Le_Murphant Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 Hi, I'm gonna order a new "custom" computer, and I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to parts other than graphic cards and cpus. I'm wondering if you could give me some feedback on what is good and what you suggest I change for the price. Here are the specs: CPU Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6400 2.13GHz FSB 1066, 2MB CPU Memory 2048MB DDR II 667 Memory 240 Pin (Major Brand) (1024 x 2) (special) Mother Board ASUS P5LD2 R2.0 Mother Board Hard Drive 1 Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA II Hard Drive 2 Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA II Optical Drive 1 LG 16X DVD RW +- Dual Layer Video ASUS EN7300 GS GeForce PCI E, 256MB Turbo Cache DDR, DVI Audio Onboard Audio Network Card Onboard Network Card Case Lian-Li PC61 ATX Silver Aluminum Mid. Tower (black) Power Supply 430 Watt Thermaltake Power Supply With Dual Fan W0070 Warranty 1 Years Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty (Canadian Dollars) Priced At: $1,071 + approx 140$ shipping and tax that makes about total $1000 US I can change most parts, but the present configuration is a set, so its cheaper that way. Any suggestions? Thx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 That looks pretty nice for the price to me. If I was looking. And welcome to the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlewis23 Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 welcome to the forum. thats a nice setup, i would stay away from the Thermaltake power supply and go with a antec. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disturbed Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 i 2nd the power supply......i would not trust my computers life on that one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ispgeek Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 Hi, I'm gonna order a new "custom" computer, and I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to parts other than graphic cards and cpus. I'm wondering if you could give me some feedback on what is good and what you suggest I change for the price. Here are the specs: CPU Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6400 2.13GHz FSB 1066, 2MB CPU Memory 2048MB DDR II 667 Memory 240 Pin (Major Brand) (1024 x 2) (special) Mother Board ASUS P5LD2 R2.0 Mother Board Hard Drive 1 Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA II Hard Drive 2 Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA II Optical Drive 1 LG 16X DVD RW +- Dual Layer Video ASUS EN7300 GS GeForce PCI E, 256MB Turbo Cache DDR, DVI Audio Onboard Audio Network Card Onboard Network Card Case Lian-Li PC61 ATX Silver Aluminum Mid. Tower (black) Power Supply 430 Watt Thermaltake Power Supply With Dual Fan W0070 Warranty 1 Years Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty (Canadian Dollars) Priced At: $1,071 + approx 140$ shipping and tax that makes about total $1000 US I can change most parts, but the present configuration is a set, so its cheaper that way. Any suggestions? Thx I have no problems with anything BUT the western digital hard drives. Go with the seagate equiv, pay a couple of extra bux and get that 5 year warranty. You will not regret the decision...trust me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballista Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 I would if at all possible go with a higher grade of motherboard. I know that with asus if you go with a lower tier board the updates in bios are far less frequent then a higher tier board and sometimes you get problems from bios and if there are no updates then you would just have to deal. I will suggest the ASUS P5W DH or one of the p5b boards with the 965 chipset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kamil234 Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 i'd drop 1 harddrive and go with a faster GPU (if you do games) or a bit faster CPU (always nice thing..) 250gb is enough, for me anyways.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ispgeek Posted November 6, 2006 CID Share Posted November 6, 2006 i'd drop 1 harddrive and go with a faster GPU (if you do games) or a bit faster CPU (always nice thing..) 250GB is enough, for me anyways.. One can never have enough hd space....remember...as your drive fills up...your access to the information degrades...so its always best to keep your drive half full or less.... I have managed to fill 1 Terrabyte of space so far...so 500gb is a great place to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cak46 Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 I agree with ISPGeek on going with Seagate drives. Haven't had one die on me yet, which is more than can be said for WD drives in my workplace machines. If you can get a faster speed on the memory with little or no cost, I'd suggest doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlewis23 Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 I have no problems with anything BUT the western digital hard drives. Go with the seagate equiv, pay a couple of extra bux and get that 5 year warranty. You will not regret the decision...trust me! i agree with you go with the Seagate drive, personally like maxtor, but hey its Seagate now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ispgeek Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 i agree with you go with the Seagate drive, personally like maxtor, but hey its Seagate now. The Seagate branded drives for the most part come with 5 year warranties whereas the Maxtor do not (go figure)....I have had wayyy too many Maxtor and WD drives die right at about the warranty time expires....whereas I still have an old Seagate ST225 thats just a purrin away with a specific task I gave it a long time ago....yes...I still have one.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlewis23 Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 The Seagate branded drives for the most part come with 5 year warranties whereas the Maxtor do not (go figure)....I have had wayyy too many Maxtor and WD drives die right at about the warranty time expires....whereas I still have an old Seagate ST225 thats just a purrin away with a specific task I gave it a long time ago....yes...I still have one.... hmm ive had the opposite, ive had seagate drives die, but never a maxtor. I have maxtor drive that are 10 years old and still work great. Tho any of the new Seagate drives i have are great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FallowEarth Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 Save your money, get a 386 with onboard video. You'll only need about 16 MB RAM. No need for an OS, MS-DOS is L33T 4ND R0X0RZ da PL4N3T!!1111!!@ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlewis23 Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 Save your money, get a 386 with onboard video. oh that will be great for vista. :haha: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ispgeek Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 Save your money, get a 386 with onboard video. You'll only need about 16 MB RAM. No need for an OS, MS-DOS is L33T 4ND R0X0RZ da PL4N3T!!1111!!@ Oh mY gOd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlewis23 Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 Save your money, get a 386 with onboard video. You'll only need about 16 MB RAM. No need for an OS, MS-DOS is L33T 4ND R0X0RZ da PL4N3T!!1111!!@ thats a HOT system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 So being a @ building one of these, I would say you fella's did not like his choice? It appears a lot better than my store bought job. Which has been servicing quite well for some time. Now I'll also bet you just sent his price right through the roof. What exactly were you going to do with this here computer Le_Murphant :So we can help you better. Game, surfing, pic.'s, office, or etc... ?? Also have you got a budget in mind $$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le_Murphant Posted November 7, 2006 Author CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 This is actually a Christmas present for my family, so there won't be too much gaming going on, but the computer will be used virtually 24/7. I'l be moving out soon so I want them to have a reliable system so I'm not always called in. Also, before I leave, I'l be glad to use it to game and photoshop a bit, but nothing too high end. Overall, photoshop and a bit of autocad are gonna be the most demanding apps. Also, there will be quite a bit of scanning and printing pictures (which our current comp handles horribly, with 80% memory used all the time.) For the hardware changes, I think I'l go for your suggestions for the drives and the power supply. For the memory speed tho, I don't think I can do anything there. I was also wondering If you guys thought it was possible to turn one of the hard drives off when not in use to save power and reduce noise. Oh and btw, I havent checked yet but i think your recommendations wont put the price more than 50$ higher. I didn't really have a budget (I have way too much money) but I wanted core 2 duo because of the long term usage and because the computer is virtually always in use or on standby, so i want to save the power and the noise. I also tried to buy on e-bay but all the cases are way to funky to be in my home. Oh and thx for the feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le_Murphant Posted November 7, 2006 Author CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 Ok, here would be my updated order CPU Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6400 2.13GHz FSB 1066, 2MB CPU Memory 2048MB DDR II 667 Memory 240 Pin (Major Brand) (1024 x 2) (special) Mother Board ASUS P5LD2 R2.0 Mother Board Hard Drive 1 Seagate 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA Hard Drive 2 Seagate 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA Optical Drive 1 LG 16X DVD RW +- Dual Layer Video ASUS EN7300 GS GeForce PCI E, 256MB Turbo Cache DDR, DVI Audio Onboard Audio Network Card Onboard Network Card Case Lian-Li PC61 ATX Silver Aluminum Mid. Tower (black) Power Supply 450 Watt Antec Power Supply SP-450 Smart Power 2.0 Warranty 1 Years Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty (Canadian Dollars) Priced At: $1,110.00 Upgrading the motherboard was just too expensive (150$) Also, I plan this computer to be in use for the next 4-5 years, which is why it is rather higher end now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ispgeek Posted November 7, 2006 CID Share Posted November 7, 2006 Ok, here would be my updated order CPU Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6400 2.13GHz FSB 1066, 2MB CPU Memory 2048MB DDR II 667 Memory 240 Pin (Major Brand) (1024 x 2) (special) Mother Board ASUS P5LD2 R2.0 Mother Board Hard Drive 1 Seagate 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA Hard Drive 2 Seagate 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA Optical Drive 1 LG 16X DVD RW +- Dual Layer Video ASUS EN7300 GS GeForce PCI E, 256MB Turbo Cache DDR, DVI Audio Onboard Audio Network Card Onboard Network Card Case Lian-Li PC61 ATX Silver Aluminum Mid. Tower (black) Power Supply 450 Watt Antec Power Supply SP-450 Smart Power 2.0 Warranty 1 Years Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty (Canadian Dollars) Priced At: $1,110.00 Upgrading the motherboard was just too expensive (150$) Also, I plan this computer to be in use for the next 4-5 years, which is why it is rather higher end now. I personally like it.....good choice on the Seagates...you won't regret that change trust me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cak46 Posted November 11, 2006 CID Share Posted November 11, 2006 hmm ive had the opposite, ive had seagate drives die, but never a maxtor. I have maxtor drive that are 10 years old and still work great. Tho any of the new Seagate drives i have are great. Never had a Maxtor drive go to this point either. Been running two in my 98 machine for about 6 years now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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