So I said this was the end, but I totally lied. I talked to IdiotwithGun (I think that was his name) in the IRC today, I guess he runs his school's LAN club, and he had a bunch of different recommendations.
He recommended a Quad Core (Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775) processor instead of the Dual (Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W) that was originally recommended - they're the same price and the Quad seems nicer to me (although I know nothing so w/e).
Apparently the RAM that was originally recommended here (
RAM) is designed for systems that use liquid cooling. Mine will not. Instead it looks like I'm going to go with
this x2 for 4 gigs.
After talking to a number of people, I probably don't need a sound card right at this moment. I'm going to go with onboard sound for now and add that later if I decide I need it.
His only other recommendation was about HDs, and I'm not really sure what the correct answer here is. Caf originally recommended putting Windows on it's own HD, and then using 3 HDs in Raid 5 for my main drive. Guns recommended a mirrored raid on the small HD for windows by itself, and then just a single big drive for everything else non-raided. Guns' idea seems cheaper, and he said that having Windows mirrored speeds things up a ton for him. I know I'm not really going to be using a ton of space, so having a single hard drive for all my games and stuff will likely be fine (and I can add another if I need it later I suppose.) I don't really know all the intricacies of RAID though, so thoughts here would be appreciated.
The original DVD burner drive was sold out, so I'm just gonna go with this -
DVD Burner
Finally, I'm starting to hear a lot of recommendations against Vista, and now I don't know what to do in terms of OS. I'm still leaning towards 64 bit Vista, especially now since I have 4GB of RAM in the thing, but I want to see if anyone else has Vista horror stories before I decide.
(09-16-2008, 07:34 PM)Versus-pwny- link Wrote: [ -> ]oh god, don't cheap out on a case.
Can you recommend one that won't break the bank? Some of the other ones I've been looking at have been around $300-$400, and that seems really excessive. I liked the one originally recommended here, but it's sold out. What do you see the problems being with the one I have up now? I'm concerned that whatever I get for some reason or another won't hold this stuff properly and I'll be screwed. I'm trying to only buy stuff that has good ratings on NewEgg.
So, for anyone who is still reading this or cares, this is what the parts list looks like now (I'm also still deciding between keyboards but that is mostly unimportant.)
Motherboard
Processor
RAM
Graphics Card
Power Supply
Case??
Windows RAID Drives/Windows Drive?
Main HD/RAIDED Main HDs?
DVD Burner
Monitor
Headphones
Keyboard
Again, sorry to be spamming the forums with this, but it seems like every time I think I have it figured out I find out I'm doing it all wrong. Who wants to be the one to point out where I've fucked up in this one?Â
With everything listed, including shipping and rebates, I'm at $1704 (That's going with the HD thing recommended by Guns. With Caf's it goes up to around $1800. That doesn't include whatever I have to pay for Vista. If this case is going to work fine, I'm hesitant to get a more expensive one, but if there will be problems with it I'm willing to spend a little more.