Another Noobie here

[APM98]

I'm trying to build my own comp. I've been researching for a bit and i know most of the parts that r needed but im not sure of the brands that r good and what to stay away from. I will mostly use it for gaming. Im not a hardcore gamer, just something to play Unreal and Halo2 on. I just want something simple and not too expensive for now, cause I will def. be upgrading all the time. Because I have nothing right now I just want to get the basics to run my first built comp. then save and get a better vid card or cpu.

I was looking at AMD 3000+ or 3200+, Maybe a ATI 9550 (I can get cheap ATI stuff from my work, 9550 for 77), Seagate 120GB, 512 or 1 GB Ram (Dont know whats good here) And i guess a standard mobo to go with the AMD

I just want a gamers "starter kit". haha

I'm still learning so thank you for the time to look this over

 

[The_Other_One]

Why not go to newegg or tigerdirect and look for a good barebones kit? YOu could probably find a decent mobo/case/power supply to get your started. Just make sure it's Socket 939 and not 754 if you plan to upgrade...

As for the video card...eh, that's not much of one...nor is a wonderful deal. Check out newegg, they have that card there for the same price, some a few bucks cheaper! Also, you might want to consider PCIe seeing as you plan to upgrade, unless you plan to just redo the WHOLE computer, and not just purchase a few components...

 

[alanuofm]

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro Advantage AGP 8X 128MB DDR Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI ***Free 2nd Day***
only $75.99 can't beat that.

i would go with an MSI, asus, DFI or gigabyte motherboard.
i would go with 1 gb of either corsair or ocz ram.

 

[Praetor]

, just something to play Unreal and Halo2 on

Halo2 is only for XBOX now

Maybe a ATI 9550 (I can get cheap ATI stuff from my work, 9550 for 77),

The price isnt bad but its also not that great. Look a bit harder 9600Pro and 9800Pros are not that much more

 

[XHotxEx791]

ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply-56
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Socket 939 Processor-146
Arctic SIlver Premium Photosynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5-8
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard-135
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400-79
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive-62
NEC Beige IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3520A BG-41
Microsoft Windows XP Home w/Service Pack 2-92
eVGA 6600GT 128MB DDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI-169

$788
no gfx card $619
no gfx card and windows $527

 

[Praetor]

ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply-56

Whats the rating on the PSU there?

 

[XHotxEx791]

If Aspire uses all the same 420watt psu throughout their line of cases, than it would be only 18A on the +12V. Not very high, but sufficient.
Roger

 

[alanuofm]

thats a bad psu for his usage considering hes gaming with it.

 

[XHotxEx791]

I have an oem pc with a 400watt psu made by lite-on with no fans on it. It seems to be doing fine.
Roger

 

[dragon2309]

Can i just say something, i know a high ampage on the 12v is a good thing to have but my main PSU recently blew up and im awaiting a replacement, in the mean time im using an old 300w one that cam bundled with the case, its a pile of crap. only 14A on 12v. Yes, your thinking how the hell is it still running, i am too. But i've overclocked my system and overclocked my gfx card, so everything is power hungry at the moment. With that you would have thought i would be crashing and BSOD'ing all over the place... nope, not a single crash and its stable through all games. So really if a 14A 12v can handle all that im throwing at it and it only costs like £10 GBP, what the point in buying a £80 GBP one to have 36A 12V.....??

 

[APM98]

hey guys thank you for all the great feedback.

Will any vid card like ATI or EVGA work with any MoBo

 

[XHotxEx791]

Needs to be right type, agp/pci-express/PCI, your psu must also be powerful enough for the card

 

[Praetor]

So really if a 14A 12v can handle all that im throwing at it and it only costs like £10 GBP, what the point in buying a £80 GBP one to have 36A 12V.....??

Because not everyone is as special as you

 

[dragon2309]

Because not everyone is as special as you

Hmmm, im not about to get into an arguement with the top dog so i think i'll end it here. I was just saying that my PSU doesnt seem to be cracking under what im doing to it. Perhaps its a random ghost PSU from mars who can pretend to be 14A when its actually 36.

 

[Praetor]

I was just saying that my PSU doesnt seem to be cracking under what im doing to it. Perhaps its a random ghost PSU from mars who can pretend to be 14A when its actually 36.

Well think of it this way ... you have a 500W PSU ... and common sense/a bit of research tells us the the heaviest drain on a PSU is via the 12V line .... with 14A there you've got 168W to put to useful stuff .... dont sound like so much when to consider your CPU may be chewing out 120W here and there ... good thing you dont have a heavy videocard and/or massive drive config There's also voltage stability