I'm planning my first foray into PC-building. I have hopped from website to website in my endless quest to find the right forum, and I think I've found the place to be....ok, enough fancy talk.
I'm looking to build a decent gaming rig for $2000 USD or preferably less; I could go a hundred more if I had to, but I'd rather not. Since I'm dealing with veterans of the sport here, I'd like to ask your advice on pencilling in the sketchy parts and where the best deals are.
I'm thinkin':
Motherboard: Asus A8N Premium; the Deluxe is a bit too hardcore for me.
AMD Athlon X2 4400+; this seems pretty nice for the performance and price.
One 160-GB HDD, or two 80-giggers (they should all be 7200 rpm). I don't need much hard-drive space.
RAM: 2 gigs, nothing fancy.
PSU: Something in the 450-550 Watt range. Antec, perhaps?
Case: Looks are not that important. It could be a 10-year old beige server case as long as it's: a) well-made, b) built with easily-accesible ports, and c) not too big (I don't need an awful lot of space).
GPU: I might wait for the Nvidia G80, if it's coming relatively soon.
I've heard some cool things about Conroe; is it worth it to wait for that? Perhaps I should think about adding in one of those new-fangled physics processors?
Case fans are also kind of a grey area for me.
So, could you guys help me out a little?
Gerry
EDIT: Oh; I forgot optical drives. Any CD/DVD burner + a CD-DVD reader will do. Also, any monitor suggestions? I'm looking for something 19"-ish. Thanks.
I'm looking to build a decent gaming rig for $2000 USD or preferably less; I could go a hundred more if I had to, but I'd rather not. Since I'm dealing with veterans of the sport here, I'd like to ask your advice on pencilling in the sketchy parts and where the best deals are.
I'm thinkin':
Motherboard: Asus A8N Premium; the Deluxe is a bit too hardcore for me.
AMD Athlon X2 4400+; this seems pretty nice for the performance and price.
One 160-GB HDD, or two 80-giggers (they should all be 7200 rpm). I don't need much hard-drive space.
RAM: 2 gigs, nothing fancy.
PSU: Something in the 450-550 Watt range. Antec, perhaps?
Case: Looks are not that important. It could be a 10-year old beige server case as long as it's: a) well-made, b) built with easily-accesible ports, and c) not too big (I don't need an awful lot of space).
GPU: I might wait for the Nvidia G80, if it's coming relatively soon.
I've heard some cool things about Conroe; is it worth it to wait for that? Perhaps I should think about adding in one of those new-fangled physics processors?
Case fans are also kind of a grey area for me.
So, could you guys help me out a little?
Gerry
EDIT: Oh; I forgot optical drives. Any CD/DVD burner + a CD-DVD reader will do. Also, any monitor suggestions? I'm looking for something 19"-ish. Thanks.