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First time home building a system, looking for advice.

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tahogan   08-04-2006 at 09:36:40 PM

Although it held up surprisingly well for 4 years, with nothing but a video card upgrade, my old pre-built Dell system nearing the end of its life. So, my goal is to do a budget upgrade/rebuilt to a respectable gaming rig, while keeping some of the less outdated / critical hardware from the Dell.

Basically, I'm hoping to re-use all my HD, CD, DVD, Network cards, external devices, etc. So, what I'll be needing is . . .

- Case / Power Supply
- Motherboard
- CPU
- 1G of RAM (I doubt I'd be reusing the 512 stick of generic stuff that came pre-built with the Dell, assume it's probably about bottom of the barrel)
- Graphics Card

I've got a pretty good handle on graphics card technology and what my options are there, but as far as the rest goes, I'm a relative newbie, especially when it comes to Motherboards and compatability with CPU/RAM. I'm not really looking for a monster machine or anything, just something that will be able to respectibly run the next generation of games at medium to high level.

In terms of budget, I'm hoping to stay in the neighborhood the $500 mark or so. Under $1000, worst case.

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Doughbuy   08-04-2006 at 10:15:52 PM
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I'm guessing since you want a tower, you want lots of room for 3.5" drives and 5.25". I would recommend the TT Shark. It's only around $150, all alumminum so it doesn't weigh a ton (15 lb's or so) and looks damn nice.

Get a C2D E6600 for around $340, Gigabyte for Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 about $150, 2 gig of A-Data DDR2 ram for $150 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211011). Top it all off with an Antec True Power 2.0 550W for anohter $100

Well.. thats like $900. You could get a cheaper case for $100 or so, but don't know how "tower" it would be. You could also downgrade to a C2D E6300 which would save another $100 or so. $700? Sound good?

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tahogan   08-04-2006 at 10:21:46 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

I'm guessing since you want a tower, you want lots of room for 3.5" drives and 5.25". I would recommend the TT Shark. It's only around $150, all alumminum so it doesn't weigh a ton (15 lb's or so) and looks damn nice.

Get a C2D E6600 for around $340, Gigabyte for Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 about $150, 2 gig of A-Data DDR2 ram for $150 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211011). Top it all off with an Antec True Power 2.0 550W for anohter $100

Well.. thats like $900. You could get a cheaper case for $100 or so, but don't know how "tower" it would be. You could also downgrade to a C2D E6300 which would save another $100 or so. $700? Sound good?



Consider that a misuse of terminology on my part. I just meant I was looking to build a pure "case" system. i.e. I don't care at all about peripherals. Just the guts of the case. My bad.

Reply to tahogan
tahogan   08-04-2006 at 10:31:19 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

Trying to get as close to that $500 as I can.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119068

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103735

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813123007

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231085

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102007

Comes to about $570 after rebate.



I see you followed me from the Graphics Card forum *grin* Thanks for the excellent suggestions; you've been extreamely helpful today!

Reply to tahogan
Gary_Busey   08-04-2006 at 10:34:59 PM
- 0 +

No problem. I'm sure someone around here has a better set up than my suggestion. The only thing I really think you should be set on is the X1800XT. ATI is great with Oblivion.

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tahogan   08-04-2006 at 10:39:22 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

No problem. I'm sure someone around here has a better set up than my suggestion. The only thing I really think you should be set on is the X1800XT. ATI is great with Oblivion.



*nod* My other main motivation for upgrading is Neverwinter Nights 2 which is comming out (supposedly) this fall. Doubt it's as graphically intensive as Oblivion, but it'll still be nice to have a machine capable of running it well. And I've seen mostly good things about the ATI X1800XTs anyway.

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