Christmas Present.

[Monster]

Well for christmas my parents are gonna buy me a new computer. I was thinking about building it myself to save some money or just so i could customize it.

Do you guys think Iam better off building it myself or buying a new one prebuilt from a company.

Whichever could you guys leave some suggestions. Thanks!

[Wilbur]

Building it yourself is always a better idea, assuming you have the knowledge to do so.

What sort of spec you looking at?

[Monster]

I have basic knowledge of doing it. And iam sure there are tutorials online that could show you. If not i could have my friend help.

This will be my main PC, looking to spend around 1k. Max being around 1150. Ill be using my 24" monitor so dont need monitor.

Iam pretty sure all i need is.
1. Motherboard
2. CPU
3. RAM
4. Power supply
5. Video Card
6. Computer case

If anything else, please inform me. And maybe go on newegg or tigerdirect and add everything to a cart and take a ss of it.

[thorian]

if you already have a monitor, building it yourself is absolutely the way to go. If you need a monitor, sometimes you can get a better deal as a package.

pricewatch.com is pretty decent, along with the ones you've mentioned.

[Monster]

alrite seems iam going that way then.
Can anyone give me a good deal in my price range?
Iam just afraid iam gonna get parts that dont go together.
So a list of parts in the $1k range.
Thanks, would help a ton, after i get this PC iam gonna 5-box, if i can afford subscription for more than a month.

[Wilbur]

Quad Core CPU, Either an Intel Core 2 Quad, or an Athlon Phenom
RAM, around 4 gigs, DDR2 PC6400.
Motherboard Socket 775 for Core 2, Socket AM2 for Athlon.
Graphics Card, 8800GT or above, 512 MB should do you.
A power supply of around 500+ watts, make sure its a brand name, as cheap PSU's are the death of most computer systems.
Any case will do as long as its got a couple of fans in it.
It might also be an idea to buy a couple of low capacity SATA 2.0 drives as this will give you a fair performance boost when loading textures across 5 instances of WoW.

I don't live in America, but I'm fairly confident you should be able to get all of this for <$1000.

It might also be an idea to get a second monitor.

[Terbulous]

Ok, here is what i came up with, this should be everything you would need, assuming you have a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811129021

DFI BLOOD IRON P35 mobo
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813136038

XFX 8800GT alpha dog edition gfx card
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814150254

Rosewell 550 watt PSU
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817182017

Intel Q6600
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115017

4GB of G.Skill DDR2 800 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820231122

Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 320GB HDD
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822148140

All of that is for a grand total of

...$1,066.93

so, its not bad, the gfx cards are drastically marked up atm, so you might find one cheaper from another site.

On a note for the Athlon Phenom, that processer is actually really bad, they claim its a "true quad core" , and that may be true, but the intel Q6600 beats the crap out of that AMD.



Hope this list helps, if anything to give you an idea of what you need to be looking for.

[Monster]

Thanks. This helps a ton. Gotta see what the rents say. Worse comes to worse i buy some the parts myself and they get rest.

[thorian]

video card is cheaper here:
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/simp...9016&ad=pwatch

processor cheaper here
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail...OTC-pricewatch




both off pricewatch, gotta keep in mind shipping tho which i didn't look at.

[Diamndzngunz]

My Only Suggest For the Mobo....

1st the one you have chosen is not SLI compatible so if you were wanting duel graphics cards it would not work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188015

I would suggest that. By far a sick ass board also from a trusted company.


I would also suggest checking out the EVGA graphics cards.

The Power Supply... I would double check if it is SLI compatible. Just in case you decide to do duel graphics. Friend has burnt up some cards in the past for not having a SLI compatible Power Supply.

The memory. If I am not mistaken Windows XP only read up to 3g. 64bit is higher. Vista is much higher. So make sure you are aware of that.


I hoped I helped out with this..




Ohh and also. Check out the 8800GT's their from what I hear are the best cards on the market for the price. Down side is its PCI Express 2.0 and those boards are expensive.