A topic? From me?

[Dr. Kraus]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150516&cm_sp=Cat_Video_Cards_%26%2338%3b_Video_Devices-_-Daily_Deals-_-14-150-516

Here you go, a graphics card that will run for a min of 5-7 years and keep up with the times!

[Krizonar]

9.25" x 4.4" x 1.5"
I'm not even sure if that'll fit in most cases!

Also, a lot of people are saying http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129146 is the best overall deal for performance vs price. It's similar to the card I had picked, but not the same one. It's got a low 425w requirement, apparently cools well and is almost as fast as the 6,000 series cards according to multiple reviews on multiple cards where they compare it to this one.

Either way, even if I choose a sapphire, a 600 watt constant PS will handle it too.


edit; Price is now $543 because shipping is 3 dollars higher. I think this is the card I will stick with as it's cheap, runs cool, only 425w, has good reviews (when not DOA) and has performance that can fight a 6,000 series.

[Krizonar]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152042

700 watt continuous, bronze rated for efficiently at 82% AND a blue LED? with over 70% 5 star rating? Heck yes?

This powers it with room to spare if I in-fact do upgrade it to something more power intensive. (don't really want to go with an on the dot 550... as that's exactly what the system needs)

[Red-Machine]

Kriz, considering Katerina won't be gaming on this, you could save massive amounts of cash on it by buying lesser parts.

She's not going to need that quad core or 8GBs of RAM, hell even I don't need that much RAM.

Only 8x on that DVD-RW drive?  That's slooooow.  Look for a 22x one at least, they're all cheap these days anyway.

She won't even need that HD5750, I'd say she'd be happy with onboard graphics (provided it was robust enough) or a GeForce GT210 or GT220.

You could save yourself a few hundred dollars by downgrading your current plans a bit.

[Nichi]

Red has a point, unless you really want to build her something that won't be obsolete for a very long time for what she'd use it for.

[Krizonar]

It'll be at my house, so I'm going to be using it for stuff too, mostly STO probably.
And yeah, I do want it to last a while, I probably won't ever do this again.
I also said I wanted to build her an amazing computer, not one that just gets by
Money isn't an issue at all unless this thing gets much more expensive, I'm still only paying maybe $40 from my pocket.

A good point on the DVD RW drive, I'll try to find a faster one, it probably won't add much money.

[NejinOniwa]

Remember, Krizo - when in doubt, MORE DAKKA always helps.

Row row. -w-

[Krizonar]

That's what I thought with the processor...

is a Phenom X4 fast enough?

No... quads are widely on the market now...

MORE DAKKA! Phenom X6!

[Red-Machine]

A Phenom II x4 would be plenty.  It's what I'm using right now.

[Krizonar]

I got the x6 for $20 more than an x4 due to a sale. Thought there was no reason not to

[Nichi]

If you want to go complete overkill on the disc drive, this is the BluRay drive I'm using. Since it's an OEM drive (No cables; just the bare drive with some software), you get a nice discount on it over the price of a retail version.

[Krizonar]

Not sure I need Bluray... Never even seen a disc of it.

As for parts, I bought an awesome case at best buy with her money and a 5670 card they had on sale. All were very competitively priced, in fact, they matched newegg on the price of the case.
Also bought a 20' monitor for it. It has begun!

[Nichi]

What case did you get?

[Krizonar]

A soprano RS 101

[Nichi]

Cool.

I would have laughed if it had been an Antec Three Hundred; because then it'd be like you're building a clone of my PC