Alright so I'm really fed up with my current computer. Specs: 40GB HDD, 32MB cache graphics card, ~380MB RAM, ancient motherboard (has 3 RAM slots each only able to hold 512MB). I have a bit of money to spend finally (if this job really goes through, which I'm sure it will. client has never let me down) so I'm working on putting together a Wish List on NewEgg. Note that my budget is sorta low (in comparison to going all out on a new computer). I really didn't want to spend more than $400 but it seems it's already gone a little above that so yeah.. What I'd really like to do even is cut down my current price with all the parts I have added because it's already above $600 and I don't know if I want to spend quite that much. I'm looking more for something like $520. :/ Here's a link to my current Wish List: click. So yea I'm just looking for any feedback for the current stuff I have added such as "ah that's bad you don't want that one" and stuff such as "you could drop that one item for this item and save some $$$" Before anyone starts, I don't want this to be an AMD vs. Intel fight. I've decided to go with AMD and that's that. EDIT: It seems the Motherboard I had added is out of stock already. I won't be buying until Monday or Tuesday but I suppose I'll need a better one now and by better I mean a lower priced one.
The 2GB of RAM isn't too necessary unless you're going to be running lots of applications at once. I run Adobe Photoshop, MSN, Firefox, and a game on a 1GB stick.
I had thought about that but I figure that's the one thing I won't completely skimp out on. My dad runs 1GB and he does barely nothing with his PC and still has problems with it. I do run some large applications while multitasking and my computer is on all day and I'd also like to finally try out Half-Life 2 since I have it sitting in Steam waiting to be downloaded. I think the biggest advice I'm hoping for is on motherboards and processors and perhaps power supplies. I really don't know much about building computers like this. The current list was actually compiled with input from several of my friends.
What are his processor and motherboard specs like? That usually determines the amount of ram you'll need. I have a 3800+ AMD processor dual core and a smexy ASUS motherboard. If worst comes to worst, you can always upgrade in a heartbeat.
I don't know his specs but yeah.. probably low. He built his PC years ago as well plus it always seems to break so easily on him. Maybe I could cut down on the RAM, I'll save that as last resort though. Some people were even crazy enough to tell me I should just get 4GB right away. Now that's unneeded. I should probably just cut out the monitor.. I obviously already have one though it's pretty old and big and it goes blurry every once and awhile so I have to turn it off and back on again.
Are you building to try to save money or building for the fun of it? If you are building to try to save money, you can probably get a pre-built system in a pretty good brand for about where you are on your wish list. I have built three times in the past and could have bought cheaper. I used to enjoy building machines, but don't have patience anymore. Looking at your wish list I see some good and some bad. I like your selection of the AMD processor. I have had 3 machines with AMD processors, and my desktop has one now. Never a regret with going with AMD. On the hard drive you have selected I like WD and have used them in 2 of the machines I built in the past. I noticed the drive you selected is the OEM version. My experience with OEM products in the past is that warranties some times are not valid or tend to have loopholes. I would throughly research WD's policies before making the final decision. If the retail drive it not much more, it might be a better value and would include cables and rails. One other thought is some of the other manufacturers have longer warranties, Seagate used to (probably still does) have some with lifetime warranties. Looking at your motherboard it is ok, but I do have a few concerns. Fist of all I don't see any warranty info. How long is the warranty? I would want at least 3 years. Not sure if I like the onboard sound and network card. I would definitely put a better NIC in it as you can buy them cheap. Probably the same thing with the sound. I would stick with the 2GB on the RAM. You wont save much on dropping to 1 GB. Some food for thought. What OS(s) are you going to put on the box. I would make sure all of the components I bought were supported by and had good drivers for any OS I wanted to use. Hope this helps, Jim
Well I'm building this PC because I'm tired of running really crappy ones which is why I don't really want to buy a prebuilt one; I'd prefer to have one that I know has some pretty decent stuff in it custom picked. I know I can put it together myself so that's not a problem plus my dad fixes computers for a small living so he could do it as well. I don't know if I'd trust him much with picking out actual parts though. I'm also trying to save money in that I don't want to get EXTREMELY awesome parts. Oddly enough I don't see a retail version of that HDD. There is one for ~$5 more but it's 8MB cache rather than 16MB so it's not the exact same. As for the motherboard, I don't really know about it and wouldn't mind swapping it out if anyone had any better suggestions. I honestly don't care enough about awesome sound quality to actually get a sound card though so any onboard sound is good for me. Onboard video I don't really need though. I actually do have a PCI card for network so I suppose I wouldn't need onboard for that either. I don't know about the warranty though. I'm just going to be running Windows XP SP2.