Building a desk top pc?

[Big Nate]

I am looking into building my son a pc. I want it to be goood with games and music. Also it needs to look cool.

I found this package here . But when it comes to this kind of thing i don't know where to look and what to look for.

Feel free to chime in here and help.

Also this can't be uber spendy.

 

[dmention7]

That's probably a good start. At a minimum though, you're also going to need a video card (suitable for gaming), HD, and OS. Top it off with a nice case, and you're probably going to end up in the neighborhood of $1k. The OS is the kicker.... if it needs to run games, you're probably going to end up with Windows, and a standalone OS is not cheap unless you pirate a copy (which is illegal so we won't talk about it here).

If you're looking for good value, you may be better off going with a pre-built system unless you are willing to spend a fair amount of time researching hardware and trackind down deals. I built my own system awhile back, and the sheer variety of available components made piecing it together kind of a hassle, especially since tech evolves so rapidly.

 

[VTEC8YA]

I get about 15 things from tiger direct each day.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...4C&cm_mmc=Email-_-Main-_-WEM2074-_-components

 

[ZoomZoom Diva]

Software & Services
PROCESSORS Intel® Core™ i7-920 processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE No Productivity software pre-installed edit
Dell Recommends
Office Home & Student.

Lets you create great-looking documents, spreadsheets and presentations quickly.
Upgrade to Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 [add $99 or $3/month1]


WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis edit
Dell Recommends
Keep your warranty working longer.
Upgrade to 2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis [add $149 or $4/month1]


SECURITY SOFTWARE Norton Internet Security™ 2009 Edition 15-months edit
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 4 DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
VIDEO CARD nVidia GeForce GTS 240 1024MB edit
SOUND CARD Soundblaster® X-Fi™ Titanium edit
SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit
Dell Recommends
Multimedia Speaker System delivers an ideal combination of performance and value
Upgrade to Bose Companion 2 Series II Multimedia Speaker System [add $110 or $3/month1]


KEYBOARD Dell USB Consumer Multimedia Keyboard edit
MOUSE Dell Laser Mouse edit
MODEM No Modem Option edit
WIRELESS Integrated 10/1000 Ethernet edit
My Accessories
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Additional Software Napster Link
Studio XPS 9000 Studio XPS 9000
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language


How would this be for $1179 (not including any employee discounts)?

 

[derrian]

I'm not the best on this type of thing, but I'll get Erik to chime in once he wakes up. He builds our computers and swaps things in and out alot

Also, check out craigslist or ebay. My mom picked up a gaming rid on ebay for an amazing price (like 500) and then sold it to Erik. It is his current rid and he only upgraded the video card (cause that is just what he does every 3 months)

 

[Picklz]

I need a budget before I can give you a recommendation.

Edit:

Also do you need all the accessories - IE Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Headset, Speakers, etc or just the PC for whatever your budget is?

 

[Big Nate]

Lets just say keep it as cheap as you can with ok-good video rendering. Music is easy the games my make the price jump.

 

[Workdawg]

You really don't need much to run most games these days... My PC is actually 4-5 years old and still runs everything I've tried just fine. I haven't really played any games that are that new, since about COD4, but it runs that pretty flawlessly.

It really depends on what type of games he's gunna be wanting to play. FPS games are going to require the most graphics power. Anything else less...

For reference, my current PC is:

AMD 64 3800
2gb RAM at a substandard FSB speed.
GeForce 7600 GTS(GS)(GT)(not sure)

 

[Picklz]

Here is what I would consider for a budget gaming rig. Core2Duo w/ 4gb Ram, 500gb WD Black HDD, decent vid card, etc.

You could likely save some cash on this by downgrading certain things, but this is a very solid system.

The video card I just kind of picked at random, I haven't been keeping up on them lately so that might need some research but the $150-200 range gets you a really solid card nowdays.

Add Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse/etc as needed:

CD/DVD Burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320
Video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130469
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128380
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056

Comes to around $650 and $35ish in MIR's


Whoops forgot about windows, if you don't already have an OS you can get Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM from newegg for $109 I believe.

 

[blueamcat]

Abe and I build them. We can get you an awesome machine for waaaay cheap. PM me price range and what type of games you're looking to play, I'll get back to you with something awesome.

 

[Ocoro]

Here is what I would consider for a budget gaming rig. Core2Duo w/ 4gb Ram, 500gb WD Black HDD, decent vid card, etc.

You could likely save some cash on this by downgrading certain things, but this is a very solid system.

The video card I just kind of picked at random, I haven't been keeping up on them lately so that might need some research but the $150-200 range gets you a really solid card nowdays.

Add Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse/etc as needed:

CD/DVD Burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320
Video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130469
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128380
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056

Comes to around $650 and $35ish in MIR's


Whoops forgot about windows, if you don't already have an OS you can get Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM from newegg for $109 I believe.

This is very decent on a tight budget. My computer came in at around $650 to include monitor when I built mine.

 

[Big Nate]

So I think i am going to go with a prebuilt system. Putting one together looks to be not the route to go. thanks for all the help

 

[Ocoro]

So I think i am going to go with a prebuilt system. Putting one together looks to be not the route to go. thanks for all the help

BYOC is the way to go. Prebuilt is for the birds. Nice thing about building your own is that you don't have to worry about some other company installing a bunch of useless offers and programs.

 

[dmention7]

Eh, if you are either up on all the current hardware and know what's a good price for what component, or have the time to research everything, building your own is probably the way to go. But you can often apply a fraction of that knowledge and research to get a prebuilt system that'll rival most of what you could build on a given budget.

Plus, the bullshit preinstalls only take 5 minutes to get rid of.