Building a PC.

[the1chaos]

I've come for advice in here once more. This time, I want to build my own PC. Problem is, I know about as much about the detailed computer specs than the average todler knows about nuclear physics. So once more, I need help.

My budget is between €900 and €1000, and I would preffer to order in America, which would result in a budget between about $1162 and $1291. I want to use the PC for gaming and photo editing. I already have the monitor, keyboard and mouse. The parts will be ordered through a company, so there won't be taxes (not sure if that matters or not if you order online, but hell, you never know).

Help would be very much appreciated.

[Bs|Archaon]

Erm...import tax?

[the1chaos]

Oh, right. Forgot about that. Anyway, I won't have to pay that since I'm ordering through a company.

[Freyr]

What is it being used for? A PC used for 3D modelling needs a totally different spec from one used for word processing.

Anyway, without knowing the intended use I can't say that much but in terms of components you will be needing a processor, motherboard, power supply, case, RAM graphics card and maybe sound and network cards (though most motherboards have them intergrated nowadays) Also a hard drive, floppy, DVD-ROM and software.

[the1chaos]

Originally Posted by the1chaos

My budget is between €900 and €1000, and I would preffer to order in America, which would result in a budget between about $1162 and $1291. I want to use the PC for gaming and photo editing. I already have the monitor, keyboard and mouse. The parts will be ordered through a company, so there won't be taxes (not sure if that matters or not if you order online, but hell, you never know).

Anyway. I know what I need, in the terms of physical components, such as a motherboard, RAM, etcetera. I just don't know the specs for those components. I couldn't tell the difference between two harddrives or motherboards if my life depended on it.

[Freyr]

ok, then any socket 939 AMD 64 with a gig of DDR400 and anything above a nvidia geforce 6600, and don't rely on the onboard sound, get a creative 5.1 card. (you really notice the difference in sound quality with a real card)

SATA hard drives would probably be of benefit if your pictures are large.

[Bs|Archaon]

7600GT minimum for gaming on that budget. 6600s are pretty rubbish nowadays. 1gb of RAM is minimum really, if you do work with (very, very) big images and do a lot of gaming with resource-hungry games such as BF2, you'll probably see the benefit of 2gb.

[Hmmmdonut]

Do yourself a favor and wait till july/august when Conroe comes out. S939 is about to reach EOL and it is a bad idea to buy into a dead socket.

[Bs|Archaon]

He could get AM2 for next to no extra money though, to be entirely fair. But Conroe will be interesting, and might be worth waiting for.

[Rookie]

Originally Posted by the1chaos

My budget is between €900 and €1000, and I would preffer to order in America, which would result in a budget between about $1162 and $1291. I want to use the PC for gaming and photo editing.

I would have suggested a Mac at that point, but then I read "gaming".

Quick spec for you:

• CPU - At this point I would recommend a dual-core CPU, possibly an AM2 4200+. With Vista on the horizon (along with decent dual-core support), and the kind of stuff you're planning on doing it seems like a sensible decision to me. However, AM2 is by no means fully broken-in yet. Might be wise to wait for it to mature a little.
• From what I've read, Asus' AM2 offering isn't to be sniffed at, however DFI have stated that they'll soon be revealing their Socket AM2 lineup. Personally, I would wait and see. As for Socket 939, Abit, MSI and DFI are pretty solid performers in my experience.
• 1-2gb decent brand DDR2 (Corsair, OCZ, etc). Hey, AM2 supports it, why not take advantage of it. Unless you decide to go the S939 route, then you'll have to stick to good old DDR.
• Two hard drives. Heavy image editing requires a decent amount of cache space on an HDD, and in this situation a second drive could lift quite a bit of load off your primary (booting) HDD. Besides, they're really handy for data backups, or just a place to sling anything that's eating away at space (music, games, etc). As a rule you should be looking for 100-200gb+ for a storage drive these days, however it would probably be a better choice to get a smaller, faster drive such as a WD Raptor for your Operating System.
• Graphics - anything higher than an X1600 on the ATI-o-meter is a given for decent gaming performance these days, and a 6800GS or better should do you nicely if you're more interested in nVidia's offerings.
• Optical Drives - I wouldn't recommend anything other than a Dual-Layer DVD±RW burner. They're just so damn handy.
• Case - Antec, CoolerMaster and NZXT are the brands I would recommend, but in the end it's up to personal taste. Might be an idea to check out a few reviews for your intended case before you go ahead and purchase. And remember, you can never have too much airflow. Make sure it's well-ventilated, especially if it's going to host a high-end rig.