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[FromTheFuture]

PC GAF, I need your help! I'm thinking on buying a new PC soon, and i need your help deciding what i need to get. For a long time now, i have had just a barebones PC that i don't particularly use for gaming, aside from old favorites like Counter-Strike, Warcraft III, and so on that don't really require much to play.

Let me start off by saying that i have NO experience whatsoever in building my own PC, so do you think i should try my hand at it or just buy one premade? If it's easy, I'm up to the task, and i can possibly get someone to help me. If these things break easily, then i'm not sure i'd be comfortable putting it all together. Also, if I do plan to build this, would it be dumb to have it all shipped to me?

So basically, i'm not looking to spend much on this PC, because i'm poor at this moment, but i want a decent enough PC to play some games i've missed on the PC and some games that are coming out. I'm planning to spend only around 500-650$ but i am willing to spend a bit more. I don't plan to be playing Crysis at max settings or anything, i just need something to get by that works well. With that said, i looked around and had some people give me a little advice, and this is what i came up with so far.

Feel free to and please do recommend me other things that may be better, or if i can find something cheaper elsewhere. I just kept using New Egg since their prices seemed the lowest of what i could find.

And to take another shot at this... updated build. Please tell me this one is good! =P

Case - NZXT. Apollo Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025

PSU - Corsair 450W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Mobo - Gigabyte LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

GFX - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770

Memory - Corsair 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR2 SDRAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

HDD - Western Digital 640 GB / 7200 RPM / 16 MB Cache / SATA 3.0 GB/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298

And a few clearing up questions:
1. Is the PSU enough or should i kick it up to 500W?
2. For the HDD, should i get one with 32 MB cache instead?
3. And is the mobo good/ok? Or is there a cheaper/better/just as good alternative?

Alright so i've compiled the parts so far:

Case - NZXT. Apollo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025

PSU - Rosewill 550W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182030

Processor - Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Motherboard - Gigabyte P45 Intel Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

GFX - ATI Radeon HD 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770

Memory - Corsair 2 x 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

HDD - Western Digital 640GB SATA 3.0 GB/s / 7200 RPM / 16MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298

Is there any way i can cut down the price a bit? Tax + Shipping is sort of killing me and sapping my budget from a new monitor, etc. I really want to try to get the best i can for a decent price, but i constantly find myself going for those few extra dollars worth of stuff, which ultimately adds up. Also, if anyone finds any better deals, i would be grateful if you could pass them my way.

Also, this hasn't been answered yet, but is building your own PC from scratch difficult for a first timer? Is it easy to break something/have something go wrong? Would i be better off buying a customized PC premade?

edit. Also, is there anything cheaper than New Egg?

Case - NZXT. Apollo Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025

Power Supply - Rosewill 550W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182030

Cooling - Not sure what to do about this. Is liquid cooling that great/needed? Or can i just pass with some extra fans? Need help on this one!

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

Mobo - Not sure about this one either. I was about to pick out some EVGA 780i something on New Egg, but it was sold out. Need help on this one too!

Video Card - 2 x EVGA GeForce 9500 GT in SLI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130378

*** Would it be smart to get two of these in SLI? I read somewhere that it could over decent performance over 1 card that may cost twice the price? Unsure on this one.

Memory - Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

HDD - Western Digital 500GB / 7200RPM / 32MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320

or i might just go with a 320GB drive, unsure about how much space i think i need.

And lastly, all of those drives and things i'll have to purchase new ones, right? And please clue me in on anything else i need to buy, cause i'm not sure if i've covered everything.

Also take it easy on the pc terms, i'm a PC building noob here!

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Diablos]

PC GAF, I need your help! I'm thinking on buying a new PC soon, and i need your help deciding what i need to get. For a long time now, i have had just a barebones PC that i don't particularly use for gaming, aside from old favorites like Counter-Strike, Warcraft III, and so on that don't really require much to play.

Let me start off by saying that i have NO experience whatsoever in building my own PC, so do you think i should try my hand at it or just buy one premade? If it's easy, I'm up to the task, and i can possibly get someone to help me. If these things break easily, then i'm not sure i'd be comfortable putting it all together.

So basically, i'm not looking to spend much on this PC, because i'm poor at this moment, but i want a decent enough PC to play some games i've missed on the PC and some games that are coming out. I'm planning to spend only around 500-650$ but i am willing to spend a bit more. I don't plan to be playing Crysis at max settings or anything, i just need something to get by that works well. With that said, i looked around and had some people give me a little advice, and this is what i came up with so far.

Feel free to and please do recommend me other things that may be better, or if i can find something cheaper elsewhere. I just kept using New Egg since their prices seemed the lowest of what i could find.

Case - NZXT. Apollo Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025

Power Supply - Rosewill 550W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182030

Cooling - Not sure what to do about this. Is liquid cooling that great/needed? Or can i just pass with some extra fans? Need help on this one!

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

Mobo - Not sure about this one either. I was about to pick out some EVGA 780i something on New Egg, but it was sold out. Need help on this one too!

Video Card - 2 x EVGA GeForce 9500 GT in SLI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130378

*** Would it be smart to get two of these in SLI? I read somewhere that it could over decent performance over 1 card that may cost twice the price? Unsure on this one.

Memory - Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

HDD - Western Digital 500GB / 7200RPM / 32MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320

or i might just go with a 320GB drive, unsure about how much space i think i need.

And lastly, all of those drives and things i'll have to purchase new ones, right? And please clue me in on anything else i need to buy, cause i'm not sure if i've covered everything.

Thanks in advance guys!

Just get a Q8200, it's the same price as the E8500 you are looking at. Quad core > Dual core.

Also, I would strongly suggest getting an aftermarket heatsink/fan. I used this one for my Q8200: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835101027
Easiest thing to install. You peel off the cover for the adhesive, place the mounting bracket on the back of the board (lines up with the four holes with no effort required whatsoever), push it down gently, then install the board in your case. Then you just screw in the heatsink/fan in a crosswise manor until it is secured. Literally the easiest heatsink I've ever installed.

Unless you have installed the official Intel heatsink before, I'd suggest getting something a bit better. Push-pins suck, and they also make your board bend.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

search.

 

[Diablos]

Also, this is the board I'm using:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347

Tons of expansion slots, PCI-Express 2.0, handles all kinds of memory, lots of overclocking options if you enjoy that (I don't). Under $100.

DualBIOS is pretty cool too; if the bios gets corrupted there's a much less likely chance of you having a dead board, because it keeps a backup in a seperate ROM that will be transferred over in the event of a bad flash, virus, etc.

 

[FromTheFuture]

Just get a Q8200, it's the same price as the E8500 you are looking at. Quad core > Dual core.

Also, I would strongly suggest getting an aftermarket heatsink/fan. I used this one for my Q8200: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835101027
Easiest thing to install. You peel off the cover for the adhesive, place the mounting bracket on the back of the board (lines up with the four holes with no effort required whatsoever), push it down gently, then install the board in your case. Then you just screw in the heatsink/fan in a crosswise manor until it is secured. Literally the easiest heatsink I've ever installed.

Unless you have installed the official Intel heatsink before, I'd suggest getting something a bit better. Push-pins suck, and they also make your board bend.

Thanks for the reply. Is a quad core that is at a lower GHz better than the dual core that i was previously choosing? I don't know much about this.

Also, so do you think it's unanimous that liquid cooling isnt really necessary unless i have a lot of stuff in there? Also, i have tried to take out the intel heatsink before, and boy was that a pain in the ass, so i'll take that suggestion in mind.

 

[Chris R]

If you aren't looking to spend much, just get a good air cooler. You wont notice the difference anyways.

 

[Diablos]

Thanks for the reply. Is a quad core that is at a lower GHz better than the dual core that i was previously choosing? I don't know much about this.

Also, so do you think it's unanimous that liquid cooling isnt really necessary unless i have a lot of stuff in there? Also, i have tried to take out the intel heatsink before, and boy was that a pain in the ass, so i'll take that suggestion in mind.

Don't even bother with liquid cooling. I've built a few computers over the years, and even I haven't touched liquid cooling. You only want that if you are doing serious overclocking, pushing the CPU beyond its furthest limits, seriously stressing the components and risking the damage of every single thing in your machine. I'd just get the Asus cooler I posted. It's the easiest thing in the world to install.

Also, yes, the Q8200 is just as fast if not faster than the E8500, and will be even better looking ahead as more applications trend toward taking advantage of multi-core processors.

The Q8200 is 2.33GHz times four. The E8500 is 3.16 GHz times two. Having the highest clock speed only matters so much.

 

[FromTheFuture]

Don't even bother with liquid cooling. I've built a few computers over the years, and even I haven't touched liquid cooling. You only want that if you are doing serious overclocking, pushing the CPU beyond its furthest limits, seriously stressing the components and risking the damage of every single thing in your machine. I'd just get the Asus cooler I posted. It's the easiest thing in the world to install.

Also, yes, the Q8200 is just as fast if not faster than the E8500, and will be even better looking ahead as more applications trend toward taking advantage of multi-core processors.

The Q8200 is 2.33GHz times four. The E8500 is 3.16 GHz times two. Having the highest clock speed only matters so much.

Alright, thanks for all of the help clearing out those unsure areas. Last thing i have to ask, is building my own PC difficult? I'm thinking i would want to save some money by building my own, but then again i don't know the first thing about buildng my PC and i would be utterly screwed if i broke anything at all. Would it just be smarter for me to buy it premade?

Thanks for all the help so far.

 

[Introdacqua]

You are better off not having sli, go with an ati 4850, or nvidia 9800gt(x).
And an SLI motherboard typically costs more, so I wouldn't consider it at your budget.

I second going with an intel core 2 quad q9300 or q8200, depending upon your budget.

Liquid cooling is not necessary at all, if you plan on overclocking you should look for good heatsinks, such as: tuniq tower, thermalright, sunbeam core contact freezer, or a zalman 9700.

And you should consider going with a 640gb western digital hard drive, they aren't that much more and are considerably faster.

Your psu is a bit low end, and although it will manage, you should consider getting a better power supply from corsair, pc power cooling, seasonic, or antec. 500w will be sufficient for your needs.

some good motherboard picksusually use the intel p45 chipset. Some popular ones include the asus p5q and gigabyte ep45 series.

hope that helps

 

[Puck]

All of that is awful.
Here is the best system around that price;
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13985840&postcount=7261

 

[Cobra84]

Don't go with SLI or crossfire. The motherboards are more expensive and 2 cards are less cost effective than one good one. Just get a 4850, 4870 or 260 and be done with it.

Just get a Q8200, it's the same price as the E8500 you are looking at. Quad core > Dual core.

Wrong. The Q8200 is a slower per core, which isn't better when the program supports only single or dual core. Considering the current need and support for 4 cores, I'd much rather have 2 good cores than 4 below average ones.

 

[Diablos]

All of that is awful.
Here is the best system around that price;
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13985840&postcount=7261

Don't get mad just because the quad cores are cheaper now

 

[ghst]

Video Card - 2 x EVGA GeForce 9500 GT in SLI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130378

*** Would it be smart to get two of these in SLI? I read somewhere that it could over decent performance over 1 card that may cost twice the price? Unsure on this one.

this card would severely bottleneck your system. a video card is (along with the processor) the most critical component of any gaming build. you'd do well to balance the lions share of your budget between these two rather than going all out on one and sacrificing the other.

with that said, the current budget minded card seems to be the radeon 4850, extending up to the 4870 and the gtx 260 depending on how much your budget allows.

 

[Introdacqua]

This website has a good build
http://techreport.com/articles.x/15941/4

You won't need the asus sound card, so you can find it for under 700.

 

[Diablos]

Wrong. The Q8200 is a slower per core, which isn't better when the program supports only single or dual core. Considering the current need and support for 4 cores, I'd much rather have 2 good cores than 4 below average ones.

So what? In a year this won't matter. Multi-core is best, looking ahead. For general performance today having four "below average" cores won't matter, especially if you get a good GPU.

 

[Introdacqua]

So what? In a year this won't matter. Multi-core is best, looking ahead. For general performance today having four "below average" cores won't matter, especially if you get a good GPU.

But by the time quad cores are used effectively by games chances are any current budget cpu will be too slow regardless they are not quad cores or not.

 

[a1m]

Well tbh eventho the Q8200 has 4 cores it's still slower than the E8500 and if you don't play the newest games, the E8500 is alot faster aswell.

If your budget is only $500-600, don't even think about SLI's.

P45- / P43-mobo
E8500
Ati HD4850 / HD4870
2x2GB DDR2
Western Digital 640GB SATAII - 16/32MB
Corsair HX520w / Enermax modu82 +425w

Something like that.

 

[Chris R]

So what? In a year this won't matter. Multi-core is best, looking ahead. For general performance today having four "below average" cores won't matter, especially if you get a good GPU.

Plus with overclocking, the slower cores can be just as quick. I'd go with the quad core for future proofing as well.

As for the difficulty of building your own system, its really easy if you can follow the steps and are willing to spend some time solving problems. I've been able to tear down and rebuild an entire system in under twenty minuets, but I spent a few years working in a help desk position. The latest system I built took just over an hour to put together, but that included me taking the fan off the GPU and putting a custom one on there, and then time spent trying to figure out why my system was blue screening every time I rebooted (motherboard had additional power plug just for GPU, didn't have it juiced).

In your price range it might be better to buy a store built system and swap in a more powerful video card. Its what I did for my brother, and his system works just fine. Or you can build a decent system with a good cpu/ram/hdd/ect and then just upgrade the gpu every now and then.

 

[Mandewd]

8500 needs to be coupled with a nice gfx card, id honestly recommend putting up another 100 bucks and getting a 4870.

 

[FromTheFuture]

Hmm.. now i'm unsure again with the processor... All this arguing is just confusing me more. Either way, i'm already pushing it as it is difficult for me to justify the purchase of a PC to the people around me. I really need to make it by with this budget, and like i said i'm not looking for anything top of the line. Looking down the line, i only plan to play games i've missed, like Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, CS:S and other games i've missed (I don't keep up with PC gaming that much) and maybe things like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and more at a good framerate, decent resolution and just enough so that it looks good.

 

[Mandewd]

Hmm.. now i'm unsure again with the processor... All this arguing is just confusing me more. Either way, i'm already pushing it as it is difficult for me to justify the purchase of a PC to the people around me. I really need to make it by with this budget, and like i said i'm not looking for anything top of the line. Looking down the line, i only plan to play games i've missed, like Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, CS:S and other games i've missed (I don't keep up with PC gaming that much) and maybe things like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and more at a good framerate, decent resolution and just enough so that it looks good.

dual-cores are (like has been said before) better for current-gen games. Most games do not utilize quad-core cpus yet, but I i figure in 2-3 years they will. I think the e8500 is the perfect choice for what you plan to play

 

[FromTheFuture]

dual-cores are (like has been said before) better for current-gen games. Most games do not utilize quad-core cpus yet, but I i figure in 2-3 years they will. I think the e8500 is the perfect choice for what you plan to play

Sounds good. I think i'll go with the 8500 for now, i mean i can always upgrade in the future if it's that necessary. Any tips on what i should do for the GFX card then? What would work well with the 8500 and what i plan to play? Getting too many mixed replies in here.

 

[Gully State]

Hmm.. now i'm unsure again with the processor... All this arguing is just confusing me more. Either way, i'm already pushing it as it is difficult for me to justify the purchase of a PC to the people around me. I really need to make it by with this budget, and like i said i'm not looking for anything top of the line. Looking down the line, i only plan to play games i've missed, like Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, CS:S and other games i've missed (I don't keep up with PC gaming that much) and maybe things like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and more at a good framerate, decent resolution and just enough so that it looks good.

If it's just for that, a E8500 + 4850 will be overkill for it. As for quad core, most games right now don't take advantage of it. By the time most titles do, the current set of quad cores won't be sufficient.

 

[Mandewd]

Sounds good. I think i'll go with the 8500 for now, i mean i can always upgrade in the future if it's that necessary. Any tips on what i should do for the GFX card then? What would work well with the 8500 and what i plan to play? Getting too many mixed replies in here.

a gtx 260 would be sufficient

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370

just over 200 bucks

 

[a1m]

^ Way too expensive for the budget imo.

Sounds good. I think i'll go with the 8500 for now, i mean i can always upgrade in the future if it's that necessary. Any tips on what i should do for the GFX card then? What would work well with the 8500 and what i plan to play? Getting too many mixed replies in here.

If HD4850 is too expensive, the HD4830 is a bit cheaper but still a great card.

 

[Dick Laurent]

If it's just for that, a E8500 + 4850 will be overkill for it. As for quad core, most games right now don't take advantage of it. By the time most titles do, the current set of quad cores won't be sufficient.

Quad is good to have if you want to play GTA4 or Supreme Commander.

 

[FromTheFuture]

If it's just for that, a E8500 + 4850 will be overkill for it. As for quad core, most games right now don't take advantage of it. By the time most titles do, the current set of quad cores won't be sufficient.

Well to be honest, that's just what i'm looking forward to, but i plan to play whatever my system would be able to run, so i want to get the best i can for my budget, which is a tad low, but oh well.

 

[Gully State]

Quad is good to have if you want to play GTA4 or Supreme Commander.

There's about a 2-3 FPS increase with the Q6600 as opposed to the E8500 for Supreme Commander according to tomshardware benchmarks. My point is that it's better to spend less and go with incremental upgrades (every 2-3 years) than to try to fight a losing battle by spending to future proof your desktop.

 

[Cday]

Well to be honest, that's just what i'm looking forward to, but i plan to play whatever my system would be able to run, so i want to get the best i can for my budget, which is a tad low, but oh well.

In that case you'd be able to play anything out on max settings. Except Crysis of course. 4850 is the best bang for buck right now.

 

[Gully State]

Well to be honest, that's just what i'm looking forward to, but i plan to play whatever my system would be able to run, so i want to get the best i can for my budget, which is a tad low, but oh well.

550-600 will get you a very good build. Don't worry about that. I spent that much on my recent overhaul and it runs everything except Crysis and GTA4 great.

 

[YYZ]

To the OP, what kind of monitor do you have? Make sure it's 24"+ if you're getting a beast rig.

 

[gregor7777]

You will be pissed if you buy one 9500, let alone 2. Twice as shitty.

Seriously, avoid those at all costs.

Grab a 9800GT instead. Or a 4850. Those are as cheap as you want to go.

 

[FromTheFuture]

So it seems that the 4850 is a good idea for what i'm doing. Thanks a lot guys!

To the OP, what kind of monitor do you have? Make sure it's 24"+ if you're getting a beast rig.

Right now i have a shitty monitor, but i plan to purchase a new one when i get the new PC. And would what i am getting be considered a beast rig?

I'll write up the new rig specs in a second.

 

[tak]

a gtx 260 would be sufficient

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370

just over 200 bucks

I have the GTX 260 and it works great. I don't know how it would compare to what you posted in the OP, but I know my card can run Cyrsis at a decent clip (don't expect miracles though). I can do max settings at a playable framerate, not an ideal framerate.

 

[Mandewd]

To the OP, what kind of monitor do you have? Make sure it's 24"+ if you're getting a beast rig.

24!? the difference between 24" and 22" is like 200 dollars. im running a 22" acer which i got for around 140$ on sale

 

[godhandiscen]

Horrible videocard solution. Look at this article plz. Also, use the search function to find the thread with all this info.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-graphics,2086-3.html

 

[Sutanreyu]

I highly recommend saving some money and getting an E8400. It's stable, and is easily overclockable. Even if you don't overclock, you're not going to notice the 160MHz difference, so the savings is better put on a nicer video card.

 

[Mandewd]

I highly recommend saving some money and getting an E8400. It's stable, and is easily overclockable. Even if you don't overclock, you're not going to notice the 160MHz difference, so the savings is better put on a nicer video card.

8400 is what 15 bucks cheaper? 8400 do not have eo stepping, while most of the 8500s do. 8500 much more overclockable than the 8400

 

[YYZ]

Right now i have a shitty monitor, but i plan to purchase a new one when i get the new PC. And would what i am getting be considered a beast rig?

I'll write up the new rig specs in a second.

Actually I said that because the resolution is 1920x1200, better than 1080p, but if you're using it exclusively for PC then I guess 22" is fine. Most new games will not run optimally under 1920x1200 (24" resolution), but will do fine under 1680x1050. I use my monitor for PC and PS3 so 24" is a must.

A new PC should be able to run Blu-Ray movies as well and Blu-Ray drives are $150 or less now (non-writable ones). Consider that if you're into HD movies.

 

[FromTheFuture]

8400 is what 15 bucks cheaper? 8400 do not have eo stepping, while most of the 8500s do. 8500 much more overclockable than the 8400

Well i don't plan on overclocking, as i don't know much about it. Would it then be wiser to get the 8400 or try my hand at overclocking?

 

[Sutanreyu]

Well i don't plan on overclocking, as i don't know much about it. Would it then be wiser to get the 8400 or try my hand at overclocking?

Yes. The E8400 can easily get up to 3.6GHz on air without much tinkering. Hit Google up and look around if you want to know more on how to do so.

 

[Mandewd]

Well i don't plan on overclocking, as i don't know much about it. Would it then be wiser to get the 8400 or try my hand at overclocking?

if you dont plan on ocing at all (though i suggest you do an hour or two of research and try it out, as the 8400 and 8500 are both begging to be oc'd) then i would go for the 8400, save yourself 15 dollars, as previously mentioned you wont notice the 160mhz difference. OCing really isnt as hard as people make it out to be, all it involves is going into the BIOS screen when your pc is booting up, and increasing the FSB by a few digits. As long as you go in small increments it will not harm your pc (the only thing that can actually damage your cpu is if you adjust voltages incorrectly) but you can increase the FSB by a small amount without touching the voltage. If you want to start tweaking with voltages you will need to get an aftermarket cooler for your CPU, as most intel coolers can only go so far.

 

[Vaporak]

Get a slower dual core CPU and dump the rest of the money into the video card. Cheap CPU+ Expensive GPU is a much much much better gaming system than the other way around like you're planning in the OP. You don't really want anything less than a 9800GT if you're building a new gaming comp imo.

 

[1c0n 0f s1n]

Well, can we speak about socket? Intel is about to release the new I7 processors with socket B (LGA 1366)... He buys a PC now risking it's already old, if Intel does as AMD with socket 939 (in other words: we go from 939 to AM2, stopping 939 processors and transforming your mobo into crap)
If it's not a matter of urgency I think it's better to wait.
Beside this, we need the monitor resolution at which you will play games. It's useless to spend a mountain of money (quadruple SLI + Terminator's CPU cooled with liquid nitrogen + 32 gigs of RAM and the nuclear power plant needed to run a rig like this) if you plan to play for the next 10 years @ 1024*768. You tell me you have a one million inch monitor with an unspeakble resolution then it's ok, otherwise it's better to buy an ATI 4850 and a Phenom. I play with an old Athlon 3500+, 2 gigs of Kingstone Valueram, an ATI X1900 XT, and believe me the only games I absolutely cannot play are FarCry 2 , Assassin's Creed and The Witcher (And olny because I refuse to drop resolution down from 1280*1024 ^^' that is the native resolution of my ViewSonic VX922), the others works fine although not alwais reaching 60 fps except Crysis that runs between 20 and 30 fps thanks to the various LOD mods. (Oh well, between 7 and 18 fps in the tank level, but this is normal...)
But they are playable, and on a PC that is quasi 4 years old it's not a bad thing. At all.

And now, a couple of hints:

The case: if you can, buy a case without frontal door. It's a total nuisance, believe me. I would suggest a LianLi but they are really, really, really ultra expensive (Full aluminium).
PSU: the PSU you linked isn't too powerful, and if you want a PC that resists the tides of time (and you want it) it's better to buy one that has at least 600/650 watt. Possibly CoolerMaster, Corsair or Enermax. And again, if you have enough money, a modular one.
Abit: remember that Abit no longer produces motherboard. So if you see an offer move along cuz probably you will not have a support in the future for it.

Excuse my english and the grammatical errors. I'm a little rusty with it... Sorry ^___^

 

[Mandewd]

Well, can we speak about socket? Intel is about to release the new I7 processors with socket B (LGA 1366)... He buys a PC now risking it's already old, if Intel does as AMD with socket 939 (in other words: we go from 939 to AM2, stopping 939 processors and transforming your mobo into crap)
If it's not a matter of urgency I think it's better to wait.
Beside this, we need the monitor resolution at which you will play games. It's useless to spend a mountain of money (quadruple SLI + Terminator's CPU cooled with liquid nitrogen + 32 gigs of RAM and the nuclear power plant needed to run a rig like this) if you plan to play for the next 10 years @ 1024*768. You tell me you have a one million inch monitor with an unspeakble resolution then it's ok, otherwise it's better to buy an ATI 4850 and a Phenom. I play with an old Athlon 3500+, 2 gigs of Kingstone Valueram, an ATI X1900 XT, and believe me the only games I absolutely cannot play are FarCry 2 , Assassin's Creed and The Witcher (And olny because I refuse to drop resolution down from 1280*1024 ^^' that is the native resolution of my ViewSonic VX922), the others works fine although not alwais reaching 60 fps except Crysis that runs between 20 and 30 fps thanks to the various LOD mods. (Oh well, between 7 and 18 fps in the tank level, but this is normal...)
But they are playable, and on a PC that is quasi 4 years old it's not a bad thing. At all.

And now, a couple of hints:

The case: if you can, buy a case without frontal door. It's a total nuisance, believe me. I would suggest a LianLi but they are really, really, really ultra expensive (Full aluminium).
PSU: the PSU you linked isn't too powerful, and if you want a PC that resists the tides of time (and you want it) it's better to buy one that has at least 600/650 watt. Possibly CoolerMaster, Corsair or Enermax. And again, if you have enough money, a modular one.
Abit: remember that Abit no longer produces motherboard. So if you see an offer move along cuz probably you will not have a support in the future for it.

Excuse my english and the grammatical errors. I'm a little rusty with it... Sorry ^___^

building any machine with an i7 chip will be 1000+ minimum, there are few motherboards that support them already and the only ones that do are built for enthusiasts (2-3x pci-e 2.0 slots, ddr3 ram). the mobo, ram and cpu alone would cost ~700 dollars

 

[Diablos]

But by the time quad cores are used effectively by games chances are any current budget cpu will be too slow regardless they are not quad cores or not.

Ever think there could be patches that take advantage of multi-core?

I'd rather have a quad now even if it's obsolete by the time games take advantage. I realize i7 is basically where things are heading, but there's nothing wrong with wanting a Q8xxx or 9xxx over an E8500 or something. Both are going to give you similar performance. Plus, a quad core cpu will be vastly superior for things like encoding.

The only thing that sucks about the Q8200 is that there's no virtualization.

 

[FromTheFuture]

Alright so i've compiled the parts so far:

Case - NZXT. Apollo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025

PSU - Rosewill 550W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182030

Processor - Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Motherboard - Gigabyte P45 Intel Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

GFX - ATI Radeon HD 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770

Memory - Corsair 2 x 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

HDD - Western Digital 640GB SATA 3.0 GB/s / 7200 RPM / 16MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298

Is there any way i can cut down the price a bit? Tax + Shipping is sort of killing me and sapping my budget from a new monitor, etc. I really want to try to get the best i can for a decent price, but i constantly find myself going for those few extra dollars worth of stuff, which ultimately adds up. Also, if anyone finds any better deals, i would be grateful if you could pass them my way.

Also, this hasn't been answered yet, but is building your own PC from scratch difficult for a first timer? Is it easy to break something/have something go wrong? Would i be better off buying a customized PC premade?

edit. Also, is there anything cheaper than New Egg?

 

[Mandewd]

Alright so i've compiled the parts so far:

Case - NZXT. Apollo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025

PSU - Rosewill 550W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182030

Processor - Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Motherboard - Gigabyte P45 Intel Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

GFX - ATI Radeon HD 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770

Memory - Corsair 2 x 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

HDD - Western Digital 640GB SATA 3.0 GB/s / 7200 RPM / 16MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298

Is there any way i can cut down the price a bit? Tax + Shipping is sort of killing me and sapping my budget from a new monitor, etc. I really want to try to get the best i can for a decent price, but i constantly find myself going for those few extra dollars worth of stuff, which ultimately adds up. Also, if anyone finds any better deals, i would be grateful if you could pass them my way.

Also, this hasn't been answered yet, but is building your own PC from scratch difficult for a first timer? Is it easy to break something/have something go wrong? Would i be better off buying a customized PC premade?

edit. Also, is there anything cheaper than New Egg?

i think you cant really afford to downgrade anything = / maybe from the 4850 to a 9800gt. to answer that question, pc labor is INSANELY expensive, you will save ~50-100 dollars by building it yourself. it is honestly not difficult to do for yourself, its just like a lego set. just have a forum or help website open while you are doing it if you have any questions. i think i can answer a few questions you'll likely have when (or if) you build
1. the cpu fan is supposed to be impossible to put on, you will bend your mobo but will not break it
2. wear an anti-static wriststrap
3. i find it easier to install the motherboard first then install things directly into the case, either way though
4. take your time and do some cable management (make sure no cords are touching fans, disaster waiting to happen) itll also improve temperature and airflow
5. you have to push really hard to get the ram to go in
6. don't touch the cpu pins, hold it by the side. when mounting it put it as near to center in the socket as you can and EVER SO LIGHTLY push it into place with your index finger (you'll feel it click in)
7. dont get worried if it doesnt post perfectly right away, something usually goes wrong but it is often easily correctable

 

[RiverBed]

I read somewhere that the new GPUs will hit in June (end of Q2). would anyone know if that is true or not? because if it is, I'll hold on buying a new PC till then.

sorry for the offtopic question.

 

[Mandewd]

I read somewhere that the new GPUs will hit in June (end of Q2). would anyone know if that is true or not? because if it is, I'll hold on buying a new PC till then.

sorry for the offtopic question.

the rule i live my pc building by is that each series of gpus and cpus has a lifespan of around 9-12 months. I can't remember when the 260s and 280s came out but it certainly wouldnt surprise me to see a new series out (from nvidia) by june. still waiting for amd's answer to i7 though, but you'd be pretty safe buying an i7 right now