First Build

ChocolateVillain

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Aug 31, 2008
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Looking to start my first build ever...
Saving up about $900 (excluding the monitor price)
to spend on a gaming rig :D

Going to go the AMD way and was just looking for ideas

I need a machine that can handle alot of things at once and the more high performance games at high settings.
 
The 9 series nvidia cards are pretty cheap now, since the 295s came out. I picked one up last October for about $150.
 
I prefer the 4870 which'll crush the 9800gt and easily competes with the 9800gtx. I also recommend picking up an Intel e8400, which is spectacular.
 
i dunno bout you guys but i basically swear up and down on tigerdirect. it is a great site, .ca or .com.
and the e8400 is a great chip but i think its still a bit on the pricey side, and especially if you're lookin to go AMD i'd pick this baby up, which could easily be overclocked up to 3+ ghz.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4327030
i'd say right now theres no point going quad core either, damn near nothing is optimized for it. and again at tigerdirect they have this great video card for pretty cheap considering the preformance:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4296573&sku=P450-264

you can always find pretty cheap ram, im talkin like 4GB 800mhz for 50-100 and you can find some motherboards that will suit your rig for 150-250. Cases don't really matter unless you really want it to look snazzy, just make sure it has or you can put in some coolin vents/extra fans because you'll of course need to keep it cool.


EDIT: wow chaos those are really good deals! be great for me to see them on newegg.ca too! (and when im ready to upgrade)
 
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i dunno bout you guys but i basically swear up and down on tigerdirect. it is a great site, .ca or .com.
and the e8400 is a great chip but i think its still a bit on the pricey side, and especially if you're lookin to go AMD i'd pick this baby up, which could easily be overclocked up to 3+ ghz.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4327030
i'd say right now theres no point going quad core either, damn near nothing is optimized for it. and again at tigerdirect they have this great video card for pretty cheap considering the preformance:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4296573&sku=P450-264

you can always find pretty cheap ram, im talkin like 4GB 800mhz for 50-100 and you can find some motherboards that will suit your rig for 150-250. Cases don't really matter unless you really want it to look snazzy, just make sure it has or you can put in some coolin vents/extra fans because you'll of course need to keep it cool.

I kinda of agree with him but the CPU that i suggested will probably be better becasue of the more up to date technology
and i disagree that cases dont matter because if you have a bad case that has crappy ventilation then you are screwed and the cases i suggested have everything u need and enough fan to cool a lottt of heat
 
My case, the Cooler Master Cosmos RC-1000, I LOVE IT. Sitting here, running Fallout 3 or UT3 or Crysis, you can barely hear it. YOu should check it out.
 
damn that cool master is worth all the money u spend on it. every penny i would get that case hands down
 
I prefer the 4870 which'll crush the 9800gt and easily competes with the 9800gtx. I also recommend picking up an Intel e8400, which is spectacular.

actually , the 9800gt and the 9800 gtx+ only differ in die size , one is like 65 nm and gtx_ is 55 nm , means it runs cooler ,:)
 
Depending on how long its gonna take you to save up i would reccomend waiting. I remember reading amd is releasing a new phenom II in april and its going to be their top of the line type cpu. Stock speed of 3.2ghz and supports ddr3. If you dont want to wait for it i would but the best phenom II out now and get a solid aftermarket cooler(TRUE) and overclock the crap out of it. Also ati is releasing a few new cards soon so keep an eye on them.
 
that quad core is a nice build. also consider going dual core with ddr2 if you want to save some money.

Cases are pretty much personal preference. As long as it has a fan in the front, and one in the back, you should be fine.
 
personally, i would NOT build a quad core machine right now. If you are in to "having it to say you have it" then quad core is uber1337, but it just doesn't really give you much of an improvement given the money you have to spend on it. If money isn't the issue, and you have wads of it laying around with nothing to spend it on, get a quad core and send me a couple hundred. If that isn't the case, then don't go bleeding edge. The idea that it is "future proof" is not correct. In the future, it will be much much cheaper, and you can just rework the system.

Right now, I would go AMD dual core with a $150-$180 graphics card, and 2-4gb of DDR2-800. A 780/790 motherboard that can handle Phenom processors (for the future) is more than enough. This will play all of the games out now at near max settings, on a pretty big resolution. Will it play Crysis at 100fps on a 28" monitor? No, but that's ok, just save the rest for upgrades down the road. When programs can utilize four cores, get a new motherboard and processor then, and the price will be as cheap as the duals are now.
 
personally, i would NOT build a quad core machine right now. If you are in to "having it to say you have it" then quad core is uber1337, but it just doesn't really give you much of an improvement given the money you have to spend on it. If money isn't the issue, and you have wads of it laying around with nothing to spend it on, get a quad core and send me a couple hundred. If that isn't the case, then don't go bleeding edge. The idea that it is "future proof" is not correct. In the future, it will be much much cheaper, and you can just rework the system.

Right now, I would go AMD dual core with a $150-$180 graphics card, and 2-4gb of DDR2-800. A 780/790 motherboard that can handle Phenom processors (for the future) is more than enough. This will play all of the games out now at near max settings, on a pretty big resolution. Will it play Crysis at 100fps on a 28" monitor? No, but that's ok, just save the rest for upgrades down the road. When programs can utilize four cores, get a new motherboard and processor then, and the price will be as cheap as the duals are now.

Quadcore hater :(
 
The whole build right now is just for the quad core...Phenom II to be exact... was just not sure of the rest of the build...
 

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