Help me build a computer?

[ZeroNightmare]

yeah ok I'm really getting bored. I havent had a descent desktop computer for sometime. I cant really play warcraft 3 on this computer, I cant play wow, and theres so much kickass stuff coming out for the PC like supreme commander I just need to upgrade my computer.

But I dont really know anything about building computers. I know its alot cheaper to do it your self. I went to like dell.com or something and 'built' one with all the stuff i wanted on it and it was like 2000 dollars. granted with a job, you could pay it off monthly and what not and it wouldnt be very bad. but if i can do it cheaper i will.

so could you guys help me out?

I want to be able to play world of warcraft: the burning crusade, and supreme commander.

things I need:

Ram 2 gigs would be pretty good.

A fair video card, preferably in the above average performance range. I've been using a stock video card for years.

I've never really had much of an issue with processors because I've always had generic ones that worked fine, but with supreme commander i think i would need a little better one.

and a descent sized harddrive, nothing too massive, something around 60gigs

idk, theres more people experienced here than I. So any hints and tips at building your own computer would be appreciated.

 

[Smith]

The thing about the monthly payments with OEM providers like Dell, Alienware, Gateway, and the others, is that they add interest per month. So what may be 2000 on checkout may end up being ~2500 overall after the payments. It kind've sucks. Anyways, on to a new possible computer for you!

You're wanting to play WC3/WoW and Supreme Commander, eh? Then we're going to have to set the notch at Supreme Commander, so let's begin. More and more games these days are multithreaded, including Supreme Commander, so you're going to want a dual core processor. Let's put an E6400 into your cart.

(Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz - Click Here - $222.00)

<hr>
We need something to put it in, a motherboard. Considering that your gameplay performance isn't going to be adversely affected by a more budget-class motherboard, we can save a bit of dough. The question is, though, whether you're going to want SLI (Info Here), Crossfire (Info Here), or none of the above! Personally, both Crossfire and SLI aren't really very good upgrade paths. They both seem to only be most effective if you buy both cards at once. The reason for this being that by the time you'd want to upgrade from one card, the next top-of-the-line card will out pace it 2+ fold and, probably, have better features. So, I'll give you three choices:

Non-SLI/Crossfire
(ABIT IB9 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Click Here - $109.99)

SLI Motherboard
(ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Click Here - $139.99)

Crossfire Motherboard
(MSI 975X Platinum V.2 LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Click Here - $166.99) (Not great reviews =\)

<hr>
Alrighty, now we need some RAM to fill in those slots. Conveniently, all of those boards support DDR2 800, so we'll shoot for 2GBs of that.

(G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - Click Here - $204.99)

Or, you can drop down slightly and grab some DDR2 667 instead. You'd lose a bit of performance from this drop, but you'd save some dough.

(Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 - Click Here - $178.99)

<hr>
We're going to need a Hard Drive for this computer, and you say you're not too picky on the size. But, I am. To me, 60GBs is just too small. I'm going to set you up with an 80GB HDD.

(Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - Click Here - $43.99)

You can choose whatever DVD/CD drive you'd like. I went ahead and narrowed it down to DVD-RW/CD-RW for you (Click Here). If you don't want a DVD/CD burner, it's not hard to find a read-only drive.

<hr>
Alrighty! Let's move onto a GPU for you. I'm going to be pretty pro-nVidia here, sorry, but that's just my mind set at the moment. Either a 7600GT or a 7950GT would be very decent for you, with the latter being ~2x as fast (and also ~2x as pricey).

So, here you go:
(eVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 - Click Here - $119.99) (Also has a $20 mail-in-rebate. So it can be counted as $99)

OR

(eVGA GeForce 7950GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 - Click Here - $214.99) (Also has a $15 mail-in-rebate. So it can be counted as $199)

Personally, I'd recommend waiting for around a month for the mid-ranged G80s to come out. They may turn out to be really good.

<hr>
Mmmk, let's set you up with a good PSU.

(Sunbeam NUUO SUNNU550-US-BK ATX12V / EPS12V 550W Power Supply - Click Here - $54.99)

Should support your computer very well.

As for the case, you can get whatever you'd like. You're the one who has to look at it, not I or anyone else. Click Here for a few.

<hr>
We can get a sound card for you if you'd like. The X-Fi cards are great, from what I've heard (haha, pun).

(Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic - Click Here - $92.99)

<hr><hr>

That should be all! It should be ~850-1000 depending on which configuration of these you choose. Enjoy.

 

[.Guzzie.]

Wow!!! That looks all pretty sorted out. It's a little bit cheaper over there in Australia.

BTW Smiff, do you use Intel or AMD. Cause, looking at that list..you might be an Intel user .

-GuZzie

 

[Smith]

I use AMD. Intel just has the best consumer processors out atm.

 

[Synth]

This is a nice guideline... can tell you put a bit of effort.

 

[Kama]

Awesome guide to buy the pieces, now how about a guide to assemble it?

 

[frsrblch]

Tom's Hardware - How To Build A PC, Part III: Putting It Together

It's from a month ago, so you know it's up to date.

 

[Kama]

Is it possible for someone with little hardware knowledge to build a laptop? :x

Cause I really need a laptop...

 

[Smith]

Is it possible for someone with little hardware knowledge to build a laptop? :x

Cause I really need a laptop...

Yea, but not nearly in the sense as you would a desktop computer. It's more like you buy a barebone laptop from someone like ASUS... then you buy the majority of the remainder parts to go in it from them too.

This is a nice guideline... can tell you put a bit of effort.

Awesome guide to buy the pieces, now how about a guide to assemble it?

Thanks. It's a little annoying when the OP doesn't even reply, though, heh. Teach me not to be so helpful again, eh.

 

[Kama]

Thanks. It's a little annoying when the OP doesn't even reply, though, heh. Teach me not to be so helpful again, eh.

Well it really helped me as I am looking into new computers and have been for awhile, i'm not too hardware savvy. So know your efforts at least went to help someone other than the OP!

And he wubbers you for it. <3<3<3

 

[hellrider]

just go this website

http://www.tomshardware.com/

 

[Jarrstin]

Way to post the computer I just built at the beginning of January Smith LOL

It's a good computer! =)

 

[Smith]

Great minds think alike?

<hr>

Do not delete this thread again, ZeroNightmare. I'm glad you chose to ignore my advice for whatever reason, but you're not going to deny it to other members.