This tutorial is intended to assist you in building a basic PC. There are obviously a plethora of possible PC configurations and hardware that you could put into your new PC if you choose. But, what we are trying to do here is help you put together a basic PC. For this reason, we are only requiring the basic components and tools to get you up and running.
Tools Required
- Screwdriver – A Phillips-head (cross-point) screwdriver is what is used in most PCs.
- Screw Extractor – If you have surgeon’s fingers you may not need this. But, if you’re human, it is likely you might drop a screw into your PC during this procedure and be too big-thumbed to get it out. A screw extractor can help you grab those screws and get them out without messing with the hardware. You definitely do not want to run your PC with loose screws in there. It could cause a short circuit.
- Flashlight – Unless you are in a fantastic lighting situation, you will likely need a flashlight to get a look of the landscape in your PC while you’re working.
- Tweezers – May be helpful for you in switching jumpers later in the tutorial.
Hardware Required
- PC Case
- Floppy Disk Drive
- Hard Drive
- CD-ROM Drive
- Processor
- Processor Cooling Fan
- Motherboard
- Memory Modules
- Power Supply
- Video Card
- Keyboard & Mouse
To build a basic PC, you will need at least a motherboard, a memory module, a processor with cooling fan, a power supply, a hard drive, a floppy drive, a video card and a CD-ROM.
Most electrically sensitive hardware comes in a static bag which is designed to protect the electronics from static electricity shock. Leave your hardware in these bags until you are ready to install them.
Software Required
- System Disk
- Device Drivers (these usually come with the hardware above)
- Operating System (for the purposes of this tutorial, we will assume you are choosing Microsoft Windows as your operating system – PC Mechanic has lots of great information on Linux and other alternatives)
Cables and Miscellaneous
- Drive cables
- Motherboard spacers (usually come with the motherboard, but are used to space the motherboard up off the mounting plate)
- Screws (usually a whole pile of screws will come with your PC’s case, but if you are using a case you happened to have around, you will need to collect some screws)
- Power cords (for both your PC and your monitor. They usually come with the hardware when you buy it, of course)
- CPU Cooling Compound
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Hi guys, what do you guys think of this build?
Case NZXT Tempest $99
Mobo MSI x58 ATX mobo $190
Proc Intel i7-920 $280
Power Corsair 750 W $120
Vid BFG GTX 280 OC $305
RAM Corsair 6 GB DDR3 $70
HD WD 500 GB Caviar $65
DVD Samsung SH-S223 $25
TOTAL $1,154
Well the case is steel and plastic, I went for aluminum since it conducts less heat. Can’t comment on mobo and processor. As for the video card unless you’re planning on going SLI later on I’d go the extra buck for a better one. Otherwise I’d go for a cheaper and SLI for less price than $305 and beat the video card. Good thing it’s OC probly manage better.
It supports DDR3 so that’s good but for such a cheap costing RAM doesn’t seem like it’s very good. There’s more to RAM than just having lots of GBs and it being DDR3. Esp. With that motherboard you have far better choices as well as it being more expensive but I guess you can Upgrade later.
If you only need 500GB then that’s good, seems kinda fair a lil over the top. What buffer mb does it have? 16mb or 32mb? what’s the RPM if you only need 500gb go to extra way to get a higher RPM.
The power supply seems fair if it meets all your needs, I still went for a power saving one since I’m planning on idling always.
Nice choice for the optical disk drive, economic and it does the job. I went for blu-ray as I might actually be in the use of them soon for only one special thing. Does the case bring a fan? Regardless I didn’t see anything about a CPU Cooler, so I guess you’re not planning on overclocking which is sad because those new i7 CPUs are just begging to be overclocked. I mean otherwise there’s not much difference. Besides Hyper-Threading which personally will only be good with a higher processing speed.
Overall I give it a 7.5 since it mixes the high end optic stuff with minimal support for a lower costing PC.
Good point about the vid card Blade, the SLI isn’t a big deal for me. I know Maximum PC always suggests one great vid card is better than two good ones in SLI or CrossFire. I am an nVidia fan so the GTX 295 is a step up but $500 seems unreasonable, plus PC World reported the 280 outperforms it by 2 fps in their higher-res Crysis test.
I would rather get solid memory up front. Perhaps the Corsair Dominator which is $167 on Dominator.
I could get <500 GB as I have a 1.5 TB Seagate right now for songs, videos, and pics. That WD drive is 16 MB. I’m not a hard drive whiz so is buffer size more important than RPM?
Which power-saving power supply did you go with?
The case has 3 fans. I’ve never built a comp before so I’m not sure at what point a CPU cooler is required, but I saw a high-quality overclocked system on YouTube where the guy just used the stock Intel cooling fan over it.
Thanks for your feedback.
Normally it is but now games are usually suggesting and supporting sli mode as more people will try to play the games with two weaker cards. In actually involving some performance. Of course the GTX 280 is not a bad card so if anything picking up another one and running sli is a good alternative. Crysis tests aren’t that reliable unless using the same PC, but I won’t question how good a card is if I don’t have it.
I didn’t intend on picking up too much power so I just went with a Coolermaster I forgot what version but it was a BRONZE certified energy saving instead of just normal certified , think it was 650watts and SLI READY in case.I know it didn’t cost more than 60$.
Mine had two one in front one in the back, but it had a vent back and a vent front. It’s really possible with that processor to clock it with a stock cooler but an additional CPU cooler is supposed to replace the old one for better overclocking; though, mostly for the CPU a good fan can cool down your whole inside. Regardless, with the new Core i7 is a sad not to push it to the limit with a tad better CPU fan. Some fans only cost about $50 and do a bang-up job.
hey im doing this project for my skool and
i need to know how can i buy all this
components for like high numbers
let say a 1000 each if u could please tell me
this is gonna be my first attempt at making my own pc and im not sure if this stuff will work together.
any suggestions
1 Galaxy 95TGE8HUFEXX GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
1 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive
1 LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30
1 Linkworld 32104-68WU+P07 Black/ Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
1 AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX
1 OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2RPR10664GK
1 Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders
1 ASUS M4A78-E AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
i would recommend a better graphics card. while its attractive to see a video card with a gig of vRAM for 45 bucks on it its not the major deciding factor on performance. probably shell out the extra 50 bucks and go with a nvidia 9800 GTX+ nvidia GTS 250 or regular nvidia 9800 GT. at least thats my take, i wouldnt really want to have a computer with a processor that retails at 4 times the cost of its graphics. thats if youre gaming though, if youre just watching movies file conversion and other types of computer usage thats not all to taxing on the video card then i would recommend just using the integrated radeon 3300 graphics that come with that mobo. if youre gaming, get a pciE x16 graphics card and get the downgraded mobo from this one which is the ASUS M4A78 PLUS. $80 compared to $135 for a very similar board and with that 50 dollar difference go with better graphics card for the same price. the deciding factor is what youre going to be using the system for
im gonna build a pc for the first time where whould u get the system disc from and how much
and if i bult more the one whould i have to bye a seoerate windows for eace one
Hey guys what do you think of this build. Any suggestions? My budget is 500 and I will be using it mainly for surfing the web and watching videos.
Rosewill R222-P-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case=$22.99
LOGISYS Computer PS550ABK 550Watts ATX12V Power Supply With SATA and 20/24 Pin connectors=$22.99
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor=$69.99Rosewill RFA-120-BL 120mm 4 Blue LEDs LED Case Fan=$4.99
Intel BOXDP43TF LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard=$84.99
Pioneer Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 2MB Cache IDE CD/DVD Burner – OEM=$24.99LG Black bezel 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model GDR-H20N=$15.99WINTEC AMPO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory=$19.99×2HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive=$79.99
POWERCOLOR HD2400PRO 512MB SCS Radeon HD 2400PRO 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card=$29.99
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders=$89.99
Hey guys,
I’m going to build a computer for the first time because I feel i don’t really get bang for the buck at the stores such as Best Buy and Comp USA. I’m going for a gaming computer and will mostly be playing Counter-Strike: Source competitively and some MMO’s. My budget is around $1,000. Any build suggestions or help would be highly appreciated. Thank you.
first things first… dont skimp on a graphics card if youre going to be playing competitively, 9800 GTX+ should handle the job and then some. if budget is a big concern then go with an AMD processor, sure there not as fast, but theyre cheaper and gaming puts more pressure on the graphics card then the processor. get a motherboard that can handle at least 4 GB of DDR2 though i would rather go with 8 GB myself just because 8 GB may be excessive but having too little will kill you and 4 is rather standard, make sure that your power supply isnt shit and MOST important of all is to be sure that it will be able to power your graphics card, most PSU specs will include a +12V Rail specification which will let you know what you how much GPU you can use. 18 amps is most likely what you need but power specifications vary depending on what manufacturer made your card. get a basic DVD drive that can get you going and get stuff installed, nothing fancy needed as almost all games run off hard disc now, go with a 250-500 GB hard drive as your primary drive for your operating system, if you need storage… add a 1.5TB hdd theyre only about 125 and wont slow your system down. make sure that you get a case that has lots of room (9800 series takes up a good deal of room) and fans already installed so you dont have to bother with much, concluding
motherboard AM2+ socket $100
mid range processor $100-150
4 gigs RAM minimum- depending on clock frequency you can spend 20 for 4 gigs or 200 for 16 gigs. OCZ fatality is good middle ground, $40 dollars for 2 2GB sticks at 1066 MHz
basic case, mid tower or full tower, $25-65, dont buy one with a power supply in it as theyre shit 10 times out of 10
PSU, look into specifications as far as what your graphics card needs, $70-150 depending on strength of card
500 GB hard drive, Maxtor or Seagate are most reliable – $65
DVD drive, MAX $40 for a DVD drive, pay more if its blu ray but DVD drives arent necessarily better cause theyre twice the price
(multiple manufacturers) 9800 GTX+ $100-150
slick monitor (newegg.com tends to be the best with monitors) 200
keyboard mouse, 50$ to 150$ get something thats comfortable, trust me its worth the 100 or so dollars
TOTAL WILL COME TO ABOUT 850-1000, but if you already have a monitor, gaming keyboard/mouse youre looking at only about 600-800
but dont forget about the operating system, you may already have something, you might torrent it who knows but when you buy it go with XP or Vista home premium (ultimate kinda sucks for extra money)
oh and never buy anything over 100 dollars at best buy, the only thing that theyre good for is getting a hands on feel for a laptop or keyboard then buying online for much less, computers there are about 100 higher than online, and prebuilt computers are about 100-200 more expensive cause someone else built it for you….
best buy sucks
Hey, what do you guys think of this build?
I’m new to this so suggestions would be appreciated =]
Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P [GA-MA790X-UD4P] € 100
Proccesor – AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition € 180
Memory Module – Corsair Triple3X 6GB DDR3-1600 CL9 triple kit € 100
HDD – Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA2 [HD103UJ] € 75
Drives – 2x Samsung SH-S203D Black OEM [SH-S203D/BEBN] € 22/44
Video Card – ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/1G [90-C1CL55-L0UAY00Z] € 150
Power Suply – OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W [OCZ500MXSP] € 65
PC Case – Cooler Master CM 690 [RC-690-KKN1] € 70
Total € 784
sebass…
that motherboard and RAM combination will not be able to function together. if you have your heart set on that motherboard then youre going to have to get 1333 or 1066 MHz DDR2 ram, if you want to pay for the upgrade to a DDR3 RAM system then youre also going to need to get a AM3 socket motherboard, AND an AM3 socket processor. while the phenom II x4 940 Black edition is a 45 nm architecture under the new Deneb microarchitecture it is NOT an AM3 CPU, the phenom II x4 940 is designed as an AM2+ socket. what i recommend you do is change up the RAM, go with some DDR2 RAM and if you have XP stick with 4 as a max, if you have vista go with 4 GB as a minimum, 6 to 8 gigs is best in my eyes
Okay thanks for the advice =D
I have XP so I chose Corsair Twin2X Dominator 4GB DDR2-1066 CL5 DHX kit € 85 =]
I wont comment anymore on the builds as its too much checking around but I will give advice to the people that might be reading this. One for video cards a big video memory doesnt mean its a good card there can be a good 512mb card better than 1gb RAM if youre using programs that dont go higher than 512mb. There are other specs way more important to consider.
Same thing for RAM, having 6GB or RAM if you’re not going to be using 6gbs get 3 gbs for the same price and possible better. I got myself 4gb and I don’t think I’ve ever used more than 2.2gbs. And Im using Windows XP so might be higher with Vista but then the RAM limit wont be there and you still wont reach 4gbs in RAM and I tell you Im bursting my RAM. Not to mention RAM is nothing if the processor cant handle multiple jobs.
Thats basically all I wanted to talk about RAM, and video cards. The rest is what you can find, and remember budget PCs can be built with AMD which is for budgets and they do make competition with Intel but Intel’s products are the top. So if you can diminish some other parts go for Intel. It’s a matter of preference I guess but this is just my advice. Disregard it if you dont really care what I say and think AMD is better. This is just my experience speaking. Overclocking.
I am a first time builder and am building a low cost office computer for my dad to do financial work on. My AMD processor has max temperature at 65 degrees Celsius. I’m just using the onboard video of Nvidia GF6100. I have bought the motherboard, processor, RAM, and hard drive new, but am going to buy the case and PSU used. (I have a screen, speakers, keyboard, & mouse laying around at home.) I was wondering whether I needed a fan at the front of my computer to keep good air circulation going through. There’s a heatsink/fan on my processor, and the PSU will have a fan in it, but on my home computer, it has a fan at the front and bottom to suck air in. Would that extra fan in front keep it significantly cooler to make it last longer, or would it just be a useless part?
go searching new egg and tiger, get a case that fits your form factor and already has a psu in it and you should be able to find something with 2 fans on it and a power supply included for around 50 to 100, just make sure that the power supply isnt garbage so stick to thermaltake if you can cause they make quality power supplies. period. either way though, your dad wont be building up much heat since financial work uses almost no processing power to the point that you need to be concerned with cooling, just 1 should be fine, esp with heatsink. just make sure that the one fan on the case has room to breathe, leaving it under the desk is one of the biggest mistakes you can make
I was originally planning to buy the case, psu, and cd-rom used from my school. Do you think I should just buy it new so it will last longer, or would it be better to buy them used? the computer I’m building won’t be used much, maybe 1 hour a day(if that) I would like to buy them used to save money, but school computers are always kind of roughed up at school, so I don’t know if it would last long enough to make it worth buying them used.
Is this outdated? I mean, can’t you build a PC now without a floppy disk drive? I know some computers that don’t have a CD drive (the extra-portable ones). And can you use a heat-sink instead of a fan? Also, doesn’t the motherboard also need a fan?
Technically you CAN but it’s not so outdated. You need either a cd, a floppy or a usb to install an OS, or flash the bios. Heat-sinks are fans, or rather they are both. And no the motherboard doesn’t need a fan only the processor and maybe one for the whole PC. Idk where you heard that crazy idea.
Any comments on the following build?
I’ve been building my own computers for about a decade now, but I still like to get some feedback, with all the new components and the like…I won’t bother you guys with the full names and whatnot…most of you know this better than I do…
Intel i7 900 2.66 GHz–$280
Asus P6T Deluxe x58 Motherboard–$255
2x nVidia GeForce 9800 512MB–$80 each
OCZ Gold 6GB RAM DDR3 1600–$75
Seagate 1 TB 7200 RPM–$100
OCZ 700W Power Supply–$80
CoolerMaster RC-690-KKN1-GP ATX Case–$75
LG DVD/CD w/ Lightscribe–$26
Encore Wireless Adapter 300 Mbps–$25
Vista Home Premium OS–$100
Looking into building my first PC, and the very first question I have is roughly what an estimated cost would be for a high-end gaming system. Before I go any further, just want to make sure it is something I can afford.
hi im new to here and i wanna make my own pc. can u guys suggest some good hardware 4 me? my main intrests are gaming and home work so i would like around 100-200gbs of space. i would like to spend around $500-600 (AUD)
please reply:)
Hey! I’m planning to build my first PC for Gaming
This is the build I’ve come up with… feel free to add your two cents:)
Cheers!
Case – NZXT Guardian 921
Hard Drive – Samsung 1TB 7200 HD103UJ
CD-ROM Drive -LITE-ON Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM Model iHDS118-04
Processor – Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz
Processor Cooling Fan –
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 Performance CPU Cooler – Intel LGA1366, 2 x 120mm Fans, 1300rpm, 92.3m3/hour, 19.8dBA
Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R
Memory Modules – Corsair 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Power Supply – Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W
Video Card – Nvidia Geforce GTX 275
first
your processor and motherboard arent the same socket, that mobo is a socket 775, the i7 is socket 1366/socket b. the i7 will not even fit into a 775 socket, if you want the i7, get a socket 1366 mobo, theyre expensive cause theyre new, buy quality dont cheap out. if you want to stick with that motherboard then get a socket 775 chip, like core 2 quads and duos
second,
the i7 uses DDR3 TRI-CHANNEL ram so you need to make sure that youre getting trichannel ram, theres a difference. ddr3 trichannel=intel core i7. ddr3=am3 socket and newer 775 socket. best way to know if something is trichannel or not is that tri channel kits are sold in 3 stick increments, normal ddr3 is sold in packs of 2
third,
i dont know about the samsung drive, i would shy away and go with the trusted brands like western digital and seagate because theyre established, so if you have a problem you know that they have plenty of drives and people to help you.
again
LGA 1366 Socket/Socket B for motherboard, you can select this on newegg and tiger as a search filter
DDR3 trichannel RAM if you decide to go with the i7, also make sure that your mobo can handle the clock frequency of the ram itself.
Any suggestions to this build?
this is my first time and any suggestions will be appreciated
Case Antec Twelve Hundred ATX Tower Case
Power supply Antec NeoPower 650 Blue – power supply – 650 Watt
Motherboard GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
CPU AMD Phenom™ II 955 Black HDZ955FBGIBOX
GPU SAPPHIRE 100269OCSR Radeon HD 4890 Video Card
CD/DVD Rom Drive LG SATA Blu-Ray / HD-DVD Reader Combo, 6x BD-R and 16x DVD Burner, w/
LightScribe, Model: GGC-H20L.
Memory Modules CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple
Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″
Internal Hard Drive
Monitor Acer X213Hbid Black 21.5″ 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 20000:1
Mouse and Keyboard (im planning to go wireless in the beginning, would tht b ok?)
Verbatim 96665 USB Wireless Ergonomics Multimedia Keyboard and Mouse
would it be ok not to put in a floppy drive?
thnx for any suggestions
your RAM and mobo arent compatible. get DDR3 dual channel ram, not trichannel. trichannel is exclusively socket 1366 right now. this is an honest mistake though as most people at first glance only notice that there is a difference between DDR3 and DDR3 trichannel. DDR3 is actually dual channel. basically speaking the ram communicates with the ram on 2 channels where as trichannel is with 3 channels, simple to see after its pointed out. AM3 socket motherboards, which is what youve picked, actually dont use DDR3 trichannel, just dual channel. its still DDR3 ram, just that it communicates differently with the socket. go with DDR3 ram, thats how it will be listed as on both newegg.com and tigerdirect.com. the way to know is what increments the ram is sold in, trichannel is with 3 sticks, “normal” ddr3 (AM3 socket ram) is sold in increments of 2. so if you see DDR3 ram (3×2 gb), its trichannel. if you see DDR3 RAM (2×2gb) its dual channel, thats what you want to go with.
also, depending on how heavily you use your disc drives consider getting a cheap DVD burner, no blu ray, as an addition to your hardware. i use my drives heavily and have burned them out in the past, if youre big into music and dvds and use discs rather than torrents, its probably a better way to go.
also you gotta change the power supply, that power supply is rather old, therefore its not up to the challenge that your graphics card is gonna need. not sure what the specific requirements for sapphires version of the 4890 but i would bet that its going to require more than 38 amps, i might be wrong cause i dont feel like numbers digging but the other thing to consider too is that if you decide to upgrade after the 4890, a psu upgrade may be necessary as well, adding at least 100 to your upgrade cost in the future.
cheers
Thnx a lot! appreciate the help
Hi Guys I Liked This Site (it’s so much helpfull)
I’m going to build a pc for my friend and i will read all this tutorials (I know the most info but lightreading isn’t a problem and maybe i ll get an info that i don’t know) well, what i need is a list of compatible,reliable components to buy for my friend from the expert guys that do not cross 600 u.s.d so we don’t get a bankrupt coz i am so confuzed about that (He needs to play new games, when win 7 is in the alley he will get him !!.) Thx for help guys.
well if cost is the concern then you’re definitely going to have to go with AMD as your processor base. staying under 600 while being able to game is going to be difficult and theres no question that you wont be able to run all games at max settings, but a system that runs those games shouldnt be too difficult.
remember your component requirements,
case
power
mobo
ram
processor
cd drive
graphics card
hard drive
operating system
CASE/POWER
choose your case wisely, if you decide to go with a case that doesnt have the greatest cooling features then your gonna have to go with additional cooling fans and a cpu heatsink, which would add about another 50 to 75 just for cooling. go with either mid tower or full tower case, full tower gives you tons of extra room and therefore theres more room for air to move. i have a XION II case, you could try to go with the power supply that is included but i would go ahead and get something better just to be sure that it doesnt damage your components, yes bad power supplies can ruin parts. cases dont really matter all that much in terms of brand but stick with a trusted brand on your power. thermaltake and ultra are the best, i have an OCZ power supply and its working perfectly.
MOBO
since cost is a concern, youre going to have to go with an AMD processor, and choosing your mobo is more important to choose the right motherboard. go with a socket AM2+, its still strong enough to do the trick and keeps cost down as well. know what your form factor your motherboard is and be sure to choose a case that corresponds with that. stick with ASUS EVGA and XFX for your mobos, im more of an intel guy and all of these brands are solid. and while it may be tempting to get a mobo with graphics installed on it, its not going to be able to handle gaming, so avoid it if you can as all it will do is add cost. if you stick with a micro ATX board it should come in under 100. so you know micro atx, and uATX are all the same thing
RAM
4 gigs is plenty, 2 gigs isnt. know that. 4 gigs is a minimum. the RAM should come in under 60, my buddy uses OCZ FATAL1TY and it works without issue. stick with OCZ, or corsair, theyre the most reliable. BIG NOTE: make sure that your motherboard can support the clock frequency of your ram. if you get 1800 mhz ram and your mobo can only handle 1066 then your wasting money and time. make sure that they are in sync
PROCESSOR
im not all that familiar with AMD processors, but theyre not horrible, just not as capable as intel, but the big thing is that games arent as heavy on processors as they are on your graphics card. hit up the forums and youll be able to find plenty of information on gaming capable processors. while phenom IIs will be tempting, they add a lot of cost, and the additional power you would get wouldnt be as well spent then if you dropped that extra coin into graphics.
OPTICAL DRIVE
not too important, but you cant do anything without one. more money does not necessarily equal better, LG is good AND cheap, a must for you. newegg and tiger should both be able to get you a CD drive for under 30 bills.
HARD DRIVE
any will do. stick to seagate and western digital though. 500 gigs should cover you plenty, i wouldnt go less since as a drive fills up it loses speed. i have a 500 gig seagate barracuda as my primary drive, works perfect, plenty of space, and is only 65
GRAPHICS CARD
well, heres where you make or break your machine, Nvidia 9800 GT MINIMUM. i stick with nvidia but thats just my bias, im pretty sure that youd be better off with an ATI radeon card, as ATI is a division of AMD, so they communicate better. but dont cheap out here whatever you do!
OS
dont forget about your OS, if your buddy is looking to use windows 7 then dont buy much as you dont need to…yet. download the Windows 7 RC, RC standing for release cantidate. it will work, for free, until march first 2010. go with that or whatever else you so please, but if you want 7 then dont drop case into an OS that youre only going to use for 6 months.
if you got anything else post it up
Thanks for the info i saved it as a document for reference,
i don’t know alot about amd including how to mesure their speed but i was wondering if you calculated the os cost coz here we usually use hacked we can’t get any os original ms don’t have a section in our country there some pepole say that we sell you original os but they don’t
well i have these now
Mainboard : Gigabyte 945PL-S3P
Chipset : Intel i945G/GZ
Processor : Intel Pentium D 950 @ 3400 MHz
Physical Memory : 2048 MB (2 x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM ) Kingston
Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce 8400 SE
Hard Disk : Hitachi (160 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : ASUS DRW-1814BL ATA Device
Monitor Type : LG Electronics L177WSB – 17 inches
Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Operating System : Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate Professional 6.00.6001 Service Pack 1 (hacked)
DirectX : Version 10.00
Windows Performance Index : 3.1
And in augest i will upgrade my video card coz now it suck i’m saving 100 $ for it, what is your recomendations (and what you think about my pc got it from about 8 month)?
and somebody have acer 3013 wit 512 mb ram wit vista basic original (of course laptop and bought from france) he need me to upgrade his rams to 2 gigs i have a kingston one with 24 $ should i add it to the laptop and keep the original. thx for your help
NEED HEELP! i’m a total noob to this, I just want to build my own PC for maximum gaming experience. Can you help me out in picking out the necessary parts. My budget is at 1000$ max. thanks. need your reply asap.
I Still Need Help ,Plz ;-(
ME TOO.
i got this build, but still in construction.
intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz
asus p6t deluxe v2 motherboard
evga geforce gtx260 core
seagate Barracuda ES.2 500GB Hard Drive
Corsair XMS3 Tri Channel ddr3 6gb 1333MHz, 12288MB (3 x 2048MB)
Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply
is it enough? any improvements needed? or anything missing.
please reply..
Hey, Im looking to Build my first pc and so far i have this build.. not exactly sure that everything will be compatible, but so far i thought it looked ok. Please review or tell me if im missing anything.
PC Case: Antec Nine Hundred Two
Hard Drive: Western Digital – Caviar Black 1TB Internal Serial ATA Hard Drive
CD-Rom Drive: Pioneer – 8x Internal BD-ROM/Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 77
Motherboard: Intel® Desktop Board DP45SG
Memory Module: CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 650-Watt ATX CPU Power Supply
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 285
Hii This is The First Computer i Want 2 Buildt I want It 2 be The ulTimate Gaming Experience So CAn Anyone Tell me If i Did a Good Job N if Theres Anything i SHould Change 4 Better Performance..Thank You
GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail $109.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power $104.99
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card $199.99
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGIBOX $255.00
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK $139.99
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive – OEM $74.99
It Comes Out to Be a Total Of $842.00
ooooh Nand I Miss 1 Thing The cAse
XCLIO A380BK Fully Black SECC 1.0mm thickness ATX Full Tower Computer Case $129.99
XCLIO A380BK Fully Black SECC 1.0mm thickness ATX Full Tower Computer Case 129.99 Miss That 1
Total Is $942.00