First Time Build

Bob692006

Bob692006

New Member
I've owned a few computer's and am a bit savvy when it comes to hardware and working on them. I haven't, however, ever actually built my own and I think it's time to. I currently have a Dell Dimension E310 that just doesn't cut it for my gaming needs (I'm an avid Half Life 2: Death Match player). I can play without many problems on one particular server that has a relatively small map but still even have issues playing there sometimes with the game's video settings as low as possible. I was looking into getting a GPU but the mobo in the E310 does not have a PCIe x16 slot which would allow me an inexpensive fix to my problem. I'm basically just looking into getting a new case, mobo/cpu, PSU, and GPU. I'm planning on just swapping the two 1GB RAM sticks, two 150GB SATA HDD's, and DVD-RW/CD-RW drive that I already have into the new system, eventually opting for better RAM. I've done a little looking around and found a few item's that I'm looking for but was looking for opinion's from people that deal with computer hardware a bit more. I'm looking at around a $300 budget and not really looking to overclock the CPU or anything so not really needing too fancy of a mobo. The one I did found comes in a CPU/mobo bundle and is a cheaper mobo but from some reviews that I've seen seems to be very durable, just not much use when it comes to overclocking (which, as I said before, I'm not looking to do). The GPU I've selected is more low range but will take care of the issues I'm having with playing HL2. These are what I've found so far, just lay any opinions on me, Thanks:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...pNo=3980696&sku=D15-9114&srkey=diablotek 6600 - GPU

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...7.m32&_trkparms=tab=Watching#ebayphotohosting - Case

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=200306952042 - CPU/Mobo
 
yeah you can def create a cheap build... what type of ram are you using? do you plan on installing vista?
 
what RAM will you be using?

and also, scrap that video card, you can get

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133250

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121098R

which are much better for not much more at all.

the second one i have is fine playing any game, however the passive cooling system is crap. You can either put a fan blowing air over the heatsink, any small one blows enough, or look for arctic cooling acelero s1 heat sink and whack that on. It is still passive cooling but huuuuuuuge so keeps it at around 40-60 degrees, depending on your internal and external temps, thats about 20 degrees cooler than the standard one that comes with it
 
Thanks for all the replies especially Elimin8or, I'll be looking into the equip from the www.contraildesigns.com link. Sorry about the RAM, I've currently got two 1 GB DDR2 4200-533 but plan on upgrading later on or I may do it when I get the build going depending on how the price works out. As far as the OS, I'll probably be going with Windows XP SP3 since I've already got a copy of it and won't have to fork out the $90 for it.
 
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