Help me build a new machine!

[Mrbloodworth]

Ok. Here is the challenge.

• Under $1,000
• Must use this case, or some other girl approved case.
• I do not need a monitor.
• Assembly required is OK, however funky hack jobs or mods i wont do.
• I will take care of the OS if needs be (as in, i will buy one outside of the above price if what ever you come up with doesn't have one.
• Pre-assembled machines are ok.
• Needs a DvD player at the least for installing games
• Does not need to be top of the line, but LOTRO or some of the newer MMOGs hopefully will be played on it
• I would prefer to do a one stop shop/order, AKA New egg.

[raydeen]

Anything +    

[Mrbloodworth]

lol. I know, the case, may be limiting. But, like i said, something with a bit of  is required. Spray paint, is a no go.

[Morfiend]

Do you have any preferences in anything? ATI vs Nvidia? Brands you like?

Here are some components I threw together for a rough price estimate 2 months ago.

Motherboard - Intel brand $244
PSU - Corsair Modular $149
CPU - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz $279
RAM - Corsair 12gb kit $210
Graphics Card - EVGA 260 $195
Sony DVD Burner $22
Thats a total of $1099 and you will need probably $50 to $100 in extras also, like maybe a custom CPU cooler, and fans and cables.

Hard drive would be your preference, you didnt say how big you needed. Add $80 or so.
For the PSU, you could probably shave off $100 by going with a lesser one, but I am a devoted Corsair fan, and I will never have a non-modular psu again. These are great hardware.

Now, this is just a quick build I made. I didnt go in depth to see how these components work with each other. You could probably get a little bit off by going with a slightly lesser Motherboard or a lower processor. I don't have time to do all your work for you. The above list is more of a starting point for you to do a build than a complete list.

If you want to research builds (as you should before you do a build) you should hit up www.hardforum.com.

[01101010]

put mine together last fall for under $1k - its not an i7 or anything and its a bit dated, but it is far from an internet/email machine

CPU
MOBO
HDD
PSU
VID (deactivated on newegg - bah, but its a vid card)
RAM
DVD

cheap.

[rattran]

Ok. Here is the challenge.

• Under $1,000
• Must use this case, or some other girl approved case.
• I do not need a monitor.
• Assembly required is OK, however funky hack jobs or mods i wont do.
• I will take care of the OS if needs be (as in, i will buy one outside of the above price if what ever you come up with doesn't have one.
• Pre-assembled machines are ok.
• Needs a DvD player at the least for installing games
• Does not need to be top of the line, but LOTRO or some of the newer MMOGs hopefully will be played on it
• I would prefer to do a one stop shop/order, AKA New egg.

Is this a dead end machine, or are you going to want to upgrade it in the future? Just for gaming? How long do you expect it to be viable? What resolution do you play games at?
These things matter.

[Pennilenko]

I am very very very very happy with the new I7 920 builds i recently did, can't recommend them enough.

[Hoax]

If we can assume a video card upgrade in 1-2 years is ok then I'd go high end budget on the video card and try to get i7/ddr3.

priority build order:
Case $65
PSU $200 or less
CPU $350 or less
Mobo $200 or less
RAM $150 or less
Video Card $135 or less

That's $1,100 at the maximums listed so your going to have to go under where you can.

That leaves you with scraps to get the HD and the DVD drive.  Should be doable but it'll be a pinch.  With those numbers I think you can go the i7/ddr3 route but its been awhile since I looked.  You'd be stuck with stock cpu cooling though I'm guessing which imo sucks.

I guess the question is, do people think he can run the next 3-4 years of MMO releases on a quad/ddr2 machine?  I don't track mmo's anymore so I'm not sure what's in the pipe.  If it seems like that is doable then you might want to aim for a quad/ddr2 machine and try to spend less then max budget and put the leftover cash aside for when something breaks or to upgrade your primary gaming rig in the future.

[Lantyssa]

Unless you can't get a motherboard to fit your other specs, I don't think the cost is worth justifying DDR3 over 2.  A good CPU fan will run $50 or less and is very much worth it.  Also a mounting bracket to get rid of those damnable plastic push pins if it doesn't come with the fan.

[Hoax]

Last time I checked the i7/ddr3 boards didn't look like they would take ddr2?  If they can that would make things much easier on him.

i7/ddr3 boards didn't look like they would take ddr2

^This.

Confirmed.  So that means your going to have to budget on the tight side.  Which may mean no money left over for a cooler unless you can get under my guesstimate #'s  by a wide margin.

[SnakeCharmer]

Must use this case, or some other girl approved case.

Fruit.

Edit (because I thought of something funnier to say after the fact):  Dude.  You know how I know you're gay?

[schild]

I would use the hell out of a pink case if it didn't have a big stupid window and a bunch of ugly extra aluminum. I swear, Antec, Thermaltake, Sigma, Coolermaster (etc, etc) have the worst industrial designers on the goddamn planet.

Zalman and Shuttle are the only computer cases on the market I can tolerate, and even of their lines there's very few. The only nice Asus is the EEE PC and the EEE Keyboard.

I HATE the computer case market.

Must use this case, or some other girl approved case.

Fruit.

Edit (because I thought of something funnier to say after the fact):  Dude.  You know how I know you're gay?

You edited it because you thought of something better?

Hey, Snakecharmer, the jerk store called. They're running out of you.

[Vash]

Dude.  You know how I know you're gay?

Although not specifically implied anywhere in the OP, I'm willing to bet Mr.B is building this for his GF/SO, in which case, not only is he not gay, but building this thing may actually get him some.   

[SnakeCharmer]

Dude.  You know how I know you're gay?

Although not specifically implied anywhere in the OP, I'm willing to bet Mr.B is building this for his GF/SO, in which case, not only is he not gay, but building this thing may actually get him some.   

NooooOOOooOooOOOo....

White.  The new green.

[Segoris]

Although not specifically implied anywhere in the OP, I'm willing to bet Mr.B is building this for his GF/SO, in which case, not only is he not gay, but building this thing may actually get him some.   

Unless him and his significant other are both men. Of course, it could still get him some, but that would just prove the original sarchasm to be a true comment.

[Segoris]

i7/ddr3 boards didn't look like they would take ddr2

^This.

[Mrbloodworth]

Ok. Here is the challenge.

• Under $1,000
• Must use this case, or some other girl approved case.
• I do not need a monitor.
• Assembly required is OK, however funky hack jobs or mods i wont do.
• I will take care of the OS if needs be (as in, i will buy one outside of the above price if what ever you come up with doesn't have one.
• Pre-assembled machines are ok.
• Needs a DvD player at the least for installing games
• Does not need to be top of the line, but LOTRO or some of the newer MMOGs hopefully will be played on it
• I would prefer to do a one stop shop/order, AKA New egg.

Is this a dead end machine, or are you going to want to upgrade it in the future? Just for gaming? How long do you expect it to be viable? What resolution do you play games at?
These things matter.

The main reason i am leaning to a built one is so i may upgrade. And YES, this is for my GF/SO who currently uses the laptop.

I think the Monitors i have love 1400 x 900. It is just for gaming, i hope not to have to upgrade for about a year or two, but we don't normally play high end graphics games. So about the only thing she will be doing is web surfing, MMO's or the graphical like, and Itunes like storage.

That being said, hard drive is not needed to be uber huge. At least not at first, i can buy more if needed. In fact small is better as i like to put the OS on its own physical drive.

[Numtini]

That case? No no no no no. It's the door. I bought a case a couple of years ago with the USB front ports behind a door. Just Say No. I didn't think it would be a bit deal. Oh yeah, I can hook it up on the back. The only time I'll use the front is my USB key. blah blah.  It was a horrible mistake and it is one of those things that drives you crazy, just not quite enough to rebuild in a new case. just don't. No. Trust me!

As far as a build, Morf's seems fine *shrug* If you don't want to spend money for an I7 system, then get the case, PSU, and hard drive for a I7 but cheap out with a lowest of the low mobo/cpu/memory and assume you'll just toss it out in a year.

BTW anyone with I7 experience have any observations about its single core performance? I'm an EQ2er--a game built around the concept of a 9ghz single core CPU. I'm sort of in for the long haul, but is an I7 single core performance going to be better than an 8500/8600?

[Pennilenko]

BTW anyone with I7 experience have any observations about its single core performance? I'm an EQ2er--a game built around the concept of a 9ghz single core CPU. I'm sort of in for the long haul, but is an I7 single core performance going to be better than an 8500/8600?

Without actually giving you usefull information, because i dont own an 8500 or an 8600, my two I7 Builds are monsters. Ultra super easy to overclock to 3.2 with little to no heat gain. They play anything in my library. I, unfortunately, dont want to resub to see how eq2 does.

[rattran]

I'd consider building a 'last gen' machine, p45/x48 chipset, e8x00, 4 gig of ddr2, a gts250/9800gt or 4850/4770 will let you run at that resolution with everything on. Figure all the parts, then get the fastest c2d you can. Few games use more than 1 core, so a fast duo will play everything just fine.

Then when you want/need to upgrade in two years, you can start over with the at that point cheap CoreI5 chips.

[Hoax]

I'd consider building a 'last gen' machine, p45/x48 chipset, e8x00, 4 gig of ddr2, a gts250/9800gt or 4850/4770 will let you run at that resolution with everything on. Figure all the parts, then get the fastest c2d you can. Few games use more than 1 core, so a fast duo will play everything just fine.

Then when you want/need to upgrade in two years, you can start over with the at that point cheap CoreI5 chips.

This is the other option for sure, I think your budget can handle i7 but the question is will that buy you an extra year or two before you need to rebuild or not.  Since we're talking MMO's I would guess yes but its just a guess.

Also it'd be important to see how much money you would actually save going the last-gen route.

[Mrbloodworth]

I was never looking to use top of the line anything in this build.