Computer Help

[comiso90]

I'm going to buy different components to assemble a new computer - probably from Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

I dont need a kick-ass gaming machine but I want something solid that will play some top games.

Any suggestions on which motherboard? CPU? RAM? Video Card? DVD Rom?

I'd like to use my existing tower and power supply. How do I now they're compatible with new items purchased? Last time i bought from New Egg, their customer service was awesome, i suppose I can ask them.

Thanks dudes!

By the way, this is easy to do! dont buy off the shelf crap from Costco, Best Buy or any of the others. It may or may not be cheaper but you'll get a lot more for the money if you assemble it yourself!!!

.

.

 

[ccheese]

Send Wurger [Wojtek] a PM..... he'll help you....

Charles

 

[Colin1]

PSU: you are probably looking at a minimum 350 - 400W

Motherboard: Never found them to make much difference performance-wise; choice of board for me always revolved around what peripherals I was trying to attach (more slots is better); don't buy an Intel board and an AMD CPU or vice-versa.

CPU: Intel, probably. They used to deal with heat dissipation alot better than their AMD counterparts, whose life could be counted in seconds if the heatsink dislodged. All of mine are AMD funnily enough.

VGAC: ATi used to be king of the high-res apps, nVidia used to be king of colour control. Since I stopped building them (or haven't built one for a while), PCIE emerged and I don't really know where the two of them are any more

RAM: Go for brand name here, I use Crucial, use whoever you know and trust.

HDD: Everyone has a favourite, I like the quiet, oil-filled bearings of the Maxtor offerings and the fact that in over 5 years, none of my 4 have croaked on me yet.

 

[comiso90]

Good stuff colin and good call on the PSU. i have a single CPU right now and if i go dual or quad my current power supply may not work.

i have a Maxtor now that I'm tempted to keep but it's 5 years old. I'd be wiser to buy a new one. It was a very expensive top of the line RAID i used for editing HD video.

it would be nice to have a video card with HDMI out.


Thanks!!

 

[Colin1]

i have a Maxtor now that I'm tempted to keep but it's 5 years old. I'd be wiser to buy a new one

Totally agree
it's a false economy to hold on to old HDDs and with them getting:-

- smaller physically
- larger logically
- faster accessing
- cheaper

buying new makes sense

 

[Torch]

If your gaming look for atleast 4g of ram, seems like all the newer games require a ton of mem to run.

 

[Gnomey]

See what you think, you can keep your old HDD as well as your CDRW/DVDRW drive (unless you want a new one). This should do everything, don't know about your budget but didn't go too high this comes out about $1000. Suspect you may need some cables along with the parts as they may not have them (not sure if the HDD comes with them).

Newegg.com - Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N26SO-896I GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1600C9D G - Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

 

[comiso90]

wow... Gnomey.. my hero. thanks for the effort. Thats a great start!

wanna buy it for me too?

i owe you a pint.


Prob a little more than i'd like to spend... I'll have to digest that.. i have to factor the software i need into the equation too.

win 7, photoshop etc...

Thanks bro!

 

[Gnomey]

No worries, I am looking at upgrading at some point this year as well so it does me good to look around and see what there is (plus it is a revision break). It is easy enough to knock off around $300 from that price. Graphics card, HDD, memory and processor (that is quad core can step down to dual core) can be stepped down a bit to save some money but will still work well.

Win 7 doesn't seem that expensive, you should look at least at the Professional version if you have more than one computer (more networking capability). Photoshop on the other hand is but there are ways around that...

 

[comiso90]

why do you like that graphics card?... other than just being FAST!

at least there is no need to buy the Microsoft Word suite anymore... Open Office is free and almost as good.

.

 

[Marcel]

Ram: don't do more than 3 Gb unless you have a 64bit OS
HD: If you use your old one, it's probably IDE/ATA, as SATA is the standard now, make sure the motherboard has IDE ports.
DVD: just pick one, they're cheap.
Graphics: I understand that Geforce has the lead over ATI again, but it doesn't matter. You'll need at least 512 mb for newer games.
Motherboard: make sure there's enough room for the slots. I once had a board that had the CPU too close to the slots, so I could not change my Graphics adapter for a bigger one.
Your old tower probably is just fine. Most PSU's are 350 Watt or more anyway which is enough as long as you don't have a high-end GPU. The CPU core dual actually uses less power then the old Pentium4. Intel is less power consuming then AMD.

If you want to have free software, don't buy Windows, use Linux. It comes with tons of software, like OpenOffice and Gimp. Games can be a problem if they're DirectX, but many openGL games like Il2 1946 work fine with the Wine compatibility layer. Besides, you don't have to worry about virus scanners. There are no viruses on Linux. And performance on 64 bit Linux seems to be better then Win7 if you belioeve the reports, but I must admit I don't have experience with win7.

 

[comiso90]

Thanks marcel... great tips..

I'm afraid i cant work with Gimp though.. Photoshop has me spoiled.

good to know about the power supply.. i'll check that out.

thanks!

 

[Marcel]

Don't know if photoshop works on Wine, I could check that out for you. Paintshop pro worked on my Ubuntu installation.

 

[comiso90]

Don't know if photoshop works on Wine, I could check that out for you. Paintshop pro worked on my Ubuntu installation.

I'll go windows for now... win 7 seems pretty stable.

I'm tempted to wait for the Mac Tablet and see what the price point is.

.

 

[Marcel]

I prefer Linux mostly over Windows as it uses less resources, is faster and doesn't have the security problems of Windows. But I do have Windows still installed (Vista) for some software that doesn't run in Linux. And I don't do much games apart from Il2.

According to WineHQ Photoshop should work under Linux.

OSX for Mac seems to be quite good, the best desktop OS out there at the moment.

 

[comiso90]

I believe Linux is better than windows but i dont want to be limited. The number of applications aren't quite there for me yet.

,

 

[Gnomey]

why do you like that graphics card?... other than just being FAST!

at least there is no need to buy the Microsoft Word suite anymore... Open Office is free and almost as good.

.

One of the best cards for that price range. Certainly is much better than the cards that are around $150, so best bang for the buck. Probably overkill for most applications (as Marcel said 512mb is enough really but it will give you some backup for when things do improve more).

Yeah Open Office will suit you fine for most things, I still prefer Word though but that is because it what I have always used and I can't be bothered to change to something I'm not as familiar with when I am happy with what I have. Photoshop of the other hand I don't think I could go without anymore. If you still have an installation disk of Photoshop it would be best to keep it or look into a way of porting your existing installation over to the new computer.

 

[RabidAlien]

Question: Does Windows7 32-bit support more than 4G of RAM? XP and Vista 32-bit versions wouldn't see more than 3.5Gb (or 4Gb if you did some tweaking...at your own risk), you'd have to go to the 64-bit OS to get up above 4Gb.

Memory.....Crucial is awesome, never had a problem with any of their sticks, but I found some PNY the other day at Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! that was a couple bucks cheaper. PNY, Crucial, or Kingston seem to be the best brands I've ever used. There are cheaper sticks available, but I've had those lock my system up.

No arguments on harddrive choices! If you get a motherboard that doesn't have dual SATA/IDE harddrive support, I found some IDE-to-USB converters on Amazon.com for like $20. I've got both of my old DVD drives (player and a burner) plugged in to my new computer with the crappy DVD burner.

For video, the general thumbrule I've always gone by is if you're playing games, go nVidia (GeForce). If you're doing graphics, go ATI. If you're doing both, I default to nVidia, and have never been sorry.

Motherboard/CPU...definitely get a dual-core or quad-core (you can sometimes snag sales where the quads are same or cheaper than duals), and the whole Intel vs AMD debate is pretty much just personal preference. I've never had a prob with either...my current system is running Intel, my old MAME system is running AMD. And its been some years since I've bought a motherboard, but ASUS was always a top brand. Make sure its got enough slots for what you want to add (PCIe is the latest in video...make sure your card matches your motherboard. I don't think this will be an issue, since everything I've seen coming out recently has had a PCIe x16 slot in it, and two or three more PCI's for sound or whatnot).

I'd also recommend dual optical drives, one player and one burner, unless you spend an obscene amount of time burning CD's/DVD's. Not sure if slapping a Blu-Ray in there is worth the price or not, that comes down to budget and taste, but at least get a DVD burner and player.

Building your system is fun, and you shouldn't have to worry about compatibility issues like we did waaaaaaay back in the day, but I've bought boxed systems off-the-shelf for my last two PC's. The prices are cheaper, even when I had to buy more memory or better vid card. So I wouldn't discount boxed systems just yet. But, as I said, building is more fun!

 

[comiso90]

Great stuff RA,,

I'm glad we all agree on New Egg..

Does anybody know of a small CPU I can sit next to my TV so I can stream video to the TV?

My computer is in another room and I dont want to run a cable to my TV but I want to Stream Video


You guys rock!

 

[RabidAlien]

Dell and HP make mini-towers, about 1/3 the size of a regular tower. I'll never own a Dell myself (too many bad experiences with friends'/family's/customers' towers), but we use them at work and they generally run okay. I'm an HP man....but, like processors, its pretty much personal preference.

Dell Desktop Computers PCs | Dell

HP Official Store — Buy Slim and sleek direct from HP