Hi guys, I have been researching the boards here for a while and have finally decided to build a computer rather than buy a dell. It's not going to be an extreme gaming computer, but that's what I will be doing on it most of the time. I thought I would run my choices by the pros and see if you have any tweaks for me.
GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3: This was the hardest decision for me, I wasn't planning on spending a boatload here and looks like they are a little more expensive than I thought. I might try some slight overclocking but nothing extreme at all.
E6300 Conroe
eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Samsung DVD Burner
The other confusing thing for me was picking out a power supply and case, I'm not looking for anything flashy from the case... LED's aren't really my thing but I'm not against them either. After reading how important picking out a good PSU is I figured buying the case and PSU separate would be the way to go but I'm trying not to break the bank on them either.
Here are a few things I looked up, I assume I need about 450w to start with so that's as low as I went.
Case/PSU combo
or:
Case
and two different PSUs:
FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply
COOLMAX CP-500T EPS12V 500W Power Supply
I'm hoping if someone has any ideas that are an obvious upgrade for a few dollars more anywhere or if you think I should go another direction in the motherboard or PSU areas you'll fill me in. All in all I'm looking to spend about $1200 max, figuring in 300 for a copy of XP and an LCD monitor.
I expect this will run an Oblivion level game at pretty decent settings, I guess you can tell I'm not an extremist but looking to get some decent bang for my buck, plus have fun building my own rig and learning a lot more about the more technical side of things. Thanks in advance for any advice, I'll be around and won't be buying till this weekend most likely so go ahead and ask if you have any questions for me.
GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3: This was the hardest decision for me, I wasn't planning on spending a boatload here and looks like they are a little more expensive than I thought. I might try some slight overclocking but nothing extreme at all.
E6300 Conroe
eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Samsung DVD Burner
The other confusing thing for me was picking out a power supply and case, I'm not looking for anything flashy from the case... LED's aren't really my thing but I'm not against them either. After reading how important picking out a good PSU is I figured buying the case and PSU separate would be the way to go but I'm trying not to break the bank on them either.
Here are a few things I looked up, I assume I need about 450w to start with so that's as low as I went.
Case/PSU combo
or:
Case
and two different PSUs:
FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply
COOLMAX CP-500T EPS12V 500W Power Supply
I'm hoping if someone has any ideas that are an obvious upgrade for a few dollars more anywhere or if you think I should go another direction in the motherboard or PSU areas you'll fill me in. All in all I'm looking to spend about $1200 max, figuring in 300 for a copy of XP and an LCD monitor.
I expect this will run an Oblivion level game at pretty decent settings, I guess you can tell I'm not an extremist but looking to get some decent bang for my buck, plus have fun building my own rig and learning a lot more about the more technical side of things. Thanks in advance for any advice, I'll be around and won't be buying till this weekend most likely so go ahead and ask if you have any questions for me.
