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need help deciding what components to use in my first build of dream system
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pooface
Junior Member
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15. October 2006 @ 12:01 |
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I am building a computer for the first time and I really need help. I need people to help me decide what components I should use because I am totally lost. My problem right now is that I don't know where to post my questions. I see that there is a sticky called "the official pc building thread" (I think its called a sticky, but I could be wrong I am not to bright when it comes to forums). So should I just choose to post a reply in the pc building thread, or should I post my questions in the "Other pc hardware" thread? I a sorry for bothering everyone with a question like this, I just don't want to piss someone off or get banned because of a breach of etiquette. I know what type of system I want and what the budget will be and I just need help picking the components. So if someone could please tell me where to post I would really appreciate it.
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Member
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15. October 2006 @ 12:49 |
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hello
you can if you like review the thread call building pc or post a new thread here on other pc thread of your question!
Dr.xp
Pentium D 805 2.66ghz
Foxconn 8400 GS 512 GDDR2 PCI-EX
2gb DDR2 Pc2-5300
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pooface
Junior Member
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15. October 2006 @ 15:33 |
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So I guess it's OK if I post this here. I have posted a few different posts here about where to buy a custom computer, after much search and debate I have decided the best thing to do is build my own. I put together a custom computer at a few places like avadirect, and ibuypower.com and then priced out the exact same parts on newegg.com and the newegg price ended up being $1000 cheaper. I realize this is a really long post and apologize for it. I am just a newb, and I don't know what else to do to get the help I need, because I need help selecting nearly every component. If I am going about this all wrong let me know how to fix it.
This is what I want out of my computer. I want the best possible gaming setup, my dream system so to speak. Right now I have a dell with a pentium 4 2.53GHz and one ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128MG. I would have liked to just upgrade the computer I have, but the motherboard doesn't have room for sli and I don't think it would work using this computer to upgrade. So I have decided to go from scratch. I want a computer that will run all the newest games at top settings for as long a time as possible. I also want to be able to upgrade it when the time comes. The configuration I chose on ibuypower would cost me $3790.00. If I just buy the parts from newegg, I could get them for $2700-$3000 I can't remember exactly how much, but the quality of components would be way better from newegg. Below is the configuration from ibuypower.com
Case ( Raidmax RX-9 ATX Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Red )
Case Lighting ( Neon Light Blue )
Power Supply ( ** iBUYPOWER Recommended for SLI ** Thermaltake Purepower 700 Watt Power Supply [SLI Ready] )
Processor ( Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor X6800 (2x 2.93GHz/4MB L2
Cache/1066FSB) )
Motherboard ( Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe nForce4 SLI x 16 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair XMS2 Xtreme w/Heat Spreader )
Video Card ( ==[Quad-SLI]== 2x NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 1GB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
Hard Drive ( 300 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
CD/DVD Drive ( 16x DVD-ROM Drive - Sony Black )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( Sony DW-G120 Dual Format/Double Layer 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )
Sound Card ( Creative Lab Sound Blaster Audigy SE )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black )
Power Protection ( ** iBUYPOWER Recommended ** Opti-UPS SS1200-AVR Mighty Voltage Regulator )
Wireless Network Adapter ( [Special !!!] Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps PCI Adapter )
Thats pretty much the configuration I have decided on, but I have no idea if it's a good configuration or not. I am going to get a speakers, keyboard and mouse from newegg or somewhere, and don't really need a lot of input on them. I am trying to save money on the sound aspect, so I will not be getting 5.1 surround sound speakers or an expensive soundcard, probably just 2.1 speakers and the soundcard I mentioned. I want a nice lcd monitor 20 or 21 inches, if anyone knows which brand is best to go with let me know, but if not I will just look at reviews around the internet for monitors and then make my decision.
For my case I would like to go with an asus 3600 vento, I am one of the weirdos who like the look of it. If that case doesn't work I would like to go with the raidmax rx-9, if anyone has any reason I should or shouldn't go with one of these cases let me know. For my Power supply I want a 600 watt system, I don't know what make I will get, but I need to know if 600 watts is too much or too little for the system I want.
I don't know anything about motherboards, so I will most likely go with the one listed as it is SLI capable, if I should go with a different MoBo or if there is something I should know about MoBo's let me know.
Processors and video cards are where I run into my biggest problems. I want the best I can get, but I'm not sure how to go about this. The ones I have listed are what I believe to be the best setup possible. But I have heard that nvidia and ati will be coming out with video cards that will run on directx 10 and I also want to make sure I am windows vista ready, I have also heard that amd and intel will be coming out with quad core processors. So I am totally lost in this category. The main problem I have is deciding which processor and video cards to use, I want to use SLI for sure, but I am not sure which cards to get or which processor to get. I am also worried about overkill, am I getting two 7950 GX's when two 7900 512MB would be just as good or better, is the extreme x6800 worth it or should I get the 6600. Money isn't really the issue, I want to save as much as I can, but at the same time I am willing to pay 2 or 3 hundred dollars more to upgrade something, my budget is $3000 to $3500 maybe higher if it's necessary.
RAM and harddrive I think I am OK with. I want a 300GB hard drive and 2 GB of Corsair RAM, I don't think I need any fancy RAID or Raptor setup as I don't think they will do much to game performance. For my dvd drives, I just want to be able to burn both cd's and dvd's, and if its possible I would like to be able to burn dvd's straight from one drive to the next, without having to use something like dvdshrink to put the data on the harddrive and then burn it onto a dvd (I don't know if it's possible or not).
I don't know if I need a floppy drive or not, I never use floppy discs. The modem and other network things really confuse me. I just want to be able to connect to the internet through a dsl modem. The setup I am using right now is as follows. One computer upstairs, the dsl modem is hooked into the linksys router, the computer upstairs is hooked up to the router by a broadband cord thingy (not wireless). A computer downstairs connects to the internet via the wireless router, as in no wires just the little anttena thingy. But when I get my new system it will be upstairs and hooked up the same as the one upstairs is now, and the one I am replacing will go downstairs and hookup via wireless router, so I will have a total of three computers hooked up through the linksys router. So let me know what I need to get in order to accomplish this.
I also don't know how much cooling I will need for this system, so please let me know what you think I should do. I would rather not spend the amount of money it costs to get liquid cooling. There are two or three fans that come with the asus vento so will that be enough cooling or will I need more.
I am really really sorry about the length of the post. I don't expect anyone to sit and read the whole thing then give me advice on every single component, unless they really want to. I am new at this so I don't know what the best way is to go about this. If this post is too long and annoying, please let me know what I should do to get the information I need. Again I am sorry if this pisses someone off, I am just trying to get the help I need.
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Senior Member
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16. October 2006 @ 00:56 |
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first off you will get more replys by posting in the pc building/dream pc threads. or you could read the posts from the last couple of weeks and see what has been reccomended.
asus do a mobo in the same range as that one that has wifi on board so that would save you a pci slot and a couple of quid. the e6800 doesnt in my opion justify is price, get the e6600 and a good heatsink + fan and over clock it. 2 gx2s are realy a waste of money, get one or go with a x1950xt but your right dx10 is coming soon(its in vista)so if you want to play next years big games at their best you will need one of those then. xms2 dominator is the best ram money can buy. the best hdds are western digital raptors. you also want to get a top notch sound card, creative's x-fi's are the best for their price. i think that is it covered. try the other threads if you want more opinions
edit
this will help you get the right psu
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 16. October 2006 @ 01:00
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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16. October 2006 @ 09:40 |
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pooface
way to much t read for em right now but I will go over the hardware listed
(wouldnt have posted last night but AD went down *yawns I just got up and so its all still to much to read*)
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Case ( Raidmax RX-9 ATX Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Red )
Case Lighting ( Neon Light Blue )
*ok*
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Power Supply ( ** iBUYPOWER Recommended for SLI ** Thermaltake Purepower 700 Watt Power Supply [SLI Ready] )
*bad* I don't trust Thermaltake they are a medium brand but have poor quality in most of their PSU's.
You need a solid heavy duty PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194004
It might be 160 by itself but its one of the best PSU brands to this day
Consiar also has a solid brand of PSUs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139001
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Processor ( Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor X6800 (2x 2.93GHz/4MB L2
Cache/1066FSB) ) *Nice*
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Motherboard ( Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe nForce4 SLI x 16 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB )
*solid brand*
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Memory ( 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair XMS2 Xtreme w/Heat Spreader )
*NICE*
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Video Card ( ==[Quad-SLI]== 2x NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 1GB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
a bit overkill SLI is still only getting meager fps bonus 10-15 if you really want it go ahead but its not desperately needed.
What brand is it and yes brands are still important BFG and XFX have some of the better warranties and on a 400+ item you want the best item.
Frankly you can almost get the same fps boost from a high end sound card as you can doubling the vid cards.
BTW there are no real improvements from the 7900 to the 7950 might can save 200 by doubling the 7900 but then vid cards are so varied some lower numbered cards can out preform the higher numbered cards.
In some cases on some games 2 cards makes a 10FPS DROP 0_o
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html
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Hard Drive ( 300 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
Betting all your data on one large drive is a mistake you are much better off with 2 160-200 and run raid or have 1 HD as backup,it will fail one day trust me and you don't want to be left without a HD.
Raid is fancy but it protects your data and some raid can make data go faster and back it up at the same time.
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CD/DVD Drive ( 16x DVD-ROM Drive - Sony Black )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( Sony DW-G120 Dual Format/Double Layer 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )
*OK* Gotta say with DVD writers begin cheap you only need 1 or 2 drives but its up to what you think you need,jsut sayign you dont need the 16X DVD reader.
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Sound Card ( Creative Lab Sound Blaster Audigy SE )
*bad* bad bad bad bad...I have had nothing but trouble from the SE get a real Agudity 4 it can save you 3-8 fps on games all by itself,and some of the X-fi can give you a 5-15FPS boost in games because the sound is handled so well.
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Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
*ok*
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Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black )
*ok*
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Power Protection ( ** iBUYPOWER Recommended ** Opti-UPS SS1200-AVR Mighty Voltage Regulator )
*ok* If you going with a prebuild do yourself a favor and get the 3-4 year warrenty every time I have gotten one I have gotten 2-5X the money back in free upgrades when the parts fail and they replace them.
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Wireless Network Adapter ( [Special !!!] Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps PCI Adapter )
*ok*
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Cooling will be dealt with AFTER the parts have been dealt with. you didnt mention what Heatsink and fan is on the CPU and thats as important as the CPU 0-o.
BTW FLoopy is a good emergency drive for bootign and other useful things is good to have one and they make some Drives that are a IDE flooy and a USB Multi flash card combo.
U got any questions ask me or PM me I'll be happy to help ^^
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 16. October 2006 @ 09:41
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mark5hs
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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16. October 2006 @ 09:50 |
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while gx2s are awesome by themselves, you do not want them in SLI. I say wait a bit for the 8800s to come out
X2 3800, A8n deluxe motherboard, 7800GT, Xion 2 case
2GB Patriot DDR 400, Audigy 2 ZS gamer, 400GB SATA RAID 0
games Im looking forward to: bioshock, SSBB, enemy territory quake wars, halo 3
currently playing: command and conquer 3, supreme commander, counter strike, shivering isles
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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16. October 2006 @ 10:06 |
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mark5hs
I have noticed SLI scores being all over the place why I say its not worth doubling a 300$+ card yet you'd be just as well off gettign a good or great sound card.
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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