Anyway I've basically got a rough outline of my PC please speak up if I'm getting an inferior part or you have any changes you guys might make. It's more expensive then I was hoping for ($1800AU with monitor and OS) but with the massive drop in our dollar (from 0.96US to 0.64) and a LCD screen I guess that's to be expected. I was pretty damn thorough in my shopping around so I'm fairly confident this is as cheap as it's going to get. I'll probably be buying and ordering this stuff by Monday my time (Sunday American time) so really need some input soon if you guys have any. This will be my first PC that I have made so I'm a massive noob >.>

CPU: Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz http://www.itestate.com.au/pages/product/p...amp;pcode=05274
$291
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P http://www.itestate.com.au/pages/product/p...amp;pcode=06387
$229
GPU: Galaxy GTX260+ core 216 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_p...roducts_id=8465
$389 (was gunna get a 4870, but found this overclocked GTX260 core 216 for only $20 more than the regular 4870's )
HDD:Seagate Barracuda 500GB http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_p...roducts_id=3452
$89
Case: Antec Three Hundred http://www.excelcomputers.com.au/pdetail.asp?pid=5367
$102
RAM: Corsair 4GB http://store.livefire.com.au/product_info....375bbfe324b04ca
$130
Optical Drive: Samsung SATA SH223F http://store.livefire.com.au/product_info....375bbfe324b04ca
$40
PSU: Corsair 650TX http://store.livefire.com.au/product_info....375bbfe324b04ca
$165
Monitor: ASUS X223WS Silver http://www.ccpu.com.au/show_prod.php?class...;prod_id=x223ws
$175 (including rebate $234 without) This is also a 5ms model. Does this make a big difference? Is it worth the extra $80 to get a 2ms one?
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 Retail http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_p...roducts_id=7565
$296 Damn then for not making OEM versions available to everyone and damn Windows for not making 64-bit retail versions of Vista, now I have to order the 64-bit dvd thing from microsoft for even more money -_-

Total: $1905 AUD

When you take out the monitor and the OS it is about $1400 which is about where it should be considering the Australian dollar so I'm actually pretty happy with the price.

Also with a GTX 260+ overclocked I was wondering if I'll need some more case fans. The case has one exhaust fan and one fan on the top, but the case has room for an addition fan up the front and one on side as well. Do you guys think I'll need them? No big deal if I do two 120mm fans only cost like $25 over here.

I would instead get this CPU http://www.itestate.com.au/pages/product/p...amp;pcode=05265 but since you are going nvidia I really don't know what kind of performance you would have (using amd/nvidia) so it's better to stick with the intel one.

As far as I know, it is safe to push your video card up to 680/1466/1202 using rivatuner or evga precision without any freezing/chopping issues. You'll need no extra cooling on your PC unless you are going to overclock the CPU too since it is not safe to afford a video card heating up an entire overclocked system. The best to do now imo: do not mess with the CPU now and get a cooler later so you can overclock it.

With your monitor resolution set at max you will get about 60 fps on COD4 with max settings and 4XAA what you can consider a massive win (for comparison, PS360 runs only at 1024x600 with 2xAA at 60fps). Crysis also should work fine. PM me if you want to know about its custom settings (intersting stuff).

Oh, use XP instead (better gaming perf - DX10 is a framerate killer) and wait for the 7 to come out.

<3 Haxx!

The GPU is going to come pre-overclocked. I know it is usually cheaper to just buy a regular graphics card and then overclock it yourself, but this card was just so god damned dirt cheap I could hardly believe it. It is a GTX260+ Core 216 which is much better than a regular Radeon 4870 (except at super high resolutions on games that use lots of shaders) and it costs basically the same price (It's supposed to be about $100 extra just for a regular GTX 260+ let alone an overclocked one). I assume that Galaxy would have made sure the card stayed at a stable temperature, but I was a bit worried about how hot is will be inside my case because of it. The case itself comes with a rear exhaust fan and one up the top as I said but it doesn't have one on the side or front, so I'm a little bit worried. But I guess there's no harm in just seeing how it all pans out and if it is too hot it's no big deal if I have to order some more fans.

Also I'm a bit worried about my 650 watt power supply. Will it be able to power a overclocked GTX260+ 216, even if it's one of the best and most expensive of the bunch? The Galaxy site says you need a minimum of 500 watts but I think that's a bit BS.

And yeah I don't plan on trying to overclock the CPU until the E8500 becomes outdated and I either need to overclock or get a new CPU. Basically I'm pretty confident this PC will sit happily between 30-40 FPS's on Crysis at 1680 x 1050 resolutions on the very high graphics settings. So I don't think there will be any use overclocking the CPU for a while yet.

I like ATI graphics cards and I've heard good things about them, but I've heard not a lot of good about AMD processors so I was hesitant in buying one. Like I know they are cheaper but looking at some benchmarks they seem a bit slower and a bit more unreliable then the intel ones. I've heard their newest quadcore ones that just came out are a lot better though.

I kind of want Vista because of it's media center stuff and it's compatibility to my Xbox. Like I will be able to stream video from my PC to my Plasma TV (through my Xbox) without having to burn any CD's which I think is massive win. Also after trolling a lot of PC sites I've heard that now, with a good PC direct X10 isn't that much of a killer anymore. I've seen a few benchmarks and it's maybe a few frames (3-5) less at best on high settings since SP1, which I am prepared to deal with. I wish I could wait to upgrade my PC until Windows 7 came out, hopefully by that time intel core i7 would be mainstream and cheap. But my current PC is as dead as a door nail right now (it has broken down 3 freaking times in 1 month so I think the Mobo or BIOS is dead) so I need to get a new one right now.

And yeah I'll PM you

Edit: Said that it was windows core i7 instead of intel >.>

Yeah, early AMD multi-core chips really suck because of a bunch of driver issues. Intel managed to keep a good amount of performance by just fitting two chips on the same die (something AMD got nuts about).

Since you are going to use the windows media center stuff I think Vista will be really really worthy.

Plus the 650W power supply shall be enough. Under heavy load the factory overclocked loads at about 321W which means ~550W of total system power consumption so yeah. Also GTX 260s are almost as cool as a high-end graphics card can get.

Awesome!

Totally gunna order the parts tomorrow

Can't wait to have a decent gaming machine XD

Just do not forget to get Crysis altogether

Oh nice. Hehe you have got some nice part's their. Lol I'm sure your comp will come out okay. Though make sure you bought some back-up disks.



Just asking, is it Window's XP Vista Home Premium? If so you got your self a hell of a deal. Lol I have XP Vista. Good comp.

Thanks Naruto Nii-chan

It's windows Vista home premium but I just realized what OEM version means so I'm going to have to spend an extra $100 to buy the regular version

I wish I had a regular WinXP CD so I could get an upgrade version but my old computer was a crappy old dell and that OS won't work on other PC's =/

Also great job for posting so much for being here such a short time, but you can't double post unfortunately If you have something else to say after your first post and no one else has posted yet just edit what you want to say into your original post

*goes and edit's your post to show how it should look like*

It's no big deal but I am a mod and stuff so I have to do these things sorry =/

.......





Lol new to the forum thing. A friend recommended it. But thanks for the head's up. And how do you become a mod on Naruto Community? I wanna see if I can make it to 50 posts today. XD

Sorry im soft ware not hard ware = ) But i have the same case its so quiet and is great for over clocking great buy

You just double posted again =/

And yeah thanks Gamer XD

I was thinking of getting the Antec 900 case but after seeing how freaking ridiculous it looks (like seriously my god) I had to downgrade to the more "normal" looking Antec 300 case.

LOlz I refuse to read all of that =) anyways I read the topic your makeing your own computer awesome dude!!!!

<- Posting from my brand new computer that I built

It's finished, everything seems to be working fine. I fucked up one bit, where I broke the HDMI cable that goes into the graphics card (I put it in then realized I needed to get it out again and it wouldn't come out and broke it from pulling too hard) but that's ok because I will ever have use for HDMI on this computer anyway.

It was damn easy putting it together. The hardest part was doing the cable management (that took like 2 hours -_-) and the CPU fan, the rest was cake. I'd recommend building your own computer to anyone

Lol HDMI Cable really isn't a big deal, but if you have a High-Def TV like I do then it becomes a problem. Trust me first off the High-Def won't work with out the damned cable and second off, the ******* TV gave off problems in the first place. ******* Sony, no idea what's going on with em'. Cause Sony has all way's been the best. -_-;

Oh crap not the HDMI cable the SPDIF audio-in cable.

I think all the audio one does is allow the monitor/high def tv to have audio, I think. My monitor doesn't have a speaker so it's fine (I hope).

I have the same moboard but for amd, really good boards and i have a 650w carsair and it runs it fine my pc is pretty much same as urs but amd and more hdd space.

If the prices are right wat u put on there u are getting ripped off btw u shouldve got a radeon 4890 gpu for aobut the same price but its heaps faster.

Keep in mind, this topic was made about 6 months ago now, and since then 4890 prices have dropped considerably because ATI want to sell as many of their current cards as possible because of the imminent release of DX11

*Bangs head* doh!, maybe i should check that xD

Yeah I'm also Australian, because of our dollar you would have to put at least half on again on the prices that you would pay in America.

I wish I could have waited a little bit longer for the i7 boards and CPU's to go down in price, but my old PC was dead >.< I'd probably get a 4890 now, good, solid and cheap card. Or go for broke and buy one of the Nvidia behemoth's. I picked the worst time to buy my PC though haha. The Australian dollar was the weakest it had been in years, the i7 boards and chips were ridiculously overpriced and the only good gfx cards were the GTX 260+, 4870, 4870X2 or the GTX 280 all of which were about to be replaced by the 4890, GTX 275 and the GTX 290 >.< so I'm left with an over priced PC with a relatively low shelf life (once my Duo processor is outdated I'm probably going to have to buy a new PC because my board doesn't fit the i7's >.<). Should be a while though, I haven't even had to OC yet and it can play Crysis at 1680x1050 res on very high settings at a decent FPS rate so I'm hopeful. But I had no choice in the matter, I needed a PC so what's done is done.

Im in New Zealand so ours are even more expensive xD 4890 are about 350 here atm