I'm going to be making a fair amount of money over the summer, so I've decided to build myself a new computer. Problem is, I'm a total retard and have no idea what I'm doing (kinda). I've gone through [url]www.newegg.com[/url], and put together what I think might be a decent computer. I'd appreciate if (and I know this is a lot to ask) someone would go through the items and tell me 1)if all the components are compatible (I'm like 85% sure everything works together, but better to be safe) and 2) tell me if any other problems are there (like a crappy brand, getting overcharged, etc).
Heres the components:
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811144161]Case[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813138269]MoBo[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103535]CPU[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130260]Video Card[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144701]HDD[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827141106]DVD drive[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145440]RAM[/url]
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16824104002]Moniter[/url]
Comments? Suggestions? Pretty much anything useful/constructive/informative will be GREATLY appreciated.
Well, let's take a lookie..
Case- The case looks pretty nice. If you ever plan on having more than two hard drives in your computer, you might want to just go with a regular mid tower case (I add HDDs to my computer all the time, so a mini wouldn't work in my case.) Otherwise, this seems decent enough. I don't really have any experince with Aspire to say good or bad things.
Mobo- Did you look at some other brands that have the GeForce 6100 chipset? I don't know about Biostar, and that one star review doesn't make things look better.. I'd check out the [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130041"]MSI version of the board[/URL]. MSI are pretty reliable and it's about the same price. Otherwise search Newegg for GeForce 6100 and you can browse through other boards that have that chipset as well.
CPU- Looks good. Not really much else to say as it's the only kind of CPU for that board pretty much (that would be in your budget anyway.) So it's up to you how fast you want your computer.
Video Card- Good card. Again, if you want to search for the chipset, there are other brands you could look at. I can see that the eVGA one is the only one with a rebate, but I don't know that much about their reliability. Chaintech, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, etc are all reliable but they are all a little more expensive. Again, PCB manufacturer/distributor isn't really as important with video cards as it is with motherboards, but could be something to consider if you are looking at long term reliability.
HDD- I'd have to recommend NOT going with Western Digital. I used to swear by them, but those days are long past. I have had too many headaches dealing with them recently, and their RMA/warranty department is a pain in the *** too. Maxtors are pretty nice. I'd look through some of their many size/speed offerings.
DVD drive- Looks good.
RAM- Corsair is top of the line. Worth every cent. Awesome choice.
Monitor- "Looks good" again. $161 for a 17 inch LCD isn't bad at all.
Don't forget to pick up some thermal paste. Arctic Sliver 3 (or whatever number they're up to now..) is always good. Case fans assuming that thing has room for any more, and a few extra IDE cables are always good to have too, but you can scour for those at a local computer shop. Extra case screws, motherboard brass standoffs, and other screws are usually good to have too.
If I can think of anything else, I'll post more later.
Wow, thanks. I hadnt noticed the reviews of the mother board I had picked. I've changed over to the MSI version of the board now, and changed hard drives as well.
I mainly plan on just using it for lan parties, and some light media storage. I wont be filling up the 200Gb harddrive anytime soon, so its not a problem.
Ohh, if you're bringing it to a lot of LAN parties, the mini case will be nice. What OS are you gonna put on it?
Bootleg windows, what else?
I might mess around with a linux partition later on though, but chances are that wont be for a while.
Wow, that case looks so nice. :( How much cash do you intend to spend on all of this?
The total cost of all the components is $755.94, but shipping is another $22.68, so $778.62 total. Not too bad, and chances are it wont need to be upgraded for quiet some time.
Sadly, it'll probably be at least 2 months before I can put in the order. On the other hand, this gives me plenty of time to look around and see if I can drop the price some.
Eh - as I said early, I'd rather spend some more cash knowing what is actually in my system rather than getting something from Dell unless it's something that you can't help like a Laptop.
The system is actually rather cheap compared to what I'd pay for an equivalent system from a prebuilt manufacturer. AlienWares and other such computers that would run at this level would cost probably anywhere from a few hundred more to maybe twice as much.
Granted, I'll have no warranty, no (legit) OS, and have to put it together myself (risking blowing out something with static unless I get a ground kit). Basically, if you or a friend is capable of building/fixing a computer yourself, it makes WAY more sense than buying prebuilt.
i spend alot on my gaming rig, and i still need a video card. lol, your entire rig costs less then my cpu. **** amd 64....
I'm in the same situation. I'll be making some money this summer (hopefully), but I'm just buying mine prebuilt instead of blowing it up, since I'm sure I would.
I'd like some thoughts/comments/suggestions on this. It's meant to be a gaming rig, but nothing too extreme. I'd like to handle something like Half-Life 2 without problems.
CASE: X-BLADE Mid-Tower 450W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display + FAN CONTROL (BLACK COLOR)
[url=http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/images/cs/XBLADE-BLACK.jpg]purty[/url]
CPU: (939-pin) AMD ATHLON™64 3200+ CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD: NEW !!! NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GS 256MB PCI Express x16 Video Card
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
LCD Monitor: ViewSonic Q7B 17" TFT Active Matrix LCD Display Monitor (BLACK Only)
HARD DRIVE: SPECIAL!!! 160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
Hard Drive 2: NONE
Optical Drive: SONY 52X CD-ROM (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: (Special Price) LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND: Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 4 SE
Comes out to $994. This is with everything, though. Keyboard, mouse, moniter, the works. I'm having second thoughts about buying it at all, since I've always been a console gamer. I'm afraid I won't have time (No idea why I worry about this. I've always got too much time.) or money for games once I buy the **** thing, so I'd like some opinions.