I don’t think I’ve ever had such an enjoyable process configuring a newly built PC then the experience I just had with my new DIY project/sweet awesome toy.

I decided recently that the time was right to take the plunge into Windows 7, a decision brought upon me by the release of the P55 chipset (with new i5/i7’s  from Intel) and the release of ATI’s new 5800 series graphics cards (more about that in my earlier post). The mainstream has never looked so good, with the Intel i5 selling for $199 complete with four cores and low power usage. Benchmarks have the i5 besting the quad Core 2 Duo’s and even the Core 2 Extreme in some benchmarks.

The system I built:

• Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
• Three Scythe SY1225SL12L 120mm “Slipstream” Case Fans
• GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3R LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA
• Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB SATA
• 8 GB G.SKILL (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM
• ATI 5850 (MSI) GPU– I found this rare card after much searching
• Intel i5-750 CPU
• Lite-On SATA DVD Burner
• Hanns-G 24.6″ 2ms Monitor
• Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750w PSU
• EDIMAX EW-7728In 32bit PCI Wireless 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Card
• Windows 7 Professional x64

Total: $ 1475.95 (Newegg and ewiz were used for purcahsing. Newegg as always has scary fast shipping)

The machine is beautiful…I’m a proud papa. The Antec 300 case gave me enough room for all my components, with the total of 5 case fans keeping my rig cool to the touch. The 5850 has enough room to breath with that beefy PSU. Win 7 reconigized all my components out the box. I even installed Win off a USB drive for a faster install time!

One item of note: On my two HDDs I set up 4 total partitions. One 250GB partition on the 500GB drive for Win7, the other 250GB for data. Of the 1TB drive the first 250 has been set aside for full system image backups, with the rest for data. This system image partition drive saved me when awful logitech software for my old webcam riddled my system with all sorts of issues, making 32 bit apps run like my 70 year old grandmother. System restore was no help, but my system image saved the day. Thanks windows 7, screw you logitech for your terrible x64 support. My webcam works, but your software experience was enough to make me think twice before buying your products again.

Later I will post benchmarks and more reviews and analysis of my new rig.

It’s a great time to be a hardware guru…Intel’s recent release of the i5/ new i7 CPU and ATI’s unveiling of the 5000 series GPU’s at the end of September (Reviews: 5870 | 5850) are making more then one would-be DIYer salivate. The opportunity exists for both these manufactures to attack both the mid-range and the high-end markets, with the goal of making the enthusiast community want to rush out and get the latest for their new(ish) Win7 installs.  The time to build a new system hasn’t been this good for a while, with this climate allowing many to build modest systems with their GPU as their biggest expense and not suffer a CPU bottleneck.

While the 5870 has a stratospheric price (MSRP $399) and high-end performance but  it’s lesser  sibling that has garnered much attention. Given a soft launch along with the flagship 5870, the 5850 (MSRP $299)has been both extremely popular and hard to find. Granted both have not been as easy as finding a deer in a forest, as both cards are consistently on backorder at most major electronics retailers (newegg, amazon, zipzoomfly, tigerdirect etc).  While one can find the 5870, the 5850 has been largely MIA. Rumor around the internets is that the prices on these new cards have actually increased (!) after launch to the MSRPs listed above.

The intense demand for the 5850 over the flagship product may be the less rigid PSU requirements and the shorter length of the 5850, making it more suited for mid-range builds with smaller cases. Nevertheless, it seems like this shortage of 5000 series Radeon cards could be a major lost opportunity for AMD/ATI. With Nvidia having not yet released their upcoming 300 series GPUs  ATI is left with a product that undercuts the existing Nvidia product line in both price and performance.  If ATI had the cards to sell, then they could be making off like bandits.

In the meantime, press F5 and pray that the little button says “in stock”

Have you had an easier time finding one? Let us know where.