Hello everyone, I was looking around online for advice on computer parts and I have across this site and it looked like a pretty good place to try. A Little background. I am a computer Student who is currently out of both school and college (No place is hiring me...not even McDonalds and Walmart, and I'm not quite ready to head back to college yet) I built this computer during Christmas of '07, it was my parents big gift to me, and it's not bad if I may say so myself. Recently I had some trouble with the Motherboard and CPU. One of the clips holding the Cooling fan to the CPU and Motherboard broke, I'm not sure why. I just got finished replacing the fan bracket, and now when I start the computer there the lights all come on, but nothing happens with the Moniter and I can't turn the power off with the button, I need to use the switch on back. In my experience this means a problem with the Motherboard and/or CPU. The CPU could easily have overheated when the fan fell off, or the couple times i tried starting the computer not realizing yet what the problem was, but when I put in another CPU (which may or may not be working as it is from my previous, store bought, computer that my brother managed to kill) The motherboard may have been damaged by the fan falling off it's bracket.
Long story short I've decided that since I'm going to need to replace some parts anyway I may as well use parts that will either directly upgrade my machine, or will still be usable if I upgrade my machine.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: As soon as I can get a solid build and convince my parents that it's worth it.
BUDGET RANGE: I have 400....I may be able to get another hundred from my parents...if I'm really lucky they will spring for a bit more, but I'm pretty sure I can put together 400. When I have a more definite number I will post an update below as well as update this post
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: This is a gaming machine, pure and simple. I want to be able to run games on as high specs as I can as long as it fits in the budget.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, Case, Moniter, Operating system (XP Home) Video Card? Details will be listed below.
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I've always used Newegg, but I won't say no to other sites if they offer a better deal.
PARTS PREFERENCES: I've used AMD and ATI in the past, but that's just because it's what I know. I don't really know enough about the pros and cons to have an opinion, so I'm just worried about the price vs the preformance.
OVERCLOCKING: Never really done any Overclocking in the past, mostly because I have the factory fans in my case and on my CPU, so I'm hesitant to overclock, but like with other things, I don't know much about it, so I would do it with a system that could handle it.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe, only if the case and Motherboard can handle it and it would be cheaper then buying an equivalent quality processor as powerful as the two combined. (i.e. 2 512MBs vs 1 1GB
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1440 x 900 (at least that is what it lists as recommended on Newegg
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I'm not particularly concerned about noise, if you take a look at my case you will see it has several fans, and I keep them on high at all times, even when I'm sleeping, and i have no problems with it. Following is a list, with links, to all the parts I already have that I have no reason to believe are damaged.
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail (may be a bit overboard...as I've said, I was new and didn't know a whole lot about computer building when I made this.
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail
Hard Drives: 2 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Keyboard: Ideazon MERC KW1NAE1-X1ZXP01 2-Tone 97 Normal Keys 34 gaming keys and 11function keys Function Keys USB Gaming Gaming Keyboard - Retail This Keyboard worked well for a while, but over the past year I've been having trouble with the Z-Engine loosing all profiles when I restart my computer, and not being able to regain them without uninstalling and then reinstalling the program. But the regular keyboard part still works fine, it's just the function keys for gaming on the left that don't work, and I can live without that.
Moniter Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built-in Speakers - Retail
DVD Drive: 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 LightScribe Support - Retail
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100218L Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail
Mouse, and headset are cheap $10 things from Walmart to replace the broken ones from when I first made the computer, but they work. The Speakers are more expensive 90 Watt 2.0 speakers with built in Bass that i bought for Use at LAN parties to help stop the constant music battle (at the time they were the loudest at the party)
Broken? parts listed below, just in case someone has encountered something like this before and doesn't think one of the parts is broken.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
Long story short I've decided that since I'm going to need to replace some parts anyway I may as well use parts that will either directly upgrade my machine, or will still be usable if I upgrade my machine.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: As soon as I can get a solid build and convince my parents that it's worth it.
BUDGET RANGE: I have 400....I may be able to get another hundred from my parents...if I'm really lucky they will spring for a bit more, but I'm pretty sure I can put together 400. When I have a more definite number I will post an update below as well as update this post
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: This is a gaming machine, pure and simple. I want to be able to run games on as high specs as I can as long as it fits in the budget.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, Case, Moniter, Operating system (XP Home) Video Card? Details will be listed below.
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I've always used Newegg, but I won't say no to other sites if they offer a better deal.
PARTS PREFERENCES: I've used AMD and ATI in the past, but that's just because it's what I know. I don't really know enough about the pros and cons to have an opinion, so I'm just worried about the price vs the preformance.
OVERCLOCKING: Never really done any Overclocking in the past, mostly because I have the factory fans in my case and on my CPU, so I'm hesitant to overclock, but like with other things, I don't know much about it, so I would do it with a system that could handle it.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe, only if the case and Motherboard can handle it and it would be cheaper then buying an equivalent quality processor as powerful as the two combined. (i.e. 2 512MBs vs 1 1GB
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1440 x 900 (at least that is what it lists as recommended on Newegg
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I'm not particularly concerned about noise, if you take a look at my case you will see it has several fans, and I keep them on high at all times, even when I'm sleeping, and i have no problems with it. Following is a list, with links, to all the parts I already have that I have no reason to believe are damaged.
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail (may be a bit overboard...as I've said, I was new and didn't know a whole lot about computer building when I made this.
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail
Hard Drives: 2 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Keyboard: Ideazon MERC KW1NAE1-X1ZXP01 2-Tone 97 Normal Keys 34 gaming keys and 11function keys Function Keys USB Gaming Gaming Keyboard - Retail This Keyboard worked well for a while, but over the past year I've been having trouble with the Z-Engine loosing all profiles when I restart my computer, and not being able to regain them without uninstalling and then reinstalling the program. But the regular keyboard part still works fine, it's just the function keys for gaming on the left that don't work, and I can live without that.
Moniter Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built-in Speakers - Retail
DVD Drive: 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 LightScribe Support - Retail
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100218L Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail
Mouse, and headset are cheap $10 things from Walmart to replace the broken ones from when I first made the computer, but they work. The Speakers are more expensive 90 Watt 2.0 speakers with built in Bass that i bought for Use at LAN parties to help stop the constant music battle (at the time they were the loudest at the party)
Broken? parts listed below, just in case someone has encountered something like this before and doesn't think one of the parts is broken.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Retail