Monday, August 23, 2010

I need a computer professional's help and advice on putting together my own computer. What add-ons are best?

I've been trying to find out what's best for the kind of computer I need to put together (I want to buy the parts and get it assembled). I have/play lots of computer games (30 to be exact), but only 19 are installed. What specific add-on should I get for more room/space (hard-drive space right)? It takes a long time for the game to load when I click on it. What specific add-on should I buy to make it work faster and load faster (I want it amazingly fast. ram and processor right?). And when I'm playing multi-player or even just me it lags and freezes (you know how frustrating that can be. What can I do/buy to stop this?). I play a lot of games (Counter-Strike, Half-Life, The Ship) that require a graphics card. Which graphics card will give me amazing graphics that I will be amazed by? I also want to hear every single thing clear as light. What sound card will give me surround superior hearing? This is my dream computer, someone please give me advice and help on what add-ons to buy.I need a computer professional's help and advice on putting together my own computer. What add-ons are best?
Probably a easy place to find all the hardware you need is www.newegg.com





If you want the latest and greatest, you might want to check out the latest Intel cpus since I think they are performing faster than the current AMD cpus(Only right now that is :)


However, I recommend AMD over Intel, but that is only because they've been cheaper as a price comparison vs speed.





The best heat sink out from what I found is the Ultra 120 by Thermalright. You are going to need this or another good heatsink/fan!!! Important!





If your staying with a 32bit XP or Vista, you will only be able to use a max of 4Gb of ram. So don't go out and but 20Gb of ram =P~





When looking for Hard drives, get a SATA300 or sometimes called SATA 3Gbps type drive. Also get a large 500Gb sized drive if you plan to keep all those games installed at one time. You may want to keep at least 2 separate drives, one smaller one for your OS and another for your games.(This will help loading) Also you can learn about how to RAID your hard drives for even more speed but there are some risks.





For motherboards, I recommend ASUS. There are some good overclocking features on the ASUS boards. Also you might want to get a motherboard that has SLI feature, so you can use 2 identical video cards(must support this feature) at the same time.(share the load)





For your video card(s), go with NVIDIA. I think the GeForce


8800 Ultra is the latest and greatest.





Best sound card for games is the Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite.





Oh, and get a nice case. I recommend a Aerocool tower.(I have this one http://www.aerocool.us/p-case/masstige/masstige.htm )


Also get a high wattaged power supply, if your going to have 2 video cards, usb devices, and lots of hard drives, you might want a 500 to 700 watt power supply also.





Hope this helps!I need a computer professional's help and advice on putting together my own computer. What add-ons are best?
How much do you think all these things will add up to costing? I'm trying to stick in the 1000-1500$ range.

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It is definetely going to cost you at least $1000~$1500, but more realisticlly for the best machine, your looking more towards $2000.

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I went to newegg.com and just picked some top seller items to get a idea and it was about $1,700 for everything using a AMD cpu/motherboard. You can always adjust your price by looking at different brands or maybe you dont really need a case that has 50 neon lights :)

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Always look at the reviews that people post about each product so you know what kinda problems you might run into. Also it helps to find out if you really need something extra that they don't specify ';on the box'; or something like that.

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Also your question about 20Gb of ram?... Well I wanted to make sure so I checked some sites and they do sell servers that support memory far higher than 20Gb... The one I saw supported up to 64Gb of ram. I'm sure they might go higher too.

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Windows Vista Ultimate vs Windows XP SP2


Right now I think Vista might be slighty behind only because of driver issues. Here are some reviews.


http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2090571,00.asp


http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2096940,00.asp

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I would say you probably will be ok to go for Vista Ultimate, because devices/software will become more compatible as time goes on. Its pretty much like this everytime a new OS comes out.





Also make sure to read up on a 32bit vs 64bit OS. There are some things to consider.

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The best place to do research for parts is www.tomshardware.com





However, if you aren't really sure about what you're doing, then you might want to get a pre-built system. If you just go and order parts, you might end up getting incompatible parts and not have a functional computer.
It sounds like you're describing exactly what I was looking for about 2 months ago. I got tired of my parent's no-memory, slow, laggy, bad-looking, bad-sounding computer, plus I had just gotten a great job, so I could afford a new computer. First, hard drive memory: for you and your thirty games, it sounds like the bigger the hard drive, the better. I don't know what you know about computers, but I'm going to be plain and simple. Harddrive space is measured in gigabytes (Gb). When I purchased my computer I went for the 100 Gb drive. But I don't play near the amount of games you do (some... but not 30). You may want 120 or 150 Gb. Now, RAM (otherwise known as ';physical memory';, it's used when loading and running applications.) The same goes for RAM, the bigger the better. But RAM usually doesn't exist as big as 150 Gb. The limitations on RAM are decided by the operating system of the computer. Windows XP can usually only go to 2 Gb. When I was deciding this for my laptop, I knew I was going to have Windows Vista (I don't know the limit on RAM for Vista) so I chose 4 Gb (trust me, it's blinding fast). As I said, the more the better, which is how computers are in general. As for the lagging when you're playing online, you'll need a good Internet Service Provider (ISP). It doesn't matter how good your computer is, you're only as fast as the slowest component in your computer. I prefer Cox, they're reliable, and fast. And they don't spy on you (check my references). I also picked the Intel Duo Core 2 processor. In short, it IS 2 processors. It can multi-task better then other processors. That's good. Graphics card... XFX 7950 GX2 Quad SLI. It looks like alphabet soup right? You get used to it... It's designed for high resolution (big moniter) game play. Not cheap, but the best never is. Sound card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum. A little research shows that this should fit the bill. Check the stats on it. Another thing you didn't mention in your question, but is very important, is the Operating System choice. I'm sure you've seen the PC vs Mac commercials and heard all sorts of slander against Windows Vista. I'm not here to sell it to you, but I like Windows Vista Home Premium Edtion 64-bit (avoid Home Basic at ALL COSTS, it's crap). Backwards compatibility isn't as much a problem as some people make it out to be. The GUI (windows, task bar, and all other visual aspects) has been improved and the all around stability in the Operating System is great. I went to a Vista Convention awhile back and they deminstrated the difference between Windows XP's best graphics and Windows Vista's best graphics. Needless to say, Vista was gorgeous. XP was just great... :) My laptop was $5k, and I didn't get the best sound card, my video card is phenomenal (not as good as the one I mentioned though), a 100 Gb hard drive, 4 Gb of the second best RAM I could find (it's a laptop... the best RAM would use a lot of battery power.), Windows Vista Home Premium, 17'; display, and CD-R/DVD player. I can't give you an estimate on how much your computer will cost... but it'll be more expensive then mine.
You need at least 2GB of ram, and an 8000 series nvidia graphics card.





8800gts, 8600, etc.





also if you're buying a complete system make sure you get a Core 2 Duo cpu with at least 4 MB of cache.

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