Tech struggling Girl needs help building a gaming pc ~Please Help~

[cutepinkflower]

Hay guys , my X-boyfriend recently me got into computer games and I really want to play Crysis, The Sims (I love that game) and other new games. The computer needs to be upgradeable and last a long time because I dont know what games I will play in the future.



I really don't know much about building a computer but my friend promised to help.

I found these parts below with a little research and I was wondering what you guys think?

I am worried about heating issues and that the parts are not compatible.

If you have any suggestions on parts that will go better with the system just let me know.

I especially need help with the motherboard, those things just confuse me.

Anything I am forgetting or any general tips to build a computer?

Thanks for the help

Jen


Processor

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Dual-Core Processor – Retail – 159.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773

Power Supply

Rosewill RX950-S-B ATX 12V v2.2 & EPS 12V v2.91 950W Power Supply 100 - 240 V TUV, FCC, UL, CE, ROHS – Retail - 240

Video Card

VGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail – 500.00

VGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail – 500.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130072&Tpk=EVGA%2b768-P2-N831-AR

Case

Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case – Retail – 89.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133154&Tpk=Thermaltake%2bArmor%2bSeries%2bVA8000BWS%2bBlack%2bAluminum

Ram - Not sure on what I want to go with here

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail – 46.99 x3 – 100.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail – 105.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Motherboard

ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard – 169.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131011

Hard Drives
Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS 1TB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM – 270.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136151&Tpk=Western%2bDigital%2bCaviar%2bGP%2bWD10EACS
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM – 169.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136012&Tpk=Western%2bDigital%2bRaptor%2bWD1500ADFD

Disk Drives
ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe – Retail – 40.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135156


Thanks again!

 

[Dharmesha13]

if i were you id trade the gtx's for 2gt's or 2 gts's 512 and upgrade the cpu to q6600 or a dual core 6850 OR wait for the new intel processors coming out in January

 

[dmroeder]

I would not buy that Rosewill power supply either. Read this and go with the best one you can afford.

Also, 6 gigs for RAM and a 1TB hard drive is ridiculous IMO for a rig that is going to be for crysis and the sims.

 

[VTOLfreak]

The cpu choice seems an odd choice considering the other components you picked. Go for a C2D cpu with 1333Mhz FSB. Or a C2D Quad if you want.
I would also buy 8800GT's with 512MB instead of GTXes. The GTX is still faster then the GT but the price difference isnt worth it. Id also go with 2x2GB memory. RAM is pretty cheap nowadays.

 

[mahoumatic]

Nothing problematic, not any single item, the only problem is that
whether you want to spend that much for a gaming rig...

The board should be okay, or you may get the version without WiFi...

You should get 2 pairs of 2GB, if you are spending that much for the
other thing...And maybe you should get a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
rather than a Western Digital Caviar GP...

Well, maybe you can consider to be a bit more friendly to the earth.
You rig will consume a lot...

 

[zenmaster]

As others have said Go, Intel. Much Faster.
The Cards you picked are Overpriced with faster options now out there.

1) Intel E6750
2) 680i Motherboard (For SLI Support)
3) Two 8800GTS 512MB cards. (Not the 640mb, the 512mb are faster.)
4) Look at the PC Power and Cooling 750w Quad. for a PSU.

Don't fret about upgrading.
Generally, the best option is to sell the comptuer and buy new parts.

In general, upgrading will not give peak performance since differnt parts will hold you bak.

Example - DDR2 is the memory of choice today. But 1 year from now, DDR3 will be the performance rage. However, today it's just a waste of money to get DDR3. It's just priced crazy.

 

[Can Not]

Processors

2GB DDR2 or 4GB DDR2
Don't get 4GB unless you're getting Vista 64bit

Then buy and SLI 2 512MB 8800GTs. (or 512MB 8800GTS with G92 revision)
Make sure you get an SLI compatible motherboard.

Also, you might be going overkill on the hard drives. I'd recomend a single 500GB, but if you feel like you need a whole terabyte, you'd probably know yourself better than I do. Also, the Rapter probably isn't worth it. All it will do is slightly increase load times for the first 150GB of games you have and make people jealous. I think that money could be better spent on 3 brand new PC games like Orange Box, UT3, and soon SoulStorm.

 

[monste4321]

well i wouldnt totally shoot down the 2 8800 gtx's but like everyone says 2 8800 gts g92's would be a bit cheaper, the whole thing is how much money you really want to spend on a computer, also i personally wouldnt use vista 64 bit or 32 bit id go with xp 64 bit, much smoother the only thing u really dont get is dx10 which isnt really worth all the other hassels,

also id go with the intel q6600 quad core and screw amd and then go with a nice motherboard with 680i chipset,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131074
that is a real nice one and if your going for the best of most things u might as well get a real nice motherboard, plus its got a good sound card and the nice led read out

and drop that powersupply its junk the pc and p 750 quad is good

 

[DavidMS]

Just looking at your needs, I saw a couple of things. When building a PC the three parts to spend money on are Power Supply, RAM and Mainboard. I agree with everyone suggesting 2 GB of RAM, but always recommend Corsair and Crucial, but once you get into quality RAM, it really doesn't make a difference. I tend to advise against getting the fastest and most expensive memory because there isn't enough of a performance diffrence.

For a PSU, anything that says Antec Earthwatts or PC Power and Cooling (of sufficient wattage scaled for the system) gets my vote.

As for mainboard, unless you absolutely positively MUST HAVE SLI/Crosfire look at something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131234 drop the 2nd graphics card because it more than doubles your cost (2x graphics cards and more expensive mainboard). The last thing I saw was your storage system. If you don't really need the 1TB+ of storage think about getting 2x 320 GB SATA HDDs in a RAID Mirroring array (any decent board will do it). The drives are decently prices and will give you a nice performance boost when reading data (important when loading the next map) and some redundancy against failure.

Good luck!

David

 

[Can Not]

I think the GTX's slightly better performance isn't worth the cost or power bill. Also, if money is no object, pick that ASUS "The Ultimate Gaming Motherboard", its ****ing assume. It comes with a removable soundcard and Ghost Recon.

Also, I'd just get a Dual Core now, and then upgrade to a 4 or 5 GHz 45nm Quad core when those come out later.

 

[alienzerox]

drop the amd & go with intel q6600 ... drop the rosewill ps & get a ocz 700 watt gamestream ... drop the 2 x 8800gtx & get the 8800gts 512mb [needs 2 slots] or the 8800gt 512mb [needs 1 slot] either evga or xfx ... get 4 gigs of matched ddr2 800 ram [2 @ 2x1 gig kits] i went with crucial ballistix because i used it before and know it's reliable but the g.skill 2 x 1 gig you chose is fine, get 2 sets not 3 unless those are backups ... for the mobo ... evga nforce 680i sli 122-ck-nf68-ar is great ... i went with the striker extreme because i have coveted it for a long while

best of luck with the build

check out what i made just recently

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=31&post=245979&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

just a thought ... which sound card are you going with?

a lot of people like the fatality branded creative x-fi card ... but since i can't stand that guy, i refuse to make him rich by buying his stuff....

ohh and i went to my local pc store for my sata drives and saved a lot of $$$ [2 x wd 500 gig]

 

[monste4321]

just my opinion, but what the heck is the point of an expensive sound card, the human ear unless well trained will never know the difference between that and a nice onboard sound card, also id go with 2 sticks of 2 gig ram, less hassle

 

[merid14]

just my opinion, but what the heck is the point of an expensive sound card, the human ear unless well trained will never know the difference between that and a nice onboard sound card

have you ever listened to music using onboard sound then put in an x-fi card and listen to the same song? I do not have a trained ear at all and i could tell a major difference. but then again it depends on your speakers if you have a crappy 10watt speaker set its not going to do you any good.

 

[monste4321]

i got mine hooked through an optical cable to my custom built 2500 watt home theater system =P but i used to use onboard sound and didnt care, but i built the home theatre system and decided why not

 

[monste4321]

haha its not about tree hugging its about how much u want to pay in electricity for ur dammn comp unless if u live in ur moms basement and dont pay for it

(plz do not be offended by this statement, i am not trying to make fun of any single person, im just using it as an example)

 

[Zorg]

haha its not about tree hugging its about how much u want to pay in electricity for ur dammn comp unless if u live in ur moms basement and dont pay for it

(plz do not be offended by this statement, i am not trying to make fun of any single person, im just using it as an example)

I deleted the post because I thought it was a little nasty. Here is what you said.

Well, maybe you can consider to be a bit more friendly to the earth.
You rig will consume a lot...

If you were concerned about the power bill you should have said that. So I'll put it back up. Go hug a tree.

 

[AFSniper]

Zorg? Is that Zorg from Spirestone?!?! Sorry it doesn't help the thread at all, but wanted to make sure I recognized and old gaming friend...if it is in fact, ZORG!

 

[Zorg]

Nope, sorry.

 

[Dahak]

You have a fine setup.The only thing I suggest is changing out the 2 GTXs for 2 G92 GTs or GTSs.The GT performs almost as well,and sometimes better than the older G90 GTX.The GTS 512 performs on par with the GTX.Both cards are cheaper by far than the GTX and will still give awesome gaming.Goodluck.P.S. my setup is very similar and I like it.The new GTS has 512 megs of vram as opposed to the older 640 meg and 320 meg cards.Make sure you get the 512 version so you are getting the newest GPU core.

Dahak

M2N32-SLI DELUXE WE
X2 5600+ STOCK (2.8GHZ)
2X1GIG DDR2 800 IN DC MODE
TOUGHPOWER 850WATT PSU
EVGA 8800GT SUPERCLOCKED
SMILIDON RAIDMAX GAMING CASE
ACER 22IN WS LCD 1680X1050
250GIG HD/320GIG HD
G5 GAMING MOUSE
LOGITECH Z-5500 5.1 SURROUND SYSTEM
500WATS CONTINUOUS,1000 PEAK
WIN XP MCE SP2
3DMARK 05 15,686

 

[alienzerox]

just my opinion, but what the heck is the point of an expensive sound card, the human ear unless well trained will never know the difference between that and a nice onboard sound card, also id go with 2 sticks of 2 gig ram, less hassle

mainly because some of the new video games require a good sound card for you to even hear the audio ... bioshock & cod 4 are 2 that come to mind

on my old box i used hi-fi link pro to connect to my stereo aux inputs ... i didn't need a audio card ... all of my games, movies & audio file played beautifully through it ... when i bought bioshock, i had major audio problems.

i really needed to build myself a new rig to keep up with the new games coming out ... i decided to get a hi-end audio card, i haven't bought a sound card ever since my purchase of the hi-fi link pro over ten years ago.

 

[BustedSony]

So what's wrong with the ATI HD 3870s? Jen said "Futureproof." The 3870 has DirectX 10.1, the Nvidias are 10.0. Also for crossfire the best chipset is the X38, which will have a longer life and better future upgradability than the already old 680i needed for SLI. And finally two 3870s in Crossfire outperform two 8800GT/GTSs in SLI, much more quietly, and with lower power consumption than even one 8800GTX.

So, Asus Maximus motherboard, E6750 or Q6600 CPU, four gigs of good memory - supporting two HD3870s. That is the system I am running (with Q6600) and gameplay is remarkable!