those who've built their own rig (computer)

[jims69camaro]

ok, i'm getting closer to locking it down. basically, the price was right on this barebones, because if i was to put it together myself, it would have come out $100 higher. no biggie. however, it needs:

• Graphics Card
  Memory
  Hard Drive
  Optical Drive (CD, DVD, DVD-RW Drive)
  Mouse, Keyboard and speakers
  Floppy Drive (optional)
  Operating System

to complete the system. i have the kb and mouse, plus a halfway decent monitor to look at and 3.1 sound system to listen through. what i am not sure about, though, are these:

Radeon HD 2600pro 512. I had a Radeon with its own memory in my other system, and i had no complaints. however, it's an agp card, and i don't see a place to put an agp card on the M2N-SLI. am i wrong? will the new card plug in?

2 GB memory @800MHz. seems ok to me, it's got the right number of pins and its enough memory to get me started (more than i've ever had before). my only question is should i get 4G to start out (half of the max)? i'll be playing games on this computer. i don't know what kind just yet, but be sure that the American Soldier game sponsored by the US Army will be one of the. single person shooter, can be used in multiplayer mode. i doubt that game will put a strain on 2G much less 4G, but i don't know what's out there, games-wise.

80 GB Hard Drive. I thought about it some more, and a coupla 18G hard drives Raided for the operating system would probably be a good idea. then i though about just having this one drive, write protected, to use for the opsys, what'd'you think?

lastly, i hadn't thought about an Optical Drive (CD, DVD, DVD-RW Drive). i do have a dvd player, but no way to brun anything (imagine lasting this long without burning a disc...). even though i would prefer internal, this one seems like a good price.

any thoughts?

as usual, i am very appreciative of any help you can offer.

[PolarBear]

Unfortunately you are correct about that video card, that MB you mentioned only has PCI no AGP.

If you want to play games having more RAM is almost never a bad thing.

I usually buy my parts from newegg.com, pretty good prices on stuff and as far as the optical, dont waste monry on Sony drives. They are almost all made by LiteON and the LiteON branded is a lot less. This is a comprable drive and quite a bit less in price and it has Lightscribe, not that you need it.

For the hard drives, if you have the 18's and can get them in a RAID for the OS then you can get a little speed out of it and use another hard drive for storage and the page file etc.

[TheBandit]

more memory is always good like he said, but 2gb is a good amount to start with, if you need it faster than buy more. PCI-e i assume the new computer will be, imo is better. i would go with a geforce 7900GT or an 8 series geforce card, just my preference since i dont use ATI

[GP99GT]

just in case youre still confused about the agp/pci thing, new boards have PCI-Express....faster than AGP. get a card that uses PCI-E 16x. i cant recommend one cause i havent built a computer in over 2 years so i dont know whats good anymore

[WildBillyT]

Jim,

What is the purpose of this machine? That is really what we need to know in order to spec the system.

[PolarBear]

I was assuming he was going to play some games with it since he spoke about the Army game. Otherwise if he is just going to use it for the 'net then this is all overkill

[shane27]

why get 80GB? why not double the space for only about 10 bucks more... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145087
i have that HD and its aweome.

Also, no you cannot use an AGP card with that motherboard. a few good and cheap video cards i can recommend are http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130062
if your using Windows XP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130084
If your using Windows Vista

both of them PCI-E

[Tru2Chevy]

Two 1GB sticks of RAM will be plenty to get you started. If you find that you want/need more, you can always grab two more and toss in with no hassle.

I would look on newegg.com for memory:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146599

I'll second Shane's recommendation of this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130062

Lots of good reviews at a great price.

- Justin

[12secondv6]

I'd add a HEMI!

[shane27]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

Two 1GB sticks of RAM will be plenty to get you started. If you find that you want/need more, you can always grab two more and toss in with no hassle.

agreed. 2GB is plenty. if you are running XP, it wont take more then 3GB anyway, and if your running 3GB your probably not running it in dual channel which will lower your performance to worse then it would be with just 2GB in DC. therefor. 2GB should be just fine
i recommend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220144

[jims69camaro]

nice.

good reco's, all.

as for what the system will be used for, i have no idea at this point. i am trying to setup for the future, somewhat, and be able to play whatever game i want, because i do love to play video games. since my console is obsolete (try finding a gamecube game anywhere) and i really don't want to buy a computer and another console, i thought i would devote all of my bucks to the computer. seems to make sense, as any game that's worth playing is multi-platform, including PC. the two machines that i have run into the ground are both older than 10 years, so it's definitely time for an upgrade. since i have not had the experience of building my own rig, and i like to tinker, i thought i'd give it a shot.

it's almost comparable to buying a crate motor and then supplying the intake, carb, exhaust and oil pan. the barebones, like i said, ended up being cheaper than i could buy seperately and put together (not unlike crate motors). hopefully, like a crate motor, i'll get several years out of this system before i have to upgrade.

thanks for clearing up the agp/pci issue for me. so much for agp.

oh, and since most of my software is pre-vista, i'll be sticking with XP/2000 dual boot.

[renxwar]

Browse slickdeals.net for all that crap.

2GB Corsair DDR2800MHZ memory for 50$, hard drive for 70$ if I remember correctly, and a nVidia 8800 PCIe card for ~200$.

[jims69camaro]

thanks ren. i've also been cruising newegg and eCost.com, all in search of the best price. there use to be a website that kept track of computers, parts and peripheral prices, does anyone know if it's still around? if so, what's the site?

[Tru2Chevy]

www.pricewatch.com

- Justin

[shane27]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

www.pricewatch.com

another really good site:
www.hardforum.com
people sell really good stuff for really cheap on that site.