Help Building New PC

[DthB4Dishonor]

Hey guys,

I'm getting back into the TotalWar series after a few years. I've been working and going to school so I pretty much had to go with a laptop but now I'm finishing school in about a month or so and need some help building a new PC.

First off I have built pc's before but not in a few years so I'm unfamiliar with some things that have become mainstream i.e. Liquid cooling.

Budget: $2000.00 but willing to go to $25000 if needed and if it makes a noticiable difference.

Usage: Gaming 95% and multimedia I have a laptop that I do my work on.

What site has the best prices for the components, newegg?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, also with this budget I would like to be able to run M2TW at full or close to full setting on singleplayer.

Thanks,
RTKPaul

[Xiahou]

I'm in a similar boat- building a new PC, (which I haven't done in awhile either) I'm trying to keep my budget much lower... around $800.

Here's what I've come up with- I offer it as help to anyone who's similarly shopping and to put it out there for comment/advice.

Case: Antec SonataII w/ 450W PSU
Mobo: ASUS M2N-E
CPU: AMD64 x2 4400+ EE (Brisbane)
GPU: eVGA 7950GT KO Superclocked 512MB eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
HD: WD 250GB 16MB, 7200RPM SATA
RAM: 2x1GB

That, plus a few cooling fans and shipping costs comes in almost exactly on my budget. From what I can tell, it should be able to run just about any current game with most or all options turned on and should leave some wiggle room for future upgrades if I want. I do most of my shopping on Mwave.com. Their prices are usually very competitive and I think their website is much easier to navigate than newegg- but maybe that's just my personal preference. I've done business with them many times over the years and never had any issues with returns or purchases. YMMV.

Edit: I'm hoping to swap out the 7950 for a 8800. I see that they now have the 8800's with 320MB instead of the 640MB version for about $90 less. Add to that, a $20 rebate and the 8800 will only cost about $5 more than the 7950... Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

OMG its Paul. Never thought Id see you again. I think your goin a bit overboard M8 2500 should way more than do it. I can play at highest settings in mp and only spent 1500 including a 22 inch hd monitor.

Strength and Honor my old friend.

Jesus X you put half your money in your graphics card :)

Your getting an 8800 for around 325 dollars?

[Ja'chyra]

I'm in the same boat, but when I done my shopping around for components I found it was cheaper to buy a system, in fact I just ordered it from Novatech (Thanks Froggie for the recommendation) and it will be here next Saturday.

[Judge]

after reading some of the posts on here, i too am waiting to upgrade to play mtw2, so on suggestions of some of you , i checked out Novatech site and found some good pc builds in there at reasonable prices, so i shall be ordering from them

core 2 duo E6400
geforce7600GT
250 gig h/d
2 gig ram
and a motherboard

or there abouts, {after i scam my home insurance company}

[Gawain of Orkeny]

core 2 duo E6400
geforce7600GT
250 gig h/d
2 gig ram
and a motherboard

So your shooting for under $1000 then? Id go with a better vid card. A regular 7900 at least. You can get one over clocked for around 150 bucks I think.

[Xiahou]

Your getting an 8800 for around 325 dollars?

The one I got is about $279 after rebate.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

but i think i will just buy a new one and yes for less that £1000 Gawain,

Ermmm , thats dollars not pounds m8

o put all this into my old pc i was quoted £600 sterling, and that was with
2 x geforce 7600gt,s

Again go with the 7950gt or 8800 if you can find a deal like Xiahou. My pc cost me 1100 dollars . All brand new and custom built. I spent over a month checking out what was best for the money.

[alman7272]

I'm in a similar boat- building a new PC, (which I haven't done in awhile either) I'm trying to keep my budget much lower... around $800.

Here's what I've come up with- I offer it as help to anyone who's similarly shopping and to put it out there for comment/advice.

Case: Antec SonataII w/ 450W PSU
Mobo: ASUS M2N-E
CPU: AMD64 x2 4400+ EE (Brisbane)
GPU: eVGA 7950GT KO Superclocked 512MB eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
HD: WD 250GB 16MB, 7200RPM SATA
RAM: 2x1GB

Well, I don't know what that PSU 12v output is, but I would suggest getting a PSU that could put out a good 30A for an 8800.

[Xiahou]

IIRC, it has a 15A and a 17A. I don't know the formula for finding the true rating based on that- but I'm guessing it would be a little under 30A... maybe mid-twenties. I think that'll probably get it by, but I'll probably keep an eye out for a good PSU to replace the stock one that came with the case sometime in the near future.

Edit: Anyone have an opinion on this? Should have ample power.

[Rilder]

Hey, mind if I hijack this thread a bit, Hoping to build a new computer when my b-day rolls around on April 20th, heres some rules first of all:
$700-$800
No Mouse, Keyboard, or monitor needed, nor speakers (have a headset)
No Intel
No G-force.
Vista Not required, XP will be fine for a year or so giving me a chance to collect more money to upgrade.

Alright, now this is what my last run through of Newegg bought me to:
Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W) Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail
Mobo:
GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Video Card:
SAPPHIRE 100165L Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Case:
ATRIX CSCI-C8040-C43 Black/Silver SECC steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 480W Power Supply - Retail
RAM:
pqi TURBO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
CD drive:(note if needed I can salvage one off this computer but this computers going to my father when I upgrade, and his is going to my bro )
LG Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-ROM E-IDE/ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive Model GDR-8164BK - OEM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2b 1pk w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista

Think thats it, tell me what yall think.

Oh i missed a hardrive in there but oh well

[sapi]

I hate to say it, but limiting yourself to only amd components (ie barring intel and nvidia) is pretty darn stupid considering that they produce much better products at this point in time

[Xiahou]

Case: Antec SonataII w/ 450W550W PSU
Mobo: ASUS M2N-E
CPU: AMD64 x2 4400+ EE (Brisbane)
GPU: eVGA 7950GT KO Superclocked 512MB eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
HD: WD 250GB 16MB, 7200RPM SATA
RAM: 2x1GB

So, I got my new rig put together a few days ago and thought I'd share some benchmarks. Here's the 3dMark06 results:

Main Test Results
3DMark Score 1711 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 887 Marks
SM 3.0 Score N/A
CPU Score 815 Marks

Detailed Test Results

Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 6.731 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 8.055 FPS

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.257 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 0.414 FPS

HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 33.382 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 38.134 FPS

Now, for comparison, here are the benchmarks of my previous system:

Main Test Results
3DMark Score 1711 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 887 Marks
SM 3.0 Score N/A
CPU Score 815 Marks

Detailed Test Results

Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 6.731 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 8.055 FPS

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.257 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 0.414 FPS

HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) Not Supported
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) Not Supported

I'm quite pleased with the improvement in both quality and speed. I can run Oblivion with everything maxxed at 1280x1024 and maintain 40+FPS outdoors. That's including graphical mods to enhance weather effects, water, and face textures.

I think my current bottleneck, obviously, is the CPU. I knew it would be, but the cheaper CPU allowed me to make the jump to PCI-e and AM2 while still staying close to my budget. I imagine that as new AM2 processors come out, the current top tier ones will drop significantly in price, leaving me with what should be an easy, inexpensive upgrade in a year or so.