Building a computer. What parts should I get for this?

**Lemur** · 01-21-2010, 01:21

Originally Posted by pevergreen

ASUS ENGTS250 DK/DI/1G GeForce GTS 250 1GB
plus
ASUS P7H55D-M EVO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX
plus
ASUS Power of 3 Game Coupon ($50 game download voucher, for SFIV, RE 5 or Dark Void) - 284.98

I don't understand why you'd opt for the GTS 250 when for ten dollars more you could get the 5850, a substantially more powerful video card. Are you worried about the power supply?

**pevergreen** · 01-21-2010, 01:30

Irrational ATI hate.

And, the 5850 is $289.99 by itself.

The mobo, the graphics card and the voucher together cost less. Hes on a tight budget.

**antisocialmunky** · 01-21-2010, 02:05

I dunno, I always skimp on the other parts:

-Mid-Range CPU
-Overclocking Mobo
Overclock the CPU like crazy
-2 sticks of ram
-Blow everything else on a graphics card

**pevergreen** · 01-21-2010, 02:14

Why bother to overclock an i5/i7. It isnt gunna help much...

**Belgolas** · 01-21-2010, 05:41

O.K. You best bet is to go AMD for the CPU with DDR3 as it is cheaper and go with the most expensive GPU you can afford because that is where you need the performance in 90% of the games out there. So the faster the GPU the better.

I say the Phenom 2 550 BE is a good CPU and if you are lucky it can be unlocked to a quad core. I would also try and get a DX 11 GPU just so you can at least stay with the latest DX.

Although by far the greatest advice right now is to WAIT for an upgrade as nvidia will be releasing their next GPU line-up in a month or 2 which will lower prices for ATI.

**pevergreen** · 01-21-2010, 06:00

I don't see a game worth running that doesnt support DX9.

AMD CPU?

Intel are leaps and bounds in front here mate...

**wumpus** · 01-21-2010, 08:03

Okay, here's my 2-cents' worth of contribution, friend Taiwan. I'm in the process of building a PC myself (which I haven't completed yet, because I'm still saving up some cash for other vital parts), so here goes: You want to go gaming, so AMD is the processor for you--I don't care what the Intel-lovers say. For motherboard, look for one with model number that starts with K9 or K10 (of the brand that you can trust); then buy a quad-core processor. My friend who's a hardware repairer (an AMD fanatic like me) advised not to buy dual core, 'cuz hardware development is so fast-paced that it would be wiser to go quad-core right away (dual-core, he says, will be obsolescent in about 2 or 3 years). And what pevergreen says about part of your $800 to be spent on shipping, I am fortunate that I don't need to do that--I can buy parts direct from stores (and have a chance to see face-to-face what I'll buy too), so if you've a situation similar to this over there, then luckily you don't need to spend extra on shipping and handling (and 'cuz ordering things by mail just ain't in vogue here). And that's right: if you have the cash for it, Elmar Bijlsma"s suggestion to start with a 2-GB RAM is an excellent idea. But what I don't understand is, why avoid ATI in favor of NVIDIA? For me, whatever matches the rest of your hardware is good enough. My first GPU card was ATI by intention, my second was only what was available in the market (my old mobo still uses an AGP slot) and it happened to be ATI too; but if an NVIDIA had been what was available, I wouldn't make it a big issue (and, hey--because of my new ATI GPU, my PC can install and run Empire TW even if my CPU speed is only 1.5 GHz, when the game's specs suggest I must have at least 2.0 GHz!). Well, noble friend, this is all for now. Keep your heart open for other nice suggestions--we are all friends here. Hawooh.

**Belgolas** · 01-22-2010, 03:49

Originally Posted by pevergreen

I don't see a game worth running that doesnt support DX9.

AMD CPU?

Intel are leaps and bounds in front here mate...

Not if you are on a very tight budget.

If he were to go Intel the best CPU he could afford would be an i3 which is a great CPU if you know how to overclock. If you don't know how to overclock then the Phenom 2 550 BE is a good alternative.

Get the cheapest motherboard as possible and get cheap ram too as those both don't need to be the highest end.

If you want I can put together a list of hardware for you that would be the best possible for frames per second in the average game. I have built dozens of computers in the past year and have 2 awesome computers for my self (one for my everyday gaming and one for lan parties). So I know what I am talking about as I spend pretty much every day researching computer hardware and building them for friends, family and who ever wants one.

One part that would really help us out would be to know the screen resolution as if you have a small screen res than you don't need as powerful as a GPU but a better CPU. But if you have a larger screen size of 1680 x 1050 or up you need a faster GPU than CPU.