What Should I look for?

[SiL Eighty]

OK, well Ive come across enough money to finally start my computer build up. The problem is I dont know what brands I should look for or what type of stuff I should get for my comp.

I am starting from scratch so i want to get everything brand new.

*What type of setup I want.
- 2, 120 gig hdd's
- Atleast 512 mb ram " with the option to make it about 1gig later"
- Atleast 2.8 ghz processor "if its not TOO expensive id like to get a 3.2 ghz"
- very good vid and Sound cards
- good wireless key board and optical mouse " thinking of logitec"
- Option to make it dual monitors in the near future. "a MUST option"
- decent cd burner and dvd player "i dont care to much about these but i do want them"
- Atleast 5 usb ports
- what are good fans?
- A mother board that can do all of thee above
- A case w/ front or top mount usb ports

Dont ask me how much I have / want to spend 'cuz Im just looking for what is the best setup for my needs. Even if i dont have enough Ill just wait till I do to get the proper parts. Top of the line Brands are a must I dont want to have any problems w/ my hardware down the line cuz i bought cheepo parts.

Thanks for any help ^______^. be nice its my b- day

[wnkryo]

First off I would really recommend you building your own computer, and not buy some brand name one. That way, you would know every thing that's in your computer (and not just the system specs), and you also would feel much more comfortable working with your computer.

So if you are going to build your computer, make sure you know what your looking for, and how much it cost. If you really stink at computers--than just get a name brand computer.... -.-

[SiL Eighty]

Originally Posted by wnkryo

First off I would really recommend you building your own computer, and not buy some brand name one. That way, you would know every thing that's in your computer (and not just the system specs), and you also would feel much more comfortable working with your computer.

So if you are going to build your computer, make sure you know what your looking for, and how much it cost. If you really stink at computers--than just get a name brand computer.... -.-

Ooops let it be known that I am Building my own not some POS Dell. Thats why I started this thread to ask for what types of brands of stuff that I should look for and what can take what *mother board and processor wise* I can put it together I just dont know what I should get.

[hobobaggins]

build your own!

for noise reasons i would suggest 1 250gig, not 2 120's.

i have 3 120's personally because it is alot cheaper.

we need a budget to work off of.

the budget makes the computer.

[boneyjellyfish]

I think it would help if you told us exactly what you want to do with your computer so that we can help you customize it based on your own needs.

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by boneyjellyfish

I think it would help if you told us exactly what you want to do with your computer so that we can help you customize it based on your own needs.

budget comes first.

if he has a 500$ cap, then it really doenst matter what his needs are

shouldnt this be in the Tech section along with my plea for Playonline help?

[boneyjellyfish]

Originally Posted by hobobaggins

budget comes first.

if he has a 500$ cap, then it really doenst matter what his needs are

Originally Posted by Sil Eighty

Dont ask me how much I have / want to spend 'cuz Im just looking for what is the best setup for my needs

You were saying?

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by boneyjellyfish

You were saying?

i chose to ignore that, for if he wants the best, i can reccomend something easily 10k+

[SiL Eighty]

Ok, I plan on using it for mass downloads for anime, MMORPG's, music, web surfing, Instant messaging, some photoshop work, you know the basics

As for budget, er..... fine... I'll make a cap for you guys to play around w/. 1,000 US dollar cap *not including monitors*

Dual monitor is a must ^____^

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

Ok, I plan on using it for mass downloads for anime, MMORPG's, music, web surfing, Instant messaging, some photoshop work, you know the basics

As for budget, er..... fine... I'll make a cap for you guys to play around w/. 1,000 US dollar cap *not including monitors*

Dual monitor is a must ^____^

Assuming that the prices in Akihabara is comparable to sales prices in the States:

HD:
2 Seagate ST3200822A at 7000 yen each (total of 13,000 yen)

Motherboard and CPU combo:
Gigabyte GA-8I875 Ultra and Intel Pentium4 2.8GHz at 30,000 yen

RAM:
2 Generic 512MB DDR-SDRAM DIMMs at 5000 yen each (total of 10,000 yen)

generic case:
8000 yen

Video card:
one with an ATI Radeon 9800 chip 8x AGP 256MB VRAM at 29800 yen

Total of: 90,800 yen (Approx. USD$825)

[dragonz20]

would you consider buying a DVD burner instead of a cd-burner/dvd player? Although 250gigs is a lot, you'd be surprised at how quickly you can fill it up with anime, especially if you following a few long ones (POT, Naruto, One Piece to name a few), add a few gigs of other type of movies, mp3s, and programs and you can easily use up all your hardrive space. If you can afford the extra dough, invest in a decent dvd-burner... Trust me, you won't regret it once you start converting all your anime to dvds (15-30 episodes a pop) instead of using cd-r (3-6 at most).

I am using a Sony External DVD+-RW drive DRX510UL.. I love it. Haven't had any problems with it and it's a beauty. A bit expensive but it's cheaper if you buy the internal version...

[raikage]

There's nothing wrong with using non-name-brand stuff - I took a risk on my BFG video card when the company first came out and I haven't been disappointed yet.

Mad Dog DVD burner - hardly a name on par with TDK or Memorex (I don't know if Sony makes great burners) but it works fine.

Samsung laser printer - no problems yet.

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

Ok, I plan on using it for mass downloads for anime, MMORPG's, music, web surfing, Instant messaging, some photoshop work, you know the basics

Um...I'm running a 1.5 GHz AMD Athlon/512 MB of RAM and I can do all that stuff just fine. The only reasons I could think of to get something faster are super-high-reqirement games (though I can't think of too many at the moment - anyone know what Doom 3 needs?) and video editing (though you should probably get a Mac for that).

[hobobaggins]

I tend to stick with western digital in terms of hard drives...

120gig WD with mail in rebate = 50$

250 gig with mail in rebate= 147$

10k rpm 36 gig drive - 120$ - makes reformatting a snap. and booting up and such...

some kind of kingston ram, depending on what you need.... ~100$ (or you could get non-name brands' version for ~30$)

DVD burner- generic brand- 79$ at fry's (prices vary... alot)

since i am a pentium freak, i would suggest the 2.4Ghz for cost, and overclocking ability...

Abit mobo- ~100$

2.4c pentium 4- ~200$

Case: make your own! it would be fun... but time consuming... but i would say 80$ for some midrange case (be sure to get one with a 400w+ PSU)

videocard? i dont do dual monitor... ... so whatever supports dual monitor ( i happen to favor raedon)


that is around 900$, depending on shipping... (includes the a 10k drive, and a 120 hard drives i listed)

[wnkryo]

Originally Posted by kj1980

Assuming that the prices in Akihabara is comparable to sales prices in the States:

HD:
2 Seagate ST3200822A at 7000 yen each (total of 13,000 yen)

Motherboard and CPU combo:
Gigabyte GA-8I875 Ultra and Intel Pentium4 2.8GHz at 30,000 yen

RAM:
2 Generic 512MB DDR-SDRAM DIMMs at 5000 yen each (total of 10,000 yen)

generic case:
8000 yen

Video card:
one with an ATI Radeon 9800 chip 8x AGP 256MB VRAM at 29800 yen

Total of: 90,800 yen (Approx. USD$825)

If you really have enough money though--try getting an AMD 64bit processer, becuase it's way faster than all those other processers out there now.

[p3psi]

I remembered a few months ago i made a thread seeing if i could make a budget gaming comp for around 500 bucks, as i recall, it didnt turn out so well.
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...aming+computer

But i learnd that the one thing, dont skimp on he motherboard! basically everything else can be upgraded later to a certain extent, but that extent is basically limited to how good your motherboard is.

edit: and dont over look AMD processors. But intel is just as good, its just they are a little more expensive per hertz.

[Lexander]

Instead of the 2 120s get a 250.

[SiL Eighty]

Woo good info. Heres the deal though, I dont want to upgrade this thing for atleast 2 years so i want to get it all done to perfection the 1st time. No upgrades. I dont want to settle for cheepo crap. My friend made a budget comp for $600 US and his 80 gig hdd crapped out on him last week *I dont know the brand of it but he got it at fry's*

-AMD 64 bit processors... More info on them?
-Mother Board .... have no clue what to look for in a mother board... Point me in the direction of one that'll handle thee above?
-Vid card.... What one's support dual monitor setup?

[Lina Inverse]

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

*What type of setup I want.
- 2, 120 gig hdd's
- Atleast 512 mb ram " with the option to make it about 1gig later"
- Atleast 2.8 ghz processor "if its not TOO expensive id like to get a 3.2 ghz"
- very good vid and Sound cards
- good wireless key board and optical mouse " thinking of logitec"
- Option to make it dual monitors in the near future. "a MUST option"
- decent cd burner and dvd player "i dont care to much about these but i do want them"
- Atleast 5 usb ports
- what are good fans?
- A mother board that can do all of thee above
- A case w/ front or top mount usb ports

Ok, here are my recommendations
Since I have no idea what the stuff costs in the US, I'll omit the prices.

- HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200s, very fast and very silent
- Amd Athlon XP 3000+ as a more economic solution
- Amd Athlon 64 3400+ for top-of-the-line
- if you take the A64, you can get the Albatron K8X800 Pro II mainboard which has good onboard sound (VIA Envy 24PT 7.1)
- Radeon 9800 Pro - got quite cheap by now. Manufactured doesn't matter, as they all use the reference design. Supports dual monitors.
- I wouldn't take the Logitech desktop set since the new Logitech mice suck imo... there are enough good alternatives (Creative, MS etc.) Personally, I'm using a Typhoon Navigator Office XP keyboard and a MS Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 mouse which both work nicely. Both have cables, though.
- I'm having a Philips 48x CD burner which works fine
- the best fans are from Papst, but very expensive. You can also use YStech which is quite affoprdable and still have a nice quality
- Power Supply: Levicom 420W (very affordable, but still good quality, not too silent) or be quiet 450W (silent, more power, but also clearly more expensive)

[SiL Eighty]

Originally Posted by Lina Inverse

Ok, here are my recommendations
Since I have no idea what the stuff costs in the US, I'll omit the prices.

- HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200s, very fast and very silent
- Amd Athlon XP 3000+ as a more economic solution
- Amd Athlon 64 3400+ for top-of-the-line
- if you take the A64, you can get the Albatron K8X800 Pro II mainboard which has good onboard sound (VIA Envy 24PT 7.1)
- Radeon 9800 Pro - got quite cheap by now. Manufactured doesn't matter, as they all use the reference design. Supports dual monitors.
- I wouldn't take the Logitech desktop set since the new Logitech mice suck imo... there are enough good alternatives (Creative, MS etc.) Personally, I'm using a Typhoon Navigator Office XP keyboard and a MS Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 mouse which both work nicely. Both have cables, though.
- I'm having a Philips 48x CD burner which works fine
- the best fans are from Papst, but very expensive. You can also use YStech which is quite affoprdable and still have a nice quality
- Power Supply: Levicom 420W (very affordable, but still good quality, not too silent) or be quiet 450W (silent, more power, but also clearly more expensive)

Wow, Yes this is what i was looking for ^___^ I totally forgot about power supply doh :slaps head: do you happen to have sites where i can look at this stuff? Ill most likely make a run to Fry's this weekend at take a look around before I actually start buying stuff. Maybe I go tommorow after work. Ill make a list of things Im thinking of getting "stats price blah blah" and see if you guys think im getting a good deal before I spend my hard earned cash ^__^.

Oh and sound cards ppl?

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

Woo good info. Heres the deal though, I dont want to upgrade this thing for atleast 2 years so i want to get it all done to perfection the 1st time. No upgrades. I dont want to settle for cheepo crap. My friend made a budget comp for $600 US and his 80 gig hdd crapped out on him last week *I dont know the brand of it but he got it at fry's*

-AMD 64 bit processors... More info on them?
-Mother Board .... have no clue what to look for in a mother board... Point me in the direction of one that'll handle thee above?
-Vid card.... What one's support dual monitor setup?

site?
www.newegg.com

sound card? any creative audigy.

I would suggest against getting a 64 bit processor (unless you get a mac)(for photo/video editing) because longhorn is not out and no/few programs utilize the 64 bit architesture.

fans? screw fans. get exotic cooling. buy a custom heatsink, and a water fountain and hook the two up! (check for leaks)

Budget proc- Athlon
Got cash? Intel... intel all the way.