hi,

i want to buy a whole new set up, starting from scratch. its for gaming and i pretty much wanna play WAR: age of reckoning, dawn of war 2, starcraft 2 etc... basically a bunch of games that will be out later this year/early next year. i dont want to have to upgrade to play them maxed out when the games are released, thats the main thing really.

so yeh, can neone help build a system for as cheap as possible? (by "build" i mean list what i need and where to get it). i live in sydney, and sumone suggested staticice.com.au, which looked good but i dont know what i need, or whats good.

8600gtxxx or 9600gt xxx or bfg 9800 sumthing or other.. o.O im lost! neways that card dilemna is just the beginning of my nubness.

only requirements other than maxed gaming performance at lowest price, is:
- an antivirus
- operating system
- microsoft word and all that jazz (for uni work)
- massive amounts of cooling so tit doesnt melt!

someone please help!!!

(ps, will need monitor, mouse, keyboard etc too!)

From what I've read, the new 9000 series of Nvidia cards aren't really worth the extra money, and that you're getter off getting two 8800GT (that's just GT, not GTS or GTX) cards and putting them in SLI. They're cheap as, and they perform brilliantly.

As for anti-virus, I don't see why you'd ever want to pay for it. Just get a free one like AVG or Avast.

watch a diy show

It's been a couple of months since I went PC-part shopping for a friend in Sydney, but you can start with a mid-range Intel processor (dual-core is better bang for buck for gaming), plus 4GB of memory ($90 @ MSY).

an antivirus

I used to recommend AVG free to everyone, but not anymore.

Use the free version of avast!, it kicks the s*** out of AVG free edition in almost all aspects (better features, less bloat, better security).

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

microsoft word and all that jazz (for uni work)

I would have said go for OpenOffice, but if you want to make format-perfect .doc submissions for uni, there's the student version of MS Office 2007. I think it can still be bought for $75 from Microsoft's promotion website:

http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au

massive amounts of cooling so tit doesnt melt!

I don't know if there are better cases yet, but I found the Antec 900 to be insanely good for cooling. If you place the hard-drives in the fan-bay at the TOP of your case, you can create a wind-tunnel effect that will allow you to keep all your fans on low/quiet while giving you better cooling than most other cases out there. Though someone might suggest if this case has been replaced by a better one.

last edited by parabol at 22:58:57 12/Jun/08

whats your budget?

whats your budget?

lowest price

so cheapest everything he's listed would be my guess. It's gonna be a killer PC for about a week until the psu blows up takes out the CPU which sets fire to the carpet.

last edited by whoop at 23:29:00 12/Jun/08

whats your budget?

lowest price

looking to cap at around 2k.

thanks for all the quick advice so far. will defo take on board the antivrius/office advice.

so i need?

- monitor (i found a pretty good one i think for $238 - http://www.mcgtech.com.au/index.php?p=productinfo&stock_id=10421 ) not sure if it is any good though or will take fromt he potential of a good graphics card.

- ram (people always mention 'corsair').. and i want 4gb?

- motherboard (this the dual-core bit? irsnt quad-core better?)

- chip

other stuff? lol. sorry im useless! =[

If the games you're really wanting to play are that far away I would seriously consider holding on to the money you have and waiting to see what is available around the time the first new/decent game you're hanging out for actually arrives.

Of course if you're wanting to play some decent games now go right ahead :)

- ram (people always mention 'corsair').. and i want 4gb?

The MSY ram I linked is:

4G Kit-800(2x2G) A-data $91

(from: http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf )

Forget Corsair or other more expensive brand name ones. Most ram these days will be fine.

(this the dual-core bit? irsnt quad-core better?)

A high speed dual-core costs the same as a slower-clocked quad-score. If you're going to be encoding videos all the time, the quad-core might be better. But since you're gaming and games are only catching onto the multi-core thing, you're probably better off with a faster dual-core.

the CPU is the dual/quad core 'bit', the motherboard is just the bit everything sits on/in. The 3 parts you don't want to go the cheap on are: RAM, Motherboard and Power Supply. If you cheap out on the power supply there's a chance it can fry everything in the PC, cheap ram/motherboard risks stability issues.

Quad core might be better only if the game makes use of all 4 cores.

The 3 parts you don't want to go the cheap on are: RAM

These days you can go cheap on ram, they're mostly good.

A good PSU and motherboard I definitely agree with. Don't go cheap on these.

I'd recommend waiting about a month as a lot of crap is scheduled to be released soon:
Video cards from nVidia and ATI
New chipset - p45
Price cuts from Intel on CPU's

Though if you want to get a new system reasonably quickly, here's a quick list of parts available now:

Corsair TX750W 750W PSU (the 620W is sufficient, this just allows you more freedom to add more stuff later on).
Asus P5E
Intel E8400
4GB DDR2 Corsair Dominator 1066MHz
Albatron 9800GTX 512M PCIe Video Card
Antec 900 case.
ASUS VW222U 22" LCD

i bought a few of these a little while ago for me and my mate

e6850 (dualcore 3gig intel)
asus p5k pro
2 x 2gig adata 800mhz
8800gt
HARD DRIVE (i went 750g wd for its raptor like performance)
new case wtih psu and fans (to stop s*** melting)

software took care of itself with stuff i already had or that was free

total price was sub $1000

could go cheaper with cheaper cpu and smaller harddrive, and even less ram if you are happy with 2gig

could be had for maybe $800 if you skimped on a few parts

what about keyboard and mouse huh

dont need them, i control computar with my mind

im thinking "persay is a douche" right now

http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au

wow - I've gotta grab that.

ta

Or you could get Open Office...

To save hassle, why not go dell.

Worrying about hardware is for chumps

http://josh.net.au/xps.png

k was just checking their site.. is a physics accelarator worthwhile? sounds good for gaming?

Nah

you sound about as good at computers as nsw is at playing rugby league

last edited by paveway at 13:00:10 13/Jun/08

It does sound good! But afaik noone really gives a crap about them in terms of software support. NVIDIA recently bought Ageia Technologies, so their physics chip will be on video cards in the future (if they're not already?). I'd say buying one now is probably not worth it until they're more widespread - which might not even happen if NVIDIA try to get tricky.

is a physics accelarator worthwhile? sounds good for gaming?

Sounds good in theory, but as mentioned not really worthwhile as it's mostly being ignored by developers (there are some demos around but I'm not really impressed). I mean you could argue what the point of a physics chip is, when you have an unused core or 3 lying in your CPU .. which would be appealing to tap into for developers - compared to learning some custom API for a piece of hardware that 99% of their customers don't have (the physics card), even if the CPU is less efficient at matrix operations.

NVIDIA recently bought Ageia Technologies, so their physics chip will be on video cards in the future (if they're not already?)

Well NVIDIA has already been doing general purpose and physics stuff on their graphics cards for a while. I think this was just an IP/code-base grab that they'll just integrate into their current products, afaik? Though I haven't kept up to date on this.

last edited by parabol at 11:54:38 13/Jun/08

If you want to buy all from one store here is a list I have made up for a few friends, for Umart.

$215 Intel CORE 2 E8400
$068 Zalman CNPS9700LED
$053 2x1GB PC2-6400 Kingston
$110 Asus P5K-SE
$169 Galaxy 9600GT OC
$080 Antec Three Hundred
$146 Corsair HX-620
$038 Asus DRW-2014L1tT 20x SATA
$149 Vista Home Premium 32bit
$085 Samsung 500G 7200RPM 16M
$1,113 Total

$175 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
$025 Nortons Antivirus 2008 OEM

You will need to add your own monitor, keyboard and mouse to the list. Those are personal choices.

I would recommend you go the 9300 CPU, might as well future proof it a little. The gigabyte mobo can also take DDR2 or 3 so you can upgrade to ddr3 when prices and speeds are better. The beauty of the 45nm CPUs are that they don't spit out that much heat, the case I've put in is very quiet and will have adequate airflow.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium32bit(OEM)purchase with Hardware O $149.00
Antec Sonata III MiniTower Case - Piano BlackW/500W PSU $169.00
2x Gigabyte NX8800GT 512MB DDR3 PCIEx16 HDCP 2xDVI-I HDTV $464.00
Samsung 750G 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA II $119.00
Pioneer DVR-215BK 20x Dual Black OEM with software - SATA $33.00
Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R S775 P35 FSB1333 DDR2/3 PCIEx16 RAID GbLAN ATX DES $146.00
Patriot 4G(2x2G) PC6400 800Mhz Viper EPP 4-4-4(PVS24G6400LLK) $139.00
Intel CORE2QUAD Q9300/2.50GHz/6MB/1333FSB/LGA775/QUAD CORE $302.00
Samsung 2253LW-BL 21.6inch Wide LCD High Gloss Black 2ms(GtG) Digital $288.00
Total $1809.00

These are straight off Umart. Throw in a kboard and mouse and you're done.

If you want to buy all from one store here is a list I have made up for a few friends, for Umart. $215 Intel CORE 2 E8400 $068 Zalman CNPS9700LED $053 2x1GB PC2-6400 Kingston $110 Asus P5K-SE $169 Galaxy 9600GT OC $080 Antec Three Hundred $146 Corsair HX-620 $038 Asus DRW-2014L1tT 20x SATA $149 Vista Home Premium 32bit $085 Samsung 500G 7200RPM 16M $1,113 Total $175 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 $025 Nortons Antivirus 2008 OEM You will need to add your own monitor, keyboard and mouse to the list. Those are personal choices.

thanks man, thats exactly the type of list im after.. i can go nearer 2k than that though. i want a full on machine that'll run upcoming games at mroe or less full belt.

doing a bit of research and the 9600gt is worse than 8800gt? from what i can make out, best bet is to get one 8800gt and add another to upgrade later when games catch up to technology?

neways, feel free to upgrade it to as much of a beast as possible, givena 2k cut off bracket. well, if ur bored and have the tiem! cheers mate

"Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium32bit(OEM)purchase with Hardware O $149.00
Antec Sonata III MiniTower Case - Piano BlackW/500W PSU $169.00
2x Gigabyte NX8800GT 512MB DDR3 PCIEx16 HDCP 2xDVI-I HDTV $464.00
Samsung 750G 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA II $119.00
Pioneer DVR-215BK 20x Dual Black OEM with software - SATA $33.00
Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R S775 P35 FSB1333 DDR2/3 PCIEx16 RAID GbLAN ATX DES $146.00
Patriot 4G(2x2G) PC6400 800Mhz Viper EPP 4-4-4(PVS24G6400LLK) $139.00
Intel CORE2QUAD Q9300/2.50GHz/6MB/1333FSB/LGA775/QUAD CORE $302.00
Samsung 2253LW-BL 21.6inch Wide LCD High Gloss Black 2ms(GtG) Digital $288.00
Total $1809.00"

perfect. thats the sort of beast im looking at. only thing - is it not wiser to get a BFG 9800gt (about 400), as opposed to the 2 x 8800gt's? also, will i need extra fans/power supply?

Yes and No

thanks man, thats exactly the type of list im after.. i can go nearer 2k than that though. i want a full on machine that'll run upcoming games at mroe or less full belt.

If you want to beef up that list change the Asus P5K-SE to a P5K Pro and the video card to the Albatron GeForce 8800GTS 512MB.