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Suggestions for PC parts for a first time do-it-yourselfer?
LordOfMeep
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm finally starting to see a decent amount of money headed my way to buy a new PC, and I wanna break away from this POS eMachines soooooo badly. At first I thought mabye I should try a major manufacturer, and realized what kind of foistware and crappy service I might get, not to mention the big names are overpriced (I'm looking at YOU, Alienware/DELL). I then thought about trying out one of those mail-order custom gaming PC services, like CyberPower or ibuypower, but while I did read a lot of positive testimonials for them from some people (Especially any recent buyers), it seemed like anyone who wound up with dead-on-arrival parts (especially video cards and liquid coolers for the more hardcore) were completely screwed because getting replacements was a nightmare and often would still be busted after even 4 returns.
In the end I decided I would be better off if I built my own, tempting as CyberPower was, the horror stories were just too terrible to risk becoming part of one. Thankfully I have a dad that's VERY experienced with putting together computers and electronics and wiring in general, so I won't be totally alone when the time comes to assemble the thing.
I'm trying to come up with something in the $1000-$1200. I don't need anything super major like running Crysis on max settings at insane resolutions, just something I can be guaranteed will run stuff like Spore and mabye The Orange Box smoothly at more homely resolutions like around 1024*768 or whatever my native res will be on mthe widescreen LCD monitor I want. To keep myself from making too many newbie mistakes (My dad doesn't care much for games in general, so he won't be super knowledgeable when it comes to video cards and the necessities for them) I decided to consult my fellow PAers, some of I'm sure do know a thing or two about gaming rigs.
Specs I hope to achieve on my budget:
Intel Core Duo 3.0ghz
NVIDIA 9800 GT or higher
2 Gigs of RAM
A hard drive of at LEAST 300 gigs capacity, mabye 500
A widescreen monitor of at least 19" (I hear some have sideways swivel, that sounds like it'd be nice for some of the XBLA Shmups that support the true-to-the-arcade sideways mode, I use my monnitor for my 360)
The tricky part comes in the form of knowing what power supply unit, fan(s), and motherboard to get. Not to mention DVD drives, sound cards, and other important components (don't want to miss one!). I've already chosen Newegg as my shop of choice, as they've never let me down in the past.
I'm planning on dual-booting Vista and XP, as I haven't tried Vista yet and I want something to fall back on in case of compatibility issues or whatever, thanks to the internet I already know what to do to get this working.
Thanks for any help you guys can give me.
In the end I decided I would be better off if I built my own, tempting as CyberPower was, the horror stories were just too terrible to risk becoming part of one. Thankfully I have a dad that's VERY experienced with putting together computers and electronics and wiring in general, so I won't be totally alone when the time comes to assemble the thing.
I'm trying to come up with something in the $1000-$1200. I don't need anything super major like running Crysis on max settings at insane resolutions, just something I can be guaranteed will run stuff like Spore and mabye The Orange Box smoothly at more homely resolutions like around 1024*768 or whatever my native res will be on mthe widescreen LCD monitor I want. To keep myself from making too many newbie mistakes (My dad doesn't care much for games in general, so he won't be super knowledgeable when it comes to video cards and the necessities for them) I decided to consult my fellow PAers, some of I'm sure do know a thing or two about gaming rigs.
Specs I hope to achieve on my budget:
Intel Core Duo 3.0ghz
NVIDIA 9800 GT or higher
2 Gigs of RAM
A hard drive of at LEAST 300 gigs capacity, mabye 500
A widescreen monitor of at least 19" (I hear some have sideways swivel, that sounds like it'd be nice for some of the XBLA Shmups that support the true-to-the-arcade sideways mode, I use my monnitor for my 360)
The tricky part comes in the form of knowing what power supply unit, fan(s), and motherboard to get. Not to mention DVD drives, sound cards, and other important components (don't want to miss one!). I've already chosen Newegg as my shop of choice, as they've never let me down in the past.
I'm planning on dual-booting Vista and XP, as I haven't tried Vista yet and I want something to fall back on in case of compatibility issues or whatever, thanks to the internet I already know what to do to get this working.
Thanks for any help you guys can give me.
LordOfMeep on
0
Posts
Short version: For $1200 you can build a tiny little God, even having to buy Vista.