PC for friend.

[Frew]

My friend asked me to help choose the parts, so I thought I would ask you guys. He says he wants it for games and such. He has about a $1600 budget and would prefer to get it from newegg.com. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[nick1985]

monitor?

keyboard?

mouse?

speakers?

 

[Frew]

I have all that I can give him.

 

[pirred908]

Feel like overclocking?

 

[Frew]

I don't know if the guy would let me. Personally I don't overclock until I need too.

 

[nick1985]

Case $99

DVD/RW $66

Hard drive $93.49

Motherboard $121

CPU $369

Floppy $9.99

Video Card $389

Soundcard $72.49

RAM *2 $158

TOTAL: $1367.98

 

[Frew]

I like the 3500+ idea. If you had to, where would you put the extra $200?

Also the hard drive link doesn't work.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: LeadFrog
I like the 3500+ idea. If you had to, where would you put the extra $200?

Also the hard drive link doesn't work.

hard drive link fixed, sorry 'bout that

if i had to throw 200 somewhere, i would get a raptor and use it for game and OS installations. then use the 160 gig for storage.

Raptor $161 (after mail in rebate)

 

[Frew]

Thanks. I am going with 3500+ and a lot of the stuff you choose. Although I will let him pick the Case/PS.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: LeadFrog
Thanks. I am going with 3500+ and a lot of the stuff you choose. Although I will let him pick the Case/PS.

whatever you do, just make sure you get a quality branded power supply. antec, enermax, PC power & cooling, fortron, and sparkle are some quality names to look for.

 

[CaptnKirk]

nick has some pretty good choices there, just want to point out -

1) That case he refered to has a 380W Antec Truepower, hard to beat that powersupply.
2) The Abit Motherboard has on-board sound that is nearly as good as the Creative Labs card.
3) I'm not a fan of the IBM (Hitachi) Deathstar dard drive, it has a suspect history.
The change ot Western Digital is a good one.
4) I will not reccomend anything PNY to anybody, seen too much that runs poorly or not at all.
Crucial offers a version of the ATI line, with superior memory.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
k has some pretty good choices there, just want to point out -

1) That case he refered to has a 380W Antec Truepower, hard to beat that powersupply.
2) The Abit Motherboard has on-board sound that is nearly as good as the Creative Labs card.
3) I'm not a fan of the IBM (Hitachi) Deathstar dard drive, it has a suspect history.
The change ot Western Digital is a good one.
4) I will not reccomend anything PNY to anybody, seen too much that runs poorly or not at all.
Crucial offers a version of the ATI line, with superior memory.

read the reviews of the hitachi drive at newegg. 5 stars. read reviews anywhere, it is an awesome drive, nothing like they used to be. if he does not like the PNY card, he could just go for the EVGA, both good choices IMO.

 

[CaptnKirk]

They can have all the 'Reviews' on NewEgg that they want.
Doesn't change the fact that they have a tainted history.

Deskstar, History of Failures

IBM sold DeskStar to Hitachi to limit their Liability

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
They can have all the 'Reviews' on NewEgg that they want.
Doesn't change the fact that they have a tainted history.

Deskstar, History of Failures

IBM sold DeskStar to Hitachi to limit their Liability

THEY DONT MAKE SH!TTY HARD DRIVES ANYMORE. ANYONE WILL TELL YOU THIS.

and im not just talking about newegg reviews, im talking about real hardware review websites, it is a GOOD HARD DRIVE.

 

[sharq]

IBM has a problem with certain models of their drives for a while, but it wasn't the case all through out. People still bought IBM drives and were happy with them. Hitachi is good in their drives.

 

[Frew]

If I got two sticks of that Mushkin ram you recommended would I be able to put them in Dual Channal or would I have to get one of those Dual Channal memory kits?

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: LeadFrog
If I got two sticks of that Mushkin ram you recommended would I be able to put them in Dual Channal or would I have to get one of those Dual Channal memory kits?

the would run dual channel.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

I agree with most of nicks suggestions (especially the three key ones - CPU, MB, Video Card).

For the HDD I would go with the WD Raptor mentioned above.

For the case, I am currently in favor of this one:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-170-015&depa=1

Since it doesn't come with a power supply, I would get this one:
http://www.svc.com/se40sutoacpf.html

 

[CaptnKirk]

Nick - I'm replacing one for a friend of mine now.
With a Western Digital.
It's in a Dell.
It's dead, Jim.

 

[thegimp03]

Are you kidding? Don't go waste your money on a Crucial Radeon 9800 pro. If you want a 9800 pro then you can easily find one for ~$100 less.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Nick - I'm replacing one for a friend on mine now.
With a Western Digital.
It's in a Dell.
It's dead, Jim.

i bet its the same one too. :roll:

 

[CaptnKirk]

Remove Hatachi Deskstar.
Look at melted solder joints on circuit card assy.
look at melted plastic adjacent to pin guides to IDE ribbon cable.
Diagnostics - internal short.
Order 120GB WD w/ 8MB cache from NewEgg.
Scheduled aarrival Tuesday.