General Discussion

Whats your PSU, and is your case reusable?

Alright, heres a system:

Motherboard: BIOSTAR TForce TF720 A2+ AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 720a ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane 2.7GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5200DOBOX - Retail *

Memory: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK

Graphics Card: BFG Tech BFGE88512GTOCXFE GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

PSU: FG Tech BFGR650PSU 650W ATX 12v 2.0 / EPS 12V Power Supply

Total: $511.96 (without tax)

I chose the cheapest of the top line of Motherboards so your PC will have a good amount of upgradability. Which saves money in the long run. I decided against SLI

CPU its a 2.6 x2 which can be OC'd to a 2.8 on stock fan quite easily, Its enough to get you by for the next year, then when prices drop again you can invest in something more powerful (3.0ghz+). CPU isnt the highest requirement for MMO's atm so its not a biggy.

Memory, Ive bought the best you can by, why? becuase theres very little price difference between different speeds/types so in the long run you save money by not having to upgrade it, I would have liked to get corsair but I went with the most economical option. I imagine 4gb will last you up to 2 years before you have to increase the capacity.

Graphics, I put in an 8800GT, I use one myself, its an excellent card, this one comes pre OC'd with a good fan for little more then $10 extra, a bargain in my eyes. BFG are my personal preferance, they offer lifetime warrantys on their goods and their OC's are very reliable.

These are your barebones, if you can salvage your HDD, DVD and case, your sorted. Theres alot of upgradability in this machine, the motherboard could last up to and over 4 years.

Couple of items I also recommend:

HDD01: Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive

Put your OS on this and your systems load times with reduce dramatically. Can also cut down on freezing & hitching.

HDD 02: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

This is basically for mass storage, installing your games onto this HDD so they are on a seperate HDD to your OS can increase performance and reduce load times.

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card 

Takes the strain of Sound processing off the CPU relieving power for other system tasks. It also greatly improves your sound quality.

Thats it, if you reuse your old case, make sure you check the dimensions of the motherboard to the case, same goes for the PSU. Nothing worse then buying all the kit then finding out you cant use the case. You will also want to look at the cases cooling.

Hope this helps.

* EDIT: CPU modified due to error.

Originally posted by SamMc247
ok this all sounds great, except that i am not familiar with the term 'motherboard' what is it exactly? i probably know it as something else.

The motherboard is the big circuit board that holds all the other components of the PC together.  If you don't know what a motherboard is, it might be wise to read up a lot on the web before starting to build a PC. 

Not that it's hard to build a PC, it's actually pretty easy, but you should study it for a good week or two before having a go at building for the first time.  Get to know the lingo and what people are talking about, and find out about the potential pitfalls.  Also, try and make sure you've got access to another PC on the web, or a nearby internet cafe, if the thing doesn't work first time.  Sometimes, you will put the thing together, switch it on and nothing happens, either because you've misstepped and forgotten something, or because there's some actual problem, like an incompatibility or some switch or BIOS setting that needs to be turned on or off, or maybe even a bad part - and if there's a real problem, it's helpful to have access to the internet to be able to read up about problems with certain hardware configurations that crop up.

Good luck!

For one, if you don't know what a motherboard is, you have a lot of research to do.

Secondly, buying a single core processor is a waste of money. If you can save up 500 bucks, you can save up a little more to go dual-core, and preferably not down AMD's choices either.

Originally posted by 7earitup

For one, if you don't know what a motherboard is, you have a lot of research to do.

 

Secondly, buying a single core processor is a waste of money. If you can save up 500 bucks, you can save up a little more to go dual-core, and preferably not down AMD's choices either.

AMD has a very good architecture for its duel cores, the only place that they loose is High end quad core,

That is the current fight

you have intel and Nvidia- The high end

Then you have AMD ATI- Mid range

As far as AMD and intel they are relitvly the same in the mid range

As for ATI and nvidia , ATI has taken the mid range this round with the 4800 series being better and cheaper.

Now if ya want to spend 600 for the 280 with nvidia to get a little more power then go for it. but if ya want to spend 300 for a 4870 thats better then the 260 which is prices higher at 400 then yeah ATI FTW on this round.

Black edition AMD processors are awesome btw bout 100(for the processor and high end cooler) starts 2.6 and got mine to 3.2

Originally posted by godpuppet

Alright, heres a system:

 

Motherboard: BIOSTAR TForce TF720 A2+ AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 720a ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 LE-1640 Orleans 2.6GHz Socket AM2 45W Single-Core Processor Model ADH1640DHBOX

Memory: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK

Graphics Card: BFG Tech BFGE88512GTOCXFE GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

PSU: FG Tech BFGR650PSU 650W ATX 12v 2.0 / EPS 12V Power Supply

Total: $482.95 (without tax)

 

I chose the cheapest of the top line of Motherboards so your PC will have a good amount of upgradability. Which saves money in the long run. I decided against SLI

CPU its a 2.6 x2 which can be OC'd to a 2.8 on stock fan quite easily, Its enough to get you by for the next year, then when prices drop again you can invest in something more powerful (3.0ghz+). CPU isnt the highest requirement for MMO's atm so its not a biggy.

Memory, Ive bought the best you can by, why? becuase theres very little price difference between different speeds/types so in the long run you save money by not having to upgrade it, I would have liked to get corsair but I went with the most economical option. I imagine 4gb will last you up to 2 years before you have to increase the capacity.

Graphics, I put in an 8800GT, I use one mysel