Building my dream computer.... need some help deciding what to buy

[the100thballoon]

I am going to build my dream computer in a few short weeks (after i order parts and then after the parts get here). I am looking at building the ultimate gaming machine. I want the following things (dont pay any attention to prices just give me the facts. ill go hunting for good prices later.) Please help me out! Please list the item and the price (but dont let price keep u from listing something).

• The fastest cpu on the market
• The fastest, most powerful video card on the market
• The fastest type of RAM (for price list how much for 1 stick of 1 GB)
• The fastest motherboard that will support the above cpu and 2 GB of above RAM and above video card

Thanks a million! Im new to building computers part by part. Your help will streamline the process.

 

[vbraun]

I hope you know your looking at a $2000+ plus system here. I assume since your new to this you won't want watercooling? You would be able to overcloock your CPU better if its watercooled.

Actually the only reason I mentioned watercooling is because it would sound cool to show of to your friends "My computer is watercooled and can overclock a hell of a lot more then yours". But whatever.

Someone will comeup with the best stuff in a little whille.

 

[the100thballoon]

Thnx for input! I will consider water cooling. I do know that the stuff I asked for in my first post will be over 2k. A while ago i priced an insane computer and it came out to 32k! The motherboard alone was over $1000 and supported 4 processors and 64 gb RAM. I was impressed but my friends and I were laughing at how ridiculously powerful that machine would be. No software around today could even use all of that power.

 

[Zakharov]

As you are looking to build a gaming system I would suggest a single core cpu. You could always upgrade to a faster dual core cpu at a later date.

I will quote prices from newegg.com as I don't know much about the cost of hardware in the US.

CPU- AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 $1,013.09

Motherboard- DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR $198

RAM- Corsair XMS 2GB (2x1GB) $300

Graphics- XFX GeForce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 $549 (put 2 in SLI for $1,098)

There are other manufacturers you can choose from for the mobo, RAM and graphics card. The ones I have listed are top of the range models though.

I know you asked for the price of 1GB of RAM, but the deal I listed is a 2x1GB pack. You can buy faster RAM if you want, but this isn't really worth it unless you plan to overclock. Even then the performance increase isn't great.

I have listed the XFX version of the GF7800 GTX because that is the cheapest factory overclocked card I could find. You may be able to find a better deal from a different manufacturer elsewhere. Just make sure the card has at least a 490MHz core clock and 1300MHz memory clock. Btw, you should put two cards in SLI if you want the ultimate gaming rig.

I hope this helps.

 

[vbraun]

This might help, Attack of the Shwo built an Ultimate Gaming Machine awhille ago. Heres the link for it: http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/features/52191/UGM_90_Ultimate_Gaming_Machine.html

I know people are going to come in screeming "Attack of the Show took my ScreenSavers away!!" but please resist the urge.

 

[Zelig]

What Zakharov said is pretty good, these are mostly my thoughts in response to his choices, which are a great starting point.

CPU - I'd get an X2 4800+ if money isn't a problem, I don't care if my games run at 150 rather than 155 fps if I'm able to rip movies at the same time without a 100 fps hit. Price is similar to FX-55.

Mobo - Good. (Same as mine, except with extra s-ata ports )

Ram - OCZ Platinum 2Gb (2x1Gb) pack if not overclocking. I just got mine for $330 CDN (available for ~$250 US IIRC), which would put it cheaper than the Corsair ram. It runs at 2-3-2-5 at stock speeds, and many reports it clocks up to ~230MHz with looser timings.
OCZ PC4000 Gold 2Gb kit if you want to overclock your ram - it's simply the best.

Graphics - EVGA all the way for NVidia, I've had nothing but good experiences with them, and they recently introduced a lifetime warranty policy for all of their cards.

 

[Perfection]

Here's your mousepad

 

[MarineCorps]

Thnx for input! I will consider water cooling. I do know that the stuff I asked for in my first post will be over 2k. A while ago i priced an insane computer and it came out to 32k! The motherboard alone was over $1000 and supported 4 processors and 64 gb RAM. I was impressed but my friends and I were laughing at how ridiculously powerful that machine would be. No software around today could even use all of that power.

Four CPUs and 64 GBs of RAM would be a server.

 

[the100thballoon]

Four CPUs and 64 GBs of RAM would be a server.

Ya, we were joking about how you could host the internet with that thing. lol

@Perfection


@everyone else
I was just interested to see how much it would cost to build my dream system. I am going to build the following system for right now and then gradually buy each of u guys' parts as i get the funds to do so. My very-close-in-the-future system:

• CPU- Athlon64 3700 ($289)
• RAM- 4 512 MB sticks of DDR2 PC4200 ($220, $55 a stick)
• Motherboard- Gigabyte K8N Pro 939 ($175)
• HD- Serial ATA 250 GB ($125)
• Video card- Geforce 6800 128 MB ($175)
• 19" LCD Monitor ($310)
• $40 or less case
• $5 or less mouse
• $5 or less keyboard
• $120 for misc stuff like CivIV and WoW subscription cards

All that comes to $1464. I should have this money soon. Then I will start saving for the parts you guys listed. I should hv my "dream machine" by next Christmas (2006) or maybe even by fall 2006.... I cant wait! Im so tired of my slow computer! Thats why I dont mind forking out the extra money to get the fastest type of every part of my computer. I never want to hv bad lag again!