Building/Buying First Computer

[RENEDDI]

Raim, please excuse me for hijacking your thread buddy, but i really like the set up that karmakiller set up for you and was also very interested in going with his advice, my question is if i went ahead and bought all those items to include the monitor and keyboard/mouse:

Acer X193WBD 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms, 1440x900, WXGA+, 2000:1, DVI, Black PRICE 119.00
FROM TIGERDIRECT
MOUSE AND KEYBOARD: Logitech EX90 Cordless Desktop Keyboard And Mouse Combo - USB Receiver, Optical Mouse
PRICE 29.96 BY TIGERDIRECT

compared to a store bought complete set up, if i wanted to match the performance and hardware, what would be the price range i would be looking at? thank you in advance and thank you raim and karma for allowing me to use this thread.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RENEDDI

Raim, please excuse me for hijacking your thread buddy, but i really like the set up that karmakiller set up for you and was also very interested in going with his advice, my question is if i went ahead and bought all those items to include the monitor and keyboard/mouse:

Acer X193WBD 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms, 1440x900, WXGA+, 2000:1, DVI, Black PRICE 119.00
FROM TIGERDIRECT
MOUSE AND KEYBOARD: Logitech EX90 Cordless Desktop Keyboard And Mouse Combo - USB Receiver, Optical Mouse
PRICE 29.96 BY TIGERDIRECT

compared to a store bought complete set up, if i wanted to match the performance and hardware, what would be the price range i would be looking at? thank you in advance and thank you raim and karma for allowing me to use this thread.

If you wanted to match the spec, it wouldn't be too easy - I've done a quick search (only using NewEgg) and found that this is the only pre-built box that has the same CPU:
Newegg.com - iBUYPOWER Gamer Power 513 Athlon II X2 250(3.0GHz) 4GB DDR2 500GB NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Free MS Windows 7 upgrade - Desktop PCs

The reason I say that it would be difficult to match everthing up is that when you build a system, you can cut their (time/building/installing) costs out and pick the best bits to suit your usage/requirements... The system I linked above is showing as being £530, with free (3 day) shipping but doesn't include the items you listed above... I know that the one I saw has a bunch of different parts to the one KK linked to, some, like the GPU, would appear (on my first glance) to be better.

Having said that, and as mentioned previously, I'm not really the best to give advice on what to get when you're after a new machine - more of a troubleshooting guy...so while I can see that there are some differences between what was suggested (in quote below) I can't tell you what the differences would be, or which would be better - although I'd think that KK's would be better (or more suited) overall for the budget....

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarmaKiller

CPU + Case Combo
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
$136

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
$80 ($70 after MIR)

Newegg.com - Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT12864BA1339 - Desktop Memory
$39

Newegg.com - BFG Tech GS-550 550W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.8 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - Power Supplies
$50

Newegg.com - MSI N250GTS-2D512-OCv2 GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
$120

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
$47

Newegg.com - LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners
$29
-------------------------------------------------
Total = $501 without shipping or rebates.

For an OS, head over to Microsofts site and grab a key for Win7, then google for a download. It's free till June 2010, and it's WAY better then Vista. When Win7 is released, you have to pick up a full retail copy then, but that'll give you some time to save up more $.
But the above system is a fully capable gamer box. I doubt you'd have problems playing any games.

[RENEDDI]

Thanks nudelewdman, appreciate all the advice, as soon as i get the green light from the wife, i'll commence ordering, thanks alot friends, and since this will be my first build, im pretty sure i'll be bugging you later lol.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

I would wait until KarmaKiller, PMF or one of the others checks in on here before you use my link as an example - as stated, I'm /much/ better at troubleshooting and networking than spec'ing up....

[RENEDDI]

Thanks i will, appreciate the help.

[Aaron_8015]

The thing with most of these pre-built machines is the come with a lowend GPU, the one 'NLM' linked to has a 9500 which is low-end.

Go with 'Karma's' build, you wont be disapointed and you will run most games at max settings on that monitor.

[RENEDDI]

thanks aaron for clearing that up, yes karma's build does sound impressive.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

See... To me, the GPU in the pre-built rig I linked to looked as if it could be a better one as it had a higher (G?)RAM figure than in KarmaKiller's spec - but as expected the (individual) part that he listed was better...

As (I think I mentioned before) Aaron is another of the ones that I would trust - in fact, it was thanks to him that I got the GPU that I bought yesterday... (Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it, thanks Aaron)

[Aaron_8015]

No problem.

Judging a card by how much memory it has is a common mistake, and video card manufacturers use this to sell lowend video cards to people who think they are getting a good mid-high end card.

[vercinix]

this thread is awesome, exactly in the price range of what i want to spend. If i wanted a wireless card with this desktop, what would be compatible. and if i wanted a 4g of ram install rather than a 2g, which one would i want to pick? Is this a complete build without an OS? I have a windows 7 RC that i installed for my dad on his computer which came with no OS.

someone let me know about that because I am running a high risk of buying this stuff as soon as i get a solid gameplan. i also noticed the 3.0ghz dual core newegg offer and was considering that... which is how i found this thread.

one or the other is getting bought by me asap, i just don't want to buy the stuff to do the build and find myself missing a couple things, need to be able to get rolling right away with it. are there any other hardware cards necessary or do i just buy keyboard, mouse, monitor,s peakers and rock n roll.