PCTech Forums

I was told by a good friend who built his own PC that the first thing you want to do is to find what CPU and Motherboard you want. Having no extensive experience for what to look for.....

This is what I'm going to be building it for:

Overall fast processing.

Use for downloading and burning music/movies.

Also be able to watch videos/movies/DVD's in pretty high quality.

Have a fairly awesome soundcard for recording various types of music. I'd prefer something that has a 1/4" jack so I can plug direct in.

It would also be nice to have the capability to be later upgraded to run games effeciently. It would be a major plus if I could integrate the stuff that I would be buying to have the ability to be a gaming PC without going too over the top but I dont want to go too much out of my way to make this a MONSTER GAMING PC, at the moment, anyways.

So if you dont feel like telling me everything I should buy, how about just getting started with a CPU and a Motherboard?

Oh and my budget is $600, I might go a little higher if it is worth while.

Thanks.

i think 600 dollas is a bit of a low budget to get a really nice pc to be honest, but wait and see what other people say.

Right, well, how about this.... Would I be better off buying a PC and upgrading what I need to?

Well ok let’s go with your first post. I’m going to have to work in pounds as I’m English... but dollars are pretty much double.


Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - 300 dollars (this is the cpu I am thinking of buying around Christmas time)

Foxconn 945GC S775 DDR2-667 1333FSB OBS OBV LAN - 70 dollars (you could spend more for a nicer one)

Case - 50 dollars (this is really whatever you want to spend)

Samsung SM-920NW 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black - 250 dollars

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 - 100 dollars

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Sound Card - 100 dollars

DVD burner - 40/30 dollars

HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 V2 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - 200 dollars

500w PSU - 60/80 dollars.

500gig hard drive - 100 dollars

So in total, you’re getting

2.40ghz dual core processor
2gig of ram (nice ram, not budget!)
500W power supply
512MB graphics card (with good cooling)
7.1 Sound card
DVD burner
19" widescreen monitor
500gig hard drive
+ speakers, mouse + keyboard.

$1300-ish.

So its really too expensive. If you already have a monitor
1050 - is that too expensive? In all fairness that is less than 500 pounds for a decent pc.

As for buying a pc and upgrading I think you'll end up paying more. I bought and upgraded

started with 2.8ghz Intel celaron d (not as good as it sounds at all!!!!)
dual layer dvd writer
nvidia 7300se
250 gig hard drive
gig memory
tv card

and now I have new
mobo 35 pounds
500gig hard drive 50 pounds
cpu cooler - 30 pounds
2 gig ram - 50 pounds
7.1 sound card - 35 pounds
1950x graphics card - 100 pounds

So I’ve spend an extra 300 pounds over this year adding to my pc (that’s 600 dollars). and I’m buying a new cpu at Christmas + 300 dollars.

so you have to ask your self what is better.

Has this information been any help? It actually took me a fair while finding all this stuff lol so I hope its helpful!

Write back with your thoughts
Venney

Yes! This has all been very helpful. I apologize though, I should have mentioned that I already have a widescreen 23" monitor and a surround sound, mouse and keyboard. Sorry about that . So all I literally need is the PC itself.

Thanks a bunch for your time to help me out. I think that I should be fine with all of this. I assume that this is the best stuff that I can get in this price range, correct? Also, would it be better to have two hard drives? I remembering hearing something about having one for the OS and programs, and the other for storage. Lastly, when looking for a case, do I have to look for anything in particular or can I get any case that I please?

Firstly about the case, you want something with lots of fans to keep it cool, and lots of space. and then what ever one looks nicest to your own taste. the bigger the case generally better (as you could get a better mother board, which will be bigger).

Secondly, no what i showed you was only my sort of examples.
The mother board you should choose yourself, look for one that has something like 4gig ram space (and that has 4 ram slots), and one that has a fsb (front side bus, this is how quickly the cpu and memory can send data) of around 1066 or higher. And as many pci slots as you can, making sure you have a pci 16X slot for the graphics card.

The graphics card is a decent one, you would be fine with that, but i warn you, its huge. it takes up two slots (only plugs into one, but the fan on it takes the other slot up).

The cpu i think is decent, but maybe someone can suggest something else? Also, i think new cpus are coming out in a couple months, so you may want to wait, as i assume the price of that processor would go down in price.

I have two hard drive, and yes, it mite be a good idea. It depends. I have most of my stuff installed on the old one, but i have a load of music on my new 500 gig one, thinking of moving all the games over too.

Your monitor sounds nice

The ram i recommended i own, and must say its nice.

The sound card is decent, but you mite want to do research and find the one for you.

The power supply unit is better to be high than low, 500w should be more than enough (by a fair bit).

Id say ive shown you decent ram, cpu and gpu. But defintly have a look around, browse the websites, if you have any questions im more than happy to answer them. Build a pc how you like

Venney