Final build list

[johnridley]

One problem with building my own machine is I always spend 6 to 8 hours screwing around doing research and putting together parts. It's kind of fun though, and I only do it every four years or so (and actually haven't done it now for probably more like 8 or 10 years, because for 10 years I've been buying low end machines, and it's generally cheaper to just buy them than build them).

I'm going to click the button sometime on Saturday, since it won't ship until Monday at this point anyway, so if anyone wants to throw any red flags, please feel free.

Anyway, here's the final list. The final pile of stuff comes out to a bit over $550 shipped. A similarly-equipped machine from Dell is > $1000 with discounts.

• Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHz, 1333 FSB - I think a lot of the stuff I do will eat up the cores, and a friend at work says he really likes quad core. 2.66 GHz is where the price starts to spike up - getting from there up to 3GHz almost doubles the price ($170 up to $320) so is not worth it.
  
• Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L ATX mainboard
  
  
  
  • supports up to 16GB RAM
    
  • highest recommended mainboard to make a Hackintosh, should I ever want to.
    
  • 6x SATA, 10 total USB ports (6 on back, 2 go to the case's front USB, 2 go to the memory card reader, one of those feeds through to the front, so 3 up front)
    
  • all the other normal crap
    
  
  
• Some cheap-assed but relatively large case, I'm not really picky on cases, I just want them roomy and matte black with no stupid windows or chrome or lights. Made sure it has a 120mm fan and a CPU air duct.
  
• Corsair 400W power supply, certified 80+% efficient (green) with a really big, quiet fan. Very highly rated supply. I've seen too many problems caused by bad power supplies lately, and those problems are hard to figure out and are very aggravating.
  
• Samsung 7200 RPM 500GB SATA system drive
  
• Multi-card memory card reader
  
• Samsung SATA DVD burner - I've had excellent luck with Samsung DVD burners
  
• GeForce 9500 GT dual-DVI PCIe 16 video card - same one I bought for family PC - has big heatsink with a big quiet fan
  
• [EDIT]4GB of Mushkin DDR2 CL5 1066 RAM (2x2GB, leaves 2 slots free)
  

Probably will be running XP at least at first. Maybe Windows 7, not sure. I haven't tried Windows 7, but I can get it for free(*) due to my MSDN universal subscription and a guy at work who shares my disdain for Vista (and we're not even all that sure about XP, we prefer 2000) has tried it and thinks he may switch to it.

The current machine will probably wind up as the church's office machine when this is in service. I think they're running something like an 800 MHz AMD machine with maybe 384M RAM right now.

(*) if you can call about $1200/year per seat "free".

Comments

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

All very nice, but why not break down and get a REAL computer? The kind that is FUN to use, like a MAC?

C'mon John, if I couldn't give you a rough time about your super powers, I'd hardly have any fun at all.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I don't care what kind of computer I use, or what OS it's running. I just have some things I need to get done, and one OS is as good as another. I use a PC because I can get software to do practically anything I want to do for free, and I've already bought PC software for the rest.

I'd buy a Mac if I wanted to spend something like 4x as much to get the same machine - Last I checked, I'd have to get one of the high end boxes to have this kind of performance, and I think they start around $2000.

"Fun to use" - I haven't noticed that much difference between one OS and the next. Every one of them has its own peculiarities and its own obscure knowledge that is needed to run them. It's just that people who use Macs think that their obscure knowledge is "obvious and intuitive" - and people who run Windows think the same thing, and people who run Linux think the same thing.

If Macs were really that easy and fun, they wouldn't need "geniuses" at the stores to solve problems, would they?

[dark-fx.livejournal.com]

One problem with building my own machine is I always spend 6 to 8 hours screwing around doing research and putting together parts\

Problem? This is half the fun in building a new machine. I'm kind of sad I probably won't be building another computer for probably around 3 years if not more. I occasionally get new parts, but that's about it.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I do have things to do. The computer is just a tool.

I spent 4 years doing nothing but building machines. It stopped being "fun" a long time ago. Honestly, if someone would put this together for me for free, I'd take them up for it in a second. Building things in general is fun, but building computers doesn't really have any creativity to it, it's like working on an assembly line; it's just bolting stuff together.

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute... I sense an odd people collision here. I do not know you two from the same places.

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

Thank you for not using the term "pull the trigger".

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Ugh, no thanks necessary