Computer building advice? ::Beware:: n00b alert.

[mr2324jgf]

Hey guys, new to the site, so far what i've read makes sense but I wanted to come on and find a good advisor lol.

I've built one system in my life and it has been a couple years, since then I've had to concentrate on other things and new innovations have slipped from my attention, so now i'm looking at websites for parts and it baffles my mind. All these words, hyper this, dual this yada yada...

I'll explain what I have going....i'm building this machine piece by piece, all i need are the gaming/graphics parts explained to me, as for roms, drives, etc.... i got it.

I have only a case, it's a mid atx-tower. I dont really have a limit on the price i can spend, but since it's over time, the cheapest the better. I'd say a 500-1000 dollar machine (excluding periphs, monitor n such) would suffice.

My goal, to play battlefield and similar games flawlessly. BF2 is the game i'm wanting to gear the machine around, and of course the more you can see, the realer it feels.

What motherboard (Msi preferred or similar), Processor (AMD guy here, no intel pentium stuff) and Video card (ATI, no geforce, unless you can convince me otherwise) would you suggest?
Also, how big of a power supply would i wanna get for my case, and what's the best/cost-effective way to keep the system cool?

I dont overclock really, cause i dont know the first thing about it, other than what i use to do with my radeon 9700 all-in-wonder.

I'm sure if i learned though it'd be something i'd want to mess with.

Also, i want the ability to expand the machine as i learn, and of course, from what i'm seeing PCI-e is the best stuff as far as graphics go.

I'll build this in stages, and i'm familiar with a few of the sites out here to get parts from..

anyone kind enough to suggest something deserves a big thanks!
emailing me suggestions would be fantastic, as i'm not on the computer as often as usual (which is why i'm building one) and i check my email as much as i can.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
- Jerry
mr2324jgf@hotmail.com

 

[Rob423]

well welcome aboard.

I don't think i have to do any convincing just read the reviews nViDIA is the champ right now the 7800GTX BFG card OWNZ!

if you want a battlefield RIG

i'd reccoment atleast 1GB... Corsair xms or Crucial
x2 4200+ or higher, Or maybe a 64 4000+... check out the prices and see what you like.
and asus a8n...

the Cpus run socket 939.
nVIDIA nforce 4 pretty much rules right now.

And ATI is just slacking right now in Graphics. Just check out the reviews.

Plus if you ever consider SLI... nVidia ownz that as well, the crossfire stuff is just weak.


NEWEGG>COM

GoodLUCK.

Rob.

 

[mr2324jgf]

sounds pretty good.....nice ideas for sure. I'm impressed with those reviews and i've seen nothin but good on that vid card too. Definately will be going 1gig, corsair

I think that sums it up

further suggestions apprecaited :-D

 

[pickxx]

I would say....
3800+ X2
EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra
1GB Corsair Value RAM
7800GT
200-250GB HDD(thats where the price per GB is the cheapest)

And you're good to go.....
Yu really don't need an X2, you could geta 3200+ single core.....but one core would run BF2 and the other core would run all your background tasks....so you get a little extra cpu boost because the cpu only has one thing to do.

Just my personal choice.

 

[NamelessMC]

I have only a case, it's a mid atx-tower. I dont really have a limit on the price i can spend, but since it's over time, the cheapest the better. I'd say a 500-1000 dollar machine (excluding periphs, monitor n such) would suffice.

My goal, to play battlefield and similar games flawlessly. BF2 is the game i'm wanting to gear the machine around, and of course the more you can see, the realer it feels.

What motherboard (Msi preferred or similar), Processor (AMD guy here, no intel pentium stuff) and Video card (ATI, no geforce, unless you can convince me otherwise) would you suggest?
Also, how big of a power supply would i wanna get for my case, and what's the best/cost-effective way to keep the system cool?

I guess you guys missed that part haha

Okay well I just got done building today.

Few tips I can give out, make sure you find the sweet spot between cheap and fancy. For example, you want an AMD. Theoretically you'd go with a 64-bit, but which? Well the 3000+ 939 socket is about 140, the 3200+ is about 152, and you can get a 3700+ san diego for just under 200. The sweet spot is the 3200+. It's 50 dollars cheaper than the 3700+, and it's only 12 dollars more than the 3000+.

If you want a decent motherboard for cheap, Chaintech VNF4 Ultra Zenith is very good and cost me about 75 shipped to my front door. If you don't plan on OCing, getting a generic ram would benefit you the most, for that you can get any of the value lines of ram.

PCI-Express is the way to go right now, although I don't fully understand how PCI-express works, I know only that it does.

There are tweaks out there to get bang for buck.

I bought a Sapphire X800GTO2 for 237 and unlocked it to the power of a 350 dollar videocard, which can be done very simply, just have to follow directions.

I'm currently working out the small details but if you want to know a good base structure, this will work:

Get a 400 watt ATX2.0 powersupply (Make sure it's 2.0, I messed that part up =( )
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra (Try allstarshop.com, zipzoomfly.com or newegg.com)
Sapphire X800GTO2 (Allstarshop, free shipping, cheapest price, best card for the money)
Cheapo Crucial/Corsair or OCZ DDR400 ram, 1gb (2x 512 sticks to use dual channel) try newegg for ram they always have it cheapest
The integrated sound that they recommended to me was just as good as they said it was, I can't notice a difference between that and my old Audigy 2
Those are the basics, for processor, only get something above 3200+ if you do something advanced like rendering, photoshop, programming. 3000/3200 is really nice for gaming if you have the ram and the videocard to boost it.

 

[pickxx]

I have only a case, it's a mid atx-tower. I dont really have a limit on the price i can spend, but since it's over time, the cheapest the better. I'd say a 500-1000 dollar machine (excluding periphs, monitor n such) would suffice.

My goal, to play battlefield and similar games flawlessly. BF2 is the game i'm wanting to gear the machine around, and of course the more you can see, the realer it feels.

What motherboard (Msi preferred or similar), Processor (AMD guy here, no intel pentium stuff) and Video card (ATI, no geforce, unless you can convince me otherwise) would you suggest?
Also, how big of a power supply would i wanna get for my case, and what's the best/cost-effective way to keep the system cool?

I guess you guys missed that part haha


Really? i missed that part? find the parts i said online and it should come to belwo $1000 bucks.....and would beat the hell utta he one you picked....Dont make me dig your eye out with a pitchfork.

I did miss a PSU, get a 400W Enermax or FSP one....either brand is good, whichever is cheaper

 

[reader850]

That Chaintech doesn't have firewire/1394, which you will probably prefer for photo/video transfers from your camera and camcorder. You WILL want to overclock once you learn how easy it is, so get the EPOX pickxx recommends. A very informative current rundown on MoBos is at "http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1639727&enterthread=y ". (Hope I don't get into trouble for a reference to the competition.) BF2 runs great on my ATI 800XL, but if I built a new computer today, I'd get the 12 pipeline 6800GS, very good performance for less money. Today at NewEgg the "XFX PVT42GUAD7 Geforce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail" is $215. A 7800 GT is super but costs a lot more. Also, I would go with 2x1024 RAM (2 Gigs) for BF2 best performance. I have only 2x512, which is fine, but BF2 is one game that really runs and loads significantly better/smoother/faster with 2GBs.

 

[mr2324jgf]

very good guide for what i'm looking for...both suggestions are excellent....now to get the dang thing bought and paid for :-D Thanks reader