Building my own computer?

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Moleculor

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This is an old thread, please scroll down to my ressurection of the thread for further questions.

Right, so my poor machine has started to finally show it's age. It can no longer run any game that comes out. I got this thing from Gateway three years ago, and with the exception of an ATI card that was a piece of crap (ATI's driver installation files didn't recognize it as an ATI card for over a year after buying it, AND I'd always be the one guy who had the strange crashing problems few others had), it's been a relatively decent machine.

Now I need a new one though. Badly. However, the last time I built a computer, I barely helped, AND I was something like 8 years old (it was a 486). Hardware is not my forte. So I need help.

I already figure I'm going to go with AMD and a nVIDIA card, preferably a 7xxx. I can wait a bit for that to come down in price, but not much longer than a month or so. Beyond that, and the hope that I can find a motherboard with a minimum of two PCI-E slots, and the fact that I can just use the Audigy I have in my machine, I don't have really any idea of what to buy.

So, what should I buy?
 
Whats your budget? If the 7xxx says anything, apparently its a lot. Then again, you may not know that the 7800GT costs $450...
 
Everyone always asks that question. I honestly don't know.

I guess I should be asking more for help in understanding hardware, not "What should I buy?" huh?

However, can I pretend to have three budgets? $1000, $1250, and $1500?
 
With 1500 dollars in hand, there isn't much that you couldn't do. I had a machine with an AMD Athlon 64 4800+ and a motherboard along with a Sapphire Radeon X800 XL 512 MB video card, 2 gigs of ram, a kick-ass case, and a nice sound card for just barely over 1500.

Going more realistic, though, I'd say that with a thousand dollar budget, you're not going to want to look into the 64 bit processors (though you may be able to get something out of them. It's your preference). Check out http://newegg.com and http://tigerdirect.com. Both sites have good prices. I just compiled a basic system in Word and worked out prices. Both sites have search engines that will let you pick out what you need, like your minimum of two PCI-E slots.
 
Why wouldn't he want to look into 64-bit processors? I can w/ a $600 budget if I had to.

I recommend getting a AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 939

If your gonna OC, get a DFI PCI-E board, but if not, go with ABIT or ASUS or someone, just find a nice PCI-E board with Athlon 64 939 support.

For video cards, I recommend the 6800GT. It's a little hefty $$ but man it gets the job done. If not, the 6800 or 6600GT.

Once again, if you want to OC, go with 1GB OCZ RAM. Otherwise, go w/ PQI, TwinMOS, or Corsair.
 
I'm saying that the 64 bit processors (that I've seen) tend to be overpriced. Just a personal thought. *shrug*

I'm going to definitely agree with you on the choice of video card. Both the 6800GT and the 6600GT are personal favorites of mine.

I've never used OCZ RAM. I'm usually working with Corsair and Kingston. Is OCZ much better than those?
 
OCZ is much better than Corsair and Kingston RAM, both of which are overpriced. The OCZ Platinum Rev 2s are really nice
 
since when have the athlons 64's been overpriced
for what each would compare to in an intel cpu you getting a fricken steal
 
64 bit processors are very affordable. I'd look into the 3200 venice 939 also. It's 190 bucks and is a very solid processor. Then look into either a gigabyte motherboard, or DFI if you're into overclocking. 64 bit is hardly more expensive than a backwards Athlon XP

Ryan
 
Justin said:
With 1500 dollars in hand, there isn't much that you couldn't do.

Thanks, that gives me a good idea of how long it might take me to build this thing.

Counter-Strike said:
... DFI ... ABIT or ASUS ... OCZ ... PQI, TwinMOS, or Corsair.

AAAAAAAA!!!! *head explodes*

Computer hardware newbie. What are those? I figured out OC was overclocking (no, I'm definitely not overclocking, I keep my house too warm for it), but what are all those other... things?
 
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