I'm thinking of building a new computer. Any suggestions?

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I'll Begin

I'll Begin

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It's no secret that my only working computer is 9 years old.

I might actually be getting some money soon, so I want to custom-build a new computer if so. I'm looking for something with lots of endurance that'll last me a while, while still obviously having some power behind it. I'll mainly use it for gaming. Price is not important as long as I'm not spending anything ridiculously high. What does SRB2MB suggest?

I've already got a case and a DVD drive lying around. Don't worry about those. Everything else, I need fresh parts. A new monitor would be nice too, but not necessary.

Thanks in advance, guys!

EDIT: When using the $ symbol, state which country's currency you're referring to. e.g. USD, AUD.
 
There are still computers available that have Windows XP Professional preinstalled on them. You just have to search hard. Get an XP computer, and you'll put off upgrading to Vista long enough so that when you need another computer, Windows 7 will be out!
 
Gaming computer? I have a few things I could suggest to you.
Some things I wanted to get but never did. :(

Antec Nine Hundred Case - $119.99
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W Power Supply - $249.99
eVGA 680i NVidia Motherboard - $159.99
Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6850 Processor
Coolermaster Hyper - $21.99
Western Digital 150 GB Raptor HardDrive - $174.99
Corsair XMS3 Dominator RAM 2 GB - $491.99
nVidia 8800 GT Video Cards - $249.99
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Flame said:
Gaming computer? I have a few things I could suggest to you.
Some things I wanted to get but never did. :(

Antec Nine Hundred Case - $119.99
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W Power Supply - $249.99
eVGA 680i NVidia Motherboard - $159.99
Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6850 Processor
Coolermaster Hyper - $21.99
Western Digital 150 GB Raptor HardDrive - $174.99
Corsair XMS3 Dominator RAM 2 GB - $491.99
nVidia 8800 GT Video Cards - $249.99
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Flame, that is $1298.94. I don't think that falls under cheap.
 
Would you rather pay for something above that price? Home computers come more than that these days.
 
Mikesword221 said:
Flame said:
Gaming computer? I have a few things I could suggest to you.
Some things I wanted to get but never did. :(

Antec Nine Hundred Case - $119.99
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W Power Supply - $249.99
eVGA 680i NVidia Motherboard - $159.99
Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6850 Processor
Coolermaster Hyper - $21.99
Western Digital 150 GB Raptor HardDrive - $174.99
Corsair XMS3 Dominator RAM 2 GB - $491.99
nVidia 8800 GT Video Cards - $249.99
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Flame, that is $1298.94. I don't think that falls under cheap.
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That is cheap.

Try $500~ graphics card, $300~ motherboard and $400~ CPU.
 
Why a 1000W power supply? You will never need that much unless you are using many hard drives and/or nVidia Quad SLI. I'm getting along fine on a 650W power supply. I have a decent amount of stuff plugged into it and I bet the usage isn't even half that.

eVGA motherboard? Any reasoning behind this? I'd personally recommend something from ASUS. Many people have bought ASUS motherboards and were very satisfied with them. Just look for something with PCI-Express x16 or PCI-Express 2.0 (the latter being more recent).

What kind of games are you looking to play? A GeForce 8800 should be more than enough for Source Engine games. For more intensive games, you might want to look into getting a more recent card. From the impressions I'm getting, nVidia seems to be in the lead, but ATI has a few small (though maybe insignificant) things going for it - they have faster anti-aliasing, and although not up to par with nVidia yet, their Linux drivers are rapidly improving as AMD is showing more dedication for that platform.

As for CPU, you'll probably get along fine with a dual core processor. Only get a quad core if you want extreme super overclocking baditude performance.
 
To put the PSU into perspective, I have a 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD, a 250gb of the same, an 80 SATA 1.5Gb/s, an 8800GT and about 15 different shades of green and blue lighting.

My PSU is a 750w.
 
I have:
Phenom 2 BE X4, 3Ghz. (£230)
2GB DDR2-800 RAM. (£40)
Asus M2N7-D motherboard. (£100)
Geforce GTX 280. (£300)
750 watt PSU. (£50)

Why do I have this stuff? Because I'm in to quite a few modern games that have high specs. (Crysis, CoD4, Fallout 3, want FEAR 2).

Thing is, don't just go for whatever. Go for what you think will do you good; I can't help much because I don't know exactly WHAT games you play. But go for what can do you good now, and make sure you have some upgrade options.

E.g., if you're playing TF2 or L4D, then 2GB RAM, a mid-end dual core CPU and a Geforce 8800/9800GT are fine. (Note: 9800GT and 8800GT are the same, but the 9800 is a rerelease with a better cooler. This is not the case with the 9800GTX). Hell, unless you want absolute top-level performance in Crysis, a quad core is probably a bit overkill. My 8800GT + Athlon 5200+ X2 could easily push a constant 30-40FPS in Crysis, High settings, 1280x1024. Hell, it remained playable at 1680x1050 with pretty much the same settings.

Of course, upgrade options are good. No point going for an old motherboard that can't handle a quad when games you want start needing them for a decent play, or something. (Like my old board, had no quad support [which would bottleneck the GTX 280] and a stupid layout which meant a really important heatsink was smothered by large cards. Instant boiled egg!)

So, er. I can give better suggestions if I knew what games you're playing and what games you'd like to play.
 
The thing is, I can't really go for a computer that suits the games I play, because the games I play are ones that work on an 800mhz~ Pentium III with 320mb of RAM and a (possibly severely bottlenecked) 128mb Radeon 9200 (you coulda checked my Xfire stats, by the way). A new computer will bring new games. I might get Orange Box and/or GTA IV with my new computer, though. Whatever can run those well, I guess? *shrugs*

As for hard drive space. I want something big-ish. I've got 120gb on this computer and I've only got about 35gb left, and although that's being shared between 3 family members, if I get more games, I think I'm gonna need more than 120gb of space, even if i'm the only one using the computer. How much should I get?

I don't know my price range yet, actually. Just try not to get too excessive. :P And yes, a dual-core processor will be enough.

Thanks for all the replies, guys!
 
Intel is best for single-threaded, AMD is best for multi-threaded. (The new bus the Intel Nehalem uses is still slower than HyperTransport)

And AMD is cheap...sooo.. I went that route.

Can't go wrong with a board from Asus. ATI or nVidia is fine - probably go with a video card by Sapphire.
Hitachi hard drives are my favorite.
Don't go cheap on the PSU or it'll go bad on you REAL fast. StarTech is a good brand.
Corsair for RAM.
What'd I miss?
 
Orange Box? Well then...

A mid-end dual core processor (An Intel Core 2 Duo, or an AMD Athlon 64 5200+ X2 or better).

Motherboard should be socket AM2 or preferably AM2+ for AMD CPUs; go for socket LGA 775 fr Intel. ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, all good board manufacturers. Go for a board with DDR2 support, either 800 or 1066Mhz. Also try to find one with a form factor of ATX, and make sure there are not heatsinks or other important stuff in the way of the graphics cards slot. (If you go for a higher end, dual-slot card like a GTX 200 card, then this'll cause problems. Forced me to replace my old board)

2GB, DDR2-800mhz RAM. Make sure your motherboard has support for 4GB (Some don't, annoyingly).

Geforce 9800GT (I don't know the ATI equivalent).

Power supply.. should be a notable brand, I guess. I'm not good with them. I went cheap with my last few, and they all work perfectly. Haven't got any suggestions. Try go for about 500-600 watts, though something as low as 400 watts -might- work, I'm not sure.

A setup like that will max out all games in the Orange Box; HL2 episode two and TF2 should go fine with a resolution of around 1920x1080 with 2x AA. Frames will VERY rarely drop noticeably, honestly. System like this should set you back about £300.. which is about $400-500?

I don't have any experience with GTA IV, but just go as high as you want with that game because it's supposedly rubbish for performance for no real reason.
 
Well, you're probably not looking for portability (or anything without a CD drive for that matter), but if you are, Acer netbooks with 160 GB are only about $370 plus shipping from Amazon.
 
SSNTails said:
Intel is best for single-threaded, AMD is best for multi-threaded.
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Which is better for gaming, again?

Naga said:
Geforce 9800GT (I don't know the ATI equivalent).
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For that matter, are there any noticable differences between nVidia and ATi cards?

Naga said:
A setup like that will max out all games in the Orange Box; HL2 episode two and TF2 should go fine with a resolution of around 1920x1080 with 2x AA. Frames will VERY rarely drop noticeably, honestly.
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Awesome!

Naga said:
System like this should set you back about £300.. which is about $400-500?
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Is that in Australian dollars? :P

Naga said:
I don't have any experience with GTA IV, but just go as high as you want with that game because it's supposedly rubbish for performance for no real reason.
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Odd. :s

Crüsäder said:
Well, you're probably not looking for portability (or anything without a CD drive for that matter), but if you are, Acer netbooks with 160 GB are only about $370 plus shipping from Amazon.
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Nope. I prefer desktop PCs. I'd prefer something hand-held (like an iPhone or a PSP) to a netbook, personally.
 
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