1350-1700$ to Spend on Custom... What Should I Get?

Conspirate

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Hi. I'm about to assemble my first custom computer. I was planning on getting an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ since I heard it was the most practical high-tech chip on the market. However, the rest, I'm not quite sure what to get. I was leaning towards getting an acrylic case to show off everything, but that could of course be always changed. I want to have a pretty good graphics card that can handle most games on full quality w/anti-aliasing, and I was intending on getting two gigs of ram. Can anyone please reccomend a set-up that would be mid-priced? It would be nice if it was on the slightly cheap side since I might end up paying for over half of it (still in school, not old enough to nail a job), but I do not want to skimp on any parts, unlike all of the main computer distributors *cough DELL, GATEWAY, HP cough*.

I do understand this is quite a burden. But look at it this way: if I had any knowledge of computer parts, I would do the same for any of you, despite how corny it may sound.

Thank you, and Happy New Year.
 
Do you plan to OC? If so, you'll want RAM with tighter timings. Otherwise, value RAM will work fine. Something with 3-4-4-8.

I wouldn't go dual-core yet. No OS utilize them properly, games don't take full advantage (if any) and they're very expensive. Wait for the price to dip, and technology to advance.

I'd shoot for an nVidia 6800GS card, but I don't buy the highest end stuff. Many will probably push for the 7800GT (or whatever the extension on that is). It really depends on how economical you want to be.

Do you need to buy a PSU, case, monitor, sound card, speaker setup, or anything else like that? If not, you have a lot more to work with. If you want a complete setup, you'll be skimping a bit. Well, I shouldn't say that - my custom build came out to $1,421 with shipping, all from Newegg, and it was pretty good.

http://www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?t=29374
 
well I'd go for the dual core. It is a huge advantage to have 2 cores while doing any kind of multitasking, and soon more games will start to take advantage of it.
And everything is going to be dual core soon, even amd's next gaming processor (fx-60 I think) will be dual core. So I'd definitely get a dual core.

And for a vid card: a 7800GTX, then a 7800GT or maybe a 6800GS if u run out of money, but I doubt that it's going to happen.

RAM: Corsair XMS or even OCZ platinum

psu: 450W or more.

mobo: Asus A8N-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530

hdd: I'd go for a hitachi deskstar 250GB.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145087
 
Ok go with the dual-core they've been out for a while and the price has dipped alot. It's just a matter of time before everything catches up.

How long are you going to have this computer for and if your playing alot of games and you want a nice frame rate and sound you'll have to think about getting a good graphics card and sound card.

You have to think about the more important things at first and make sure you get a computer that can be upgraded. Because if you get the things you want first and then upgrade say a drive or something you couldn't get at the time because money was short.
 
I'm most likely going to have this computer going into college... I'm in 10th now. My main intention is to play a lot of games and be able to run at a nice frame rate with full-quality. More hours than not in a day, music is pumping through my speakers. However, I have a 2:1 speaker system, and I don't intend on changing that, so a sound card wouldnt be really worthwhile for now, or would it?

Overclocking is a must; although I dont know how to do it myself, a friend is going to help me with it. Yet, at the same time, I don't care all that much about having the fastest or best computer in the world by all means. I just want to have a modest machine that kicks all of my friends' computer's asses. Oh yeah, and wont suck in another year.
 
sound card would help a decent amount, the sound quality is better depending on which model you get. if you didn't get a soundcard you would be forced to use onboard audio which has less quality and puts unnecessary strain on the mobo making your computer slightly slower.
 
Ziirou Requin said:
Do you plan to OC? If so, you'll want RAM with tighter timings. Otherwise, value RAM will work fine. Something with 3-4-4-8.

I wouldn't go dual-core yet. No OS utilize them properly, games don't take full advantage (if any) and they're very expensive. Wait for the price to dip, and technology to advance.

I'd shoot for an nVidia 6800GS card, but I don't buy the highest end stuff. Many will probably push for the 7800GT (or whatever the extension on that is). It really depends on how economical you want to be.

Do you need to buy a PSU, case, monitor, sound card, speaker setup, or anything else like that? If not, you have a lot more to work with. If you want a complete setup, you'll be skimping a bit. Well, I shouldn't say that - my custom build came out to $1,421 with shipping, all from Newegg, and it was pretty good.

http://www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?t=29374

Since when were you into custom computers???

I smell bull shit..... :rolleyes:


Anyways,

AMD Athlon 64 3500
2G PC3200 OCz
ASUS A8N-E PCI-E
7800GTX
200G HD

You can run them all on high with AA and AF on.
 
AMD Athlon X2 4400+
ABIT Fatal1ty AN8-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
7800GTX or X1800XT
2x1GB Mushkin Redline XP PC4000
250GB Seagate or WD

For OCing, get good CPU cooling (Zalman), Arctic Silver 5, and even a Zalman VGA cooler.
 
HRHunteRHR said:
Since when were you into custom computers???

I smell bull shit..... :rolleyes:


Since I decided I didn't want to go with a pre-built model for several reasons, and since I learned how to OC. It's a lot more simple than I had thought. Spent the past week or so learning a lot more about this stuff.
 
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