Its been awhile since I've upgraded my comp, but its about time I think.

Anyway I got a quote from MSY and here it is:

CPU/Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) LGA775 (SLACR) $253 (instock)
MotherBoard Intel S775 ASUS P5K SE $110 (instock)
Desktop DDR2 Ram 4GB Kit (2x 2048MB) PC6400 800MHz Generic $79 (gingle brand) (instock)
3.5" HDD SATA-300 160GB 8MB Seagate $62 (instock)
Video Card PCI-e (nV) 9600GT 512MB Sparkle (Not available)
*We do have 9600GT 512MB in ECS brand for $182 ( 1 left)

ATX CASE CoolerMaster Elite 333 with 420w Black
*we only carry Coolermaster Elite case with 350Watt PSU (they are $69 -instock )
Unless you wanna go for Coolermaster Centurion 05 with 430Watt psu for $ 108 (instock)

WideScreen LCD Monitor 20" Samsung 206BW (2ms/800:1/DVI) Black (we don't carry this model)
*We do have Samsung 22" 2253BW 2ms WS for $ 299

5.25" DVD Buner/Rw IDE Samsung SH-S202H 20x Dual Layer (OEM with Nero 7) Black(we don't carry Samsung burner)
*We do have ASUS SATA burner 20x Dual layer + lightscribe (comes/ oem nero 7) for $35

Assembly and testing $70


The stared parts is what they recommended because they didn't have what I initially stated. My budget was orignally $1000, but I guess with a 22" I'm willing to go to $1160, which is what the grand total is. Should I spend a bit more and get the Coolermaster Centurion (430w psu) over the Coolermaster Elite (350w psu). Any other comments?

Any input appreciated!

looks good to me
also
spend $50 on a much bigger hdd.

Three suggestions:

1. Forget a 20" LCD, as the 22" is the sweet spot at the moment.
2. Forget the 350W PSU. You'll probably need much higher than that (I'd probably go higher than 430W too).
3. You can get a 500GB WD drive from $110 for MSY. Much better value for money and better for the long-term.

If you're a bit iffy on the drive, you can scale back. An extra $10 on top of what you quoted will get you a 250GB drive (ie. $72). Another $10 and you're on 320GB ... it's seriously loose change for huge capacity gains.

last edited by parabol at 21:38:08 21/Apr/08

OS?
assemble yourself?

get a bigger hdd, they are cheap
get the cent5 case they are great
assemble it yourself save $70
use this towards the 22" much better option.

Definitely go a monitor 22" or bigger

22" monitor and E8200 instead of Q6600 (or E8400 if you can stretch the budget).

q6600 is 249 now from umart and computer alliance

Get a 320GB Seagate .11, they're f***ing way faster

2. Forget the 350W PSU. You'll probably need much higher than that (I'd probably go higher than 430W too).

Agreed, I have very similar specs bought a 550w to replace the 430w PSU that came with my case. 430w will probably handle it ok but having the extra power means you can add more HDDs or peripherals down the track without worrying.

Thanks for the input guys.

One question though. XP or Vista64? I'm getting a lot of mixed recommendations. Some say go xp because there's no real benefit to going vista64 right now and some others say that I should since xp doesn't make use of the 4gig of ram or something like that.

What do you guys think?

XP esp with SP3 coming out soon.

Get Vista. No point in installing XP unless you have a really specific needs for it i.e. old apps, old games etc. Not Vista 64 but Vista 32 bit.

If you don't want to move to vista but still want 64 bit, you could just go with XP 64. As long as you can find drivers for all your stuff anyways.

So I got the comp~ working great. Thanks for suggesting the centurion case, it's really nice.

Question though, I installed xp and everything is fine and dandy, but it only supports 3.25gb of ram (obvious reasons). It's been suggested a way to get around this is if you use /pae at the end of the boot.ini file. (Don't think I actually have any idea what I'm talking about, I've only been reading up on it now). But I've read reports that I shouldn't use /pae for anything other than running like a Microsoft exchange.

Anyone know much about physical address extension and would like to tell me what to do?!

not that I'm ever doing anything that uses 4gb of ram but it would be nice for it to be there!

ps: dont want to install vista! (or xp64) finally set it up the way I like it and damned if I'm setting it up again before it blows up in my face~!

a 32 bit OS can only really support 3 - 3.5 gig of RAM depending on the motherboard.

The PAE thing is a hack, it sort of utilises the extra RAM... I could never get it to work properly when I ran xp 32bit.

The only way to properly support 4gig + ram capacity is to run a 64bit OS.


I run vista64 and have setup 2 of my mates running it as well, no problems at all for any of us. You'll be right unless you use some old school obscure piece of software or have a printer from the early 90's... if so throw it out and buy a new one for $50 (they are almost disposable these days).

last edited by rubba-chikin at 11:17:39 27/Apr/08

whats with all the vista hating ? it works fine, all you soft cocks need to get over your XP gayness. who cares if you can't run dune 2 in vista, build a bridge.