November 27th, 2012, 13:12
(This post was last modified: November 27th, 2012, 13:15 by DaveV.)
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Yeah, I realized it was a 2.5 inch laptop drive after posting (they all look the same in the pictures  ). I figured if we can get one or two mounting screws into it, it should be stable enough.
@sunrise: innnnteresting ideas. Microsoft's website shows a $65 Windows 7 for college students. It doesn't say which flavor, and I got an illegal operation when I clicked the link (proabably because I'm not using a university url). Maybe we'll need to put my daughter to work on that, although she might not want to dirty her hands with Microsoft products. I'll have a talk with my son about solid state vs. mechanical hard drives. Solid state only might be a viable alternative.
Edit: my original attitude on hard disk space was that you'll always expand to fill up what you have. I've worked in the past with limited space, and there's usually some old garbage you can remove to make room for new stuff. Constant garbage cleanup on the hard drive can be a pain, though. Enough to justify a system that runs a lot faster? Maybe...
November 27th, 2012, 21:21
(This post was last modified: November 27th, 2012, 21:26 by NobleHelium.)
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With your new CPU change, I don't think you need a Z77 chipset motherboard because your new CPU is locked anyway. http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Inte...els-4.jpg/ I would probably just get an H77 motherboard. I hate picking through motherboards though (checking each one for how many USB, SATA etc. ports is such a pain in the ass) so no specific advice from me there.
December 29th, 2012, 08:51
(This post was last modified: December 29th, 2012, 08:55 by DaveV.)
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Thanks for the help, everyone. Here's the final build:
Code: Core i3 3225 3.30GHz LGA 1155 Boxed Processor .................................... $119.99
Asus P8Z77-V LX Socket 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard ............................ $124.99 - $10.00 rebate
Seagate 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Desktop Hard Drive - Bare Drive.. $ 59.99
Corsair XMS3 Series 8GB DDR3-1333 (PC3-10666) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit. $ 44.99 - $20.00 rebate
HIS H777F1G2M iCooler Radeon HD 7770 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card ........ $139.99 - $30.00 rebate
Diablotek EVO ATX Mid-Tower Case ................................................. $ 39.99
Antec Basiq Series VP450 450 Watt ATX Power Supply ............................... $ 39.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit OEM (PC) ............................. $109.99
Motherboard + CPU discount ....................................................... $-40.00
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Total $639.92 - $60.00 rebate
We had to step up to the next better i3 processor to recieve the $40 discount. Spend $20 to save $40, easy decision. The salesman also talked me into spending an extra $20 on the case, which bought 4 fans (instead of 0) and a glowy blue led on the front panel that would have been a disincentive for me but appeals to my son. They were also out of stock on the Toshiba hard drive I wanted, so substituted a Seagate for a few extra bucks.
Final cost was $80 over budget, but I think we ended up with a pretty good machine. I had him run the Windows Experience rating, and all the numbers were above 7, except for hard drive which was 5 point something. We bought the Z77 motherboard so he could upgrade the processor, but that metric says an SSD might be his best upgrade. Anyway, he's able to play games smoothly that were stuttering on his laptop, so that was the goal.
December 29th, 2012, 14:43
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$110 for Windows 7 is pretty expensive these days. You can get it for like $60 if you watch out for deals.
December 29th, 2012, 15:51
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Well done Dave, that's a very solid machine.
There are few SSD lovers more than me, but if the goal is stutter-free gaming for years to come you'll make it quite a while with the current PC and then simply dropping in a new GPU say two years from now.
December 29th, 2012, 16:14
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(December 29th, 2012, 14:43)NobleHelium Wrote: $110 for Windows 7 is pretty expensive these days. You can get it for like $60 if you watch out for deals.
We tried to get the student discount, but it seems as though that's only for Windows 8 now (even though I saw something about $65 for a student version of Windows 7 on the Microsoft site). It does seem like a ripoff for their last generation OS, but I guess that's why people call them Micro$oft. My son is not patient enough to sit around with a fully built but unusable computer while waiting for a deal on the OS.
December 29th, 2012, 17:16
(This post was last modified: December 29th, 2012, 17:16 by Gustaran.)
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(December 29th, 2012, 14:43)NobleHelium Wrote: $110 for Windows 7 is pretty expensive these days. You can get it for like $60 if you watch out for deals.
I don't know about the US, but at least in Europe it's legal to resell software. I bought a used physical Dell Windows 7 Home Premium version for 35 Euros, which I was able to activate without any problems.
It's also possible to download a Windows 7 iso from Microsoft and use it for 30 days until you have to activate it. It's even possible to rearm it a few times:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7...-120-days/
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