Building My Own PC

[naut]

I'm finally looking into building a new PC after much procrastination. This is my current thoughts so far (monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers not needed):

Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H Motherboard $129.00
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T $199.00
Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler $76.00
G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM (2x2GB) DDR3 $99.00
PowerColor Radeon HD5870 PCS+ 1GB $339.00
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB WD10EALS $69.00
ASUS PCI-G31 54Mbps 802.11b/g Wireless PCI Adapter $21.00
CoolerMaster GX 750W PSU $119.00
Antec Three Hundred Case $59.00

Total: $1110.00

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i5-650 Clarkdale 3.2GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I5650

Fan/Heat-Sink: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler

[Seems I'll be able to overclock the CPU with that heat-sink, to get some extra juice.]

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC

GPU: GIGABYTE GV-R577SO-1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

[I have some older drives that I can also use for back-up purposes, the mobo I picked will be able to handle them as well I assume?]

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL x2

CD/DVD: I'll have to check my parts box, I think I have a spare old one, if not I'll pick up an Asus or Sony one locally for $20~

Case: NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

OS: Win7 Pro, for the XP compatibility mode, I'll have to shop around, no doubt there'll be student deals here somewhere.

Total Price: US$950.9 + cost of Win7 + import tax and shipping

So is this any good? Can anyone point me in a good direction sound card wise?

[pevergreen]

Woah, why buying from overseas? Plus newegg don't ship direct do they?

This is from a local place near me in Brisbane, they ship via Toll IPEC

Basically the same


What you could do with the money saved from import etc


All AUD obviously

You going to put it together yourself?

edit2: as i remembered:

Does Newegg.com ship internationally?

Newegg.com does not currently ship internationally; we only deliver to locations within the United States and to Puerto Rico.

Plus its going to cost a looot of money to ship, and its gotta go via someone else. I could drive in and buy that stuff tomorrow.

[miotas]

www.itsnotcheating.com.au has win 7 cheap for students.

[naut]

Woah, why buying from overseas? Plus newegg don't ship direct do they?

This is from a local place near me in Brisbane, they ship via Toll IPEC

You going to put it together yourself?

edit2: as i remembered:

Does Newegg.com ship internationally?

Newegg.com does not currently ship internationally; we only deliver to locations within the United States and to Puerto Rico.

Plus its going to cost a looot of money to ship, and its gotta go via someone else. I could drive in and buy that stuff tomorrow.

I usually buy stuff from overseas regardless because it is usually ALWAYS cheaper even after shipping+import tax, which is crazy. Especially considering that the exchange rate is good currently. My headphones are a perfect example, I got them for AUS$100 imported via Amazon + AUS$15 shipping compared to AUS$150 locally. That's AUS$35 in savings, or 7 beers in layman's terms.

Yes, I'll be assembling it.

Looks like I'll have to shop around here, and use that as a comparison. Get my haggling hat on. I hate being held for ransom over prices simply because retailers here think they can.

Perfect example:

The case I listed is AUS$76.97 on NewEgg, but AUS$99.99 here. Why the $25 mark up? They'd be shipped in bulk so shipping wouldn't be excessive? They most likely come from Asia as well so shipping and import tax would be less than it would be for NewEgg.

And pever the shop you quoted from the same PSU after factoring in the exchange rate it is $30 dollars more expensive than NewEgg sells them for. When you do that across a range of items and ship them in bulk the shipping+import tax ends up less than that mark-up. So it is still cheaper to find somewhere in Hong Kong/Europe/US than buy locally.

www.itsnotcheating.com.au has win 7 cheap for students.

Ah yes. I remember that, we covered it in Market Research.

Edit - That's Office 2010. I already have that, given to me from Microsoft as a prize for the aforementioned Market Research.

Edit2 - Comparing prices locally and overseas:

Case = +25
Mobo = +20
CPU = +30
HDD = +31.50
GPU = +39
RAM = +24
PSU = +37
Fan/Heatsink = -22

The only thing that is cheaper for me to buy locally is the fan+heatsink. Shipping+import tax spread across 7 items will be less than $206.5 more it costs to buy locally.

Edit3 - Some shopping around and I'm able to get what I want for $120 more than US prices (irritating). I can pick up 5 of the items locally. The other 2 are listed much cheaper in Melbourne, from the same outlet, so shipping can be split across the two items. One is a toss up, depending on the shipping cost, which I've emailed them about.

Edit4 - More shopping around. I can get 6 items from Melbourne plus shipping and 3 pick-up locally for $95 more than US prices.

[Tellos Athenaios]

A comment on that case: it looks rather a lot like a HP case I've seen. That means you need to be careful with the front plastic, the top plastic and also your fingers. Any combination of those 3 could end up severely scratched (those metal edges are nasty, and the plastic protrudes from the case in such a way that the case actually rests on it so pivoting/rotating it while the plastic is still attached is not a good idea).

[Furunculus]

If I were buying around now I would be highly tempted by the upcoming AMD 1045T hex-core clocked at 2.7-3.2 GHz, they should be available for somewhat less than the 1055T which Newegg lists as $200 currently.

Likewise a gigabyte 890GX board for $139 such as this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-435-_-Product

For the graphics card, there is little to beat a Nvidia 460 GTX at the moment.

[jabarto]

Looks really good. All I'd say is forget sound cards. Onboard sound is good enough these days to handle everything you can throw at it.

[pevergreen]

For the graphics card, there is little to beat a Nvidia 460 GTX at the moment.

Really? I thought the 400 series from nvidia was below the ATI equivilent.