Building a gaming pc

I want to build me a super gaming machine, was wonder if some of you experts in the field would name drop on some of the rather good parts, such as the motherboard, GC, PSU, HDD, Soundcard, CPU, etc.. I appreciate it.

 

whats your budget?

 

Um, i dont really have the money persay.. im gonna buy hardware by the check, you know, maybe a mobo this friday, and a cpu next friday etc..

Its gotta be good, but not TOO high priced, you know?

 

Ok, to make this a bit easier, what are you looking to spend? (you said check by check so budget is outta the question, but im sure you have an idea of how much you would like to spend )

 

800-900 i guess. or more, whatever it takes to have a good pc for gaming
but if i could get good deals where i dont have to spend alot i'de be happy

 

look at this thread:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=98991

i too am in the process of trying to come up with a good gaming PC.... right now my total is at $1,314.96.... without the HD..... if you dont wanna go with that.... i think my first setup is nice.... you could do some tweaking on your own..... but just look at that thread try to figure out how much you wanna spend on each thing.... and hopfully a total....

 

ok I didnt do a whole lot of shoppin around, just went to newegg.com and got you an "idea" of what you could do. Also kept it in the 800-900 dollar range like you asked. This setup is assuming you do not require a floppy drive(which are very cheap if u would like u can pick one up for around 12-15 dollars) also that you already have things like mouse / keyboard / speakers / ect.).Also assuming you can build a pc yourself. Keep in mind this is a very nice system but you can always change things out for things you would rather have, i did this very fast and kept it semi low to make sure it would fall = or > 800-900 dollars.

Xion ATX Midtower (case) - $39.99 (29.99 after mail in rebate) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208009)
LG DVD/CDRom Drive - $16.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136083)
LG CD Burner - $17.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136059)
Western Digital 80GB HD - $42.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144122) (can also get SATA for same price)
BIOSTAR TForce4SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard with AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor - $183.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103533) (click on combo deals, it's the first combo at the top of the list)
2 GB of Corsair XMS dual channel ram - $199.00 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145574)
Coolmax 550W Power Supply - $59.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817159026)
Dual MSI Geforce 7300GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - $78.99 each (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127213)

A really nice system for a bit under the amount you specified (like i said u can change things out if u would rather have other things or add things u would like that i did not add) - Grand Total of $718.92 (Not including shipping because i did not know where you were from lol)

I play alot of games, and this is more than what my system is running on, so unless your an extrermely hardcore gamer or you play like CS Source in a tournament league, you should be fine, cause with my setup (which like i said, this ones better, but i was on a much smaller budget) I get constant 95-160fps on CS Source.

 

I've been picking up parts towards doing the same thing. I have a Case, PSU, two DVD+/-RW's and now a pair of 320G hard drives. I'm holding off buying the MOBO, CPU, RAM and video card(s) untill I have enough money to get them all together. I'd hate to find out the MOBO or CPU that I picked up 2 months ago is bad or watch the price drop (like the AMD chips did with Core 2 coming out).

 

Great post Nerve

I second what jerkyking said wait until you have all the money ie save up,by the time you have all the parts the components wont be the best you could have afforded for the total amount of money you'v spent

 

My opinion:

CPU:
AMD Athlon X2 4200+ or higher. The recent price drops make these upgrades extremely affordable...

OR...

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 or higher. Conroe(Core 2 Duo) is Intel's latest processor, and it provides excellent performance. Intel is now a contender in the gaming market.

Make sure you get Socket AM2 so that you can upgrade easily in the future!

Motherboard:
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe or MSI K9N SLI Platinum. Has onboard 7.1 audio, and dual PCI-e x16 in case you want to go SLI.

You will most likely want onboard audio, because it is cheap and can provide as good an experience as a sound card, for most people. You will also want to keep the SLI option available. Or perhaps look at Crossfire if you want to go with an ATI setup.

RAM:
1GB PC-4200 DD2 from one of the following brands:
Corsair
Kingston
OCZ

You probably only need 1GB at the moment. 2GB will only offer slight performance gains, and you can always add an extra GB in the future.

Video Card:
ATI Radeon X1900XTX

or...

nVidia Geforce 7900 GTX

Save the video card for last. By the end of the year, DirectX10 cards should be out, and you will want one. I personally wouldn't recommend buying a super high performance video card right now, because you will want a DX10 card in a few months. But if you must have the best now, and don't care about DX10, get a Radeon X1900XTX or Geforce 7900GTX. Or even possibly a Geforce 7950GX2, if you want the absolute best.

Hard Drives:
Maxtor 250GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM. You would use this drive as a storage drive. I recommend at least 250GB, because it is easy to use lots of space fast with the latest games and such. If you don't feel you need that much, you can go with less space. If you want more, you can go with more.

and...

Western Digital Raptor 74.8GB 10000RPM. This would be your boot drive. It doesn't have a lot of storage capacity, but with its ultra-fast 10000RPM, loading times will be significantly reduced.

Using a 10000RPM drive for your boot drive and having a larger drive as a storage drive is just a suggestion. The main reason for this is that you get the exceptionally fast performance from the Raptor, which would make games and software load a hell of a lot quicker, but you still have all of the additional space on the larger storage drive to put your big files on. If you don't need the extra boost in speed, you may consider going with just the storage drive. If you don't need the extra space, you could get a 150GB Raptor, which provides good storage space and exceptional speeds. Also, you will want SATA II, not ATA.

Optical Drive:
BenQ DW1650 16x16 Dual Layer DVD+/- RW. This drive can read and burn both CDs and DVDs. It is a good choice.

Also consider...

BenQ DW1655 16x16 Dual Layer DVD+/- RW w/ Lightscribe. Lightscribe allows you to etch an image directly onto the surface of your disk, so you no longer need to mess with printer labels or Sharpies to label your CDs.

Power Supply:
AT LEAST 600W(I recommend 700W) from one of the following brands:
Antec
OCZ
Enermax
Thermaltake

The reason I recommend 700W is because DX10 video cards reportedly use over 200W of power. Also, getting a modular power supply could prove to be a good option. Removes clutter.

Case:
Just about any case will do. Make sure it has good cooling and ventilation. Also, getting one that looks sexy is a plus.

I recommend the following companies:
Antec
Cooler Master
Thermaltake
Koolance
Lian Li

DO NOT USE THE POWER SUPPLY THAT COMES FREE WITH YOUR CASE!! Most cases come with some "free" no-name power supply that is practially worthless for gaming. Unless you get your case from a company such as Antec, ditch the free power supply as soon as you open the case.

Monitor:
If you've got a good video card, you should get a good monitor to show off the awesome visuals your rig is pumping out.

For the traditional solution, you could go with a good 19" LCD flatpanel. If you want to get a bit more adventurous, consider going widescreen. Viewsonic makes a good 20.1" widescreen monitor, and Dell makes excellent 24" and 30" widescreens as well. When going with an LCD monitor, make sure your video card is capable of playing all of your games at it's native resolution. Most LCD monitors don't scale lower resolutions well.

 

thx rick just figured no one else had said anything, i would try to give him some ideas and get the ball rolling

 

Thanks alot guys.

Should of told you this before.. But yes I do have keyboard/mouse, cd-rom drive, dvd-rom drove and a cd burner already. i just need to find a kick-butt mobo, amd 64 bit

 

Well, My job kinda blows, I only get paid anywhere from $120-$180 a week.
So it will take some time to get all the components, cause theres other stuff to buy to (GAS) And stuff.

 

Lloyd1337, you seem too know your stuff, thats a pretty sweet setup.

 

And whats SLI?

 

SLI is nVidia's multiple video card solution.
see: http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_learn.html

 

Tower Thermaltake Tsunami
Abit An8 32 sli motherboard
Amd Athlon Skt 939 4800 +
Corsair XMS pc 3200 2 gig
Hitachi SATA II X 2 500 gig
Hp Burner
U guru panel
Thermaltake Pure power 600 watt PSU
Nvidia 7800 256 X 2 GPUs SLI PCIx

Just my system and personal favorites

Fast, Stable, Reliable .
Updated A few things but pretty much the same system
Larger drives ,CPU,GPUs

 

come on guys you re hurting him by chopping the legs out from under him...ask him what does he plan to do in the future?what does he want to play? or u just gonna do 1.6 cc or just source or planning to play crysis and bioshock and direct x10 titles?


I have a baby boy on the way so I rushed out and bought everything so I wouldnt have to upgrade for awhile. Yeah you're not in the same boat but kinda with the upgrades happening. I knew I i bought a dx9 card which I kinda did but gave it to my wife that plays wow,cov,and sims so this should do her nicely. I knew the the time was right with doing sli and build a computer. I recommend u buying a 1400,1500 pc if u a big gamer..900 bucks? yeah u can probably get some stuff but i recommend u getting this so u want have to upgrade for a long long time/be ready for the new new games/movies.


vc: wait a month or 2 they have cheaper dx10 coming out that kill the 7900.7950 on the market and the 1950 too.

mobo: get a 680i,this board supports 32x pci e so when u do have money to buy another card u can fully run it at 16x16x so basically 2 gpus.

psu: if u roll with a dx10 card get a uhmm antec 600watt

processor: anything dual core, i personally like the e6400 cuz u can overclock to 3.4 ghz on that mobo.

ram: atleast 4 gbs..u need them for online gameplay for the dx10 games

Like i said if i were u, And if u have an okay pc to play some crap now just upgrade to a good pc that is next gen ready,cuz if u dont ull be outdated still and ur stuff will be kinda useless unless u like playing nothing but ur older games.