Help me build my system - ASUS Z84Jp barebones

Hey guys,

Not a huge expert on putting together barebones systems, but with a few more technical friends of mine I'm sure I can manage it. The reason I want to do is is twofold, first to get a good system for a reasonable price, and second to avoid the 10% tax that I would have to pay for importing a machine costing over AU$1,000 into Australia. But shipping the box separately to the other components I can do this!

So, I'm looking to buy this barebones from Excalibur: http://www.excaliberpc.com/Asus_Z84...02000L0Z_90NN0G311102/partinfo-id-574020.html

I believe I then need to purchase a CPU, RAM and a HDD. Operating system I'm fine with.

So, can anyone provide links to where I could purchase the following specs of each at a place where they would post to Australia?

CPU: C2C 2.0
RAM: 2GB
HDD: At least 100GB, 5400 or 7200

I'm basically not exactly sure if I have to look for a particular type of component for this machine. Yep, I am a newbie barebones person! ;o)

Your help much appreciated.

 

Tomshardware has great interactive 2.5" Hard Drive Charts here.

For what it is worth, my ASUS F3SA came with a 160 Gb Hitachi 5400 RPM harddrive that is surprisingly quick. But this notebook also has a 1 Gb Turbo Memory card installed. I have not decided whether or not the 1 Gb Turbo Memory is helping system performance as advertised.

Jeremy

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond Jeremy, much appreciated.

 

You might want to look into Penryn CPU support ie; T8300 whether the Z84J would support them. It would be much wiser to purchase those processors due to the ramping of technology which would improve the notebook all round; performance, battery life, heat etc. The first place to look is the BIOS downloads, I would assume that it will be available since it's a Santa Rosa platform, as of late a few ASUS notebooks have been updated to support them ie; G1, F8, U3 etc.

EDIT: Gear2play is right, this is a much older system supporting only 533mhz Merom Core 2 Duo's so it will not support Penryn. I would suggest looking for a barebone or ensemble that supports newer processors and graphic cards, it's generally not worth paying for old technology at this price range.

 

z84jp is almost 2 generations old and is not much cheaper then it was over a year ago. this model is technically discontinued now.

 

Its pricing keeps the same for the barebone while other ones came out with cheaper and better configurations.

IF you want to stick with Z84J , getting parts for your system is mostly from ebay will help . THey'll ship overseas to Australia.

CPU works with your system: T7200 T7400, best stick with T7200.

RAM: PC25300 DDR will help just make sure it's 200pin. Sometimes lower end version of 4300 or something is cheaper, get it .

HDD: Hitachi and seagate is your choice. I'd prefer hitachi over Western digital cause WD's laptop hDD is not so good .

Get the 160GB 54oorpm is best price / value wise.


Of course you'll need a Wireless card: Intel 3945 , many seller sell it for around 35$ ship over seas.



Putting it together is similar to desktop, all you need to do is put hdd in to the bracket and secure it in its own slot.

When you put in the CPU, make sure it's right position and don't forget to use a phillips screw driver to lock it in . Then put heatsink on top of it, then screw in the fans.

everything looks like this.

Then the main compartment of CPU and RAM , wireless card are easy to figure out.

 

if you buy this and ship it overseas you will never get warranty service if you need it. the warranty on this is not global. it will cost you alot of money to ship it to the states and back

 

Gear2play is right, after a bit of research, this is a much older system supporting only 533mhz Merom Core 2 Duo's so it will not support Penryn. I would suggest looking for a barebone or ensemble system that supports newer processors and graphic cards, it's generally not worth paying for old technology at this price range. Preferably ensemble since there is less configuration required and better warranty & support.

 

deeve007,
I would recommend two different ASUS notebooks that are already assembled and ready to go. I am not sure about the price in AUS dollars, but you can purchase one for $999.99 and the other for $1069.99 from NEWEGG.com.

Take a look at the ASUS F3SA-A1 ( click here).

Take a look at the ASUS F3SV-X4 ( click here).

Either of these machines would make use of up-to-date technology; implement quality processor, GPU, and hard drive; and cost less than the barebones you are thinking about assembling. Oh, and these also have plenty of toys (finger print reader, TMP security chip, 1 GB Robson, etc.). I bought the F3SA-A1 and added 2 GB RAM. It looks like the kind of notebook I may be able to work with in the future (it will support a new Penryn processor, the hard drive is easy to change out, etc.).

Jeremy

 

Keep in mind though that the F3-s are budget notebooks and the build quality is less than stellar. I'm not sure about the Z84 but the old Z70 is certainly better-built.

Still, I agree this ensemble is pretty old. If you don't need it for heavy processing or gaming it should serve you well, however you need to decide if it's worth your money given that there are newer faster things around.

 

Guys, you've been a lot of help in convincing me that I shouldn't be looking at this barebones system.

The two jxtx linked to above aren't gonna work because I need 17" screen, at 1600x1050 resolution at least. Something with a C2C of at least 2.0, 2gig RAM and dedicated video... any suggestions, apart from filling in the "what laptop should I buy" thing? Oh, and would like to keep under US$1,500. Barebones is good if it allows me to ship things in seperately under $1,000 lots to avoid Aussie tax, but only if it's worth the drama obviously.

 

Go for it if you like it.

Apart from that i don't see any unique 17" out there that is "like no other" when luggin around to show up.

Remember they have good 4 loud speakers located on laptop. Bluetooth ready, dvd drive included. NIce 2.0mp webcam ( but not smoothly for video tube) .

Overall really nice machine , quality build is solid and easy to assemble.

You can go for other machines out there like the MSI 17" screen with all the specs for Core 2 Duo 2nd generation chipset 965. ( T7100 t7300 7500 7700). and 8600gt card with is far better than 7600 that z84j has