building a gaming comp

[rhino56]

hi, i am going to be building a gaming comp for my nephew.

i would like it to be a pretty fast one.
my questions are this

1. can someone make a list of all the parts ill need to make a comp? like ram cpu power supply

2. with all the different versions of a ati 9700 card whats the difference?
some say retail, pro, all in wonder and i just want gaming is all.

3. i plan on going with a asus MB and a P4 cpu. id like it to be 800 bus.
i probably wont be overclocking it since im not sure how but id like it to also have the digital thermo readings fan control stuff.
can somone maybe give me a list of the best choices i could make to buy? id like to stay around 1200.00 give or take for just the comp itself.

 

[Como]

Well...

Welcome to the forums. i assume you arent overclocking, so i wont say anything about that.

list of parts you'll need:

Computer case
Power supply
Motherboard
Ram
CPU (Processor)
Heatsink
Hard Drive
Optical Drive
Video Card


Now, i dont know much about pentium, i'll let someone else reccomend a mobo/processor/HSF

I Personally like the Antec File server case, its a good looking case. you can probably get it cheaper online, its a rebadged version of a Cheiftec case. it has another name, but i forget.
note: alot of case's come with a power supply

Power supply, i reccomend an Antec PSU. they are quiet and run really well, give good power. the TruePower model is VERY nice, but if you are not OCing you probably dont need it.

RAM. you'll want PC-3200, probly in dual channel mode. i'd reccomend a gig b/c the amount of money you're looking at. Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, muskin, all good brands.

Heatsink (HSF), i said i'd let someone else cover this, but the SP-94 looks cool and works well

Hard disk, i'd say a SATA 80-160 GB drive. maybe SATA raid0 between 2 80's if you can afford it.

Optical drive, i like the LiteOn 48X24X48X16 DVD-R CDRW drive, but he may want DVD-R/RW capabilities.

Video card: i'll let someone else get this, i have no idea.

 

[Chris]

1.)

Motherboard
CPU
Heatsink/Fan
RAM
Case
PSU
Graphics Card
Sound Card <---- May not be needed if the motherboard has onboard
CD/DVD-ROM
HardDrive
Floppy Drive

2.

Basically its just a way of identifying how good they are and there features i.e.

All-Inwonder - TV-Out/Tv-Tuner Video-In Video-Out
Non-Pro - Standard Clock speeds to the model
Pro - Faster clock speeds to the model, basically a Pro is just faster.

3. Fan Control you need a rheobus/baybus, digital readings something like a digidoc.

i cant help you with designing as I havent built a Pentium System since the PII and have no Idea whats the best bang for your buck!

 

[David]

I would recommend either a P4-2.4C or a P4-2.6C if you are going to overclock, as these appear to be hitting pretty crazy speeds, especially the M0 stepping, but even if you are not then they are still pretty fast CPUs and will also give you the option to Overclock later should you wish to.

 

[rhino56]

thanks for the help everyone. i may just build myself one also so ill probably build 2 identical.
i suppose i should start with case first. any good looking cases that anyone would recommend? i like the aluminum looking silver ones with panels and lights look cool.

 

[Steve978]

If you like the aluminum cases, Lian Li and cooler master are the best, but Kingwin's pretty much their equal and cost a whole lot less. Go with the 2.4C or 2.6C as suggested previously, theyre all your going to need for gaming, for a motherboard the best in my opinion would be an abit IC7 series the different variations have different features. Instead of a 9700 you might consider a 9800 non-pro or a 5900 non-ultra, I just think theyre better on a budget. So no ATI or NVidia fanboys need attack me.

 

[rhino56]

If you like the aluminum cases, Lian Li and cooler master are the best, but Kingwin's pretty much their equal and cost a whole lot less. Go with the 2.4C or 2.6C as suggested previously, theyre all your going to need for gaming, for a motherboard the best in my opinion would be an abit IC7 series the different variations have different features. Instead of a 9700 you might consider a 9800 non-pro or a 5900 non-ultra, I just think theyre better on a budget. So no ATI or NVidia fanboys need attack me.

do you have any links to the cases?
ill look into the MB section of the board also about the abit and the features. thanks.

 

[NovaShine]

Sorry im not American and i dont have the prices of these parts on hand and im too damn lazy to go on newegg and search. So here's a general guide:


If you're gonna get a 2.4C or a 2.6C, then get an Asus or Abit mobo with a i865PE (cheaper) chipset or i875 (more expensive, but better performer) chipset.

But generally, i reccomend the Asus P4P800 DLX or normal (depends if you need some of the extra bells and whistles that the deluxe version offers) if you want the i865PE chipset.

If you want the i875 chipset, the two best mobos out there are the Asus P4C800-E or the Abit IC7 Max3. The P4C800-E is the better performer, but the Vdimm only goes up to 2.85v and if you're planning to go with BH-5 ram, then you're gonna have to Vmod it to get some good ram performance out of it. The Max3 has a really nice OTES system to cool the mobo and the CPU without heating up your case and it gives up to 3.2v Vdimm (i think, cant be sure about that number, but im sure it goes beyond 3v Vdimm).

As for the cooling, the best air cooling is the Thermalright SP-94 hands down. But if you're not OCing, then i guess you wont need any aftermarket heatsink anyway.

For ram, you want ram sticks that have Winbond BH-5 chips, they just keep eating voltage and putting out more and more performance. The best of the lot is the Mushkin Black Level 2 PC3500 sticks, but there are others out there and they're all listed in the Memory forum "BH-5 Weekend pricelist" thread stickied at the top. But if you're not OCing, you could stick with the Mushkin Black Level 2 PC3200 for the crazy timings BH-5 can put out.

As for the graphics card, you seem to be going for the R9700(some type) and that's just fine, but i dont think they make the R9700np anymore, but im not sure on that. Chris explained it pretty well, but if you see any other extension (eg. SE, LE, EZ) then STAY AWAY from them. They're just castrated versions of the R9700. Get the R9700pro if you're not gonna OC it or get the R9800np (same price basically) if you're going to OC, just make sure you get them with Samsung ramchips. Just ask them to handpick you one, or ask them to take it out for you to look and see if the chip says samsung or not. Basically, the R9800np with Samsung mem chips can be modded into a R9800pro with a simple bios flash, while on the R9700pro, you need to do some serious OCing to hit R9800pro speeds, but at stock speeds, the R9700pro just barely edges out the R9800np, so basically, the R9800np has better OC potential.

A regular Audigy 2 is a good sound card to get (if you're minding the budget, but still want better-than-on-board-sound-card quality sound), but the Audigy 2 ZS is pretty good too, but may cost you more.

If you have any money left after that, instead of the standard IDE or SATA 7,200rpm hard drives, you may want to opt for a Western Digital Raptor (SATA, 10,000rpm, 36GB) and a larger slower hard disk for storage cuz the raptor gives a very big noticable speed up of windows loadup and game loading on top of a regular 7,200rpm drive. As for the slower drive, i suggest Seagate or Western Digital, they tend to be the most reliable drives out.

Thats about it, good luck with the new system.

 

[rhino56]

wow thank you, that was awesome reading. im gonna check prices and pretty much follow what yoiu have suggested there.

 

[Como]

i'm glad you are talking advice from these guys, i've learned so much since i joined here i cant even begin to say how much i love it here. it looks like i'm the only one who welcomed you here, so maybe you arent new...i feel kinda stupid now.

 

[rhino56]

i'm glad you are talking advice from these guys, i've learned so much since i joined here i cant even begin to say how much i love it here. it looks like i'm the only one who welcomed you here, so maybe you arent new...i feel kinda stupid now.

i am new here!!! thanks como
i am already learning so much, ive been browsing and reading for a long time now.

 

[Steve978]

it looks like i'm the only one who welcomed you here, so maybe you arent new...i feel kinda stupid now.

Nah were the rude ones, I'm usually all over that but better belated than never.

Welcome to the Forums!

 

[webfreak]

I'll go ahead and welcome you to the forums too. And wish you the best of luck building the computer and with your time here at the forums.

edit: for grammar

 

[rhino56]

thanks everyone, im gonna have to start post whoring to get into the areas thats require more posts.

 

[Steve978]

thanks everyone, im gonna have to start post whoring to get into the areas thats require more posts.

Do that and they'll delete your post count. If you need help or can give assistance then post, if not don't.

 

[rhino56]

Do that and they'll delete your post count. If you need help or can give assistance then post, if not don't.

thats what i meant