PLAN COMPLETE ... EXPERTISE NEEDED

[cuthulas]

Hey guys,

I've been reading these forums for some time and am finally putting some of my research to use. I'm building two computers, one for myself and one for my wife. (We bought two back in the day when I used to be a regular EQ addict and she couldn't pry me away from the PC)

Anyhow, my current PC's are ancient and now is the time I am putting my research to work and buying the parts to commence building.

WHAT ADVICE I WANT:
-Where can I save money without losing performance?
-Where can I increase performance without increasing money?
-What components am I getting that you think I will dislike/hate/abhor/have problems with?

GOALS/RESTRICTIONS:
- I am an Intel ONLY guy. Wife works there ... so in some VERY small way it comes back to me.
- The PC's will PRIMARILY be used for gaming.
- The PC's will also be used as a small TV in my office while I'm gaming on the other. I specifically want the ATI 9700 pro AIW to double up as a TV tuner, video input so I have the option to watch TV on one PC and game on the other.
- I want the PC?s to be fairly quiet!
- YES, I am going to OVERCLOCK!
- The rigs aren't exactly identical, but to make this easier I will only post information about the main rig I plan on building. The differences between the main and the secondarly are few: SATA drives in RAID 0 on main with a 120G WD 8mb HD for media, just a 120G WD 8mb HD on the other.

ALREADY PURCHASED:
- NEC/Mitsubishi DP2070SB-BK 22 Inch - $536 shipped
- WD 120G SE HD w/8MB cache - $88 after rebates
- Lite-On 52/24/52 CDRW - $15 after rebate

THE PLAN SO FAR:
- ANTEC Performance PLUS Model PLUS1080AMG- with Antec Original TRUE 430W - $120
- Microsoft Windows XP Pro Upgrade Version Academic - $82
- ASUS P4P800 DELUXE Retail - $144.80
- Intel Pentium 4, 2.6c - $229
- KINGSTON HyperX 512MB DDR434 PC3500 - $122 (Will buy 2 and put in 1G total)
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum - $163
- Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB SATA WD360GD 10,000 RPM 8MB HD - $149 (Will buy 2 and put in RAID 0)
- PANASONIC 1.44 MB DENSITY FLOPPY DISK DRIVE - $7
- LITE-ON XJ-HD166S 16X DVD ROM Drive - $33
- ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO 128MB AGP - $345
- Logitech Cordless MX Duo - $85
- Logitech's THX certified Z560 4.1 - $140

THE PLAN ON QUIET COOLING
- Zalman CNPS7000-Cu Pure Copper CPU Cooler - $42
- Zalman ZM-MFC1 6-Channel Fan Controller Panel - $28
- Zalman ZM-F1 80mm Fan with Quiet Mode Adapter - $5 each (5 for the case)

As you can see ... I think I've done my research considering I've never built from scratch before and I'm trying to save as much money as I can at the high end without sacrificing much performance.

I most definately want to keep my PC's QUIET without watercooling. The only thing I think I have not listed was thermal grease and cables. Those will be easy to acquire.

Please, any and all of your opinions are welcome as my goal is to cut the cost of this down without affecting performance. I fear that I need to cut some good performance to cut the price as much as I would like ? any deals on anything I missed? Those are the lowest prices I could find out there.

Cuthulas
Cuthulas@hotmail.com

 

[Corporate Thug]

looks like a sweet setup but i think the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum for $163 is not worth it at all. this is where you can save money and get a turtle beach santa cruz or maybe even an audigy II

 

[cuthulas]

Oh ... and am I going to need to buy 2 copies of XP pro or am I able/allowed to use one copy on two PC's? A friend of mine was saying that he uses Windows 2000 because it doesn't have the pain of having to call MS every time you change hardware to get a validation code or some such thing...

 

[jspeicher]

INTEL and OVERCLOCK are words that usually don't dance together...

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Where can I save money without losing performance?

Get an AMD based system.

Where can I increase performance without increasing money?

See last question.

What components am I getting that you think I will dislike/hate/abhor/have problems with?

Any Intel product.

Heh. I know you're going with Intel. That's fine. Intel makes some fine chips. Expect to see something like that though. Regardless of what you put in your restrictions someone here is going to come on and start telling you to buy AMD. 100% money back Guarantee.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: jspeicher
INTEL and OVERCLOCK are words that usually don't dance together...

Where have you been ? I am an AMD guy, but even I know that most Intel CPU's overclock pretty well. The 800 fsb ones don't as much, since they are already pushing the memory limits (currently) pretty hard at 200x4

 

[cuthulas]

I <3 Intel ... thanks for the INEVITABLE AMD jab though!

No AMD for me ... my wife says AMD is the devil.

I think I may ditch the Audigy 2 platinum ... will save me $100 when building 2 systems. Any other deals or opinions on reducing cost on this rig without sacrificing its ability to PWN?

 

[Hanzou]

INTEL and OVERCLOCK are words that usually don't dance together...

I guess getting a 2.6 GHZ or even a 2.4 overclocked up to 3.4GHZ quite easily isnt that good eh? Once the Ram speeds increase the CPU overclocks will get even greater.

 

[rb56]

Originally posted by: cuthulas
Oh ... and am I going to need to buy 2 copies of XP pro or am I able/allowed to use one copy on two PC's? A friend of mine was saying that he uses Windows 2000 because it doesn't have the pain of having to call MS every time you change hardware to get a validation code or some such thing...

One copy one PC with XP. You can change hardware several times with XP before you have to start calling MS, it's not a big deal though. With the hardware that you are buying you can get XP Pro for $143 if you don't qualify for the Academic Version. Windows 2000 will run about the same. I personally like XP.

What will you be using for the second system's VC? You are putting together a couple of sweet systems.

rb56