Need help building a gaming computer

0bso1e7e

New Member
Well, my current box is getting close to biting the dust. The hard drive, graphics card, cpu and sound card have been through 3 cases and 2 motherboards, and basically its only a matter of (very little)time until it bites the dust. And I'm about to make a big move, to an area where I only have a couple acquaintances and I'm going to be basically living on college kid rations for a while. So, before I move I'm making sure I have a computer that won't die on me when I can't do anything about it. Unfortunately, the last time I built a computer from the ground up with brand new parts was 5 or 6 years ago and I don't have the money to cover for screw ups. My budget is roughly 1000 USD, but there is some room to work with. Like I said, most important is a rig that will carry me a couple years without problems. I have a brand new monitor so that's not a cost there either. I need the computer for gaming, media work, etc and it needs to be able to be on fairly frequently.

Here are my requests: I would like to have an AMD processor, preferably the AMD Athalon 64 X2 6000+, I need a fair amount of USB (at least 4 or 5 USB slots), and I need a very nice deal of hard drive space (I've been dealing with a 40 gig hard drive and a 320 gig external for a couple years, never again am I going to deal with rotating my files, games, etc) so minimum of 500 gigs, and honestly that's pushing it hard. I'd much prefer at least a 1TB. Other than that, I just need a good rig. Mostly, I'm just worried I'll screw something up, forget about some minor detail, and end up out 250 dollars that I can't afford to burn right now.

So, those of you who actually do have the knowledge and confidence to make a computer from the ground up, in which all the hardware is compatible, please help me out and give me suggestions on good, solid builds.

Thank you all VERY VERY much. I've been trying to come up with solid rigs for days and no matter what I do I end up feeling like I'm forgetting something.
 
What case do you have currently? You may be able to reuse that, depending on whether you have/want a full ATX or Micro ATX. If you have a full ATX case right now, that could save you quite a bit of money.
 
Iin all honesty you would more than likely be happier with an athlon x2 7750 or phenom II of some kind than the 6000+;) Also, what case/power supply do you have at the moment, and will you need an o/s?
 
Iin all honesty you would more than likely be happier with an athlon x2 7750 or phenom II of some kind than the 6000+;) Also, what case/power supply do you have at the moment, and will you need an o/s?

Honestly, I really don't know. I haven't kept up on the details of specific brands of hardware, etc for some time. In my experience, AMD served me very well and the AMD Athalon 64 X2 6000+ has been raved as a great one by all sources I've run into. But, like I said, I'm behind. I don't have confidence in myself in this area anymore. My attention has been too split to keep up. As for an OS, yes, I will need an OS. XP or Vista. I'm really fairly apathetic on that specific detail. I've used both, I'm familiar with both, and comfortable with both. Once again, I'll leave that up to the minds who know what they are doing moreso than myself.

On the topic of case, yes, I have a case. But its a crappy dell case that I borrowed from a friend after my old motherboard bit the dust and I couldn't salvage the case (which is now gone). Also, call me egotistical, silly or vain but I would like to get a new case either way. I want it to look as slick as it plays. Preferably, as far as stylization goes, I would like a green lights on black case look. Once again, efficiency is top priority. The case I do have is small, and not much as far as ventilation anyways. The only thing I'm keeping with this whole set is my keyboard, mouse and the monitor I just barely bought.

Even though I haven't been able to do much with my computer for a while, and have basically had to skate by, I take immense pride in my computer. My money buys it, my hands get ripped up trying to get everything into the right places, and my business runs from it. So, I want it to look awesome. I don't have money to waste on it, but I do have money to spend on it. I'd like to get it around 1000, but if I need to I can go a decent bit higher to have a box I can be proud of.
 
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What games are you looking at playing?

There are quite a few that have my attention. Mostly shooters (my current rig has been too weak to play much in that genre for a good while) though I also might play some MMOs, Action adventure, and RPGs. Honestly, I can't answer that very clearly. I just want to be able to see a good game, buy it, and not have to search the box for minimum system requirements every single time. But yes, I would like to play some of the system suckers out there.
 
I'll let bomberboys help with the CPU/mobo/RAM combo. If you have a combo, I can let you know if it will work well or be compatible, but I don't know all of the latest models off the top of my head so it might be better to get someone else's opinions for that.

For the most part, all hard drives with similar RPM's perform the same. The only thing to really consider if you have the budget, is whether or not you want a Velociraptor/SSD for Programs and OS and a separate drive for storage.

As for the case, I would highly recommend the Antec 1200. Huge case with tons of airflow and great cable management. It will be hard to not be proud of it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043
 
I'll let bomberboys help with the CPU/mobo/RAM combo. If you have a combo, I can let you know if it will work well or be compatible, but I don't know all of the latest models off the top of my head so it might be better to get someone else's opinions for that.

For the most part, all hard drives with similar RPM's perform the same. The only thing to really consider if you have the budget, is whether or not you want a Velociraptor/SSD for Programs and OS and a separate drive for storage.

As for the case, I would highly recommend the Antec 1200. Huge case with tons of airflow and great cable management. It will be hard to not be proud of it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043

Question, would it be possible to replace the blue fans with green? I've never done case customization so I'm not sure how difficult that would be.
 
Pretty sweet board:
ASUS M4A78 790GX ($129.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131368

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz ($134.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649

RAM:
(2x ) CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 ($102.00 for 2 kits = 8Gigs)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145229

PSU:
Same listed above
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX ($99.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

GPU:
EVGA GeForce GTS 250 Superclocked Edition ($149.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130467

Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache ($109.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Case:
Same as above
Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower ($159.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043

Total: $885.95

Oh yeah, the fans; Hard to find Green ones, and for this price, might just
go with the blue eh? lol

Antec 120mm Green LED Case Fan ($14.99 Each x 5 = $74.95) O.O
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209012

Total with extra fans: $960.90
 
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If you're going for that board you might as well stick with the 4850. If anything, the GTS 250 is only slightly better than the 4850, but you won't be able to crossfire with it. I know the 4850 slightly beats a 9800GTX, and if a GTX 250 is just a renamed 9800GTX+, it might be better to go for the 4850. Especially for $40 less.
 
Mobo, Asus M4A78-E, great features/overclockability:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131368

Cpu, Phenom II x4 920, the future is quadcore;) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103472

Gpu, gonna recommend an ati 4850 here, and with the mobo in the list you crossfire another 4850 when your rig wont play any of the latest games, but as for now the 4850 tears through most games pretty easily:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150337

Memory, 4GB of patriot with best timings in price range, and green to match the fans you want;):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220334

Vista Home premium 64bit:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

Power Supply, same as one kookooshortman listed:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

Case, Antec twelve hundred:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043

Hard Drive, 1TB western digital caviar black:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

ODD, Sata liteon dvd burner with lightscribe:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106288

As for fans... you could change all your 120mm's to green, but the top fan of the antec twelve hundred is a 200mm fan that is blue., 6 of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209012

Total price----------------------------------------$1,095.85
Total Rebates-------------------------------------$55.00
Total Price after rebates---------------------------$1,045.85

Finally posted... couldnt post it for like 15-20min cuz cf wouldnt login for me >_<
 
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Link the 4850? It's up on the first page. It was the dual slot MSI for I think $109. I great deal if I must say so. The build above looks great.
 
:eek:

Thank you guys a ton! This is exactly the info I was looking for. I was expecting to have to put out a dozen threads like this on a dozen different forums and bother a couple dozen different contacts I haven't talked to in years for this type of info. And for that price too. I was honestly expecting to have to go into 1200 at least to get a decent box. Any more suggestions are of course welcome, I still need to look it all over and think about it, but still.
 
Either of the above two builds would be great, they don't differ by a whole lot. And as for the green fans, it is possible to replace them as I stated above, and like bomberboys said the top fan on the Antec 1200 is blue, but there is a switch on the back of the case to turn the LED for the top fan off. You might not have much luck finding a replacement for the top fan, but if you wanted to change all the 120mm fans to green fans, you have the option of just turning the LED of the top fan off.
 
I'd have to go with bomberboysk's build simply since he listed the Radeon 4850 which will allow you to run Xfire later on (like he said) and the board doesn't support SLI. The only thing I might would change is to get 8 Gb's of RAM. I'm running 4 Gb in my system right now and haven't had a call for more so far, but looking into the future (Windows 7 specifically that uses 1 Gb of RAM just to run the OS), your going to want some more head room. Again this is possibly just something you can upgrade later on along with getting another 4850 to run in Xfire, but just something else to wrap your mind around and to keep in mind in case your looking at doing major video editing/3D modeling.
 
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