Time for a New Computer
Well, I was going to build a computer for my Grand Daughters. I've decided to give them my old one instead after changing out the hard drives. It's a good computer and should serve them for a few years. It's an AMD Athlon 64x2 5400 with 3 GIG of memory, Radeon 3650 video card, and a Samsung 20X DVD burner. All mounted on a BioStar A770 A2+ motherboard.
Now the question is: What am I building to replace it? (Good Question.)
Let's start out with the case. NewEgg this past week had the Antec Mini P180 (in black) on one heck of a sale. The case normally sells for $159.95. They must have had to many of them. With a promo code, they knocked off $89.96 and sold them for $69.99 including free shipping! This was one of their 24-Hour sales and I couldn't resist picking up an Antec case for a steal like this. (Hope some others here got in on it too.) My old computer is in a cheap Dynex case that came with a 500 watt power supply for $80.00 from Best Buy. It's a nice case and all. But if you can get an Antec cheap, grab it. No questions asked.
Here is what I'm going to throw in that case. (I've already started by getting some of the small parts ordered. I'll be ordering parts a few at a time getting the whole thing completed before Christmas. I'm trying to pay cash and keep the parts off the credit cards. Need those for the other Christmas Gifts.)
The power supply is the Antec Earthwatts EA430. It is also on sale for $44.99. Down from the normal price of $69.99. Shipping was free again. After a $10.00 MIR (Mail-In-Rebate), the price comes down to $34.99. Might as well keep it all Antec! Antec does make some of the better power supplies anyway and it goes with the case. (I hear you can mount the power supply upside down in this case. The power supply mounts in the bottom, not on the top like in most cases.)
The motherboard I've settled on is the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H. From what I understand, this motherboard has a few things to offer that some motherboards don't. For one, it has HDMI built-in and the ability to add another graphics card to boost the video up a bit more. Kind of like having CrossFire without 2 cards. The motherboard costs $82.99 with $8.25 shipping.
The CPU will be the AMD Phenom 8750. This was the fastest triple core I saw on the NewEgg website at the time. I figure I might as well get a good CPU so the computer will last a while without having to upgrade it in the near future. The costs is $129.99 including shipping.
Since the Phenom CPU is a box and not a "Black Edition", it comes with a CPU fan which will hold it for awhile till I decide to get a different one.
I decided on 3 GIGs of RAM total. Since I run WindowsXP Pro 32-BIT, there is no sense in getting 4 GIGs since it can only see an average of about 3.5 GIGs. I'll be using Kingston Value Ram. 4 sticks total. Dual Channel. All CAS 5 Latency. 1 set of 2GIG and 1 set of 1GIG. Total cost is $51.98 with a $13.98 shipping charge.
The video card will be the ASUS EAH4670. This is one of the more inexpensive Radeon 4670 cards. Since most of the video cards are very long and we are using a mini case, I figured I would make sure the video card would fit. This is more of the old style square card and should fit nicely in the case. With 512MB of memory and 3 connectors (D-Sub, DVI-D, and a HDMI), I should be able to hook it up to almost anything I decide to throw at it. It costs $79.99 with a $8.25 shipping change.
I ordered A Samsung floppy drive (WindowsXP still needs a floppy drive for some functions) and a Samsung 22X DVD burner. I have a Samsung 20X burner in the old computer and I really like it. It can burn a DVD that is supposed to have a max speed on the disk of 16X, at 20X. This does speed up the burning process. I'm hoping the 22X burner can do the same thing. (Not all burners can do this.)
I didn't include the cost of the hard drives since I already have them. Both Western Digitals. SATA2. 320 GIG normal and a 500 GIG green drive. (I'll throw my old 250 GIG SATA1 in my old computer for my Grand Daughters.)
O.K. Time to total everything up and see how much I set myself back at NewEgg. (Some of the shipping charge prices won't quite match. I think they take the highest shipping charge and apply that one charge to the whole order.) I've already thrown everything through the shopping cart to get a total on each shipment.
The Grand Total is: $528.19
That's not too bad for everything.
I think this should make a pretty good computer for all-around use. There's plenty of memory, a decent inexpensive video card, and a fairly speedy CPU.
UPDATE: September 27th, 2008
Well, so far I have the floppy and DVD drive along with the power supply mounted in the Antec Mini P180 case.
This is a very nice case. It comes with 2 fans. A 120mm fan on the back, which is pretty standard on most cases, and a monstrous 200mm fan on the top. The top fan takes up about 1/2 of the top surface, so don't plan on setting anything on top of this case if you decide to get it. If you don't know how big a 200mm fan is, this case is about 8 inches wide. The fan takes up, I would guess, 71/2 inches of that width. That makes it a really big fan for the size of this case. (You can mount 2 more 120mm fans in the front, but Antec says you really don't need them. I can see why.)
The floppy mounts in an adapter (comes with the case along with a 5.25 to 3.5 faceplate). It did quite fit flush. It sticks out slightly forward. But not far enough to see any metal, just the plastic front of the floppy drive after you install the faceplate. I didn't think at first the DVD was going to fit right either. Then I gave it a little extra shove and it went flat. (I mounted the floppy in the very bottom slot and the DVD in the top slot.)
The power supply mounts in the very bottom of the case in the back. It can be mounted right-side-up or upside-down. (If you get a power supply with a fan on the bottom, mount it upside-down.) It's kind of a tight fit if you try to install it while leaving the cables still tied up as they were shipped. Once you decide which cables you need from the power supply and stretch them out it goes in easier.
Since I started writing this, the ASUS video card went out of stock once. So I've added a couple as fall backs. These cards have about the same specs, but don't have the HDMI connector. A Sapphire and a MSI. (I just checked the NewEgg website for all 3 video cards and all 3 are out of stock at 6:25PM CDT on 9\27\2008. Is everyone reading this blog then buying the video cards so I can't get one? LOL!)
Since first writing this, they came out with an AMD Phenom 8750 Black Edition. I asked NewEgg if this new black edition came with a CPU fan. They didn't know, which seems a bit strange to me. (Why don't they simply open one of the boxes and find out!) It doesn't say one way or the other in the specs on their website. My experience tells me there isn't one included. That would mean an added expense of a CPU fan. The black edition costs $134.00, which is slightly more then the standard Phenom 8750 at $129.99. They both seem to have the same specs as far as everything listed except for the CPU fan, which isn't listed one way or the other on the black editions specs. If I have to add a CPU fan to the black edition, I will go with the Scythe Ninja Mini. Now I know it doesn't look "mini" and it really isn't that small (110x110x140mm total with the 80mm fan on top). But I've used Scythe CPU fans in the past. (I have 2 of their "Kama Cross" mounted on 2 other computers. This cooler looks like a small V6 engine with the fan mounted on top.) They do a real good job of cooling down the CPU. The Ninja Mini would add another $29.99 and $8.25 for 3 day shipping.
The Antec Earthwatts EA430 power supply is back to the normal price of $69.99. It still has the $10.00 M.I.R. so far.
Till Next Time!