Building new system noob - Advice would be appreciated

[grey36]

I recently just gave my desktop away to my brother for his birthday, and now I’m stuck with my laptop—which is a fairly powerful one—but I still cannot really enjoy games like I used to on my desktop. So, I am thinking about building a computer primarily for game purposes, but I have never built a computer before and I am not the most computer literate person in the world.

What I have:

I already have an 8800 GTX graphics card, an X-Fi Soundblaster card, and a copy of Windows XP (32-bit). Other than that, I need everything else.

Anyway, I am looking to get the “most bang for my buck,” and I hoping to only spend around 500-750 bucks if I can build something pretty nice for around that price (if not, I’m somewhat flexible). I used to have an XPS 410 with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.4GHz and 2 gigs of RAM at 667MHz, and I would like to be able to at least match this processor and possibly add another gig of RAM. I also want a pretty good hardrive, not necessarily from a storage capacity, but a fast one.

So, if anyone would like to provide some advice for me, or possibly provide links, etc., to what you think I should build, I would highly appreciate it.

 

[not moose]

Keep the Soundblaster card, sell the 8800 and don't bother with WinXP.

Do you need a monitor, speakers, keyboard, or mouse? If you already have a monitor what is its resolution and are you planning to upgrade? Do you plan on overclocking? Some more info would be nice. Also, do you want to crossfire or not?

One last thing, where is you place of residence? (USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe).

 

[grey36]

Keep the Soundblaster card, sell the 8800 and don't bother with WinXP.

Do you need a monitor, speakers, keyboard, or mouse? If you already have a monitor what is its resolution and are you planning to upgrade? Do you plan on overclocking? Some more info would be nice.

Yeah, I need all of those parts except the mouse. To tell you the truth, I am not really looking to sell the parts that I already have (I could possibly just upgrade them later) and I already have Vista on my laptop, and I am not very impressed with it and I think it hinders my laptop's performance much of the time. I don't plan on overclocking, and if you need any more information, just ask.

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

 

[grey36]

Keep the Soundblaster card, sell the 8800 and don't bother with WinXP.

Do you need a monitor, speakers, keyboard, or mouse? If you already have a monitor what is its resolution and are you planning to upgrade? Do you plan on overclocking? Some more info would be nice. Also, do you want to crossfire or not?

One last thing, where is you place of residence? (USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe).

I'm in the U.S., not really interested in crossfire, and I am looking to get at least a 19 inch monitor with a decent resolution.

 

[not moose]

Should I include monitor etc with this build? It will drop the rigs performance overall if you want those with it. As for Vista, Windows 7 is free. Windows XP doesn't take advantage of 4gb of ram (This is what would be in your build).

If you are deadset on XP I can piece together a build involving it, with 3gb of ram.

 

[grey36]

Should I include monitor etc with this build? It will drop the rigs performance overall if you want those with it. As for Vista, Windows 7 is free. Windows XP doesn't take advantage of 4gb of ram (This is what would be in your build).

If you would be so kind, I need "everything" that is needed besides the graphics & sound card, and the operating system.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[grey36]

Should I include monitor etc with this build? It will drop the rigs performance overall if you want those with it. As for Vista, Windows 7 is free. Windows XP doesn't take advantage of 4gb of ram (This is what would be in your build).

If you are deadset on XP I can piece together a build involving it, with 3gb of ram.

I am not "deadset" on XP, the only reason why I am considering using it is because I have a copy lying around that would save me some money, and I don't know much about Windows 7. I thought it was in beta and wasn't available yet.

 

[not moose]

Antec 300 - $54.95
Corsair 550VX - $93.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 - $119.99
GIGABYTE GA-P31-ES3G - $62.99
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 800 - $47.99
Western Digital Caviar 320gb - $54.99
Samsung Black 22X DVD+R - $24.99
Hanns·G 19" - $109.99
Logitech S-220 Multimedia Speaker System - $23.99
Logitech PS/2 Standard Deluxe - $12.99

Total cost: $606.86
After rebates: $586.86

If you don't mind going a little over budget you can add a nice gpu since you will need one. If you want to keep your Windows XP, that's fine but you won't utilize the full 4gb of ram.

 

[grey36]

Wow, thanks a lot for putting this all together for me. Is the 8800 GTX that bad now? What do you mean I will need one? I remember when I bought it about 2 years ago it was the baddest thing around, man technology evolves quick. I will read up on Windows 7, and probably end up using it if it's free. Thanks so much, I might post this build around to try and get some feedback. Thanks again.

 

[not moose]

Just pick up a GTX 260 and you'll be fine for a while it'll only bring you ~$20 or so over budget. With a 1440x900 resolution monitor the GTX 260 will set you at a very nice fps with high settings on most games. Where as with the 8800 you'll probably only be able to do medium settings. Honestly, I'm not sure about the 8800 but its older and I think the GTX 260 would be better for you.

 

[grey36]

Just pick up a GTX 260 and you'll be fine for a while it'll only bring you ~$20 or so over budget. With a 1440x900 resolution monitor the GTX 260 will set you at a very nice fps with high settings on most games. Where as with the 8800 you'll probably only be able to do medium settings. Honestly, I'm not sure about the 8800 but its older and I think the GTX 260 would be better for you.

I'll definitely look into upgrading my graphics card, but I might wait a little while (I might try to sell my 8800 gtx now). Thanks again for your help...I've looked at everything, and I am seriously considering purchasing all the parts after I get so more feedback. But, for my price range, this sounds great!

 

[not moose]

You are welcome.