[AniDanny]

Not entirely sure if I'm going to be building this anytime soon. The most likely outcome for me getting it is if Warhammer Online is released, is awesome, and can't run on my current computer (a laptop). When I get it isn't so much the issue, though. I'm more curious to make sure that I'll be buying everything I need for it to work, that all the parts are compatible, and that I'm getting reasonably priced parts. Very few, if any, of these parts were picked for more of a reason than "it looks like it'll do what I want it to, and it's not too expensive", so if there's a different part I should get instead, please don't hesitate to tell me so. Also, the prices listed next to these are partly for my own sake, so I can keep track of about how much I'd be willing to spend (which may or may not be the price of the parts I link to).

$100 Computer Case I like this one mostly because it's green. I'm not really sure what to look for in a computer case. I think my biggest concern is effective, quiet cooling. Though I should perhaps look into a heatsink rather than fans if I want quiet? Also like easily-accessible (probably front-mounted) USB ports.

$50 Power supply. Don't really know anything about these, but I do know that I'll need one. Any recommendations? Kinda guessing at the price.

$100 Motherboard Was listed as Newegg's top-rated motherboard. Also supports 8GB of RAM and quad-core processor. Not sure what else one should look for in a motherboard.

$300 CPU Quad core 2.4 GHz. Don't really understand CPU's aside from more GHz and more cores is better.

$250 RAM 4 sticks at 2gigs each. Not really sure what the different types of RAM mean, is there something specific I should be looking for?

$150 Hard Drive 500gigs or more. This particular one is 750 gigs. It'll take me a long time to fill that, sure, but once I build this computer, I'd like to keep it for many years. I don't know much about hard drives, save for the fact that bigger is better. Anything I should keep an eye out for here?

$50 CD/DVD drive Don't really burn disks all that often, so burning dozens of them in a short amount of time isn't really a necessity. Newegg seems to like this model.

$150 Video Card Don't know anything at all about video cards. Just kinda picked this one at random.

$100 Sound Card Same as with the video card. I've never really noticed a huge difference with varying qualities of sound, but that might just be because I've never used a really good audio device for any length of time. I do tend to lean towards Creative Labs products here, but can probably be persuaded if anyone thinks that's foolish.

Network card - Need to be able to get online. Don't know anything at all about these. Little help?

I'll need speakers, but that can be done after I've gotten the rest of the system, or I'll use the 5.1 system I currently have.

$400 Monitor The one part of the computer I'm willing to spend above average on. I have a friend who hooks his video games up to his computer monitor and it works with high-def. Would I need anything special to do that? Do only certain monitors support HD, or is pretty much anything made anymore going to support it?

$75 Keyboard I like Logitech for any sort of input device (webcams, mice, keyboards), but I also really like the keyboard on my laptop (IBM Thinkpad T43p). The keys are really thin relative to normal keyboards, and I haven't managed to find any that are similar to this one. If anyone has suggestions, let me know? Might consider a Mac keyboard if it would be compatible.

$50 Mouse Everyone seems to love this model. Supposedly there's a wireless version, but I couldn't find it.

That's about all I have as far as hardware. As far as software... I'll need an OS (Probably XP, might see if I can figure out what dual-booting is and get VISTA so I can play games that are being released as VISTA-only, perhaps Linux since I've never screwed around with that... is it possible to triple-boot?) I'll need some form of word processing. I've heard Open Office is better than MS Office for pretty much everything but Excel-stuff, and is free, so I'll probably just get that.

That brings me now to nearly $1800 on the new computer, assuming I go at the upper range of everything I'm planning to get, in addition to buying software and an as-of-yet unpriced network card. Is there anything necessary that I'm missing? Is there anything that's not necessary that I should have thought to include anyway?

If you've actually read all this and will respond constructively, thank you very much for taking time to help me out!

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I will go down the list.

Cases are cases, get what you like.

Power supply I have had no problems with the Thermotake PS's they are kinda loud compared to others. Thermotakes do have a price advantage over quieter PS's. Better supplys are the PC power and cooling, and the Silverstone ones.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817153052

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817703009

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256024

I have always liked the gigabyte MB's, and a plus is your MB has a 1000Mbps LAN(network RJ-45) already.

CPU's are just user preference. Get what you want. I have customers that will only buy the latest greatest. I get great used parts from them.

Memory is where i disagree. Even Vista will not use much more than 3 gig's of memory( this may change if Vista is improved). Any more and you are just wasting money. I pulled a trick on a gamer friend and pulled 2 gigs out of his 4 gigs of memory in his gaming computer. He did not know it was gone until he opened the case one day to add another HD in the system. He was mad as heck, but did admit he could not tell the difference between 2 gigs and 4 gigs.

You want a laptop keyboard for a desktop computer. Go find a Compaq model 5137 keyboard and you will be happy. I have these KB's on 3 of my computers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/...1QQcmdZViewItem

Everything else looks fine.

SRX660

[SRX660]

I will go down the list.

Cases are cases, get what you like.

Power supply I have had no problems with the Thermotake PS's they are kinda loud compared to others. Thermotakes do have a price advantage over quieter PS's. Better supplys are the PC power and cooling, and the Silverstone ones.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817153052

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817703009

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256024

I have always liked the gigabyte MB's, and a plus is your MB has a 1000Mbps LAN(network RJ-45) already.

CPU's are just user preference. Get what you want. I have customers that will only buy the latest greatest. I get great used parts from them.

Memory is where i disagree. Even Vista will not use much more than 3 gig's of memory( this may change if Vista is improved). Any more and you are just wasting money. I pulled a trick on a gamer friend and pulled 2 gigs out of his 4 gigs of memory in his gaming computer. He did not know it was gone until he opened the case one day to add another HD in the system. He was mad as heck, but did admit he could not tell the difference between 2 gigs and 4 gigs.

You want a laptop keyboard for a desktop computer. Go find a Compaq model 5137 keyboard and you will be happy. I have these KB's on 3 of my computers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/...1QQcmdZViewItem

Everything else looks fine.

SRX660

[stettybet0]

Not entirely sure if I'm going to be building this anytime soon.

Then you should wait until you are. Computer technology changes so fast, that you might decide on some nice parts now, but in a few months when you are ready to build it, all the parts you chose have been obsoleted by cheaper, faster parts. Therefore, it is my recommendation that you do a little research (as you have stated that you are not sure of the intricacies of several components), and then when you are ready to actually build your computer, to come back to us with a new, improved list.

[AniDanny]

That's the plan. But if I suddenly decide to buy a computer in the next couple months, it'd be similar to what's in this list, I think. I had forgotten; my original plan for memory was actually to get a computer with 4 slots for RAM, and just buy two 2-gig sticks. 4 gigs should be plenty for now, but like I said, I plan to keep this computer for many years, so once there's a reason to have more than 4 gigs, I can just buy 4 more, and be set for many more years. Thanks for the tips!

Edit: Is there anything I should know regarding HD monitors?

Edited by AniDanny, 25 January 2008 - 11:49 AM.