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Building a PC specifically for gaming - need help

So this is basically my first venture with building my own PC, and its main use will be for gaming. I know I will need the following:

Case
CD and CD burner drives
USB ports
Sound Card
Video Card
RAM (like 2 GB)
Processor (like 4 GHz)
Hard Disk Space (80 or 120 GB should be sufficient)
Monitor
Speakers

Am I missing anything? Also, what specs for some of these items aside from RAM, processor speed, and hard disk space would you recommend? Any particularly good brands to look out for?

Re: Building a PC specifically for gaming - need help

quote:

Originally posted by Psionic So this is basically my first venture with building my own PC, and its main use will be for gaming. I know I will need the following: Case CD and CD burner drives USB ports Sound Card Video Card RAM (like 2 GB) Processor (like 4 GHz) Hard Disk Space (80 or 120 GB should be sufficient) Monitor Speakers Am I missing anything? Also, what specs for some of these items aside from RAM, processor speed, and hard disk space would you recommend? Any particularly good brands to look out for?

Your missing a Power Supply and the Memory. Depending on how much your willing to spend, I would go with the motherboards with the Nvidia chipsets that supports SLI, That way you can hook up two of the same exact graphics card to play games in the HD quality resolutions. Im in the process of building a new PC myself, But its gonna take weeks. So far I got the case, The motherboard and the Power Supply, But I did a ton of research on the parts before buying them. I plan on building a PC with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the motherboard using an Nvidia chipset that supports SLI. I bought the Power Supply today after doing a whole lot of research regarding the kind of Power Supplies that support a Quad SLI configuration. If you are seriously about building a full blown gaming system like I am, You should go to this link. It will give you a listing of all the hardware you need to built yourself a gaming PC using Nvidia Graphics cards with SLI or Quad SLI.

quote:

Originally posted by Psionic So this is basically my first venture with building my own PC, and its main use will be for gaming. I know I will need the following: Case

Remember that the case has to fit the motherboards screw holes. PC techs measure case size by ATX. I don't know what that ATX means, but I know they come in mini, mid, and full ATX cases. Make sure the
ATX size from the motherboard is the same for the case.

quote:

CD and CD burner drives

I'd go with a DVD-RW and a DVD-ROM. Iomega makes some good burners.

quote:

USB ports

Make sure you have at least 4. If you're big on gadgets this is a must.

quote:

Sound Card

If you need it for playback (listening) purposes only then make sure you get a motherboard with integrated surround sound with support for THX (<---that's optional). If you're a producer then you will need a professional sound card with support for ASIO drivers. Search the producers forum.

quote:

Video Card

Since you're big on games I wouldn't rely on the integrated graphics chipset built in to the motherboard. Listen to Tigerclaw.

quote:

RAM (like 2 GB)

DDR, non-ecc, and low latency. DDR2 lags. The latency specs usually look like this: 2-2-2-3
The lower the numbers the better. This type of low latency memory is rare but well worth it. Again make sure is compatible with mobo, 186-pin i think.

quote:

Processor (like 4 GHz)

The speed is more than enough and AMD is known for gamers so go with that brand of cpu. Don't know which model though. I'm an Intel loyalist!

quote:

Hard Disk Space (80 or 120 GB should be sufficient)

Maxtor or Seagate make quality hard drives. Stay away from Western Digital. They are notorious for bad hard drives. Remember there are two types of consumer hard drives out there: IEDE and SATA. Go with the SATA type hard drives. They are faster and have different connectors without all the pin configuration stuff like in the IEDE. You just plug the power and data cable. That's it! No pins to configure like in the IEDE style drives. Make sure your mobo supports SATA drives.

If you're buying two drives as a recommendation I always connect the primary master with the smaller size GB and the secondary slave with the bigger size GB. I never put the better and larger hard drive i'm going to abuse as the primary master.

quote:

Monitor

Go with the Viewsonic brand, hands down they make the best LCD screens. I've read lots of positive reviews. Look out for the refresh rates usually in milliseconds or ms for short. Since you're a gamer this is very important. The lower the ms the better.

There has been some debate about a game's frames per second speed on a flat screen versus a bulky monitor. I'm not sure.

quote:

Speakers

Not my department.

Haha wow thanks for the advice. However if I'm building this computer for gaming purposes, would I still want AMD even if the new Intel duo cores are supposedly really good? I wish there was a gamer here who has tried both who could comment, hehe.

quote:

Originally posted by Psionic Haha wow thanks for the advice. However if I'm building this computer for gaming purposes, would I still want AMD even if the new Intel duo cores are supposedly really good? I wish there was a gamer here who has tried both who could comment, hehe.

the intel chips are the way to go. dont rely on what gamers tell you, 99% of them wouldnt know shit. check sites like anandtech.com. if theyre saying theres little point in purchasing an AMD at the moment (they are) then id go with the new intels.

PKTHEEEEE
you're tho thexy


hahahhaaaaaaaaa

quote:

Originally posted by Psionic Haha wow thanks for the advice. However if I'm building this computer for gaming purposes, would I still want AMD even if the new Intel duo cores are supposedly really good? I wish there was a gamer here who has tried both who could comment, hehe.

I know fr0st has a conroe(intel) and has ran an X2, he recommends going the intel route and as the market looks right now, intel is dominating. Although AMD is dropping, it recently acquired ATI so you might want to look deep into AMD's future. Seems like they are tackling the gamers mind.

outside of your devices you listed, the core components which should be par or higher should be your MOBO(PCI-Express), Ram low latency cas a GB or more, HDs space I recommend (if money isn't an issue) 2xSATA for OS and applications, and a really large IDE one for data. Next would be a good PSU (thermaltake should suffice). Then the video card mania, some stay loyal to ATI others to Nvidia geforces...I have both, I'd say go with a Geforce. Audio you can go with M-Audio or Sound Blaster's anything above an audigy.

next - cooling cooling cooling....make sure everything is cooled properly. you can have thousands worth of high-end equipment, but if you don't have a good case and cooling properly, you lose optimization. Stick to Zalman for CPU and Video Card cooling.

I also highly recommend an external Hard Drive, Be sure to get the one with USB 2.0 if your current system supports it. Its backwards compatible with 1.0, But it would just take longer to transfer huge files with 1.0 when its faster with 2.0. USB 1.0 is 12Mbps and USB 2.0 is 480Mbps.

Whats the go with these new gizmos they call 'Physics cards', are they some kind of secondary graphics processor which works with the video card processor or the CPU(s)?

quote:

Originally posted by Lilith Whats the go with these new gizmos they call 'Physics cards', are they some kind of secondary graphics processor which works with the video card processor or the CPU(s)?

The Physic card is an add-on card that connects to a PCI slot. It basically handles all the Physics so that the graphics card doesnt have to do all the work. Using this card will benefit on many of games that support it cause it will handle a lot more physics then what the graphics card could handle, For a list of current and upcomming games that support the Physics card, Click right here. On the page you will be able to watch some videos that shows you how good these physics card are.

altec lansing or logitech speakers.

I prefer altec 5.1 there so rock solid I have dj with them. The bass is so crazy and the sound quality is insane. There like having a $300 studio monitor. That and I have been using them for 2 years cranked and no problems.

Razer mouse FTW.

They also make a killer instinct network card or some bs it is suppose to reduce ping on cable and fps is suppose to increse.

Are games finally working on duo core? I thought they wern't optimized yet.

quote:

Originally posted by Ozoned12 altec lansing or logitech speakers. I prefer altec 5.1 there so rock solid I have dj with them. The bass is so crazy and the sound quality is insane. There like having a $300 studio monitor. That and I have been using them for 2 years cranked and no problems. Razer mouse FTW. They also make a killer instinct network card or some bs it is suppose to reduce ping on cable and fps is suppose to increse. Are games finally working on duo core? I thought they wern't optimized yet.

All of the current motherboards out there have built in ethernet ports. There's no need to buy a network card unless you want to connect your PC to a wireless network, Then you need to buy a wireless ethernet adaptor.

quote:

Originally posted by TigerClaw All of the current motherboards out there have built in ethernet ports. There's no need to buy a network card unless you want to connect your PC to a wireless network, Then you need to buy a wireless ethernet adaptor.

ok? lol. I was just implying that there was such a thing. Some people have network problems with games. Most of the time it's either there isp or a router problem due to ports not being open and a firewall running.

quote:

Originally posted by stevieboy32808 Remember that the case has to fit the motherboards screw holes. PC techs measure case size by ATX. I don't know what that ATX means, but I know they come in mini, mid, and full ATX cases. Make sure the ATX size from the motherboard is the same for the case. I'd go with a DVD-RW and a DVD-ROM. Iomega makes some good burners. Make sure you have at least 4. If you're big on gadgets this is a must. If you need it for playback (listening) purposes only then make sure you get a motherboard with integrated surround sound with support for THX (<---that's optional). If you're a producer then you will need a professional sound card with support for ASIO drivers. Search the producers forum. Since you're big on games I wouldn't rely on the integrated graphics chipset built in to the motherboard. Listen to Tigerclaw. DDR, non-ecc, and low latency. DDR2 lags. The latency specs usually look like this: 2-2-2-3 The lower the numbers the better. This type of low latency memory is rare but well worth it. Again make sure is compatible with mobo, 186-pin i think. The speed is more than enough and AMD is known for gamers so go with that brand of cpu. Don't know which model though. I'm an Intel loyalist! Maxtor or Seagate make quality hard drives. Stay away from Western Digital. They are notorious for bad hard drives. Remember there are two types of consumer hard drives out there: IEDE and SATA. Go with the SATA type hard drives. They are faster and have different connectors without all the pin configuration stuff like in the IEDE. You just plug the power and data cable. That's it! No pins to configure like in the IEDE style drives. Make sure your mobo supports SATA drives. If you're buying two drives as a recommendation I always connect the primary master with the smaller size GB and the secondary slave with the bigger size GB. I never put the better and larger hard drive i'm going to abuse as the primary master. Go with the Viewsonic brand, hands down they make the best LCD screens. I've read lots of positive reviews. Look out for the refresh rates usually in milliseconds or ms for short. Since you're a gamer this is very important. The lower the ms the better. There has been some debate about a game's frames per second speed on a flat screen versus a bulky monitor. I'm not sure. Not my department.

Lol, for the love of god, stay away from the shitty Maxtor drives. Those have the worst fail rates of them all. Western Digital dominates the HD market. I don't know where the hell you read WD drives suck, they have best lifespan, lol. I've never seen a WD drive die that was under 7 years old. The best SATA you can get is the Western Digtal "Raptor" 10,000 rpm drives. I'm running 2 of these in a raid 0 array and they kick ass.

Yes you will need a soundcard and at the very least an Nvidia 7800GTX videocard, the onboard audio is still shit on todays Motherboards...get at least an Audigy 2 card.

For optical drives, go with Plextor..they also dominate the optical drive market and they are cheap to boot (read reviews from Maximum PC Magazine). They are comparable to the extremely overpriced Pioneer drives and some are even better than the Pioneers. You do not want a Iomega brand optical drives.

Also, what are u talking about with connecting the larger GB drive with the smaller GB drive...how are you abusing a drive?

quote:

Originally posted by KiNeTiC ENeRgY Lol, for the love of god, stay away from the shitty Maxtor drives. Those have the worst fail rates of them all. Western Digital dominates the HD market. I don't know where the hell you read WD drives suck, they have best lifespan, lol. I've never seen a WD drive die that was under 7 years old. The best SATA you can get is the Western Digtal "Raptor" 10,000 rpm drives. I'm running 2 of these in a raid 0 array and they kick ass. Yes you will need a soundcard and at the very least an Nvidia 7800GTX videocard, the onboard audio is still shit on todays Motherboards...get at least an Audigy 2 card. For optical drives, go with Plextor..they also dominate the optical drive market and they are cheap to boot (read reviews from Maximum PC Magazine). They are comparable to the extremely overpriced Pioneer drives and some are even better than the Pioneers. You do not want a Iomega brand optical drives. Also, what are u talking about with connecting the larger GB drive with the smaller GB drive...how are you abusing a drive?

7800GTX? Are you kidding me? Go for the Geforce 7950GX2, Its the latest graphics card, it has two GPUs on it and 1GB of ram.
http://bfgtech.com/7950Gx2_1G_PCIX.html

yea but its just 2 overclocked 7900 gts I thought? 2 7800 or 2 7900 gtx 512s are faster.

quote:

Originally posted by KiNeTiC ENeRgY Lol, for the love of god, stay away from the shitty Maxtor drives. Those have the worst fail rates of them all. Western Digital dominates the HD market. I don't know where the hell you read WD drives suck, they have best lifespan, lol.

Actually we're both wrong. Maxtor and Western Digital both suck. I was reading some reviews on Maxtor and after WD went down the gutter, Maxtor dominated the hard drive scene for a while until they too suffered from high failure rates. Now it's all about Seagate. If you don't believe me you can read this article. WD admits high failure rates due to a "cleanliness problem" in its manufacturing process: http://www.wired.com/news/technolog...82,2066,00.html
It's time to back up our data if you ask me!

quote:

For optical drives, go with Plextor..they also dominate the optical drive market and they are cheap to boot (read reviews from Maximum PC Magazine). They are comparable to the extremely overpriced Pioneer drives and some are even better than the Pioneers. You do not want a Iomega brand optical drives.

To be honest my suggestion of Iomega is based on a purchase of a burner made in 1999 and hasn't failed me once. I don't think the same can be said about their line of optical drives though. Please inform me.

quote:

Also, what are u talking about with connecting the larger GB drive with the smaller GB drive...how are you abusing a drive?

I use the second one as a backup for storage and the first one for all purposes which I reformat often, so naturally the first drive is going to get the most abuse. Results vary per person. It just makes sense to me. Why would you use the larger drive as the primary? Ah well, to each their own.

Re: Building a PC specifically for gaming - need help

quote:

Originally posted by Psionic So this is basically my first venture with building my own PC, and its main use will be for gaming. I know I will need the following: Case CD and CD burner drives USB ports Sound Card Video Card RAM (like 2 GB) Processor (like 4 GHz) Hard Disk Space (80 or 120 GB should be sufficient) Monitor Speakers Am I missing anything? Also, what specs for some of these items aside from RAM, processor speed, and hard disk space would you recommend? Any particularly good brands to look out for?

Case - Is subjective, buy what you want but definitely get a 1/2 decent cooling system and at least a 400W power supply to handle any 'extras' you might add later.

CD and CD burner drives - I'd just buy a DVD burner / reader since they're backwards compatible with CD burning / reading anyways.
Plextor is supposed to have some good ones.

USB ports - most systems have two in the front and at least 4 in the back now; pretty much standard so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

Sound Card - some manufacturers are starting to put digital surround sound chipsets right on the motherboards. Check the one you're looking at buying.

Video Card - definitely a 1/2 decent one. Doesn't have to be top of the line but for gaming, the onboard video really isn't a choice; it'll suck, trust me.

RAM - quality RAM is a must and at least 2 Gig, nothing less.

Processor - the biggest question for sure. Myself, I bought a Dual-Core 2.8Gig with the intent to upgrade to the Core2 later on since my m/b can support it. For now, they just want too much for it; I'll wait until the price comes down first.

HDD - Drives are pretty cheap these days. Go for SATA drives and you can't loose with Seagate. I've seen lots of problems with Maxtors.
Western Digital used to have a bad rep but the ones larger than 80Gig mark are pretty good (at least that's what I've read).
Go for one that's at least 300Gig, you'll be amazed how fast you'll fill 100Gig

Monitor - I have a Samsung 19" SyncMaster 940bf with a 2ms refresh and I love it and game with it all the time. I was wary of LCDs for gaming but a good refresh rate takes care of any 'ghosting' effects you might be worried about. I know I was and shyed away from it for that reason but my buddy bought one and I got to see it in action before I went for it.

Speaker - again, another subjective purchase. I like Altec Lansing and Logitech ones though if that means anything

Keep in mind, You gotta get a really good PSU, The latest graphics out there, Whether its from ATI or Nvidia, Require a connection to the PSU. Many of the newest PSUs are SLI or Crossfire Certified and they come with 2 specific plugs for PCI Express cards. However, You have to carefully do your research about them cause the current video cards require a certain amount of Amps on the 12v rail in order for the video cards to run properly. If they don't receive enough power, You will have instability with your system. Im building a new system myself, For the PSU, I bought the Antec TruePower Trio 650. Lots of power and its SLI certified, Its even built for Quad SLI.

Re: Re: Building a PC specifically for gaming - need help

quote:

Originally posted by TigerClaw Your missing a Power Supply and the Memory. Depending on how much your willing to spend, I would go with the motherboards with the Nvidia chipsets that supports SLI, That way you can hook up two of the same exact graphics card to play games in the HD quality resolutions. Im in the process of building a new PC myself, But its gonna take weeks. So far I got the case, The motherboard and the Power Supply, But I did a ton of research on the parts before buying them. I plan on building a PC with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the motherboard using an Nvidia chipset that supports SLI. I bought the Power Supply today after doing a whole lot of research regarding the kind of Power Supplies that support a Quad SLI configuration. If you are seriously about building a full blown gaming system like I am, You should go to this link. It will give you a listing of all the hardware you need to built yourself a gaming PC using Nvidia Graphics cards with SLI or Quad SLI.

At the moment dual 7900 GTX's and dual higher end Radeons outperform Quad SLI at resolutions up to 1600x1200. Any higher than that and you'll need a monitor of like 23 or 24 inches or more.

Re: Re: Re: Building a PC specifically for gaming - need help

quote:

Originally posted by 2lazy2shave At the moment dual 7900 GTX's and dual higher end Radeons outperform Quad SLI at resolutions up to 1600x1200. Any higher than that and you'll need a monitor of like 23 or 24 inches or more.

Monitors around the 24" range support resolutions up to 1920x1200. Basically you can play games in 1080i or 1080p on those. 1080i and 1080p is actually 1920x1080 resolution.

Re: Building a PC specifically for gaming - need help

quote:

Originally posted by Psionic So this is basically my first venture with building my own PC, and its main use will be for gaming. I know I will need the following: Case CD and CD burner drives USB ports Sound Card Video Card RAM (like 2 GB) Processor (like 4 GHz) Hard Disk Space (80 or 120 GB should be sufficient) Monitor Speakers Am I missing anything? Also, what specs for some of these items aside from RAM, processor speed, and hard disk space would you recommend? Any particularly good brands to look out for?

Case and PSU - go with a brand like Thermaltake or ASUS

CD and CD burner drives - You should get a DVD/RW - A Plextor ideally.
USB ports - THey come on mobo' as standard, and in terms of motherboards, for the Core 2 Duo chip, ASUS P5W/B beats everything else.
Sound Card - Creative
Video Card - I used to say SLI, but after reading numerous problems and disadvantages of it, I'd go with ATi and Crossfire (Primary & Slave use)
RAM (like 2 GB) Correct
Processor (like 4 GHz) Depends. Dual cores are grossly mis-understood, and Core 2 Duo isn't all it's cracke up to be. In some cases you pay for 2 cores and get 6% out of the second core, so depends really.
Hard Disk Space (80 or 120 GB should be sufficient) Maxtor / Seagate
Monitor - Mine is a Lenovo/IBM L19p, and it's AMAZING!
Speakers - Can't say, but Creative should do it, or get a Japanese brand.

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