vkendromeda said:
Nvidia: 9800GT 1GB Rs 11500~12000
LOL, You want to group a puny old 9800GT with the likes of Core i7 920, MSI X58 and 6GB DDR3 RAM.
eyeatoma said:
CPU: Intel Core i7-920
RAM: 6GB DDR3
MOBO: Gigabyte or Asus...which is better, which would you recommend.
The main gripe of the Core i7 platform today is very high cost of the motherboards, and DDR3 RAM. An avg to decent motherboard costs about 15k and a high end enthusiast board costs 20~30k. Similarly DDR3 RAM is pretty costly. These main components alone are gonna cost you near the 50k mark and what you are gonna end up with is the lowest end of the core i7 range.
You can probably get a Q9650 for the same price as the Core i7 920 and with min effort you should be able to overclock and run it stable at 3.8~4.0 GHz. Even though i7 is faster than the Core 2, its overclock ability is comparatively less. Also you have a choice of mid to high end Core 2 motherboards ranging from 10k~20k. A typical X48 based high end DDR2 ram based Core 2 mobo will set you back by about 14~15k. You can cram high end DDR2 RAM on it to its full capacity of 8GB for a mere 5k. What you are getting here is a top of the line Core 2 that matches and exceeds a Core i7 920 with a little overclocking, a feature rich high end Mobo and 8GB of high end DDR 2 RAM thats gonna last you for quite a bit.
At the present moment I don't see any reason why one should go for a Core i7 unless one doesn't want to bother with overclocking or one wants the ability to run either SLI or XFire on the same mobo.
As for the brand of mobo, which ever option you go for, both Asus and Gigabyte are good. I have used quite a number of Asus products and their quality is good, but if you have the mis-fortune to run into problems, then you have to put up the poor customer service some of the cases of which are out right horror stories. Though I never had a problem with any of the Asus product I bought, I have had personal expr with Rashi for another brand (XFX) that they cater to and believe me its really bad. I am currently on Gigabyte board and its equally good.
eyeatoma said:
I would say you should settle for at least 2~3TB. The avg size of a game these days is upwards of 5GB and can go up to 18GB. If you are into downloading movies and stuff, then you will run out of space faster than you think. I have 2.4TB of Disk space and I am already on the verge of getting another two HDD's comprising 2~3TB.
eyeatoma said:
GPU: An NVIDIA 512-1024mb card...Haven't kept up with the latest graphics cards for the last 4-5 years, so I'm not sure what would be a good mid to semi high end card. All I know is I don't want an ATI product. I would be willing to go for a 1gb gpu if it fits the budget.
The onboard memory of a Graphics card is a wrong unit of measuring a GPU's capabilities. There is no card currently that's gonna last you 4~5 years for all the games that get released in this period. Also I don't know what you have againist ATI/AMD, but they have some of the most value for money GPU's these days. Anyways, considering the other components you want to pack your PC with, I would suggest that GTX295, Radeon 4870X2 and GTX280 are good choices for you.
eyeatoma said:
Cooling fans: What kind do I need?
That depends on your cabby and your tolerance to noise. For example I have 9 x 120mm fans in my Stacker 830 (1 on Top, 2 on front for HDD cages, 3 on the side panel, 1 on the back and 2 fixed two my Ultra 120 Extreme Heat Sink cooling my CPU. This is excluding the fan in my Corair HX1000 PSU and the fans in my two HD4850 graphics cards. Two of the 120mm fans are Panafalo Ultra High speed fans rated 115CFM and the rest of are GlacialTech fans rated for 110CFM. As you can imagine, I can literally hear my PC from outside my house when its running, but I am least bothered about the noise as long as its keeping my components cool. Not everyone has such tolerances and you should choose your fans accordingly.
eyeatoma said:
Disc Drives: Dual drives...1 Blue Ray Burner and one DVD/rw
You choice.
eyeatoma said:
Sound Card: Soundblaster XiFi
Creative Soundblaster used to be the best for sound cards, but the newer cards seem to be plagued with driver problems. I am not well versed with the choices available these days, but the Asus Xonar series seems to be very preferred these days.
eyeatoma said:
Monitor: 24 inch HD LCD...Samsung? Viewsonic? Dell?
I would say stick to a 24" LCD. Though some may argue that the smaller screens with lower resolutions will allowgaming on much less costlier cards, I would maintain that you can always play the games at lower resolutions on a 24" if needed. A 24" LCD supports the 1080p HD Video resolution and the screen is large enough to enjoy games.
eyeatoma said:
Chassis: What kind of tower do I need, which are the best in India, and are they available in Chennai?
For the kind of components you are looking at, I would suggest CM690, CM HAF, CM Stacker 830, Antec 1200 as your choices.
eyeatoma said:
Mouse/Keyboard: I'll probably go for one of the logitech wireless bundles, but I've heard a lot about Razor? Are they a subsidiary of logitech, or an entirely different company? Should I just stick with what I've had experience with? (That being Logitech)?
Razor is a completely different brand and though their products are good, I think they are still a bit overpriced than what they are worth. However Logitech products too come at a premium, so pick your choice.
eyeatoma said:
Ethernet: Standard network card or maybe a wireless option if available...
Almost every motherboard has at least one Gigabit Ethernet port built in these days. My current Gigabyte X48-DQ6 has two Ethernet ports. My previous Asus P5W had two Ethernet and WiFi Access Point support built in. For WiFi you can always get an internal PCI card even if its not on board. Better still you can get a WiFi Router for like 2k. My router has WiFi and 4 Ethernet ports. You can connect your DSL modem or Ethernet based Internet connection to your Router and connect your PC directly to the router and all other devices to which need to connect wirelessly can connect to the router. This way you don't need to have a seperate WiFi card in your PC and still be able to share the Internet connection and files on your PC across a wireless network. My PS3 and my friends Mac Mini in other room used to be on the wireless network in this way. I can also Access internet while sitting outside the house using my Nokia 5800 this way.
eyeatoma said:
You can get an All-in-one external (USB) card reader for as low as 200 bucks.
Anyway in all this you have missed out one major component that's pretty commonly given very low importance. Its the PSU which drives your entire PC and has a major role in your PC's stability and reliability. Don't make any compromises here. Going by the components you are considering you will need at least a Corsair TX750.
