[liquid cool]

I'm looking to build a gaming/programming PC, but being out of the PC market for so long, I have no idea about current hardware.

I'm planning to spend about $2000-$2500. I'd appreciate any help or even a general point in the right direction for the specs of the system.

Thanks

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Your going to need to give a little more information.
Since you may be in programming as a profession do you wish to wait for vista or play it now? To be honest the worst of the bugs have all be worked out and the compatibility feature will alow your programs to believe it's running on XP.

Are you planning on overclocking this computer, if so the upcoming processors from intel will not give you any boost in performance, if you don't plan on overclocking then you may want to upgrade to the new processors. Essentially it's only a revision of the chips, the major change is the FSB changing from 1066 to 1333 which will alow the processor to run at higher speeds as well as remove a possible bottleneck. However if you overclock you will be running at similar speeds, since you have to up the FSB to gain greater performance, this is how overclocking works. The other differences will include 45nm die compared to the current 65nm die, this will make a slightly more energy efficient chip as well as run cooler and let Intel sell it cheaper because it's cheaper to create and has higher yields in the FABS. I understand if you don't understand any of this, if you'd like me to clarify please let me know. We should see these chips at the end of the month along with price drops on the 22nd if everything goes to plan.

Next you'll want to think about motherboards, I highly recommend the P35 chipset from Intel as it offers a greater upgradability route.

As for the graphics card you'll want to look towards the 8800GTX.

Is sound an issue for you, or are you fine with onboard? Are you planning on having more then just the left and right speekers such as a 5.1 setup.

For programming you may find that more then one monitor will cause your efficancy to rise, will you want one or two? What size?

3GB of RAM will be advisable as your budget will alow it and it will be useful for programming.

Next how much storage will you be needing? 500GB currently holds the best price/performance ratio.

Pretty well any DVD drive will do.

There are a couple of things to think about, please awnser the questions and I'll be glade to help you further.
Are there any specific questions you'd like to ask?
James

Edited by james_8970, 13 July 2007 - 09:28 PM.

[james_8970]

Your going to need to give a little more information.
Since you may be in programming as a profession do you wish to wait for vista or play it now? To be honest the worst of the bugs have all be worked out and the compatibility feature will alow your programs to believe it's running on XP.

Are you planning on overclocking this computer, if so the upcoming processors from intel will not give you any boost in performance, if you don't plan on overclocking then you may want to upgrade to the new processors. Essentially it's only a revision of the chips, the major change is the FSB changing from 1066 to 1333 which will alow the processor to run at higher speeds as well as remove a possible bottleneck. However if you overclock you will be running at similar speeds, since you have to up the FSB to gain greater performance, this is how overclocking works. The other differences will include 45nm die compared to the current 65nm die, this will make a slightly more energy efficient chip as well as run cooler and let Intel sell it cheaper because it's cheaper to create and has higher yields in the FABS. I understand if you don't understand any of this, if you'd like me to clarify please let me know. We should see these chips at the end of the month along with price drops on the 22nd if everything goes to plan.

Next you'll want to think about motherboards, I highly recommend the P35 chipset from Intel as it offers a greater upgradability route.

As for the graphics card you'll want to look towards the 8800GTX.

Is sound an issue for you, or are you fine with onboard? Are you planning on having more then just the left and right speekers such as a 5.1 setup.

For programming you may find that more then one monitor will cause your efficancy to rise, will you want one or two? What size?

3GB of RAM will be advisable as your budget will alow it and it will be useful for programming.

Next how much storage will you be needing? 500GB currently holds the best price/performance ratio.

Pretty well any DVD drive will do.

There are a couple of things to think about, please awnser the questions and I'll be glade to help you further.
Are there any specific questions you'd like to ask?
James

Edited by james_8970, 13 July 2007 - 09:28 PM.

[liquid cool]

I don't mind vista, but it'll probably take some time getting used to it. I can get vista pretty cheap though, $20 for ultimate, so I don't have to worry about adding that to the price.

I'm not a major overclocker, and I tend to only overclock graphics cards if at all. I don't fully understand all of what you wrote there ( ) but if it comes down to it, I'd prefer the faster CPUs if the performance increase justifies the extra cost being paid. Also, I need to get the PC ready as soon as possible (as early as next week) as I'm without a PC at the moment so waiting is out of the question.

Also, is the 8800GTX significantly better than 8800GTS. I mean I do have the budget for it, but the more money I save, the more money I have for lesser needs (like food!).

I'm not to concerned about the sound. Onboard is fine for me.

I'll stick to one monitor for a while and buy a second one if I need it. I'm planning to get a 19" LCD. Any good monitors you could recommend/

Storage and RAM, 3GB and 500GB sound nice.


Thanks for the reply man.

[james_8970]

how are you getting Vista for 20$?
james

[liquid cool]

My college has special deals because they buy in bulk. So what are the parts/compaines that you recommend?

[james_8970]

Quad could be slashed in price up to 200$, I personally think it's worth the wait, but thats up to you.

CPU: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115017
Power supply: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256009
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148136
Monitor: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824001083
Memory:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227078
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820227077

Some notes here, if you never plan on going SLI this GPU is overkill, do you ever plan on doing so? Next, for programming the extra 3" will offer you a huge advantage and increase productivity. Can you wait till the 23 or 24 to purchase everything if it involces saving 200$? Is 500GB enough space? I want you to choose your case as I believe it's a personal choice. I'm not done the build just I want to know these questions before proceeding.
James

[liquid cool]

No I'm not planning for SLI. The extra 3" sound good, especially since I haven't really been able to find a good deal on a 19" monitor. Thanks for linking the Samsung.

Well, yes, I might be able to wait till the 23rd, but is it really worth it for me to get the Quad core? I hear that most games and applications don't even use that much multithreading. And will the price drop extend to the Duo? As it stands, I prefer getting the Duo and upgrading to a newer Quad Core in the future as they become cheaper/faster/more useful.

And 500 GB is more than enough space for me. I already have a couple of external Hard disks that I use to back up most of my data.

Again, thanks alot for the help.

[liquid cool]

Why do I need 750W PSU? Isn't that overkill because I don't have any hardware components that are that taxing. Plus, my friend has an antec TPII 550W PSU and he is easily running 8800gtx, soundblaster x-fi xtreme music sound card, a tv tuner, and a couple other things he told me. I won't be doing SLI. So with that information in mind, what PSU do you recommend? A 550W or maybe even a 500W?

[james_8970]

Yes that PSU is overkill, I made a mistake in my post, it should have been PSU not GPU.

At this current point in time, yes you are correct no games and many applications don't support quad cores, but if you buy one now they will get faster as time moves on, at 266$ why not? We'll begin seeing games in the fall utilizing quad cores and there are already many applications that do with more coming out all the time. To answer you question yes the price cut is all over the board.

Running a GTX I don't recommend anything less then 600W,
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817194004

So what would you like a quad or a dual core? I recommend the quad as it`ll save you from upgrading down the road when they are already fairly cheap, but thats up to you.
James

Edited by james_8970, 16 July 2007 - 07:12 PM.

[liquid cool]

Hmmm.. well you're right. $266 pretty cheap anyhow. So quad core it is, I'll wait a week for the price cut. Its on the 23rd right?

What else would you recommend on the build?

[james_8970]

The official cut is on the 22nd, but price will probably take a day or two to settle down.

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128050
When your building be sure you know what slots are DDR2 and which are DDR3, this is very important.

James

[liquid cool]

Thanks a lot man. Really appreciate the help.

btw, which GTX card would you recommend? My friend recommends the EVGA

[james_8970]

As do I because of their support and warrenty, if you get the 680i then get evga as well and be sure to get the A1 revision.
Scrape the motherboard I mentioned above, it doesn't support SLI we will wait and see what motherboard to purchase. If you go the P35 route you'll need to get a ATI card, there are many people beginning to say that the HD 2900XT crossfire beats the 8800 GTX in SLI, so it's your call. But if you choose SLI, you'll need to get a 1066FSB processor, if you choose crossfire you can get whatever kind of processor you like.
James

Edited by james_8970, 18 July 2007 - 07:05 PM.

[james_8970]

I just want to correct my post here, the 680i now officially supports a FSB of 1333.
James