Thread: Building a computer

I'm thinking of building a new computer during Thanksgiving break. I just wanted to see what people's opinions are on the latest technology.

1. Needs to be DirectX 10 capable (I know that means 8800, but hopefully the price will go down some)
2. Don't need speakers, already got those.
3. Thinking of getting a 2nd monitor, but might not end up getting one if I end up spending too much on the rest.
4. Processor, looking at a core duo probably
5. RAM, as much as I can get if the price is still cheap in two months

I guess I'm looking for suggestions of a good vendor or website. Anyone have any suggestions?

Newegg.com has very good prices. Tigerdirect.com is another name that comes to mind, but I've never purchased anything from them. You might be able to get really good deals at physical stores if they happen to be offering rebates on the components you're looking for. I don't know about places in Hong Kong, but over here in the States you can probably find good rebate deals at places like Circuit City, CompUSA, and BestBuy.

By the way, unless you have a specific reason to buy an Intel Core 2 Duo (I assume you don't mean the original Core Duo), you might want to check out the AMD Athlon 64 X2. It's a series of dual core CPUs that probably outperform yet undersell their Intel counterparts. A good place to start searching for the best deal on them might be here.

Originally Posted by Squall

Anyone have any suggestions?

Nope sorry

Hey thanks dsr. Newegg is great, i bought an external hd off the site last summer. And I'll check out tigerdirect. Thanks for the link, AMD is an option too, definately. And I'm actually back in the states now, guess I should update my location huh?

Originally Posted by Squall

Hey thanks dsr.

Your welcome. By the way, as Man of Steel, Replicon, and ninja9578 have stated, make sure you get a good power supply and a good, extensible motherboard in addition to plenty of RAM and a decent CPU.

I'll second, third, and fourth Newegg.com. They have pretty much THE best prices, reasonable shipping, and a huge variety and selection of brands and products. Back when I was planning to build a computer, I was going to use them, and I did a heck of a lot of research before I settled on them. Not to be negative, but my sister ordered through Tigerdirect, and though they had great customer service over the phone, they didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about, and sent her the wrong product. So beware.

How much processing power are you needing, Squall? Because there are actually some processors out there that are considered outdated, and thus very cheap, that can outperform some much more expensive chips once overclocked. Check out Tom's Hardware for CPU reviews and comparisons. It's the best place to get the best info on processors. And you want to make sure that you get the right RAM to go best with your processor chip, too. If you plan to overclock, be sure that your RAM allows that. And do yourself a favor, and get the absolute best motherboard you can possibly afford, with plenty of connections for disc drives and SATA HDDs, and a BIOS that is designed for overclocking.

Also, your power source is the single most important piece. Make sure you get one with enough power, and buy quality. Don't cheap out there, either, trust me. If the power source isn't big enough, or if it's not made well, and it craps out, it's probably going to take at least your motherboard with it, likely anything connected to that as well.

Hope that helps.

Yeah Newegg is great (but beware of drowning in packing peanuts ). also, while you're focusing on a lot of peripherals, remember that the MOTHERBOARD is the most important part. Don't be stingy, get a good one. The rest (e.g. soundcard) you can flake on for now.

You mentioned DirectX so I assume that you are going to be playing games. You definitely want the dual or quad core processors for that and probably 2 or 4 gigs of RAM. That way it's up to date for several years. I recommend also Windows XP rather than Vista.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

probably 2 or 4 gigs of RAM. That way it's up to date for several years. I recommend also Windows XP rather than Vista.

just bear in mind that 32 bit OS's can only support a 4Gb of address space
this roughly equates to a max of 3.5Gb of ram