanks guys!
The two 20-inch monitors Flyin Brian posted will work nicely.  As for some of the other items, it looks like I can get a better deal on some of them from Newegg.   That Antec case is sexy :D.

Regarding HD space, 750 Gb should be fine, though I generally feel safer with two smaller drives rather than one monster drive.  I have no need for a floppy drive, but I may want to put in one of those many-in-one memory card readers, and perhaps an extra USB 2.0 hub depending on how many ports the mobo features.  The only other feature that might be nice to have is that CPU temp readout and fan speed controls - anyone know of an aftermarket device like this or a case with one built-in?

I was also wondering about overclocking - anyone know if that is okay to do with a quad core, and if so know a good CPU fan to use?

 Everything's been great so far - I just hope I can get my act together (and my money together) in time to buy this stuff before the deals run out!

 

Thanks agian,

Shadow 

http://www.xoxide.com/sunbeam-chormatic-windmill-black.html

http://www.xoxide.com/arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro.html

Dont forget the build i set up includes blu-ray drive as well. Also the drive I selected I believe comes with powerdvd Software to play the movies. I also chose other quality components. I am a big believer in quality components so Everything i add in a build I know is going to be worth the money. I most definately could build it cheaper but I wouldnt reccomend it.

FlyinBrian:

Dont forget the build i set up includes blu-ray drive as well. Also the drive I selected I believe comes with powerdvd Software to play the movies. I also chose other quality components.

 

Are you somehow inferring that my components are not quality? Or.... what is your meaning with the statement I bolded?

Yes I did not add in the BD drive -- tack on another $190 or so with my total 

ShadowX:

I was also wondering about overclocking - anyone know if that is okay to do with a quad core, and if so know a good CPU fan to use?

It is MORE than ok to overclock a quad core -- the one I added to your setup is based on 45nm process so it will run a bit cooler than a Q6xxx series quad core (as they are built around 65nm process). Another cooler in addition to what Flyin' Brian posted is the Zalman CNPS9700 -- its pretty quiet (not quite as quiet as the AC freezer) and definately does a fantastic job. I have its cousin (CNPS9500) and it is a million times better than any stock cooler.....

If you really really want a good overclock you might even consider water-cooling (expensive but very efficiant)

I can help you with the graphics card, as that is what I follow the most in hardware.  No offense to ice, but skip his choice because it is an older version card usually outperformed by first two listed here.  This is a good baseline:

8800GT for $200, $170 w/ mailed rebate

If you're willing to spend a little more for a little more performance:

8800GTS for $230, $200 w/ mailed rebate

If either of those are too much:

9600GT for $150, $110 w/ rebate.  This is the best bang for your buck, although slower than the others.  Be aware it has 1 DVI and 1 HMDI, I don't know if you'd want that.  If that's no good for you, you can go with this or this which both have dual DVI, albeit cost a bit more.  If you trust mail-in-rebates, then the Palit for $110 is a remarkable deal.

The ATi alternatives:

3850 512mb for $150.  Probably on average slightly slower than the 9600GT, though it depends on games.

3870 for $170.  Probably on average the same speed as the 9600GT, some games faster, some slower.

...

Right, that's a lot of links, sorry.  With your budget, you can probably afford to spend $30 more and get the 8800GTS.  Only go lower if you want to save some money (or save AMD/ATi).

Crisis Causer:

No offense to ice, but skip his choice because it is an older version card usually outperformed by first two listed here.

 

None taken, I actually was thinking the same but I couldn't find any 8800GT's on the egg..... 

 Thanks again guys for all the great advice.

Sorry I havent posted in a while - Ive been out of town.

Im really excited about this setup - now I just need to get the cash together lol.

My budget I posted was kind of a projected budget for the summer, so it might be a few weeks before I can start all this.

Anyway, thanks all! 

good luck, make sure you come back with the pic when u start up! xD

Alright, so after working all summer I finally have my savings together and I am ready to buy.   I realize however that it is now several months later and there may be some better deals on the market.  I wonder if I could bother you guys one more time to check if there are any better deals or upgrades I should know about this time around?

All of the adivce last time was excellent, unfortunately my eyes were a bit bigger than my wallet at the time ;).  I havent been able to keep up on the lastest new hardware or newegg deals and to be honest I am a little clueless as far as chipsets and detailed performance specs.  You guys are the experts, so if I could tap your expertise one more time that would be great.

Thanks again!

-Shadow.

PS. Almost forgot - I looked into the quad core situation and it looks like I may need to be using a 64-bit OS to make full use of them.  I'd like to run something like 64-bit Ubuntu as a base OS with windows through VMWare, Virtualbox or the like.  Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

You don't need to run 64bit. It doesn't hurt anything though. I run windows vista within ubuntu using vmware server and vise versa. It's a shame I have two installs of each OS. I have not tried virtualbox. Whats your budget. The same as before?

bob_on_the_cob:

Whats your budget. The same as before?

Yes, same as before: ~$1200 for the computer itself (incl. PSU & DVDRW/BR if I can manage) plus another ~$400 for displays.

Do you want to play games or just need a card with dual mon support? I will config you a system on newegg and then we can start from there. But if you just need a good dual mon card not for games then the new 9500 from nvidia would be great. 

Personel preference i know but i would probably shift the parts a little . Go with the Q6600 save a $100 bucks and put it on the 3870 instaed of the 9500

Fold On!!!!