Novice Builder - Perhaps

[gohorsesgo]

It was suggested I consider building my own computer rather than buying a pre-packed commercial deal. Though I have no experience in the area, I would be willing to at least consider that option. However, I would need a good deal of help along the way, I am sure. Hopefully, you would not mind providing some basic information regarding the items I would need to buy and maybe some online sites that could help, besides newegg.com, unless that is hands down the best site. I am not a gamer. I play some games but nothing serious: maybe golf, football, and flight simulator. I use the computer for email, chats, research, and often use the media player while online doing various things. I would like to keep the cost around $750, give or take a $100 I think, but that is not set in stone. I just don't want to pay for a computer to do things that I will never do. So, I guess I am looking at a case, cpu, hard drive, mobo, memory, sound card, video card, cd, dvd, floppy. Prolly leaning toward AMD but open. Suggestions please? Thanks.

 

[phosho510]

yep amd is the way to go, but intel is pretty good to.

amd athlon 64 3000+ = $160.00
(socket 939)

asus av8 deluxe = $134.00

6600gt = $205

120gb hd = $105

dvd drive = $70

total : $ 674

 

[DyNaStY336]

Actually if your not a gamet than intel is the way to go. If you decide to go with intel which i think would fit you better than make sure it has hyper threading, i think around 3 or 3.2 ghz should fit you great. if you need more help deciding on components then just reply or pm and i will be glad to help you decide and give my reasoning for the parts i chose.

 

[Chankama]

When you say research.. what kind of research??.. Just reading journals/articles or will you be doing any sort of simulations and design work?

When you think about it really.. I don't think and AMD or an Intel makes much of a difference. They are both fast .. But, people say that Intel is better for encoding, etc. etc. AMD is better for gaming etc. etc.

As I've recently found out, AMD is better for numerical calculations too. i.e. Matlab.