It's been just over nine years since I built my last PC and I've done several upgrades since then, but I'm still longer overdue for a new system.

However, the time is finally drawing near for that come true, but before I do, I wanted to share the list of (potential) components that will be involved in its creation:

• Case: Antec P182 ATX Mid-Tower
• PSU: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V/EPS12V
• Motherboard: ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
• Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel (Model #TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX)
• Optical Drive: LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM Write, Black SATA (Model #LH-20A1S)
• Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar GP 500GB 5400 to 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s (Model #WD5000AACS)
• Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (Model #SB0240) {Transferring from my old/existing PC.}
• Video Card: XFX's nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 (Model #PVT88PYSF4)
• Wired NIC: 1 GB, onboard.
• Wireless NIC: Linksys Wireless-G (Model #WMP54G, Version #4) {Transferring from my old/existing PC.}

These items currently total $984.93 ($90.00 less with rebates) which falls in line nicely with my $1000 budget.

Well that about covers it, so let me know what you think as I would appreciate any and all feedback.

Especially since three of these components have rebates that end tomorrow (May 31st).

Well, first of all you should tell us your goals with the PC.
Do you have any plans to overclock any component, and are you going to game it? Or will it just be an office computer (right, with an G92GT)?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037
is superior to E6750 in all ways, and costs $10 more or so.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131225 is from personal experience rock-solid and a very well performing overclocker. Does some pretty sweet stuff!
(Although I never tried any nForce6/7, I really loved those from their previous lines and I've read and heard good stuff about their latest as well, so it's more or less a personal preference.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130357 due to their step-up program and its so-much better cooling.


I've never heard of "PC Power & Cooling," probably because I live in Sweden/Europe. I have no clue if they provide stable and good voltages or not, so that I cannot comment.

That's my opinion on what could be improved by not adding many dollars. Otherwise, seems like a good system to me!
BUT, keep in mind nVIDIA's GT200 (GTX260/GTX280) series are due to launch June 18th, which are promised a huge improvement over todays GPUs. Somewhere around 50%, they say.
Prices on elder brothers and sisters should drop with its release!

No, I won't be overclocking Danthe and the system will serve as both a gaming & office computer.

As for the CPU, after further review, I realized that Intel's E8xxx Wolfdale line wasn't much of a price difference and was already planning on getting that exact one instead (E8400 3.0 GHz). Especially for all the added benefits and only $10 more! Thanks for pointing it out though as, upon first glance, I just assumed they'd be too much.

As for the motherboard, overclocking is not an issue, but I'll look at that one closer and see how it compares.

As for the video card, I wasn't sure which nVidia implentation to go with and I had tagged that one from EVGA. However, reading the reviews, it's dual-slot cooling concerned me. I'll certainly take another look at it though.

As for the power supply, PC Power & Cooling is a well-known brand in the US and is provide very stable & robust PSUs, so I'm okay there.

Oh, and I wasn't aware of that planned launch by nVidia nor its ramifications, so I'll definitely wait to order that particular component. Especially since be ordering 'em here & there anyway to better distribute the cost.

Finally, thanks for looking it over and providing your insights. I appreciate and am looking forward to getting it up and running sometime this summer.

I have to agree with Danthe's recommendations . I have an Intel Xeon X3110, which is the exact same processor as the E8400 just relabled as Xeon and shipped with a slightly lower stock voltage (google it if you don't believe me ). So try and see if you can find a Xeon X3110 at any retailers instead, as it is generally sold a bit cheaper than the E8400, but performs the exact same.

I also recommend going with EVGA for your video card, It's the only brand I go with now. Their support is outstanding and they have great warranties on their cards, which cover overlocking and cooler swapping/modding.

Last, but not least, the wireless card you picked is great, but try and see if you can find a v4.1 or 4.5. They use newer and better chipsets from Ralink.

Edit: Didn't read that you were swapping it from your current computer, so ignore that last point.

Thanks for the confirmations David and don't worry about the wireless card remark. I actually wasn't aware of that fact, so thanks still for the insight.

+1 for the E8400. Best bang for your buck on the CPU market right now, no competition whatsoever.

My mobos of choice right now are the MSI P6N Diamond (top-end last gen 680i chipset, tons of flexibility in slots and ports, plus on-board X-FI), and the ASUS P5N-D, which is the new mid-budget board of choice out there.

For video, the 8800GT is a good choice. Sure, you can wait for the next gen cards, but if the current gen will do what you need to do, go for it. With a few exceptions, the 8800 G92 cards (any of them) can run anything out there just fine at 22" monitor resolution.

I just ordered a second 8800GTS 320MB; I managed to get in on the very last days of stock and got a factory OC'd card to match the one I already have for $100. On almost all of the G80s, you can unlock the extra shaders and pixel pipes via RivaTuner and turn them into slightly slower 8800GTXs, and with a little clock tuning they even outperform the G92 GTS models (which are constrained by a slower memory bus).

So, if you are careful and watch the prices when the new series comes out, you can grab a second card to match yours for super cheap, which should match the performance of a single next-gen card. The key is to check often and watch for bargains and open-box items.

With nVidia about to release PhysX drivers for the GF8 line, SLI is about to become a major value - you'll be able to use the second card for physics when games support it, or for extra graphics horsepower when it doesn't. They're also adding folding capability to them soon. I've not seen the point up to now, but it really starts making sense once you get the flexibility of using the cards for other purposes.

Cool, thanks for the informative reply Illy! Especially the SLI aspects as I wasn't aware of that flexibility being on the horizon. Definitely would make it much more powerful & useful.