Help with building a PC (clueless man over here)!

Alrighty, so it's finally time for me to upgrade ye ole system that I bought way back in 2006. 'Twas a pre-built machine and it has served me well.
I bought it because I know jack-**** about picking hardware out for a PC, and that's why I've come to you guys and girls for some help.

Info
I've about $1800, give or take, to spend on a new PC. (about 15000 SEK)

I don't live in the US, so the website I've heard great things about in terms of pricing, newegg, is out of the questiola

If there is a website that ships internationally, I'd really like it if the shipping cost isn't all too much ^^ Living in Sweden has its drawbacks ye :P

I'm looking to replace everything that I have in my case and outside of it :P
So the necessary hardware + mouse, keyboard, monitor and headphones. I think using the build-in soundcard will be more than enough for me.
Will also be needing OS.

Questions
If bought in the US, will there be voltage-problems? IE the hardware not working as it should? Will I need an adapter of some sort?


That's about all there is to it really
If anyone would wanna help me build a "most-bang-for-the-buck-system", I will be forever grateful


Peace and love to you, brothers and sisters!

*edit*
Forgot to mention that I play alot of highend games, Crysis, FC2, and will want to be playing future games too =)
Also work alot with Adobe products (Photoshop, Flash etc.) and 3D modeling programs (ZBrush, Maya etc.)
But mostly gaming So a gaming rig would be optional!

I think all PSUs are 110V/220V switchable - you'd probably just need to supply your own kettle lead.

Ordering from America seems a bit extreme - wouldn't shipping from Britain be cheaper?

Have a look at http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/home.html

I just thought since the dollar is as low as it is when I convert currency, that I would get more bang for the buck ordering from America Didn't even think about the £. The Novatech website looks really promising, prices are pretty nice compared to over here (~£50 difference) and if they ship to over here, even better!

You would have to use a company that buys things for you and then ships them overseas. They charge a specific percentage based fee for their services. Best you can hope for is that Newegg expands into Europe sooner rather than later.

Novatech has pretty good reviews, and I have started using it to find parts for you Euros. If they ship to you, give us the ok, and I will make a parts list for you.

You should have zero voltage problems if you buy parts in the US and ship to Europe... I have done that myself 2-3x and it's not an issue - it's generally speaking the same parts anyways. Shipping would be really high from the USA, I'd try to get it from Europe if I were you. I put together a nice system for gaming/graphics work this past summer to the tune of just over $1000.00 - that was everything but OS, mouse and speakers. You should be able to do just as well in Sweden as I did in Romania I would think....

Thanks for the replies guys

Rahja: Yes, Novatech do ship to Sweden real cheap too!

Elder: Ah I see, then buying from newegg even IF they would ship internationally wouldn't save me much money ^^. How well is that PC working out for you? What sorta FPS are you getting overall?

Bear in mind that I am no computer wiz, so overclocking and the likes seem like risky business to me (knowing so little about it). I'd rather not mess about with it :P

I was getting 220+ FPS in GW, and 50-80 FPS (dependent on what i was doing) in Oblivion with ALL eye candy at max - Resolution was 1680x1050 on a 20" lcd monitor. I got a 9850 Phenom Quad Core @ 2,5 ghz stock speed with a HIS Radeon 4850 512mb GPU, and 4GB of DDR2 PC6400 RAM. With your budget you should be able to get a 4870 1GB or a GTX 260 at least and play all games at max, even Crysis. This is assuming that you do the assembly yourself of course.

well, an nice motherboard, one with nice colers and a AM3 socket.
buy an amd phenom II, fastest one and for graphics an HD4870.
get 4GB of DDR3 memory, agaijn one with nice colors.
nice casing, dont buy a cheap one, ancet or cooler master have nice cases.
power supply is needed to, 600 watts or more will do.

NEVER get an q-tec power supply
NEVER I SAY.

now get DVD burner, hard drives and keyboard/mouse thingy.
what is left of your 1800 dollars will be enough to buy windows, screen, and some nice games.
get fallout 3, nice shooter, and maybe FEAR 2

Don't post very often and I don't know your pricing options in Sweden.
Right now AMD has some CPU's that are competitive price-wise with all but the top line Intel CPU's.

A top of the line system can only be built with an Intel i7 processor and X58 chipset motherboard but they require DDR3. All in all it's a bit more expensive than anything but powers thru calculations like nothing else either. I am trying to talk myself out of building one just because the cheapest CPU/Mobo/Ram I am finding is still well over $500. That's hitting up some people selling them below retail as it is and for low end(lol ya right) equipment.

The next step puts Intels Q series like the 9950 against the PhenomII 940 for example as both are quad cores with similar results in most benchmark testing. The Intel's tend to be just a hair better though they do cost a bit more. Most of the research I have done shows almost no improvement by using a quad core over a dual core at this time for gaming. Programs and games just don't take enough advantage of them ..yet. Programs like MAYA might take better advantage of them though so you should still consider them.

Dual core is the recommended setup for most gamers at this point. Intels Core 2 Duo E8400(the E8xxx) series are great chips and AMD's real competition in that group should be out this month in the PhenomII 720 X3 BE which is actually a 3 core processor. They also have the Phenom 7750 out now which is a dual core processor.

Once you decide on the CPU you want to build around then you can limit the mobo's, ram, and to some extent graphics cards you are looking at. At this time your graphics card has the most effect on your gaming experience though so that will be one of your most important purchases second only to a strong PSU. I am a firm believer in strong, high quality Power supplies.

Unless you decide to go with an i7 processor I'm not sure I would recommend DDR3 right now. Much like the change from DDR to DDR2 there is very little performance improvement for the change. That will of course change with time like all things in tech do.

Rhaja will give you a solid suggestion for a build I am sure. A big question is how long you want to ride this computer out. If it's for a couple years than I would lean towards an i7 myself but if you don't mind having an upgrade path than any of the midrange Intels(E8xxx and Q9xxx) will (some already do) have motherboards that use DDR3 letting you upgrade just the mobo and ram when DDR3 is at a better price/performance. Similarly the AM3 cpu's work in both the AM2+(DDR2) motherboards and the new upcoming AM3(DDR3) motherboards which again allows a mobo/ram upgrade only. Of course that doesn't include upgrading/replacing GC's.

Sorry to not include links to the items I described but a quick google search should grab them for you in better detail.

Good luck and have fun

Thanks for the nice post Neb!
I compared the prices of an Intel i7 940 over here and one in America. Over here it would cost me $745 and on newegg.com it's $560 AND comes with free shipping :P Terribly expensive I'm sure Rahja will find something nice for me on the novatech website
I think going for the i7 setup is the way to go. It seems to be the most future reliable system albeit expensive.

Since I'm not exactly a man of means, I'd really like the system to last for at least a few years ^_^.

Question about SLI/Crossfire: is it worth it? I was looking over some reviews and I couldn't really tell the difference between an SLI/Crossfire system and a single card setup :S

I'll tell ya what, Rahja and others help me buy my i7 system and I am very satisfied with their help. My budget was only slightly higher then yours and for about $2000 i spend on the system, I am absolutely tearing games apart.

Im running the 920 i7 processor, EVGA x58 motherboard, 6g of ddr3 ram, 2xGTX 260's,a Corsiar 850w power supply, Raptor 300g HD, a Thermaltake Armor+ VH 6000 series case,and an HP DvDr drive. Most was suggested by the ppl on here.

It's only really worth it for eye candy games like Crysis to run at resolutions of 1680x1050 and above, and games that scale well with powerful GPU's. At the moment, more and more games scale rather well with it. But in the end, it probably depends on your monitor's resolution. Unless someone knows better than me about that. :P All I know is: I have an SLI system (2 8800GTS 512) and I'm really happy with it (even though I'm planning to upgrade soon, but that's just me being greedy lol). The only games I found didn't work well with SLI were Guild Wars (causes some random Blue Screens after awhile when SLI is enabled) and GTA4 (no SLI support as of yet... I doubt there ever will be...).

Before Rahja steps in to tell you all how wonderful SLI is, I thought I'd point out that GTA:IV has totally unrealistic requirements - if your graphics card has less than 1GB, you're not going to get near the max settings. Ditto with less than four cores. They claim that the higher settings are for "future configurations". I say they cocked up.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Checked out the Asus GTX 295 (sorry, website is in swedish :P) today at work and looked over some reviews, and to me, it definatly looks like the card to get. What do you guys thinks?
Really curious to see what Rahja has selected for me

*edit*
Just a thought.
It says it requires atleast 680W PSU with 6pin and 8pin power connector in order to function properly. If I have a 700W PSU, are those 680W used up by the graphics card, leaving only 20W to the other hardware?:S
Excuse my nooby question ^_^

That's the same card I'm eyeing at the moment, lol.

700w should be enough for the GTX295 + the rest of the system, but it would almost reach it's limit. And no, the 680W that's been recommended doesn't mean the GTX295 uses 680W. It has an maximum of 289W power consumption, if I remember correctly. The recommendation is for the whole system. Also, chances are that PSU's with less Watts don't have the 6pin and 8pin power connectors required for the card (even though there are adapters available).

Be aware though that GTX295 is a massive card, both in size and performance. It's basically two GPU's in one, and really shines at resolutions from 1680x1050 upwards. Make sure your case is big enough if you want to buy one.

I'm sure Rahja will find the appropriate case
From what I've read, Zalman have some nice chassis. Had a little peek on this one: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?ZAL-GS100B

That's a damn fine case, looks really good, and looks to have some very good cooling and cable management.

Other popular choices are the Antec 900, 902, 1200, NZXT Tempest, and the Coolermaster HAF932. I myself might be going with an Antec 902, those e-ATX cases are a tad too big for me. And, I think it looks pretty nice. Most of these are also slightly cheaper than that Zalman one.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?BB-920P3G - awesome mobo/i7/RAM/PSU/Antec 900 combo for £765

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?EVG-GTX26 eVGA GTX260 - 216 for £218

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?SAM-SM2233 22" Samsung for £165

That leaves just over £100 for hard drives and peripherals.

Beat that, Rahja

Snograt and I worked on that ^ list together on IRC Alexandria. I approve of it 100% based on the budget (your budget makes a Core i7 system with extremely select parts harder, but the bundle allows for that)

It might not have flashy brand names, etc, but it will work. Add in a very nice 22" monitor and that GTX 216, and you really have it made.

I was unable to come up with a better PC within that budget unless you drop down to a Phenom II. If you want to do that, we can. Just say the word.

According to the swedish website sweclockers.com (very reliable source of information), the performance difference between the Phenom II 940 and an i7 CPU is less than 10% during load. I have no idea what they meant by that, but I guess that load is when the CPU is being used by a game or other application :P
They also said that, for people with limited budget, a Phenom II system would be the better choice, because you can get a better videocard.
But then again, they all speak a strange computer-language, so what I just wrote was all I could make out from it :P
What do you think? For me with a limited budget, would I benefit more from a Phenom II system or an i7 setup?

Also, I've been thinking alot about RAM!
Some motherboards have support for 8!! GBs of RAM. To me, it sounds absolutely overkill, but perhaps it isn't. Is there alot of difference performance-wise between 4GB of RAM and 8GB?

After reading through pages and pages of reviews, I have selected the following parts. I extended my budget ever so slightly
If this looks good to you guys, I will pat myself on the back, and order it all!
Also if you think I should change something in this selection, feel free to do so for me =)

List:
Videocard
CPU
Case
PSU
DVD Writer
Memory
Monitor
Motherboard
Harddrive 1
Harddrive 2
CPU cooler
Keyboard
Mouse
OS

This came to a total of £1566, and that is with shipping included.
Am I totally out there or is this going to be a nice gaming PC for present and future games? ;O

Your motherboard will not support the RAM or the CPU that you have selected. In short it is an outdated model... MSI isn't the best brand either. You need a mobo that will take an AM2+ CPU, not just an AM2, also you want support for at least 8GB of RAM (for future) and the RAM you selected is PC8500 while the mobo you have only takes up to 4GB of PC6400 RAM.

other than that it's a nice enough system to make me jealous. XD

Phew, glad you pointed that out! That could have been a total disaster!
Any recommendations on a different motherboard then (same pricerange)?

Assuming that you want to get from the same website here's my suggestion.

https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...tml?GIG-790UD4

ton of features at that price, only 10 pounds more too. You can have a second video card down the road with that one if you want too, also faster memory and all around allot more options for the future. (I have used a couple Gigabyte mobos and I liked them, very easy to work with and a good manual to help you out if you need it.)

https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...tml?CSR-TW3X4G

add that to take advantage of DDR3 Memory it's about 20 pounds more, but if you're building for the future I'd say it's worth it.

if you want to save and go with a little less money now (and not as many expansion options for the future)... then try this board... save 25 pounds vs. what you have now, and still have all the features that you need at this time - if you get this one, then stick with the original RAM you have now.

https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...tml?ASU-M4A78P

That first motherboard, it says it is Crossfire ready, but AFAIK, only ATI cards use that function ;O Confusion!!
Will the GTX 285 I chose work with that motherboard? :S

Yeah, only nForce boards and the new intel X58 boards support nVidia SLI. If you stay with that processor and still want SLI, you won't be able to avoid a nVidia nForce 780a/750a/730a board. There may be others but I'm don't know which ones, since I mainly stick with Intel processors.

There are way more boards that support Crossfire rather than SLI, though. AFAIK, only the X58 boards support both.

a single GTx 285 will work with that motherboard yes.... in all seriousness, SLI and Crossfire are over-rated by far, unless you have a huge monitor with high resolution it's a waste of money, and even then it depends on the game, since some do not scale well with SLI/Crossfire. A single GTX 285 will violate whatever you throw at it with little trouble.