We maintain several computer parts lists with recommended computer parts for a range of budgets.  We update them every 2 or 3 months to keep you up to date with the latest computer parts. 

We recently updated the lists.

Some of the highlights are:

$800 Gaming Computer - Changed the recommended CPU from a 2.5GHz to 2.8GHz.  The upgrade was only $20.

$1200 Gaming Computer - Switched the Intel CPU to a Core i5 (motherboard as well)

$1800 Gaming Computer - Changed the recommended video card to a ATI 5850.  These cards are crazy fast, relatively low power and support DX11

$2300 Gaming Computer - Changed the ATI recommended video card to the 5870.  This is the higher performance version of the 5850 mentioned above.  The recommended Nvidia card didn't change.  It's still the GTX 295. This is a 2 GPU card.  It's expensive and takes a lot of power but if you want the best... 

Hopefully ATI will release a 2 GPU version of the 5800 series and take back the single card performance crown in a few months.

Most of the rest of the updates were price changes and substitutions for products that have been discontinued.

 The 5850 and 5870 are the new performance leaders for single GPU cards.  The 5850 is 5% to 10% faster than the previous single GPU performance king, the GTX 295.  The 5870 is 20% to 30% faster than the GTX 295.  The performance range depends on the application/game.

 These are also the first cards to support DirectX 11.  DirectX 11 will launch simultaneously with Windows 7, on Oct. 22 and will also work, with an update, in Windows Vista.

 Here's a good article about DX11.  It was written last year, but still holds up.
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2008/09/17/directx-11-a-look-at-what-s-coming/1

The 5850 and 5870 are going for around $260 and $385 respectively.

  When you take into consideration that the previous single card performance kind, the GTX 295, was selling for $500, both of these cards are a great deal.  Not surprisingly, these cards are selling out very quickly.  As of this writing Newegg.com doesn't have any in stock.  Other retailers do have them available.

ATI Radeon 5870 Reviews
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_5870/34.html

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5870-review-test/

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5870,2422.html

 You can find the $250 Computer Upgrade parts list here.  Why didn't we have this on the site before?

 I got an email from a 14 year old in Houston who wanted to upgrade his PC, a Emachines T1801, circa 2003.  It had a 800Mhz Celeron, 128MB RAM. Now he could probably upgrade to a 1200MHz Celeron and maybe 512MB of RAM, but that would cost a few hundred dollars (really old PC parts get expensive).  The performance increase would be very small. 

 So, what I did was go looking for the parts he would need to do a real meaningful upgrade.  I noticed after about 15 minutes that the parts I was finding were ones I had seen before.  They were from the $500 computer parts list.  If you take off the hard drive, DVD drive and the externals (monitor, keyboard/mouse and speakers) you have a $250 computer upgrade.  This would be extremely fast compared to his current computer at a very low price.

 You can apply this upgrade strategy to any of the higher priced computer parts lists on the site.  The one other component I would recommend upgrading, even if you already have one, is the hard drive.  If your current hard drive is smaller than 100GB you really should upgrade it.  If not at the same time as the other components (CPU, MB, RAM, etc.) then as soon as you can afford to.  It is amazing how much having a modern hard drive (750GB, minimum) will speed up your computer.

 The first computer I built for the original Home PC Builder videos is now at my parents house (it has been for years).  It had a 40GB drive in it which was big and fast for the time.  Mom got a digital camera for her birthday and she started filling up the drive. It took a year or two, but she did it.  They had been saying the computer was very slow compared to their new laptop.  They needed more space so I got them a 1TB drive.  The capacity was probably overkill, but dad has recently gotten into downloading "stuff" (wink, wink).  They were very impressed by the speed increase.

 I think this is an important addition to the site and I wouldn't have thought of it without getting a question about it.

 Please don't hesitate to email help@homepcbuilder.com or call 866-508-1113 with your questions/suggestions.

The Core i5 is the main stream version of the Core i7 CPU.  The differences are:

• A new CPU socket, socket 1156 and motherboard
• It supports DDR3 Dual Channel, compared to Triple Channel with the Core i7.
• No Hyperthreading

 Intel did release two new Core i7 models that go into the socket 1156, they have Hyperthreading, but don't support Triple Channel memory.  I'm not sure why they did that.  It just confuses things.

 That's all the negitive stuff.  On the positive side the Core i5 CPU and motherboard are much cheaper. 

• The Core i5 750, clocked at 2.66GHz is only $200.  The Core i7 clocked at 2.66GHz is $300.
• Socket 1156 motherboards range from $99 for a basic Micro ATX and go up to $250 at the high end.
• Memory prices for 4GB of DDR3 is around $85.  3GB (what you would need for Triple Channel on the Core i7) of DDR3 is around $70.
• The Core i5 750 is very overclockable.  It's standard speed is 2.66GHz.  People have getting them up to 4GHz on just air cooling.

 We'll be updating the Computer Parts Lists soon and will surely include the Core i5 in both the $800 and $1200 computer.

 One thing to keep in mind is that if you want the most powerful system available the Core i7 Socket 1366 is still the way to go.  The Socket 1366 will be Intel's high end platform for the next 2 years.   Intel will release a 6 core CPU probably called the Core i9 in the 2nd quarter of 2010 which will use socket 1366.  8 core CPUs are still at least a year away, but will probably also use socket 1366.

 

Just wanted to say thank you very very much for the Home wireless Networking videos....  Those were Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!  worth the price of the online web viewing by themselves easy!!!  I setup my home  wireless network after just watching these videos once.....  and its working sweet.... Thank You very much...!!!!!  What an incredibly good service you provide....

Now when you go to watch a lesson you will see a screen shot from the video giving you a better idea of what the video is about before you play it.  This helps visually distinguish one video from another when you are clicking through the menus.

We added the Home Network Builder videos to the site.  We released them last summer at www.homenetworkbuilder.com  They show how to set up a secure wireless home network. 

We've added the videos here at Home PC Builder.com as a free gift to all current members of the site and for new customers. 

If you buy the Home PC Builder 2009 DVD you will receive the Home Network Builder DVD for free.  If you pay for online access to the Home PC Builder 2009 video you can also watch the Home Network Builder videos, right here, for free.

I'm very proud of the Home Network Builder videos. We took the same care in making them as with the Home PC Builder videos.  Several hundred people have watched the networking videos already and we receive thank you emails on a daily basis.   Your feedback, good or bad, is much appreciated.  Your experiences and opinions help us make the videos and the site better, so keep it coming.

You may have noticed we switched to a new theme yesterday.  We've got just about everything working as it should but there are a few issues remaining.  On some of the video lessons the left column is being put at the bottom center of the page.  This moves the video lessons menu you are use to using to navigate the videos in a very awkward location.  We are working to get this fixed.  In the mean time please use the drop down "Video Lessons" menu to navigate the videos if you come to one with the miss positioned left column.

Update: about an hour later

We found the problem.  It's some old html code that wasn't effecting the previous template in the same way.  It will take some time to clean up.  Should have it fixed by the end of the day.

The release date to stores is October 22.  Hopefully we can all get this in OEM form or by some other method before that date.  The dark days of choosing XP or Vista are almost over.

The system builder pack has everything in it you need to install Vista on any computer.  That said, I highly recommend you use the Windows 7 RC1 for now. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx 

It's free and you can get the full retail version of Windows 7 in Oct or Nov. If you just want Vista go ahead and open the system builder pack.