Newbie here with some questions!

[gsteffens]

Hey everyone! Brand new to the forum, and somewhat new to computers.

I'm a auto. mechanic, firefighter and student where I live, and I'm looking to at least as a hobby get into building my own computer.

My plan is to build a decent desktop that will be used primarily for gaming. The game in the sights right now is Battlefield 2, which plays on my laptop but too choppy due to the video card in it. There may be other games in the future though too.

I'm looking to buy a bare bones kit, to this tune

ECS GeForce6100PM-M2 Socket AM2+ Barebone Kit - AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz OEM, 1GB DDR2 PC4200, ATX Mid-Tower Case, 350 Watt Power Supply at TigerDirect.com


And then one by one buy the video card, RAM, CD drive, ETC and build it myself at home. I think it would be easier on my wallet to build it little by little, and also be a good learning project too. And I always wanted to build my own.

Any information you guys can offer about doing this? Is tigerdirect a good source? Is there a processor brand you'd shoot for? I'm told to try to get the quad core by Intel. How about anything else for gaming? I'm told to aim for good processor, good RAM, and a good video card and I should be game ready. How about OS? Is XP good? Or should I go with something else?

Thanks all in advance. I look forward to being an active poster and hopefully you guys can help give me some direction to building this computer.

 

[Gustave5436]

What's your budget?

 

[Whirlwind]

Hi gsteffens....you have come to the right place.

Tell these guys how much money you would like to put in your rig, and you will get about the best build for your buck here.

 

[gsteffens]

There's not a set limit right now, but it will have to be over time, and that's why I wanted to do it in a bare bones kit and then build onto it because I can piece it together.

I was thinking around 300 for a barebones kit. Maybe a little more. I'm not looking for one of those insane $5000+ type computers. Just trying to make one that will play games well and from what I hear and read that's not too out of the question.

My wallet says zero right now but tax returns are coming and my birthday is coming up.

 

[gsteffens]

this is what i am looking at, it has a good processor, ram, and room for a good video card and cd drive.

Intel D945GCPE Socket 775 Barebone Kit - Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2.0GHz OEM, 80GB SATA HD, 1GB DDR2 PC4200, ATX Mid-Tower Case, 400 Watt Power Supply at TigerDirect.com

 

[heister]

i stay away from barebones as a personal rule of thumb for gaming rigs... just because you pay for stuff you dont use... also prices at tiger direct suck for the most part.. and if you wanna build over time i would suggest you buy in this order
1.case
2.optical drive
3.psu
4.ram
5. hard drive
6. mother board
7. cpu
8. graphics card

the cpu and graphics cards have the fastest improvements so you always wanna buy those last so you can get something that is as current as possible or save money on something that would have cost you alot more if you bought it 1st

use Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! a lot of stuff has free or really cheap shipping

 

[veg1992]

get these

q6600 preferably a g0 revision
Corsair 520hx
Crucial Ballistix 2gb Kit
Abit Ip35-e
8800gt or 8800gts g92
add optical drive, case, HD depending on what you want\

If you are going to overclock to its limits I recommend a Tuniq Tower 120 or Scythe Infinity or A TRUE (requires a Fan)

If you are just going to push it to 3.0ghz and quit there, then get an Arctic Freezer Pro 7 to keep it frosty

 

[b1gapl]

Since you didn't specify a budget, I'll suggest a mid-end/budget rig for starters. Nothing too fancy.


Case - Up to you.
Processor - Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180
Motherboard - Abit IP35-E
Memory - 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800
Graphics cards - EVGA 9600GT 512MB Superclocked
Power supply - Corsair 550VX 550W
Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
Optical drive - LITE-ON 16X SATA DVD Burner
Heatsink - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (if overclocking)
OS - Windows XP Home SP2 OEM
Total w/o shipping and case: $736.81


I'm assuming that you don't need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse?

This list here, will play alot of games, and will definitely play BF2 with ease.

I'm not sure how much hard drive space you need, so that could be up to you. The hard drive I suggested, is a good medium though, price and space wise, for the average computer.

 

[Drizzt]

Get a TRUE, no reason to even suggest getting a tuniq anymore if the TRUE is available, right?

 

[b1gapl]

Get a TRUE, no reason to even suggest getting a tuniq anymore if the TRUE is available, right?

That's true. I guess the reason to get the Tuniq, is if you can't afford the TRUE w/ a good fan. But then if you're spending the amount of money for a quad core and want to overclock, you might as well, or should be able to afford the TRUE w/ a fan.