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Thread ID: 74422 2006-11-22 04:35:00 Looking at buying Dannz (1668) PC World Chat
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501126 2006-11-22 04:35:00 Looking at buying the following, what do PF1 members think? :)

Case:
Xaser III 1000A ATX Full Tower, Side Window, Front USB, Black, with Fan Control
www.ascent.co.nz
$314.84

PSU:
Thermaltake Purepower W0023RAD, 560W ATX PSU, Black, Retail
www.ascent.co.nz
$176.81

CPU:
Intel Pentium D Dual-Core 820 CPU, 2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 775, 32/64-Bit, Prescott Core, ATX, Retail pack with fan, EM64T
www.ascent.co.nz
$243.00

Mobo:
Abit AB9 Motherboard, Socket 775, 1066MHz FSB, 0xDIMM, DDR, 4xDIMM, DDR2, PCIe-16, 2xPCI, 1xPCIe-1, 3xUSB2, Audio, RAID, ATX
www.ascent.co.nz
$360.33

Graphics:
Albatron 7300 GT Video Card, GeForce 7300 GT, 256MB, DDR2, PCIe-16, TV out, DVI, SLI ready
www.ascent.co.nz
$182.25

HDD:
Seagate Barracuda ST3160811AS Hard Disk Drive, 160GB, 7200rpm, 8192KB Cache, SATA-2
www.ascent.co.nz
$127.99

Total: Approx $1,600

I'll probably just be getting 1gb of ddr2-533 ram off trademe (its about $200 new versus almost $300 retail)
Dannz (1668)
501127 2006-11-22 07:09:00 Are you getting a specific brand of RAM? Because you can easily get 1GB of DDR2-533 for under $165 new from a shop otherwise.... (Legend / A-data / Transcend etc). Or a Kingston DDR2-667 with lifetime warranty for $225ish. Memory is the most common thing to die in my experience, so it's probably worth getting it new.

If you're not REALLY tied to Ascent I would buy a 250GB SATA drive for $126 from NFC Technology, they're a great shop for hard drives (I'm not affiliated with them....) and they're perfectly fine with warranty issues etc. Unless of course you're really sure that 160GB is enough, but a lot of people say that, and they're usually wrong.

Other than that it looks good, nice job.
george12 (7)
501128 2006-11-22 07:28:00 Don't trust Kingston, ive had a number of ram sticks die on me.
$165 new from a shop? link? :)

Wth the 160: its just for OS, my home directory, and all files are stored on my file server. Though yours is $1 cheaper, so i might just go for the 250gb, may as well do the job properly :)


Looking at getting the 3.4GHz version of that CPU here: www.ascent.co.nz

Hard Drive here: 250GB
www.nfc.co.nz

Updated Price: $1735.35
Dannz (1668)
501129 2006-11-22 09:42:00 I thought you said you had no money? bob_doe_nz (92)
501130 2006-11-23 06:40:00 Ditch the Abit AB9 the board layout is horrible and overclocking performance is crap (possibly not a big concern). Hunt down either the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 or ASUS P5B-E.

I'd be inclined to ditch the Thermaltake PSU for an equivalent Enermex unit, but I'm a Enermex fanboy. I'd also consider buying memory for a reliable shop other than trademe, as George has mentioned good deals can be had if you hunt around.

Why are you buying a Pentium D? Need it to double as a reliable heater? Is it safe to assume your aware of Core 2 Duo's and that 7300's offer fairly lack luster game performance?

Why you wasting so much money of such a horrid looking cases? I cant believe Thermaltake manages to stay in business making cases that look like that. If your going to invest so much in a case at least get something original, if man and his dog has Thermaltake caes. Save some money on the case and buy better hardware.
Pete O'Neil (6584)
501131 2006-11-23 22:49:00 Why are you buying a Pentium D? Need it to double as a reliable heater?

I'd definitely agree with that, I just hesitated to suggest it as I haven't actually USED a Core 2 Duo myself and wasn't too sure how the bottom of the line one compared with a Pentium D. That said, I would certainly be going for the Core 2 Duo if it was my PC I was buying. And I would never spend more than $100 on a case, ever. Save $210 and buy yourself some better hardware (as Pete as said already). I would put $70 towards a DVD burner and $120 towards getting the Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 2.13GHz ($383 from ExtremePC).

Link to the $165 ram? Take a look at PB Technology for $167 Legend 1GB 533mhz - www.pbtech.co.nz They have no stock but you can find it for a few bucks more at other places. Don't buy RAM from Supercheap or anywhere with a poorly written, dodgy site with no real details...

Don't know about that motherboard, but you could probably shave $100 off and not really notice, unless you really like overclocking or have some other reason for an expensive motherboard, you should be able to easily get by with a <$240 motherboard. Both the ones Pete recommended (my two favourite brands incidentally) can be found for less than $240.

I reckon you can make it for $1550 with much better stuff in it (pulling 1550 out of thin air).
george12 (7)
501132 2006-11-24 04:09:00 Ditch the Abit AB9 the board layout is horrible and overclocking performance is crap (possibly not a big concern). Hunt down either the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 or ASUS P5B-E.

I don't plan to overclock, and but i could negotiate on the mobo, but i decided against those 2 mobos for one reason or another.
I want Sata-II and 7.1 sound is always nice, as is 1gbit ethernet.


I'd be inclined to ditch the Thermaltake PSU for an equivalent Enermex unit, but I'm a Enermex fanboy. I'd also consider buying memory for a reliable shop other than trademe, as George has mentioned good deals can be had if you hunt around.

Yeah, i have found ram from another shop, and is there an advantage over thermaltake?


Why are you buying a Pentium D? Need it to double as a reliable heater? Is it safe to assume your aware of Core 2 Duo's and that 7300's offer fairly lack luster game performance?

I dont game :p
Core 2 Duo's are out of my price range


Why you wasting so much money of such a horrid looking cases? I cant believe Thermaltake manages to stay in business making cases that look like that. If your going to invest so much in a case at least get something original, if man and his dog has Thermaltake caes. Save some money on the case and buy better hardware.

I like the case :rolleyes:
Dannz (1668)
501133 2006-11-24 05:51:00 Why you wasting so much money of such a horrid looking cases? I cant believe Thermaltake manages to stay in business making cases that look like that.

Its a matter of personal taste.
TT sold millions of them. I worked for a place that sold them and there were people lining up to pre-order them.

I prefer the more classic look but each to their own.
pctek (84)
501134 2006-11-24 19:37:00 Anyone experienced willing to help a minorly-less experienced person build up a decent (and well priced) computer?

Cheers
Dannz (1668)
501135 2006-11-25 08:20:00 Hey mate, well looking around I guess this is, about the best deal for your budget:

. trademe . co . nz/Computers/Desktops/Without-monitor/auction-78614949 . htm" target="_blank">www . trademe . co . nz

of course though you don't have to buy that, you can buy all the parts seperately and assemble it yourself, which is probably cheaper .
BF2142pr0 (11505)
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