I will be doing my first build this summer. I want something that willl not lag with games such as Battlefield 2 and America's Army. My budget is about $1000, but I want o save money where I can. The grad has to cover everything, down to the monitor. All of my parts will be ordered from newegg. I am a total noob at this and need to know everything I need to purchase and what specs I should look for. Thanks

SouthTexasrep

I sent this guy over from another forum for guidance.....he needed help and its been so long since I built a gaming rig. But I told him about this great place with all these great people that know their stuff.

Hint: Thats you guys.

Help him out if you can find the time, I would consider it a favor.

Quote: Originally Posted by southtexasrep I will be doing my first build this summer. I want something that willl not lag with games such as Battlefield 2 and America's Army. My budget is about $1000, but I want o save money where I can. The grad has to cover everything, down to the monitor. All of my parts will be ordered from newegg. I am a total noob at this and need to know everything I need to purchase and what specs I should look for. Thanks SouthTexasrep

Welcome to pcApex, are very own Bam for deals Thrasher2, should be around to post some really good deals for you to get a really great setup.

Here is a start if your looking for a really good deal on case check this one out http://forums.pcapex.com/deals_and_s...tml#post524902

are you looking to run these games at full res and quality settings? Also, do you want keyboard, mouse and speakers too? need more info.

Quote: Originally Posted by 67_GTO are you looking to run these games at full res and quality settings? Also, do you want keyboard, mouse and speakers too? need more info.

Quote: Originally Posted by southtexasrep The grad has to cover everything, down to the monitor.

I take that to mean everything.....

Hey southtexasrep! Let's see what we can do.

For Battlefield 2, you'll need 2GB of RAM if you don't want it to lag. You'll also want an Athlon 64, since they are pretty much the only good choice for gaming. Lets see what I can come up with:

Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5. $44.99
Power Supply: Antec SmartPower 2.0 400W. $54.99
Motherboard: Biostar TForce 6100 mobo. $68.99
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice. $114.00
RAM: OCZ Value 2x1GB Dual Channel kit. $146.99
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 160GB SATA. $67.99
Optical Drive: Lite-On 16X DVD-Burner. $34.99
Video Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon X850XT. $164.00
Monitor: Hyundai N71S 17" 8ms LCD. $169.99
Keyboard: Logitech Media KB. $18.98
Mouse: Logitech MX518 Gaming mouse. $35.89
Speakers: Logitech X530 5.1 speakers. $51.99

TOTAL COST: $973.79

If you have any other questions, don't hesistate to ask.

Good luck!

PS...aaronkelly, thanks for all of your folding efforts. I don't think you get enough praise for it.

Buy everything you can from eBay, and second hand if possible. A few months ago me and Reza built a system for ~£500 ($930) which was made up of the following....

-AMD Sempron 64 3300+ (2ghz, 128kb L2 Cache)

-Asus K8N4-E mobo

-1GB KingMax DDR400

-80GB Seagate Barracuda SATA HDD

-2nd hand Sony DVDROM/CDRW

-PowerColor X800GTO

-2nd hand Samsung Syncmaster 17'' CRT

-Case and PSU kindly donated by Dex


The system overclocked to ~2.6ghz, providing great frame rates in FEAR etc. We have now sold the X800GTO and put an X1800XL in it (anothe absolute bargain found on eBay).

Obviously prices have fallen since then, so better kit will be available for less. Also, bear in mind that they are UK prices, and we pretty much inexplicably pay 1:1 over here even though the exchange rate is actually 1:1.6ish.

I'd advise sticking with a second hand CRT for your monitor, as a decent TFT will knock £150+ off your budget and a CRT can be had for a tenth of that. Also, when you earn a bit more money you can buy a TFT to replace the CRT.

It's very easy to make a decent system for a small amount of money if you think hard about where to compromise. As a gaming PC, the most important part is the Graphics Card, so budget accordingly for nothing less than a 7600GT. Remember that a lot of money can be saved with a bit of judicious overclocking also.

The full project thread can be seen here: http://forums.pcapex.com/project_wor...ht=cheap+chips

Hope this helps!

Thanks for everything. I will definitely be taking a look at everything that ahs been mentioned. I already have a speaker setup that I should have mentioned. Other than that, everythign needs to be purchased. Thank y'all again

SouthTexasrep

Quote: Originally Posted by Ator Hey southtexasrep! Let's see what we can do. For Battlefield 2, you'll need 2GB of RAM if you don't want it to lag. You'll also want an Athlon 64, since they are pretty much the only good choice for gaming. Lets see what I can come up with: Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5. $44.99 Power Supply: Antec SmartPower 2.0 400W. $54.99 Motherboard: Biostar TForce 6100 mobo. $68.99 Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice. $114.00 RAM: OCZ Value 2x1GB Dual Channel kit. $146.99 Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 160GB SATA. $67.99 Optical Drive: Lite-On 16X DVD-Burner. $34.99 Video Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon X850XT. $164.00 Monitor: Hyundai N71S 17" 8ms LCD. $169.99 Keyboard: Logitech Media KB. $18.98 Mouse: Logitech MX518 Gaming mouse. $35.89 Speakers: Logitech X530 5.1 speakers. $51.99 TOTAL COST: $973.79 If you have any other questions, don't hesistate to ask. Good luck! PS...aaronkelly, thanks for all of your folding efforts. I don't think you get enough praise for it.

Should I get a second hard drive? How about dual CD dirves? I always like the looks of that,b ut it is not that big of a deal. Thanks

SouthTexasrep

I currently have a 17" CRT flatscreen ont he computer I am using now. The thing takes up so much space on ym small desk I can't wait to get rid of it. lol. So a TFT(?) flat screen is pretty much needed, and I've seen some good prices. Thanks y'all

SouthTexasrep

ETA: I guess I should budget in a base OS huh.

Quote: Originally Posted by southtexasrep Should I get a second hard drive? How about dual CD dirves? I always like the looks of that,b ut it is not that big of a deal. Thanks SouthTexasrep

Dual CD drives/hard disks are an unnecessary luxury. If you want to save money, don't bother. One hard drive is perfectly fine, and one disk drive is also fine.

You will like a LCD much better considering how much room you can save, I know i do not miss my Samsung 19''CRT i had now i have 2 Sony 19'' LCD and just love them, as for the question about cd drives it is totally up to you but you really don't need 2 of them, what i use is 1 Sony DVD drive for playing movies and games,loading software ETC.and 1 Plextor DVD Writer for coping movies it makes it a little easier to copy movies that way, What i mean by that is i would take the original movie i am going to copy and put into the plain DVD drive then with the DVD writer i put a blank DVD disc to copy the movie.
It all depends if you want to spend the extra money on a second hard drive, and it would not hurt to have one but you really do not need to have it, unless you want one and it is always nice to have extra storage space for games that are really big and plus any other programs and files you would like to store on it
Hope this helps you out.

Quote: Originally Posted by southtexasrep Should I get a second hard drive? How about dual CD dirves? I always like the looks of that,b ut it is not that big of a deal. Thanks SouthTexasrep

Nah, dual CD drives and dual HD's aren't necessary in the least. You only need dual HD's if you're gonna run RAID 0, and you only need more than one hard drive if you don't buy a big enough first drive. You'd only need dual CD drives if you don't want to have to copy the CD image to the hard drive first when copying a disc.

Thanks for all the help. What OS should I go with. Should I avoid XP and go with Linux or some variation of Linux? What is the difference?
Thanks

Southtexasrep

Im afraid its gotta be Windows XP for a gaming rig.

You can runs game in Linux, but its more hassle than getting G.W. Bush to use words with more than 5 letters.

Quote: Originally Posted by southtexasrep Thanks for all the help. What OS should I go with. Should I avoid XP and go with Linux or some variation of Linux? What is the difference? Thanks Southtexasrep

You said that you're a total n00b, and Linux is defnitely not for n00bs.

I mean no offense, though.

Yeah, stick with Windows XP. You'll be fine with XP Home...you only need Pro if you intend to join a domain, which I highly doubt you're gonna do.

Ohhhh Boy....My favorit Game


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Full Tower server case (Free shipping) $39.99 Linky
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LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black $35.99 Linky
Sunbeam Nuuo 550 Watt Modular Power Supply - Black Bezel $78.99 Linky
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 $122.99 Linky
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ ClawHammer 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor $ 205.00 Linky
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GECUBE RX1600PRO-256M PCIE Radeon X1600PRO 256MB $115.00 Linky

Total $916.81