Extremely Tempted

Timans

I'm extremely tempted to build my first pc this summer.

I've said it before and always backed out, but this time I genuinely think I will.

I'll have money as I'm getting a job this summer, It'll be a good project to keep me occupied AND I've started getting into PC gaming with the help of Counterstrike Source, which is now my favourite game.

The only problem is, what parts? I kinda need to know what price I'm looking at.

I'll want it to last a while so the Core 2 Duo route is my expected one I'm thinking etc.

I don't really know what's good and what isn't when it comes to gfx and RAM manufacturers etc.

Should I? How much do you reckon it'll cost? Recommended specs?

This must be my millionth thread of this kind, Apologies.

awhir

well just read all the posts and overtime you will learn .

am maby 1500/2000k ?

Timans

2000k?

:eek: Two thousand thousand seems a little steep

Nah, seriously. How did you learn to build a pc awhir?

I suppose I could source a grand or so throughout the summer, hopefully!

papu

pretty awesome rig for 888 less moniter

http://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist.aspx?mode=receive&si=456579&su=85817FF9-2864-4A3D-A378-D6EEC92D5E98

im asuming that casue your being cool and building that you'll also be cool and overclock XD

Timans

Nice papu!

I don't need a monitor as I've got a nice 19" flat screen.

I also don't need/want Vista. I've got a XP disc with my pc, Can I use that on the new one?

I don't know what RAM is good etc but I would like a better processor.

matdabomb

Lol let me tell you Awhir learnt how to build his with a few hundred euro if not thousand euros of mistakes .

Best thing you can do is search google for diffrent guides and read them carefully. When I took the plunge it cost me around 2 grand but that was because I wanted mid-top lvl stuff. The questions you need to ask yourself are how much your willing to spend? Are you prepaired for the trail and error that it does take to assemble the PC?

If you still want to after doing all the above then try search online sites such as
overclockers.co.uk
komplett.ie
And start putting you items that you want into a basket. Once you have finished
deciding what you want then come back on here and post your Build for people on this forum to check compatiblity, see if they know better deals or if you just over spending on a certain component.

Any more questions just post here and many people will be happy to reply with and answer.

Regards
Matdehaast

awhir

matdabomb wrote:

Lol let me tell you Awhir learnt how to build his with a few hundred euro if not thousand euros of mistakes .

Best thing you can do is search google for diffrent guides and read them carefully. When I took the plunge it cost me around 2 grand but that was because I wanted mid-top lvl stuff. The questions you need to ask yourself are how much your willing to spend? Are you prepaired for the trail and error that it does take to assemble the PC?

If you still want to after doing all the above then try search online sites such as
overclockers.co.uk
komplett.ie
And start putting you items that you want into a basket. Once you have finished
deciding what you want then come back on here and post your Build for people on this forum to check compatiblity, see if they know better deals or if you just over spending on a certain component.

Any more questions just post here and many people will be happy to reply with and answer.

Regards
Matdehaast

thats because i would mess with stuf afterwards and **** it up then

Timans

I know I want a Core 2 Duo processor, E6600.

I've really got very little idea about gfx cards. I judge them on the mb on them but I've been told thats got very little to do with it!

I want 2GB's of RAM. As much storage as I can get. I don't really know about mobo's, just one that will allow me future combatibility if I want to upgrade etc etc.

PSU's I have absolutely NO clue about. Don't know which are good etc.

Gfx is my main problem as it's such a essential part of the pc, I need to know about them. There's just so many, 8800gtx gs g etc etc.

matdabomb

http://komplett.ie/k/shoplist.asp?mode=receive&si=460758&su=624D3361-95E0-454A-8AA1-865DBC735A49

There is an example of a build. Please note "DO NOT BUY THAT BUILD". I am not the best person to ask on compatiablity or diffrent issues. That is just what I tried to throw togeather so you can base your build off.

Other people such as Awhir can give you more advice on buying the components

Regards
Matdehaast

awhir

here:
http://komplett.ie/k/shoplist.asp?mode=receive&si=460761&su=EF4BD59B-3F33-401D-BDB6-FD7308858492

btw,

"Fan of Vanguard Radio" u NERD

8T8

Well here are some guide lines if you feel like attempting to self build it yourself.

CPU Core 2 Duo E4300-6400 on budget

Core 2 Duo E6420 €179

Motherboard any board that uses the Intel P965 chipset or wait for new P35 chipset due very soon only minor updates though.

Gigabyte P965 €113

RAM DDR-2 800 2GB of course

Corsair 2GB DDR-2 800 pack €145

Graphics well best budget buy is an X1950 Pro at the moment, the 8800GTX is much more powerful and expensive. If you play mostly online games that use the source engine like Counterstrike or Half Life 2 then an 8800 GPU is major overkill.

ATI X1950 Pro €186 - passive cooler no fan no noise.

PSU recommend getting a good brand like Seasonic or Tagan for low noise though certain budget models will suffice like Hiper but avoid NorthQ products.

Hiper 580W PSU €80

Case anything will do

Gigabyte black generic for €43

As for hard drives doesn't matter performance is relatively the same these days amongst them get whichever gives you the most capacity in your budget.

Not bad for €746 with room to upgrade in the future.

matdabomb

I dont know if most people will agree but for the extra €400 you can upgrade to a DX10 card which would mean less upgrading in the future.

The ATI DX10 card should come out soon bring prices down along with Nvida's new range of DX10 cards for all diffrent price brackets.

Just something to think about. So def wait abit for that price drop

Regards
Matthew

Timans

I won't be building till July time matdabomb so I'll have time to wait for price drops.

8T8, I want to be able to play any game that takes my fancy, not just CSS or online games. Don't you think I should improve that pc as I should have €1,000 to spend at least. Thanks though, great post!

Thanks to the other guys for putting up the shopping lists as well, but, could you maybe explain your choices briefly as 8T8 has done.

I think It would be worth stretching to E6600, wouldn't it?

shanethemofo

Go on

Timans

shanethemofo wrote:

Go on

Nice Post man.

I should call down to you and you could teach me to build pc's.

sebastianlieken

right, i was in the same prediciment as you only a month ago. i wanted a future proof pc that will run any game i throw at it. i had around a grand to spend, had an OS and had a monitor. i used these forums to get to what i have now.

whats listed below is exactly the same as mine and im a real happy camper with it. its been trialed and tested by me quite a bit at this stage and i love it to bits.

mainboard http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=322929&s=sc

cpu http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=322633&s=sc

graphics http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=332090&s=sc

hard-drive http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=327715&s=sc

ram http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312054&s=sc

case http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=320517&s=sc

power http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=320183&s=sc

its only 45 over budget, buti guarantee you this is well worth the money!

dazftw

This is the answer to all your prayers


link.

Not trying to be smart.. Its were I learned I read stuff for months.. and I just recently spent over 2 grand on a new pc and it was my 1st time building...

booted up 1st go no problems!

How old are you by the way? I wouldnt start planning having this stuff until you actually have a job! I went through that so many times planning and it never happening only happened now cause ive got a well paid job

Anyway best of luck! Please do post pics up though once you get it!

8T8

8T8, I want to be able to play any game that takes my fancy, not just CSS or online games. Don't you think I should improve that pc as I should have €1,000 to spend at least.

Well with the suggestions I outlined all you need to change is the graphics card if you want something more powerful.

The X1950 Pro is a good mid range card and will run most stuff without problem.

If you want something more powerful do you

A) Play games with AA enabled ?

Play games at high resolutions ?

ATI are launching their new line of graphics card soon and are supposedly pricing them cheaper than NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series. If you wait until after mid May you could conceivably pick up something like an ATI Radeon HD 2900XL or 2900 Pro card which would offer better performance at a reasonable price.

(At the moment NVIDIA have no competition so they are not cutting their prices though they may in responce to new ATI cards)

Anti

Building pc's is a trial and error process. The first pc i built was a P166 with 64mb ram, a 10gb hdd and some matrox mystique graphics card with 8mb ram(?) But back then it was alot more simple to do it. Less components, less complicated mounting systems for cpu heatsinks ect ect.

Nowadays it is still relitively easy, i can throw a new pc together in about 20-25mins, but then at some point when its up and stable you have to think about tidying the inside of the case. Bundeling up wires not being used and hiding them away. The whole point of this is to improve the airflow in the case, which inturn will lower the temps.

As for your specs of the new pc you plan on, i would forget about it untill you have the money, as there will no doubt be price cuts and new products on their way out by then.

shanethemofo

Timans wrote:

Nice Post man.

I should call down to you and you could teach me to build pc's.

Lol you can and all sure.
Best thing to do is get an old pc, take it apart and see if you can put it back together and have it still working.
I Had my first build only a while back using core 2 duo and it all went a breeze its simple really. Only thing is to plan out what your gonna do before doing it depending on the case i.e some cases u may need to put in dvd drives before the psu etc.
Only problem i had was that my MB was doa....
Took bloody ages to RMA to pixmania. Then they sent me back the wrong one and wouldnt reply to me e-mails. shower of Wan&!rs. still sending them e-mails and its been like that since january -_-

Anti

Send them a nasty email.

Timans

Right, thinking I'm going to pick components and get it pre built.

Build me a pc guys! for gaming/net/music etc.

That german site seems to be cheapest. HWV or something. Begins with H anyway, My budget is €1,200 or so. Would like Antec 900 or a sexy case of some sort. Not really FLASHY though.

Have fun Explain while choosing as well.

papu

www.hardwareversand.de XD

heres one

case
cases are personal choice , i generally fail at choosing cases for people

you said earlier u wanted a 6600 soo here 6600

awesome ram
mushkin ram

graphics card for you
8800 gts 320mb superclocked

a good stable board
Abit ab9 pro

vista

500gig hdd
hdd

all that for 986 euros

Slutmonkey57b

Antec Sonata II
2Gig CL4 ddr2-800
DVD drive
800GTS 640MB
500GB Samsung
Gigabyte ga-965DS4
6600 c2d
1240 with delivery, Komplett

Cooler Master Centurion
Seasonic 430watt
2GB CL4 DDR2-800
DVD drive
Gigabyte GA-965p-DS3
SUPERCLOCKED 8800GTS 640MB
500GB WD Caviar
Quad Core 6600
1300 from hardwareversand, but you're getting Quad core and a superclocked GTS which actually beats the standard GTX on a lot of benchmarks.


You don't need XP, monitor kbd etc so I skipped all that.

kurisu

dont bother with a dual core, it doesnt really improve gaming, its realy only good for if you want to do tasks at once like watching movies and typing at the same time.

aimed and multimedia developer's from what i hear

mathias

dont bother with a dual core, it doesnt really improve gaming,

True , however , most of the latest AMD / Intel processors are dual core so why bother hunting down a single core job when you can get a core2duo 4300 for €110 .

Get the best processor you can afford , looking at kompletts list of processors I can only see a handful that are single core , and prices arnt too far away from Dual core anyways.

Single core is dead , Dual is the mainstream , and quads are only a few weeks away !! Technology marches on !!

papu

dont bother with a dual core, it doesnt really improve gaming,

LOLOL what stone have you been under? lo9ts of games are optimised for two cores so that they run twice as fast a single core 2 duo core WHOOOOPS a p4 at any frequency , the archetecture for c2d is a vast vast vast improvement , its Bs tbqh

Timans

Yeah, why wouldn't I get a Dual Core if I'm upgrading? There is no point getting single core as I'll just have to upgrade AGAIN in the near future.

Quad Core looks tasty from HWV, not too expensive either. Hopefully I'll have enough to get it from them. Superclocked 8800GTS as well would be brilliant.

Will they build it for me?

papu

superclocked 8800 is a beast dualcore ftw!

you also have a p35 board there so you'd be able to upgrade to penryn
penryn

its intel new 45nm core which is better than dual core , its due out in a couple o months.

not gettin dual core now is silly , and if you can try not to get quadcore just upgrade to penryn later in the year.

sadly they wont build it for you , but building a pc is the most fun ever XD the satisfaction of it booting first time is the best feeling a grand and a bit will buy you :eek:

Timans

p35 board eh?

What exactly is that? Also, how do I know how much watts is enough to power a pc?

Is it based on gfx or cpu etc?

papu

p35 is intels new chipset, it supports core duo and the new processor somming out penryn , the real deal with p35 is it supports 1333 fsb they overclock very nicely

amm it isnt all about watts , too many watts on a shi* psu will blow yer hardware usually 500-600 is a good place to start but if your goin for 2 gpu's and lots of hdd's 700-1kw is where its at

Timans

How will I know if it's p35 though? Is it like socket 939 etc?

What are the good brands of psu's?

Also, go study!

Anti

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

Antec Sonata II
2Gig CL4 ddr2-800
DVD drive
800GTS 640MB
500GB Samsung
Gigabyte ga-965DS4
6600 c2d
1240 with delivery, Komplett

Cooler Master Centurion
Seasonic 430watt
2GB CL4 DDR2-800
DVD drive
Gigabyte GA-965p-DS3
SUPERCLOCKED 8800GTS 640MB
500GB WD Caviar
Quad Core 6600
1300 from hardwareversand, but you're getting Quad core and a superclocked GTS which actually beats the standard GTX on a lot of benchmarks.


You don't need XP, monitor kbd etc so I skipped all that.

Sorry just reading this now. So you say a superclocked 8800gts beats a 8800gtx?

Yes maybe it will at 1024*768 up the res to 1680*1050 and add some AA and AF, and the gts drops off to almost unplayable frame rates.

What im trying to get at, is who playes games at low res these days ? if the OP does he would be better of with a 1950pro. That will play any game up to 1280*1024 with AA and AF.

Anti

Timans wrote:

How will I know if it's p35 though? Is it like socket 939 etc?

What are the good brands of psu's?

Also, go study!

If its p35, the chipset will be p35, also the name of the board will more then likely include p35. Its still lga775.

Good psu's are:

Seasonic ( first choice )
enermax
hiper ( really cheap, and very good )
tagan
zalman
OCZ

Stay away from the following:
NorthQ
NZXT branded psu's
Jeantech

You should be looking for a minumum or 500W, but a 600W would provide a greater upgrade path.


*EDIT*

8T8

Can you merge my last two posts please.

Timans

I only have a 19" monitor at 1280x1024 but I want would want a gfx card which will look good on all monitors so I can upgrade monitor without fear or badness

Anti, pick me out a machine then.

Slutmonkey57b

Anti wrote:

Sorry just reading this now. So you say a superclocked 8800gts beats a 8800gtx?

Yes maybe it will at 1024*768 up the res to 1680*1050 and add some AA and AF, and the gts drops off to almost unplayable frame rates.

What im trying to get at, is who playes games at low res these days ? if the OP does he would be better of with a 1950pro. That will play any game up to 1280*1024 with AA and AF.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_e-geforce_8800_gts_superclocked_320mb/page5.asp

54fps at 19x14 4xAA 8xAF is hardly "unplayable", and that's the 320MB version. No it won't beat the GTX at maxed out settings but a) it costs a lot less, b) he doesn't have a monitor to use the extra power with and c) By that logic, the Ultra is the best buy of the lot!

In answer to your question, practically every gamer I know plays at low res (ie 1600 or less), because most people don't have 30" monitors, and most people aren't obsessed with playing bleeding-edge games on bleeding-edge hardware. What I posted is a little over budget, but will be more than enough to satisfy the casual gamer for many years to come. A 1950pro is a great card, but no dx10 limits its futureproofing.

Slutmonkey57b

papu wrote:

amm it isnt all about watts , too many watts on a shi* psu will blow yer hardware usually 500-600 is a good place to start but if your goin for 2 gpu's and lots of hdd's 700-1kw is where its at

Legion Hardware's tests prove otherwise. they could only draw 530w on a quad-core dual8800 raid rig, and that was peak. 500w should be more than enough if it's a good psu. 1kw psu's are totally ott.

papu

well......kw psu's are sturdy can support massive amounts of hdd's and usually come with better extras than normal psus , lol why am i defending them i think there silly myself , yeah 600w psu on hardwareversand is really good 90euro bequiet

L31mr0d

Regarding PSU's, the most important thing to concern yourself with is the PSU revision. This will appear like ATX 1.0, ATX 2.0, ATX 2.2. ... etc.

If you ever intend to run SLI G80's then you will need to be getting an ATX 2.2 PSU as it has 4 12v rails and has 4 PCIe power connectors.

Note: A 600w ATX 2.2 is a lot more stable than a 800w ATX 1.0

Anti

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_e-geforce_8800_gts_superclocked_320mb/page5.asp

54fps at 19x14 4xAA 8xAF is hardly "unplayable", and that's the 320MB version. No it won't beat the GTX at maxed out settings but a) it costs a lot less, b) he doesn't have a monitor to use the extra power with and c) By that logic, the Ultra is the best buy of the lot!

In answer to your question, practically every gamer I know plays at low res (ie 1600 or less), because most people don't have 30" monitors, and most people aren't obsessed with playing bleeding-edge games on bleeding-edge hardware. What I posted is a little over budget, but will be more than enough to satisfy the casual gamer for many years to come. A 1950pro is a great card, but no dx10 limits its futureproofing.

Yeah i see your point there. but a 8800gtx will be a better buy in the long run. As the OP plans ot upgrade his monitor. Also, where on that link does a 8800gts beat a 8800gtx? And to be honest. I wouldnt even waste my money on the superclocked version. Just get a standard one and overclock it yourself. As with 99% of all superclocked card you cant push it any higher.

Slutmonkey57b

Meh, I guess I'm just a lot more wary of overclocking a graphics card than I am a cpu. I'd be a lot less confident of not frying the thing.