howdy, afterdawners! I've been a lurker to this site for a long time now. I guess it's now time I created an account because I can't seem to find the answer to my questions from someone elses threads , and the sticky threads are a little outdated so far you guys have greatly decreased my paranoid fear of assembling a desktop from scratch. That sincerely helped, thanks! Anyway, instead of just bluntly linking you to my hardware, let me give you a better perspective. Purpose of the Computer I actually need a computer, for music, movies, internet etc but since I'm a gaming enthusiast I thought why not spend a little more and get a decent gaming PC. I don't want it to be a high-end gaming PC, because it would be a waste maybe. Why waste? since I never had a proper gaming computer for 4 years or so, I've got many old games to catch up on. Also, I'm okay with not striving to play games on 100% quality and performance. To give you a better idea, the games I'd probably be playing are namely, Counter-Strike Source, Battlefield 2, Tiberium Wars, Half-life, Bioshock, F.E.A.R, Company of Heroes, COD4, Crysis etc My Budget my build is quite budget conscious. Initially, I would've really preferred if it was $500, hehe, but after some researching I figured it was insufficient. $650 would be my ideal budget, but even if that isn't enough, I could postpone buying my LCD computer to thanksgiving and use a free 17" CRT till then. lol. So that extends the budget to about $750. But ofcourse, budget is still the main concern. The Hardware: Motherboard MSI G31M3-F Micro ATX Intel Motherboard Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Case Antec Sonata III 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Power Supply Rosewill 600W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready Graphic Card EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP RAM G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s DVD-Burner LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM Others: Arctic Silver 5 Extra fans? Approximate total = $710 also, do note each component is very tentative. So for instance, while I've listed 9800gtx costing $160, I could for a $120 9800gt if it allowed me to comfortably play my games. Similarly, I'd rather go for a Core 2 Duo if a Quad-core would really be of not much use to me. If you know what I mean Comments, suggestions, substitutions, criticism? All welcome
Hmm well I would make some changed to that. get this case instead. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042&Tpk=antec 300 Get this motherboard instead http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345 DEFINITELY dont get that PSU. get this http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-vx-...-atx12v-eps12v-power/q/loc/101/205852646.html As for memory, you should really get 4Gb at this point http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220227 This video card is faster and 20 bucks less http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770 I would also recommend getting a CPU cooler. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154001 I would really recommend getting a different HDD. Something with 16MB of cache, not 8MB. Of course the size is up to you. The Samsumg Spinpoint 320GB are pretty fast drives. I know this all is a bit more expensive but this will last you much longer and you will be glad you spent that extra 50 bucks or so. I dont know what the total cost will be now, I'll leave that up to you.
Haha. The processor is the only thing you didn't change from my list. But I can't say I wasn't expecting my whole list to be changed I hope you're not considering rebates in the overall price, because I don't. There's a 50/50 chance one might get lucky with MIR. Your choice of graphic card seems to struggle a tad with heat issues, otherwise it's fine. I'm just too biased towards Nvidia cards. The total comes upto about $780 including shipping but without rebates. What do you think if I were to downgrade from Q6600 to C2D 7200? I've read a few threads where you guys have had debates over the two having minor differences in performance I really appreciate the help, man Edit: Unless the Q6600 would last me a long time as you mentioned
The rebates will probably come in. I used to have that GFX card with an even CRAPPIER cooler and it was fine. I would stick with the quad core if you want to keep it for more than an year.
so that leaves me making 2 changes. A DVD-burner instead of just DVD-ROM SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 16MB cache 320GB lol. It's kinda ridiculous how I got my mind set on exactly the hardware substitutions you recommended. No offense though. I'm quite nooby
could you tell me why you chose that mobo over my mine? The one I chose really seemed stable. I'm not defending my choice but I just wanted you to reason a little
It's MicroATX and all the good overclockers are regular sized. The one I chose will Overclock much better and thats something you should look if you want to extend the useful life of your system.
it's just that my friend was having the argument that the mobo you selected out will get me 3.6 ghz on my processor. And that 3.0 is more than enough without risking burn out or high case temps and messing with voltages even. "its easy but more risky than 3.0, if you take your processor more than 3.0 you reduce cpu lifespan" mobos is one hardware component that I have no idea about, and that doesn't to be said. lol
With that Tuniq tower 3.6Ghz wont be a ALL THAT difficult if you get a good CPU. Expect around 3.4Ghz though. The GA-EP45-DS3L is avery good overclocker.
hmm... how would you rate this mobo? I'm just dicey on your choice of mobo because it has features that I won't probably use. No wait... the bottom line is it's expensive. Especially since I'm spotting decent mobo's half its price. But if any other mobo apart from the one you recommended affects the life of my PC, I guess I'll carry on with it anyway. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128078
my bad. I had given the same mobo link as the first one. Bad CTRL+C skills... this is the new one though http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128078
That's actually decent. I would really recommend the one I picked for future drives, etc. But that one is good also.
special thanks to abuzar1 since he virtually picked out really good hardware components, a few of which were really praised by other people I'm using XP now. Until I get vista, or don't know if I should. Everything worked out perfect, I'm thrilled and surprised. Hardware installation was a little tricky (only a processor/heatsink part) Really. thanks a lot guys. Building a computer all by myself is quite a feeling
hahah no problem dude. Every once in a while I'll look outside of the "permanent" stickied threads and help people out. hahah I should do that more. I'm glad you like your new computer. I would get Vista 64bit Ultimate edition. You can get it from the torrent if you like(PM me about that). With Ultimate Edition Dreamscenes, Rocketdock, and the sidebar, You can make your computer look REALLLY nice.
