Hey techno-savvy ECers! I'm in the market for a new computer, one designed for gaming. However, I am wondering in lieu of buying and customising a computer, and at the offer of my mother's IT personel, I am to build one instead. But I am not really knowledgeable about the actual components that physically make up the system, only the programming. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks! ^.^
I used to know all about all the hardware, but i'm waaaay behind the times sorry! one piece of advice... Research your brands well, and beware! Cheap components can work just fine and dandy, but some others can be very dodgy. I always buy cheap components, but only the good ones.
My advice is to not build one if you really don't know how. That's just asking for a "I payed $2000 dollars for something than broke it when trying to get it to work" situation.
It's not that hard to build them, imo. I've done it a couple of times with no problems, and i'm a rank amateur.
Oooh, well that makes a lot more sense. o3o I don't know much about the needed hardware besides: Motherboard Processor Heat-sink Fans Heat-paste for the processor Optical drive Hard-drive/SSD Monitor Memory Video card What I would do if I were you, is buy a barebone. They come already built with the main stuff that people have trouble with (Motherboard, processor, all the cords, etc) all you have to do usually is get a video card, hard-drive, and memory. Which are all pretty easy it install.
Hey, well I'm not really sure if you have access to a shop that sells just PC parts and pieces and they usually make up computers from scratch. You could ask them to help create a customized gaming-PC and then get them to give you a quote which could act as your guideline that you could give to your mother. The reason I recommend asking for a quote is because you can have all the best pieces to build a PC, but that doesn't mean they will be compatible with each other. Before you do actually buy the parts for the PC, just make sure to ask someone if they will work together.
All the advice I can give you is probably that your video card and processor would be on top priority for better specs. Nvidia and ATI...they're both good IMO, but check online for reviews and tests. As for processors - Intel versus AMD. Pick something thats in your budget, AMD tends to be less pricey but they heat up fast, but I heard they're better for gaming (someone confirm this...). RAM is relatively cheap these days so I wouldn't worry over that. Oh and I say Gothitil has a pretty good list of stuff to consider for building from scratch. Make sure the parts are compatible though.
Ok, I happen to know quite a bit with this stuff. Newegg.com is a great place to buy computer parts, I have bought a lot of stuff from their in the past and they will even take things back if something arives DOA (dead on arrival). anyways, I can give you all the details in some messages if you want. A great video card and something that wont break the bank is a GTX 460. around 200 bucks and it plays starcraft 2 on highest settings. Will play other games with flying colors as well. Other things to look out for is to make sure that your motherboard matches the processor and ram type. Dont buy a processor that doesn't have the correct socket type. Again, any questions feel free to message me and good luck =) Fox
Newegg is definitely the place to get pieces for cheap... if you're going to game I'd recommend 6GBs of RAM or more. As for graphics card... I would honestly recommend not going ATI... I heard a lot of problems with those cards... Nvidia might be better suited. An AMD processor seems to work for the most part. Dual or Quad core But i'm pretty sure modern computers still don't know what to do with half the cores on a quad core... And obviously the motherboard is the most important part, but I don't really know what would work. Also make sure you have a cooler that works best for what you're using... Liquid cooler = high powered computers need em! A regular fan just won't cut it for some really heavy desktop. Make sure the casing for your desktop suits as well...
What's your budget? I built a $1700 beast that tops out any game, but is way more power than anyone would need. If you want a nice rig that does everything, go for an i7-2600k and two 570s in SLI.
No budget, lol. My mother is paying for it, lol. Also I think I have something worked out now, thanks everyone!
I'm building mine Tuesday... All the pieces are laying around in my room... I'm a little scared, because I have never built one. But I know about computers and stuff, have taken apart several by now...lol I have spent like 2$k. And Zontar, mine is a i7 2600k, too. =P I got the Deluxe Motherboard from ASUS, a 1,000W Power Supply. 24 Gig of Ram, Water Cooled (Corsair 0 Maintenance), 4 Terabytes of HDD, a 23 Inch Monitor (They are cheap like 169$ for mine, it is 140$ now ), ohh an a humongous case... with Blue <3 LEDS. And I bought it all from Newegg.
Nat3, I think you overspent a bit. That's one monster of a computer, but you probably will never get to use it to its full potential for a long time. Right now, most programs don't use more than 4GB of RAM. Most developers still program with that 4GB ceiling in mind. Most people are only now starting to make the switch to 64-bit, which gives develops a lot more head-room. 8GB would have probably been more than satisfactory. All I know about the i7 2600K is that it's wicked fast and is packed with DRM, which gives hackers an-ever-present backdoor through hardware into controlling your system. Intel made than a few blunders with their Sandy Bridge series. The idea of the DRM is to keep pirates from playing non-authorized music and videos and to monitor what you are watching and listening to. I personally don't like that. Way too invasive. As for the 4TB, well, I guess it depends on how many games you have. Personally, I have 1TB and haven't come close to filling it.
KittyBoy.... have alook at the following threat http://emptyclosets.com/forum/technology-gaming-soft-hardware/47223-buying-new-laptop-need-thoughts.html her i explain perfectly what you need to know if you want to build your own rigs... i used to do this for a living and when i do upgrade my rig i follow this guide... it came from personal expeience & several issues of my favourit mag... PC FORMAT (kicks ass!!!!) HotPink... 1TB... seriously i filled my 2TB in matter of weeks!!!! I love collecting games, movies and TV series, not to mension my music and music video collection. Do note that i do not collect everything, only things i think is awsome! idealy i would (and currently bussy) build a server with 20 2tb hard drives. As i also do 3d modeling and animation i need the humungous space for my software to render to.
