[YankeesPwnMets]

So one of my friends who lives in San Diego has $2000 to spend for a new PC. He said that he wants a Macbook Pro 13 inch for $1200, which means that I can only work with $800. Normally what I would do is use my own credit card to ship everything to me while he just mails a check to cover all of the costs to me here in NYC. Then, I would build the PC, go to the UPS store, put packing peanuts all over the PC, buy the sturdiest box they have and ship it over Next Day Air out to San Diego and he would pay shipping as well. We've done this many times before and nothing has broken, gotten lost or anything.

I've gotten a config for the PC out already:

Intel Xeon E3-1220 @ 3.1 Ghz
XFX Radeon 6790
8GB of RAM
XFX 550 Watt PSU
500GB Hard Drive
HAF 922
ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

I wanted to get a 2500K and maybe an H60 or something, but the $800 budget didn't allow it, so I had to settle on a Xeon with its stock cooler. I wanted some other opinions on this build and maybe advice for improvement

My friend wants to play IV and BF3 mainly.

[Slamman]

Xeon may work for gaming, but it's not intended to, Sony got lucky with the Cell processor, which also was not built expressly for gaming, so I have read. It had been "untested" in that application, and developers also struggled with it, Servers are needing to handle high data loads, fast, but not as equipped for OpenGL, or other graphics properties like API DirectX, I believe
As for shipping PCs, I get things via eBay, even my third computer ever was a Presario bought on eBay, nearly new, and cost me $400, at that time it was $100 too much! 533 FSB and Celeron D powered! (since replaced with Pentium 4)

[Warlord.]

Here's a better build I put together for $799.26 (would be $790.28 if you don't need the MX-2):

Case: Cougar Evolution (comes with a free 800dpi mouse and a $15 mail in rebate)

Case fans: 2x Coolermaster 140MM

2x IPCQueen 120MM

PSU: Antec VP-450 450W

Motherboard: AsRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3

CPU: i5 2500k

Thermal paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2

RAM: Wintec One 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600

Video card: Powercolor AX6870 1GB (comes with a Dirt 3 coupon)

HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 500GB SATA3 32MB Cache

ODD: Lite-On 24x SATA DVD Burner

Total: $799.26 ($784.26 after rebate on the case)

This post has been edited by Warlord. on Tuesday, Feb 28 2012, 07:05

[leik oh em jeez!]

Why Xeon?
The faster i5 2500 is the same price - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115073
with the 2500k being only $15 more, but useless if he won't be overclocking.

[finn4life]

Isn't xeon better for server based stuff?

Warlords build is good, everything you need really.

[yojo2]

E3-1220 is just an underclocked i7 with locked multiplier, so it's not a real server CPU.

$224,00 Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115072

$169,99 XFX Double D HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814150521

$99,00 ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813157230

$124,99 Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148840

$39,99 Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820104173

$49,99 Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817371029

$17,99 LG ELECTRONICS GH22NS90B
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827136240

$59,99 COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119233

= $785,94

Here you go. Compared to Warlord's rig, this one has (IMHO) GPU with better cooling system, better mobo (more VRMs), bigger and faster HDD, more powerful and higher quality PSU.

This post has been edited by yojo2 on Tuesday, Feb 28 2012, 11:46

[YankeesPwnMets]

Thanks guys. He let me go up another $100 (rich bastard makes 20K a month ._.) so I took suggestions from both rigs and upgraded some parts. I have it shipping via Newegg 2 Day and hopefully it'll arrive by at least Thursday. I can build it Thursday night and get it to the UPS/Fedex place on Friday so it gets to California by Monday

This post has been edited by YankeesPwnMets on Wednesday, Feb 29 2012, 00:09

[Stinky12]

When you say, you did this many times before, are you saying you have shipped computers many times to your friend across the country?
UPS stores largest box won't fit that case you have as the largest size box is
UPS shipping box: 19.375" x 17.375" x 14" source
CM HAF 922: 22.20" x 10.00" x 19.70"
You may as well use the CM box as your shipping box and I won't rush on shipping it out that quick. It's better that you run some stress test for a
few days before you send it out. Well that's what I did before I shipped out the computer I've build for a friend. I even place a large piece of styrofoam
between CPU cooler and case to prevent CPU cooler from falling off during shipment.
Just make a note telling your friend to remove the styrofoam before turning it on.

This post has been edited by Stinky12 on Wednesday, Feb 29 2012, 03:34

[leik oh em jeez!]

QUOTE (Stinky12 @ Tuesday, Feb 28 2012, 22:29)

When you say, you did this many times before, are you saying you have shipped computers many times to your friend across the country? UPS stores largest box won't fit that case you have as the largest size box is UPS shipping box: 19.375" x 17.375" x 14"  source CM HAF 922: 22.20" x 10.00" x 19.70" You may as well use the CM box as your shipping box and I won't rush on shipping it out that quick. It's better that you run some stress test for a few days before you send it out. Well that's what I did before I shipped out the computer I've build for a friend. I even place a large piece of styrofoam between CPU cooler and case to prevent CPU cooler from falling off during shipment. Just make a note telling your friend to remove the styrofoam before turning it on.

He doesn't have to use a UPS box, he can ship the entire assembled system in the box the case comes in.

Edit: Of course you'd have edited your post before I clicked the quote button.

[Stinky12]

I ninja edit!

[YankeesPwnMets]

Sometimes, if something like a graphics card is too big, I'll leave it out and then he would know how to do a quick installation himself.

@Stinky, depends. If he wants a tiny HPTC or work machine then some boxes will fix with ease. With a larger PC like this, I have my own spare boxes I might use or just ship it in the case box. I also get the boxes Newegg sends over and throw all the accessories, manuals, warranties, slap Newegg's crumpled paper on top, replace the original shipping label with a new one then and ship it off as well. And yes, I've shipped PCs to him across the country. I pay for insurance most of the time just to save headaches. Items worth $100 and under are insured free, then 35 cents for every other $100.(http://www.ups.com/media/excessvalue.pdf) Since the MBP will ship directly to him, the PC shipment is worth $900, then I only have to pay an additional $2.80 to cover the whole computer. which isn't much.

This post has been edited by YankeesPwnMets on Wednesday, Feb 29 2012, 04:22

[Slamman]

I was going over my archived net photos, offline, one is of a half-height GT520 nVidia I think, making the back plate normal height entails a cabled VGA off the front side of the card, this just mates with male to female pin inter-connects.
This one I believe;
64bit memory interface? I likely have that bottleneck with mine, or other cards under $100 in price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814162086

That card would give you some gaming prowess for a small system, and it looks like no need for a Power source

This post has been edited by Slamman on Wednesday, Feb 29 2012, 05:35