Building a computer

[Mooshie]

Im looking to build a computer before the end of the year, but I have some questions about motherboards and processors. The thing is, I know hardly anything about them. I am looking to build a rig for the next generation games, so it will mainly be for speed. I need to know what Im looking for though, what brand, and what details?
Thanks in advance for any help.

[RusskiSoldat]

If you hardly know anything about it, then don't build it. www.monarchcomputer.com has fairly good deals on their computers, build an SLI rig with AMD processor (4800+ is either coming out soon or already came out). Custom build it the way you want it.
I personally have an FX55, BFG 6800 Ultras in SLI, two gigs corsair ram computer, but that cost me a :wub:.
I had to save money on the parts I exploited the least, so I got a relatively small (although 66% more storage than my previous one) 200gig hard drive and mediocre speakers.
EDIT: I'll help you a lot more if you name me a price and what components (if any, and I'm expecting stuff like mouse, keyboard, monitor and speakers) you want to keep your old ones.

[Mooshie]

Hey thanks Russki. The motherboard and processor are the only things I really need help with, as I already knwo what hard drive I want and I have my ram, and the other stuff is rather simple. But I wouldn't want to spend much more than about $450 on both processor and motherboard. I also have a local PC store that has a great selection of stuff and good prices too, so I think Im going to pick out the parts and pay them a bit to build it.

[RusskiSoldat]

Hey thanks Russki. The motherboard and processor are the only things I really need help with, as I already knwo what hard drive I want and I have my ram, and the other stuff is rather simple. But I wouldn't want to spend much more than about $450 on both processor and motherboard. I also have a local PC store that has a great selection of stuff and good prices too, so I think Im going to pick out the parts and pay them a bit to build it.

What video card?
Do you want PCI express motherboard?
How much will the store take to put it together?

[Mooshie]

For video cards, Im going to try to get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150068. Im hoping that the price drops a bit when the next Geforce series comes out. And Im not sure about PCI express, I read that they are faster, but are they reliable? And as for having the store build it, Im not too worried about htat yet. Im still just gathering info as of now, I will probably actually start buying stuff around November.

[squeaky]

PCI-E is no faster than AGP, it all depends on the card since no card uses all of either AGP or PCI-E's available bandwidth yet.

I would recommend going one level higher with the video card, though. the vanilla 6800 is good, but kind of in between budget and entering higher end. If you can, the 300$ range has the X800XL and performs just as well as the 6800Gt.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102520

[Mooshie]

Yeah, I see how that card is better. Oh, and I guess I will go with AGP motherboard than. Anybody have any suggestions for one?

[carthage_hanibal]

um pci-e is sopposed to be a lot faster than agp from what i have heard. also all the new graphics cards are going to be on pci-e so a mobo with pci-e would be much better for upgrades later on. as for processor AMD's are good.

[squeaky]

PCI-E and AGP cards are all the same, they perform the same way, the cores and processing units are the same. It's just a matter of how the data is transmitted to/from the motherboard.

In the future, when AGP's bandwidth is surpassed, PCI-E will be more powerful than AGP, but for now, neither bandwidth limit has been neared.

[Lee1026]

I would probably get yelled at for this, but I would suggest hat you look into the semprons. yes, the semprons. they are dirt cheap (I got a 2600+ for $75) and when properly overclocked with a good mobo (less then $90) you should be able to play any modern games that exists now.

[squeaky]

considering how affordable the current generation A64 processors are these days, and assuming you have at least a modest amount of money to spend, I would still go with an A64, because they are very affordable and, especially the new venice and san diego cores (though san diego may be on the expensive side) can overclock very well.

[Freddie]

You might want to speak to some of nerds at Tomshardware.com ............you can find me there as well :|

[bawX]

A little advice. Do some research into the motherboards and think about what you want from your computer. Alot and I mean alot of motherboards have tons of stuff that you probably wont need and more often than not you can get a scaled down version (in accesories) of your chosen motherboard for like 20 bucks less but it's basically dependant on the type you want. Don't go with stuff like Wi-Fi, 10 usb ports, 6 expansion slots, 4 SATA ports etc.

This brings me to my question for you. What kind of hardrive and how many do you plan on running? What kind of drive(s)? How many expansion cards do you have? aka soundcard/coolers/network card and if you do run a network card then that's one more thing you need to take into account for on your motherboard onboard LAN or not. There are ton of things you need to consider but the best way to go about it is to break down what you want from your computer.

[Kanaric]

Go to Fry's or Tiger Direct if there is one near you they always have good advice and have decent motherboard/processor combo deals. Just make sure the motherboard is socket 939 and has pci-express.

Russki's computer must cost $10,000, rofl.

[squeaky]

I'd guess about 3,000$ or 6,000 if you bought it from alienware

for socket 939, i'd say go with an Nforce 4 motherboard from any respectable company, Asus's "A8N" series and Gigabyte's boards are all very good