Building A Computer

Well folks, I’m going to build a new computer, my old one does’nt ave pixel shader 2.0 or anything, it’s pretty out of date, none of my new programs run on it it’s so old (I have a clunky old Pentium 2 prossesor).

I’m willing to spend about $700-$900 on one, I went to Wal-Mart, didn’t see anything, a thug from Staples wanted to sell me one, but he also wanted to sell me ome stolen software, so I was wondering what you guys think would be best, I know I want a quad core and an intel graphics cards.

I have a friend (whom i’ve lost touch with, like I have with all my friends) who was able to build a $50,000 for $5,000 for a friend of mine, so i know it’s cheaper to build my own.

I’m not too keen when it comes to hardware, I’m just a software guy, so any help would be appreciated.

-Jimmy

I built one for myself this summer from newegg. I’d spend some time browsing newegg and reading some tutorials on what pats you need. That’ll give you a good idea of prices and specs. The physical construction itself is a piece of cake. Just carefully follow the instructions which are included with the parts. The hardest part is installing the cpu cooler, so just pay attention to that.

Well J09, how about some specs or something.

Thanks for the reference to the website though, I’ll check it out.

I’m just not sure exactly what kind of video card, mother board, ect. to get, I really don’t want to spend more than $900 though.

-Jimmy

Don’t buy a pre-built. You can easily double the power of your computer for the same price if you build it yourself. When I built my last computer for $900, the cheapest prebuilt with the same hardware I could find was $1600.

awesome!! your building your own compute!! I am to all got tho is the case

I know and realize that building my own computer is what I shoud do, i need perhaps a list of things I need to get though, i need to know what would be the best componants, the best kind i could build for $900, anyone have any ideas?, Hobo Joe, what did you get?

Plus what do you guys think of tinyvista?

-Jimmy

I don’t believe Intel has released their new graphic card yet, and you don’t want to go with Intel’s integrated graphic chips.

This is a good build that I put together, goes for even cheaper than I thought.

EVGA motherboard + AMD Phenom 9600 Quad @ 2.3Ghz - $200

4GB Corsair PC6400 RAM - $55

600W Corsair PSU - $100

EVGA nVidia GeForce 9800GTX+ 512MB - $175

WD 500GB HDD - $55

Lian-Li mid-ATX tower w/fans - $110

Total - $695

Of course, there’s always things like CD-drives and monitors and keyboard/mice etc, but I left that out incase you have them already. You could always go with Intel for the CPU, but I prefer AMD, because of the significantly lower price. And if you wanted you could go with the GTX 280 card, which is a BEAST. But it’s all up to you. What I made for you though is a very powerful machine for an amazing price. All the core components are there.

Thanks for the info Hobo Joe, I’ll look into that.

Three cheers for EVGA! :smiley:

Here’s a post I made (Yesterday!) in another forum:

Name, I’m currently doing the same thing as you. :slight_smile:

I decided to go next Generation and get a Core i7 920, but from everything I’ve ever read, the Core 2 Q6600 Quad is a really great processor… And cheap, too!

For me, the case was a nearly IMPOSSIBLE decision… But I finally settled on the NZXT Zero (Or Zero 2. The NZXT guys emailed me and said it’ll be available in mid-late January)
I just didn’t care for the looks of these insane cases, or even the Antec 900/1200 that much, but I wanted one that looked fairly nice and had lots of room and airflow.

Oh, and I’d also like to HIGHLY recommend EVGA for a Graphics card. They not only make awesome products, but have GREAT customer service, and a lifetime warranty!

Just my 5 1/2 cents. (Inflation + All the spam. :))

Edit: And as for ram, I’d say look for G.Skill, like THIS.

Just bear in mind that if you really want a good bang-for-your buck computer, be sure to NOT buy the newest and therefor ‘best’ hardware. Buy the second best. It’s usually just slightly less powerful, but usually about twice as cheap. I made the mistake of buying the best, and I ended up spending about $1200 more than I needed to (more than double what I needed to).

this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103151

then throw in one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130373

keep in mind u are paying for windows vista 64bit when u buy this one, but if u want to use Linux, yeah build ur own dude =)

Sorry for the double post, but I didn’t want to edit again. :slight_smile:

I put together a build for you real quick, minus the case, as that’s kind of personal preference.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad
Motherboard - Asus P5Q
Ram - 4 GB G.Skill DDR2 800
Graphics card - EVGA 9800 GTX
Power supply - CORSAIR 450W 80+ certified Hard Drive - WD 640 GB - Or 1 TB for ~$50 more…
Optical drive - Samsung DVD RW + LIGHTscribe. :wink:

After shipping and minus rebates, the build is somewhere around $650 (Minus the case)… Possibly cheaper if you can find some combo deals. :yes:

Oh, and just as a note, EVGA has a Lifetime warranty on their graphics cards! (Make sure to register.)

just remember having a quadcore does not equal owning a miniature render farm in ur home - I know because I own one, save ur money, get a dual or tri if u must, you won’t really miss that extra core in practical circumstances ie doing a AO render bake in blender can still take 10-15 minutes for a single < 1million face model on a Q6600

also I can’t recommend a GTX - sorry just had to say it

Well, personally I’d go for a GTX+ over a GTX, and a GTX 260 or 260 core 216 far over that. I just didn’t know if he’d want to spend the money. Grins

I can personally say that 9800GTX+ is well worth the money. I have no reason to doubt the 200 series, either.

Do you have the EVGA one you listed in your post? That’s actually the one I meant to put in mine, but somehow the GT wound up in there. I was just click happy. :smiley:

Good advice you get here. I may add, instead of getting 1x 1TB hdd, spend some extra money and buy 3*500GiB and let them run in raid5. This way you have the best ratio of data redundancy and speed and storage capacity.
Trust me, if you buy one 1TB HDD and it goes poof almost filled you will cry rivers…

Its worth the money. Or get just an eSata enclosure with a nice hdd and back your stuff up.

I personally don´t have a high opinion of EVGA… its commonly known that their capacitators start to malfunction after ~3 years… if you overclock even sooner… which is sad for a manufacturer who claims to have awesome overclocking stuff.

arexma, i think the company your thinking of that has the best over clocked is Uberclocked (I’m not sure about the spelling), i heard about them the other day on G4.

Wow, a lot of responses and great advice, I might buy something after Christmas though, I just know I need to buy asap cause I’m starting to get the jitters from not being able to use some of the new features that some of these programs have lol.

-Jimmy

arexma, sorry, I think I misrea what you said.

If you advise agianst the EVGA, then what do ou think would be better?

Also, what do you thnk about the Uberclock comps?

-Jimmy