Building a Desktop

[mtotho]

Hey everyone, i was planning on building a good desktop, for just about anything, but i wanna get into gaming, so probably a good one for gaming, i do know some stuff about computers, im just bad with compatibility.

My Budget: ~$2000

I already have a Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129017

And a Monitor - pretty sure its this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824254001
either way, its an lcd dvi 19" widescreen.

here is basically what i need help with right here. i dont know anything about the power supply im gonna need, i dont know what motherboards are conroe compatible.. i was tihnking about getting teh E6600, and OCing it to the level of a 6700 or higher, cause it also has the 4m cache, and i will probably get the 2 ati x1900's and 2gb of corsair or something, and im looking at those pretty seagate barricudas, 320 gb sata 3.0gb/s and use raid 0 with them.

so i guess basically what this topic comes down to is which motherboard i should get, and if everything else gonna be compatible. thanks

 

[Tommy Boy]

Well, if you are going to be getting into gaming, I would go with AMD processors, they are better for gaming. Dual core would be even better, something like a dual core 3800 or 4200 would be good.

For the video card, go with a geforce 7800 or 7900, great gaming performance.

 

[mtotho]

ive heard that the new conroes are teh best of the best, and 2x ati x1900 is great, and i still need help with a motherboard. Which do u guys recommend AMD or intel conroe, i mean, with this crappy computer i have now, it plays games just fine, i think top of the line anything processors will just about do it. and 2ati's or a geforce.

 

[Aecliptic]

For gaming the Core 2 Duo's are killing the AMD's. The benchmarks of the E6600 beat in most and match the FX-62.

If youre going with the X1900, than youre gonna have to get the Asus P5W DH motherboard, which is ATI Crossfire Ready. I just got my Asus and theyve cleared up the only problem, which was with the old BIOS versions that didnt support the Conroe chips like you will read people complain about in reviews... mine came with version 0701 which is what you need to run the Conroe. IF you end up getting one with an older version you can call Asus and they will send you a new BIOS chip free of charge.

As far as the PSU, you want something thats 600W+.

 

[Aecliptic]

Dont forget to get a decent cooling system in there too. Since the Conroe chips are so hard to overheat you dont need to get extravagant and get a water cooling system.

 

[mtotho]

also, does any one know a good ram, im probably gonna get 2x 1gb, i was looking at corsair just cause they looked pretty good, and its not too expensive, but if there is a better timing, or a highly recommended ram, let me know, thanks

 

[kchi55]

Well, if you are going to be getting into gaming, I would go with AMD processors, they are better for gaming. Dual core would be even better, something like a dual core 3800 or 4200 would be good.

For the video card, go with a geforce 7800 or 7900, great gaming performance.

conroe owns AMD in gaming.

 

[mtotho]

o and like i said, i dont know anything about powersupplys any brand suggestions, links, price range?,o and that motherboard looks great, exactly what i was looking for, plenty of sata, pata, and there is wifi, and runs conroe,although there was mixed reviews on the conroe not working on there, i hope mine does.

 

[Aecliptic]

mtotho, the Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2-800 w/ 3-4-3-9 timing are tops right now on the market, but it costs like 450 bucks. Aside from that... there is the Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4PRO which is $315 on newegg and the TWIN2X2048-6400C4 which is $256 on newegg.

 

[mtotho]

o, and just to verify, i wanna run 2 video cards, the 2 i wanna run is this one... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195002