Hey Gang, I'm looking to buy or build a new PC but could definitely use some help here. I'm not too bad with computers, I've built tons in my time, but I haven't been keeping up with the new technologies this last year or two as far as video cards, CPUs, and mobos go. Thought I'd reach out to you more knowledgable folks to give me a hand ) The reason I'm looking for a new rig is to play FEAR, Half Life, etc. The games that are a little less intense play fine on my current system - but it's going on 4 years old, so time for an upgrade anyways! I do a lot of multitasking as well - I'm a web developer and graphic designer so usually have tons of programs open at once. I'm looking for something that's rough, tough, and built to last, as fast as I can afford, and easy to upgrade as the times change. I've always built my own computers so never had a reason to check out pre-built systems before. After pricing some hardware and comparing it with pre-builts, I don't think I'll be saving much in building my own this time around...so thought maybe I'll just get a pre-built and save the hassle. I've checked out the offerings of ibuypower.com - they seem to have some great stuff over there, the prices don't look too shabby either. Problem is - I honestly have no clue what specs to go for. There's just so many choices and I've been out of the loop for way too long. I'm looking to do this as cheaply as possible without making too many sacrifices where it counts - definitely under $1,000, preferably around $800 or so. If anyone could give me a hand on this, it would be greatly appreciated! )
I'd steer clear of ibuypower/cyberpower. Their customer support is less than impressive not to mention they have issues when it comes to installing products correctly. Read around and I think you'll find that's not one of the better choices out there. If you can, I still suggest rolling your own. I'm using Newegg as the reference for the prices. Motherboard: Intel DP965LT $105.99 CPU: Core 2 Duo E6300 $183.50 RAM: Corsair ValueSelect 2x1GB PC5300 DDR2 $199.99 Video Card: eVGA GeForce 7900GS $185.99 Hard Drive: Seagate 250GB 7200RPM SATAII $74.99 Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-111D $31.82 Power Supply: Enermax EG-565P-VE 535W $84.99 Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5 $44.99 Total: $912.26 (+shipping + tax for CA, NJ) All Core 2 Duo's are dual core, and even the bottom tier chips blow the pants off AMD's Athlon64, which has been king of the hill for a few years now. Given that this is a complete rebuild, your better off going with a Core 2. Secondly, I suggested 2GB, as your particular situation will benefit from it. I wouldn't drop below 1GB, or you'll hurt performance in gaming. The 7900GS will handle FEAR quite nicely, as well as Half-Life 2. I just picked one up recently, and it is nice. The next step down would be the GeForce 7600GT[/url]. The 7600GS is pretty close in performance to the GeForce 6600GT, but a little higher priced.
Thanks for your input on this, I really appreciate it. I apologize for taking so long to reply but wanted to shop around a bit and put something together. I've decided to do a custom build rather than a prebuilt - but never built a gaming system before so hopefully it won't be *too* much of a challenge. Below are the system specs I have in mind, let me know if you think everything will work together smoothly: Raidmax ATX 868WGP Green Steel Gaming Case w/ 420w ABIT AB9 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Apevia Aspire ATX-AS520w-BK ATX 520w Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Patriot 2GB 240 DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel Kit ALPS Silver Floppy Western Digital 250GB 7200 3GB SATA ASUS 16x DVD Burner w/ 5x DVD-RAM Silver Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler Link Depot 10" Floppy UV Green Link Depot 36" ATA UV Green All at Newegg for $907.70 without shipping. Good? Bad? Anything I should reconsider? Opinions and advice always welcomed - thanks guys!
Oops, forgot the GPU and that's like the most important part, isn't it? *headdesk* eVGA 512-P2-N637-AR GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Superclocked Video Card - Retail Updated total $1,184.69 without shipping. Ok, so I didn't make it within my budget. Funny how that always happens when it comes to toys.
Apevia/Aspire is a poor PSU choice, and obviously, the included unit in the case won't cut it. Anything on this list is a much better choice and worth the extra money spent. Everything else looks good though.
Thats a nice spec, but the psu deffo is a no go in that case, you could do with the psu Big B suggested in his recommendations, psu's in cases are usually cheap crap, and you should be looking for the specs of the psu's, what they are on the 12v rails etc.... 7950GT? i thought it was the GX or have they released a down graded version? I would save up abit more and go for the 8800GS, alot more powerfull than a 7950GX, dunno if its possible at all for you to go that high, but it will give you better future compatability as DX10 is not long away now and an 8800GS is DX10, i know it is preety expensive card, but its worth while..
