I need a tech heads opinion ;-)

Alright well I've decided that I want my own computer. I am on a tight budget. This computer will run Guild Wars and all of the future releases of GW (if I am still playing) and probably other games as well. This computer will also go to college with me (which wont be long).

Here are the parts ive chosen:

Gigabyte GA-8I945P-PRO ATX Intel Motherboard - $124.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128293

Intel Pentium D 920 2.8 GHz 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core Processor - $262.00 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116237

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - $88.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145526

Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $80.00 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144415

HIS Hightech HX80GOQT256-3TOEN Radeon X800GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $195.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161146

NEC Display Solutions LCD1770GX-BK Black 17" 8ms LCD Monitor - $339.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824002284

XION Ultimate Engineering XON-001 Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450 Watt Power Supply (P4 & AMD Ready) Power Supply - Retail - $64.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208001

Logitech Black Wired Value Keyboard - $7.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823126170

Logitech Value Black Mouse - $6.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826104181

Logitech X-530 5.1 Speaker - $58.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121118

SONY 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5M Cache ATAPI/EIDE Combo Drive - Retail - $54.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106830

Total - $1,276.95

Before rebates.

Total - $1146.95

After rebates.



This should include EVERYTHING I will need to build the computer. If I have left something out please tell me.

Also, please rate 1-10 (1 being horrible 10 being awsome) and give suggestions but remember....tight budget.

Get ready...allot of "builders" will tell you to get an AMD motherboard & chipset. If this is a gaming computer then they could have a point. They can be cheaper then the Intel chipset. I am no expert on later day building....but I would have to agree with the AMD crowd.

You could save some cash and then put the "extra" cash into more ram or something like that. I would put in 2Gb of ram. Personally I do not like Kingston or Corsair ram. It is cheap ram. More prone to errors. I like Micron or Samsung made ram. www.crucial.com has great quality ram...and if you watch their site you can get it on sale at times.

swap to AMD.


Get OCZ ram, works great.

Also ignore 2gb comment, if you dont midn take out speakers and put an extra 50$ towards a 7800GT, otherwise you miss out of PS3 and other goodies, if not just dont get speakers now and get them 58$ later.

I dont like GeForce or Intel personally, bad, BAD experiences with both..

AMD and ATI all the way, Corsair RAM is fine, Kingston is my personal preference as they offer a LIFETIME warrantee on thier ram.. OCZ is good.. and Crucial is highly reccomended , If going for AMD I wouldnt go for a Gigabyte board, go for Tyan or Asus (aka asRock) (SLI nForce4)

all the gaming magazines think AMD is by far the best choice as it plays games BETTER than the intel and is LESS EXPENSIVE as well.

BEST ADVICE IS TO GO TO YOUR STORE MAGAZINE RACK AND PICK UP (OR JUST COPY) THE LATEST PC GAMER FOR THE BEST PARTS/DOLLAR SYSTEM. (LISTED IN EACH ISSUE)

Alright well I went to newegg and looked at all the dual core AMD processors and they are MUCH more than the Intel one. I also looked at some other AMD processors and they do have 1GHz compaired to the 800GHz of the dual core Intel processor their Operating Frequency was much lower.

The OF of dual - 2.8GHz with 2 x 2MB L2 Cache

If I went to newegg and put all of that information in there I would get a processor that costs about 800 bucks :-\ but then again I dont really know what im talking about so if someone could find a processor that they think beats the dual core Intel one please tell me.


I dont think I have the cash for 2GB. All of the ones I looked at were like 150+ dollars.

Well I would advise AMD and Nvidia. Ram Ive always heard corsair is the way to go. My old ATI card would bug out with GW and with that GW BSOD I heard from ATI users I would say go Nvidia, i have a geforce 6600 and i love it.

You do not need a dual core processor for GW and most games, if not all, fun fine with a simple Athlon 64(Plus, you get that cool sticker they send you with the processor.) I got my motherboard and processor combo from tigerdirect.coom for like 250-300ish and video card from best buy for 100.

I say:
AMD Athlon 64 that runs at 2.2
NVidia Geforce 6600 or better
1 Gig of Corsair ram(1 gig is all you should need for damn near anything youd be doing)
Western Digital or Seagate are best brands of hard drives most people would tell you
I would also suggest getting a 450 watt power supply or better. Its just easier.


Important note: Make sure you get a good case with good cooling. Most people tend to overlook the cooling aspect when building a PC, which is a major problem if they want everything to run at peek performance.

Amd has been neck and neck with intel even though they are using a much lower mhz.

they have a much more efficient pipeline for the processing which allows this

check some online tech sites for reviews (and comparisons) on the processor below.

it is always best to double check with some actual tested benchmarks than just opinions

this one is dual core and close in price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562

since you have asked the question here im assuming its primary use will be gaming?

in which case you dont need dual core as no games are multithreaded right now ie they only utilise a single core.
so first off an athlon64 3500 will serve you fine.

1GB of quality pc3200 ram OCZ is a personal favourite

most people will recommend an nforce4 based chipset. unless your overclocking though that chipset is no better than any of the others so go with price and features you actually foresee yourself using. but remember the motherboard is what will limit your upgrade paths in the future so do your research here and splurge if necessary

anything from a geforce 6800 or radeon 9800 up will serve fine as far as graphics go. personally i prefer the radeon for its image quality.

do not skimp on the powersupply! go with a quality name brand such as antec enermax or tagen!

pick a case according to looks and budget. you could do a lot worse than the antec sonata.. beautiful looking case well made and virtually silent.

keyboard speakers mouse etc as budget allows.

and most importantly... you need an operating system!!! dont forget to budget for winxp!!!!

FINALLY!!! Someone went Intel. I love you man!!!


As for you other choices, I like. I would rather go with a Built by ATI or Saphire video card. Power supply = most important. Spend a good $100 on the PSU alone. And of course, everyone here "buys" there OS. Since you mentioned you are going to college, you can probably get a copy of XP dirt cheap through the school.

Go Intel!!!

Intel is my personal favorite. Not just because I believe so, but 3/4ths of the Technicians here in my town believe so.

Intel ftw!

I just want to add / agree with a few things above. First off, Corsair is not cheap Ram. A couple of years ago I purchased a Dual Channel 1GB kit for around $450.00 (CAN). This stuff is fancy, extra low latency 2-2-2-5. And for added 'coolness' it has activity LEDs.

I've got between both Intel and AMD for CPU. AMD has been proven the better for most gaming experiences (Tom's Hardware Guide.com) however I can admit that it lacks in the ability to multitask, save for Dual Core which I don't believe is worth the added investment at this point in time. The Hyper-threading technology of Intel is something I do miss because as of now for some reason my AMD 4000+ doesn't like to run a game like Guild Wars and have music playing on Winamp at the same time. It'll play one song just fine, then it takes five minutes before it plays the next song on the list. This was never an issue on my Intel P4 2.4GHz with HT. Still overall, the AMD is definitly better for gaming.

Back to Ram. 2GB is not worth it at this point as well, speaking before Vista. Who knows what Vista will run like. However, it has been proven (again Tom's Hardware Guide) that the only game to experience any kind of a benefit (and it wasn't huge) with 2GBs of Ram was Battlefield 2 set to the highest detail levels. No other game showed a performance increase, and in fact some games as I recall showed slight performance decreases. But when we're looking at 110 FPS vs 105 FPS it isn't like it'd be noticable. For a tight budget there is no need to go 2GB, IMO.

I haven't had an nVidia experience since the Viper V770 TNT2 card. And that was a good card. However, lately I've been more of an ATI fan. I'm not sure there is really a reason other than the Canadian connection.

Addition: PowerSupply. Right now I'm running an OCZ 520W that was around $130 (CAN). As mentioned don't cheap out there. Make it something that has room to expand in the future, and is of quality. My previous was an Enermax (brand mentioned above) and it was quite solid as well. Also about O/S. As mentioned there is almost always an educational discount when you attend Post Secondary. I really like the discount I recieved when I went to NAIT - Free. And that wasn't the only software NAIT gave me.

Man, where do you live? Hicktown, where there's no Internet or magazines?

I have yet to meet a computer geek that would recommend an Intel chip anymore...ESPECIALLY their lousy dual-cores. And let's not get started on the Opterons servers vs. the Xeon servers.

Find me a SINGLE review that picks an Intel dial-core proc over an AMD dual-core...bet you can't.

Oh well...if you want to spend more for less, it's your money.

<<=== Geek who would recommend Intel hands down.

Ok I'll drop the Dual core and that will save me some more cash.

Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 EM64T Processor - Retail - $177.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116198

That will be the replacement Core I think. 2MB L2 Cache, P4, 800MHz, Hyperthreading, 64 Bit support, OF 3.0GHz


Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply 115/230 V TUV, UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC - Retail - $68.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103937

I had originally decided to get a PSU but I figured I wouldnt sence the case already came with one. (yea I know its alot better to go ahead and get one to replace the stock on). Thats the PSU I think ima go with.

I would get an ATi Video card but their cards are really expensive and I can get that one that is much cheaper than if I get an ATi one. Its still a radeon so im satisfied. I might look into a Sapphire one.

SAPPHIRE 100130VIVO Radeon X800GTO2 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM - $189.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102645

Thats a Sapphire card I had looked at and almost decided to go with a while ago.

I think I'm going to stick with my 1GB of ram because I dont really think I'll need 2GB of ram.


The only think I still might need help with is the motherboard. Do you think thats a good motherboard?

ROFL


My AMD 3800+ at stock speeds runs GW, Winamp, MSN, GAIM, Opera and OOo all at the same time without stuttering at all, no interruptions nothing, maybe you should clean your OS, tis not your proc for sure.

Buy AMD. Clock speed doesn't matter, it is IMPOSSIBLE to compare AMD clock speeds to those of intel, my 3800+ runs @ 2.4ghz while the intel equivalent runs at 3.7 or so.


AMD = better + cheaper.

And as for cache, the reason AMD has 512k or 1 mb is because they have an ondie memory controller and intel doesnt, so intel compensates by the 2 mb cache.


Definitley switch to AMD.


EDIT:

Spend an extra 10$-20$ and get an X850XT, better preformance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102505
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102483


EDIT2:


Spend 36 $ more and get this which will FAR outpreform your 3.0 Intels.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103539


Or spend 24$ more and get this which again will FARM outpreform your 3.0 intel

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103533

Aren't you missing a sound card? or does that come integrated in the motherboard?

onboard sound works well... most people use onboard, even me.

I'm not sure if this is allowed, I hope it is...

If you really want a good look as to how processors compare via both synthetic and real-world benchmarks check out Tom's Hardware Guide 2005/2006 CPU Charts @ http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

You'll see that for a little extra cash as noted above with either the 3500+ or 3700+ a rather large performance increase over the 630 in many applications, most notably - games.

HDS - Yeah, I figured that didn't add up. It's a little strange, this is a fresh build from only two months ago. But I suppose something happened somewhere along the line that should not have. I should give it a rebuild and see how it works out.

I will second another post here for the Antec Sonata case; it is the same model series power supply, but 450W, instead of 500W(450W is plenty).This will also save you some money over buying a case and power supply separate. Here is the link to Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129155
Interesting note: 806 Newegg customers submitted 5-star ratings for this case.

Maybe your OS, try to do a reformant, low level reformat.

Start here.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=10749

Now, when you have that sorted (it will impact your gaming MUCH more than the CPU) you have to pick AMD vs Intel.

What do I think? I won't touch Intel with a 10 foot pole unless it's a business machine and they're adamant. What makes me say that? Besides the fact that I can tear my wife's 820 a new one with a 3000+, cost and performance all around make me say that.

I could quote Tom's Hardware Guide (seriously biased BTW) or HardOCP (very good site BTW) but truth is I'm a reviewer myself, and more often than that I'm a beta tester of things you play with every day as a gamer.

SLI or CrossFire is related to the first post, but even if you don't go that route get a board that supports it-adding a card a year later CAN (not WILL) double your performance, rest of system notwithstanding.

Get at least 1 GB of RAM, and get it in a dual channel kit, all the newest processors support it and the performance increase is rather big by doing 2x512 over 1x1GB. I do recommend 2 GB, for the reason that you're future proofing for Vista (which WILL have high requirements) and for the fact that it's going to cut down on load times or even make other games playable (think BF2) so it's not a lost investment. One of the best kept secrets of the web is G. Skill RAM, and their 2x1GB kit is not only rather affordable, it also overclocks well.

Get a good high quality optical drive (just put a Sony DRU-820 in the wife's, reads and writes every format known) and don't skimp on a good quality SATA interface hard drive, your load times depend on that. Also, good stuff is often quieter.

Use this as a guide and not the Bible when it comes to these things. I build 2-3 computers a week in my personal business, so I do a lot of this, not just read it in a magazine, but those magazines aren't stupid, either.

Read a lot, ask a lot of questions, read some more, comparison shop, and let us know what you got. It's a cause for celebration when someone builds their first computer...

Serafita is very experienced. A true believer in more ram. 2Gb will be the next minimum. 1Gb is the minimum now...not 512mb. Always get matched pairs for the dual channel.

A clanmate came up with this list of parts for a price/performace buy the other day- couple guys were looking to upgrade

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227210

eVGA 7800GT 512mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130256

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz HT 1MB L2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103539

ASUS A8N-E ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131530

BenQ FP91G+ Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824014090

$975 after rebates.. go up or down on the chip depending on your budget but you want the nforce 4 chipset and 2 gigs.. this'll run everything out there and you can sli down the road

I personally would go with a sempron- just cause they mad overclocking chips.. but this rig is good to go stock =]

Gigabyte GA-8I945P-PRO ATX Intel Motherboard - $123.25 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128293

Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 EM64T Processor - Retail - $177.00 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116198

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - $88.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145526

Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $77.00 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144415

HIS Hightech HX80GOQT256-3TOEN Radeon X800GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $190.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161146

NEC Display Solutions LCD1770GX-BK Black 17" 8ms LCD Monitor - $339.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824002284

XION Ultimate Engineering XON-001 Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450 Watt Power Supply (P4 & AMD Ready) Power Supply - Retail - $64.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208001

Logitech Black Wired Value Keyboard - $7.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823126170

Logitech Value Black Mouse - $6.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826104181

Logitech X-530 5.1 Speaker - $58.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121118

SONY 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5M Cache ATAPI/EIDE Combo Drive - Retail - $54.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106830

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply 115/230 V TUV, UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC - Retail - $63.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103937


$1,252.19

Before rebates

$1202.19

After Rebates


$1351.19 <--Before Rebates - $1301.19 <-- After Rebates

Add in 99 dollars for Windows XP (If I dont borrow my friends copy of Windows XP)


$1471.19 <--Before Rebates - $1421.19 <-- After Rebates

Add in ~120 for the wireless router i'm going to have to buy (yes I am going to HAVE to buy a wireless router)


$1471.19 <--Before Rebates - $1421.19 <--After Rebates

Add in Shipping and handeling ($76.78)


So those are the two final prices if I have done my math right and if I dont change any prices. I really cannot go up in price I can only go down because I dont even know if i'm going to be able to efford this as it is now.

if you're on a budget and just want to play games and do the odd bit of office stuff that system is total overkill

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail $166.00

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $69.99

MSI Radeon X800 RX800-TD128E Video Card - Retail $123.25 (93.25 fter $30 rebate)

thats over $100 saved right there

now i know you're going to say its not as powerful and you would be correct. in benchmarks it isnt as powerful. but in real world use you probably wont notice a difference especially not in guild wars as a geforce6600 is sufficient to run it at full quality

save a bit more money by not buying a case with a powersupply already installed. you're already buying the antec why pay for another you arent going to use.

i estimate you will save another $20 - $30 here

Your budget is going to kill you if you want stuff like that-- lots of times you can re-use old equipment like a mouse and keyboard, monitors as well. If you want to go with something completely new though you did pretty good. However, from a gaming point of view I still don't understand why you'd build such a great monster of a system and then use an Intel processor. Mustache Mayhem had a great setup there... if I was looking for a new computer I'd probably go with something similar to what he suggested.

GET THE INTEL P4 HT, if its for gaming and college p4 is ur best choice, and get the ASUS p4s8x motherboard from newegg.com.. sempron and celeron are office chips, not gaming, amd is basically all gaming, p4 has both sides(thats why it cost a bit more) get the 680Watt power supply from geeks.com ($20) get a good 256mb video card for about 80$,and go on from there. 3.4ghz/3.2 ht CPU, grab for 230-300$....

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail - $166.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103535

Very good reviews on that one. The guy above also said it was a good processor.

Kingston HyperX 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - OEM - $102.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820144114

Kingston..1GB...cheap (after rebate its like 75 bucks)

ASUS A8V Socket 939 VIA K8T800 Pro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $68.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131541

I hope all of the other parts work together. I tried to check that to make sure (knowing little about what I need to check).

Well, my advice to you is to scratch out your gigabyte motherboard. Pick up a DFI-LP, 120$, and good overclocking possibilites. Video card is alright. I would reccomend to swap over to a 6800gs. Also, for your ram. Pick up ATLEAST 1gb OCZ Platinum ram. Also, if you plan to spend 339$ on a 17 inch monitor, you should go shoot yourself in the foot. Just wait for newegg or Tigerdirect to reduce one of their 19inch monitors down to 199$ after rebates, and pick one up. Shell out 40$ more for DVI. Also the monitor will be 19inch. Response times won't really be a problem. Sure NEC is a good company, but for an extra 140$ and 2 inches less....... You get the point. with that extra 140$, you can put it towards 2gb of ram, or you can but it towards a better case, or if you want a 7800gt. Or if your an audiophile, X-Fi xtreme music. Sure drivers are not that great, but the crystallizer still pumps out amazing sound, and will give you a little more chance to enjoy your x-530 speakers.

Lastly, Please dear god DO NOT SKIMP on your motherboard or your powersupply. Buy a nicely priced 120$ish motherboard, and a non built in powersupply. IF YOU DO NOT PLAN TO OVERCLOCK do NOT buy the amd 3200+. The 10x multiplier you acquire is a nice and good number for overclocking, however if you do not need to overclock just get the 3000+ with a 9x multiplier, which will hinder overclocking ability, but will not make that much of a signifant difference. AMD 3000+=P4 3.0ghz. AMD uses a different scale to measure GHZ but still releases its numbers by the intel scale.

Alright I HAVE decided to go with an AMD Processor and I changed a few things on here so here is the final specs unless someone tells me some part is horrible or there is another problem.

ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $79.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131569

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail - $166.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103535

OCZ Premier Dual Channel 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory - Retail - $88.94 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227069

Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $77.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144415

HIS Hightech HX80GOQT256-3TOEN Radeon X800GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $190.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161146

LG L1780U 17" 12ms Ultra Slim LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 500:1 0.264mm Pixel Pitch - Retail - $263.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824005035

XION Ultimate Engineering XON-001 Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450 Watt Power Supply (P4 & AMD Ready) Power Supply - Retail - $64.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208001

Logitech Black Wired Value Keyboard - $7.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823126170

Logitech Value Black Mouse - $6.00 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826104181

Logitech X-530 5.1 Speaker - $58.99 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121118

NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM - $39.75 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152058

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply 115/230 V TUV, UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC - Retail - $63.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103937

$1102.64 Before Rebates
$1044.64 After Rebates

If I get that Motherboard I can get a "Combo Deal" and get Windows XP for cheaper so with Windows XP it will be.

1191.59 Before Rebates
1133.59 After Rebates

I will be having to get a Wireless Router and a USB Wirelss Adapter or a PCI adapter.

LINKSYS WKUSB54GS IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless-G USB Kit with SpeedBooster - Retail - $123.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124177

That is a good router that comes WITH a USB Wireless Adapter

1315.58 Before Rebates
1257.58 After Rebates

That is everything I need to be all set. I know many of you have said that I dont have to buy another monitor, keyboard, and mouse. You've said just use my old ones well I cant really do that because I dont have a computer of my own. The computer i'm typing this from is the Family computer so I cant just take their monitor, keyboard, and mouse.


Pretty much the only things that I think could possibably be a problem right now are the Motherboard and the Memory. I could upgrade the Memory to 2GB sence i've saved alot of cash. I think that motherboard is a pretty good one but I dont know so any advice is welcome.

Thanks!

Well you look like you've done great! I think you'll be pleased with your current setup, regardless of if you increase the amount of RAM or get a better motherboard.

consider what this guy says, he knows what hes talking about. i saw that your list added up to bout 1200, this list is only 1k. so if youre willing, id get the 3800dual core instead and some extra cooling.

edit: that 7800gt link you posted is not 512mb, its 256

Getting the 2x512Mb of ram for now is smart. Leaves you two slots for later to increase it to 2Gb. Don't worry on the Vid Card NOT being 512Mb...you will not really see any speed bump for that.

As far as a CPU goes don't get a multicore for gaming as all games are still single threaded. I would go for the 64 bit option as games are slowly migrating towards being provided in both 32 bit and 64 bit format so you will be ready for it when it happens in full. Get an AMD processor, they work on a front side bus called HyperTransport, which is much faster than Intel's connection to the chipset. Get a motherboard with the nforce4 ultra chipset and PCI-Express x16 for your video card. Get a 90nm core CPU but read forums on how overclockable the particular one you are buying is, as you should get into overclocking and getting more out of your parts for your money. Example: I bought a video card and overclocked it and it is running just as fast as one that is $100 more than my current one. Remember to cool cool cool your system as well. Good luck.

I had actually thought about getting two of the 2x512MB OCZ sticks so I would have 4 and then i'd have 2GB that way but I dunno if I should or not.

So what you are saying you have already 2x512Mb sticks of another brand of ram and you want to add 2x512Mb of the OCZ? (Bear with me..it is early and I haven't had my coffee)

I am not sold on mixing different types/brands of ram. Yes it can work...but I make sure I have all the same type/brand in my machines. Less chance for errors. Also your system will run at the speed of the slowest ram chips in there.

the way i read it is he is thinking of getting 2 of the 2x512MB dual channel kits

then get a dual channel 2gb pack. 1024x2