Hi, I've been checking around and this looks like a great forum for PC modding. The thing is, I just need to get started building my machine. I have around $2,000 to spend for my gaming rig and need some advice on where to start my research. Where should I start with these kinds of questions in the forum or where should I go to read more on hardware reviews like case roundups and processor comparisons?

Quote: Originally Posted by subnet_rx Hi, I've been checking around and this looks like a great forum for PC modding. The thing is, I just need to get started building my machine. I have around $2,000 to spend for my gaming rig and need some advice on where to start my research. Where should I start with these kinds of questions in the forum or where should I go to read more on hardware reviews like case roundups and processor comparisons?

First, you need to ask yourself what kind of games are you looking to play. Games with intense graphics or games with huge mathematical processes? How great of a resolution do you want in a monitor (cost of this subtracts from the $2K, leaving you with whatever to finish the rig).

Is it worth it to go to PCI-E for a graphics card? Stick with AGP?

To get a good feel for prices, www.newegg.com is a great site to get started on.

Rob

Welcome to PR , someone should be around in a minute to help you out but a good place is the reviews section of the site and also it depends on wether you want to go AMD or Pentium, ** insert subliminal message here ..... AMD, AMD, AMD, **

Quote: Originally Posted by subnet_rx Hi, I've been checking around and this looks like a great forum for PC modding. The thing is, I just need to get started building my machine. I have around $2,000 to spend for my gaming rig and need some advice on where to start my research. Where should I start with these kinds of questions in the forum or where should I go to read more on hardware reviews like case roundups and processor comparisons?

Kick back and enjoy the show....its gona have Games in it.....

Please check out the Sweeet Pimp Links..

• The first link is the Best!!!
• http://team.pcapex.com/
• http://gallery.pcapex.com/
• http://articles.pcapex.com/
• http://forums.uberw00t.com/
• http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/
• BF2 Game Sever for Pimps

I will put the Pimp Search Machine to work to find some Sweet deals...........

Welcome to PR,

well i just built a rig for a friend and he had a 1600$ limit. that included a monitor.

17" veiwsonic LCD 12ms
X850XT (vid card)
Athlon 64 3200+ s939 (cpu)
chenming mid tower case
OCZ Modstream 520w.(power supply)
1gb (2x512) corsair TwinX. (memory)
Dfi Lanpary NF4 Ultra-D (able to mod to sli [motherboard])
zalman 7000. (cpu cooler)
2x 80gb hitatchi sata2 + 1x 250gb maxtor sata1(storage)
and cd/dvd and floppy.

Now this is with a 50$ case and this is a great little gamer. with 2k$, youll be able to build yourself a kicka$$ machine.

and like the others stated before, what kind of gaming do you do?
AMD is definetly the way to go if this rig is specifically for a gaming machine.
And is PCI-X Needed over AGP ? (in most cases...no, unless you want SLI or crossfire capabiliies) if you plan on doing any upgrading in the future then i would recomend PCI-X as next to all the new boards are.

Do you do alot of video, picture or audio editing? if so you might want to look into dual core cpu's as they excell in that field along with great multitasking.

Welcome to PimpRig.

Aside from PR's excellent reviews, you can try any affiliate's review pages for video cards, coolers, cases, etc.

Xoxide.com and Xtreme PC Gear are other good sites that I depend on for quality products.

My suggestion for a machine goes somewhere along these lines if you want the power per dollar to be the best.

AMD A64 3200+ (for its overclocking potential and good price)
1 gig of matched memory
PCI-Express mobo for s939
Geforce 6800GT or 7800 GT depending on how much you want to spend (7800 will last you longer).
Decent PSU with somehting around 400w or more.
A nice case and a harddrive.

This should be last you a long while and if you want to upgrade the CPU when games are written for dual-core its an easy swap.

This is how I would have done it if I built my rig today, there are lots of options to this as no doubt others will post, but atleast you get an idea of what you might aim for. Good luck!

newegg.com is your best option for hardware. purchase cables and smaller things from xoxide.com because newegg charges a flat rate on smaller items and it'll inflate your shipping. for example if you purchase 2 ide cables for $5 each they carry a rate of $5 shipping so that's $10 extra on your shipping charge eventho their just gonna throw it in the box.

btw if you were to run into any problems newegg is one of the best to rma stuff to.

subnet_rx, Welcome to Pimprig.

As far as helping you build a system, a lot of this will fall on your shoulders. There are debates as to whether AMD or Intel are better, ATI or nVidia, air or water cooled.

With building your first system, don't get hung up on having the perfect components for the perfect system...it won't happen. Take each step in stride.

For comparing processors and such, I google for different sites and I read tomshardware.com for some info. And of course, we talk among otherselves to see if anyone knows of problems with different equipment.

Make a spreadsheet of the components you'll need and start tallying up the cost. You know will will need the following:
Processor
System board
Graphics card
Sound card
Memory
Optic drive
Hard drive
PSU
Cooling
Case
Mouse
Keyboard
Monitor
Floppy Drive (potentially)

Start up a basic sheet with these items and start plugging numbers in. For a starting point, go to tigerdirect.com and look at the bundle Systemboard / CPU and plug it in. Then go down the list. There are some things that you *could* skip like sound card if the systemboard has onboard sound. After you come up with a basic list, then we can help tweak the system.

Also set your limit at $1700 instead of the $2000. That will give you more room for tweaking...plus we can help you spend the extra cash at the end too.

wow, great response here. I'm registered at a lot of forums and this is the best response to an introduction response I've ever had. Ok, on to the machine. I left out several small details that I see are probably important.

First, the $2k doesn't have to include the monitor. My budget is actually $2500.

Second, after looking around, I think I'm going Athlon 64 4000, unless you guys think that's putting too much into the processor.

I've read several articles on cases, and am having problems deciding on one because either they have poor build quality or go over what I want to spend on a case ($150).

I'm also going PCI-E, but don't know if I should go SLI and put $400 into two 6800's, or one 7800 GT.

Also, I'm not sure I should build. The closest experience I have to putting a processor on a motherboard is watching guys doing it in under 60 seconds at QuakeCon last year.

Ohh, last detail, I saw where someone asked about games. Q4 and HL2 is on my list. I was a big HL fan, and have never had the firepower in my system to even look at HL2.

I used to read Toms Hardware all the time, but over the past year and a half, I've gotten to busy and don't really know what's going on in the hardware world.

ok, $2500.00.....wow.

graphics, 7800GTX about 500$.
mobo, DFI NF4 SLI-DR or Asus A8N SLI Premium. 170$-190$ (these along with other boards will allow you to put in another vid card if you want to go SLI)
CPU, yup the 4000+ is good choice, make sure you get the san diego core is runs on less votage.
look into 2gb of low latency memory, 2-2-2-5 or close to that depending on the speed of the memory.
PSU, look into- ANTEC, OCZ, PC Power & Cooling.

for storage...well how much storage do you need? some of fastest drives out are SATA2 drives and Western Digital Raptors.
the raptors come in a 36gb and a 74 gb flavor and you can find SATA2 drives from 80gb to 500gb.

for a case,
The Thermaltake tsunami Dream is always a good choice.
Lian LI pc-65 or Lian LI pc-6077 are from a great company.
Antec P180 has been pretty popular lately.
Chenming 602 and Chieftec Dragons are great cases, make sure you get an aluminum one..
^^^^All $150.00 or less^^^
just remember aluminum is always a plus, good airflow, and accesability.

all this just covers the basics...you can add-on as you do more research.



sites.

directron.com
tigerdirect.com
newegg.com
xoxide.com
crazypc.com
cablecrazy.com
frozencpu.com
voyeurmods.com
performance-pcs.com
shopperexpo.com

Welcome to PimpRig,subnet_rx There is a lot of places you can get great gear and parts from that you need to build a great gaming rig, here is a list of places i buy a lot of my stuff from.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp

http://www.frozencpu.com/

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php

http://www.xoxide.com/

http://www.pc-cargo.com/

http://www.newegg.com/

http://www.voyeurmods.com/

With a $500 budget on a monitor I would recommend either a Samsung 730B or 930B, depending on the size you need. I've seen the 730B go for $249.99 w/rebate and the 930B go for $349.99 w/rebate.

Depending on your level of experience you should consider Asus, if you are a beginner to experienced, or DFI, only if you are very experienced or masterful, for a mobo. MSI has been good to me in the past along with Gigabyte (though their USB and Firewire headers suck big time).

If i recall correctly, one 7800 (GT or GTX) will outdo 2 6800GT cards.

Since you are going to play Q4 or HL2, I recommend either an Audigy 2 ZS or an X-Fi Extreme Music. Some people would argue that Creative has poorer music quality than other cards, but I'm not an audiophile (yet) so hopefully Godfoot will come along and give better advice.

Dual core for your processor is an interesting idea, but there are some software related issues like OS choice, software support, and the use of third party software to manage the use of each core effciently. Again, someone else should help you there.

Value RAM is good in many cases, but if you plan to overclock then you might want to consider the better products of GeiL, OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, etc. Unfortunately some sticks do tend to be incompatible or less able on different motherboards. For some unknown reason I couldn't get Kingston value RAM to run on my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, but I could get OCZ value RAM to work.

As for drives, I suggest Samsung or Seagate in terms of reliability and silence. I recommend Western Digital if you go with SATA because of their proprietary Secure Connect SATA cords. I recommend Samsung for your CD or DVD needs, those drives are quieter than Lite-On drives.

I believe that the new Antec Neo HE power supply series should provide you enough power without running too much noise in your computer and too much money out of pocket.

yeah, back when I was building my dream machine a while ago, the raptors were my choice. Does SATA2 beat out the raptor drives now? I like Asus and MSI also for motherboards, but why does experience matter with motherboards? That's one of my main concerns with building my own machine.

i'm still a fan of the dell 2001fp 20" widescreen lcd. They got it for $600 but a while back they use to be coupons to get'em pretty cheap. If your unsure of building it yourself monarchcomputer.com puts it together for ya for like $20.

Here is the system I configured at Newegg. Tell me what you think. The DFI motherboard is on there only b/c Newegg was out of the Asus boards and after looking at Toms Hardware, the 4200+ has significant performance improvements with only a $70 price increase.

Qty.	Product Description	Unit Price	Savings	Total Price
1	Thermaltake SHARK VA7000BWA Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail Model #: VA7000BWA In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$169.00		$169.00
1	DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail Model #: LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$189.00		$189.00
1	XFX PVT70GUDF7 Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail Model #: PVT70GUDF7 In Stock Mail-in Rebate Remove Add item to Cart	$359.00		$359.00
1	Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply - Retail Model #: TPII-550 In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$89.99		$89.99
1	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4200BVBOX - Retail Model #: ADA4200BVBOX ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$400.00		$400.00
2	CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS1GB400C3 - Retail Model #: VS1GB400C3 In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$92.80		$185.60
1	Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM Model #: WD800JD In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$53.45		$53.45
1	Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM Model #: WD360GD In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$105.50		$105.50
1	ViewSonic VX924 Black/Silver 19" 3ms gray-to-gray (avg.); 6ms white-black-white (typ)' LCD Monitor - Retail Model #: VX924 ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. **Dead Pixels Policy: Replacement or Refund for 8 or more dead pixels only. In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$359.99	-$10.00 Instant	$349.99
1	ASUS Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A BLACK - Retail Model #: DVD-E616A BLACK ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$24.00		$24.00
1	NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM Model #: ND-3540A Black In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$38.88		$38.88
1	Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - OEM Model #: 30SB035000000 ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$70.00		$70.00
1	LINKSYS WUSB54GS USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter with SpeedBooster - Retail Model #: WUSB54GS ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. In Stock Mail-in Rebate Remove Add item to Cart	$69.99		$69.99
1	Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speaker - Retail Model #: 970115-0403 ** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$269.98	-$50.00 Instant	$219.98
1	Microsoft Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2 - OEM Model #: E85-03013 ** Software delivered damaged and/or defective may be returned for an identical replacement. In Stock Remove Add item to Cart	$134.95		$134.95
Subtotal:				$2,459.33

That's a little over your limit.. and you're gonna need a bigger HDD. I have two 80GB HDD's, and they're nearly full after 1 year.

With a $2000 budget I wouldn't buy value ram. I spend a little more and get some good quality stuff. Something like this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145466
You can always buy a 2nd gig later as it's not gonna make a big difference at the moment. As for your cpu, I love my new X2 4800. But I would recommend getting one w/ 2 x 1mb of L2 cache. And I would skip the Raptor and get 2 of the 80GB drives. That DFI mobo has raid which will speed those 80's up to a high performance speed.

You also might want to go with some better RAM. The value select is great but sooner or later you will want to over clock.

Well, I chose that based on this article posted today at Slashdot. They don't think the extra cost is worth the small performance gains.

You may be right about the HDD. I may step up to the 74.4 raptor, and a bigger storage drive.