Enoch Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 (edited) Well, my desktop has picked up some kind of virus that has screwed up my bios settings and gives me a BSOD on boot. I have an antivirus scan running in safe mode right now (taking a loooooong time), but even if I can fix this pretty easily, I'm taking it as a sign that I've put off replacing this machine for a bit too long. I would like to make this my first build. My experience trying to upgrade my current Dell machine (it involved a hacksaw) has inspired me to take a more active role in deciding what exactly is in my box. But I'm a little scared that I'm going to end up in over my head. The most complicated hardware installation I've done before is a PSU replacement (which, despite the need for the hacksaw, went quite smoothly). So, I've never installed a motherboard, a CPU, a hard drive, or any fan of any type. Can hardware manuals/teh inertnets teach me? Also, I know very little about cooling (apart from the obvious that cooler is better, dust and rats' nests of cables are bad, and fans are nice but can be noisy). My inclination is to buy a decent case (newegg user comments are seem particularly helpful on this point) and hope that takes care of it. As you may guess from my borderline cluelessness, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea of how to overclock anything. As for the shopping, I'm pretty confident in my knowledge base in shopping for a CPU, PSU, hard drive, RAM, Video card, etc. I've done some basic research, but I could certainly use some advice in what to look for in shopping for sound cards and mobos. (I'm starting with the basic assumption that "more expensive is better.") As a footnote, I suppose I'm going to bite the bullet and jump into Vista. (I know, I know...) I'm going to have to upgrade at some point, and I'm willing to endure some resource hogging and driver problems to avoid buying another copy of XP and going through another OS install a year from now. Edited March 20, 2007 by Enoch
Bokishi Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 Building a computer is pretty straightforward and you'll have no problem finding online guides or books from a bookstore. If you know the basics of a computer and how it operates, then you probably don't even need to use a guide. You didn't list your price range so I assume you are looking for the best of the best. For soundcards, get the SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer for optimum sound, and a motherboard that supports the Core 2's, such as the Intel LGA 775 (Bad Axe 2) or an EVGA 680i if you want SLi. The Asus Striker Extreme would be ideal if you have the extra cash. Current 3DMark
Checkpoint Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 I've been thinking about this too, but the thing that worries me is that I'll end up with a bunch of parts that aren't compatible. ^Yes, that is a good observation, Checkpoint. /God
theslug Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 Dude if you've been able to replace stuff in your computer you'll be fine. I put together a pc myself so I'm sure you can too. I thought it would be really hard and it kind of was but you'll do fine. There are a few tricks I guess. There are sites to help. http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/144 This site looks pretty legit, shows pictures and explains things. There was a time when I questioned the ability for the schizoid to ever experience genuine happiness, at the very least for a prolonged segment of time. I am no closer to finding the answer, however, it has become apparent that contentment is certainly a realizable goal. I find these results to be adequate, if not pleasing. Unfortunately, connection is another subject entirely. When one has sufficiently examined the mind and their emotional constructs, connection can be easily imitated. More data must be gleaned and further collated before a sufficient judgment can be reached.
Enoch Posted March 20, 2007 Author Posted March 20, 2007 You didn't list your price range so I assume you are looking for the best of the best. For soundcards, get the SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer for optimum sound, and a motherboard that supports the Core 2's, such as the Intel LGA 775 (Bad Axe 2) or an EVGA 680i if you want SLi. The Asus Striker Extreme would be ideal if you have the extra cash. I'm probably not going for the absolute top-of-the-line, but I have enough disposable income to splurge where I want to. I probably won't on the soundcard, though, simply because I don't have the space to set up more than 2 speakers (and maybe a woofer). So stability and compatability are more important than top-end features there. The mobo, though, seems to be a pain to replace and can govern how upgradeable this rig will be in the future, so I'm looking to get a good one. Otherwise, thanks for the encouragement, everyone. And the link that theslug posted looks useful, so thanks for that.
Sand Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 My suggestion is get a solid motherboard. Got top of the line on the motherboard because if you do that you can always upgrade the parts on the motherboard later on and motherboards have the longest life in regards of computer parts. Murphy's Law of Computer Gaming: The listed minimum specifications written on the box by the publisher are not the minimum specifications of the game set by the developer. @\NightandtheShape/@ - "Because you're a bizzare strange deranged human?" Walsingham- "Sand - always rushing around, stirring up apathy." Joseph Bulock - "Another headache, courtesy of Sand"
@\NightandtheShape/@ Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 Choosing the parts for a rig. . Building the rig myself. Not that I can't but it's so fiddley little wires urgh, I hated every experience I have ever had with it. "I'm a programmer at a games company... REET GOOD!" - Me
theslug Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 (edited) My recommendation is get an MSI board, dual core AMD, GeForce 7900gt, Western Digital or Seagate harddrive, OCZ or Corsair 2x 2gig ram, OCZ special game awesome powersupply, and you should be good. If you get a decent case it should have plenty of cooling. I got all that stuff and a 19 inch monitor, mouse, etc and it costed me 1400 but its a really solid rig. Btw if you don't already know Newegg.com is like the best place to get hardware off the internet. Good prices, most everything has warranty, and I didn't have one problem getting all my stuff from them except there was slight structural damage to my hard drive but it works fine. Anyways I'd just check out the reviews on any of the products you are thinking of buying then asking someone who knows a thing or two about computers if its legit. Edited March 21, 2007 by theslug There was a time when I questioned the ability for the schizoid to ever experience genuine happiness, at the very least for a prolonged segment of time. I am no closer to finding the answer, however, it has become apparent that contentment is certainly a realizable goal. I find these results to be adequate, if not pleasing. Unfortunately, connection is another subject entirely. When one has sufficiently examined the mind and their emotional constructs, connection can be easily imitated. More data must be gleaned and further collated before a sufficient judgment can be reached.
Sand Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 But no DirectX 10, eh? Murphy's Law of Computer Gaming: The listed minimum specifications written on the box by the publisher are not the minimum specifications of the game set by the developer. @\NightandtheShape/@ - "Because you're a bizzare strange deranged human?" Walsingham- "Sand - always rushing around, stirring up apathy." Joseph Bulock - "Another headache, courtesy of Sand"
WITHTEETH Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Well Intel is about to bring their new chipset to the market soon. Bearlake is the name of it. If you want to buy a motherboard sooner then a month or two then the choices are the intel 965P, intel 975X, Nvidia 680i, Nvidia 650i, and Nvidias Frankenstein created by Asus which has a 650i northbridge linked together with a 590i southbridge, its suppose to also kick arse. Are you looking to run sli, crossfire, overclock? Always outnumbered, never out gunned! Unreal Tournament 2004 Handle:Enlight_2.0 Myspace Website! My rig
WITHTEETH Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 My recommendation is get an MSI board, dual core AMD, GeForce 7900gt, Western Digital or Seagate harddrive, OCZ or Corsair 2x 2gig ram, OCZ special game awesome powersupply, and you should be good. If you get a decent case it should have plenty of cooling. I got all that stuff and a 19 inch monitor, mouse, etc and it costed me 1400 but its a really solid rig. Btw if you don't already know Newegg.com is like the best place to get hardware off the internet. Good prices, most everything has warranty, and I didn't have one problem getting all my stuff from them except there was slight structural damage to my hard drive but it works fine. Anyways I'd just check out the reviews on any of the products you are thinking of buying then asking someone who knows a thing or two about computers if its legit. AMD? Not wise, atleast at the moment, or foreseable future. Intel is currently kicking butt. Check any cpu benchmarks. Nvidia, and DAAMIT are about to release midrange graphic cards for DX10. Always outnumbered, never out gunned! Unreal Tournament 2004 Handle:Enlight_2.0 Myspace Website! My rig
theslug Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Yeah I think he said he didn't want to spend a fortune. Those chips will probably be like 500 bucks alone or something. Not to mention if you want to run dx10 at highest graphics you are going to have to spend a lot of money. Of course the best action is to always wait, I mean I waited 2 years to get the parts for my computer. I was just trying to give the best quality for money that I knew of. There was a time when I questioned the ability for the schizoid to ever experience genuine happiness, at the very least for a prolonged segment of time. I am no closer to finding the answer, however, it has become apparent that contentment is certainly a realizable goal. I find these results to be adequate, if not pleasing. Unfortunately, connection is another subject entirely. When one has sufficiently examined the mind and their emotional constructs, connection can be easily imitated. More data must be gleaned and further collated before a sufficient judgment can be reached.
Bokishi Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 An e6300 is like $186 and that overclocked will kick AMD butt! Current 3DMark
WITHTEETH Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Yeah I think he said he didn't want to spend a fortune. Those chips will probably be like 500 bucks alone or something. Not to mention if you want to run dx10 at highest graphics you are going to have to spend a lot of money. Of course the best action is to always wait, I mean I waited 2 years to get the parts for my computer. I was just trying to give the best quality for money that I knew of. What are you talking about? The graphic cards that have the chips on them, or Intels processors? Like Bok said you can get them cheap, especially if you hunt for a bargain. As for graphic processor wise there are a few midrange graphic options coming just from Nvidia, and some to come from ATI Definatly. 500 for a midrange isn't midrange. the standard for a good midrange has been floating for about $200(in my opinion). Always outnumbered, never out gunned! Unreal Tournament 2004 Handle:Enlight_2.0 Myspace Website! My rig
theslug Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 I was saying Intel CPU. Obviously I don't know much about hardware but I've seen intel chips months and months ago that were 700+, I don't see how they'd release brand new next gen chips for less than that. Of course I could be wrong but that doesn't exactly make sense. And for graphics cards I know you could get like the 8800 or something but thats still like ~500. There was a time when I questioned the ability for the schizoid to ever experience genuine happiness, at the very least for a prolonged segment of time. I am no closer to finding the answer, however, it has become apparent that contentment is certainly a realizable goal. I find these results to be adequate, if not pleasing. Unfortunately, connection is another subject entirely. When one has sufficiently examined the mind and their emotional constructs, connection can be easily imitated. More data must be gleaned and further collated before a sufficient judgment can be reached.
Sand Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 I would think that going SLI with a couple of high end 8600s would be a more economical choice. Murphy's Law of Computer Gaming: The listed minimum specifications written on the box by the publisher are not the minimum specifications of the game set by the developer. @\NightandtheShape/@ - "Because you're a bizzare strange deranged human?" Walsingham- "Sand - always rushing around, stirring up apathy." Joseph Bulock - "Another headache, courtesy of Sand"
Enoch Posted March 22, 2007 Author Posted March 22, 2007 I was saying Intel CPU. Obviously I don't know much about hardware but I've seen intel chips months and months ago that were 700+, I don't see how they'd release brand new next gen chips for less than that. Of course I could be wrong but that doesn't exactly make sense. And for graphics cards I know you could get like the 8800 or something but thats still like ~500. The relatively new 320 MB 8800GTS can be found in the area of $300 US, which is about the same as a top-end 7000 series. From what I've read, the performance only lags the 640MB GTS on particularly high resolutions. (This is my main candidate right now.) For a CPU, I'm looking at one of the conroes in the $200 range. I understand that one of their selling points is that they can be significantly overclocked, but, as I mentioned above, that's probably beyond my expertise.
Azure79 Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 Damn all this talk is giving me the itch to build a new computer. Hmm..I was going to buy a 50 Plasma TV, maybe I should buy a computer instead.
Sand Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 Better yet. You could buy me a new computer. Murphy's Law of Computer Gaming: The listed minimum specifications written on the box by the publisher are not the minimum specifications of the game set by the developer. @\NightandtheShape/@ - "Because you're a bizzare strange deranged human?" Walsingham- "Sand - always rushing around, stirring up apathy." Joseph Bulock - "Another headache, courtesy of Sand"
LadyCrimson Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 I'd buy the TV and buy the computer later, since you're less likely to want to replace the TV as fast as the computer. I'm not great at knowing what parts to buy, but I can put a computer together. Eventually. Hubby's faster so I usually make him do it. But yeah, it's not that hard these days to toss everything together - just a little time consuming; unless, maybe, you're trying to build a dilithium powered warp drive PC ... “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
Deraldin Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 Better yet. You could buy me a new computer. There are many other computer users on this board that could use a new computer more than you could. '
Deraldin Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 Yeah like me! Fine, but only if you give me all the components that you have right now.
Sand Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) Better yet. You could buy me a new computer. There are many other computer users on this board that could use a new computer more than you could. ' All I have is a poor and tired Sempron. A socket 754 CPU. It is so taxed but it tries. One day its Cache is going to give out and that will be it. Oh, poor Sempron CPU, poor Socket 754 Sempron! :sad: Edited March 22, 2007 by Sand Murphy's Law of Computer Gaming: The listed minimum specifications written on the box by the publisher are not the minimum specifications of the game set by the developer. @\NightandtheShape/@ - "Because you're a bizzare strange deranged human?" Walsingham- "Sand - always rushing around, stirring up apathy." Joseph Bulock - "Another headache, courtesy of Sand"
Deraldin Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) Better yet. You could buy me a new computer. There are many other computer users on this board that could use a new computer more than you could. ' All I have is a poor and tired Sempron. A socket 754 CPU. It is so taxed but it tries. One day its Cache is going to give out and that will be it. Oh, poor Sempron CPU, poor Socket 754 Sempron! :sad: Just off the top of my head, Astrocreep and I are both running <2GHz P4's, with <1GB of RAM and a Radeon 9600 series video card. Edited March 22, 2007 by Deraldin
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