Looking for an easy guide to high-performance computer shopping

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  1. Posts : 74
    Home 7 64 on Alienware and Asus. W8 on Lenovo.
       #11

    Go here

    Budget Gaming PC | Hardware Revolution

    Just scroll down until you get to the colored chart, it has 3 different tiers of high-performance budget gaming builds. This chart really helped me decide what to buy and where although it also taught me what to look for on items the chart did not list and I ended up just doing my own research and buying items not listed in the chart , almost all items brought me to Newegg. Also go to the top right of page and check out the "The best video cards for your money February 2011" being this item is thee most important and spendy. As for CPU's, there is no reason to go Intel being AMD has the same or near the same performance as Intel chips for a fraction of the cost. The motherboard was the most difficult decision for me being a newbie to raw builds, but it's always a good idea to match your motherboard with a related video card ie-AMD and Radeon go well together for Crossfire(multiple video cards) use where as Nvidia uses SLI multiple card system. One must also think of future add-ons so get a mobo that won't need to be replaced until your next build. As for everything else it's pretty simple, you get the speed and size hard drives you want, the dvd or blu-ray drives you want and so on. The power supply must exceed the total power consumption of your components, a good power calculator to use is

    eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

    Minus monitor/s, keyboard/mouse and sound system a cool grand should get you a great system to build. As for cases just do some math, get the dimensions of the case, video card, any cpu cooler as these items usually have a tight fit, even some larger power supplies. As for cooling forget about liquid solutions unless you're just grabbing a Corsair H50 or something basic and similar for the cpu, unless you're a top extreme gamer a 3-6 fan setup will suffice.

    Good Luck.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 84
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #12

    Thank you all for your help, I found this website for building custom pc's and started playing around following the advices in this thread, here is what I came up with:

    I don't meant to advertise in any way, but the website is ComputerLX.com - Computer Systems Reseller if someone can comment on what I put together, I would appreciate that (especially if someone can point out how I can make the price lower). I want to make sure I didn't combine something that will self-destruct when I turn it on. For a monitor, I am thinking to get a refurbished dell monitor from the dell site for $100.

    The price of what I put together below (monitor not included) came out to $733.99



    AMD Athlon II 64 X4 640 Quad-Core 3GHz Processor AM3

    AMD STANDARD COOLING FAN

    Asus M4N68T-M Socket AM3/ GeForce 7025/ DDR3-1800(O.C.)/ A&V&GbE/ MATX Motherboard

    8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel

    30GB Solid State Drive SATA 3.0 (As someone mentioned, I can put the operating system, Windows 7 64bit on this drive?)

    Hitachi / WD 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB CACHE SATA 3.0Gb/s (This is for storage?)

    22X DUAL LAYER DVD-RW W/LIGHTSCRIBE (PROMO ITEM)

    nVidia GeForce GT430 1GB DDR3 DVI/VGA HDMI SLI PCI-EXP Video Card

    REALTEK 8-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD

    REALTEK 10/100/1000 Gigabit Network Card (onboard)

    Wireless-N Internal PCI Adapter

    ALLPCZONE SCORPION MID-TOWER ATX CASE

    hec X ORION 585 WATT POWER SUPPLY (MEDIUM LOAD)

    I-MICRO 103 Keys PS2 Basic Wired Keyboard

    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (W/LIFETIME OF FREE SUPPORT PACKAGE FROM ALLPCZONE, DVD & LICENSE INCLUDED)

    3-Year Limited Warranty Plan with Lifetime of free USA based Support...Custom Hand Wiring For Ultimate Air Flow, Assembled in Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    FED-EX GROUND SHIPPING "INCLUDED" (1-7 BUSINESS DAYS)
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 42
    Windows 7 pro 64bit
       #13

    If it was me I'd perhaps spend another $60-80 and get the Phenom II 955 instead of the Athlon, the difference being L3 cache, which can make a difference.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 84
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #14

    Thank you, here's my update. I took out the monitor, mouse, and keyboard, because I can probably get a good deal through ebay on those for about $120 total.

    I also took out the operating system, because I'm thinking as a student, I can purchase Windows 7 64bit for a discount from TheUltimateSteal.com website (but the site says "Windows 7 64bit Upgrade"... does that mean I will be able to install it on a new system with no operating system?)


    The price now (not including montitor, mouse, keyboard, windows) is about: $670. Is this a good deal?

    AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad-Core 3.2GHz AM3 Processor

    AMD STANDARD COOLING FAN

    Asus M4N68T-M Socket AM3/ GeForce 7025/ DDR3-1800(O.C.)/ A&V&GbE/ MATX Motherboard

    8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel

    30GB Solid State Drive SATA 3.0

    Hitachi / WD 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB CACHE SATA 3.0Gb/s

    22X DUAL LAYER DVD-RW W/LIGHTSCRIBE (PROMO ITEM)

    nVidia GeForce GT430 1GB DDR3 DVI/VGA HDMI SLI PCI-EXP Video Card

    REALTEK 8-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD

    REALTEK 10/100/1000 Gigabit Network Card (onboard)

    Wireless-N Internal PCI Adapter

    ALLPCZONE SCORPION MID-TOWER ATX CASE

    hec X ORION 585 WATT POWER SUPPLY (MEDIUM LOAD)

    3-Year Limited Warranty Plan with Lifetime of free USA based Support...Custom Hand Wiring For Ultimate Air Flow, Assembled in Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    FED-EX GROUND SHIPPING "INCLUDED" (1-7 BUSINESS DAYS)

      My Computer


  5. Posts : 10,994
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit
       #15

    Last year Maximum PC magazine decided to build their "dream machine". You might find this interesting should the day ever come that money is no object.

    Maximum PC | Dream Machine 2010
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 198
    Windows 7 Professional
       #16

    Flicks power switch and………..

    Sorry I couldn’t resist! LOL!

    Everything looks good except the motherboard for 2 reasons. First, the motherboard has onboard video and you listed a separate video card as well. There nothing really wrong with that but why pay for something you will never use. Second: to my knowledge nVidia has stopped making motherboard chipsets (North and Southbridge). It may be fine now but there may not be further driver development down the road. I would look at a AMD chipset motherboard. The AMD 8XX series motherboards are the latest and greatest and it will somewhat future proof your purchase (if there is such a word!). For a little more have a look at this. Newegg.com - ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Looking for an easy guide to high-performance computer shopping-mushroom-cloud-hb.jpg  
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Ultimate x86 + Windows XP Professional (All Genuine)
       #17

    You're PC spec is Very Good :)
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 84
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #18

    For the motherboard, I just went to the link:

    ALLPCZONE <div id="productname" >BRAND NEW - ICEBERG Gaming System Special - (FREE SHIPPING - CUSTOMIZE IT)</div><div id="productdesc">- AMD PHENOM II 965 QUAD<br>- ASUS HDMI Motherboard <br>- 8GB DDR-3 PC3-12800<br>- 1000GB SATA2 HDD <br>- DVD-RW W/

    and picked the cheapest one available.

    Then there is this motherboard listed on the site:

    Asus M4A78LT-M Socket AM3/ AMD 760G/ A&V&GbE/ MATX Motherboard

    but its $35 more, is it really worth it for my purposes?
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 198
    Windows 7 Professional
       #19

    Both boards have an onboard video chip. The M4A78LT-M has both DVI and HDMI whereas the M4N68T-M only has the older analog VGA interface. To get the best picture out of your monitor you will want to use DVI or HDMI for there is no conversion from Digital to Analog like what is needed with VGA. Not to mention more and more monitors are being shipped now without a VGA interface

    You mentioned 3D Modeling and Image Rendering. I would recommend a dedicated graphics card over a on board graphics chip. Not only will you have a more powerful GPU, you will also have dedicated memory with the card instead of slower, shared memory with the onboard chip. The trade-off is of course a dedicated card will be more expensive.

    If you are really tight for a budget then perhaps hold off on the SSD drive and go with a better motherboard and a separate video card.

    Attached is a quick build I did on Newegg minus monitor, keyboard/mouse and Win7. As you can see for less than $10 more you can get a much better PC
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Looking for an easy guide to high-performance computer shopping-new-pc.jpg  
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 84
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #20

    Building my own pc from newegg parts seems like it would save me a lot and get me a faster computer, but I have no experience in putting together my own computer...
      My Computer


 
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