Yet Another Computer Build Up

[Mike B]

Hi everyone. I'm a long time reader and first time poster. I've decided to build myself a new computer and would value your input on the components that I have selected so far. The main game that I play right now is World Of Warcraft, but I am interested in checking out some of the newer games, like Bioshock. Here is a link to my wishlist at newegg:

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.asp?ID=8043867

I think this is the list that you guys can access. If not, let me know and I will certainly repost it in some other way. I think the grand total of the system is just under 2k. I may hold off on the LCD as I have a 19" that is only about 1.5 years old.

One of the questions I have is about RAM. I see the motherboard I selected supports DDR3. Is that something that I should use instead of DDR2? Is it worth the added expense right now or is having the upgradeability enough for now?

I do not plan to overclock at this time. I decided to stay with the E6750 instead of the Q6600 because... well I really wasnt sure and this one was about 80 dollars cheaper. I don't do a ton of multitasking, unless you consider running a voice program (ventrillo) and maybe a webpage behind a game multitasking. Let me know what you guys think. I'm totally open for suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

[Chazell29]

Welcome to PC Mech, although, I wouldn't call a month a long time reader :p

Go with some DDR2 memory. DDR3 is still in its infancy, you don't need to go with that yet, but in the future you will.

For running WoW and Bioshock, and getting decent performance, the E6750 is a great CPU.

As far as the wish list link you posted, we cannot access it. Try posting a different link to it, or typing the list here.

[maxnik]

welcome to PC mech,
i couldn't open the wish list link. did you make it shared

[Mike B]

I've been reading here for longer than a month. I actually built a computer about 3 or 4 years ago based on advice that I read on this forum. My list is shared, but I think I posted the link to my secured wishlist. I will have to find another link or just retype it here. I will update this post when I find it.

Edit: Here is the link to my wish list at newegg. Hopefully this one works.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=8043867&WishListTitle=Mike+B%27s+Gaming+Computer

[Chazell29]

I've been reading here for longer than a month. I actually built a computer about 3 or 4 years ago based on advice that I read on this forum. My list is shared, but I think I posted the link to my secured wishlist. I will have to find another link or just retype it here. I will update this post when I find it.

Edit: Here is the link to my wish list at newegg. Hopefully this one works.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=8043867&WishListTitle=Mike+B%27s+Gaming+Computer
oh ok i see what your saying, you were reading but didn't make an account. Haha. Alot of people do that.

[The Village Idiot]

Here we go.

Firstly, why do you need bigger than 19" really its perfectly adaquite unless your far from the screen or are doing big spreadsheets.

Secondly, a 700w Power Supply isn't a necessity, i'm running a similar build with a 600w Power Supply fine.

Thirdly, Originally I was going to purchase the 640mb 8800, but based on benchmarks, it didn't seem worth it, and in some instances, for example Battlefield 2142, the 320mb version actually beat the 640mb buy about 7fps.

Forth, 64bit Windows Vista? If your going to buy an operating system, you might as well get the latest in thing, as most games coming into the market are taking advantage of DirectX10, something only avaliable on Windows Vista (Bioshock, Crysis etc) as well as most things run 64 bit and its much faster, and apparently much more solid.

[Gen.Ben]

Mike B, Thats a fairly good list, although it needs some changes.

If you are going to be playing on a 1600x1200/1680x1050 or lower resolution, the 320mb version of the 8800GTS will perform the same. So you can save some money there.

That PSU you listed is overkill. You can easily get away with using a 520 watt PSU. I reccomend this corsair http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001&Tpk=520%2bcorsair

If you want a 22" monitor, I'd reccomend you to get a 20" as they have the same resolution and the 20" monitor would have a sharper image. But if you need the extra 2" for watching movies or something, stick with that.

Also, you selected a 32-Bit Version of Windows Vista. If you want Windows to recognize all 4GB of memory, you have to use a 64-Bit version of windows.

Other than that. A good build :)

Good luck!

[Mike B]

Thanks for the tip on 64-bit windows. For some reason, I thought you needed a quad core processor to make that work... lack of knowledge on my part. I know the PSU is overkill, but I figure the video card will probably be the first thing replaced on my computer as an upgrade in a couple of years. I would rather have too much power than too little. Is that mode of thinking correct?

I probably will go with the 320mb version of the video card that I have listed above.

I have decided that I probably will stay with the 19" LCD for now. I was going to upgrade b/c I would love to go to a widescreen format, but that can wait for now. First things first.

When I built this computer, I guess it was actually like 2.5 years ago, I built it using a mobo with a AGP graphics card slot istead of PCI-E. I couldnt decide on a video card so I never upgraded from my plain jane 9600. Boy, this is gonna be a huge upgrade :-)

[Gen.Ben]

I guess then it is good to get that power supply for future proofing :)

Have fun! :eek:

[Mike B]

Still looking at options for this build up. One of my biggest concerns is the mobo. I was searching around newegg and found this Abit board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813127030

It looks pretty cool and you can use the uGuru thing with it so your case looks nice. Lets face it, its all about the bling!!!

Seriously though, is it a good choice? Also looking at doing some twin raptors in raid formation for performance for my windows installation and games and such. I would just use the big harddrive for data storage. From what I have heard, there seems to be pretty major gains in performance from this setup.