Need help building a PC on a budget.

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Asthmaboy

Senior member
Dec 4, 2005
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I am SO totally clueless as to what I should get.

The main goal of this computer is be able to play some of the newer PC games.
Budget: $1100
Also, it's $1100 for the box and display, we have a lot of old keyboards, mice, and speakers(these don't really matter, I'll be getting headphones with a mic) here.

I was told by a Best Buy employee that a PCI type of motherboard would be my first best bet as it's newer technology, and something about it being better.
Need to know HOW it's better, so I can at least learn about it before just plunging in.

And lastly, does anyone have any good article they suggest I read before even ATTEMPTING to buy parts and build it(with help of a friend).

EDIT: Also forgot to mention that my dad is buying all this for me as an X-Mas present as part of my last X-Mas(In that I'll be kicked out this summer).
He wants only to buy me an NVidia video card for some reason of which I have no idea. What would suggest is done here?

EDIT2 - Okay guys, now that I have a sense of what tech stuff I have, I need to know about ethernet cards and 802.11 g cards I will need.
Ethernet for LAN parties with friends, and the 802.11g card for my Airport Extreme base. Anybody know if it will work with it?

I also need to know now if it depends on what kind of screen I get, like LCD, flatscreen, CRT, whatever.
 
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ribbon13

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2005
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Welcome to the fourms.

$1100 for the box? + keyboard & mouse? + speakers? + display? <- that last one is the killer.

Best Buy employees are idiots. PCI-express is a new technology. PCI is ancient and is being replaced by PCI-express. And Macs use internal busses as well so thats not exactly PC-specific... at all.

PCI-express slowest class of slot: 1x PCIe has 500MB/s upstream / 500MB/s downstream just for that port. PCI on the other hand only has 127MB/s total for all the ports for the PCI controller.

Mostly the comparison is between AGP and x16 PCI-express. These are the slots used for video cards. This is moot for you, because anyone buying a new PC should be going for PCIe anyway.

Article about what? Building it?
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html
 
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V00D00

Golden Member
May 25, 2003
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Try using google. You can type in things, like questions and stuff, and it gives you TONS of results. You don't even have to wait like on a foruml. IT'S SO COOOL!!!!!111!11!

Macs are crap by the way.
 
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Asthmaboy

Senior member
Dec 4, 2005
444
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Originally posted by: ribbon13
Welcome to the fourms.

$1100 for the box? + keyboard & mouse? + speakers? + display? <- that last one is the killer.

Best Buy employees are idiots. PCI-express is a new technology. PCI is ancient and is being replaced by PCI-express. And Macs use internal busses as well so thats not exactly PC-specific... at all.

Article about what? Building it?
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html
Click to expand...

Thank you.
$1100 for the box and dissplay, sorry for not specifying. I'll edit the post when done replying here.
Maybe it was PCI-express, I might have fogotten specifics as I'm stupid when it comes to PCs. And HEY. I used to work at Best Buy. xP

And yes, an article about building a PC/what I should know when building a PC.

EDIT: Very cool article so far, am learning a LOT on every single page. WIll be very helpful, as will the link they give at the beginning to someone's guide on this site about which parts to buy.
Also got it that you'll be editing that post a lot.
Thanks again. :)
 
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Asthmaboy

Senior member
Dec 4, 2005
444
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Originally posted by: V00D00
Try using google. You can type in things, like questions and stuff, and it gives you TONS of results. You don't even have to wait like on a foruml. IT'S SO COOOL!!!!!111!11!

Macs are crap by the way.
Click to expand...

I know. Am just trying to get suggestions from a forum as someone pointed me to these site forums.

That's why I don't visit forums that are PC specific. :|
 
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Finns14

Golden Member
Oct 6, 2005
1,731
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Originally posted by: V00D00
Try using google. You can type in things, like questions and stuff, and it gives you TONS of results. You don't even have to wait like on a foruml. IT'S SO COOOL!!!!!111!11!

Macs are crap by the way.
Click to expand...

For a gold member you sure are a jerk


She set you up with some pretty good stuff but if you are comfortable with OCing then get an opteron 146 and OC
 
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Asthmaboy

Senior member
Dec 4, 2005
444
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Finns - Eh, I wasn't about to say anything as I have no idea what the ranks mean. (whether it be mod, admin, whatever)
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
4,360
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If i were you i'd splash out on a good monitor more than anything else. The monitor can last you five years or more easily, while the computer generally needs/wants to be upgraded after two/four.

Having said that you're going to end up with a nice machine with that list above. Able to run any game you care to mention at 1240x1080 with most of the shiny effects turned on.
 
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ribbon13

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2005
9,343
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Originally posted by: Bobthelost
If i were you i'd splash out on a good monitor more than anything else. The monitor can last you five years or more easily, while the computer generally needs/wants to be upgraded after two/four.

Having said that you're going to end up with a nice machine with that list above. Able to run any game you care to mention at 1240x1080 with most of the shiny effects turned on.
Click to expand...

A 'good' monitor would take half to all his buget. And I beg to differ on the computer upgrade part. CPUs have hit a brick wall when it comes to speeds. Once the X2 4800+ prices drop to where he can get one, and he gets 2GB of RAM his PC would be good for the next 5 years. If you wish to see what I mean see this thread
 
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Asthmaboy

Senior member
Dec 4, 2005
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Ribbons - Okey dokey, but as Bob said, it'll work just fie nowadays, too. :)
Thanks for all the help ALREADY. THankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.

Bob - I actually want a 19" LCD screen. ANything special I need to know about LCDs to power them / make them work?
 
Fullmetal Chocobo

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
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Originally posted by: ribbon13
Originally posted by: Bobthelost
If i were you i'd splash out on a good monitor more than anything else. The monitor can last you five years or more easily, while the computer generally needs/wants to be upgraded after two/four.

Having said that you're going to end up with a nice machine with that list above. Able to run any game you care to mention at 1240x1080 with most of the shiny effects turned on.
Click to expand...

A 'good' monitor would take half to all his buget. And I beg to differ on the computer upgrade part. CPUs have hit a brick wall when it comes to speeds. Once the X2 4800+ prices drop to where he can get one, and he gets 2GB of RAM his PC would be good for the next 5 years. If you wish to see what I mean see this thread
Click to expand...

Nice read. Thanks for the linkage.

 
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Asthmaboy

Senior member
Dec 4, 2005
444
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Ribbons, I gotta ask - Why a 500W power supply?
I was reading up on the parts guide provided by the building a PC guide, and it mentioned that bigger is not always better.
Hell, it even [slightly] suggests that you should just get smaller wattage. Why so much?
 
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Finns14

Golden Member
Oct 6, 2005
1,731
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Well 500w is usaully a good number to go with on a rig such as yours the 7800 will suck up some power and if you go with my advice and OC that will also take up some extra power. Plus if you ever wanna up grade to like 2G or ram or add extra drives.
 
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ribbon13

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2005
9,343
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Originally posted by: Asthmaboy
Ribbons, I gotta ask - Why a 500W power supply?
I was reading up on the parts guide provided by the building a PC guide, and it mentioned that bigger is not always better.
Hell, it even [slightly] suggests that you should just get smaller wattage. Why so much?
Click to expand...

Generally higher wattage PSUs have lower efficieny at low loads, hence the 'buy a lower rated PSU' suggestion. Since the PSUs I reccomend are very high quality, this is completely irrelevant. The PSU on the list is 400w and maintains 75% efficiency even at one quarter load.
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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ribbon: The budget was for the computer the Dad is paying for (mine just gets me a case, it's sooooo unfair! ;)) i know with every budget i've ever made for a computer it can always be streched a bit. But you are right, an all singing/dancing monitor would eat up the budget quickly.

Before you buy any monitor go look at some reviews of it, comparitive reviews rather than someone saying "dude, this monitor is l33t!".

The thing about a PSU is that almost any system can be run from a 500W (excepting something with more than 4 hard drives etc.) Most will never even touch that sort of current draw. Think about it: 120W for CPU, 2x80W for GPU, 4x20W for HDs = 360W (That's about the highest power demanding system i know of), throw in another 100W for random bits and you've still got 40W of comfort blanket. The trick is normally to buy a good brand rather than the highest rated one you can find. FSP is good, i'm using one at the moment. You really don't need a 500W, 400W would still leave you plenty of room to upgrade.
 
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Finns14

Golden Member
Oct 6, 2005
1,731
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The biggest trick when buying monitors is finding rebates. Like I know that buy.com has some good acer monitors and the first time you buy anything from there site over 200 you get $25 off So maybe look for a monitor thats onsale there plus get another $25 off
 
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nsafreak

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 2001
7,093
3
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Hey ribbon where is the video card in the solution you've proposed? The motherobard on that list doesn't have onboard video that I can see and frankly I wouldn't recommend onboard for modern games. Finally I think we're all forgetting the cost of the OS at $100 for XP Home OEM.

EDIT Missed the 7800 GTX that you have in there. He's still going to need to shell out another $100 for XP Home OEM. So we're looking at overshooting his budget by $176 so far and that's before shipping charges.

Op might want to look at a 6600GT instead so he'll still have the money needed to cover the OS & shipping at a closer range to his budget.
 
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