Helping a friend build a PC

Abra

<div class="IPBDescription">Oh, no wait, you are!</div>Hello. As the title of this thread so adequately says, I am helping a friend put together a new computer (for playing games on).

He's not giving me a budget, but as he puts it: "It must run diablo 3 and empire: total war (maxed out settings in both) it should last a while"

This friend is not going to buy a new computer next year, he has had his current one for maybe 4 years (maybe a year more actually)

So I was thinking that my good ol' NSOT friends could help me help a friend find the parts. He needs everything but monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers - he needs a new case to contain the new hardware too.

Should he get a quadcore, a dual core or go i7?

aaaaaannnnd, GO! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

Svenpa

He wants a computer to run 2 unreleased games on maxxed out settings without giving a budget? What does he expect, some kind of christian magic?

Check other PC build threads (lots lots lots) or provide moar info.

Abra

well I ran empire:total war on max settings (the demo) with a 8800GT and 2 gigs of ram and a duo 2 core. Diablo 3 doesn't look that much more demanding than games are now.

remi

Could we <b>please</b> get some stickied info on this (at least a thread linking to good previous discussions)? It's a subject that continuously comes up, and with pretty common questions...

Zaggy

YES!

Suggested sticky:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->Need a new rig?

Please specify the following information:

[list]
[*]What's the budget for the PC? Can we go over it a little?
[*]Which components do you need? Case only? Case, monitor and peripherals?
[*]What are you going to do with it? Gaming? Which games? Which applications?
[*]<insert various PC builds to start with>
[/list]<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

Abra

OK!!:

Budget: 8000-10000 DKKR = 1370.57USD to 1713.21USD = 944.67£ to 1180.83£

Need: Only Case, no monitor or peripherals.

Do: Games, old aswell as new, games in years to come.

Insert: no idea..

SkulkBait

I wish I had so much money that I could justify spending that much just so my games can be prettier. I can't even justify the $500 or so it would take to upgrade from "TF2 runs ok on the lowest possible settings" to... well, better than that, because the only thing I can think of doing with the extra power is playing a prettier TF2.

Anyways, enough ######. I helped a friend build a quad core system with 4GB ram, just over a 1/2TB hd and what I can only assume is a relatively low end video card by gamer standards (NVIDIA 8400GS variant), with new case, PS, mouse and keyboard, wireless card, and frickin' 22" LCD for half of that.

Abra

Then help me. It does not HAVE to cost that much, right now we are looking at computers at half the price.

Dual core E8400
4GB RAM
and the like

SkulkBait

I can't help you when it comes to what the latest greatest best performing junk out there is, because I don't follow that crap anymore and haven't for many years (last time I updated my system was... at least 2 years ago and it was old when I bought it used from a friend). I can tell you that we went with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz (BX80580Q8300) because of the cost/performance/efficiency ratio. We were able to snag it for ~$190(US). We went with the GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L motherboard (~$55), and two sticks of 2GB G.SKILL DDR2 800 (~$50), plus a generic SATA2 640GB HD (~$75). We splurged on the PS a bit and got a SeaSonic SS-400ET 400W (~$60) because the cheap ones that usually come bundled with a case are real crap, and a generic steel microATX desktop case (~$25).

Since I don't keep up on hardware, I just use <a href="http://www.newegg.com" target="_blank">NewEgg</a>, start with the processor and work from there (choose a motherboard based on the processor socket, ram based on the what the motherboard supports, etc). And since I'm not obsessive about getting the absolute best performing crap for my dollar (more concerned about the dollar), I just pick whatever seems good to me and has a decent rating. From what I can tell, NewEgg only operates in the US and does so on ridiculously tiny overhead, so if you don't live in the states you may have trouble finding equatable prices.

SnappyCrunch

Okay, so I'm going to help you out with a quick list of components. My information may be a few weeks to a few months out of date, because I'm too lazy to go around getting up to the minute information.

If you want the most bang for your buck, here's what you do:

Core i7 processors and boards are still stupid priced, so go witha Core2Duo or Core2Quad

Motherboard: Anandtech really likes the <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3508" target="_blank">Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P</a>, so start with that motherboard, why not. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358" target="_blank">Newegg</a>

CPU: People on Newegg are crazy about the Core 2 Duo E8400. It'll give him great speeds for today's games, and he can upgrade his processor to a faster Core 2 Quad once more games start making use of all those cores and the processors drop in price. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037" target="_blank">Newegg</a>

RAM: You can get DDR1200 RAM, but it's either not worth the money, or backordered. Get 4GB of whatever floats your boat, but leave some RAM slots free for later expansion. I suggest DDR1066 RAM, and people on Newegg seem to like the Mushkin stuff. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146785" target="_blank">Newegg</a>

Hard Drive: Get a fast drive for your OS and applications, and get an inexpensive-per-gigabyte drive for your data. For the OS drive, I suggest an <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167005" target="_blank">Intel X25-M</a> or a <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136033" target="_blank">Velociraptor</a> depending on the budget, and for the data drive I suggest <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284" target="_blank">this guy</a> (again, rated well on Newegg).

Video Card: This is such a personal item, it's tough to say what you should buy. The best bang for your buck appears to be the Nvidia GTX260. Upgrade to a GTX285 or SLI the GTX260s if you want to spend more money for better framerates. Or, you could buy one GTX260 now and buy another one to SLI with it later. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingItem.aspx?ItemList=N82E16814130370" target="_blank">Newegg</a>

Power Supply: Buy a PS from a reputable manufacturer that has enough juice to run all your components. When building a gaming rig where you might be SLI-ing now or later, err on the side of caution and get more than you need. A modular power supply will make for a neater case, and will make installation easier. A good well-rounded PSU is <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153038" target="_blank">this</a> 750W unit from Thermaltake.

CD Drive: They're basically all the same these days. People seem to like <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152" target="_blank">this</a> one.

Case: A matter of personal preference. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068" target="_blank">This</a> one won't break the bank.


Total price: Around USD $1100 shipped.

Abra

Thank you for that! That kind of listing was what I was looking for. He and I are considering if he should buy a built one, or if I should set it up for him (He'll pay me in pints later for my trouble).