Help me build my desktop pc

#1 I would go to your nearest Frys Electronics (might only be in TX, Fl, and Ca though) and pick up your stuff. They are soo good on deals, better than online usually.

- Gotta get a case. You can spend 20 bucks on a case with a 350w power supply and it would work fine. The more you spend though, the cooler and better your power supply.

- Mother board: Most people would say get a Soyo, but I have one now that screws up all the time. ECS are cheaper, but I've had pretty good luck with'em.

- Processor: AMDs are supposed to be better with graphics, but really its about price. They can sometimes be a couple hundred less than an Intel. I would suggest AMD.

-RAM: Get the best you can here as bad RAM can be a nightmare. Buy it all upfront cause it isn't a good idea to mix RAM later on although it will most of the time work ok. I would recommend Mushkin or however its spelled.

- Harddrive: Never had a bad hardrive before, so I usually get the best sale. I got a Seagate 160 gig for $59.99 after rebates.

- Videocard: This is completely about your budget. Nvidia and ATI both run excellent GPUs, I've had both and really liked both. I would spend majority of your money here as this is the most important tool for game developers. Don't spend less than $250 and spend more if you can. Get the most video memory on it as possilbe. 256meg should suffice.

- Sound card: If you are recording with instruments (midi, guitars, mics) I would suggest a soundcard with all those inputs in the front, whether it is a seprate box that sits on top, or one that fits in a CD-rom bay. Decent ones run in the area of $250. My buddy has an Audigy that is really nice.

That's it in a nutshell I think. Make sure you get a lot of fans. Some cases some with a lot.

#2 What sort of sound editing do you plan on doing? Usually, sound needs for gaming don't overlap well with sound needs for studio work. But getting two soundcards, one for gaming and one for editing, would eat up a lot of your budget.

#3 Although I recently closed my shop, I have a great deal of experience with most manufacturers. And faulty returns, ease of setup etc.....

Stick with either Gigabyte or MSI, in that order, for motherboards, and video cards, but its not so important with the video cards. Tyan make good server boards and so do Chaintech, but I still go with Gigabyte. Get good ram, not the cheapest, like Corsair or Crucial are both good. Stay away from Asus, ABit, AOpen, PC Chips, ECS, and anything with Lan/Gamer in its name. Asus are better than they used to be, but still not rock solid like Gigabyte. Did I mention, in 24 months, averaging 5-10 Gigabyte boards a month, I had only one faulty board. Most of the systems I had in for repair which needed a mobo were PC Chips, ECS, ABit and Asus, roughly in that order.

You will probably want dual channel ram, always try to get matched pairs, in other words dont get one 512mb stick to begin with and then add another later, get two identical sticks right away.

A good psu in a well designed case is great, as it makes it easier to upgrade/repair. I tend to use Server cases myself, my next one is going to be rackmount, so I can use less space for multiple PCs. Dual fan PSUs are noisier, but more reliable in the event of a fan failure.

Soundcards are easy, just stick with Creative Labs.

CPU / Heatsink. I usually go with AMD, you can get a great deal for the money. Always get a really good heatsink and fan, its not something you should stint on.

Lots of fans equals lots of noise. A good case shouldnt need them unless you are overclocking. If you get fans, get ball bearing ones, they are more reliable than the sleeve types.

For hard drives I stick with Maxtor or Western Digital. They are very reliable, and tend to be good on returns. Never use Samsung, ExcelStor, Palladium etc.

Display. It's the most important part of the system, its what you squint at all day. I like, Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubish.... but Viewsonic are OK for the money.

I tend to stick with Pioneer DVDr drives.

Good luck.

#4 For CPU i went with a 2.6 p4 with HT, and i have to say, its prolly been one of my wisest investments ever. AMD's are good for the speed, but i've noticed if your gonna put alot of work on your cpu, pentiums do very well under the strain.

For harddrive, i'd go for a seagate. I got an 80 gb seagate, never had a single issue with it ever. Had a maxtor, it shit out on me after a while. Have a western digital right now with my seagate, and i think its startin to shit on me too. I put my faith well into Seagate.

And as mentioned, you wanna load up on the GPU. I only have a radeon 9600 though, so can't help ya much there. ;) Once i get a job im gonna start savin for an x800.

#5 Thanks all.

good god thats a lot to take in. ALMOST all of my sound editing will be on my mac, so i'm basically just looking for a sound card that sounds good gaming-wise(you know 5.1 or 7.1)

so i actually have to look for fans too??????

also, next time could you guys please remember that i'm completely new to the pc world, so some of your abbreviations are making me wonder(psu?)

if anyone has any good links, i'd love to grab them.

thanks all

#6 3ghz AMD + 2g DDR ram + Radeon 9800 + 21' flat monitor = prolly more than you have *laughs hysetrically*

#7 Thanks all.

good god thats a lot to take in. ALMOST all of my sound editing will be on my mac, so i'm basically just looking for a sound card that sounds good gaming-wise(you know 5.1 or 7.1)

so i actually have to look for fans too??????

also, next time could you guys please remember that i'm completely new to the pc world, so some of your abbreviations are making me wonder(psu?)

if anyone has any good links, i'd love to grab them.

thanks all

#8 Your right. i can't afford a 21' monitor.

#9 Your right. i can't afford a 21' monitor.

#10 ????? what is up with these double postings??? DIIIRRRR

#11 PSU = Power Supply Unit. Same abbreviation is used in the Mac world.

You might also consider buying a machine from a respected manufacturer (say, Dell) and upgrading it later with custom parts as your budget allows. Building your first Windows PC from scratch can be a major undertaking, especially if you are not familiar with the terminology and requirements of the Windows world.

#12 Nah. i checked dell. no like. i'd rather have a custom i can upgrade/install myself.

psu=cool. i guess i have never payed attention to that since my mac is rocksolid with its power.

i'm not doing this totally alone either. i have a ton of friends that use pcs, build pcs. theirs are not built for gaming though, so thats why i gotta ask you guys.
i will have help in the actual building/installing of it all.

as far as video cards, do i want to go with a $250 128MG radeon or should i go higher?
i don't want to have to upgrade my video card after 4 months due to new games coming out.

#13 ...PC Assembly

...this may help.

#14 Thanks. it is all starting to come together . . . .:)

#15 This is a mammoth of a video card: www.bfgtech.com/6800.html Won some awards.

#16 I'd really suggest looking at www.dell.com/

I'd suggest starting with something like the following

www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_dp_desktop2_1?c=us&cs=1...

Add the X300 128MB ATI video card
Get the 160GB HD
And probably the 17" LCD monitor
And go with the 48x CD-RW

This will run you about $1200, so you might need to tweak your needs a little.

#17 You could also go with AlienWare...I know they used to make top-end gaming PCs. I think they still do.

#18 Alienware isn't really a good choice if your budget is $1000 or less

#19 Holy cow...didn't see the $1000 part. Ya scratch Alienware and the link to the videocard I put up hehe. Well you can still build a decent computer for that. I built my girlfriends computer for $300 and has these specs:

AMD Athlon 2700+ and ECS MoBo, 512 RAM, 80 gig hard drive, 128 meg Gforce Fx 5200, 20$ case with 350watt PSU, and wireless keyboard and mouse. ALready had a burner for her. Bought it all at Fry's Electronics and came with a ton of rebates that made the price so cheap. Runs really damn good too.

#20 Thanks again guys!
i cant believe how helpful you all are.

as far as hard drive space, i don't need any due to my usb/firewires i have(over 350GB)

i'm still not quite there on the video card though.

anyone want to clarify the LEAST amount of video power i should get to run . . .lets say Unreal 3?