hey. anyone familiar with computer parts?
i am trying to build a new computer within a month so i can take it to a college and so forth.
i dont think i have problems with installing and putting parts together but there are so many computer parts out there.
i think i am gonna spend about 2000dollars on computer and acc. w/o monitor.
thanks for reading

 

computers are relatively easy to build. I am on my 2nd one. Get a very reputable power supply like Antec. This is one of the most important parts of your system in that it can take everything down with it if it shorts. If you want intel or AMD is another choice. I am all about AMD personally but it's entirely up to you. There are quite a few different chipsets for motherboards out there and I am currently using the nvidia chipset and have no issues with it.

The hardest part about connecting the motherboard is usually the usb/firewire ports that may come with a case you buy. the pins are a b!tch to line up sometimes but the manuals that come with the motherboards show the schematics so there isnt any guess work where stuff goes.

If you are building, you shouldnt come anywhere near 2000 for a computer. If I had a budget like that to build the PC alone, there would be more in there than I would ever use.

Ram is relatively cheap right now. get at least 1 gig of ram.

 

i've built computer once and i usually spent about mid 2000 for every computer. (i have 3 and gave away one of them to my friend)

ATI radeon 512mb...um...dont remember the name...
antec 430watt power supply
soundcard, motherboard- undecided
CPU, i think i amma go w/ AMD this time, i always had intel for some reason...
harddrive...about 150gig or so? (i dont use much space)
corsair 2 1gig (i think they go around high 100 dollars)
CD roms/floppy...undecided

maybe i was overestimating for the cost(?) heh i havent add up all the price but acc. add up quite a lot. i will be researching more and etc with my friends. thx for help.

 

With 2k you can make a really kick @ss system. You doing some hardcore gaming?
Any particular reason why you want to build versus buy? I've made my last two, and in the end there wasn't very much cost savings. If you go with a company like Alienware you can do alot of custimzation and end up with a pretty sweet system.

If youre going to do it yourself I'd go with:
-AMD 64bit 4000 series (fx if you really do want to use all of that doe).
-2G RAM
-I'm partial to Nvidia vid cards (geforce 256MB)
-they have a few dts and thx compatible sound cards if you have the speakers for it. Creative is always a safe bit
-It's always good to have two disc drives (I go for 1 dvd-burner (dual layer , and 1 dvd read only) I've been using a set of Pioneers for a couple years now with no complaints
-and of course your motherboard will drive a few things (so I'd narrow down the processor then motherboard first)

My moto is stick with companies you know, and try not to have a bottle neck in the system. No point in having a component that's faster than the motherboard can utilize.

 

i would just drop some dough for a kick *** Dell XPS gaming computer and call it a day. that warranty comes in handy big time when you need anything replaced.

 

Just as an example:
AlienWare Aurora™ 7500
$1,839
Powered by the AMD Athlon FX-60, Liquid Cooling and dual GeForce 7900 series graphics
* AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ Processor
* Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
* 1GB Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 SDRAM 400MHz
* 160GB 7,200 RPM SATA II w/8MB Cache
* NVIDIA GeForce™ 7900 GT 256MB DDR3
* Integrated High Performance 7.1 Audio

 

That will keep a grin on your face for a while

 

clok's advice is solid. Antec powersupply. Try a TruePower II 480w: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103929

AMD is still currently the way to go. An Athlon X2 3800+ or 4200+ would be a solid choice that will last you a good long time. Given your budget, no need to skimp with a 3200+ singlecore Venice like I did.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103547

go for 1 to 2 GB of RAM. Even simple Corsair Value Select is good stuff. I am running a GB of it (2x512MB sticks) dual channel at 1T CL2.5 3-3-7 with no problems: https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...tCode=80098-21

For a motherboard I'd grab one using the NVidia NForce4 SLI chipset. It's solid and popular and featureful.
Here's what I'm running. It's rock solid even with my mild overclocking (running my RAM at the aforementioned timings and my CPU at 3800+ speeds):
https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...uctCode=247010

For videocards, the hot new releases are the NVidia G71 cards, the 7900GT and 7900GTX. Depending on how much gaming you plan to do and at what resolution, pick one of those. The GT is $299 and the GTX is $499. Both will drop in price over the coming weeks. An alternative is the ATi X1800XT which, while older, just dropped price to $299 to match the 7900GT and performs about the same but doesn't support some of the newer features, or the X1900XT which is ATI's newest high-end card that runs around $460 and performs very well and with all the latest features (it's as powerful as the 7900GTX). There's also the over-priced X1900XTX model I wouldn't recommend because the XTs can generally be overclocked to XTX speeds. FWIW, the ATI X1900 series cards have very noisy fans on them. Another reason to consider the 7900 series NVidia cards.

7900GT example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121003
7900GTX example (prices on these will drop to $499 and better in a week or two once availability picks up):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150142
X1800XT example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102007
X1900XT example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102003

For a soundcard just grab a Creative X-Fi:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102188
unless you like messing around with digital outputs and 5.1 DDL/DTS encoding, then get one of these (I own one):
https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...uctCode=234502

For a monitor, this is the hot item and right now it's on a special discount (through Wednesday night I believe):
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...tegory_id=4009

If you prefer a name brand that will probably have less issues, here's Sony's offering:
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...anelLCDs_20%22
Here's a place selling it much cheaper: http://www.onsale.com/onsale/shop/de..._id=bwbfroogle

Anyway, I hope all that is helpful. It took a few mins to find, copy, and paste all those links.

What you can do by buying and building it yourself is save often as much as 50% over buying a Dell or Alienware system. Plus you're getting exactly what you want instead of settling for their available options.

You can find my system's specs here:
http://users.adelphia.net/~jrockcls/
I hope to upgrade my videocard and my monitor soon if I get the funds. My current monitor is a 3-4 year old Sony SDM-X72 17" LCD that has served me well all these years.

 

wow good advice guys!! makes me want to build my own computer!! (terry and pratik are probably thinking nooooooooooo!!! when they read this. LOL)

 

With 2 K buy an alienware! Unless you just wanna build one.

 

youre god damn right lek! you still havnt bought me that beer you owe me yet from helping you get a cheap dvd burner.

 

Noo dont buy an alienware!! I had so many problems with mine that I pretty much had to rebuild it myself. It crashed maybe like 5-6 months after I got it and just hasnt quite been the same since. I've had it for about 6 years now and its actualy better now since I rebuilt it.

You would definately be better off to build your own. My first computer that I built I never had a single problem with except for not having enough hard drive space. 2K should definately be enough to build a really good system depending on what you want out of it. I definately need to upgrade my alienware again. Cant play any of the newer games cuz of the videocard but I dont have any money cuz of the car. oh well you make sacrifices.

 

thats why I love Dells, because they are reliable and if something ever goes wrong, you can just call Pratik on thieir 1800 customer service line. they will send people to fix it or overnight your computer to their service department. great customer service, if you can understand what the heck pratik is saying on the phone. Dell makes great powerful gaming systems that cost a crap load of money.

 

thx for suggestions.
whole point is to rebuild the whole computer so terry's idea, dell, is out. (thx for suggesting tho )
i think i amma go with ATI radeon instead of geforce this time. how come no one mentioned it? o_O?
yacoub, i will review your post when i have time...i am at school right now heh;
thanks all! always

 

word of advice:

1. don't buy alienware...overpriced for stuff you can build on your own.

2. if you are computer illiterate (doesnt seem to be the case) or don't want to deal with it then go the OEM route and get a dell.

otherwise just build your own, or get one of us to help you build your own. at least then you'll be able to upgrade easier (and cheaper) in the future