New Build First Time

[bec82]

I've always wanted to build my own computer, and since my laptop just died, I have an excuse.
I've been browsing this forum and reading a lot of stickies, but I may have missed some, so if I ask a stupid question, please politely direct me where to go.

I'm a moderate gamer, so I need something... er... moderate. I'm definitely not loaded with money, so I'm looking for good deals without sacrificing too much quality (just like everybody else). And that's why I'm here asking questions, because I don't know enough about the hardware to make good judgments.

There's games I want to be able to play on my build, so if i'm not picking something good enough, tell me: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights, Sims2, stuff like that.

Ideas I have so far:

Case: Antec Solution SLK1650B Black Steel ATX Mini Tower

Motherboard: I read through the sticky thread for this, but was wondering if I should make a different decision since the chart was from more than a year ago. I would love to pay less than $100 for this, but I'm not sure I can get away with it.

CPU: I'm more looking at price than at Intel or AMD. Suggestions welcome.

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3120814A 120GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM

RAM: Don't know brands very well here. Is Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory okay?

Primary Optical: LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SHW-160P6S - Retail

Sound Card: Should I just get a motherboard with one on it or get it separately?

Video Card: One of these? Guide me...
ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200
ATI Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800
ATI Radeon X300/X600/X700/X800
Nvidia GeForce 2/3/4 Family
Nvidia GeForceFX family
Nvidia Geforce 6 family

Lan: Any suggestions on what NIC I should get?
LINKSYS EG1032 PCI Network Adapter?

And for my childish side... I want a blue light fan. How would I do that?

Thanks so much.

[blue60007]

Do you have an overall budget?

You are going to want to go with the newest technologies.

CPU: LGA775 for Intel, Socket 939 - AMD
Video: PCI-E
Hard drives: SATA drives - not IDE

I wouldn't use Kingston RAM, there have been a lot of compatibility issues lately. I'd recommend a dual channel kit from Corsair (Value Select).

The motherboard will have onboard networking, no need for a seperate card.

The video card should be PCI-Express (along with motherboard of course)...and the exact one would depend on your budget.

For ATi, you'll want at least an X800 series for PCI-E and the 6 Series for nVidia.

You'll want a seperate power supply. The one in the Antec Case is nice, but 350W isn't going to be enough.

You could get a blue LED fan, but it'd be silly in that case. You really wouldn't be able to see it....you'd have some light coming out the back but that's it. If you really want that kind of stuff, Antec has a couple cases with clear side panels...

Don't forget an OS - XP Home OEM will probably do.

[bec82]

Thanks for your suggestions, blue.

My budget is as cheap as it can be while still being capable and not going to fall apart. I was hoping around $500. Is this reasonable? I'm not including a monitor or OS. I have a Windows XP disk from my dead laptop. I assume I can just use that.

Would Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive be a better choice for a hard drive?

And another option for a case: Super Lanboy Aluminum Super Mini Tower Case This one doesn't come with a power supply, so I'd definitely have to get one. How many W's do I need?

Thanks again.

[jayb1234]

This Antec case is pretty similar to the one you posted with no PSU.

One of these two would be an option, depending on how much power you end up needing.

Antec PSUs again depending on your total power needs.

Total power need will depend on what the vid card needs, how many Hard Drives, etc. Most video cards will have a reccommendation for the minimum to use.

As far as reusing the XP from the laptop, it is probably keyed to the laptops hardware configuration.

Hard Drive: Western Digital and Seagate are the two best manufacturers at this time. I would go with the larger one. If you can afford to spend the extra cash, take a look at the ones with 16Mb caches.

That's a pretty good deal on the lanboy case. That and one of the PSUs above would work well together

.

As far as wanting lights, grab one of the lighted case fans, rather than spending a bunch of money on an aftermarket CPU heatsink/fan combo.

You won't need an NIC card unless you are going to network the PC wirelessly, in which case you would need a wireless NIC card. Or you could get an external wireless adapter and use the NIC on the motherboard.

[myrgo_31]

CPU: 3200+ (about 150 bucks)
RAM: 2 x 512 MB sticks PC3200 (about 70 bucks)
PSU: Antec or Enermax or Thermaltake (430 watter from Thermaltake for about 40 bucks is good)
Video: 6600GT 256 MB version is about 160 bucks
Hard Drive: the one you suggested, the 160 GB one is good from a good brand
Optical: DVD burner or if not, a CD burner combo drive would be good at 52x32x52 speeds
Floppy drive: don't need, they are very obsolete... dont need one anymore, even to update bios, it isnt required and are a waste of precious money, which obviously you dont need

[jayb1234]

Actually there are still numerous uses for floppy drives, especially when setting up a new computer.

Numerous components still need drivers installed from a floppy.

While some BIOS updates can be done in the windows environment, others can not.

Diagnostics can be ran from a floppy.

System recovery will need a floppy.

And they can still be used for file transfer and storage.