Gaming Desktop Computers

[bamaboy 5,000+ posts]

s good idea is to buy a kit somewhere, ive seen them some places with cpu, motherboard, and memory matched

all you have to do to match is get a motherboard that takes the same socket as your cpu, which isnt hard, there are only about 3-4 ones still avaliable good

mainly amd 939 and pentium LGA 775

then on memory just go by the number(pc 5300, pc3300, ...)

then find a board with PCI x16 slot, and enough slots that you need extras on

find a graphics card suitable to your needs, how much do you plan on playing games? a good cheapish card would be a ati x1800 or nvidia 7900gt, then you can get into sli if you really want good stuff, or the new nvidia 7950's

figure out what kind of hard drive space you want, get a sata hdd, if you want fast get 2 of the same ones and run RAID 0

some CPU's come with the fans you need, and heatsink, but an upgraded one is better

find a cool case

figure out whihc windows you want, media center is cool if you want to add a 50-100$ tv tuner to a pci slot, record, rewind, pause tv, like tivo, record a series

if not media center at least pro or x64(dont know much about drivers on this

oh and a power supply, at least close to a 500w, dont cheap out on this, could take every piece of the comp with it if it dies

and you set, its really easy, just snapping in some pieces, plenty of different sites that go step by step with it

edit: just let me know how much you want to spend, and amd or intel and if i get bored tonight or tomorrow ill put one together for you from newegg or somewhere

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

actually i would look into AMD's new chipset....which sux 3 weeks after i get my new comp it gets outdated already

 

[blackgeltabs 5,000+ posts]

Just looked into a alienware 5500 which was 3600 with a monitor. Over all it was a good computer 500gb, 4gb of ram...the only downfall was it only had the option to run dual 256 gforce cards.

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

Media Center Edition is incredibly bloated, Pro offers nothing to the gamer other than more services running in the background (reducing performance), and I definitely wouldn't recommend x64 for a gamer.

unless you get a stripped down version of pro //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[bamaboy 5,000+ posts]

Amateur replacing heatsink and fan = bad idea
Media Center Edition is incredibly bloated, Pro offers nothing to the gamer other than more services running in the background (reducing performance), and I definitely wouldn't recommend x64 for a gamer.

actually i was referring to a heatsink for a cpu, not a graphics or which ever, you have to put the heat sink on the cpu any way

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

but if you dont clean the cpu off correctly, UHOH!

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

I say alienware or the xps for gaming for sure. I would love to have my alienware back, but I got a good deal on it and so I sent it away. Now I have a gateway 22" screen that needs replaced soon, but still love it and a Sony Viao gaming tower. It does its thing, but I have put way to much shit on it. Oh well, fuc I miss my alienware!

 

[blackgeltabs 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for the help guys, Im going to go with a XPS, I really dont need anything to wild!!

One more question... My friends dad does high end photography, has a top of the line camera and does wedding pictures and such. He says he deals with picture files that are upwards of 1GB a file. He's looking for a new computer that will strictly run Photoshop it wont even be connected to tjhe internet. He asked me last night what would be his best option, he has around 3000-3500 to spend on it and he does not need a monitor. Oh yeah and he wont get a mac.

So what should he be looking to get for optimal performance for photoshop use?

 

[AJ²06 5,000+ posts]

Honestly its not worth my time to build a new computer id rater spend 1-2k more and have it built for me rather than spending days messing around trying to build one.
I also found a company named Cyber Power, they seem pretty good. Anyone know anyting about them???

DYI is the BEST.... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif BUY parts, put it together, and ur good to go, check out THE THREAD thread and u'll see my pc... =)

or here:: http://images.gruntville.com/casegallery/X-Viper-PICS

 

[blackgeltabs 5,000+ posts]

What should I be looking for parts wise to run and load photoshop w/ large pictures?

Dual video cards? Tons of Ram? Dual core processors?