For about a year now i have been reconsidering my decision to get a laptop prior to going off to college, thinking that the portability of it will be more important to me considering my degree plan and the need to take it to classes and the library. Well i will admit that it is handy to take it and write papers in the library, but thats about it. I have never taken it to class, and i find myself wishing that i had gone with a desktop pc instead. Mainly due to its higher power and "umpf" factor. So this year i have been looking around on all the big computer sites building computers trying to get an idea of what i want/needed. i ended up seriously considering a dell xps system, but then experimented in the barebones kit area on tigerdirect.com. I ended up building(or choosing parts) that wound up being about 600 dollars cheaper than the dell, with about the same performance (atleast what i could tell). Now my big concern is really if this rig that i have "assembled" will do what i need it to do.
What im looking for is a computer that will be able to handle most of the games out there with very decent graphics, speed, effeciency. I will also need it to be able to do all the other school related stuff.
With that being said, here is the rig:
Barebones Kit: Ultra Blue Aluminus ATX Full-Tower Case with the Intel D975XBXLKR Motherboard, 600 Watt X-Finity PS & (2 x 512MB) Ultra DDR2 PC4200 Memory
CPU: Intel Pentium D 820 2.80GHz / 2MB Cache / 800 FSB / OEM / Socket 775 / Dual-Core / Processor
Hard Drive: Maxtor / DiamondMax 10 / 160GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-300 / RoHS / OEM / Hard Drive
GPU: EVGA GeForce 7300 GT / 512MB GDDR2 / SLI / PCI Express / DVI / VGA / TV Out / Video Card
CDROM: Liteon 52x Black CD-ROM OEM Drive
DVDROM: Lite-on SHD-16P1S / 16x DVD-ROM / 48x CD-ROM / Black / Internal / Drive
Other Drive: YE Data USB 2.0 All-In-One Internal Floppy Drive (7in1 card reader and floppy disk)
CPU Fan: Cooler Master / Hyper 48 / Socket 754/939/940/478/775 / Copper / Heatpipe / CPU Cooling Fan
Case Fan: Ultra Blue/Titanium 120mm Ball Bearing Fan
all for the low low price of: 889.91!!! buy today!
With that, here are some questions about this equipment i have.
Processors: AMD or Intel? From my searching it seems as though Intel has got a hold on the Multicore Processors market. Atleast theirs seem to be more affordable, and more engineered towards household computing. AMD seems to be more towards high performance gaming and more expensive? is this a correct assumption?
Motherboards: while the barebone kit site doesnt have a direct link to the mobo, its not hard to find it on the website. what are the main things to look for in a motherboard? i know to look for one that will match up with the case form factor, enough ram slots to expand into, making sure that the mobo supports the cpu, making sure that the video card slot lines up with the actual card (agp vs pciE). but is there anything else that i need to pay special attention to?
VC's: big question is ATI vs Nvidia. I have talked to many people in stores like circuit city and best buy and they say that its really a personal tast issue. The one that ive got right now works in the mobo, and hopefully will be able to support most of the games that im looking at playing. BF2, Black hawk down, Halo, Half Life, etc. Now im not looking for mind blowing, 1000 dollar graphics. Im more interested in a card that will run these games with great grapgics, and not cost me an arm and a leg. If i could put it on a 1-10 scale (one lowest) it'd be just above mid range, about 6-8. Im looking to spend no more than..275$, but anywhere from 178/180-250 would be great. any suggestions?
power supply's: i just read a thread concerning PS's made by ultra. aparently its not a very reliable supply. whats strange however is that ultra is one of tigerdirects (where i build this rig) most popular sellers. must be doing somethig right?
The hard drive im not worried about right now, 160 gig oughta do me for quite awhile seeing as i dont keep many games on my hard drive as it is (albeit its only a 40gig)
another area is cooling. the fan ive got works with the cpu and has very good ratings. will it be enough? is there anything extra that i need to look at, like heat sinks extra fans etc? ive already got one case fan, and probably going to go ahead and get two. what about drive fans for the hard drive? or are those really for when your running high RPM drives?
If the barebones kit doest seem like it would meet what my needs are, would you suggest a different one? or go about it differently and purchase each item individually?
I know that this is alot of information to cover in a single thread, however i need to get this cleared up before i make any big decisions on a computer that will hopefully last me quite awhile. Thanks for any and all help/advice/suggestions!
Saurion
What im looking for is a computer that will be able to handle most of the games out there with very decent graphics, speed, effeciency. I will also need it to be able to do all the other school related stuff.
With that being said, here is the rig:
Barebones Kit: Ultra Blue Aluminus ATX Full-Tower Case with the Intel D975XBXLKR Motherboard, 600 Watt X-Finity PS & (2 x 512MB) Ultra DDR2 PC4200 Memory
CPU: Intel Pentium D 820 2.80GHz / 2MB Cache / 800 FSB / OEM / Socket 775 / Dual-Core / Processor
Hard Drive: Maxtor / DiamondMax 10 / 160GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-300 / RoHS / OEM / Hard Drive
GPU: EVGA GeForce 7300 GT / 512MB GDDR2 / SLI / PCI Express / DVI / VGA / TV Out / Video Card
CDROM: Liteon 52x Black CD-ROM OEM Drive
DVDROM: Lite-on SHD-16P1S / 16x DVD-ROM / 48x CD-ROM / Black / Internal / Drive
Other Drive: YE Data USB 2.0 All-In-One Internal Floppy Drive (7in1 card reader and floppy disk)
CPU Fan: Cooler Master / Hyper 48 / Socket 754/939/940/478/775 / Copper / Heatpipe / CPU Cooling Fan
Case Fan: Ultra Blue/Titanium 120mm Ball Bearing Fan
all for the low low price of: 889.91!!! buy today!
With that, here are some questions about this equipment i have.
Processors: AMD or Intel? From my searching it seems as though Intel has got a hold on the Multicore Processors market. Atleast theirs seem to be more affordable, and more engineered towards household computing. AMD seems to be more towards high performance gaming and more expensive? is this a correct assumption?
Motherboards: while the barebone kit site doesnt have a direct link to the mobo, its not hard to find it on the website. what are the main things to look for in a motherboard? i know to look for one that will match up with the case form factor, enough ram slots to expand into, making sure that the mobo supports the cpu, making sure that the video card slot lines up with the actual card (agp vs pciE). but is there anything else that i need to pay special attention to?
VC's: big question is ATI vs Nvidia. I have talked to many people in stores like circuit city and best buy and they say that its really a personal tast issue. The one that ive got right now works in the mobo, and hopefully will be able to support most of the games that im looking at playing. BF2, Black hawk down, Halo, Half Life, etc. Now im not looking for mind blowing, 1000 dollar graphics. Im more interested in a card that will run these games with great grapgics, and not cost me an arm and a leg. If i could put it on a 1-10 scale (one lowest) it'd be just above mid range, about 6-8. Im looking to spend no more than..275$, but anywhere from 178/180-250 would be great. any suggestions?
power supply's: i just read a thread concerning PS's made by ultra. aparently its not a very reliable supply. whats strange however is that ultra is one of tigerdirects (where i build this rig) most popular sellers. must be doing somethig right?
The hard drive im not worried about right now, 160 gig oughta do me for quite awhile seeing as i dont keep many games on my hard drive as it is (albeit its only a 40gig)
another area is cooling. the fan ive got works with the cpu and has very good ratings. will it be enough? is there anything extra that i need to look at, like heat sinks extra fans etc? ive already got one case fan, and probably going to go ahead and get two. what about drive fans for the hard drive? or are those really for when your running high RPM drives?
If the barebones kit doest seem like it would meet what my needs are, would you suggest a different one? or go about it differently and purchase each item individually?
I know that this is alot of information to cover in a single thread, however i need to get this cleared up before i make any big decisions on a computer that will hopefully last me quite awhile. Thanks for any and all help/advice/suggestions!
Saurion