PC Building

[Rab]

I'm considering building a PC, something i've never done before. I have started researching some componenents, and stores, but there is too much choice! I am not a hardcore gamer, running CS Source well is a must - but perhaps Doom 3 or Call Of Duty 2 are not really required. I want to use Windows Vista Beta. Main emphasis is on multi tasking and fast processing.

Please post suggestions of components or entire systems. Or give any useful advice! Thanks in advance!

[Pressure Drop]

hmm about 5 years ago i built a moderate system from components i bought from scan

i had a friend with me who had done it all before

it was good cuase i was on a budget i could cut out some shit, go cheap on some stuff and put that money into stuff i wanted.

but it seems there was some sort of RAM problem, i bought cheap RAM as i thought this would do but it broke after a year and i replaced it with more cheap crap cuase i was broke and about 4 years again the memory failed. SO i bought a new computer.

this time i got it prebuilt from mesh then got some other components from ebuyer

for me this was the simplest option for something close to what i wanted after pricing and also considering in delivery which would be alot dearer for me as they whack on a big surcharge to ship to northern ireland and some do free uk mainland delivery.


not much advice i can gove, i guess save money on the graphics card front looking at what you get for your money here ATI NVIDIA
putting that into a dual core processor and maybe a cooling system if yout into overclocking, i know nothing about that.

[404 Not Found]

If you’re going to take advantage of the new Vista OS, I personally would build a system that is an AMD 64 socket 939 (price is not to extreme on this chipset) rather than 32 bit Intel boards. I am not sold on the Intel boards for 64 with the problems of being backward compatible with older 32 bit printers, scanners, plotters, and drivers and such. AMD's 64's will operate both the 32 and 64's with no problems from the bench tests I have read.

The Vista OS is ok for a 32, but it is specifically designed to accommodate as well as take advantage of the new 64 bit systems.

I personally like the MSI boards. MSI has really good support.

Depends on how you are going to use Vista as well? I liked the MSI K8N Diamond Plus.

• 11.96 in.(L) x 9.61 in.(W); ATX
• 4 DIMMs w/ DDR 400 upto 4 GB
• 2 PCI-E 16X; 1 PCI-E X4; 2 PCI-E X1; 2 PCI; 10 USB
• Creative sound Blaster Audigy SE H/W audio 7.1 CH Surround Sound
• Dual Gb LAN; IEEE 1394 RAID(0, 1, 0+1); SATA2; ATA133
• Live Update; Fuzzy Logic; PC Alert; MSI CoreCenter; DOT , DigiCell; nVidia Firewall

Have fun in whichever system type your building.

EDIT: You may want to check out Price Watch to give you an idea on barebone system pricing...good for comparing what's out there $$ wise.

[Send]

Needed a computer to run the exact same things. I managed to build a PC with my old sticks of RAM and a budget video card. If you're looking for something to run CSS without 100+ fps then I'd recommed you not go above the Radeon X1200/GeForce 6200. If you're planning on getting a low-budget video card, go with a 2.8 GHz processor or over. I made that mistake once thinking that my processor could handle a low-end video card and barely skimped out with 20+ fps in my CSS games. Now that I upgraded to a 3.2 GHz Pentium D Dual Core (All AMD processors seem to pricey for some reason). I get 60+ fps in my games which is quite comfortable. Dual core is the way to go, even if you're on a budget. The low-end Dual core chips work miracles and are great for multitasking. And if you overclock your computer, I'd recommend Ninja (HUGE heatsink) that can probably make your system last for a decade or more.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...CP2-P4-840%20C
Top selling Intel Processor so far, and worth every penny. I recommend it highly.

http://iguana-micro.stores.yahoo.net/scscnihewhe.html
Ninja is what's above. Don't bother with the water cooling or whatever, it's all just for show. No need for that.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...0201&CatId=318
512 MB video memory just in case you become more hardcore as you go on. It's pretty cheap too and runs pretty good considering it's AGP.

Good luck with any system you build and hopefully I've helped.

[kthx]

www.frys.com - when you decide to get your parts this is about the best damn place to get em from. I am lucky enough to have one near where I live.

[Subjugation]

The AMD X2 +4400 939-pin has a pretty sweet price point at Newegg (since the AM2's came out). Somewhere around $240, last I checked. It's a great value for a dual core CPU, considering it's got 2x1mb of L2 cache.

Just be sure to do your homework at the forums of whatever mfg you select---basically you're looking to uncover and avoid any incompatibility issues.

And no skimpy on your PSU or RAM.

[FarScape]

well last time i built my pc was 3-4 years ago :-D so ill have to research in order to help here, but...

i read about directx 10 that will come out with windows vista and its going to improve many things, so maybe you should wait abit till some graphic cards will start support it?

[Facetious]

wow i should have asked here before i bought my laptop. although, it really doesnt matter.

i was trying to pick the best low-end laptop. couldnt figure out what the fuck chip i wanted. settled on one with the intel core solo at 1.86 ghz. figured it was better than the celeron and sempron. but what the fuck is a pentium m? how does it differ from a core duo and core solo? is a 2.3 ghz celeron better than a 1.86 core solo? how is anyone supposed to figure any of this shit out? anyway, i spent 600 bucks and got a laptop that works so im pretty happy.

[Bilbo]

how is anyone supposed to figure any of this shit out?

Read reviews from trusted sites, that's about the only way. Seriously. www.tomshardware.com

[K2Grey]

I'm not sure if Tom's Hardware is necessarily the best site. That site, IIRC, has a bad reputation on the Internet for being biased.

I spent a fair amount of time considering this topic and was going to PM Rab with stuff, but I'll just post directly here I suppose. Disclaimer: this is what I've gleaned while trying to figure out how to build my new computer, I don't work in the computer field, nor do I make 5 computers a day. You are getting echo chamber style information. If you want to do better, go and look for information yourself and try to distill things past the 43294 fanboys and "OMG DFI SUCKS!!!!!!" idiots.

In regards to processor speed Conroe (Intel) seems more or less undisputably the fastest, but the hype appears to be dying down with uncertain results and it seems like the majority of things are bottlenecked more by the graphics card than by the processor. So unless you want the latest and possibly greatest, I wouldn't recommend it, since it is new and new things are buggy. On the AMD side there is socket 939 and AM2. AM2 is new, it has no performance advantage over 939 as yet, and it is going to be buggy, and there is not enough time to make a good decision as to what motherboard is the best to get. So I would go with socket 939 unless you absolutely need the greatest. Now socket 939 may not be supported for that long now but there is no such thing as an upgrade path in the computer industry anyway since by the time you are going to upgrade, socket F and DDR3 etc. will be out.

Right now not that much supports dual-core processors. So it won't necessarily make anything run faster per se. But since there are 2 separate cores it will make things run smoother, with less slowdowns or short freezes etc. This is because a computer fundamentally can only do one thing at a time and it has many things to keep track of. For example, if you are playing music that is at least one thread, if you move your mouse that is another, your current game is another, your firewall is another, teamspeak is another, your torrents are another, etc. Your CPU cannot process all of these things at once; it has to switch back and forth between them very quickly to maintain the illusion it can multitask. With dual cores, you have two cores to put the threads on so thus there is less switching back and forth involved (if I understand this correctly) and thus the illusion can be more consistently maintained that the CPU is not struggling. Again, if I understand this correctly Windows at least supports dual core so if you are doing something CPU intensive it can place all background tasks on one core and the intensive program on the other.

Don't skimp on your PSU, it's the lifeblood of your system. There are of course people who have successfully run a big mobo and two graphics cards on SLI and 5 LEDs and 12 fans on a 350W Ultra PSU, but that is not an example to emulate since a PSU failure can be more disastrous than a failure of any other component and half the time some other component gets blamed instead. Also PSU measurement is a black art and the watt ratings are often not to be trusted. I'd recommend Fortron since this company seems to enjoy the highest reputation. There is also PC Power and Cooling which costs too much and there are also some OCZ PSUs which are good *because Fortron makes them for OCZ*.

I think for gfx cards either ATI or NVidia is fine nowadays.

Buy decent RAM, not necessarily the ultra high performance RAM, but at least solid stuff, from good companies, like OCZ, or G.Skill, or even Corsair etc. DDR1 is for 939, DDR2 is for AM2/Conroe. Note that generally with 939 motherboards it most it supports stock is PC3200 / DDR400 (400/2=200mhz). So PC3200+/DDR400+ RAM does not offer any performance increase over PC3200/DDR400, unless you are overclocking, in which case it can be helpful since with say DDR500 you are guarenteed to be able to overclock it to 500/2=250mhz. In regards to timings, 2-2-2-5 is theoretically the best possible for some reason, but IIRC they are irrelevant now that the memory controller is on the CPU (with socket 939).

Mobos: Every company gets bashed. If your #1 goal is overclocking DFI is fine, but it is more picky with components and often requires effort in the BIOS. Other than that companies like Asus, Epox, etc. can be fine.

Don't forget an antistatic strap, many people will claim this is unnecessary or only for n00bs (implying they are skilled) but I have doubts about that, given that IIRC 1) static charges are easily created, without you knowing 2) you rarely know when ESD has occured 3) ESD damage rarely causes immediate damage, the damage can manifest itself a while down the line. So then when some component fails or acts up instead of blaming yourself (because you are after all an expert who has built 25 PCs and no way it could be your fault) instead you go on the Internet to yell about "DON'T BUY GIGABYTE!!!!!".

Edit: Rab, if you want more then we can probably talk on SS or whatever. If someone contradicts me, go and decide for yourself. Don't take me for an expert, because this is not so and I'm not even in the engineering field.

[Displaced]

I think Why2Kay has the basics covered..

If i were purchasing now though i Would definately look into a conroe setup, the chance ive had to play with their E6700 has left me impressed.

id opt for a 975X chipset motherboard, Asus has good motherboards in general..

that said, ive had some fun with the Gigabyte 965P cause with some tweaking it supports QUAD-SLI.

do you're research and get a board that suits your needs, anandtech is a good site, id stay away from tomshardware though.

If you decide to go AMD, AM2 is a good investment, but atm id look at a socket 939 setup, since AMD should be releasing its new socket pertty soon.

[Pummel]

hmm

I'm considering building a PC, something i've never done before. I have started researching some componenents, and stores, but there is too much choice! I am not a hardcore gamer, running CS Source well is a must - but perhaps Doom 3 or Call Of Duty 2 are not really required. I want to use Windows Vista Beta. Main emphasis is on multi tasking and fast processing.

Please post suggestions of components or entire systems. Or give any useful advice! Thanks in advance!

I run all these games fine with a geforce 6600 gt,a 2ghz cpu and a 1 gig of ram.

[tahkis]

Give me a budget and i'll build you a computer. As in it's hard to suggest anything without knowing how much you are ready to put into it.

[Kawrae]

I may build a laptop (well my friend is gonna build it for me, cause i can't )
My budget would be around 1000e. Any suggestions?

[Jeansi]

www.silentpcreview.com

For those who think like me.