Help Building Fast/Gaming computer..

[MCvengros24]

Hi, I was thinking about building my own computer instead of buying one for 1600 dollars. I'm almost positve I can do this a lot cheaper myself. I'm pretty good with computers (fix and upgraded many peoples computers) and ive been working on them for years. However, Ive never built my own from scratch but I'm positive I can do it, If i was told what to buy and get some advice. I'm really just not sure what will all work together or fit in a case. So let me start off with what I want:

A very fast computer or possibly a gaming rig. The looks have to be nice since its in my room (some nice lights and all that like alienware or velocity). Since I work at a retail store I can get my hands on theI Intel® Pentium® D processor 820 and Intel® Desktop Board D945PSN (with XP proffesional) for 215 bucks guarenteed. I'm pretty set on that since that will save me a ton of money and the performance is pretty good. I basically will need a sweet *** case that will for sure fit this motherboard (I'm not sure how to tell) and I hear the pentium d's get hot, so the case needs to have good airflow. Also I want atleast 1 GB of ram, 2 GB preffered, I already have a couple of hard drives but i was considering buying one with RAID if it is even compatable...so i also will probably need sound card, video card, power supply that will run all of this with plenty of wattage left for upgrades, additional fans for cooling or any other cooling devices (light up ones hopefully :-) ) And I think that's all inless I'm missing anything or you guys can suggest anything. I already own a 19 inch LCD monitor and keyboard and mouse, so this is just the computer itself I need to buy...The price range is prefferably under 1,000 dollars but might be able to extend it. I would also like the ability to have a TV tuner down the road. Thanks.

[sickness]

First off, if you want it for games you'll want AMD. If you decide to go with AMD, then DFI is a good choice for a motherboard. Depending on if you want SLI or not determines which DFI board you get. You can find a 7800GT for around 320 bucks I've heard. Or you could go the 6800GS route. 2 GBs of ram. Will be plenty for current/newer games. Assuming you go with AMD, I'd say the AMD Athlon 64 4000+ proc. That or the 3700. Probably be able to OC the 3700+ to 4000+ speeds. That'll probably run you close to $1,300. Use the rest to buy a nice moniter and maybe an X-FI sound card.

EDIT

Well, I thought your budget was $1,600, but if you are shooting for a grand then...

6800GS with 1GB of ram and the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D w/ the 3700+

[MCvengros24]

I heard AMD is better, but i've always been an intel person for some reason, and 215 bucks for a good motherboard and pentium d 2.8 ghz seems like a good deal to me and i think it should run most of todays games pretty good. My dell is 1.5 pentium 4 and lags just a little bit, 2.8 pentium d will most likely do the trick expecially with a geforce 7800 gtx... Is it really worth spending the extra money for minor performance with AMD, or can I just stick with the pentium D 2.8? If the costs are compareable then **** ill go with AMD. Thanks for the quick response as i need this built asap.

[003]

215 for the pentium d AND mobo... that is a really good deal, I would usually recommend AMD, but the pentium d is dual core, right? the cheapest dual core amd cpu is $330, so yeah... big difference. here is a real sharp looking case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112040
it's also very high quality, and made by the best brand for cases.

[sickness]

Go ahead and use that Intel chip and get a 7800GTX. It'll play games like an AMD proc pc will just fine. ****, I think any system with a GTX will play games just fine.

[MCvengros24]

whats the difference between the 7800 GT and 7800 GTX? Also I probably will stay with the pentoum d 820 and intel motherboard D945PSN, i liked that case 003, will that work with the motherboard and processor though? And any other case suggestions?

[vaderpro]

Originally posted by MCvengros24
whats the difference between the 7800 GT and 7800 GTX? Also I probably will stay with the pentoum d 820 and intel motherboard D945PSN, i liked that case 003, will that work with the motherboard and processor though? And any other case suggestions?

-Well your gettin a great deal there so stick with the pentium setup.

-The differnece between those 2 videocards is $140 and one outperforms the other..its up to you, they will both handle any game you throw at them but the 7800gtx will do it better....is all depends on how much money you want to burn.

- Lian Li cases are the best but very pricey. That case will work. (any ATX case will work.) Heres some of my favorites:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129154

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129158

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119077

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133146

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133140

The Video cards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130256

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130248

[vaderpro]

Power supplies:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817711002

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103933

[MCvengros24]

Those are some sweet cases! So any ATX case will work? What's the minimum power supply that I need? Also if I want a 1 GB stick of RAM or possibly 2 sticks of 1 GB RAM, and i believe this motherboard takes : DDR2 667, DDR2 533, or DDR2 400 MHz SDRAM DIMMs, which is the best one to use and how much do they run? Thanks for all the help, I'll be posting if this is a success or not.

[beedubaya]

You should be sure to get a DFI SLI motherboard. You should also go for the 7800GTX 512MB. Then purchase another 7800GTX 512MB when the price goes down and you will be set for Unreal Engine 3 games.