RandomGuy

A first draft:

• $226.99 Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Socket LGA775, 2.66 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache, 65nm (Retail Box) (BX80557E6750)
• $155.99 Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R Socket 775 Intel P35 + ICH9R Dual-Channel DDR2 1066/800/667/533Mhz GigaLAN 8-Channel Audio Support 1333Mhz FSB
• $194.99 OCZ (OCZ2N1066SR2GK) DDR2 PC2-8500 1066MHz NVIDIA SLI-Ready XTC Edition 2GB (2x1024MB) Dual Channel Kit
• $145.99 Asus EN8600GT SILENT/HTDP/256M nVidia 8600GT Chipset (540Mhz) 256MB (1.4Ghz) DDR3 Dual DVI PCI-Express Graphics Card
• $118.99 Antec Sonata III Quiet Super Mini Tower with 500 Watt power supply
• $109.99 Western Digital Caviar (WD5000AAKS) 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Buffer (OEM)

Total: $952.94 (CAN$, local shop prices)

Please dig in with anything you see as out of line with the other components. The video card is a bit on the low side. I realize it would probably need an upgrade after a year or so.

Zoopy

8600 is a preaty weak card.

=Sarc=

The rest is pretty beefy besides the video card. I think you could spend a bit less on the RAM (go for PC2-6400) and round out the video card to something like the 8800GTS 320MB.

Make sure the PSU that comes with the case is a good one.

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Concr3te

Well it looks like a great build to me too. I'm not sure what you are planning on doing with it, but its said that the 8600GT kind of lacks in gaming. Altough I'm not entirely sure if this is really the case, because my 8600GTS (in combination with a E6600 and 2 gigs of RAM) runs everything really damn smooth (Battlefield 2142 @ 1280x1024, everything on high AA x4, no lag at all).
But because we don't have any real DX10 benchmarks yet it's hard to say what card will really be ready for the future's games.
Maybe even the 8800GTS won't do anymore when Crysis comes out. As you already said yourself, it might be a good idea to buy a cheaper card now and when the real DX10 cards (8900 series for example) come out, just buy on of those.
The videocard is really up to yourself but apart from that it looks like a really solid system.

Apophis

I always seem to have the same issue.

Everything looks good, but I would have gone with Seagate Barracuda ES drives for the SATA2 implementation.

Others have brought up the video card bit, but I guess the requirements for that depend on what type of games you're playing. If you're not looking to support the highest resolutions on the latest games, you don't need to spend $500+ on a video card.

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RandomGuy

I think I will bump the video card to an GTS instead of GT as it's not much more expensive. (Is "GTS" a new naming scheme from nvidia?). I could also go with a 7900GS for a little more still, but that doesn't seem like a good idea. I'm keeping a 1280x1024 monitor so I'm not sure I will get the most benefit from an 8800 series card.

Is PC-8500 not roughly 20% better than PC2-6400? If not maybe I could save money there and also on a motherboard that doesn't support PC-8500.

I am assuming that antec will bundle a quality PSU with that case, but if it's the shop doing the bundling that's another story.

They are noticeably more expensive. What is the advantage?

Apophis

Well, personally the Seagate vs. Western Digital argument is one of failure rates. I hate having drives go on me.

The Barracuda ES is supposed to be a better drive. But as long as you get one of the 7200.10 Barracuda drives you should be good to go. The price difference between the ES and the vanilla is about $30.

The price difference between the WD and the Barracuda is $10.

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RandomGuy

Are you referring to the ST3500630AS ("7200.10 SATA NCQ 3.0Gb/s 500GB 16MB Cache") or ST3500630NS ("ES 500GB SATA Hard Drive")?

And yes, reliability is trump.

Apophis

That would be the ST3500630AS for $10 more than the WD.

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Acreo Aeneas

Same as Apophis.

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Satertek

I'd replace the 8600GT with either an ATI X1950 Pro or an nVidia 7900GS. Sure they won't be able to run DX10, but they're both faster (and cheaper, ironically) cards. It's just not worth what little you gain from DX10 to get a 8600 series card.

The main key is, the 8600 line only has a 128-bit bus, as opposed to the 256-bit bus on the x1950Pro and 7900GS. Without that memory bandwidth, turning on AA will completely kill your FPS in most cases.

I recently bought an EVGA 7900GS KO and it runs Bioshock flawlessly. (The x1950 pro is technically faster by a tad, so go with that if you don't mind buying an ATI card )

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TheSkudDestroyer

8600GT is pretty weak in comparrison to the 8600GTS. I'm buying a 86GTS very soon, and it'll suit my needs more than enough.

Really, I dont need to spend 300+ dollars on a video card.

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icky

Go with Seagate. Although I still run some WD drives, I have a stack of dead ones to remind me how much I love Seagate.

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Satertek

The GTS still has the same problematic 128-bit bus, however.

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CingularDuality

Ugh... And I have a stack of dead Barracudas on my desk. I keep telling myself that Seagate is better statistically, but it doesn't help that I've got four dead SATA drives here.

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