Thread for the techies

[Marna]

Heya Guys..


After I move from WA state to the DC area, I am going to be looking into building a new gaming rig. Thanks to the Army sending me into the desert for a year, I managed to save enough to build a decent system.

As it looks now, I am thinking about building one with a AMD PhenomII x6 CPU as its base, but would like some input from the various techies that visit this forum.

[DarkkHero]

Go Intel + Nvidia. You won't be sorry.

What's your budget?

[Marna]

I have a little over 2K to spend on this one... not gonna go sli yet.. but build a base for additions later

[Jaxs]

I am inclined to agree with Darkk.

Go Intel + Nvidia.

I have a nice new system and its is slick. I am sure you can get something good for 2k or so.

[Marna]

well, if I am looking for the most bang for my buck, wouldn't it be more prudent to go AMD and ATI, which gives about the same performance for hundreds less?

Figure the highest AMD chip is $600 less then the i7, and it has 6 cores...

[jim]

Hi Marna. Sorry but I don't remember what your level of knowledge is with building computers so I may be being too simple.

Do you need to deduct the price of a monitor, keyboard, mouse/trackball, speakers, printer, microphone, or anything else I didn't mention from the 2k (gaming keyboard/game controller maybe)? It all adds up but best to plan on it now since some of it can be expensive. Every build is a trade off between price and performance so best to start with a realistic budget or you will find your $2k machine just cost you $3k heh.

Also do you plan to watch TV or movies at this machine? Do you need a blueray disk player? If you do then you may want a 5.1 speakers. Also a monitor that does 1920x1080 (most 24" do at least this for around $230+). A gaming video card can handle it easily although smaller/lower resolution monitors don't require the video card horsepower that the larger/higher resolution ones do for the same performance.

If this is just for gaming the cores won't matter as much as the speed of the cpu. Dual core at a minimum but quad core is fine. The AMD chip is cheaper but lately everything I've built has been Intel because of the better gaming and all around performance.That doesn't mean the AMD can't perform fine in the right build because it can. Same with ATI vs Nvidia. I always use Nvidia but ATI is cheaper for similar performance though I am not sure if ATI supports their drivers as good as Nvidia. Everything is a trade off heh.

Anyway starting from here what do you have left?

Oops, I meant to add this link as a reference. I would spend a bit different myself but it gives you an idea of what is possible for your price range. (I was just reading the comments and someone pointed out that these machines don't include an operating system so add $99 for Win7 Home Premium or $140 for Win7 Professional)
www.techspot.com/guides/buying/page4.html

[DarkkHero]

Here's a beast system I configured for you. It clocks in just @ $2000.
You can opt to choose between 1, 2, or 3 Video cards, which will put you just over $2000.

Case: Silverstone, Full Aluminum, Top Tier $270
You'll never need to buy another case.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163073

Motherboard: EVGA X58 FTW3, Triple SLI support, Core i7 $280
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188065

CPU: Intel Core i7-950, Quad-Core, 3.06ghz $300
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211

Heatsink: Corsair Hydro Series, Water Cooling without the Fuss $80
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010

Video Card: EVGA GTX 470, PCIe 2.0 x16, Triple SLI Capable, DirectX 11 $260
I would buy two of these.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130550

Power Supply: Corsair 1000w, 80 Plus Certified $230
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007

Memory: 6gb Corsair Dominator, Triple Channel $180
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

Optical Drive: Lite-On BluRay/DVD Combo $60
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106326

Operating System: Windows 7 64bit Home Premium $100
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

[Marna]

I'll take a peek at this setup in a day or so when I get some time - been working 14+ hour days lately.