First Timer, Need Some Help Please

[millerdude]

Well here it is. I do not know much about computers at all. But I am a very hands on person and I am pretty good at making things go, so to say. I would like to build my own computer. I would need everything and I have a 1500$ budget to buy it all with. Do you think I could easily put one together without screwing up and wasting alot of money? I'll remind you I know close to nothing about computers. Thanks

[blue60007]

$1500 is plenty to make a good computer. First, a few questions.

I assume "everything" includes monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc as well as the computer itself?

What will you do with this computer? (ie, gaming, etc)

[millerdude]

Yea I will pretty much need everything. And on the computer I will be doing gaming, but nothing to seriouse. I like to play cs 1.6 and the new Quake and Doom3 games, and other variouse shooters. I basically want a nice system that is fast and pretty good on the gaming side. I don't need anything too crazy. And I will be hauling it off to college in the next year. Oh by the way did I say that I have never done this befor, and will have no idear what I am doing. I just think it looks fun to put together.

[blue60007]

Here's an idea on the computer itself:

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Computer Case - Retail
ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail
eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit ... - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SHW-160P6S - Retail
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (Full Version) Single-Pack OEM
NEC Beige 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive - OEM

That's about $1060. Additonally, you could make that 2 gigs of RAM for another $80...that leaves about $350 for everything else. You'd probably want to get a LCD screen, probably a smaller 17" if you're heading off to college with it. That'd probably be $200-$250 for that, plus maybe a $50 speaker set, and a basic keyboard/mouse for another $50. And then hopefully a little bit for shipping.

I bet you will have fun putting the computer together, I know I do.

[millerdude]

Thanks Dude, so that is everything that will be needed.... That doesn't seem to hard. And I will have fun flying blind and trying to get this thing to work. I have no idea what 3/4 the words that many people on the forums use, so hopefully I will learn what they are. Thanks alot.

[millerdude]

Okay, I have everything picked out I hope. My friends helped me pick some "better" components.

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail

to "overclock it" and I have no idea what that is. TY

eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS2GBKIT400C3 - Retail

PLEXTOR Beige SATA DVD Burner Model PX-716SA/SW - Retail

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

NEC Beige 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive - OEM

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail


Please give me any feed back you have on this, I don't care if it is negative or positive. Thanks

[jayb1234]

Here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106019)is a nice Liteon burner with Lightscribe and burning software for about half of what that Plextor costs. Both are good brands, but Plextors tend to be pretty expensive. And you are likely to need a floppy drive at some point in the setup. OOPS, didn't notice the Floppy on the list.

[glc]

If you have a black case, get black drives, not beige drives.

[Freakitchen]

Nice selection. Agreed with jayb on the burner selection. You'll also need an operating system - Windows XP Home OEM would be a good choice.

Freakitchen