In The Market

[nAtr0n]

I'm in the market for a new PC due to the sudden painful death of my 2 year old Athlon 64 X2 6000+. I have recieved great advice by stew, yosh, snix and kap but still am deathly afraid of building my own. I have to admit even looking at the case/power supply pictures make me very nervous (wth to do with all those wires). I used to be quite computer savy at least I thought, but never really got down to system building level other than upgrading memory and video cards etc. I have been assured that it is not that difficult by quite a few of you and it probably is not, but maybe i just need some therapy (sigh). Anything you all can advise me of please do. If any of you are not the building type give me your experience with the manufacters you have dealt with. I have researched alot of gaming box companies and the best of those as far as the total package seems to be maingear. I realize that I will be spending more for a system from them I think me and stew figured it at about 300 more tho there are some benefits (IE extensive testing, experienced assembly and cable management, lifetime free labor.. if they don't go under heh). Well I am totally frustrated now and will sit back and wait to see what you ladys and gents have to offer me. I don't really have a budget but I also don't really want to spend alot either if that even makes sense.


Thanks in advanced for your help,

Your Frustrated Friend
nAtr0n

[Cosmic_Shame]

get a powersupply over 600 watts with plenty of cables on it. Get either a crossfirex or SLI board depending on what cards u wanna buy. Get some fast ram thats compatable with the board, DDR3 RAM, DDR2 is old now. Get a Graphics card that is GDDR5 like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102866

which is like 105 dollars after rebate and promo code

and for processors get urself an i5 or i7 they are fast as fuck

[mullet]

Hey nAtr0n, I think you are looking in the right direction. The biggest problem with building your own rig for the very first time, is to overcome the intimidation factor. The rest is a piece of cake. The biggest thing is what are all the things you want out of this rig and the things you may want to do in the near future. The next thing is price. There is a whole host of questions that need to be answered. The first rig I build in 1995, I was sweating like a pig putting it together. plus being AT standard suxed. I sure there is many people including myself that would be willing to help in any way.

[Freaky_Angelus]

Whatever you decide.. put the damn CPU cooler on the cpu/mobo BEFORE you put that shit in the case. You will make that mistake once, even the easy click thingies (intel coolers) are a pain.

In general it is easy as frak and as posted mostly intimidation and lack of experience. I do advice having a friend with experience over, but in general common sense is the main thing and working very systematic on it all.

Last thing.. Ignore cosmic.. I've been helping his ass for years, ignore him :P advicing a 4860.. sjeesss.. ;)

No, post what you want if you want hardware advice and just get with those who get you on helping you out on the build itself!

[Cosmic_Shame]

hahaha yes agreed with freaky on this. Intel snap cooling systems are garbage but work

[Bonemasher]

Yeah the cpu's can be a pain, the first time my brother put in one of those snaping ones, it snapped just about every pin off the the motherboard.

I'd recomend going to a site that builds it for you, that way you can get a better waranty, if something goes wrong at least it won't be your fault, which is worth it in my opinion.

[StarYoshi]

The only thing you need to really learn is applying thermal paste and seating the heatsink. Other than that it's hard to break anything and most issues can be easily resolved. When I get home from work I'll give you my two recommendations for building it yourself or using a prebuilt website and the components/price therein :)

[stewlounse]

The only thing you need to really learn is applying thermal paste and seating the heatsink. Other than that it's hard to break anything and most issues can be easily resolved. When I get home from work I'll give you my two recommendations for building it yourself or using a prebuilt website and the components/price therein :)

Yep, the pasting and installation of the heatsink is definitely the most troublesome step (still easy, just be patient). Everything else is....well....just plug it up!

It really isn't as hard to do as you may think. THE hardest part is researching everything to decide what to buy. The actual build is the easy part but it's time consuming.

If you decide to build, feel free to call me and I will gladly walk you through any step, or the whole thing.

[stewlounse]

In my opinion, maingear's testing, assembly, and lifetime labor are worth maybe $50 of that extra $300.

The fun about building is IF you have a problem, you get to fix it. In other words...you learn something. Instead of a company doing it and you still being in the dark about what in the hell went wrong. But the chance of you actually getting a DOA piece is very small.

Not to mention again about how all individual parts carry their own warranty.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

The easiest thing is building it.. The hardest thing is what to get.. Especially when buying CPU, MEMORY, AND VID CARDS. Mostly cause everyone has different opinions on what to buy. Like I stick with AMD not because I think it is better then Intel just a preference. I think they both perform in there own way just as good as there conterpart different benchmarks will give you different numbers.. Same with video cards Nvidia VS ATi back in the day Nvidia was the best now you will have people going both ways.

Memory yea there isn't really to many people that won't agree DDR3 and 1333 if you can get it.. DDR2 is old now..

CPU I look for highest core like quad core. Then look for highest mhz 3.4 is highest for AMD not sure on INtel. Then on Mother boards highest FSB or HT for amd..


I am a specs man just I am stuck with AMD until I get one that dosn't perform good for me.