~seven's computer~

[seven]

so I am getting a new computer

my old laptop's been through three different operating systems, and now that the hardware's starting to fail I'm going to build a new one with newegg--- this is a first for me though and I could use some advice. the parts:

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Intel Motherboard, price: $180
PROCESSOR: Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz, price: $300
CASE: Antec Three Hundred Illusion, price: $50 (after rebate)
RAM: Ripjaw Series 4GB x2, price: $70
HARD DRIVE: Seagate 500 GB 7200 RPM x2, price: $80
GRAPHICS CARD: GEForce 128-bit DDR2(?), price: $65
SATA DVD Writer, price: $20

so the total's around $765, which although under my $800 budget, is a little more than I'd like to spend. if I can get the price under 700 without hurting performance too much, that'd be super fantastic. however, I'm not much of a hardware person, so I have some questions:

• what should I use for a power supply? Is 500w enough?
• are there any parts here that are incompatible, not 64-bit, or create a bottleneck? I based this off of a model that already worked, but I thought it'd be safer to ask, y'know.
• I'm confined to the i7 series for various reasons, but I was thinking about going with a slightly older model like the i7-860, which could save $50 (new) to $100 (used). I'm not really sure what the repercussions of a slower clock speed are, though (2.8 GHz compared to 3.4).
• I'm planning on buying two of those seagate hds so I can put a different os on each, and choose which to boot from on startup. Is this possible? Would I have to change the boot loader each time I wanted to switch, or can boot loaders handle multiple hds?

thanks in advance, guys. you are all awesome.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

The sandybridge i7s are significatly more powerful than the previous generations, so I would stick with sandybridge.

That video card, however, is not even worth buying, if you are going to get that save a few bucks by picking up like anything off craigslist or something.

Also, more importantly, that motherboard and that processor are not compatible. You need an LGA1155 motherboard, and you have 1156 there. I mean, unless there's something I don't know and those two sockets are compatible, which is unlikely.

Also, you are kind of missing something else pretty important. A power supply :P

EDIT: Oh you mentioned powersupply. When you pick a GPU, got to the mfg's website and pick one of the PSUs they recommend for that card. (And check to make sure it has the right connectors for what you need)

 

[Draycos Goldaryn]

I'm going to answer the questions I know right off the top of my head. the others require a little more research on my part:

• what should I use for a power supply? Is 500w enough?
  Depends on the requirements of your motherboard and other hardware that plug into it.
  
  
• are there any parts here that are incompatible, not 64-bit, or create a bottleneck? I based this off of a model that already worked, but I thought it'd be safer to ask, y'know.
  Off the top, your proccessor is not compatible with your motherboard. CPU: socket LGA 1155; MoBo: socket LGA 1156

  LGA 1155 is designed as a replacement for the LGA 1156 (known as Socket H). LGA 1155 has 1155 protruding pins to make contact with the pads on the processor.Processors of LGA 1155 and LGA 1156 sockets are not compatible with each other since they have different socket notches. However, cooling solutions are backwards compatible between both LGA 1155 and LGA 1156 sockets, due to both having the same distance of 75 mm between each screw hole

• I'm confined to the i7 series for various reasons, but I was thinking about going with a slightly older model like the i7-860, which could save $50 (new) to $100 (used). I'm not really sure what the repercussions of a slower clock speed are, though (2.8 GHz compared to 3.4).
  This would require more research as I'm not familiar with clock speeds...
  
  
• I'm planning on buying two of those seagate hds so I can put a different os on each, and choose which to boot from on startup. Is this possible? Would I have to change the boot loader each time I wanted to switch, or can boot loaders handle multiple hds?
  yes this is possible. If using different windows OSes, they should be able to dual-boot even on different HDDs, if using windows and linux, install windows first, then linux. it will work as I had that setup for sometime on my old computer.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

The slower clock speeds is only part of the reason why the sandybridge processors are faster. They also have better instruction sets and thus can do more per cycle. Plus, I believe they have more cache and other details like that.