Build-A-Rig Parts list thread

[Surf314]

Obsolete rigs are obsolete.

[CaffeinePowered]

Give me a budget and I will build a rig around it

[Surf314]

I'd say that there should be two, a great budget PC like between $500 and $1000 and an awesome gaming rig somewhere around $2000.  That way it'd be a good guide for those with no money and those with money but no PC knowledge.

[copulatingduck]

Duck's 15-minute Budget Build:

[table][tr][td]The motherboard:[/td][td]GIGABYTE GA-MA69VM-S2 Micro ATX Motherboard[/td][td]$65[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Processor:[/td][td]AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor[/td][td]$59[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Ram:[/td][td]OCZ Reaper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)[/td][td]$95 ($60 w/ rebate)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Power Supply:[/td][td]Thermaltake 500W ATX[/td][td]$60 (40 w/ rebate)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]edit: THE DVD DRIVE![/td][td]I'm a generic OEM DVD Burner (SATA, IDE cables are a bitch)[/td][td]$32[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Vidya Card[/td][td](Pick 1 of the 2)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]1[/td][td]Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16[/td][td]$120[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]2 (thanks jorge)[/td][td]GIGABYTE GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16[/td][td]$162 ($137 w/ rebates)[/td][/tr]

[/table]

There, a $431 (w/ rebates $376) rig (minus the HDD and case) in 15 minutes, and I guarantee you it'll run your games pretty nicely. The first thing I would suggest splurging on if you want to bump it up a notch is obviously the video card. For most games, this will be your bottleneck.

You would still need to supply a HDD and a case, but those are completely up to you (probably an additional $120~$150). And for prices, if you really want, you could do better buying parts over a few weeks as Newegg tends to have GREAT DEALS on parts, just not all at once. For newbie builds, I always suggest buying retail processors, it comes with the heatsink and fan and some paste, should be good enough for your concerns. As for the video cards, those prices aren't the greatest I've seen. It's possible to get much better deals, but like I said, you just have to wait for them. Lastly, make sure your case is the proper size  ;P

Any questions, errors, etc, just leave a comment.

edit: For more help with Video cards, Tomshardware has awesome reviews and comparisons of dozens and dozens of video cards, both with 3DMark test results and RL game performance measured in FPS.

editx2: Added the much better 9600gt jorge suggested

[Geoff]

[table][tr][td]The motherboard:[/td][td]GIGABYTE GA-MA69VM-S2 Micro ATX Motherboard[/td][td]$65[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Processor:[/td][td]AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor[/td][td]$59[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Ram:[/td][td]OCZ Reaper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)[/td][td]$95 ($60 w/ rebate)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Power Supply:[/td][td]Thermaltake 500W ATX[/td][td]$60 (40 w/ rebate)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]edit: THE DVD DRIVE![/td][td]I'm a generic OEM DVD Burner (SATA, IDE cables are a bitch)[/td][td]$32[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]The Vidya Card (Pick 1 of the 3)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]1[/td][td]Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16[/td][td]$120[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]2[/td][td]EVGA GeForce 8600GTS 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16[/td][td]$150 ($120 w/ rebates)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]3 (great, but sold out)[/td][td]EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16[/td][td]$150 ($120 w/ rebates)[/td][/tr]
[/table]

There, a $431 (w/ rebates $376) rig (minus the HDD and case) in 15 minutes, and I guarantee you it'll run your games pretty nicely. The first thing I would suggest splurging on if you want to bump it up a notch is obviously the video card. For most games, this will be your bottleneck.

You would still need to supply a HDD and a case, but those are completely up to you (probably an additional $120~$150). And for prices, if you really want, you could do better buying parts over a few weeks as Newegg tends to have GREAT DEALS on parts, just not all at once. For newbie builds, I always suggest buying retail processors, it comes with the heatsink and fan and some paste, should be good enough for your concerns. As for the video cards, those prices aren't the greatest I've seen. It's possible to get much better deals, but like I said, you just have to wait for them. Lastly, make sure your case is the proper size  ;P

Any questions, errors, etc, just leave a comment.

edit: For more help with Video cards, Tomshardware has awesome reviews and comparisons of dozens and dozens of video cards, both with 3DMark test results and RL game performance measured in FPS.

lol.  Miniboards are yummy.  Do those go up to dual core?  I'm thinkin about replaing my fail-rig (imac).
Oh and, WHARS CASE?

[copulatingduck]

[quote author=copulatingduck link=topic=277.msg6635#msg6635 date=1210715359]
There, a $431 (w/ rebates $376) rig (minus the HDD and case) in 15 minutes, and I guarantee you it'll run your games pretty nicely. The first thing I would suggest splurging on if you want to bump it up a notch is obviously the video card. For most games, this will be your bottleneck.

You would still need to supply a HDD and a case, but those are completely up to you (probably an additional $120~$150). And for prices, if you really want, you could do better buying parts over a few weeks as Newegg tends to have GREAT DEALS on parts, just not all at once. For newbie builds, I always suggest buying retail processors, it comes with the heatsink and fan and some paste, should be good enough for your concerns. As for the video cards, those prices aren't the greatest I've seen. It's possible to get much better deals, but like I said, you just have to wait for them. Lastly, make sure your case is the proper size  ;P

Any questions, errors, etc, just leave a comment.

edit: For more help with Video cards, Tomshardware has awesome reviews and comparisons of dozens and dozens of video cards, both with 3DMark test results and RL game performance measured in FPS.

lol.  Miniboards are yummy.  Do those go up to dual core?  I'm thinkin about replaing my fail-rig (imac).
Oh and, WHARS CASE?
[/quote]

Yea, they are both AM2 socket so I guess they do make duel core ones ;P

Also, here's your case:



I told you to find your own, but if people really want, I will suggest one I guess. 

[jorge]

[table][tr][td]The Vidya Card (Pick 1 of the 3)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]1[/td][td]Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16[/td][td]$120[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]2[/td][td]EVGA GeForce 8600GTS 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16[/td][td]$150 ($120 w/ rebates)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]3 (great, but sold out)[/td][td]EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16[/td][td]$150 ($120 w/ rebates)[/td][/tr]
[/table]

9600 GTs are $130 after rebate; I would suggest two of those instead.

[copulatingduck]

The 9000 series are all PCI-E 2.0 if I'm not mistaken. I was under the impression that wouldn't work with a PCI-E 1.0 slot. PCI-E 2.0 Mobo's are expensive.

I stand corrected.

PCI Express 2.0 Support
Designed to run perfectly with the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow’s most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications by maximizing the 5 GT/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth (twice that of first generation PCI Express). PCI Express 2.0 products are fully backwards compatible with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.

Changing rig specs.

[IdiotWithGuns]

Humm hard drives?

i use raptors 74 gigs in raid 0 or 1+0 for os.  Cant beat that.  They running at 10k rpm

[copulatingduck]

Humm hard drives?

i use raptors 74 gigs in raid 0 or 1+0 for os.  Cant beat that.  They running at 10k rpm

Lol. Well I have 1TB of random drives I keep buying on sale, but neither really works for a budget PC 
Can't wait for SSDs to become affordable.

[CaffeinePowered]

[quote author=IdiotWithGuns link=topic=277.msg6662#msg6662 date=1210721367]
Humm hard drives?

i use raptors 74 gigs in raid 0 or 1+0 for os.  Cant beat that.  They running at 10k rpm

Lol. Well I have 1TB of random drives I keep buying on sale, but neither really works for a budget PC 
Can't wait for SSDs to become affordable.
[/quote]

SSDs, Fuck yea

I really want to buy one just for my OS so shit loads uber fast

[Geoff]

Sweet.  Me and Spore were talking about how it would be awesometacular if you got a sweet rig together, then modded a lunchbox into a case.  Portable TF2.

[Greatbacon]

Sweet.  Me and Spore were talking about how it would be awesometacular if you got a sweet rig together, then modded a lunchbox into a case.  Portable TF2.

I've been thinking about doing something similar to that when i build myself a new rig in a few years.  Use one briefcase as the actual computer case and another one to hold a monitor and keyboard, it'll be "awesometacular" if i can pull it off.  Even better if i can make it look steampunk in the process.

[Eschatos]

I just want the full size sentry gun someone built that's also a computer.

http://kotaku.com/345211/the-best-team-f...-ever-seen

Other than that I just need to upgrade my video card and maybe get some more RAM.

[ScottyGrayskull]

Here's one for you guys:

I want to upgrade, and I'm kind of on the brink of it being more worth it to just get a new system. I want a new CPU, motherboard, power supply, and RAM. Chances are with that I'll need a new case, so that as well (although I'll gladly keep my current case if the new stuff fits). Everything else I'm quite happy with.

Thing is that my video card is AGP (ATI X1650 512 MB I believe). So I need a motherboard that can take AGP, but has plenty of room for future upgrades (so PCI-E amongst other things). I'd probably be looking at just below mid range for most of the stuff, but I'm willing to pay more for the motherboard if I think I'll be able to keep it for an upgrade or two.

[copulatingduck]

Here's one for you guys:

I want to upgrade, and I'm kind of on the brink of it being more worth it to just get a new system. I want a new CPU, motherboard, power supply, and RAM. Chances are with that I'll need a new case, so that as well (although I'll gladly keep my current case if the new stuff fits). Everything else I'm quite happy with.

Thing is that my video card is AGP (ATI X1650 512 MB I believe). So I need a motherboard that can take AGP, but has plenty of room for future upgrades (so PCI-E amongst other things). I'd probably be looking at just below mid range for most of the stuff, but I'm willing to pay more for the motherboard if I think I'll be able to keep it for an upgrade or two.

Do you know the form factor for your current case? Most likely it's ATX, in which case I really don't think you'd need to get a new one if you upgraded your CPU, MOBO, Power Supply, and RAM.

Unfortunately, the fact that you want to keep your AGP card is going to be the big problem here. They actually did make AGP/PCI-Ex16 mobo's - see the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 here and here - but if that 939 socket didn't give it away, that board was a HOT commodity... in 2005. They just don't make AGP/PCI-Ex16 hybrid hardware anymore. If anyone can prove me wrong that'd be awesome, but Newegg says that board was deactivated a long time ago. And there wasn't exactly a huge market for these hybrid boards...

Soo... even if you manage to find one of those old hybrid mobo's, you still have the problem of it being a 939 socket. What's wrong with 939? You have a whopping (1) choice(s) in terms of processors from Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103037
All socket 939 processors are going to be the older single-core processors.

In summary: what's it gonna be? You gonna try to find the AGP/PCI-E x16 hybrid mobo and buy an old processor? Or are you gonna be looking for a new video card?

edit: Lol, now that I think about it, I was considering buying that very board my freshmen year in college (I'm a senior) when I didn't want to upgrade my AGP card right away. I ended up eating it and getting my fancy PCI-E 6800xt instead.

moar edits: Honestly Scotty, I would say that you are at the point I was at with my old gaming rig. There's really not that much you can do about upgrading a single component. Changing one thing will require changing another, and another ad infinitum. That's why my old gaming rig is now my server. OH GOD WHAT A WASTE OF COMPUTER!!!

;_;

[ScottyGrayskull]

Dammit, and I just upgraded my video card back in the new year... At least it was pretty cheap at only $120 or so... I knew even then that it was probably a bad idea, especially considering that I was sure my power supply wasn't enough to handle it (sure enough it'll just shut off once a week or so). I just didn't have the money for a anything else though and really wanted something.

Thing is I have pretty much all of the peripherals taken care of (hdd, disk drives, sound, network) but need the core components. Pretty much need what's in your 15 minute budget build. There's a shop in town I'll check out as well as look at NCIX. After I take a look to make sure I know what I need I'll start shopping. :S

[copulatingduck]

For people wanting new Video Cards, Tom's Hardware does an awesome post every month talking about the best cards for your money.

Tom's Picks for the Month of April

At the end of his post, he also ranks EVERY VIDEO CARD SERIES EVER in terms of relative power.

[Mission Difficult]

For people wanting new Video Cards, Tom's Hardware does an awesome post every month talking about the best cards for your money.

Tom's Picks for the Month of April

At the end of his post, he also ranks EVERY VIDEO CARD SERIES EVER in terms of relative power.

I spent a lot of time there when I was building my last machine, excellent resource

[Budr]

SSDs, Fuck yea

I really want to buy one just for my OS so shit loads uber fast

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3311