Alex's Guide To PC Building

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Alex81388

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READ FIRST If Building A PC

Okay, through the past couple months I've realized how many threads are created through people who want to build computers. And NO ONE ever bothers to search. So, since I have no life, and am sick of people making one thread and leaving the forum without contributing, I shall make a guideline. So those of you building computers, READ THIS FIRST. I realize there will be questions on certain components, but after a few of them, people should be able to search for answers on them all through the older threads.

The system's I am suggesting are gaming systems, because most people are building those kinds of systems. This is why AMD was used. Everyone feel free to add or suggest!!!

NONE OF THE SYSTEM'S INCLUDE A MONITOR, PSU, KEYBOARD, MOUSE, OR SPEAKERS.

Last Update: August 7, 2005


750-850 USD Budget

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice OEM - Link
Motherboard:
Abit AV8 - Link
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum - Link
Video Card:
eVGA 6600GT AGP - Link
Hard Drive:
Western Digital 40GB IDE - Link
Seagate 160GB SATA150 7200rpm - Link
Memory (Ram):
G.Skill 2x512MB DDR400 Samsung TCCD - Link (For Overclocking System)
Corsair XMS XL 2x512MB DDR400 - Link (Non-Overclocking System)
CD/DVD Drives:
NEC CD and DVD Burner 48x24x16x6 - Link

Total:
Top Components (160GB Hard Drive, G.Skill Ram): ~819 + shipping
Lower End Setup (40GB Hard Drive, Corsair Ram): ~721 + shipping

RECOMMEND After-Market Heatsink+Fan
PSU RECOMMENDATION:
At Least 400watts, 18A@+12v


800-1300 USD Budget

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice OEM - Link
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego - Link
Motherboard:
AGP Route:
Abit AV8 - Link
Abit AV8 3rd-Eye - Link
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum - Link
GigaByte K8NS Ultra 939 - Link
PCI Express Route:
Abit AN8-SLI nF4 - Link
Abit Fatal1ty nF4 SLI - Link
DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR - Link
Video Card:
eVGA 6800GT AGP - Link
eVGA 6800GT PCI-E - Link
Hard Drive:
Western Digital Raptor 74GB - Link
Seagate 160GB SATA150 7200rpm - Link
Western Digital 250GB SATA150 - Link
Memory (Ram):
Patriot Signature 2x512MB DDR400 - Link
G.Skill 2x512MB DDR400 Samsung TCCD - Link
OCZ Titanium 2x1GB DDR400 - Link
CD/DVD Drives:
Sony DL DVD Burner - Link
Samsung 52X CD Burner - Link

Total:
Top Components (3700+, DFI SLI-DR, WD 250GB, OCZ Ram, Both Disk drives): ~1290 + shipping
Lower End Setup (3200+, AV8, Seagate 160GB, Patriot Ram, Sony Burner): ~817 + shipping

PSU RECOMMENDATION: At Least 450watts, 24A@+12v

1400-2200 USD Budget

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego - Link
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice - Link
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego - Link
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester - Link
Motherboard:
Abit AN8-SLI nF4 - Link
Abit Fatal1ty nF4 SLI - Link
Abit AN8 PCI-E - Link
DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR - Link
Video Card:
eVGA 6800GT PCI-E - Link
2(In SLI)eVGA 6800GT PCI-E - Link
eVGA 7800GTX PCI-E - Link
Hard Drive:
2(In Raid)Western Digital Raptor 74GB - Link
2(In Raid)Seagate 250GB SATA - Link
Memory (Ram):
OCZ Peroformance 2x1GB - Link
Corsair XMS C2PRO 2x1GB - Link
CD/DVD Drives:
Lite-On DVD Burner - Link
Sony DL DVD Burner - Link

Total:
Top Components (4200+, SLIDR/Fatal1ty, 2 GT's, 2 Raptors, XMS Ram, Both burners): ~2185 + shipping
Lower End Setup (3700+, AN8, 7800GTX, 2 Seagate's, OCZ Ram, DL): ~1407 + shipping

PSU RECOMMENDATION: At Least 500watts, 28A@+12v (SLI Compatible)


2200-2800 USD Budget

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester - Link
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 San Diego - Link
Motherboard:
DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR - Link
Abit Fatal1ty nF4 SLI - Link
Video Card:
2(In SLI)eVGA 6800GT PCI-E - Link
2(In SLI)eVGA 7800GTX PCI-E - Link
Hard Drive:
2(In Raid)Western Digital Raptor 74GB - Link
2(In Raid)Seagate 250GB SATA - Link
2(In Raid)Seagate 300GB 8ms SATA Link
Memory (Ram):
OCZ Titanium 2x1GB DDR400 - Link
CD/DVD Drives:
Lite-On DVD Burner - Link
Sony DL DVD Burner - Link

Total:
Top Components (FX, 2 GTX's, 2 300GB's, Both Burners): ~2751 + shipping
Lower End Setup (4200+, 2 GT's, 2 250GB's, Both Burners): ~2201 + shipping

PSU RECOMMENDATION: At Least 550watts, 30A@+12v (SLI Compatible)


2800-? USD Budget

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Manchester - Link
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 San Diego - Link
AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 San Diego - Link
Motherboard:
DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR - Link
Abit Fatal1ty nF4 SLI - Link
Video Card:
2(In SLI)eVGA 7800GTX PCI-E - Link
Hard Drive:
2(In Raid)Western Digital Raptor 74GB - Link
2(In Raid)Seagate 300GB 8ms SATA Link
2(In Raid)Seagate 74GB Cheetah 15000rpm U320 SCSI - Link
Memory (Ram):
OCZ Titanium 2x1GB DDR400 - Link
(2)OCZ Titanium 2x1GB DDR400 - Link
CD/DVD Drives:
Sony DL DVD Burner - Link
BenQ DVD DL Burner - Link
Total:
Top Components (FX-57, SCSI's, Both burners, 4 sticks of ram): ~4050 + shipping
Lower End Setup (4600+, raptor's, Sony burner, 2 sticks of ram): ~2817 + shipping

PSU RECOMMENDATION: At Least 600watts, 32A@+12v (SLI Compatible)

Please post any suggestions or complaints to the guide, hopefully people will read this before they post. Someone could put together <750 build too if they wanted and it will be added.
 
www.newegg.com SOrry too lazy to find the links for the parts. No peripherals, monitors/keybpoard/mouse/speakers. Basically entire computer tower only. Windows XP is an option. Shipping/handling/tax is not included. All prices are pretty current. parts are the most popular for builds of those prices. Just copy and paste the names to find on newegg


$700 and below build
eMachines t6212
eMachines t6210
eMachines t6410
eMachines t6522



$700 build
ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply-56
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Socket 939 Processor-146
Arctic SIlver Premium Photosynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5-8
CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard-83
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400-87
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-62
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A-41
Windows XP Home Edition w/SP2-92 (Do you need?)
Rosewill RP550 ATX 550W Power Supply-57
eVGA 6600GT 128MB DDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI-169

Total $709 without windows. All prices are from newegg and doesn't include tax/shipping/handling.


$1000 build
ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply-56
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Socket 939 Processor-146
Arctic SIlver Premium Photosynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5-8
DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard-198
OCZ Enhanced Latency 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Copper Heatspreader Model OCZ4001024ELDC-K-128
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-62
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A-41
Microsoft Windows XP Home w/Service Pack 2-92 (Do you need?)
eVGA 6600GT 128MB DDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI-169
Rosewill RP550 ATX 550W Power Supply-57

Total $957 without windows. All prices are from newegg and doesn't include tax/shipping/handling. To bump it up to $1000, upgrade to either:
A. Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Socket 939 Processor-229
B. A Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-123.
C. A Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS Gamer Edition-113 used to be on sale for $69, so if its no longer on sale, get the regular or value Audigy 2 ZS.
D. eVGA 6800 256MB DDR/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI-229
E. Better psu/case, too varied to choose. Only opinion is at least 400watts and at least 18A on the +12V rail.

$1500 build
ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply-56
Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Socket 939 Processor-229
Arctic SIlver Premium Photosynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5-8
DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard-198
OCZ Enhanced Latency 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Copper Heatspreader Model OCZ4001024ELDC-K-128
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-123
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A-41
Microsoft Windows XP Home w/Service Pack 2-92 (Do you need?)
Rosewill RP550 ATX 550W Power Supply-57
Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS Gamer Edition-113
eVGA 6800GT 256MB DDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI-345

Total $1390 without windows. All prices are from newegg and doesn't include tax/shipping/handling. To bump it up to $1500, upgrade to either:
A. Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego Socket 939 Processor-381
B. 2GB of ram instead OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K-270
C. 300GB hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3300831AS 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-165 and 2 DVD-Burners, same as in the list.
D. Better psu/case, too varied to choose. Only opinion is at least 400watts and at least 18A on the +12V rail.


$2000 build+
ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply-56
Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego Socket 939 Processor-381
Arctic SIlver Premium Photosynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5-8
DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard-198
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K-270
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3300831AS 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-165
2x NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A-82
Microsoft Windows XP Home w/Service Pack 2-92 (Do you need?)
Rosewill RP550 ATX 550W Power Supply-57
Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS Gamer Edition-113
eVGA 256-P2-N528-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card-504
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Edition-113

Total $2039 without windows. All prices are from newegg and doesn't include tax/shipping/handling. To bump it up to $2000+, upgrade to either:
A. Athlon 64 FX-55, FX-57, or FX-59 when released. Also dual-cores Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 4400+, 4600+, or 4800+.
AMD Athlon 64 FX57 San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADAFX57BNBOX-1100
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4400CDBOX-669
B. OCZ 4GB or 2xOCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K-540
C. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Edition-176
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Edition-214
D. THERMALRIGHT XP-90C Heatsink-63 or
THERMALRIGHT XP-120 Heatsink -55
E. 7800GTX Sli.
F. Better psu/case, too varied to choose. Only opinion is at least 400watts and at least 18A on the +12V rail.


Intel Builds- Same as AMD
ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply-56
Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3000F-220
Arctic SIlver Premium Photosynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5-8
ASUS P5GD1-VM Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 915G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard-100
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT533D2-85
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-62
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A-41
Windows XP Home Edition w/SP2-92 (Do you need?)
Rosewill RP550 ATX 550W Power Supply-57
eVGA 6600GT 128MB DDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI-169

Total $798
For DFI boards replace with below:
ASUS P5WD2 Premium Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 955X ATX Intel Motherboard-199
For OCZ ram replace with below:
CORSAIR XMS 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO-214

Depending on budget choose processor:
intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core, EM64T Processor Model BX80551PG2800FN-246
intel Pentium 4 640 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3200F-275
intel Pentium D 830 Smithfield 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core, EM64T Processor Model BX80551PG3000FN-317
intel Pentium 4 650 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3400F-404
intel Pentium D 840 Smithfield 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core, EM64T Processor Model BX80551PG3200FN-543
intel Pentium 4 660 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3600F-611
intel Pentium 4 670 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3800F-840
intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 Smithfield 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core, EM64T Processor Model BX80551PGH3200F-1006
intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Prescott 1066MHz FSB LGA775 EM64T Processor Model-1008
 
Wow. This is a pretty good guide, especially for beginners. I vote sticky, but you need to bring more attention to it.
 
Shadow Geek said:
yeah, i defitnely second that. this should be a sticky.

This changes every week, and I personally highly disagree with what's in those build's.

Corsair XMS is for overclocking, it's wasted money on a stock system.

40 gig hard drive, this may be fine for some people, but not for others. Some people may not even use 512 meg of ram yet.
 
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