Q Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 OK, so there's no rush, then. You should still go ahead and sign up for both the Live Search Cash Back program and the Newegg newsletter. Live Search cash back can save you money on all sorts of things besides computer components. I'm going to warn you that I doubt that any system built from separate components will be any cheaper than the setup I posted above. That Dell is really that cheap. The advantage will be in the quality of all of the components and the fact that they will come with a longer warranty from their respective manufacturers free of charge. I'll try to find as many components as I can with a lifetime warranty as well. I stand by the monitor recommendation that I made above, however, in spite of its one-year warranty. You're just not going to find a better deal on that grade of panel anywhere. List of components: Motherboard: ASUS P5Q PRO CPU: Intel E8400 Memory: We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. As long as your motherboard supports it you've got nothing to worry about. Hard Drive: Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB CD/DVD Writer: I can't really make an educated recommendation here. I've always used LiteOn, myself. Video card: Nvidia GTX260 Core216 -The best deals around are on these right now, and contrary to what I said above, they are worth the extra cost over the base GTX260 because they're only about $25-$30 more. Of course, this is subject to change at any time. Power Supply: Once again, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. It should have ~40 amps on the +12v rail. I prefer those with long warranties of 5 years or more. Monitor: See my above post. Case: The only recommendation I can make here is not to go overboard. You can get a very decent one for $50-$60. Peripherals like keyboard, mouse and speakers: You can't go wrong with Logitech. Depending on the deals available when you're ready to buy, all of this should come to around the same price as the Dell system and components listed above, give or take $100.00. Expect to spend around $1000.00 for all of it, including a copy of Windows XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD Nihil Posted November 26, 2008 Author Share Posted November 26, 2008 The tech guy will be doing this yes. The only thing that bothers me is that when I told him of the problem tht I had with the ATI card he said he didn't know you were not to install a driver update ontop of another driver update. So I'm just a little unsure when we get it all assembled of what to do then. I don't want him to put in the wrong driver from the start. And I'll need to have the correct driver so that I can have KOTOR and Starcraft and not have something to old of an update or too new and have one or the other not working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 My suggestion is that since you're going to have an Nvidia card just install the latest driver for XP available, since AFAIK Nvidia cards have had fewer problems with KotOR and Astro has reported no problems running KotOR with is G80-based card and up-to-date drivers. Since you'll be starting from scratch on a clean install of Windows XP you won't have to worry about any leftovers from previous drivers lurking around in your registry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD Nihil Posted November 27, 2008 Author Share Posted November 27, 2008 Great. And since we know the graphics card to use can you give me a link to the drivers page for that card so I can be prepared in that sense in already having the page when I go to update it for the first time? And so I update it to the latest version. And every month I'll have to uninstall the old driver, go into safe mode, run driver sweeper, and install the next driver in windows correct? Like I said he didn't know not to update a driver on top of another. So instead of him putting in the driver from the box like he started out with this one, what should I tell him? I know you have to do something before installing a driver. I don't know what he's suppoed to do, but I'm guessing you put the card in, go through the plug and play process and then put in a driver. Is that right? I';m just trying to figure out what to tell him because I don't want him to put something in that he shouldn't if he's suppoed to get the latest update. You know so I can let him know do this and don't put in this. To modify the process as he installs things. I just want to be able to know what to tell him. I also have the new revised list of the suggested specs for the new computer from Obsiden. Thta thread I gave a link to. Both you and them agree on at least some of the specs such as the procesor and video card. And since some of the specs you don't have, and some specs they don't have, but together both have specs for at least something I thought I'd post what they have in case it might help: Monitor: SVA 2400w 24" 1920x1200 LCD Power Supply: ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD525AWT 525W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Processor: Intel Core Duo E 8400(or something in the 8 series) Motherboard: eVGA LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI RAM: 2x2 GB Corsair 800MHz Graphics Card: NVIDA eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB DDR3 Hard Drive: Spinpoint F1 1TB (1000 GB) Drives: Samsung DVD/CD Drive and Flash Drive Case: Antec Sonata III O/S: Windows XP Pro (32 Bit) They believe the eVGA brand of the NVIDA card is the best brand, but I thought I'd give you links to the other brands too just to get your opinion in case that might help as well. Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125241 XFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150329 Galaxy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162023 BFG: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143157 Their first choice eVGA: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130400 Remaining specs links: Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037 Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 I also thought I'd add in there are really cheap Flash Drives now. This one is a 32GB one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134801 I hope this helps both builds to come up with one better one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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