[AnaMayShun]

I have never built a computer before. I own a Gateway Desktop and a Dell Laptop. I want to upgrade my desktop. But I want to try and build one. And I want to make sure it'll last for a long time. So i'm looking for some help in doing so.

I'm looking at:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ For $460.00

XFX Geforce 7600GT For $172.99

ABIT AN8 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard For $108.99

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR For $188.00

Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Case For $108.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB For $130.00

Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Platinum Sound Card For $159.99

LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner For $45.99

Logitech Internet Pro Desktop Black Wired Keyboard For $17.99

I'm probably not going to get that high of products, because the total is at $1392.94. My price range is between $1000 and $1500. And I know I need a monitor. So I'm going to have to downgrade on some items without losing to much quality. What else i'm going to need? Maybe a plain CD Rom/CD-R?

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You could go down on the mobo just get a plain non SLI mobo, the gigabyte nf4 is pretty cheap and quite a good board the Abit board is also usually a good price. You need a powersupply as well, otherwise its a very solid system, ram wise just get normal value select if you dont plan to overclock its more or less the same ram as the XMS just it doesnt have the heat sinks or the overclocking warranty.

[warriorscot]

You could go down on the mobo just get a plain non SLI mobo, the gigabyte nf4 is pretty cheap and quite a good board the Abit board is also usually a good price. You need a powersupply as well, otherwise its a very solid system, ram wise just get normal value select if you dont plan to overclock its more or less the same ram as the XMS just it doesnt have the heat sinks or the overclocking warranty.

[JourneyMan]

The platinum doesn't sound any better than the regular X-Fi. You are paying more for the cute little drive bay interface and thats it. IMO its only worth it if you go to a lot of lan parties....

this is the best flatscreen I have ever seen for the price. My mother is a radiologist (reads Xrays, CTs, biopsies, ultrasounds etc etc), and for digital mamography she uses one of these. I got one for myself and they BLOW away any other 19" moniter for less than $500. Incredible difference between this and my old 19" LCD ACER.

Remember, a moniter is one of the top things you should invest in with a new computer.

Edited by JourneyMan, 25 April 2006 - 12:53 PM.

[warriorscot]

Well monitor wise there is one market leaser in terms of the panels and thats samsung they make the panels EVERYONE uses in the 17 and 19 inch market only the actual electronics of how the displays decode information and the ousings really differ between two monitors with the same spec panels. Because of that Samsung have some of the best monitors for a very low price, only sometimes the housings and stands let them down but they are decptivley well made. After that viewsonic are an excellent monitor maker and are still cheap viewsonic has come out with some of the best monitors recently, another good company is hyundai not as popular but there 19" monitors are often considered to be the best on the market if a little pricey.

The platinum is more for serious audio enthuiasts that do alot of encoding and ripping.

[AnaMayShun]

I've been looking around newegg.com for another motherboard and a case so far. But it seems like every motherboard, i think i want to get, there's someone who brings up bad reviews about it, usually like 4-5 people. Is there somewhere to find better reviews? Also on the case, i found one that i wanted, but the read, that the powerbutton gives static discharge. Which fries some motherboard. Does anyone know of a way, to stop the static discharge when turned on?

[warriorscot]

Dont read to many reviews on sales sites 90% of people only come back if they have something bad to say and are annoyed usually and they are from amateurs usually and mostly it will probably be there own fault if something doesnt work.

There are lots of proper review sites like tomshardware and hexus lots and they use methodical and scientific testing techniques on the hardware to test how good it actually is in comparison to other boards and hardware.

Easiest way to find them, go to google paste the name of the hardware in question in(dont put sales codes in as some sites have them tagged on the end and only take you to sales site hits) and put review on the end hit search and it shoot come up with some search results from review sites, read a few.

[JourneyMan]

The platinum is more for serious audio enthuiasts that do alot of encoding and ripping.

???? It uses the same hardware as the standard one as far as I know.

[jrm20]

???? It uses the same hardware as the standard one as far as I know.

The X-FI xtreme music and the X-FI platinum are basically the same sound card in general but the platinum has the added features of the 5 1/2 inch drive and it does have a few added extra features built into the card/software that the normal or average user couldnt tell the difference between the xtreme music or the X-FI platinum..