[Bob-san]

Yep, building a new computer! I'm pretty much an expert in theoretical stuff, so I've already chosen and order 4 of the 13 items on my list. Well, let's start out with what I already have, followed by what's currently on order, finished up by what's left to order!

Already have:
Scythe Infinity SCINF-1000 ($38--a great price)
Thermaltake Purepower 500W ($60 with a $20 MIR--another great price)
Abit IP35-E motherboard ($120 with $40 MIR--an excellent buy!!)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 ($75--not bad and I'll overclock to 3.2GHz with the Infinity)

What's left to order:
ASUS 18x DVD Burner SATA, OEM ($32)
XClio 188A Black ATX Mid-Tower case ($50)
Mitsumi Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy with digital memory card reader ($19)
WD Caviar SE16 320GB (WD3200AAKS) ($75)
Sapphire Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB GDDR3 ($100)
Arctic Silver Ceramique ($5 and non-electronically-conductive safeguards my components)
Arctic Silver thermal compound cleaner and surface purifier ($6 and makes future lapping easier)
Transcend aXeRAM 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800 CL4 (4-4-4-12 at 1.8V) ($75, not a big name but Transcend has been shipping more good-quality RAM for less)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (I can't decide on 32-bit v. 64-bit) ($112)

Yep, I ordered the mobo and cpu today, I already have had the cpu cooler and psu for a few days. I'm looking forward to the other $475 ($500 after shipping) worth of hardware to be ordered... it'll take a little bit more time though, so I should have a complete computer by the end of this month, hopefully.

[CP5670]

Abit IP35-E motherboard ($120 with $40 MIR--an excellent buy!!)

Be careful with the rebate here, as the "send by" deadlines are unusually close to the ends of the rebate periods on these boards. If the rebate is about to end, wait for a new one to come up in its place. I got the midrange IP35 model from Mwave last week and got burned on the rebate, since I received it after the date by which the form had to be postmarked. Although the board itself is very good.

[Roanoke]

isn't that, like, illegal ? side stepping the rebate ?

[CP5670]

Well, I don't think there is much I can do about it. At least the rebate was only $25 on that model instead of $40. I always make sure the base price is acceptable to me when buying a rebated item anyway, and consider the rebate to be a bonus if it works out.

It seems to be Abit at fault here, or whoever they hired to do their rebates. Most rebate forms give you three weeks or more to send it in, but these Abit ones only give a few days after the buy period expires. I ordered it a day before the rebate period ended and although Mwave sent it fairly quickly (taking into account the labor day weekend), it wasn't fast enough. If you get it earlier inside the rebate buy period though, you should be fine.

[Davros]

is this a gaming machine ?

no soundcard you do want to play freespace2 with eax i presume

also are you planning on playing dx10 games ? the 2600xt isnt really up to the job

[Scuddie]

Scythe Infinity SCINF-1000 ($38--a great price)
Not the best, but good nonetheless.
Thermaltake Purepower 500W ($60 with a $20 MIR--another great price)
FAIL!

On order right now from NewEgg:
Abit IP35-E motherboard ($120 with $40 MIR--an excellent buy!!)
I hope for your sake that the P35 chipset is enough to counterbalance the fact that it was made by Abit.
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 ($75--not bad and I'll overclock to 3.2GHz with the Infinity)
Not bad.  Not good either.

What's left to order:
ASUS 18x DVD Burner SATA, OEM ($32)
You never know what you'll get with a rebranded drive.  I would buy LiteOn or Plextor.
XClio 188A Black ATX Mid-Tower case ($50)
I have no opinion on this one.  A case is a case.
Mitsumi Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy with digital memory card reader ($19)
OK...
WD Caviar SE16 320GB (WD3200AAKS) ($75)
Good choice in hard drive.  The recent WD drives have been dirt cheap, and reliability has been second only to Hitachi in the non-professional segment.
Sapphire Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB GDDR3 ($100)
Be wary about the 2600XTs.  They are decent at lower res, but fail miserably at anything above 1280x1024.  They also are not as optimized as they should be.
Arctic Silver Ceramique ($5 and non-electronically-conductive safeguards my components)
NO!  Bad dog!  Use Arctic Silver 5 instead!  It's a much better conductor and it isn't a total ***** to clean up.
Arctic Silver thermal compound cleaner and surface purifier ($6 and makes future lapping easier)
Unnecessary if you get Arctic Silver 5
Transcend aXeRAM 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800 CL4 (4-4-4-12 at 1.8V) ($75, not a big name but Transcend has been shipping more good-quality RAM for less)
It's good value, and decent timings.  Not the best, but far from the worst.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (I can't decide on 32-bit v. 64-bit) ($112)
32bit vs 64bit hasn't had a clear cut winner, and probably wont for a good while.  But the rules are 32bit for now, 64bit for later.  It's just a matter of preference.

[Bob-san]

Scythe Infinity SCINF-1000 ($38--a great price)
Not the best, but good nonetheless.
Thermaltake Purepower 500W ($60 with a $20 MIR--another great price)
FAIL!

On order right now from NewEgg:
Abit IP35-E motherboard ($120 with $40 MIR--an excellent buy!!)
I hope for your sake that the P35 chipset is enough to counterbalance the fact that it was made by Abit.
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 ($75--not bad and I'll overclock to 3.2GHz with the Infinity)
Not bad.  Not good either.

What's left to order:
ASUS 18x DVD Burner SATA, OEM ($32)
You never know what you'll get with a rebranded drive.  I would buy LiteOn or Plextor.
XClio 188A Black ATX Mid-Tower case ($50)
I have no opinion on this one.  A case is a case.
Mitsumi Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy with digital memory card reader ($19)
OK...
WD Caviar SE16 320GB (WD3200AAKS) ($75)
Good choice in hard drive.  The recent WD drives have been dirt cheap, and reliability has been second only to Hitachi in the non-professional segment.
Sapphire Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB GDDR3 ($100)
Be wary about the 2600XTs.  They are decent at lower res, but fail miserably at anything above 1280x1024.  They also are not as optimized as they should be.
Arctic Silver Ceramique ($5 and non-electronically-conductive safeguards my components)
NO!  Bad dog!  Use Arctic Silver 5 instead!  It's a much better conductor and it isn't a total ***** to clean up.
Arctic Silver thermal compound cleaner and surface purifier ($6 and makes future lapping easier)
Unnecessary if you get Arctic Silver 5
Transcend aXeRAM 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800 CL4 (4-4-4-12 at 1.8V) ($75, not a big name but Transcend has been shipping more good-quality RAM for less)
It's good value, and decent timings.  Not the best, but far from the worst.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (I can't decide on 32-bit v. 64-bit) ($112)
32bit vs 64bit hasn't had a clear cut winner, and probably wont for a good while.  But the rules are 32bit for now, 64bit for later.  It's just a matter of preference.

I wouldn't go quite that far for everything. The TT PurePower is a tier-3 PSU. Not the latest but I didn't need to burn my pocket. I figured it out and the next PSU that would give me about the same for usable watts would run me the same and would be of slightly lower quality.
The Infinity is good enough--I read some reviews of it and they all came out good--it wasn't keeping everything quite as cool as some better towers, but it was silent and was much more affordable. Next, the board should be good--they've had a nice run for P35 chips for quad-core overclocking (I'll upgrade in a year). The Pentium Dual-Core is fine, I don't think I'd go above about 3.2GHz out of safety--it was easy on the budget too at $75. Next, the drive was the best one I could find that is SATA and has lightscribe--I don't know if I'll use it, but ya never know.
2600XT's should be fine--the GDDR2 8600GTs are complete failures, and a relatively good-quality GDDR3 version would run me $15 more. I only game at 1280x1024, so I'll be fine. Also, future drivers should fix up AA (which I don't think I've ever used with my FX5200).
Arctic Silver Ceramique, I read, will actually cool better with lapped heatsinks and processors. I've not ordered yet, but I'm torn between ASC and AS5.
I would like some cleaner and good thermal compound--I won't be using any of the shipped silicon thermal goop that I got with the Scythe Infinity. Besides--I'll be taking apart the computer at least once after I have it put together--for some upgrades (Q6600, probably a better graphics card, more RAM, and probably another hard drive and optical drive. I actually have a friend who might hook me up with an 8800GTS 320, because he's damn rich and I've helped him even after he gets really annoying. He wants to know something, I tell him about it.

How much will it cost to get a 64-bit OEM license? Will it be a new OS or can I upgrade the license later?

EDIT: No sound card--I can't afford it and I have craptacular speakers anyways, so EAX on/off would make no audio quality difference.

On the rebates... the Thermaltake Purepower 500W W0100RU rebate is for $20, and end date is 20 days after date of purchase. I have to send in the rebate for the motherboard by the 30th of this month. Overall, both have to be out before the 30th of the month.

[CP5670]

I hope for your sake that the P35 chipset is enough to counterbalance the fact that it was made by Abit.

The IP35 series boards have become popular recently, as they combine good hardware compatibility and reliability, excellent overclocking and fairly low prices. I would recommend the E based on my experience with the midrange model.

NO!  Bad dog!  Use Arctic Silver 5 instead!  It's a much better conductor and it isn't a total ***** to clean up.

You have it mixed up. AS5 is the one that is (supposedly) hard to clean up, as it becomes sticky over time unlike ASC. There is very little difference between them in terms of temperatures though and they're within one or two degrees of each other either way. I use ASC since I got a tube of that a few years ago and still have plenty left.

[Bob-san]

I'm looking towards ASC as it supposedly works better after you lap. I'll probably be lapping the processor after a few months, so the ASC "fits" the 600-800 grit wet/dry sand paper. Whatever--it looks like I'll keep the ASC though I know so many more people swear by AS5.

[Scuddie]

You're right CP, I was thinking of Arctic Alumina.  But I still say AS5 is a better compound .

As for pushing a E2140 to 3.2, you better make sure your northbridge will have sufficient heat dissipation to be able to handle a 400MHz bus.  Most boards have been known to overheat past 333MHz.  Be cautious with how much you press it.

[CP5670]

He should get 3.2 easily. Almost any good P35 board can do 400mhz, as they're designed to do 333mhz at stock. The IP35 line can typically go to 500, maybe with a slight vmch increase. I have it on 450 on the machine I'm typing on.

[Bob-san]

I'll be lapping the CPU in a month or so--once the return period (7 days for refund, 31 for replacement) runs out I'll get some 200, 400, and 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper, as well as some glass. Hopefully, I can get past 100% overclocks, and I already know the RAM can run beyond 400mhz at CL4 and 1.9V. Once I find it's 100% stable at 3.2GHz, I'll overclock and find where it's best over that, then lap it to take off the degrees (and keep its life up).

EDIT: From what I've heard, the IP35-E has sufficient cooling to go to a 490MHz FSB. I've heard some things about the Scythe Infinity--not cooling the MOSFET or Northbridge, but that's why I'm picking up that particular case ($50 with a 25cm fan, it's been reviewed very well too).

[Bob-san]

I have the motherboard and the processor!

Abit IP35-E, version 1.00
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 (Prod Code: BX80557E2140SLA93, fpo/batch: Q712A647, pack date: 7/17/07, version: E15237-001, 1.35V max)

[Davros]

well its good you decided to include the whole product code
so many people forget to do that when posting their system specs

[Bob-san]

Yep. It's an M0 revision, though it's an A batch (which I hear is not as good at overclocking then a B batch--I've not seen it really confirmed though). I'm happy it's the M0 revision though, as Allendale overclocks better on the new revision.