[Culhane_1]

I need help with building a system. I have wanted to build a comp for years and i have finally got $1200 AUS. I want this comp to be a dedicated games machine with at least 512mb Ram.

My current specs and prices are:

Motherboard Gigabyte 8I865GVMK $109
Case Omni 8880 $85
Hard Drive Western Digital 80GB $92
CPU Pentium 4 3.0 $299
RAM 512MB 3200 Generic $115
RAM 512MB 3200 Generic $115
CD-RW/ DVD-R Samsung 52/52/32+16xDVD $75
Sound Card Creative Live Value 5.1 $55
Graphics Card Sapphire 256MB 9550 TD $179
Keyboard/mouse Logitech Internet $29

Are these good prices?
AMD or intel?
Are these good specs for the money?
Nvidia or Radion?
i am shopping from www.cpl.net.au and i don't want to shop online.

P.S i'm only 12 yrs old but i have quite a lot of knowledge in electronics

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Welcome to GTG Culhane_1. 12 years old? Wow! Very impressive.

The motherboard you've selected has integrated sound, so you don't need the sound card.

For that kind of money I'd go with an ABIT KV8Pro, and an inexpensive Athlon64.

Or, for the most bang for your buck, look at an AMD XP 2500+, an nForce2 mobo, and some PC3200 RAM. These will almost always overclock to 3200+ speeds by adjusting the front side bus speed to 200mhz in the BIOS. Then spend the money you've saved on a better graphics card. If you're a gamer, this would be the best performing system for your money.

[admin]

Welcome to GTG Culhane_1. 12 years old? Wow! Very impressive.

The motherboard you've selected has integrated sound, so you don't need the sound card.

For that kind of money I'd go with an ABIT KV8Pro, and an inexpensive Athlon64.

Or, for the most bang for your buck, look at an AMD XP 2500+, an nForce2 mobo, and some PC3200 RAM. These will almost always overclock to 3200+ speeds by adjusting the front side bus speed to 200mhz in the BIOS. Then spend the money you've saved on a better graphics card. If you're a gamer, this would be the best performing system for your money.

[Culhane_1]

Thanks for the help, but is the on board sound that good?

I also want to stick with Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz + . At leaast i saved bying a sound card. So you think a Nvidia 2 series is better? I've always had Nvidia cards but i decieded to go ATI with the specs versus cost. how fps do you think it would pump out in a high grapghics game like Halo 2 or V8 Supercars 2?

Thanx heaps

[DHooper]

The RAM prices seem high for generic. Is the RAM ECC or Non-ECC. Head over to Crucial.com. It is a 512MB DDR3200 - $93.99, I have never had a problem with their RAM at all. Now for the video card, there are some things to look for:

1) How much RAM is on the card? (64MB, 128MB, 256MB) You will see a much better performence from a 256MB then a 128MB card. I remeber the days of the 8MB cards. Sorry got off topic.
2) What is the "bits" of the card? (128-bits, 256-bits) Again you will see a better performence from 256-bits then from 128-bits. This is the amount of data that gets done a second.
3) What is the AGP speed? (4x,4X/8X,8X,8XPro) This is the speed of the bus that the video card will run at. Higher the bus speed the faster it is. 8XPro is just a different version of the 8X, speed is the main differnece.

Now for some video cards:

1) If you have the money then get the EVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT. - $399 (Not Instock)
2) ATI RADEON 9800 PRO - $290 (Not Instock)
3) SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800PRO OEM - $268 (Not Instock)

If you get the GeForce 6800GT you can flash it to the Ultra and overclock it to 420/1115. I hope that is helps you out.

[DHooper]

The RAM prices seem high for generic.  Is the RAM ECC or Non-ECC.  Head over to Crucial.com.  It is a 512MB DDR3200 - $93.99, I have never had a problem with their RAM at all.  Now for the video card, there are some things to look for:

I just recived a email from Newegg and this is a steal on RAM!!

CORSAIR XMS Xtreme Memory - for $251 you are getting 1GB of RAM, I have this same RAM I bought the other week for $350, I think on buy more b/c my board supports 4GB of RAM. They have heat sinks on them, and can be overclocked!! They also make good RAM, if you can chip out another $20 they get these instead.

[Culhane_1]

The ram is not in stock.

plus, i don'e want to buy online.

And, i don't have the money

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Corsair XMS 2-2-2-5......*droooooooooool*

-=jonnyrotten=-

[admin]

I used to be a big Corsair fan, but it seems the quality just hasn't been there the last year. I've had much more luck with Kingstion HyperX, Mushkin is a personal favorite, and Crucial is rock solid.

[Culhane_1]

Thanx, i just bought my self a keyboard, mouse and motherboard i saved up for.

Ill by the rest of the stuff soon.

i decided to go with some Corsair ram from cls.com because it was about the same price as the one on cruial.com but i could go to a shop and by it, not by online which i don't like to do.

Because i don't need a sound card, i have gone with a better grapics card.

Thanx for all the help..

i hope my first DIY computer works well. i will post when i finsh it.

Thanks again,

Culhane_1 (chris)