In honor of Windows 7, and my increasing frustration with my 4 year old DELL computer, I figured I would pony up and build myself a nice developer rig. Even though it is my home computer my typical usage is work related; Visual Studio(s), SQL Server, IIS, Virtual Machines, etc... My wife's typical usage is email and web browsing. We are not gamers at all; not even solitaire! The most graphic intense application I use would be Google Earth.
I was initially thinking RAID 0 15K rpm SAS drives with the new ASUS MB, but that bumped my cost up way too much. Plus, the performance benefit of RAID 0 doesn't outway the issue of losing one drive loses all data factor. So I decided to go with a single 300GB 10K RPM SATA drive. I don't need much in the way of disk space since all music, video, doc's, etc... are sitting on a file server (that needs to be upgraded).
The last PC I made was about 7 years ago. It was a beast of a machine with Dual SCSI CD drives and a DVD drive. Does one really need more than one optical drive these days? I don't remember the last time I needed to duplicate a disc.
Here is what my initial thoughts are. Starred rows are the upgraded components that I am not sure are worth it for my usage. This doesn't include monitors, which I desperately need, but will be holding off on.
Any comments would be appreciated. I want to get this project rolling ASAP!
| Motherboard |
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 |
$290 |
| RAM |
CORSAIR XMS3 12GB |
$259 |
| Video |
Sapphire HD 4770 512 MB |
$109 |
| HDD |
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000 RPM |
$230 |
| DVD |
Sony Optiarc DVD/CD Burner |
$30 |
| Card Reader |
SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB |
$13 |
| * CPU |
i7-950 |
$570 |
| - CPU |
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz |
$270 |
| CPU Cooler |
COOLER MASTER V8 |
$55 |
| - Case/PSU |
Antec Sonata III 500 |
$110 |
| * Case |
Antec P183 |
$155 |
| * Extra Fan |
Antec 75003 120mm Case Fan |
$13 |
| * PSU |
Antec earthwatts EA500 500W |
$70 |
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"Cheap" |
$1,366 |
| |
Expensive |
$1,739 |