Want to buy new PC

**Lucandrake** · September 25, 2008

O man, ok, here is what I got out of everything I searched for over 4 hours of just .... searching.

The total comes out to 1852, although I'm pretty sure I picked some sh!tty brands, a few mistakes here or there, and can probably do without some of these things (Windows, Key/Mouse, Moniter, I can pretty much bring the price to about 1.3k if I just want the tower), and idk about the case. my friend just said "pick a big one" and I'm like "ok"....

Help me with my selection please, I still feel like I can cut back some $$$ on some of these things , and I don't know if these are all super compatible with each other.

**GodPigeon** · September 25, 2008

So far alll i can gather is,

Dont get that Ram, you can find cheaper ram that do the same thing like mine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231166

And keep checking up on RAM prices. DDR3 is kicking in full effect soon so prices should be dropping.

Youre only gonna need one Video card, and if you buy two, youre gonna have a hard time fitting them both in, not to mention keeping them cool. The 9800 is a very strong(But i hear its very buggy) card and one should be enough to run any game in Max settings.

Heatsink/Thermal Paste: Im pretty sure ur Processor come with its own heatsink so u should be fine. However, DO buy thermal paste. THe Heatsink will have some thermal paste on it, i dont trust it at all. It looks like it will leave hot air pockets in between the Mobo and the CPU.

So you take the heatsink, get some alcohol, rub it off and apply the new one.

Dont waste your money on those garbage speakers.

Get a different Headset.

Last thing..............why would you BUY windows vista Basic??

**Lucandrake** · September 25, 2008

I want a set of gaming speakers (a sub woofer w/ two speakers, not an entire set to stick around my room because it'll just be too loud, and until I buy a house "too" loud is a bad thing!). Bad thing is I don't know any good products / brands for the speakers or a headset.

Your right about Windows Vista, sh!t all my hardware atm is running off pirate, I just want to be legit for once (I'm a pirate but I'm still persuaded to buy certain things).

If I only need one video card (I wanted to run 2 because again, I think it'll be cool!), then I guess I could go with one of the GTX 260's, they range from 250-350 and it'll end up being cheaper then duo 9800's(which cost I think 440 when I added them up).

For RAM, I probably still have another 2-3 weeks before I order all the parts, do you think DDR3 4 gb (2x2 and duel channel)'s will cost 100-150 by then?

O and my buddy said the processor don't come with no heat sink hence me needing one. On a different note, I have no idea how this thing is going to be kept cool, considering I'm just using the heat sink thingie, a long with the case fans and that's it! I wanted water cooling but I'm pretty sure that will be impossible for me since I'll probably end up braking some parts when I put the entire thing together.

Question!

What's up with the prices from these 3 mobos, the first one is my original mobo, with just DDR2 RAM slots, the other two have DDR3/2 slots but they're both cheaper, the only difference I see is that the $150 has just 1 PCI express slot, but the $100 has 2 (so that can't effect price).

$180 with only DDR2 slots and 2 PCI slots http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131182

$150 with both DDR 2/3 but 1 PCI slot http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131327

$100 with both DDR 2/3 and 2 Pci slots http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...82E16813131188R

Inky · September 25, 2008

Is it weird that I'm finding cheaper parts on Tiger Direct? Or am I doing something wrong?

Last time I built a PC I ended up getting some parts from tiger direct and some from newegg. I think I ended up getting a few things on ebay and amazon too. just where ever you can find the part cheapest. who cares who ships it.

**GodPigeon** · September 25, 2008

For Speaker brands, you can go either Bose/Logitech/Altec Lansing.

For Headsets, read the reviews. Chances are, most headsets are very uncomfortable or are poorly made(as is the one i bought) So you should be careful about that one. Make sure you get good quality headsets if you want them to last.

i Wouldnt Pay for Vista at all, but even if i ever decided to buy Vista, it wouldnt be Vista Basic, id go for Ultimate; heck maybe even Home Premium. Aside from that, i suggest you Pirate XP SP2 and call it a day. Then later on if you want, u can pirate Vista Ultimate as i did(And it updates perfectly)

Yea i think One GTX 260 is worth it.

Not DDR3 ram, but they will still go down in price eventually. You shouldnt rush the purchase of your computer. Take it slow and you'll be happier guaranted. Took me a year after part searching till i finally bought it.

Most processors come with Heatsinks, usually differs from each processor. But i guess since this CPU is running at 3.12 x 4, it only makes sense to buy an aftermarket Heatsink.

And about those Mobos, that last one is Open Box.

**Lucandrake** · September 25, 2008

Open box? As in the tower case is open? That will go against the point of the big tower x.x. I might get the 150 Asus then since I'll only get 1 video card (is duel SLI even that "great"?).

O and the CPU is a duel core, if I had gone with quad core I'm pretty sure the price would've been an extra $100 or two (if I'm getting a quad core, I'm getting a 9K intel series).

The windows I put up is Home Prem dude x.x. I know about windows D:.

If anything I'll get DDR3 later in the year then. I'm still worried about the cooling though (what's a better way of cooling a system if your not going to use liquid?)

**Lucandrake** · September 25, 2008

New desktop after re-thinking

Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811166004 $60

Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131327 $150

Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115036 $190

RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231166 $110

Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814143148 $316

Hard Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152098 $70

PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817148036 $180

HeatSink Cooling Fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835118003 $50

Thermal Compound http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835100008 $18

DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151173 $27

Surge Protector http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16812102407 $19

Keyboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16823126034 $90

Mouse http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16826104076 $50

Moniter http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16824009094 $200

Speakers http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16836113014 $25

Headset http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16826106931 $13

Total $1568

Should come out to about $1800-1900 with shipping and taxes.

gymnist1026 · September 25, 2008

you can prolly save money by getting a surge protector at target or walmart or something...since shipping costs half the price of the actual protector...

also...i have a 9800 and it is definitely a massive card. I had to rearrange my case to get it to fit correctly...but it is a beast and i have not encountered a game that i have not been able to play with textures set to max (except crysis...but i stopped playing after the first level because it was boring...)

**Lucandrake** · September 25, 2008

Looked around a bit more and I made 2 changes that can effect the entire thing overall.

Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103273 $145 (-$5)

Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103273 $175 (-$15)

I did some reading, and almost everywhere I go everyone recommends AMD for gaming, not to mention, when I saw the price of the phenom 2.6 MHZ was cheaper then a DUO 3.16 (or right next to it) I was like "Hey wait a minute, 4 cores X 2.6 > 2 Cores X 3.16".

Please someone review this who has built a PC, this is a lot of money and I want to make sure I got everything right in the first shot.

Hmm, also, FBS (front bus speed), for some reason NEWEGG doesn't show the FSB of the phenom but tigerdirect said it was 2k, so a mobo with 2.6k FBS should be able to run the phenom at full speed right?

Edit - Gymnist: yea the few reviews I read of the 9800 all generally said "Runs games on max single-handed", so instead of getting 2 9800's I'm pretty sure a X260 (cheaper price) will give me around the same power of those 2 and allow me to control temperature better. Which I still don't know how to do as well.

**ken_cinder** · September 25, 2008

Features. For starters, the first one (Most expensive) sports an x16 and x4 PCI-Express slot. The others only have one x16 and the others are x1 slots. Theres other things too.

You really need to sit down and make a list of what it is you WANT out of your PC, and make sure you buy parts that will do it for you. Don't just pull up parts that fit the general idea. Get EXACTLY what you want.

You need to do some serious research, and this isn't going to be an overnight thing. Start with a motherboard and make a checklist.

1: Do you want SLi or Crossfire? Hell do you even want either?

2: Do you want DDR3 support, DDR2 or both? (You will pay more for one that supports both, and you'll pay more for DDR3 only. Choose wisely)

3: Do you care if it has onboard audio? There are usually a few revisions of a board based on if it has onboard audio etc.

4: What kind of processor do you want? Do you want to be able to pop a quad core in there later?

Cross off every board you come across that doesn't fit ALL of those, and put ones down that do. Then go over the ones that made the cut, and cut them down even further by their specs for performance and other features. Do they sport features you could give a rats ass about? You may not want that board if you can save $20 by going with one that doesn't have those useless features.

Lastly, enough with Newegg etc. Start your research on manufacturers websites. Use Newegg to find stuff, but make a list and check the manufacturers site. Sometimes bios upgrades enable new features you don't see on store sites (My motherboard supports the Phenom/Quad Core, it didn't until a bios upgrade was released)

The LAST place you should be compiling a list of potential buys, is at a store. That's like grocery shopping while you're hungry!!!

**Lucandrake** · September 26, 2008

What do I want out of my PC?

Simple, a decent future proofed PC that can run the majority of today's games on max or near max settings with no frame-rate lag, a long with a hint of coolness factor coming out of a pretty pretty machine.

1.I want SLI but only now if I can hit it with a $400-450 mark. Hell Crossfire would do fine as well even though ATI is fairly new at doing it so I have trust issues with that, if decent SLI isn't realistic around that price range I would be fine with a single Vid card for now as long as it is SLI future proofed (in-case I want to buy another one when price goes down) and that the mobo has at least 2 (3 if no onboard audio) PCI X16 slots.

2. I would love Duo support, so that I can purchase DDR2 1066's now and maybe a year or 2 from now upgrade to DDR3, in terms of RAM I'm pretty sure 4 gigs will run anything fine, 8 gigs is a little too much and might become too pricey (the Monitor I planned on originally using only has a native of 1380 X xxxx, I really don't want all this fancy stuff and a monitor that can't support it so I need to include a Monitor into the budget now).

3.I don't want on-board audio, but I will be satisfied with it. I'm not a sound whore, but I don't want what I have now, sh!tty-fair sound. I would like to go 1 rank higher but I'm pretty sure a set of speakers with on-board audio will be enough for me, unless not including on-board audio into the mobo has any form of performance upgrade I can handle a mobo with it.

4.Considering everywhere I go everyone shouts AMD FOR GAMING, and the price of the quad AMDX2+ 2.6 is the same as a Intel Duo Core 3.16 I would really love to have a quad atm. Future proof already my system. Also, AMDX2+ (I think) is fairly new so if 5.0 MHZ quad cores ever get released I'm pretty sure the same mobo I get now will be able to handle it.

Also Cinder I'm on IRC if you wanna chat .

**GodPigeon** · September 26, 2008

Dont worry about Monitor Resolution. 720 = 32 inch

People crank up resolution on little 22' screens all the way up to 1200 and in reallity get nothing much better then if they'd put it at 768. My computer and all my systems are on this 32 inch screen and look great at 1380x768.

**Lucandrake** · September 26, 2008

The TV is a 26 inch, and I'm pretty sure the max native res is the one you just said pegeon, I was using it with this laptop and it looked great at 800X600 (by my current standards), maybe I should save up for moniter later on (like my bday in a few months).

**Lucandrake** · September 27, 2008

Ok since I'm not getting a Moniter I freshed up some parts.

Final Computer Parts List

Tips - Never use driver discs!

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811144152 $77
CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103273 $174
Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131290 $240
Ram - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820104038 $109
VidCard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814143157 $329
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817256036 $200
HardDrive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152098 $70
DVD Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151173 $27
Thermal - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835100008 $18
Surge - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16812102407 $20
Keyboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16823126034 $90
Mouse - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16826104076 $50

Current Total - $1404

I still need a heatsink, a audio cable (my tv supports it a really good audio cable though my current mono audio cable puts my $5 speakers to shame), and a headset, I'm trying not to go past $1600 now (so I can save up for a good moniter/set of speakers later). Sh!t, I just realized I have no router, and yes my sister does use the other laptop occasionally, help x.x D:.

If anybody has suggestions, please post ^.^.

Also these are the final selections for now, unless someone points me into a better source or something.

Also I would like to thank Cinder and Pegion (Don) for all the help and input they given, I seriously would've gotten screwed at least 4 different times when picking this sh!t out.

**GodPigeon** · September 29, 2008

Dude, thats a bit overboard on that Mobo no?

Tell me why you want THAT mobo.

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