Need alot of help... and i know it.

[KalGor]

Ok firstly, thank you for the time you spend reading this, and if you do so, replying.

Im new to building systems on the whole, ive done loads of upgrading of various parts, but starting from the start is a daunting task to myself, so im hoping to gleem some of the expertise obviously abundant on these forums.

If this is the wrong forum sorry, but i wasnt too sure WHERE to post this as i need help with pretty much everything.

I have these items that id really like to transfer over to the new system,
P4 3.06Gig CPU.
Ati Rad 9800 XT,
1 Gig SDRAM

Im more than happy with buying the rest, but im not sure exactly what i do need to build a system, obviously tower case, motherboard, PSU etc. But what all in all do you need to make a computer?

Currently im lookin at a case along the lines of the Thermaltake Xaser 3 Super Tower, a friend has one and it looks the business with a nice 7 inbuilt fans. Now im not too fussed about looks directly, but it would be nice to have a case that looks some what decent as well. But hey maybe im being silly and that case sucks, i have no idea i need help.

Im a avid gamer, and want to have a go at making my own system. Im pretty sure im capabe of the actual building of the system as soon as i know what i need to put into it, as the jargon used really does go over my head.

If push comes to shove, i could put off buying the stuff a extra month and then splash out on all i need for the new system from scratch but i still need input, baring in mind that it will be namely a gaming system.

I play pretty much everything, so looking for something that could run the new games comming out, Doom3, and future MMO's.

So in reality im looking for two recomendations, one would be what i need/ should get if including the three items above in the build.

And second what to buy in total if was to build a system from scratch (Pref. AMD based), but again would like to include the Ati Rad 9800 XT in the build as its a decent graphics card and will save a little money. Would also like the option (in the future) available to myself to overclock this system a little.

Thanks for any input.

 

[dmw16]

First off, welcome to the forums. Let me see if I can't answer a few of these questions...

If you want to upgrade from the base of parts you listed, here is what I would do. First off, you are going to need to upgrade your RAM. Current boards all use DDR, and you were going to need to make the switch at some point. So you would need; case, motherboard, psu, RAM, HD, optical drive, and sound card/NIC.

For a case and psu, I would actually look at an Antec w/ a power supply in it already. Anything 350W or above. I personally don't like the thermaltake Xaser cases, but it is just a personal preference. The only really big thing here is MAKE SURE YOU GET A GOOD POWER SUPPLY

For the motherboard I would say anything w/ an intel 865 or 875 chipset. An Abit IC7 or IC7max would be an excellent choice.

For RAM check out Corsair's value select memory. It goes for about $80 per stick of 512MB DDR400 PC3200. You could probably actually sell your memory for a decent price as SDRAM has been retaining value well recently.

For HD and optical I would say Western Digital or Seagate or Maxtor for the hard drive. For optical, I don't know that it matters much if you go CD-RW. If you want a DVD+/-RW stick w/ a quality brand like NEC or Lite-On or (if you wanna spend the cash) Plextor.

I cant really answer the ground up Athlon64 question in detail, but basically, do exactly the same thing as you did for the P4 setup you already sorta have, and get an nVidia nForce3 250 chipset based motherboard.