Total noobie at this, want to make super PC! Help pleeease...

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shinyblackkitty

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a) what do you want to do with this new system / if you game how serious a gamer are you ?
either games, an alternate way of socialising or paint shop pro

b) which level do you "want" your system to be mid-level / performance / ultra performance
ultra!!! :)

c) anticipated budget >>>> we can give suggestions for complete builds in the $1000.00 range all the way to the Uber $2,800.00 machine
anything up to £4000 ($8000)

d) what are the specs of the system you are using now ?
horrible


Ok I have lots to spend but really, really, don't know what I am going to do in the end.

Most recently I was asking about this on View topic - [HARDWARE] Poised upon either buying Dell PC or making own.. - PC Gamer Magazine

I was originally going to buy a Dell XPS ready made one (apparently they are really good) but I think I want to go with the "buy parts and make" route instead now because I can get a water cooled PC instead of refrigerated (like the dell one, electro-whatever same as fridges use)/ fan and pick all the best latest parts,
and because hopefully it will be easier to upgrade (I am guessing with the dell one opening the case would break the warranty so I would have to either lose that or buy a brand new PC when it ges out of date)
and less inflated price

I've flipped through these two guides
Build your dream PC | Features | Custom PC
and
Build Your Own PC » PC Mechanic

Here's a complete newbie draft, done with the help of a few techy friends from the internet (I dont know many in real life, arg)


Case: Antec Super Mid Tower P190 Black 1200w Psu

PSU: Comes with case ("NeoLink 1200 Watt dual power supply system: One 650 Watt Neo Power is responsible for powering the motherboard and addin cards, while another 550 Watt, handles your drives and other peripherals")

Mobo: Asus Striker Extreme LGA775 nVIDIA nForce680i SLI 4xDDR2 ATX Gaming Motherboard with Onboard Audio, Dual Gb LAN, USB & Firewire

Video Card: BFG Tech® GeForce ® 8800 GTX OC 768MBPCI Express Graphics Card (maybe 2 SLI'd since I am going for complete overkill kinda thing)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 / 3 GHz ( 1333 MHz ) - LGA775 Socket - L2 12 MB with this heatsink: Thermaltake CL-P0401 V1 CPU Cooler

Cooling: Either water cooling (I have no idea how to set up or how to maintain though, and I've heard some horror stories about water leaking out and frying the whole PC etc...) or just the normal thing with fans, or one of those electro cooling ones that are like a fridge

HDD: Western Digital Raptor ones probably? They are the ones that most highend ready-built PC ones seem to have. I was thinking maybe I should do something like one for OS and pagefile, one for games/programs and one for everything else to minimise "MY COMPUTER IS WHIRRING ITS HARD DISKS FOR AGES LOOKING FOR STUFF AND DOING NOTHING ELSE" syndrome?

RAM: Corsair (TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX) 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2 6400 PC Memory non-ECC unbuffered 4-4-4-12 DHX Technology --OR-- something DDR3? I have been told that not many motherboards work with those though?

Pri Optical: no idea. would like DVD+-RW

Sec Optical: no idea

Sound Card: undecided - maybe from Sound Blaster X-Fi range? Most of the "customise gaming PC and buy it" shops online seem to have one of those as the main or sometimes only option

FDD: Sony MPF920-Z/CU1 ?

Keyboard: LOGITECH G15 GAMING KEYBOARD --OR-- yet-unreleased Razer Lycosa

Mouse: LOGITECH G7 W/LESS LASER MOUSE --OR-- Razer Lachesis 4000dpi Banshee

Modem: undecided, I would like one though because I am moving in a year and would need to use dialup for a bit

Monitor: Dell 30" UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC Widescreen LCD Flat Panel Monitor

Speakers: Bose Acoustimass 16 home theater speaker system

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate (I was going with XP but was told that XP can only support 3GB of RAM and the rest would be wasted otherwise(!))

Extras: none that I can think of
 
Dont get BFG tech, get eVGA. With a 8k budged, you could get sli ultras, but there really isnt a need. Atelast get one ultra and not a GTX with that budget.

HD: Alot of people get there OS on a 74gb raptor, and all there data on a seagate 500gb which is near as fast.

DDR3 is useless right now, get Ballistix

Have you ever used a high dpi gaming mouse? people either like it or they dont, and it will take time to get used to. especially with 4000dpi, but since your on a 30inch, it would really help probally. The G7 is 2000dpi, which is the standard right now.
 
Dont get BFG tech, get eVGA. With a 8k budged, you could get sli ultras, but there really isnt a need. Atelast get one ultra and not a GTX with that budget.

HD: Alot of people get there OS on a 74gb raptor, and all there data on a seagate 500gb which is near as fast.

DDR3 is useless right now, get Ballistix
ok, thanks

Have you ever used a high dpi gaming mouse? people either like it or they dont, and it will take time to get used to. especially with 4000dpi, but since your on a 30inch, it would really help probally. The G7 is 2000dpi, which is the standard right now.
I have a razer diamondback at the moment I find it fine especially since it's got a button i can hold down and move the mouse wheel to change the sensitivity easily

In fact using other peoples computers normal mice are too slow for me now I go into their mouse options to check it and find it's at the max!
 
that PSU is a wee bit overkill and you really dont need 1200w

this PSU is modular and is plenty of power for even sli ultras if you plan to go that way but i do not recomend doing sli until its more useful it only works at about a 20 percent performance increase but with the new nehalem chipset coming out soon i hear that it will have a performance boost in sli cards sooo what i'd do is if you really wana go sli you can but i wouldnt do it unill Nehalem comes out which will be using from what i hear a different chipset and also getting rid of the northbridge indefinatly because of its onboard memory controler like AMD uses

Newegg.com - Thermaltake W0116RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CE, CB, TUV, FCC, UL, CUL, and BSMI certified - Retail
 
that PSU is a wee bit overkill and you really dont need 1200w
It comes with the case, and as far as I can find there is no version of the case that doesn't come with it -- and it's pretty much "the best case" at the moment from what I can find maybe tied with one of those Armor ones

this PSU is modular and is plenty of power for even sli ultras if you plan to go that way but i do not recomend doing sli until its more useful it only works at about a 20 percent performance increase
Well if you look at the monitor I am going to be using, 30" - I've been told that will not stand up to maximum detail on new games like Crysis without SLI

but with the new nehalem chipset coming out soon i hear that it will have a performance boost in sli cards sooo what i'd do is if you really wana go sli you can but i wouldnt do it unill Nehalem comes out which will be using from what i hear a different chipset and also getting rid of the northbridge indefinatly because of its onboard memory controler like AMD uses

Newegg.com - Thermaltake W0116RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CE, CB, TUV, FCC, UL, CUL, and BSMI certified - Retail
what is a chipset exactly? and what is northbridge? I have no idea sorry..
 
For the powersupply, i would strongly suggest getting a single PC Power and Cooling PSU, around the 750W mark if you want a bit of overkill.

For that 30" Dell you will want 2xUltras in SLI for those massive resolutions.

For RAM go with 4gb of Cruciall Ballistix DDR800 (dont bother with DDR3 yet).

For the motherboard, the striker is very overpriced in my opinion, but if you really want to spend that then go for it...

XP isnt limited to 3GB of ram, 32bit operating systems are. So weather you get XP 64bit or Vista 64bit it wont matter.
 
It comes with the case, and as far as I can find there is no version of the case that doesn't come with it -- and it's pretty much "the best case" at the moment from what I can find maybe tied with one of those Armor ones

Well if you look at the monitor I am going to be using, 30" - I've been told that will not stand up to maximum detail on new games like Crysis without SLI

what is a chipset exactly? and what is northbridge? I have no idea sorry..

well let me give you some advice on psu's that come with a case. DONT USE THEM. even if their name brand like if you get a case and it comes with an ultra psu just dont use it get tat case without the PSU and it should be cheaper.

their right about the monitor. you would prolly wana go with a 19" LCD like this Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 906BW Black 19" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 2000:1 DC - Retail
no sli is needed for that monitor and probably would have better quality and performance than a 30" monitor

a chipset is like the P35 its what determines what kinda processors that can be used in the socket like intel's socket is LGA 775 and theres the P35 chipset for it and the P35 chipset is for teh Q6600, C2D, and the Extreme. AMD has more sockets than Intel such as the AM2, AM2+, F, 939 etc.

This article from Wikipedia should clarify things on what a northbridge is i dont really know how to put it into my own words and simplify it down for you but i can atleast give you the correct article so you can interpret it. Northbridge (computing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
 
well let me give you some advice on psu's that come with a case. DONT USE THEM. even if their name brand like if you get a case and it comes with an ultra psu just dont use it get tat case without the PSU and it should be cheaper.
It comes with the case, and as far as I can find there is no version of the case that doesn't come with it -- and it's pretty much "the best case" at the moment from what I can find maybe tied with one of those Armor ones



their right about the monitor. you would prolly wana go with a 19" LCD like this Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 906BW Black 19" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 2000:1 DC - Retail
no sli is needed for that monitor and probably would have better quality and performance than a 30" monitor
nah the monitor I picked got an extremely good review in UK PC Gamer magazine it's definitely good for games, about the only thing they mentioned that could top it is a projector :)

I'll be going SLI, no problem

a chipset is like the P35 its what determines what kinda processors that can be used in the socket like intel's socket is LGA 775 and theres the P35 chipset for it and the P35 chipset is for teh Q6600, C2D, and the Extreme. AMD has more sockets than Intel such as the AM2, AM2+, F, 939 etc.

This article from Wikipedia should clarify things on what a northbridge is i dont really know how to put it into my own words and simplify it down for you but i can atleast give you the correct article so you can interpret it. Northbridge (computing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Ok I vaguely understand after looking at that article, but still don't understand how it affects my computer or what I should be buying. I've been told that motherboard is good and the CPU is basically the best there is at the moment so I dunno? "Nephalem" means absolutely nothing to me :(
 
That monitor has an 8ms response time. I think that's high enough to have visible ghosting while playing games.
 
i like the 30" apple display, my boss has one and its awesome. of course we don't game on it.. but im sure the dell one is sweet too even though i've never seen one and its probably a lot cheaper.

i would definitely go with a 30" though if i had the money, and 2x ultra's would be perfect for that.

i agree with meat_helmet, but i think if your willing to wait you should also look into the new AMD phenoms. but everything else looks pretty good to me.
 
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