Brothers Rig.

[Stalwart]

I know these threads might not be very welcome here but I'm not too sure about myself on this build. My brother is looking at a new PC and is willing to throw down about 2 grand. There are so many choices of things on the market that I don't know what's different or better. There are 10 different cards on newegg all slightly different and different prices, I feel a bit lost.

He's looking at the new M2 socket CPUs, I've never dealt with DDR2 before so I don't know what's considered a good CL either. As usual any suggestions are welcome. I feel very lost with a lot of technology out there since there is such a variety and I don't know what actual gain the numbers equate to. For example: I know a 54x CD burner is faster than 48x but how much faster, is it THAT much faster? I'm a bit lost w/just two numbers like that, I don't know the preformance gains, I just know one number is bigger.

Here's the setup so far:

Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813138026

With something like this all the motherboards look the same to me, I mean they all have basically the same specs. How am I supposed to know what's better, this is where I have most of my trouble, is it basically a toss up between brand and customer reviews at this point?

CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103747

I was really looking for a 2x1mb L2 Cache CPU but there aren't any that I could see on newegg, maybe I should wait for that if I'm going to buy him one, I assume it'd be worth it.

RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231073

I had no idea what to really choose, I was shooting in the dark here.

HDD:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136012

I don't know how practical that HDD is, but it seems like it would be really nice, I mean he does have 2 grand to spend so why not throw something like that in there? I mean maybe it's a complete waste, but I really like the numbers on it, think the price is a good one for something like that?

Optical Drive:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827151118

I was also kind of shooting in the dark here, I figure I'd get him two.

I left case, power supply, and video card because I'm still searching for those. I figure the less money he has to spend the better, no reason to waste money on items that are overprices for a little preformance gain.

Thanks a ton guys!

[SnoPhox]

Looks good, Looks like you have seemed to match everything up pretty good, I almost have the same exact set-up, but my Mobo is a biostar 939, but im not sure if u need to get him 2 optical drives, i mean one should do it, if it writes cds, dvds and reads them both, but once you have this thing set up, tell me if you can install an os, i have a sata hdd and i am unable to install a os because my cd-rom drive doesnt work im not sure if it has corilation to that but id like to know if it works for you.. also remember the os can cost ya some $ money too,

[Stalwart]

Ahh, thanks for the reminder, when it gets built and the OS installed I'll give you the results.

[SnoPhox]

Awesome thanks, When i made my first build i completely forgot about the OS. lmao But yeah, that would be great if you could tell me the results.

The discussion of warez and illegal software is bad, mmkay?

Da_Rude_Baboon :mods: