New Computer

[Ian]

Want to buy a gaming computer with dvd burner and graphics good enough for doom3 Only want to spend around $1000 Can I do it pentium 4 or athlon? Thanks

 

[Qwertyman]

o def. u can spend 1000 and get a really great setup, if you go super top of the line say a 939 socket and a 6800 series card, u might be limiited but i still think you can stay under that barrier.

 

[Ian]

good info but need more please send me in the right direction to buy the comp
I have never built one completely by myself how hard is it

 

[Qwertyman]

i think its a joke to make one itll take about an hour to get it done. just do the simple things don't do it on a carpet and handle the cpu carefully. Research in these forums or on newegg.com a good choice right now is a socket 939 processor for future upgrades its an amd 64 that will give u the ability to upgrade to 64bit OS when microsoft releases one. You may want a gig of ram and a 6800gt to play doom 3 really well. Hard drives don't matter as much because there are so many good companies, Maxtor, Seagate, Western Digital, so an 80 gig or higher IDE or SATA with 7200rpm an 8mb cache should do you well. Optical Drives are no big deal just research what you like. A Power Supply is expensive maybe a 100 try an antec truepower 430w or 550w, maybe sparkle, forton, or enermax they make good powersupplies as well. For a case get something simple or more advanced the better the case the easier it will be to install the system. I have an Antec Sonata case, its good, cramped though, I would have gotten a Lian-Li/Preditorian(i think i spelt that so wrong) or something else if i would have researched it more. besides that you should be good, Cpu is the most important, then power supply, then the mobo, then graphics, then ram, then hard drive. Its all up to you though. any more questions keep asking.

 

[Random Digits]

Nice recommondations Qwerty, enough said.

 

[Buckus]

It'll be tough pushing an Athlon64 with 1GB and a 6800 Vid Card out the door for under $1000. Especially if you go socket 939, that'll run ya $350 for the processor alone.

Here's what I put together for ~$850.00-ish at the egg:

$285 GeForce 6800 Video card with 128MB RAM
$167 Athlon64 3000+
$64 Chaintech SK8T800 Socket 754 Motherboard
$159 Kingston Dual-Channel PC3200 1GB kit (2x512MB)
$71 Maxtor 80GB hard drive (7200RPM, 8MB cache)
$10 NEC black floppy drive
$30 Thermaltake SilentBoost K8
$61 NEC black 8X DVD +/- R/RW

Estimate $100 for the case and powersupply and you're under $1000. You'll have to go with integrated sound at this price point. A DVD-ROM drive would only run @$30, so that is an easy extra if you want it. You didn't say if you had a monitor or not, and if you have to add Windows XP, add another $85 for Windows XP Home, $140 for Windows XP Pro. Keyboard/mouse/speakers add another $100 for good quality, $40 for ok quality, $20 if you are a cheap bastard.

 

[Ian]

Thanks for all the help. I guess everybody agrees on the athlon. I guess I'll have to just give it a shot and try to build my own. Are there any places to get a good computer already built without paying out the ying-yang? If not I'll start searching for parts. I'm sure I'll be looking for more help, so thanks again.

 

[jacuzz1]

Thanks for all the help. I guess everybody agrees on the athlon. I guess I'll have to just give it a shot and try to build my own. Are there any places to get a good computer already built without paying out the ying-yang? If not I'll start searching for parts. I'm sure I'll be looking for more help, so thanks again.

while Athlon is a good choice, if your a noobie at building a computer, you may benifit from the extensive validation process and subsequent maximum compatibility and stability provided by the intel platforms