instead of asking simple questions and begging for knowledge, do what i did some 4 years ago. start reading these websites and i promise, you will learn a lot. you will know what is compatible, what is trendy, what is outdated and most importanly what YOU NEED.

written in very user-friendly tone, toms site is one of the most reputable on the net.

http://www.tomshardware.com

anand's is quite a bit more extensive and goes into more detail. looks like he has more money to conduct research, hence more details and insights.

http://www.anandtech.com

once you master and read these sites/forums upside down, go for something more like ocp sites which is complementary knowledge

http://www.hardocp.com


this is all you need to know as far as theory goes.

generally when you buy hardware you go in this order..

1) good case mid to large size for plenty of space
2) QUALITY power supply 450W and above with stable voltage lines (antec, thermaltake are few good ones)
3) good motherboard (asus, gigabyte, abit, MSI)...asus and abit for overclockability, gigabye for stability, MSI for features rich needs
4) processor ...you want a 2-3 year old honda accord of processor. not the most expensive, not the fanciest, but yet good enough for random shit.
5) GOOD ram....here you pick a bmw and spent some money on quality ram such as corsair, geil, ocz, crucial or such
6) hard drive...if you have money get 10k raptor, if not a nice 7200rpm partitioned western digital or seagate. WD a bit faster, seagate better warranty and quieter. maxtor stay away for now at least...they have some problems.
7) video accord.....you want a new honda accord...not too fancy yet it wont be obsolete in 1 year
9)DVD/CDRw....whatever.....NEC, lite-on are good ones.

i forgot something, but thats it for now

i think you'v nailed everything cockmaster serb.

General mistakes that people waste money on is the CPU, video card, and ram. We want a balanced system- a component too powerful or too weak will cripple the system.

CPU-Dual core is NOT for gaming. also due to the immensely different architecture of the chips, Athlon and Pentiums are rated differently according to their scale.
(ex. A +3200 AMD64 clocked at 2.0 Ghz will be fast, if not faster then a Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz in gaming)

Video Card- SLI is a WASTE of money. Top of the market Video card "A" has the speed rated at 5. SLI combines Two matched graphics cards and runs it as one. People seem to think the speed should double to "10" if they use two video cards "A".. The speed will not be double, it will rank "7". Was the extra $500 dollars worth the extra 2 points? Today's game is heavily dependent on the GPU, not the CPU

RAM- CAS latenecy and speed will determine faster timings and overclockability. One gig (2x512 in dual channel) is sufficient enough for gamers. Do not get over 2 gigs, unless its for video editing/multimedia creation. Over 2 gigs and you might actually see a decrease in your performance

PSU- the most underlooked component of the PC. You wanna spend 40-100 dollars on a good PSU. if you cheap out on this, all hell will break loose on your computer later.






www.zipzoomfly.com
www.newegg.com

start piecing together a computer and comparing it with similar computers that are on sale (dell, ebay). you'll be able to see howd you benefit from building a pc

yhe, next summer i wanna sit down and learn all those stuffs about computers so i can build myself one, i dunno if i should like order all the individual pieces over the net, or like go myself and get them somewhere around the city (best buy, future shop, radioshack, whatever, hopefully they'll have some ram to sell in the stripclub :D ) and start making my baby!!! yhe, i'll summon a good amount of money to get me a awesome comp not the best, just awesome enough, and then i'll pay for a better cable conection and that's it, i'll be settled for my 2006-07 academic/gaming year B) B) B)

amen.


exco, yes you order individual parts and just do assembly and win installation. bm posted which sites you should order. i second newegg as i have spent $3-4k with them in building computers for friends and family. good, fast, reliable service with excellent prices.

Too lazy to read.

Dude I'm getting 2 eVga GeForce 6800 cards for around $360. That's not much more than I woulda spent on a top of the line card :blink:

a single 7800gt will beat the sli 6800's... and costs 300

i've asked like 6 different computer stores, local and franchise. All said the SLI will show better performance than the 7800's.

howstuffworks.com

Good shit Serb...I might sit down one day when Im beyond fucking bored and actually read and try to learn some of these things. Recently I been getting some hoochies by acting like I know how to rid their comps of like trojans and shit I just DL spybot and clean their shit then uninstall it and say it was my guru ass. Usually when I see all this PC tech talk I swear my fucking head starts pulsating like a throbbing penis. Give me a headache almost as bad as those Car mechanic kids who jerk it to supped up Rice cars.

lol

I've only learned about computer parts in the last 2 months. Before that I didn't even know computers needed processors :o

O and about this:

Idk where you get your prices from but I have a bundle ordered:
2 eVga GeForce 6800 Video cards SLI
500 watt power supply

TOTAL PRICE: $430


:blink:

I made that comment months before, when the prices for a 6800GT was $500 dollars for one and sli technology was just released and tested. But the analogy still works for any sli setup today.

I read your posts over again in this thread and I think you are confusing some things. You might be leaving out the "GT" in the video card when you do the research, theres a big difference if you leave out those two letters

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga...iii/page20.html

I got dual GS.

For $200 it's the best SLI capable card. However, in most applications, a single 7800GT beats two 6800GS's since most things aren't optimized for SLI. 7800GT's are $300 these days, with Quake4 often times bundled with them. You're saving $100 by getting a single 7800GT and can SLi down the line.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814130256

plus in benchmarks ive looked at for the price of buying 2 cards for sli...doesnt really add enough performace to justify buying 2 cards as opposed to one betta card

i might pick up a X1800 XT in the weeks to come ;) 509.99 after $50 ati rebate :)

$500 dollars to play red faction?

The guys I referenced say that they've seen 7800's running and prefer their SLI's over them <_<


Those X1800 XT's are good, but not worth $500 <_<

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...7372&CatId=1826

I'm going to start reading some. :D

see how long till i get bored....i really wanna learn crap about computers though.

edit: wtf is this crap. WTF IS A CPU?!

edit2: got bored....going to find that episode of Seinfeld where they all say THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY.