So....you want to bulid a gaming computer, huh?
No easy task my friend, takes time and effort. You have to know what you want, how to wire things, and how to install the parts. However, in this guide, we will be going over mainly the parts to buy. Personally, I'd find them on www.pricewatch.com or www.newegg.com and not amazon, just because of availability and selection.
But on to the guide, you need, basically, a motherboard, a processor, memory, a video card, a hard drive, a case, and headphones. My selection for the motherboard would be either an ASUS A7N8X or its deluxe version. the main difference is firewire support, which you can determine whether or not you need it if you plan to transfer video from a digital camera. I personally have the A7N8X because I do not need that feature, but on we go. However, this board only supports AMD Athlon processors, so i guess thats where we're going. ASUS also makes Pentium boards, so if you would rather have a pentium computer, check out their products at their website (www.asus.com).
I have an AMD Athlon 2700+ in my rig, because it performed as well as the 2800 on many tests, and even outdid the 3000 on a select few. It runs against the Pentium 2.4 and the 2.6, but is MUCH better priced. The 2700 at newegg.com is about 130, where as the 2.4 and 2.6 are 200+.
For video card, it depends on ur price range. If u have an unlimited source of money, id say go with the Radeon 9800 PRO 256Megs. It will cost around 400 bucks, but will last you for years to come. A relatively cheap board would be a Geforce4 TI2400 128meg, preferebly 8x AGP. The higher the AGP multiplier, the higher the bandwith, which means faster and better graphics. Another good choice would be a Sapphire Radeon 9500 NON-PRO 128 meg, only because it can be made into a 9700 pro, but thats a different story. You can find guides on the net to learn how to do that.
Memory. Well, I'd say you could survive with 512 megs, but the new Doom 3 optimal system requirements say a whole gig of memory, so i would suggest going higher. the benefits? you wont have to buy memory for a longer time. a lot of memory helps because it is basically ur short-term hard drive. Temporary information is transfered through here, so the higher the number the better. The best ram I have heard of recently is PC4000, but you have to match ur memory to your motherboard. If you go to www.firstchoicememory.com, it has a nifty tool that lets you do that. I would recommend 1 Gig of ram, but its up to you.
Hard drives? More than 200 gigs is overkill. I have that much (due to older drives) and i have no idea what to do with it. A Maxtor L01P120 7200 RPM 120 GB Internal Hard Drive should be enough for now. 7200 RPM is nice, and make sure its IDE unless you know how to work RAID or SATA.
Sound card. Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Sound Card. Simple as that, lol.
CD-ROM? DVD-ROM? 16x on the DVD-ROM. 52x on the CD-ROM - TEAC 52x Internal IDE CD-ROM Drive (PS/2 Bezel)
A new case is a good idea for a new computer. There are plenty of nice cases out there, it all has to do with personal taste. I have a Thermaltake Xaser III, but there are a buttload of wires to connect, so something simpler would be better for starting out. Lian-Li makes nice cases as well as Antec and others, so just search for what you are looking for.
There are of course many other things you can do, such as putting windows or lights in your case, and upgrading the heatsink fan, but thats another story for another day.
Comments? Questions? frozynfire@yahoo.com
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