Hi all, I'm about to build a new computer and I was wondering if you'd lend me your thoughts! I'd like to imagine that I'm an experienced computer USER, but this is my first time building a system myself so I'm a bit of a n00b in that area. I will have someone helping me put it together and I pretty much know where everything goes from my current computer so yeah. My budget is about $750. I don't think I'll need all of that but it's there if necessary.
As far as objectives for the computer, I want it to.. um.. be really fast? I'm just trying to build an all-around fast computer so that I'll be able to play new games and play future games for at least some time. And I want to do my more mundane tasks with blazing speed as well!
Anyway, here's what I've got on my Newegg wishlist:
Motherboard - ASRock A780FullDisplayPort AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Video Card - ZOTAC ZT-98GEY3P-FSR GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
The video card is one of my uncertain areas. Not knowing what the numbers mean seems to be a n00b issue, and unfortunately I'm a n00b! So I've been told by someone that the 8800 GTS was like really good and that I should get that, but then I saw a review of some other card saying that they had just upgraded from an 8800 GTS. So I'm kind of confused. Also, I am partial to nVidia. Oh yeah, incidentally, I don't know what I think of the brand "ZOTAC"... but I don't know if it matters at all.
Processor - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
Yep, pretty much gettin' the best AMD processor that's out there right now. I'm will consider others but I have the money so I don't really see a reason why not to buy it; in any case I know that AM3 sockets are supposed to come out soon so this way it will be longer before I fall behind. Though I did read something about how AM3 processors will fit in AM2+ motherboards. But whatever.
Power Supply - OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Active PFC Power Supply
RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL6D-4GBNQ
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
So, there it is! All together it's about $670. I didn't include a case because I haven't decided on one at all. I'm definitely open to suggestion on that, but it's less priority than the rest of the system obviously. Hope to hear your advice!
P.S. In case anyone was wondering, the computer I currently have has:
AMD Athlon-64 3500+
nVidia GeForce 6600
1GB Corsair ValueSelect RAM
etc.
So it works fine-ish for normal things, but recently I tried to run Tomb Raider: Underworld and it was the first game I've played on my computer that was unplayable
. I also tried Crysis and I would've probably been able to play it with some difficulty but it would've sucked and in any case I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the prettiness.
As far as objectives for the computer, I want it to.. um.. be really fast? I'm just trying to build an all-around fast computer so that I'll be able to play new games and play future games for at least some time. And I want to do my more mundane tasks with blazing speed as well!
Anyway, here's what I've got on my Newegg wishlist:
Motherboard - ASRock A780FullDisplayPort AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Video Card - ZOTAC ZT-98GEY3P-FSR GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
The video card is one of my uncertain areas. Not knowing what the numbers mean seems to be a n00b issue, and unfortunately I'm a n00b! So I've been told by someone that the 8800 GTS was like really good and that I should get that, but then I saw a review of some other card saying that they had just upgraded from an 8800 GTS. So I'm kind of confused. Also, I am partial to nVidia. Oh yeah, incidentally, I don't know what I think of the brand "ZOTAC"... but I don't know if it matters at all.
Processor - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
Yep, pretty much gettin' the best AMD processor that's out there right now. I'm will consider others but I have the money so I don't really see a reason why not to buy it; in any case I know that AM3 sockets are supposed to come out soon so this way it will be longer before I fall behind. Though I did read something about how AM3 processors will fit in AM2+ motherboards. But whatever.
Power Supply - OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Active PFC Power Supply
RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL6D-4GBNQ
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
So, there it is! All together it's about $670. I didn't include a case because I haven't decided on one at all. I'm definitely open to suggestion on that, but it's less priority than the rest of the system obviously. Hope to hear your advice!
P.S. In case anyone was wondering, the computer I currently have has:
AMD Athlon-64 3500+
nVidia GeForce 6600
1GB Corsair ValueSelect RAM
etc.
So it works fine-ish for normal things, but recently I tried to run Tomb Raider: Underworld and it was the first game I've played on my computer that was unplayable
. I also tried Crysis and I would've probably been able to play it with some difficulty but it would've sucked and in any case I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the prettiness.
