Building a PC - From ground Zero

PrometheuSBoxeR

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Messages
288
So I'm looking into building yet another computer. This is going to take some work, because of all the requirements. But I think with everyone help, I can make it happen.

Requirements: Case, Motherboard, Powersupply, CPU, CPU Fan, CPU Heatsink, Video Card, Memory, Harddrives, DVD Player, DVD Burner, Fan Controller, Mouse, Mousepad, Keyboard, and Monitor.

Budget: $2000.00

Some things I would like to get out of this PC:

1. Stability is number one in my book. There is nothing that annoys me more then crashing during something important. Such as playing a game, or downloading a song. I want to make sure that everything is compatable, and as long as all the parts are working, with no defectives it should run smoothly and without error.

2. I do not plan on overclocking this system until it becomes part of the lower end of the technology spectrum. I have found from my experience that OC'ing gives minor gains in real life preformance. It is not very noticable in real life preformance, however if you are benchmarking I can understand.

3. Nice case, relativly large to make work easy and manage wires. I do not like to see many wires, and I don't like crammed cases. I like a very clean look.

4. I want to be able to play the latest games smoothly and fast. I am a big fan of playing Online Multiplayer games, and I need to keep 60 FPS minimum. That seems to be the fine line between smoothness, and where you can start actually seeing decrease in preformance.

5. I want to be able to burn DVD's, CD's

6. Definitly need to be able to surf the internet

7. I am going to Penn State for college next year, and HDD space from what I hear is a big thing. With a nice college connection and network. You can chew through GB's like nothing. At least from what I hear... I would like a acceptable amount of space for college.

8. I need to be able to transport this computer. My friends and I like to LAN between the 4-5 of us here and there. I am a big guy, and weight is not really a issue... it just makes it less of a pain. My computer moves every other sunday in the car due to my parents being divorced. Monitor and all. I used to have to move a large steel alienware which weighted probably near 80 pounds. It began to become a hassle. However when college comes keep in mind my computer will most likly be stationary for the most part.

9. The quietness of the PC is something that is a concern. I don't need something that is completly soundless, however it would be nice. But I don't want a vacuum in my room.

Thats mostly all I do with my PC. I like to game, and use it for whatever comes up. Games, movies, music, browsing, research papers etc. Nothing out of the ordinary.

So I'm asking for your help in some opinions and advice to meet my goals and requirements and I'll see what I can come up with.
 
i just created a wish list on my current pc, see sig, on newegg.com. it totaled to 1550ish before shipping. That leaves about 500$ for a nice LCD. PM me your email address and I can email you the list if you wanna do the same or possibly buy mine :D
 
I just built myself a pc like within that range.

Thermaltake XaserIII case w/out psu- nice strong iron case with plenty of room and 7 fan to help keep the inside cool. it is a little bit on the heavy side, but nothing too bad. It also won't get banged up while moving it.

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 PSU

ABIT AN8 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Platinum System Memory

Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

eVGA Geforce 6800 256MB 256-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card

Lite-On Dual Layer DVD burner

WinXP pro

Parts came to about $1450 - $1500 + shipping from newegg.com, $300 for retail copy of OS. Got it at best buy, but could have probably got it cheaper online somewhere.

Total was about $1800 or so.

As you are also wanting a monitor, keyboard and mouse I would say something like this with a cheaper cpu, maybe a little less ram. You can get a 17" 8ms Acer for about $232 shipped, lets say another $50 or so for a decent keyboard and mouse. So lets assume $300 for monitor, keyboard and mouse just to make this easier and give you more room for price. That would mean you woul have to knock off about $100 or so from the total i have above. Downgrading to a AMD Athlon 64 4000+ would knock off about $70 dollars. Going down to 1GB of ram woul knock off another $100.

Who knows the prices may have changed in the last month on all this stuff making it easier to get it to fit into your range. Hope this gives you some ideas on a machine

This has been stable for me. It isn't loud. case fans have a control panel so you coul turn them down if wanted. CPU only has one fan and the back is all mesh to cut down on noise. The mother board uses heat pipes instead of fans to cool chipset.
 
The system guides over at www.anandtech.com are a great place to start.

At that price range, you want to be looking at a quality dual-core Athlon (for example, an X2 3800+ or Opteron 165 is a good start), an nVidia 7800GT or better, 2GB of RAM, a 16x DVD dual layer burner (plus maybe a DVD-ROM to make copying and stuff easier), one or two 200-300GB hard drives, a 500W power supply, and a 20" widescreen LCD.
 
Here's a sample system for just under $2k:

MB EPOX EP-9NPA+ULTRA $95
CPU AMD Athlon X2 3800+ $322
RAM 2GB Corsair Value Select $166
Case/PS Antec Sonata II $120
Video eVGA 7800GT 256MB $304
DVD-RW LiteOn 1635S $45
DVD-ROM Samsung SH-D162C $26
HD 1 Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB $110
HD 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB $110
OS Win XP Pro OEM $135
Monitor 20" widescreen Dell 2005FPW $500

Total: $1,933

You don't need a retail copy of the OS. Buy an OEM version from wherever you're getting the majority of your components (ChiefValue, Newegg, Zipzoomfly, etc)
 
Buy it off of newegg. You'll save a bunch of cash. I just built this rig for $1500.

AMD 64 x2 3800
Gigabyte K8N Pro SLI Mobo
2x1024 PC3200(DDR 400) Patriot Ultra Low latency RAM 2-3-2-5 1T
EVGA 7800 GT
2x160 gig HDD RAID 0
Ultra X-Connect PSU 500 watts modular PSU (I already owned this)
Kingwin Case (Don't buy it)
NEC DVD/CD burner
BenQ 19" LCD (lovely w/ perfect black levels)
Floppy drive
2 CCFL case fans
1 drive bay cooler
2 regular case fans 80 mm
rounded IDE cable for DVD CD drive
 
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