Computer choice

[jasonalwaysready]

depends on your wiring ability. can you snake a cat5 cable through the walls? how does your mom feel about conduit?

if you plan to overclock just a little, you will probably be fine. if you want to overclock a lot, you need to get a better cooler.

 

[Mattmatt]

In some sort of depth, explain overclocking

 

[Mattmatt]

I have been looking at cases and I am getting really skeptical and that's probably bad, because it is probably one of the more non-important parts. I have no idea what case I want because everything seems like it is just plain bad. I know that is the case for most products, but I am usually aware of the product before hand, and cases are not a specialty of my knowledge.

 

[carnageX]

Cases are mostly personal preference. It's best, though, to get the least amount of plastic as possible, that way heat dissipates easier.

As far as what Overclocking is, it's basically increasing the clock speed of the CPU (processor) to run at a higher frequency than stock. For example, the i5 that was suggested runs a 3.4GHz. If you were to overclock it, you would increase the clock speed (by increasing several different things such as CPU voltages/multipliers, and RAM timings/frequencies/voltages through the BIOS) to say 3.8GHz. It would then have a 0.4GHz overclock, because its running at a higher frequency than what its stock.

You can also overclock graphic cards as well.

 

[Mattmatt]

I probably won't be overclocking, but I am going to play it on the safe side and most likely purchase a separate fan.

 

[Mattmatt]

Newegg.com - Corsair Carbide Series 500R White Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I think this won, but its a bit pricey

 

[coronaadvances]

for $1334

Newegg.com - ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - Asus VE228H 21.5" Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor w/Speakers ASCR 10,000,000:1

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R787OC-2GD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

Newegg.com - Microsoft Desktop 400 5MH-00001 Black USB Wired Standard Keyboard

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

clearly the case, monitor and keyboard can be tailored more to your taste.

maybe someone can suggest better parts

thesema parts becomes a good pc

 

[Mattmatt]

what?

 

[Mattmatt]

What is a cross fire setup? haha im a newb

 

[carnageX]

Crossfire (for ATI cards) and SLI (for nVidia cards) is linking pairs of cards together as a "single" card to increase gaming performance and power.