My new rig

Cool, thanks.

Hey Guys I was also getting a new rig. I opted to buy one from my local computer store because I don't know much about computers and they offer warranty and repair for 1 year. I've also bought many items from them before and have no complaints.

They deal in parts mostly but they also offer system specials that require up to 2 days to build. I found this one and was wondering if it was a decent CPU and planned to use it for SC2/D3.



Processor: Intel E8400 Core2 Duo Dual Core

Memory: 4 Gig Dual Channel DDR2 1066 Ram

Case: Black Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: TigerPro 500 Watt PSU

Video: Nvidia Gefore GTS 250 1GB PCI Express

DVDRW Drive: 24x Black DVD+-RW SATA Lightscribe Drive

Hard Drive: 500 Gig 7200rpm SATAII Hard Drive

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium w/ COA and Disk (64B)


**1 Year Parts & Labor Warranty**

Cost : $850
So lemme know what you think

 

Good now, but not future proof.

Also, that 1yr warranty better be free. Almost never worth paying for.

 

Hm these posts make me want to reconsider my system, especially since the 5850 I had in mind is constantly growing in price. I'm guessing with the additional cooling the two cards and their heat wouldn't be a problem either.

Anyway, a good thread, a good read, thanks.

 

there is no such thing as futureproofing computers anyways. if you buy a top-of-the-line processor or video card for $800, it'll be as powerful as a $300 model 2 years from now. you buy a $300 processor now... and 2 years later, buy another $300 processor, and you've saved money AND probably ended up with something more powerful in the end.

attempting to "futureproof" is a huge waste of money. the only futureproofing is saving your money and upgrading when you need to.

 

As zealotinatuxedo already mentioned before, you may want to opt for DDR3.

 

Ya it's included in the $850 price. Ya I can see they are trying to save money with the E8400, and the DDR2, but if it's just for SC2 and D3 I see no big problems. Tigerpro a good brand for psu? I couldn't find it on Newegg.

 

Not exactly future proofing but more like giving the PC greater longevity. Most of the time, all you really need to do anyway is upgrade the video card. It usually takes quite a while before you hit a CPU bottleneck in games unless you buy a really low end CPU. That's one reason the E8400 is a viable option even now, more than 2 years after its release.

The E8400 is pretty much the top CPU you can get for LGA-775. Sure, there's the E8500 and E8600 but overclocking would net better performance. The higher clocked quads are in the same price range as Lynnfield and Bloomfield and you'll be better off getting either of those or Deneb from the green team.

By the way, unless you got an unusually long-lived socket/motherboard, a CPU upgrade usually necessitates a motherboard upgrade, too, so you need to add that to the cost. You're right that buying top of the line is usually a waste of money, but buying bottom of the barrel will want you replacing the PC sooner than later. A mid-range system would do very nicely, and it's quite achievable even with less than $1000 budget. Not saying that the E8400 is low-end, it's far from that. However, there are actually games that can take advantage of quad-cores now. I expect there'll be more of them in the near future so I think paying an extra $50~100 for a quad (Intel) is money well spent. If going AMD, you'll probably even save money even if you go for a quad.

@Kraetos
Check out if they have any specials on computers with Phenom II X4 Deneb or Core i5-750 Lynnfield. Assuming prices directly relate to motherboard/CPU cost, the Phenom should cost around the same as the E8400 build and the Core i5 should cost just around $100 more assuming the rest of the parts are the same.

 

@Kraetos
Played around Newegg and came up with the following:

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 2.66GHz, $200

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600, $106

Case: Antec Three Hundred, $50

Power Supply: Corsair 400CX, $50

Video: Zotac Geforce GTX 260 896MB, $170 or Sapphire HD 5770 1GB, $170

DVDRW Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc 24x DVD±RW AD-7240S-0B, $20

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200rpm, $80

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4, $140

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM, $100

COST : $916

Alas, labor is not included and you need to go to the individual manufacturers for warranty. You can certainly do it for less, though. For one thing, the board I selected can do SLI/Crossfire (albeit the power supply would probably need to be upgraded for that). Choosing a board without that capability should shave an extra $50 from the cost. Getting a lower end card such as Radeon HD5750 or GeForce GTS 250 would also shave an extra $50~60 (at the expense of gaming performance).

AMD alternative:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, $126

Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3, $100

COST : $802

 

Wow cool dude thx for spending your time on this, I really appreciate it. I'll definately check that out. Extremely helpful, thankyou rui-no-onno.

 

Go with the i5 750 - best advice I can give on a processor.