lordacro

Yes, I have $1600 to spend on a decent gaming desktop. I'm alright with computers but not an expert by any means. I want to build a gaming machine around a GTX video card (or a 640MB GTS if it's too expensive)

The machine MUST have a TV tuner with PVR functions (and remote), to record off of standard cable TV. I need the computer to have composite inputs as well. I'm pretty set on quad core processor as well.

Other than that stuff, I'm lost. Case/power supply? mobo? I know I want 2gb of RAM. Hard drive should be 500GB+. OS? (I'm assuming 64-bit OS would be best but idk if XP or Vista would be better)

Is this possible with $1600? Please suggest a build, I have no idea where to start as far as part compatibility and stuff. Try to include every single thing I'd need to completely build the machine. (Also, can anyone point me to a good $300-$400 monitor?)

Thanks!

chupacabra

Something like this ( i didn't include the tv turner since i don't really know a good one but i left some budget on it so don't worry)



PSU:
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-520w...203270716.html

Total:
$1485 without shipping

Edit:about the monitor something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001096

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lordacro

Okay. I've messed around with my budget a bit and made some changes. Don't worry about the $1600 limit for now.

If I bought all these:


plus the power supply mentioned above, is that all I need to build a functional gaming comp? Are there any issues with compatibility or anything? Any issues I might experience using a 64 bit os? I need to know these things before blowing two grand. Thanks for your input!!

Edit: to save $$ i might go back to the 500GB hd, but i wanna try to keep 4GB ram.

chupacabra

There isn't hardware issues but i do think that 4gb is kinda of an overkill but well it's up to you and yes that's pretty much what you need, the rest comes with the case and the components

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Roncharlespatton

May i ask what are you doing that require 4gb's of R.A.M.

XanderCage

well company of heroes' performance increases by about 5-10 fps per gig of ram added, or atleast i noticed that on my rig. It's heavy on ram.

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hermeslyre

COH uses 930Mb's of RAM on my system, bringing the total amount of used RAM to around 1300Mb. Adding a Gb of RAM to a 1 Gb system will see an improvement but keep in mind it doesn't need more than a Gig of RAM.. A three or four Gb system will have no performance increaes in this app.

maroon1

But don't get samsung hard drive. Either get Western Digital or Seagate

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maroon1

And WD 750GB is currently the fastest 7200RPM, it is a fast as Raptor 150GB

I strongly recommend it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136131

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lordacro

Okay, so I know 4GB ram is overkill (for now) but I've had the experience that just playing WoW on low settings on my laptop (think 128 shared ATI xpress) plus having itunes and firefox running on xp brings me up to 1.3gb used (yes, I know the shared video memory uses the ram too but still) so I wanted to have over 2gb, plus be on track to expand past 4gb in the future. (And I have the $$ to do it)

This rig has to last me a while. Did anyone wanna try to recommend a good TV tuner? How do most of the internal ones plug in... PCI or PCIx16? Do they work with Vista premium as far as PVR capabilities or do they come with better software? See any space or video card issues? The case I saw looks pretty roomy though.

I think I will go with the WD 750gb hd that was mentioned. I didn't know WD was a good brand but thanks for the tip.