Building a gaming rig for the first time

[Shade Sparrow]

Okay, I know how to construct the pc once I have all of the hardware. My problem is choosing the hardware. I'm 15 years old and I've only owned one pc in my life. Unfortunately, my pc is from 2000 and won't run the lowest games from a year ago XD

 

Because of this, I'd like to build a new pc, for the performance and the satisfaction of building my own. I'm not sure if I want to overclock or not. My budget is going to be anywhere from $2000-$2500. I definitely wouldn't mind shaving off a few hundred dollars as long as it will give me good performance for a while. The pc will be built at the end of this summer.

 

I'd like a nice sized widescreen LCD monitor, so keep that in mind. Anyway, I need help choosing hardware since I'm just beginning to gain interest in computers and pc gaming. If you could provide price and a link to the product, that'd be great.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps.

 

-Shade Sparrow

 

P.S. - If posts like these aren't allowed here, sorry. I saw some other topics asking for help but they already had a basic list of what they wanted. Not sure if this is allowed.

Edited May 2, 2007 by Shade Sparrow

[jammin]

Of course it's allowed, in fact it's encouraged

 

Your budget should be able to get you something very nice indeed (I'm sure we can bring in a nice under budget version as well).

 

You've explained pretty well what's required I think, but I have a couple more questions which should help when putting together a list of components.

 

What sort of games do you play / are planning on playing?

 

Are you planning on using it for other tasks apart from gaming, such as edit video/audio or using 2D and 3D design programs (e.g. Photoshop, 3DS Max)?

 

I'm assuming you want to include everything, do you need a new mouse and keyboard? Speaker system?

Any other priorities.. such as what kind of look you're going for and if it being quiet is important to you.

 

I think that pretty much covers everything

I'll start scanning around to see what fits into your budget.

Edited May 2, 2007 by jammin

[UkJenT]

He can pretty much get any high powered system with a $2000 - $2500 budget.

[Verran]

Here's what I'd build:

 

Intel Core2Duo E6600 2.4Ghz 4MB L2 Cache ($230)

eVGA 8800GTX PCI-Express (575/1800) ($560 - $30MIR)

G.Skill PK 2x1GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 ($120)

Gigabyte 965P-S3 Skt775 ($115)

OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU ($127 - $25MIR)

Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Sound Card ($75)

2xWestern Digital 36GB Raptor 10,000RPM 16MB Cache (2x $100)

Seagate Barracuda 500GB SataII 16MB Cache HDD ($150)

Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler ($55)

 

Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen 2ms LCD ($315 - $20MIR)

 

Total: $1947 ( - $75 in Mail-In Rebates)

 

Final: $1,872

 

Wow. That's basically a top of the line system with a killer 22" monitor and it's LESS than the minimum of your budget! That's pretty cool. If you needed a mouse, keyboard, or speakers, you could still get very nice ones and be at the lower end of your budget.

 

Also, like jammin said: Not only are threads like this "allowed", but they're ENCOURAGED. Don't hesitate to ask for help on stuff like this.

[Shade Sparrow]

To answer your questions, I mostly will be playing shooters and RPGs. Right now I'm looking at FEAR and Oblivion as my first games.

 

I'm going for your usual gaming rig look. I'd like for it to have a side window and basically any case design you think looks cool. I had a question though. Do LEDs come in the case already or do you need to buy & install them yourself?

 

As for accessories (keyboard, mouse, headset, and such) I wouldn't worry about them right now. I'll try to get them from my parents for Christmas. I'd still like suggestions as to which to get though, so I don't end up getting junk.

 

For quietness, I would love a quiet and watercooled system, but I think it would probably be too hard to install, and where I live few people have experience with computers and the ones that do try to rip you off on everything So getting a store or family friend to help won't work out for me (yes, family friends still try to rip us off here XD). Are watercooled systems hard to install? If you wouldn't recommend trying it I can just go the traditional way. Noise isn't a huge issue.

 

I don't think I'll be video or audio editing much. Maybe the occasional video for Youtube, but nothing requiring a lot of power.

 

I liked Verran's system with the $1900-ish budget. I have a Windows XP Home Edition cd. Would you guys recommend upgrading?

 

Thanks for the help

Edited May 2, 2007 by Shade Sparrow

[BobTheMystic]

As far as XP home goes, no I wouldn't worry about upgrading. When I got hired on at Intel a month or so back I said to my manager, "so have you guys gotten a chance to play around with Vista yet?" He looks at me, chuckles and says, "It's been bouncing around on our computers for about 3 years now, I still wouldn't buy it." I'm very firmly in that camp as well. I don't believe Vista can do anything for me that XP couldn't. You may want to upgrade when DX10 games start comming out, but the only title I've heard of so far that uses any DX10 features is Crysis, and that's not scheduled for release for another couple months.

[Shade Sparrow]

Well, it isn't being built for a couple months

[jammin]

If it's not being built for a couple of months then wait until then before you decide what you are going to buy.

A lot can change in a couple of months (r600 based cards are out later this month for example)

 

Verrans build looks pretty good if you want to go down the single graphics card road. You wouldn't need a 700W PSU if you did though (unless you wanted to keep it for a future multi-gpu system).

A Corsair HX 520 would be plenty.

 

You have a plenty of time to research components and keep on top of new releases. By the time you come to buying it should be easy

Edited May 2, 2007 by jammin

[Kash]

Unless there is a specific feature in Vista that you absolutely need, there's really no reason to get it.

 

I personally upgraded because I'm a sucker for eye candy

 

I don't think you should go with watercooling, especially not with your first major build. You should definitely try and make this as simple as you can for yourself. Plus, aircooling delivers some great performance, even for overclockers.

 

As for waiting on the keyboard/mouse/etc, I think you would be better off getting them now. I'm not sure what sort of keyboard/mouse you have now, but if it's a holdover from your previous computer, then an upgrade is definitely needed, especially if you will be gaming often. A good keyboard and mouse can make for a big difference in how well you play and how much you enjoy the game. Plus, a really good keyboard and mouse won't set you back any more than $70 or $80. With budgets like Verran's, I'm sure you can manage $80 more

[Shade Sparrow]

The reason I'm worried about not upgrading to vista, is I don't want next year to not be able to run new games at all because they're all DirectX 10. Then again, I still want to play my old games.

 

And is it really too early to consider? It's only 2-3 months from now.

Edited May 2, 2007 by Shade Sparrow

[Verran]

You don't really need to worry about that. Vista will still play all of your old DX9 games. Also, you will still be able to play the upcoming DX10 games without Vista. From what I'm reading, the DX10 games will transfer to XP just fine and you'll simply be missing some of the DX10-specific features. At first glance, that seems like a big deal, but that may not be the case. To me, it sounds a lot like the old SM3 debate. People made such a huge deal about how some cards could do it and others couldn't, and in the end it really wasn't a big deal at all. DX10 could be that way. If you already own an OS, I'd say it's best to just stick with it until you know more. There's no reason to buy it now if you don't need it.

 

From what I have been reading, the best reviews are saying that Vista is just as good as XP. Apart from a few bells and whistles that don't really make any large productivity changes, most good reviews are saying it's about the same as XP. The bad reviews, however, are saying some pretty nasty things. A lot of people are still having a lot of problems with Vista, and most people are reporting the same or worse gaming performance as XP. Given all of that, I just don't see a reason to buy it at the moment if you don't need to.

[Shade Sparrow]

If it's not being built for a couple of months then wait until then before you decide what you are going to buy.

A lot can change in a couple of months (r600 based cards are out later this month for example)

 

Verrans build looks pretty good if you want to go down the single graphics card road. You wouldn't need a 700W PSU if you did though (unless you wanted to keep it for a future multi-gpu system).

A Corsair HX 520 would be plenty.

 

You have a plenty of time to research components and keep on top of new releases. By the time you come to buying it should be easy

I'll go with the 700W so I can upgrade later if I want to.