01tibby

well, with christmas coming up, im only gonna ask for computer components. basicly, i want some suggestions. i want to keep the total cost under 1500. i know a little bit about computers, just not all the specifics with building it. ill be fine with picking out drives and might need some help with all the various cards and such. ill def. need some help with everything else(power supply, mother boards). so to start with the case, i think i like this...

http://xoxide.com/chieftec11.html

i dont need anything showy, just something simple and effective. im not a real big gamer or anything, but for instance, i just got hitman and splinter cell for pc, and want NO troubles at all with playing the few games i want to play. reliability will have to be good.

should i consider water cooling, or is that over the top(im assuming so)?

supercow

dang it... wish my new eshop was up.

I'll check on some pricing for you tomorrow, that chieftec would be a nice case. wish I had one, it's a knockoff of the antec version though. laugh.gif

javageek

www.newegg.com is your freind....

tanc

i worked in a computer shop, everything from selling parts or pcs to building them from scratch. i got msn or icq if u want to chat.. ill help ya out with parts and how to even install everything so u dont pay labour...

supercow

hehe, I work in/own one now, hit me up on aim and I'll help out if I'm around, been pretty busy lately though. laugh.gif

it still suprises me how many pc techs there are around here anyways.... I know we use pc's more than the average joe but still.

tibu971.8L

*MY OPINIONS*

Video Card:

Any 6800 or 6600 GT such as:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-125-156&depa=1


Mobo:

I'm an Intel/Abit man so, always have been and always will be. I current have a IC7-G runing a P4C 2.4ghz@ 3.3Ghz WITHOUT water cooling. I use a Thermalright SP94 HS with a 92mm Tornado fan with duct mod...


http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-127-180&depa=1

Processor:
Any Prescott type processor

Memory:

You would have to get DDR2 memory to use the above motherboard. I prefer Corsair bur budget wise Geil is a very good choice too.

01tibby

thanks for all the comments so far, keep em rolling. i was also looking at this case....
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-144-090&depa=1

it comes with a 500w power supply(pretty good correct?), so that would knock out two things at once. i just want to make sure they wouldnt stick some crap power supply on there and have the thing break on me. plus, it does look kinda cool. lol.gif

tanc, i may have under-exaggerated my computer skills in my first post. i dont think i will have a problem putting it together at all(ive taken computers apart a couple times). my main concern is just getting stuff that is compatible wth one another so when i do go to put it together, everything fits.

for instance, i see the motherboard compatibility for the case in the link above says atx. is this a intel or amd thing, or is it a type of both? wait, just did some clicking. "ATX" is the form factor correct?

i think i will stick with intel pentium processors. just so we can have a starting point. one thing im unsure of is how exactly to pair the motherboard with the processor. are there any specifications that limit one or the other's? for example, if i get a motherboard with tons of memory, will that not matter if i get a average processor?

Casper

First off, looking at that case... can we say rice? 8O j/k laugh.gif had to throw that out there.

On a serious note. Most cases now adays are ATX compatable and almost all new motherboards come as atx.

Find a motherboard you like and look up the specs. This information will give you which processor it takes (make sure the processor socket type matches the motherboard socket type i.e. intel p4 is socket 478 I beleive), the type of case it needs (atx), and the memory you need to get (i.e. DDR400 PC3200).

Some motherboards come paired with processors so it takes the guesswork out of it. (www.pricewatch.com does the motherboard/cpu/fan combo)

Personally I also stick with intel. I dont know why but I do. If nothing major changed in the past 6 or so months, I would suggest finding a p4 800 mhz front side bus (fsb) with hyper-threading techneology.

supercow

personally I'd suggest an asus board like the deluxe with built in gigabit nic/sound, amd athlon proc, ati vid card, and about 512 of ram and a sata hdd

now which model of each of those you get all depends on you, it mainly would have to do with price. you could build one blazing computer for < 1k now.

edit: btw in general amd is better for graphics (games) and intel is better for business. plus intel usually runs a bit more for the same speed amd. When I build machines I use amd's in everything but higher end office workstations and servers.

double edit: oh the 500 w will be more than you'll ever need laugh.gif , I've got a 350 and am running a amd 1800 system that has 2 hdds, 2 cd drives, every pci slot filled, agp vid card, plus 5 case fans.

tibu971.8L

Yeah well actually I would also reccomend an Asus board if you're not planning on doing any overclocking at all. If you are=ABIT all the way.

Two VERY important things though; get a Mobo with PCI-Express support for video cards and with DDR2 support. Better to get em now and not have to upgrade your entire system later on.

And Nvidia wn: ATI any day with it's new line of 6XXX video cards:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njg5

That review will show how the new budget line of the 6XXX line of video cards; the 6600GT OWNZ ATI's top of the line $400 video card from last year. And the 6600 GT goes for as low as $189 at Newegg. So be it an Intel platform or AMD platform I would definately go with the 6600GT for pure bliss of DirectX 9 gaming at full speed and best video quality settings such as Anti Aliasing and 12X Anisotropic filtering 8O :twisted: