help me on building a pc :(

[Ryusiangel]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-248-_-Product

this is the case but i am clueless on what brand to get for ram, cpu, motherboard

i know i will want a geforce 9800
but i don't know on the rest what brands i would need
i want windows 7 to but what version of os shoudl i get i know i want 64 bit....

oh and to mention i wnat amd processor

[synaesthetic]

What are you doing with this computer? Gaming? Multimedia? General productivity software?

GeForce 9800 is a last generation card, there are newer models out now.

I'm not real familiar with the current AMD offerings for desktops, but as far as Intel goes, the Nehalem (i3, i5, i7) architecture processors are the way to go for performance.

[Ryusiangel]

i do wanna do wow/aion online gaming

[synaesthetic]

What is your budget?

A refurbished gaming laptop may be a very cheap option for you if you don't need portability or battery life. I know you can get a good deal on a refurbished Asus G50.

[Ryusiangel]

well laptops aren't good at gaming =(
budget is 600

[chikorita157]

You should be able to get a Core i5, although slightly slower than the i7, but alot faster than the Core2 Quad and costs around $200 off newegg. Of course this requires DDR3 RAM and a i5 compatible motherboard. The motherboard should be compatible with a i7 processor if you decide you need more power down the road. Also, I advise not to skimp on the motherboard and buy a reputable brand or you may have problems down the road because of cheap parts used.

[synaesthetic]

$600 budget for the entire machine?

Or just the internals?

Either way with a budget like that, you're not going to get much in the way of gaming prowess. A proper gaming desktop from scratch starts at $1k and goes as high as... well, as high as you can be crazy.

If all you need is the processor, mainboard and graphics card you should be able to do rather decently with $600.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

$600 budget for the entire machine?

Or just the internals?

Either way with a budget like that, you're not going to get much in the way of gaming prowess. A proper gaming desktop from scratch starts at $1k and goes as high as... well, as high as you can be crazy.

If all you need is the processor, mainboard and graphics card you should be able to do rather decently with $600.

Depends on how you define gaming prowness... machines marketted towards gaming tend to be expensive but hardware is so far ahead of most games right now that you really don't need to spend that much. For example, Tech Report's latest budget build includes a Radeon HD5750 in a $577 configuration, including case and everything:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17787/2

(And yeah, I know there are several choices in there that are going to get questioned, but it's just a convenient example.)

[synaesthetic]

I was factoring the cost of a decent LCD monitor in there which is typically around $200 or more, leaving only $400 for chassis, power supply, CPU, graphics card, mainboard, hard drive, optical drive, mouse, keyboard, game controllers, sound card and speakers.

I don't think even a so-so gaming rig can be built from the ground up with only $600.

If you have monitor and peripherals already, then maybe.

[hobbes_fan]

Didn't you start a thread about this before?

Motherboard -$80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128392
CPU $100
pick whichever, quadcore better for photoshop video work still good for gaming, Dual core better for gaming but slower for photoshop video work etc
Dual
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103680
Quad
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-706-_-Product
Video Card $130
Why a 9800gt? This is the same price and is a hell of a lot faster at $120. Your choice though.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-140-_-Product
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-183-_-Product

Although If you can stretch to $650 total build I'd opt for this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-350-_-Product

RAM $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-346-_-Product
HDD $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136218
Power supply $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004
DVD Burner $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106289

total by my count $620 including your case

You're not going to be able to squeeze a i5 for $600- Not when the CPU and Motherboard equal $400 straightaway.

[Ryusiangel]

well now the problem would be building it since i have no building knowledge is there a site with pictures or something with step by step

[chikorita157]

The motherboard or the case should provide instructions with pictures on putting it together.

Also, when working on a computer, you need make sure you touch on a bare piece of metal before touching the components or use anti-static strap. Static electricity is harmful to the computer electronics and can permanently ruin the part if any static electricity get in contact with the part.

[hobbes_fan]

Go to library
borrow books such as
http://www.amazon.com/Upgrading-Repa...dp_ob_title_bk
See chapter 20 "Building or Upgrading Systems"

When you get your stuff you will need a pair of needle nose pliers, 1 small screw driver, 1 medium screwdriver. Get all your manuals, motherboard cpu and hard drive and case and follow the instructions.

Put all the stuff on the motherboard (CPU, RAM, Heatsink, videocard) in the appropriate slot on the motherboard before putting in the case. It makes it easier to move around and easier to see what you are doing.

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I was factoring the cost of a decent LCD monitor in there which is typically around $200 or more, leaving only $400 for chassis, power supply, CPU, graphics card, mainboard, hard drive, optical drive, mouse, keyboard, game controllers, sound card and speakers.

I don't think even a so-so gaming rig can be built from the ground up with only $600.

If you have monitor and peripherals already, then maybe.

I'm also of the opinion it can be done for $450 with some compromises eg a AM2+ motherboard instead of AM3 for instance, the non black edition of the x2 550 ie x2 245, 2gb of ddr2 ram, smaller 500gb HDD and a cheaper generic case. You sacrfice a bit in terms of "future proofing" but you get the same performance, today and that alone gets you 100-150 in savings. But keep in mind as long as it's am2+ motherboard you can use AM3 processors, with a slight performance hit. Remember most pcs are coupled with a 20-22" monitor meaning around 1680x1050 resolution and not every game is is reliant on the crysis engine. Hell I'm still sitting on a q6600 and a single 4870 and barring Crysis I've not played a game that hasn't had a minimum of 50+fps at 1680x1050 and that includes gta iv at mid to max settings. It will still smoke AION and nearly every MMORPG out there provided that they're not boxing or anythying unusual. I've only crossfired in the last week as I've picked up a 2nd hand 4870 for free and tBH I'll probably sell one as it doesn't make a massive difference as I have vsync on as I hate tearing. I've never understood why the current standard for playability has now become MAXIMUM settings for everything.

[synaesthetic]

It's not so much that current standards for playability equal "maximum" as the problem is that the requirements of games are radically different. This has always been so.

If you wanted the best detail on FPS games, you always usually had to buy the best of the best, but if you were an RPG or RTS gamer it was less likely to be so demanding. And MMORPGs, by nature of their design will usually run on slower computers without problems in order for the developers to increase market penetration figures. Catering to the lowest common denominator is what they do.

So you have a handful of games that run on "gaming rig A" and all these other ones run poorly on it, but on "gaming rig B" you can run everything but it's very expensive. That is where the confusion and difficulty comes in for me.

And for me personally it is even worse because I want a laptop and I don't want it to have really bad battery life. ^^; So I am left with the choice to use an ultra low voltage processor and be unable to play most games, or spend a lot of money.

[hobbes_fan]

The thing is this sub $150 cards, sub $150 cards or midrange gear offer great performance at fairly high resolution and at fairly detailed settings - they're the midrange. At the end of the day 4870x2's, 5870,5890's and gtx 295's are only accounting for maybe 5% of what is in PC's out there. i5 and i7's are accounting for around the same at this point in time. Just because you don't have one of these doesn't mean you can't game or your pc is incapable of playing games. You don't have to run every game with 8aa and 16af at 2560x1600. Casual gamers wouldn't even know what this sentence means. Let alone tell the difference between 4aa and 16aa. I spend more time on pc forums and realistically it turns into a dick waving competition. It's all about synthetic bechmarks yet when you compare a game with 16xaa and 8af vs someone running 8aa and 4af there's little to no apperciable difference. It's like dx10.1 vs dx9. Without really going through still shots can you tell which is dx9 and which is d10.1? Yet there's a massive performance hit

http://au.gamespot.com/features/6182140/index.html.

And $$$ in terms of future proofing means squat. The 2900xt and 8800gtx retailed at $600-800 in late 2006 and early 2007. They were blown away by cards retailing at 1/2 that around 1 year later

[synaesthetic]

Yup, early adopters get screwed in this hobby. Never buy shit when it first comes out or you'll end up having paid way way too much.

[Ryusiangel]

should i get the barebone kit from tiger direct? i was thinking getting that then the pink pc not like i hate black pc case just i want to go color i found it cheaper somehow

[hobbes_fan]

Barebones aren't really cheaper - you still have to put it together and most of the time it's pretty junky gear in the kits. Post a link of what you are looking at tigerdirect has about 60 barebone kits and I don't know if what you are looking is the same thing

[Ryusiangel]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...487&CatId=2405 this is if i go with intel if i7 go cheaper by then but i won't build a pc now i'm just gonna buy a gaming pc that seems cheap i dun care if its from ibuypower or not but as long as its decent and since i'm learning how to build pcs i might be able to fix problems :P

id on't know whats ddr3 and ddr2 difference though...should i look into ddr3 as well?

and btw what power supply should i get...i don't wnat it to be overpowered that it could break my pc...specially when i game.

[synaesthetic]

Electronics don't work that way. They'll only draw as much current as they need. However, it's always better to get a more capable PSU, because it gives you extra room for upgrading and whatnot. High-end graphics cards tend to suck up a lot of power. So do fast hard drives.