Build me a new computer within the next 24hrs - desktop just died

[GucciBoy]

Actually, its for my sister and her hubby. They are going to buy the parts from www.memoryexpress.com so please do use that site builder to compose a nice system for them. They just want a good solid list of each and every component and they will get it tommorow or the day after. Something that is good, will last them many many years, but also nothing overboard that they dont need right now.

It will be used for:

General apps - music, web, email.
Office - word, tax software.
Games (not the primary use, but will be used)
Interior Design apps/software
Photoshop/Adobe software programs.
Some video editing

Few notes:
Large HD (min. 100gigs+)
Lots of RAM (I said 2gigs, since he will be playing games and doing lots of multitasking)
Please add a large LCD monitor 19-24 inches. Preferably black and widescreen if possible.
Need speakers on top with subwoofer, wireless keyboard and optical mouse combo.
Wireless internet/Router would be nice, but is not a biggie.

No budget: But like I mentioned, dont go overboard with a system just because its so cool....they just want to get what they need right now. Looking for good value, but also no cheap celeron crap. So we're talking the full works here.

Computer
Monitor
Speakers
KB/Mouse combo
and anything else that you may come up with...

Thanks

[AllGoNoShow]

Working on a good one right now. Any preference for HDD speed or anything? Liek IDE is good but if u want SATA or something

[GucciBoy]

Originally posted by AllGoNoShow
Working on a good one right now. Any preference for HDD speed or anything? Liek IDE is good but if u want SATA or something

HDD - definitely SATA - fast enough to last a few years handling the apps they run. But doesnt have to be the absolute fastest in the market.

EDITED: Min. 200gig HD.

[AllGoNoShow]

The only thing I didn't add on here is a case. Why? Becuase its personal preference for what they want it to look like. If it was my choice I choose the one below. Why? Clean, fairly good storage for what I have selected won't need to upgrade what I got anyways for awhile, clean looking for business or for person. No flashy shit. Fairly cheap in terms of cases.


SKU: 04276
Part No: V60SL-BB
V60 (Black) w/ 350W P/S

In Stock
Check Avail $69.95


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The only thing I went all out on was the video card, if your doing video editing, and interior design in 3d and a couple of other things, its nice to have the video power not holding you back, I have the 256mb of the one I choose and I don't use it but i know guys who do video editing who wouldnt even blink at 256mb, they would rather have 512 or a custom 1gb.

Its actually a fairly cheap system all around, good LCD, how do I know? I run the same one except in CRT version, no money to upgrade to the LCD.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Memory Express Computer Products Inc.
Calgary South Location:
4812 Macleod Trail S.W.
Calgary, AB T2G 0A8
Ph: (403) 253-5676
Fx: (403) 253-5679 Calgary North Location:
Unit K, 2020-32Ave N.E.
Calgary, AB T2E 6T4
Ph: (403) 313-8883
Fx: (403) 313-8833 Edmonton South Location:
10187-34 Ave
Edmonton, AB T6E 6J8
Ph: (780) 469-4616
Fx: (780) 435-5461
E-Mail: [email protected]
Memory Express On-Line Computer Quote

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company: Phone#: Fax#:
Name: Address:

City: Province: Postal Code:
Email: Sales Rep.:GeneralSales
Shipping Option:PickUpSouth

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part Model Qty Unit Price Ext. Price

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor : Intel Pentium 4 Processor 650 3.40 GHz w/ 2MB Cache, EM64T 1 $359.95 $359.95
CPU Heatsink / Fan : Intel Retail Heatsink and Fan Included 1 $0.00 $0.00
Motherboards : Asus P5GD2 Deluxe w/ DualDDR2, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, WiFi-G, PCI-Express 1 $214.95 $214.95
Memory : Kingston 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM 2 $129.95 $259.90
Floppy Drives : Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive 1 $14.95 $14.95
Hard Drives 1 : Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM Serial ATA w/ 16MB Cache 1 $169.95 $169.95
Optical Drive 1 : LG Super Multi DVD Writer 16x16 DVD +/-RW Dual-Layer, Beige (OEM) 1 $59.95 $59.95
Video Cards : Sapphire Radeon X800XL 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E w/ VIVO, Dual DVI (Retail) 1 $454.95 $454.95
Monitors : Samsung SyncMaster 930BF 19in Digital LCD, 4ms, Black 1 $519.95 $519.95
Sound Cards : Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 7.1 24-Bit (OEM) 1 $34.95 $34.95
Speakers and Headsets : Creative Labs Inspire P7800 7.1 Speaker Set 1 $119.95 $119.95
Hubs and Switches : Linksys Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router 1 $149.95 $149.95
Keyboards : Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 500 1 $89.95 $89.95


Comments:






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Quote Sub-Total: $2449.35
GST: $171.45
Total Cost: $2620.80
Alberta Recyle Fee
(For residents of Alberta only): $12.00
Total(With Recyle Fee)
(For residents of Alberta only): $2633.64


All prices are subject to change without notice.
All Cheques must be certified.
All trademarks, and registered trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

[GucciBoy]

Thanks AGNS ^. I think hes leaning more towards an AMD, some say for multitasking a dual core AMD 64 is best?

Definitely min. 2gigs RAM, and only needs 2.1 speakers.

But the rest looks great, thanks

Plus edited the above: 200gig HD min.

[AllGoNoShow]

Yah 7.1 is overkill but for the price difference its nice to have.

AMD I havent been fond of.

I own an Intel P4 with multitasking and man this thign flyies. If i had the 2gb they would be getting then this thing would be understopable besides the HDD. I know a bunch of guys using these intel processors for servers and multitasking an they just keep going and going and going and wanting more.

[AllGoNoShow]

Same with the HDD, for the price of HDD's now its retarded.

I bought my 120gig for the same price that 300gb is

[n00bit]

So how much is he willing to spend ballpark?

[nismodrifter]

I would choose a different manufacturer for the HD. I just built a PC a month ago and went with Maxtor...I regret it BIG TIME.
The HD is FREAKING loud and I don't mean it has a little buzz or something like that.....this thing sounds like some kind of monster is in there just chewing up the disk drive. I'll open something and away it goes..KRRRRRRGRGKRGKRKKGRKGKGR.
I thought something was wrong with it...did some searching on Google and found that its common.

[tictactoe2004]

change the video card to an E-VGA 7800GT for the same price... that ATI card is crap compared to the 7800GT. That P4 is 64-bit so your all good to go. Also.. change the hard drive to a 250GB Western Digital SATA-2 with 16mb cache instead. Add the Zalman Fatal1ty fan and you'll be flying. I have that exact CPU and run it at 3.9GHZ all day long, once I get my new ram i'll be able to get it up to 4.2GHZ... I went with the Asus nforce-4 chipeset myself.. if your playing games you have room to add a second nvidia card and run them in SLI. Maybe if its in the budget consider getting that OCZ DDR2 667MHZ.. its about $400 for two gigs but you'll be able to run your machine at 4.0 for years and years.

[pr0]

Why don't you just build it yourself? You have a lot more knowledge about what they need.

[GucciBoy]

ok i think i got it all set. Go with AGNS cpu and mobo, and tics power supply fans, ram, hdd and video card.

[GQBalla]

definately get a seagate barracuda!

i love my 200 gb SATA with NCQ and 8 mn cache...really quiet i must add...

[MidnightDreamer]

I've been using Maxtor for the past 5yrs without ever having had a failed one. But nismodrifter is right... I never noticed it before, but I just threw in a Maxtor into my new SFF system and guess what? The sounds from the driver are annoyingly loud... Albiet the rest of the system is designed to be run near silent so ambient noise levels are so low that any other sounds seem louder, but I would definetely go with the seagate. I'll be switching to that brand soon, I hear many good things from them...

Another thing is, I would go for something a little better than the case that you selected. It's really cheap and generic. IMHO I think a case like that would look kind of stupid next to a really pricey 20 sumthing inch LCD... It's obvious that they have a fairly health budget to work with, so why not get them a better case? To me it's like having someone putting a Porshe engine into the body of a Kia Rio or something...

Just my 2 cents, good luck with the build...

My SFF system is up for grabs by the way, check the computer buy/sell section if you're interested.

[eblend]

if you gonna get 2 gigs of ram spend a little more and get a 3800+ AMD X2 chip. In benchmark comparisons pentium dual cores don't even compare. Intel in general just sucks ass right now, they overheat and underperform, get an X2 and ur rock solid for a long time. Intel time is over in my opinion, amd is rocking them in all segments now, including servers and they are picking up market share. Go amd and u won't regret it.

[Davetronz]

Originally posted by eblend
if you gonna get 2 gigs of ram spend a little more and get a 3800+ AMD X2 chip. In benchmark comparisons pentium dual cores don't even compare. Intel in general just sucks ass right now, they overheat and underperform, get an X2 and ur rock solid for a long time. Intel time is over in my opinion, amd is rocking them in all segments now, including servers and they are picking up market share. Go amd and u won't regret it.

[dragonone]

don't forget a gd power supply like antec and such

[Xtrema]

My word of advice on computers and relatives, unless you want to support them for life, send them directly to the builder/shop. Don't get involved or build it yourself.

[hampstor]

Originally posted by Xtrema
My word of advice on computers and relatives, unless you want to support them for life, send them directly to the builder/shop. Don't get involved or build it yourself.

i agree, i usually send friends/family to competitors so i don't get phone calls 11pm on a sunday night for tech support

[sabad66]

I think this would be your best bet. Those 2 200 giggers in a RAID0 will help out a lot. The Sonata is a nice case as well and comes with a 450W Antec Smartpower so you can't go wrong with this setup.

Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ w/ 2x512K Cache 1 $389.95 $389.95
CPU Heatsink / Fan : AMD Retail Heatsink and Fan 1 $0.00 $0.00
Motherboards : DFI LanParty UT NF4-D w/ DualDDR400, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, SATAII, Dual PCI-E x16 1 $144.95 $144.95
Memory : OCZ 2GB PC3200 Platinum Edition Dual Channel DDR Kit (2 x 1024MB - $309.95 After $30 MIR) 1 $339.95 $339.95
Case : Antec Sonata II w/ 450W SmartPower 2.0 1 $129.95 $129.95
Power Supplies : Antec 450W SmartPower 2.0 Power Supply Included with Case 1 $0.00 $0.00
Floppy Drives : Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive, Black 1 $14.95 $14.95
Hard Drives 1 : Seagate 200GB Barracuda 7200.8 Serial ATA w/ NCQ, 8MB Cache 1 $129.95 $129.95
Hard Drives 2 : Seagate 200GB Barracuda 7200.8 Serial ATA w/ NCQ, 8MB Cache 1 $129.95 $129.95
Optical Drive 1 : BenQ 16x16 DVD+/- RW Dual Layer Drive, Black 1 $59.95 $59.95
Optical Drive 2 : None 0 $0.00 $0.00
Video Cards : eVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT 256MB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, VIVO 1 $439.95 $439.95
Monitors : Samsung SyncMaster 915N (LCD, 19in, 8ms, Black) 1 $434.95 $434.95
Sound Cards : Onboard 8-Channel 7.1 Audio 1 $0.00 $0.00
Ethernet Cards : None 0 $0.00 $0.00
Network Cables : Onboard 100/1000 Gigabit Lan 1 $0.00 $0.00
Keyboards : Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3000 Laser 1 $99.95 $99.95
Operating System : None 0 $0.00 $0.00
Assembly : None 0 $0.00 $0.00
Warranty : None 0 $0.00 $0.00

Comments:






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Quote Sub-Total: $2314.45
GST: $162.01
Total Cost: $2476.46
Alberta Recyle Fee
(For residents of Alberta only): $12.00
Total(With Recyle Fee)
(For residents of Alberta only): $2489.30