Building a computer, need some help

Currently in the process of gathering parts to build a computer. Nothing fancy, just something I can easily play games on. Here is what I currently have:

-Hard Drive
-RAM
-CD/Floppy Drives
-Modem Card

I know I need a cooling system and a motherboard, but I am curious on what parts you guys recomend. As long as it can support video cards, it's fine with me.

 

Get a PCI Express compatible board.

 

Not much to go by. Tell us what kind of Ram you have at least...

 

Like paulo says we could use some more detailed information.

Based on what you have given us i'd say a mobo with PCI-X.
Also it would be nice to know what kind of games you want to play on this system, but i'd say go for an AMD athlon64 and for a graphics card either a geforce 6600GT or an ATI R600/R800 PCI-X card depending on your own taste.

Ram wise unless you have 400mhz DDR memory you can throw out your current ram as it will do you little good on a descent gaming rig.

Get at least 1024 megs of it if you don't want to upgrade within the next year orso.

 

An excellent point made there But you don't have to throw it out, you can sell it to me for my second PC Provided the RAM is stuff I can use

 

Can't give you a exact estimate, but it's around 600MB

 

I'm sure silverbolt meant the RAM speed, not size

 

Nah, he meant what type.

Is it SDRAM (PC100 or PC133) or DDR (DDR266 / PC2100, DDR333 / PC2700, DDR400 / PC3100)?

If it is SDRAM (which has 2 notches in the pin side, DDR has 1), then good luck finding a board that will be any good!

What exactly do you want the PC for?

Here's what you need:

Case (ATX most likely)
PSU (usually comes with case unless expensive case, min 300W)
Motherboard (Socket depends on processor)
Processor (Athlon/Sempron, AMD64, Celeron or Pentium 4)
RAM (preferably DDR400 nowadays, 512Mb preferred)
Optical drive (CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-Rom, combi or DVD-RW)
Floppy drive (optional)
Hard drive (IDE or SATA depending on board - min 40Gb recommended)
Graphics card
Modem (broadband or dial-up)
Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor
Operating System (e.g. Windows XP)
Power lead

The higher spec your components become, the more power it requires. If you're going state of the art with 2 optical drives, 2 hard drives, latest chip etc, then get a 400W or higher PSU.

Tell us what you're gonna use the PC for. Anything specialist? Word processing? Accounts? Surfing? Video editing?

What games do you want to play on it? If there are specifics, name them

Oh, and what is your budget?

 

Well, let's ignore the RAM Ammount for now. Personally looking to build a computer that could run games like Doom 3 or Half Life 2 without too much lag.

Personally, my budget is limited right now (About 300+, however, I have a good 75% of the items on that list), but i'm not looking to build it right away. Just want to get some of the more expensive/important parts out of the way right now (Which would be the motherboard, processor, and Graphics Card). The main things I need are:

-Graphics Card
-Motherboard and Processor
-Case

 

Buyer's Guides

You know, I've always felt that if you want a good hardware review check out
http://www.tomshardware.com/
And if you want a good buyer's guide check out
http://anandtech.com/
AnandTech just did a buyer's guide for mid-range systems, check it out at
http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2324
Now I've been a longtime advocate of AMD chips but there are great things to be said for Intels (non-Celeron that is)... with the fact that I am biased out in the open I'd reccomend you look into an AMD system since you tend to get a little better bang per buck as well as better price/performance gaming-wise specifically.
~Krelian

 

Do the OPPOSITE!

Alright, generally that's a bad idea.
If you're building a machine across the span of a few months it's best to buy the expensive things first but ONLY IF you have enough parts to make it operational.
Why?
I made this mistake once. I bought my motherboard and graphics card first, then bought the little stuff like case, PSU, drives, then bought the all important CPU and memory last. Well, I couldn't run the machine untill I got my last two parts and by that time my board and graphics card were going for a total of $150 LESS!
Typically the CPU, mobo, and graphics card (if they're on the newer side) depreciate in value the fastest, so you want to buy those after the small stuff which doesn't fluctuate in price much.
So, long story short, only buy the big parts when you'll be able to run the machine with them. =)
~Krelian

 

Re: Do the OPPOSITE!

I understand what you are saying, but I currenty have enough to make it operational once I get those things. If I do buy a motherboard, i'm going to buy a CPU at the same time. Already got the memory, and other misc little things *Keyboard, CD-R drive, mouse, monitor, Enough RAM to get it going, Hard Drive, etc*

 

More MORE!

Good, more power to you then. :smt023
Did you check out the Buyer's Guide?
~Krelian

P.S.: The prices they give on the buyer's guide are about dead-on as well with one small exception:
The MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum can be found refurbished at
http://www.dumpinggoods.com/dumping...d=12604-ACCWARE-177NLWRO45&ic=MB-MSI-0125
for only $100. Everyone has different opinions on refurbs though...

 

Re: More MORE!

Yeah, reading it right now. Judging by what I need and how much I have, I decided to get the following:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1205781&CatId=1181
Chaintech SK8T800 VIA Socket 754 ATX Motherboard and AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Processor

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=720575&Sku=D15-1010
Diablo ATX Mid-Tower Case with 450Watt Power Supply, Front Neon Lights, Front USB and Audio Ports

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1121824&Sku=P450-8529
Chaintech GeForce 6600 GT / 128MB DDR3 / PCI Express / VGA / DVI / TV Out / Video Card: 185.00

In all, it would be around 450.00, which I can manage. Would these be good items to get?

 

speaking of motherboards and all, is there any good PCI-E, AMD64 mobos on the market right now? i can't find any.

(sorry for the bit of off-topic-ness)

 

Re: More MORE!

Case and PSU is always overlooked. The case design is great but I recommend a case that also have an open front vent for air intake. The front of it looks like there's no way for air to get inside thru the front of it, which can keep your HDD cool. By the looks of it, the side case fan is what will be supplying most of the cool air which is ok but with the components you'll have, it will be running a bit warm than it could run. Look at their chieftec cases at the same website, those are the best designed cases for optimal airflow. Get one without a PSU bundled in because 90% of the time the PSU inside it is of cheap quality. I recommend you get a name brand PSU such as: Antec, Thermaltake, and Fortron. Get at least 420watts. Its not really about watts, its all about Amps in the voltage rails. The PSUs that are bundled in cases tend to have low voltage ratings which could lead to a death to your whole PC. You can of course buy the case you chose and later on get a better quality PSU.

 

Re: More MORE!

Chaintech SK8T800 VIA Socket 754 ATX Motherboard and AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Processor
At TigerDirect that's $215 after S+H
If you get them seperate...
Chaintech SK8T800 VIA 754 Retail Box $60 w/ S+H
http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/details.asp?PRDCODE=MBCH-SK8T800&REFID=PW
AMD Athlon64 2800+ Retail Box $124 w/ S+H
http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/produ...ATT=Microprocessors PC&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch
That's only $184...
The graphics card link went to an XFX card, not a Chaintech, but here's that same card $21 less (and no $25 rebate to worry about).
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190439
So that took your rough $500 (with that rebate and shipping) to $358 shipped.
Cheers. :smt083
~Krelian

 

PCI supaFLY

The ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe and MSI K8N Diamond nF4 SLI have not one but TWO! =)
~Krelian

P.S.: Gigabyte also makes the GA-K8NF-9 nF4 4X.

P.S.S.: It's quite true PSUs are terribly important, I second madhatter256's reccomendations of Antec and Thermaltake and add Vantec and Zalman to the list of greats.

 

Re: PCI supaFLY

Wha!? two pci-express? you mean, at the same time? never hear of that nor anything like that. what are the big benifits? (yeah, it runs faster...but more precisly?)

 

Re: PCI supaFLY

Well right now SLI is a little shakey, very cool novelty but you end up paying for TWO cards to get performance only equal or lesser than you would for buying just on card at twice the price.
Example:
An nVidia GF 6600 GT 128MB = about $200 buy two an you're at about $400
Those two cards in SLI only match performance with a $400 GF 6800 GT 256MB under PERFECT circumstances, in some instances you get as little as a 5% improvement on those two cards.
If nVidia continues to nurture the concept it could work out well but right now it's just a matter of braggin rights... =)
~Krelian

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/geforce6600gt-sli/index.x?pg=1