Thinking of getting into some PC gaming

Well, I meant the things to put into a new computer. Seems like I'll have to go in that direction anyways.

I just saw some PSUs, and was wondering what I should go for. I saw some ones that ranged from 380w to 680w as well as a noiseless one with no idntification of how powerful it is.

Also, what would be a *reasonable* price for a new processor be? From the site I was looking at, Microcenter, they range from $80 to $800!!

This is going to take a lot longer than I thought it would but I hope to get it sorted out soon.

I know this is going to possibly come up sooner or later, so what is a good cooling addition for my PC?

 

Ok, heres a PC I just built with parts all from Microcenter. This PC will do everything you want and I will use good cheap parts. If you live somewhere in ohio I would be willing to build/put it togather for you for free. Anyway prices are listed with the parts.


KN8 nForce4 Socket 939 ATX Motherboard -100.00$

AMD® Boxed Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ (2.0GHz) -185$

512MB PC-3200 DDR SDRAM Memory -75$ (you already have 512 megs of 3200 so by using your old ram plus this you will have 1GB)

80GB Refurbished Samsung Internal IDE Hard Drive 7,200 RPM -50$ (you can use your old hard drive if its big enough for you and not have to buy one)

e-GeForce 6600 256MB DDR PCI-E x16 Video Card -180$

Generic Case -35$

Now if you want a bigger Power supply heres a decent choice.

500 Watt ATX 12V Silver Power Supply -40$

Now theres your basic system. All we need now is a few fans to help with cooling. Heats not a issue really unless you do alot of overclocking. 2 or 3 fans will be about 15$


Heres the total for this PC and it will do everything you want well.
TOTAL-680.00$ Factor in tax and thats just over 700 bucks.


Now if you dont want the big PSU or a new HDD the price will become.

TOTAL WITHOUT EXTRAS-590.00$



And if you only want to run with 512 megs of ram then it becomes...

BARE Bones- 515$

There you have it. All parts from microcenter. Like I said if you live in or near ohio and want to drive here I will rig it all up for you free of charge. If you want to make more improvments you can do that as well but this will DEFINITLY handle what you want on high with no problems. Good luck and if you have more questions feel free to ask.

 

Thanks, Micjohvan. You've been the biggest help so far. Double thanks for putting a list together for me!

I went to DELL a few minutes ago and was messing around on their customization of gaming PCs area, and I wanted to see what the most I could make a PC cost was. Wow, before I knew it, I made a $7500 PC! :O

Well, lets see. My HD is big enough for me so Im going to subtract $50. I dont live near Ohio, so I might not be able to get there. Maybe I could mail my PC to you? Keep in mind, though, this may be a while before I save up enough. If I were to mail it to you, how much would you want to charge, anyways?

Im a little worried about the GHz number the processor is pulling. I think mine is 2.93 GHz and going down to 2.0 sounds like a downgrade to me. Im a little confused on that part, but everything else looks good.

 

AMD processors run alot faster, and an athlon 64 is hell of a lot better than a celeron, and about ram, you already have a 512 stick, just get another one , or if money is tight, you'll do with 512 for a while, so get another stick after a while, and about a video card.... get a 6800gt, is just a bit more than a 6600gt, but is alot better.

 

Basically Ghz means fuck all unless you are comparing like with like - a 3GHz Celeron is greater than a 2GHz Celeron, but a 2GHz Athlon 64 is greater than them both. If you want big numbers and a high price then go with intel, but for decent performance at a better price theres no question, go with AMD. Don't question the computer guys! :thumbsup: ray:

 

As you can see everyone agrees with me on the 64bit amd. Dont worry about the GHz so much. I mean compare it to a car.


A 220 Horse power Turbo Charged Eclipse can run circles around almost all Big trucks and luxuary cars that have 300-500 Horse Power. Its much like GHz its more for people who arnt familier with PC's and just look for that number alone. Trust me that Processor I listed will preform more than 3 fold better than the one your running now.


I dont know If you would want to mail it as it would cast alot to ship it. If you ever get a chance to come up around ohio I would do it for you for free and it would only take a few hours at best. I also could install windows XP on it for you at no charge so you dont have to pay like 200-300 for a copy of windows.

Also I looked at the price of a 6800GT at microcenter and they are 400bucks for PCI-E. Thats why I went with the 6600gt. He can upgrade later if he wants but theres nothing on the market now or in at least the next year that that video card cant handle very well.



EDIT: I almost forgot. Fabrizo vbmenu_register("postmenu_133782", true); Listed a website to see how fast your PC is a page or so back. Now I went and tested mine and it came out TOP OF THE LINE. Mine was in the top 3% of all PCs they have tested. Which is extremly good. The PC I put togather above is ALMOST exactly the same rig as mine so you can see how good that processor actually is.

 

"Also I looked at the price of a 6800GT at microcenter and they are 400bucks for PCI-E. Thats why I went with the 6600gt. He can upgrade later if he wants but theres nothing on the market now or in at least the next year that that video card cant handle very well."

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121192

who the hell buys crap at microcenter? new egg all the way baby , and btw. since you are basicly getting a new pc, if i was you i would get an amd64 x2, that is if you want to get a new cpu.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562

 

Mr. Casual. it would be best for you to do this yourself. It is not hard, its just a matter of knowing the golden rules of PC building and having patience at first. They are:

1. Static electricity kills your components!!
To prevent you from shocking your new motherboard, CPU, etc. Before you touch any of those things, touch the baremetal part of your PC case, it will absorb any static you have built up and will ground you. Don't wear socks on a carpet floor. If you go to get something to drink, when you come back, touch the metal again just to be safe.

2. Never force things into place!!
Every computer part has its designated spot. If it doesn't fit, you must quit! If you are not sure, always check out the manual for it will tell you how to properly hook up front-panel USB ports/Audio ports and any other miscellaneous components. So keep this in mind. If it doesn't slide in with the least amount of force, then its not supposed to go in that way or not at all. If you are not sure if what lable on the case says matches what is on the motherboard manual, then don't try it, just don't plug it in, leave it alone.

3. Before installing a motherboard into the case, check how many holes your motherboard has (this is where you secure your motherboard to the case), and then install the right amount of motherboard stand-offs (that come with the case), so that it will be sturdy and not bend the board when installing the rest of the components. Most cases of decent quality and build come with enough motherboard stand-offs for your motherboard. You don't want to put a stand-off on the case in an area where your motherboard won't align with properly because that standoff can short out your motherboard.

Just be patient, and if you ever have doubts, just stop what you're doing and ask us or anyone near you for help if they know what they're doing. Just don't go any further.

 

Newegg is ok but I prefer to buy my parts at a store. I can look before I buy it and make sure its in good shape. Also if something goes wrong I can return it to the store and get another new one right away. No waiting weeks for shipping. Also microcenter is great about things being returned, they never ask questions and you dont even need a recepit. Also I was talking about a eVGA card not asus.


Its actually not that hard to build the PC yourself but the nice thing is that if you mess something up and you bought at microcenter you can drive back and get a new one all in about a hour depending on how far away you live and get back to working on your PC. If you buy offline you have to pay to ship it back and wait on them to get it and make sure its broke then send out a new one.


Im not saying your guys ways of doing things is wrong or anything, im just telling him how I would do it. Easpecially if its your first time since you can ask for help at the store if you have questions.


Also x2's are quite pricey. I made a system that well handle what he wants very well and its all around 500 bucks. Thats the price of a x2 processor alone. Theres no need to spend a million bucks when 500 will do the job just fine.

 

Do I need to know how to solder?

BTW, will there be a guarantee that the generic case I buy can hold all the stuff I want to put in?

 

No need to solder. A nice case would be a good idea if you have the cash, though not essential. Just make sure it's the right size for your motherboard and it has enough bays for your HD and CD/DVD drives.

The Silverstone Temjin TJ05 seems to be a popular choice.

 

No, you will not need to soilder (spelling???) anything. Also when you buy the case just make sure its a full size ATX case. If you ask someone at the store just tell them thats what you want. They will have MANY diffrent ones so get one you like or just get the cheapest one if you dont care what the case looks like.

 

Yep, thats a good comp alright. Mine ranks in the top 12%, and it runs everything I've tested on it without any problems at high settings. That includes games like Doom 3 and Farcry.

 

So anything ATX/BTX will be good?

If Im going to be spending so damn much I might as well make my system look cool...and help...cool my stuff....lol.

Ok, I just made a list of the things I need to buy. So far its about $630 altogether, but that may change depending on the style of casing I want with it.

I need to get something that can hold dual DVD and CD rewriter drives like my current PC can, and I think thats it. I wonder what I'm going to do with my old PC and its parts? :shrug:

 

As far as the case goes, just go over to newegg and look through the cases to find the one you like. I spent a good 6+ hours just looking for something suitable (http://mouse.pouncingkitten.com/office/office-1.jpg) for my tastes.

Since it looks like you will be putting your own system together, and that it looks to be your first, here is a list of things that you will need or want to consider for a built computer:

• Motherboard: Make sure you get the right style of motherboard (ATX, mini-ATX, BTX) for the case that you will use. Also be sure to consider the type of processor and memory that it uses as you will be locked into those for the life of the MB. Look at the number of connectors, both internal and external: USB, Firewire, PATA, SATA, Ethernet/Giganet. Also consider that some boards have dropped the legacy PS/2 style mouse and keyboard connectors. Consider if you want the older AGP slot or the newer PCI-E slots. If you can, get matching PCI-E slots (i.e. 2 x 8) since a second video card would be limited to the speed of that slot.
• Processor: Taste and price are usually the keys here. Generically speaking, performance is based on the speed of the core and the size of the cache memory. Speed is simple; the faster the better (within the same product line at least). Cache is broken up between levels 1 and 2. The fastest memory resides in L1 cache, so the more the better. L2 cache is still orders of magnitude faster than standard RAM, so the more the better for that as well.
• Memory: Most of the time, you won't have a choice in the type because of the motherboard selection. You will have a maximum speed of RAM that can be used in the board, but you can usually use slower memory of the same type for a cost savings (and performance loss). As far as the amount of RAM, for basic Windows operation (Office/Web/Email), I wouldn't go lower than 512MB. For heavy gaming, go with a gigabyte or more. For heavy video/image processing, do two gigs or more.
• Hard Drive: You said that you are going to transfer your existing drive, but you might want to consider adding a second. I just installed UT2004, and it took over 5GB by itself. If you are going to play a lot of games, or maybe branch out to storing DVD's/movies/music, then the more space the better. If you get a newer motherboard, then you will most likely have a choice between Parallel ATA (old style) and/or Serial ATA (new style) connections. You will want both; PATA for CD/DVD and hard drives and SATA for future drives. While SATA is now becoming faster than PATA, the cables are just so much smaller and easier to work with than the PATA ribbons. I won't go into too much detail, but a lot of boards now come with RAID 0 and 1 support. RAID 0 uses two or more drives as a single drive (no space loss) and can be noticeably faster than a non-RAID setup. RAID 1 uses multiple drives to mirror the content of one for security at the loss of half the space.
• Video Cards: I think that this has been beaten to death above, but be aware that AGP is a dead/dying standard. Think about going dual (SLI) or possibly expanding later. Also be aware of the number of VGA/DVI ports on the card and whether or not the card has composite/component/S-video output.
• Monitor: You may or may not consider a new monitor. If you are looking to use high resolutions, make sure that your monitor can handle them. LCD monitors in particular have a default resolution which provides the best picture; resolutions other than the default will not look as sharp. If you can afford it, go the dual-monitor route. Alternately, look into a widescreen monitor. DVI ports send a cleaner signal, so look for monitors which use them. Don't settle for an LCD monitor with over a 16ms scan rate.
• Sound Cards: Unless you have specific needs, chances are that a motherboard with integrated 5.1 sound will be perfectly suitable for gaming or movies. Chances are also good that you will be limited to either full surround sound and no mic or a mic and 4 point sound due to the limited connectors on the board. Expansion cards don't have that limitation. Look for digital connections (optical/coax) if you want to hook up a receiver.
• CD/DVD Drives: Sounds like you have your own to use, but if not, go for a minimum 40x CD writer and a minimum 8x DVD+/-RW drive. Get a dual layer writer if you can. Consider getting a Lightscribe drive to make your own custom etched disks.
• Floppy Drive: This is usually an afterthought, but you never know when an odd disk will pop up (or be needed during a Windows/Linux installation). There are a lot of combo drives out there that have both a floppy drive and a media card (SD/MS/etc.) reader.
• Networking: This is becoming a standard add on to the motherboard. Go with a 100 base-T (Mbps), but get 1000 (1 Gigabit) if you can since it is backwards compatible. You may want to consider getting a separate wireless card (go for 802.11g, 802.11n still isn't standardized) if you have or want a wireless network. Don't forget about a modem if you do any sort of faxing.
• Case: Personal preference reigns supreme here. Do not think that this will be an easy choice. Look at the number of internal and external bays, supported motherboards (ATX/BTX), front connectors (USB/sound) and the rear cover plate. A specialized cover plate will usually be included with the motherboard, but a standard configuration board might not have one and will use the one with the case. Look at the air flow and the number of included fans. Consider adding more case fans. Also think about window kits, lasercut fan grills, LED's and lighting kits for that "special" look.
• Power Supply: A lot of cases come with their own PSU's, but they will usually be generic or underpowered. You can determine how much of a power supply you need by simply adding up the watts consumed by each component in the computer. The CPU and motherboard will be the most consuming, though video cards are starting to get really greedy as well. Even so, don't forget that the more drives you include, the more power you need to run them. If you don't have enough power, things won't work right, the OS could crash, or you could cause damage to the components and burn them out. Make sure that any PSU you get comes with all the necessary hookups to the motherboard, video card(s), etc. Be aware that SATA drives use different power connectors too. Noise may also be a problem, depending on where you sit in relation to the box. Look at and compare the decibel levels, but remember that lower db's usually mean lower fan RPM's and can adversely affect your cooling.
• Cooling: Case fans and the PSU make up the bulk of the cooling solution, but don't ignore the fan/heatsink combo on the CPU. Retail CPU's normally come with a stock heatsink and fan, but other heatsink/fan combos (like those made out of long, thin copper fins) may be able to dissapate the heat more efficiently and quietly. If you are insane, you can look into water cooling the CPU.
• Cables: No one ever thinks of the wires inside. SATA cables are nice and small and provide really good air flow. PATA ribbon cables are "overclocking killers" simply because they prevent or redirect the airflow. For a couple of dollars, you can get rounded PATA and floppy drive cables which are much better for air flow and have no difference in speed. Always go with 80 conductor (wire) PATA cables. If you need your case to be really "special," you can get UV/blacklight responsive (i.e. glow in the dark) cables.
• Software: Use this as an opportunity to exploit any sales, student/retail worker discounts or OEM prices. Remember that you will need to reinstall the OS, which means that you will need to have the drivers for everything. Don't even bother with the disks that come with the components. Instead, download the latest drivers from each individual manufacturer to have the most up to date system. Recommended order is: motherboard BIOS, video BIOS/firmware, other firmware, motherboard chipset drivers, video drivers, sound drivers, network drivers, other drivers, other software.
• Other: Speakers, keyboard, mouse and printer are up to you.

Note: Your definition of "special" may differ from mine. :nod:

 

I think Im going to use the list that Micjohvan set up for me. Top o' the line sounds pretty good.

Is water cooling really quiet? I would like that because sometimes I have to turn the TV up when my PSU is on. Would I need the rounded wires if I water cooled my PC?

I never thought about the networking parts in my computer. I want mine wired, since its faster, IMO, and the wires arent everywhere like you'd think they'd be.

BTW, Im a little confused on buying the case. Since I never had to buy a PC case before, is it an empty case, or does it have wires and stuff to connect the different things, or do I need to buy wires seperately?

 

I honestly cannot say how quiet water cooling can be, but there are plenty reviews which advocate the low noise level.

You've never seen my wires :110:

Well, that depends on the case. You can get a completely empty case (no fans or PSU), but there will still be wires from the power/reset buttons to go to the motherboard. The PSU contains all of the "power" wiring to the board and all the drives. Each individual fan will have its own power wires. If the case comes with front sound/USB/Firewire ports, then it will come with the cables for those as well.

 

Water cooling sounds like it would condensate and get things wet on the inside and that cant be good. They must have some kind of uber insulation or something for it.

 

Actually, water cooling is a self-contained water/air tight system that poses no risk to the computer if set up proper. Personally, I would probably never do it; with my luck, I'll get electrocuted installing it. If you are really interested in getting a water cooling system, make sure to buy a full kit (some cases even have water cooling built in). Take a look at frozencpu.com for some of the kits (and fans, and LED's, etc.).

Of course, you could say screw the fans and go with the ultimate cooling solution: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/09/strip_out_the_fans/index.html. You would get the added benefit of your computer acting as a deep fryer as well.

 

Stay away from water cooling unless you want to be constantly fiddling with your PC. It's an enthusiast's game. There are all-in-one sealed bundles (ie come with water/a non-conductive liquid already inside) but they aren't terribly good performers (or even that quiet) since the components are cheap and size-limited.

My friend's got a water cooling setup, and although it allows him to overclock his Athlon very nicely, he's had lots of issues with pumps. I couldn't be bothered to put up with all the crap he's gone through. It's not particularly quiet - quieter than a fansink but not by much, the vibration is quite irrirating if you're trying to sleep in the same room. Most setups require a fan over the radiator, anyway (usually large and slow, so almost unnoticeable, but it still seems kind of counter-inuitive), or a large amount of water in the tank - at which point you also lose portability...

Condensation would only occur if the water in the pipes was cooler than ambient, ie, if you started putting loads of ice in the water tank. Good way to blow up a PC.

Regarding the oil PC, I like Tom's hardware, but they were very cheeky taking all the credit for the idea. Oil PCs are nothing new, people have been doing it for years now.