[karatenate]

How much money do you think I could spend for a good gaming PC?

I'm thinking like 3.2ghz, 2g RAM, 160 SATA Hard Drive, 6600 GT card, no monitor, keyboard, mouse, or speakers needed yet.

Any estimates?

Also, I'm a bit of what is known as a n00b at PC building so any tips/info is GREATLY appreciated. After I have a price set, I'm sure I'll be back to make sure it's all compatable

all the specs are down below, check 'em out and tell me what you think

Edited by karatenate, 09 June 2005 - 07:25 PM.

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rough guess for what you listed, $600-700.

check out newegg and tigerdirect for pricing, etc. tigerdirect also has some little tutorials on building sprinkled about, that can be handy.

for a thorough intro to building a system, check out the pinned topic "system building information" at the top of this forum.

I also reccomend reading some reviews of equipment you are considering. I am partial to tomshardware.com, as they offer extensive reviews of many many components, and good comparisons.

two things to remember- spend a few extra bucks for a good quality power supply (psu). 480 watts+ by antec, thermaltake, or enermax will last through the next few upgrade cycles, and provide rated power on a consistent basis.

also get quality ram, preferably in a dual channel kit. when you pick a motherboard, look at their list of compatible ram, you wont go wrong with something they list.

you will also have to decide between intel and AMD. either is fine. the amd monkeys will surely be posting about how much better they are for gaming and overclocking. go with whatever your comfortable with.

more questions? let em fly, we like to help!

[audioboy]

rough guess for what you listed, $600-700.

check out newegg and tigerdirect for pricing, etc. tigerdirect also has some little tutorials on building sprinkled about, that can be handy.

for a thorough intro to building a system, check out the pinned topic "system building information" at the top of this forum.

I also reccomend reading some reviews of equipment you are considering. I am partial to tomshardware.com, as they offer extensive reviews of many many components, and good comparisons.

two things to remember- spend a few extra bucks for a good quality power supply (psu). 480 watts+ by antec, thermaltake, or enermax will last through the next few upgrade cycles, and provide rated power on a consistent basis.

also get quality ram, preferably in a dual channel kit. when you pick a motherboard, look at their list of compatible ram, you wont go wrong with something they list.

you will also have to decide between intel and AMD. either is fine. the amd monkeys will surely be posting about how much better they are for gaming and overclocking. go with whatever your comfortable with.

more questions? let em fly, we like to help!

[hudihoo]

go to pricewatch.com for the best deals.

[karatenate]

Video Card

CPU Processor

Mouse - This is set, I'm using this mouse my theme is blue glowy

Monitor - Flat Screen CRT

RAM- I am getting two of these so the total memory I will have is 2 G

My sweet keyboard (not being changed)

Hard Drive

Case (blue theme)

Mobo

Drive

I found everything, but do you guys think you could verify compatability for me and also, I came up a little over budget, and I'm looking to cut were ever possible. Stuff like the hard drive and such. I think it would be very nice but I could always get a 200G lower price drive and then when I get some money later I could put my 200G in a secondary slot and put a nice fast POS as my primary. Be sure to point out anything, and don't hesitate to tell me if you think I'm investing to much in a certain aspect that should be put somewere else. Remember, its a gaming rig also going to be used for DvD burning, but the DvD burner doesn't have to be fast. I just want to make sure everything checks out.

[audioboy]

overall, very nice. only one problem- mobo supports PCIExpress video, the card you listed is AGP. PCIE cards are usually slightly cheaper, so that should help you.

to save money, probably should go for the lower end drive like you were talking about. another option is to "only" go with 1 gig of ram for now.

[karatenate]

New Video Card

New Hard Drive

Could you check just to make sure these two are compatable?

[audioboy]

video card looks good.
do you want to switch down to IDE hard drive? that one is. I would suggest a smaller SATA drive, like this.

you should be about set!

[warriorscot]

From my lookin you might want to think about gettin 1 Gb of better quality ram which you can upgrade later. I was going to get a 6600GT but when reading reviews on the x800 series chose one of those the price was only a little more and it had twice the ram and double the interface so.. if you are stickin to a 6600gt look out the gigabyte turbo edition with heat pipe.

I know you say you like the keyboard and mouse but they are expensive and there looks are all that realy goin for em. You can pick up a zboard and a razor gaming mouse for that money they are actually not as expensive as they once were.

[karatenate]

k, thanks for the info about the hard drive

actually about the mouse/keyboard I am not buying them yet, they are just on their way for the future

[hacp]

Nice setup.