Build Myself or Buy?

[caged.danimal]

Originally Posted by HeadBand

1. not only should you have your OS on your fastest drive...but this is completley unnessacary...if you want 2hdds I would do matrix raid with identical drives

2. you don't need to worry about this if you don't mess it up in the first place...I have yet to see anything make windows go faster than a fresh install

3. this might be true for you but not everyone

4. If you are not overclocking don't waste your money...If your processor runs to hot to work properly with stock cooling it is defective, use you're warranty to have it replaced

1. For a gaming rig you want the read/writes to only be on your fastest drive to the drive it is using...for your game. Loading sounds, graphics and videos from your fastest drive speeds up things considerably. Having OS on a dep drive keeps OS read/writes separate. Why would you want your OS on the fastest drive? So you can load calculator fast? No thanks..I would rather render Orgrimmar faster (for you wow players).

2. Huh? Have you seen base installs of Windows. It can eat up to 14% of your memory just by loading up from a fresh install. Keeping uneeded processes from loading into memory and taking cpu time makes sure your computer is using all it can to play your game.

3. To get the most accurate sound use headphones. Every pro gamer does it for that very purpose. Want to hear where your enemy spawns? Use headphones.

4. Read up on keeping processors cool. I recommend everyone getting a better heatsink and thermal paste. This WILL extend the life of your processor even if you don't overclock. Getting a better heatsink and using good thermal paste could cool your processor as much as 10 C. Cooler processor = faster and happier processor. Period.

[flipper812002]

There is no other option than to build your own period. In the last 3 months i have built 2 gaming rigs and am getting ready to build another. It cost me appx.1500. to build a great gaming rig with all the extras. Water cooling add in 500. Go to dell and price one i just built and its over 3800. go to alienware and it is 5800. and at both places they offer a 1 year warranty unless you pay more.

When you build it is a 3 year warranty for motherboard and processor and life time on ram and 5 years is the standard for hard drives and 1 year for video cards. I have yet to warranty a single item in the 3 years i have been building. And dont let the horror sories scare you just study what you need. The web is a wealth of information and just google any item like hard drives and so on. There are also alot of forums on how to build but i generally avoid them and do my own research. Save your money for that 2300 i could build a sli or crossfire set up that was water cooled with see thru panels and lights and all the bling i could ever use.

I shop mainly at newegg, i could get a few things from others if i had to like my last build newegg didnt carry the best motherboard for the setup i wanted so i went with zipzoomfly. Spend some time save your money.

[twistedbrntucker]

On behalf of PC builders such as myself, there is no greater satisfaction than building your own.

[frostbitetwice]

Originally Posted by Atomic Rooster

Here's another nice site on building a computer:

MY SUPER PC How To Build A PC - A Computer Building Guide

The best guide on the net. It has finally been updated.

[michaels39]

If you have one built,avoid Dell,terrible support and high prices.Vigor has good ratings and prices.Another place to check is www.avadirect.com
Great prices,selection of components,and good ratings,HardOCP reviewed them and gave them high marks for quality and support.Envision Computer Services also gets top ratings here.

[jljr222]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations, I think I have decided to just buy from a custom place. I don't have the time and the patience to build myself and knowing me, I will probably skip a step by accident, forget to plug up something and fry everything :-X. Anyway, anymore recommendations would be cool. I am looking very hard at Vigor & AvaDirect. Anyone have any experience with these two or others. Also, I already have all the tools I need:

Mouse: Logitech MX518
Pad: Steelpad 5L
Headset: Icemat Siberia Pro
Monitors (Dual): Veiwsonic 19" 2ms VX922 LCD & 19" Stand Dell LCD
Keyboard: Setek Eclipse
Speakers: Logitech X-530

So really all I need is a tower. Based on that I think I shouldn't have to spend no more than $2000 or so on a PC, but who knows.

Recommendations...thanks. :-D

[michaels39]

It all depends on how much machine you want.I'm planning a system myself,mainly for gaming and internet use.The best CPU's are the Intel Core2 Duo's,the one I'm going with is the 6600,at about $320,it holds it's own with AMD's that cost twice as much.The motherboard depends on which graphics card you prefer,ATI or Nvidia,and whether you want to run more than one vid card.I'm planning to go with one card now,but add another later,so I'm picking the Nforce 680i SLI board and a Nvidia 8800GTS vid card .One of the things I try to plan for is a system that lasts for awhile before upgrading is needed,the 680i is good for overclocking if I decide to get into that to increase speed,and the 8800 series have support for Windows Vista and Direct X 10 when it's released .The cost for the whole system is about $2200 at AvaDirect,complete with a 3 year warranty.Vigor is about the same,the one advantage AvaDirect has is a large selection of cases,Vigor uses the same case for all their gaming systems,and a slightly larger selection of other components.Both rate high in quality and support,and you'll pay upwards towards a $1000 more at places like Alienware and Falcon.

[fstyleronfire]

FYI, careful with the 8800GTS's, they're known to run at idle about 50-70 degrees celsius. (extremely hot for a video card). And the entire 6-8 series GeForce video cards are Vista capable (I ran Vista on a 6600GT), but only the 7 and 8 series are DX 10 capable. The 7950 GX2 runs at about the same clock speed, has 512mb more video memory, and is a dual-core graphics processor. (And is $50 cheaper and runs about 20 degrees celsius cooler) In response to the Cor 2 Duo 6600, the AMD AM2 x2 5200+ is it's equivilent, and is $50 cheaper. I've run them side by side, you gain .5 - 1.2 frames per second more with the Core 2 Duo (not worth $50). The NForce SLI boards are excellent, I highly recommend them. I give lifetime warranty on RAM, case (completely custom, down to airbrushing and custom fans and vents), and OS, 1 year on most parts, and 3 years on CPU. (Pretty much the same as any other reseller)

[michaels39]

While the 7 and 8 series are Vista capable,only the 8 series can actually use DX 10.

[fstyleronfire]

ok, just did quick research, you're right, 8800's are the only ones that will run dx 10, but if you get an 8800, don't waste your money on a GTS, get the GTX, more video ram, and faster clock speeds (but still very very hot), I would honestly wait on an 8800, since this is still considered "first-release", wait until they get a better cooling solution, or you'll probably have to invest in at least a water-cooling system. At those idle temps, playing graphically intense games (rainbow six:vegas, D3, Fear, NFS:Carbon, etc. etc.), you'll definately start to see some artifacting, some glitchy responses. I'm currently running a 7600GT in my home system, and a 7950GX2 in my gaming system, and both remain quite cool with just a rear and side case fan w/a Broadway Com. case (I cheaped out on the case). I can't wait until the day I can afford dual 7950GX2's, I doubt I'll go to the 8800 for quite a while, because from the sounds of it, Vista is not going to be quite user-friendly for a while (for more info, read max pc's article on "10 reasons not to get Vista....yet"), and by that time, Microsoft will already be developing something they call better that either linux or mac has already done.