First build

[HolTiL]

Hello, I am a new member of PcMechanic forums and I am looking to build my own PC.
I have never built a PC before.
So im getting a summer job and have saved threw out the year and will have roughly $1700 for the monitor and the PC itself.
I am looking at a 22" Samsung SyncMaster for the monitor Which is about $300 and a Antec Nine Hundred case which is $110.
I am interested mostly in gaming.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks- HolTiL

[Khalil]

welcome to pcmech.
$1400 you can build a very nice computer. It won't be top end but a very nice one.

You can go either AMD or Intel, most on these forums will recommend Intel, they are great processors.

I can recommend an AMD rig for you, others here have more experience with Intel they will advise you about Intel.

AMD Athlon 64 6400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103228
Asus M2N-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131022
Sapphire HD3870X2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102723
Seasonic 700 Watt http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151028
Seagate 250GB hard drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148309
You will have plenty of money left for a DVD burner, I recommend Sony. There are lots of cases on Newegg, choose a larger one for better ventilation.
The Antec 900 is an awesome case priced really well. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=antec%2b900

[HolTiL]

Thanks alot Khalil.
I will definatly look into that.

Thanks- HolTiL

[Jimmy0]

Intel route:
Antec 900
ASUS P5K Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB
OCZ Platinum 2GB PC2 6400Memory
CORSAIR 550W Power Supply
EVGA 8800GT

This will run to about ~$950, which leaves money for a DVDRW and OS.

[Khalil]

I would recommend building it with the 9600GT over the 8800 if you plan on using Vista.

[alex530]

Why is that Khalil?

[HolTiL]

Thanks for the responses and i plan on using XP.
Sorry i forgot to mention.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by alex530 Why is that Khalil?

Over the years I noticed that both ATI and Nvidia focus on making their drivers to work best with their newer video cards, the 9600GT will work better with Vista over time, the 8 Series are done with and will be out of production pretty soon if they have not ended already.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by Khalil Over the years I noticed that both ATI and Nvidia focus on making their drivers to work best with their newer video cards, the 9600GT will work better with Vista over time, the 8 Series are done with and will be out of production pretty soon if they have not ended already.

Unlike ATI/AMD, nvidia products usually come out with solid drivers (this is the case with the 9600GT, 8800GT/GTS 512MB/GS) further driver revisions will not improve performance by much and considering that the 8800GT is very close in price to the 9600GT but provides a decent increase in performance, getting a 9600GT may not be a good idea, also keep in mind that the 9600GT has 64 shaders vs. the 8800GT which has 112; as long as you're getting the 512MB version of the 8800GT, it will beat the 9600GT in performance, however the 256MB version of the 8800GT will be slower than the 9600GT in current games due to the low amount of memory bottlenecking the card.