With a lot of help from Tari I have put together a part list for a computer I plan on building for myself. Here is a link too the newegg wish list. Linky

I already have a unused HD and a few optical drives hence the lack of a HD in the Wish list. I could use a case I already have but it looks like sh** so I figured it was worth it for the one I picked out. If anyone has suggestions on how to improve it or lower the price please let me know. I don't want to go any higher unless I have too, so if similar or better components can be found else where for cheaper that would be helpful. Keep in mind I don't do much gaming so I don't need it to be extremely powerful but I need it to last me through college.

Are you just going into your first year of college? Four years is a lot to ask out of original hardware. And besides, upgrades are half of the fun! Your case looks a little flimsy, but manageable. I'd grab an extra fan or two for it if it has mount points. But for the price, it should work.

Oh, and that looked like a darned nice video card for a non-gamer. Are you into image and video editing or something?

meh IDK I just wanted something a little nicer there and the fact that I do a lot of 2d and 3d CAD that would love a nicer gfx card.

Couple of things.
1) Do you really need *3* dvd-rw drives?
2) Get this PSU instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
3) You have picked out 6x1gb of RAM, but your motherboard can only hold 4 sticks. Get 2x2gb instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 (its cheaper too ) <- Only need 1 of these! Or get 2 if you want 8gb of RAM

What can handle 8GB of RAM? Can any 64-bit operating system do it, or does XP fail about 4GB?

1) I only have one DVD-rw drive
2) thanks for the better PSU the one I had picked wasn't final at that point anyway
3) There are only two sticks of ram there as far as I can tell but I switched to the ones you picked because after mail in rebate they are cheaper than the two 1GB sticks I had there.

after you factor in mail in rebates and combo deals this comp is under $750 which I think is awesome so once I have the $$ its mine hehe. then to install fedora(or maybe some other linux distro, not sure exactly where to go there.) and vista on it

Still got 3. Hint: Look at the "Qty." column



Same as above, you had 3x 2x1gb kits of RAM. Now that you've swapped it with what I picked, its back down to 1.



fedora sucks, get Ubuntu. Oh, and make absolutely certain you get the 64-bit versions.



64-bit only 32-bit actually stops around 3-3.3gb, depending. There are artificial restrictions on the maximum amount of RAM that Windows supports, though.
Basic x64: 8gb
Premium x64: 16gb
Ultimate, Business, XP x64: 128gb

I have no idea what the limit is for 64-bit linux...

Hmm yeah Nikky on tcpa sees three disk drives also so it must be a newegg glitch, and yes I plan on using 64Bit versions of whatever os's I use. Hmm with linux it really just depends on who you talk to I'm running Xubuntu on one of my pc's atm so I might as well stick to what I know, but I wanted to give fedora a try though I guess thats what VM's are for hehe.

Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Kubuntu are all the same a thing, they just use a different DE/WM

In more explicit terms: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, and indeed any *buntu are all based on the exact same core system. The only difference between them is how the GUI is handled, ie, what Desktop Environment or Window Manager (DE/WM) is used. Other than that, they're identical, so it just comes down to personal preference of which DE you prefer the most.

I know that I was just stating that I've used *buntu OS's before so I might as well stick to them for now.
I only use the xfce WM on that comp because it only has a 700mhz cpu and 256MB of ram(used to be 128MB)

Wait, you are planning to use Linux, right? I am not sure about the current state, but the Linux drivers for ATI cards are notorious for being buggy and unoptimized. You should probably check out an nVidia card (for that price, probably a 512MB 8800GT or a 9600GT) instead, unless someone corrects my opinion that the Linux ATI drivers suck big time. I had personal experiences with them (with an old ATI Radeon X1600 under Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10, and that was before Hardy came out and before I got my 8600GT because I was so fed up with the ATI card), and believe me, they were not pretty...

Also, are you sure you need a 750W power supply? Unless you know you will be running SLI/Crossfire in the future, will upgrade to quad-core processor, or do some serious overclocking, I doubt you'll need anything more than a 600W power supply.

Oh, and about your motherboard: I suggest you get something that is both DDR2 and DDR3 capable (if you can afford it(, as DDR3 type memory is slowly starting to take over DDR2's territory. However, I wouldn't suggest getting a board with only DDR3 support, as the current pricing for DDR3 sticks is too high (around $80 for 2GB).

ATI drivers have improved tremendously (one of their latest drivers, don't remember which, was a complete overhaul, hence the sudden turn around from crappy to good ), and ATI is making their specs open, so there are now open source drivers as well. The equal in price/performance for Nvidia would be the 9800GTX, the 9600GT and 8800GT both trail the 4850 by a good margin. The 4850 is definitely the best choice for now.



Hell, a 550w power supply is more than enough to do everything you just listed at once, but since the 750w is cheap, why get something with less power? It'll just serve to future proof the machine a little, and will help prolong the PSU's life (higher the load, shorter the lifespan)



DDR3 has made absolutely zero headway against DDR2. Its not any faster, and its stupid expensive. There is also absolutely no reason to get a motherboard with DDR2/DDR3 support, as they are more expensive, and the RAM certainly won't be a bottleneck in his machine. Also, LGA 775 is going to be replaced pretty soon, well before DDR3 becomes "standard", so future proofing his RAM won't make sense since he has no real upgrade path to begin with.

Kllrnohj, a 5050w power supply? Are you running a 16-head video card in that thing or something? Hmm, I wasn't aware that DDR3 was even out yet for anything other than graphics cards. I'd agree about the warning against a DDR2/3 board, since I had also heard that LGA775 is getting retired soon.

Heh, good catch. I initially had a 500w, then went back to change it to 550w, guess I missed the backspace key

DDR2/3 are *NOT* the same as GDDR2/3, by the way (at least, I'm fairly positive they aren't ). The specs and RAM modules are different, as are their rated frequencies. And actually GDDR4 has been out for a while, but nobody uses it because it basically costs more for the same performance. The new ATI 4870s use the newly released GDDR5, which basically doubles the bandwidth over GDDR3

Should I look into a board with more of an upgrade path then or just stick with the one I have picked out?

You can't. The replacement for LGA 775 isn't out yet. I recommend sticking with what you got. It'll be very fast

OK then I'm pretty much set then
oh yeah for the OS I plan on dual booting Vista Home Permium 64-bit OEM (from newegg) and Ubuntu at least for the moment. I may switch Linux distros later but since I have Ubuntu experience I'll use that to start with.

Has 64bit vista got any better with driver support yet? Does everything still have to be officially 'signed?'

Yes (honestly its support is about the same as that of 32-bit Vista) and mostly yes (The situation hasn't changed in that all drivers must be WHQL signd, unless you disable the check or override it, which has always been possible).