I'm having a real hard time finding an intel E8400 (8500 even better!) retail proc on the internets, thought a bwaer might have some suggestions. zipzoomfly has them for like $221, best price I've seen so far but their checkout isn't working for me. newegg doesn't have them in stock, doesn't know when they'll get them. I've tried some other places too, I can find them here and there using pricewatch.com but if I could get my mobo, ram, proc, hdds all at the same place that'd be preferable.. Anybody know of/use any reputable online retailers dealing in pc parts and accessories besides newegg, zipzoom, tigerdirect, ..?

If I were you, I'd probably go for the cheapest socket 775 processor I could find. Since I'm not, and I assume you want performance within a certain range, I'd recommend getting the Intel E6750 for $199 at TigerDirect. Sure it's a 2.66 GHz processor instead of a 3.0 GHz, but the bus speed is still 1.33 GHz for both, and having an internal clock speed that is not an exact multiple of the external bus speed is going to make a difference. Frankly, I don't think you are likely to be able to observe a noticeable difference even if you were benchmarking the two chips side-by-side. Hz is not the be-all end-all of processing power.

FYI: I normally get most of this kind of stuff from TigerDirect.com

Hanley

if you are looking for a nice video card I have a couple of extra MSI NX8500GT I got in an auction I wont be using. This is a NVIDIA GeForce superstar series card with 256MB DDR2 ram. HDTV ready DVI/TV out. its a PCI express so make sure you have it or the card will be useless to you. I also have some RAM but really need to catalogue it and put it on ebay. I was going to do the same thing with these brand new video cards. I also have the old 128MB version if for some reason you want a slower card.

$60 each which is a great deal for this card, I think they retail for aroung $100 if I am not mistaken.

also I use tigerdirect a lot as well and they have nearly everything I order in stock and get it to me fast.
jason

Jason,

What do you want for the 128 MB AGP card and does it have an NVidia Chipset?

Hanley

Re-reading your post Russell, it looks more like you are shopping for a motherboard bundle. TigerDirect has some great motherboard bundle deals, starting with just the mobo and CPU and ending with pretty much the whole ball of wax. Here's a link to their motherboard bundles ranked by price from low to high. If you don't like what you see on the first page, be sure to look further down the list. Eventually your desires will catch up with your wallet.

[url=http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:1599|&Sort=4]http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:1599|&Sort=4[/url]

I'm afraid it's my wallet that has a problem keeping up with my desires Regardless, thanks for the tips. Prolly go with tigerdirect. They have the 8400, which I think I'm gonna go with due to the 45nm tech (less power consumption, heat?), 50% more L2 cache, and plus the proc is totally lead-free! Trying to decide b/w a 512 mb 8800 gt(sx) pcie 2.0 card or a 768 8800gtx. Not picked a mobo totally yet, thought I was gonna go gigabyte p35 but I see some decent intel boards w/ sata raid support onboard, .. still really disoriented from my "attempted" online order...a lot has changed apparently since I last punched my cc# into a web browser.

During the checkout process with zipzoomfly, between steps 4 and 5 (4 being enter cc info, 5 being get confirmation) I was prompted with an allegedly "verified by visa" form. What bugged me was this form was suddenly w/o the zipzoomfly branding, I wasn't expecting to see it, and it was asking really person questions, including but not limited to my wife's ssn, the card #, the #s on the back addresses etc. The verbage claimed it was an "optional program" I could enroll in but I couldn't see a way around it. So, being the tin-foil-hat-wearing-internet-goer I am, I decided I wouldn't complete the form and simply closed the browser. WELL... wrong move. Apparently since I'm a horrible customer b/c I don't ring up VISA each time I change cell phone #s (which I have had maybe 3 since I opened the VISA account years ago) and since I almost "checked out" an online order, it was for my protection that my VISA account has been suspended for 3-5 business days. I got to wait on hold (Chase branded VISA) for 15 min before I got to go through a Q & A with a "security associate" at Chase who asked all kinds of questions like (literally) "What was the color of cadillac I drove in 1991? What height is reported on my KY-issued driver's license? Where did I honeymoon in 2001? Eye color. Social security number, ... I couldn't believe those crazy questions about what I drove, where I went etc, ESP since I didn't even use the credit card to purchase the car or wife (er, uh honeymoon) Regardless...... guess I got the smack-down for thinking about ordering online. Hopefully the experience with tigerdirect will be different? that was just too bizarre...

Dude, doesn't sound good. Maybe that's why I've never heard of ZipZoomFly. Was it ZipZoomFly.co.ru?

As far as the rest, if you're worried about heat, energy consumption and being green, skip Intel altogether. Go with a Via processor. You won't get the same processing power, but what are you doing with this machine anyway? Are you a big gamer? If not, may I suggest you check out this nicely appointed machine for just $200. The Via C7-D processor is only a 1.5 GHz processor, it's true, but it's power consumption is only 20 watts! Via is producing the first ever line of carbon neutral CPU's and Everex is capitolizing on it by producing highly energy efficient PC's and laptops.

This machine comes with Linux installed and fully configured, but there's absolutely no reason why you can't throw your OS of choice on there. Additionally, you can easily up the specs on this machine as you go, adding memory or a better video card. All in all, it's a lot of machine for the money.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3511118&CatId=2635

I might add that I built a computer with a Via CPU in it a short while back and it was a great machine. Loved it. Never seemed to actually get hot. Ran XP with no problems.

Everex is a Silicon Valley company making good headway into the mainstream PC and laptop market. Via is a taiwanese company that really has it's head screwed on straight about hardware manufacturing, IMHO. They are targeting their low-energy consumption chips at mobile devices and laptops primarily, where energy conservation is crucial and heat dissipation is difficult. Everex has a very nice ultra-portable laptop called the CloudBook (pocketbook size, only two pounds) for just $399 and they can't make them fast enough. Right now most resellers are out of stock awaiting the next shipment.

Cloudbook - [www.everex.com]

http://www.via.com.tw/en/index.jsp



Hanley

Jason, I'm looking for a couple gigs of RAM for my desktop.

Hanley I will email you with what I have. There are several models I bought in one lot and they are all NVidia sets.

Todd I dont know what RAM I do have so find out what you need and email me. I will look at it all next week one night and see If I have what you are looking for. Mostly 256 chips so you will need some empty slots to get a couple Gig in there.