Setup [Revised]

[knaia]

OK, After reading a lot of reviews, and taking input from you guys here, I revised my setup.

New Setup: http://www.knaia.level6hosting.net/newpc/

Would anyone else like to comment on it or am I going to stick to this?

I grabbed the RaidMax case over the CoolerMaster because I have loved this case and it has a window which I have wanted plus it comes out cheaper then buying a power supply and the CM case. It comes to ~$1,175 with overnight shipping, which is about $24 more then UPS ground, and UPS sucks major ass. I'm gonna throw my current DVD-ROM and DVD-Burner in it, keep my current Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse. If I have to save money, I will drop the OS and the TV card for now. I can always pick them up later.

[2JSC]

I'm not a fan of that case - but it does it's job. Looks good to me :thumbsup:

[ỒĊBłůē]

Newegg glossy logo sticker? - $5? :huh:

[knaia]

It was supposed to be on a combo deal and be free but something changed I guess, so I deleted it. I comes to a few dollars less now. I personally like the case and it has enough room for me and the power supply can handle SLI setups, which I don't have money for just yet.

[bobvillain]

i'm not sure if this computer is for gaming at all, or just for media center, but i don't think mce really needs 2 gigs of ram. if you'll do any gaming on it, i would say drop to 1 gig of ram and get a 7900GT. but that's just my opinion. i guess 2 gigs is good for upgradability and stuff. but it seems like 1 gig with a 7900gt would be better than 2 gigs with a 7600gt.
edit: and when you do go sli, 2 7600GTs barely perform better than 1 7900GT.

[Fibbles]

I wouldn't skimp on the power supply for that system. Power supplies that come with cases are crap and are notorious for not being worth their light weight in salt. You should still pick up a better quality PSU regardless of what comes with any case.

I've got that 250gb SE16 as my gaming and storage drive and it's very quiet and pretty fast. I also love my 2 gigs of memory - most games feel smoother and loading times have been reduced.

It looks like a good all-around system, cept for that PSU of course.

[knaia]

OK I dropped the 2 GB ram for 1 GB, dropped the case and the video card and the OS and the TV tuner, grabbed a Sunbeam 550w SLI certified PSU, Coller Master Centurion 5 Steel Case, and I will get a eVGA 7900 GT and post the new setup when I can, but currently Newegg is out of stock.

I dropped the OS and tuner because I can get those in the future, and just use XP pro for now. I wanted to use it for Media Center and gaming, but I'll just do gaming and music for now.

[bobvillain]

did you already buy everything? cause now it looks like you can afford the 2 gigs of ram, so i would get it, especially if your main focus is gaming, not media center at the moment. not to flip-flop or whatever, but i thought you where on an exact budget and wanted mce & gaming. 1 gig works fine, but 2 gigs does rock. though you will still definitely get better performance out of that 7900gt with 1 gig over the 7600gt with 2 gigs. and i don't remember ever hearing anything good or bad about sunbeam power supplies, but you could get an epower/tagan for around the same price that probably performs better (the sunbeam will probably work fine though).

[knaia]

I won't be purchasing the stuff for another month or 2 at minimum, due to not having the funds available at the moment, but maybe in the end of May with Newegg's 6 month no-payment feature I can make it a slightly early christmas/birthday present.

I am trying to stay right around $1,000 with shipping, $1,100 at MAX. I can always upgrade in the future.

Why can't I do Media Center and gaming at the same time?

[bobvillain]

nah, i didn't mean to say that you can't do them both at the same time, i was just saying if you wanted mce and gaming, it would be better performance to go for 1 gig of ram and a 7900gt over 2 gigs and a 7600gt. but since you aren't buying mce and the tuner and the case, you are saving about $250, and the case and psu you picked cost less than $150, so you can still get the 2 gigs and get a 7900GT.

(but you know this business, everything will be different in 2 months :-) )

[knaia]

The problem is the 7900 GT makes up the price difference that I saved, so I can't get the 2 gigs...yet. let's see how it is in 2 months.