Building pc in a few weeks (finally)

[tedrjr03]

ok im finally able to build my own computer... i have a $1100 limit icluding software excluding moniter

im young (14) but i heard its not that hard... it will be for music and videos...not for games but i do want play simple games such as the sims... the hd needs to be atlest 250gig.. what other parts,wires, or anything else do i need...and should i get oem parts of just stick with reatil...thanks any help will be appreciated

 

[swker98]

hello, you say your not playing to many games then a 1100 budget my not be needed, im also 14 and recently orded a setup that is close to yours in budget

you have to take into cocidration windows will eat up about 150 in budget and a 250gb hdd will run about 150, and as for retial, or oem i would buy only retial parts as they include drivers and manules as some oems dont, you may order windows in oem because it is cheeper, you could go with a amd 3500+ prosser and a nvida 6600gt or x800gto which should be able to play your games. if your rendering viedos you may eant 2gb of ram. hope this helps

 

[pkroks]

well you gonna need the following:

Case: thermaltakes make quite good ones
Power Supply Unit: Look at at least a 450W from antec or a similar, high quality manufacturer
Motherboard: Asus A8N SLI Premium, DFI Lanparty, MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
Processor: AMD Athlon 3700+ San diego core
Ram: At least 1Gb pc3200ram (this is same as DDR400)
Video: nVidia 6600gt 128mb
DVD Rom: 16x DVD rom drive (NEC and Plextor have good products)
HDD: 250Gb (I would suggest either a Seagate or Western Digital or Hitachi)

you can search newegg for the parts and prices... :grinthumb

 

[Didou]

A dual-core is much more suited for audio/video. You can start off with an Athlon64 X2 3800+ or a Pentium-D 820.

 

[Merc14]

Are you going to edit videos or just play them back? That's important as it will dictate the amount of RAM you should get and the type of CPU core.

$1100 will get you a really nice non-gaming rig, and you can get a monitor on that budget too as you won't need the top of the line components to do what you want. I'd get a video card with 256MB of GDDR3 RAM onboard so that you can fully utilize all the features in Windows Vista when it comes out next year.

 

[tedrjr03]

plyig back videos not edit

 

[swker98]

oh just playing them back, you may be able to get off with spending 900 or less, you could go with a setup like myne with only 1gb ram, im grtting a and 3000+, 2gb ram, x800gt,80gb hdd, ect.


you can probibly get off with speding 970 with software

 

[KingCody]

A dual-core is much more suited for audio/video. You can start off with an Athlon64 X2 3800+ or a Pentium-D 820.

I agree with didou on that one, but I don't believe that this kind of system is attainable under your $1,100 budget and if all you're gonna do is play music, videos, and the sims, a $500 Athlon XP/Sempron or P4 system will easily suit your needs


...here are some ways to afford what you want to build.

1. buy everything you can on EBAY, you will save an incredible amount of money as opposed to buying from stores (both online and brick/mortar), buy from high feedback sellers and you won't get burned.

2. buy OEM whenever possible (unless the price difference is minimal, why pay all that extra for a box and a paper manual you probably won't even need?), most of the components you will use will (a)use firmware, and thus not require a driver at all, (b)your operating system will install a suitable driver for you, or (c)if you need the manufacturer's driver, they are free and easy to get online. The only thing I would recommend you buy in full retail packaging is the motherboard.

3. since you don't know what is inside of a computer case (given the question you posted), I will assume that you have no intention of tweaking (overclocking) your system, therefore, you can get away with cheaper motherboards and RAM chips as long as they meet the speed requirements of your CPU

4. since this is your 1rst system build, Windows XP SP2 is your best bet for an OS that will work the 1rst time you turn on your computer

-hope this helps..

 

[Merc14]

I agree, no need to go high end here but stay with items that will allow you to upgrade easily over the next thre or four years. A 939 socket mobo and CPU will still be viable 3 years from now even though the new M socket is coming out in '06. PCIe video card is a good choice as well as 1GB of RAM

AMD 64 CPU 3200+ Venice Core $152 (fast yet inexpensive and overclockable when you start exploring that capability) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535

Abit mobo $83 (good performer with lots of on board peripherals, latest sockets and less than $100)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127221

1GB of Corsair Value selsect RAM (2 x 1024 MB) $80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

320GB SATA Hard Drive Western Digital $126 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144394

FSP 450 watt PSU with dual 12v rails at 15.5 amps each $50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954

XFX 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR PCIeVideo Card $102
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150114

MS XP w/ SP2 $92 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16837102151

That's the heart of the system for $633. All high quality and will do what you want to do very quickly and easily. Also it is easily upgraded with power to spare. Now pick out a case and a monitor, possibly a sound card (although mobo has sound on board) and speakers etc. and you're up and running.