Looking to Build a Desktop (First Time)

Hey guys. I'm looking to build a desktop computer and although I've been doing a ton of research, I'm still looking for some help with the project (Particularly choosing parts.)

At the moment I have a budget of around 400 dollars, although this can be surpassed to around 500 if needed.

I'm not looking for a super high end gaming computer (just look at my price), but I would like to be able to play games such as LoL and GW2.. maybe Skyrim at higher graphics settings. But i'll take what I can get.

Thanks a lot guys.

 

For the price, look at like an amd cpu, like an old phenom 955, great chip, quad core, and most importantly cheap. Then youll want a 450-500w psu, a case, a hdd, a gpu, a motherboard, and memory. For memory, try and find 8gb of atleast 1333, preferably 1600. The motherboard can be nearly anything that is the am3 socket. Get atleast a 550ti for a gpu, 560 if you can swing it. Total price should be about $500. I am on my phone so i cant price it out fully, or make a good build and link you to everything, but i can later if you cant figure it out.

 

I'll go build a trial part list now, any preferred site you want me to link them off?

 

I think that Amazon & Newegg would work the best.
Thanks guys

 

What about this?

Motherboard: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058UWB4A/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=A1BVYXEL822RF0

Processor: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031M9QZ4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&m=AZCEI3EMXUPTH

Memory: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J3U4LC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Case: http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...qid=1340401831&sr=8-1&keywords=computer+cases

Optical Drive (not essential but can be useful): http://www.amazon.com/Asus-24xDVD-RW-Serial-Internal-DRW-24B1ST/dp/B0033Z2BAQ/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b

Hard drive: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Cache-Desktop/dp/B00461G3MS/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_c

PSU: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W2T2UQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

GPU: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RJJN9Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Price comes in at around $550, obviously the more you spend the better the PC you will have. It won't run Skyrim max max, but you will still be able to run it reasonably well. As for LoL and GW2, you should either be able to max them, or run them pretty good. What resolution do you plan to use?

 

Not quite sure about resolution.
But thankyou very much!! That processor looks like it's on sale for a good price (20 less than Newegg). Might go with that.

 

You probably should just buy it so you can get at least a rig going. Then later down the line maybe upgrade it a little.

 

Resolution for HD gaming these days is considered 1920x1080. You can check your res by right clicking your desktop and clicking 'resolution'. Your resolution will probably be 1440x900, 1600x900 or 1920x1080.

And yeah, you can buy something decent for now and upgrade further down the line. If you choose to do this, you may want to consider a better Motherboard, CPU and PSU than what I suggested.

 

You picked out a FM1 socket(AMD) motherboard with a LGA 1156(Intel) processor?

 

Oh yah.. I saw that. haha.
uuug. all this choosing is tough.
(must get the hang of it)

 

Well I see what he was trying to do, get a LGA 1155 motherboard with a i3 2100 processor. In the future you can upgrade to i5 or i7.

Edit: Also pay $9 more for more ram, and faster too http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...2k0qzQ&usg=AFQjCNEWwQCNT7flcadIZSvy5iEqOBpHFQ

 

*facepalm*

This Motherboard is compatible with the processor: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QF0VEK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A1BVYXEL822RF0

Bit more pricey, but very good. (Anything by ASUS is considered good). This Motherboard is also future compatible with i5's and i7's if you choose to upgrade to either of those.

I would try to stick to popular brands, not saying that brand is crap or unreliable, but I don't really purchase hardware from an non-popular brand. That RAM is higher performance though.

 

Try this build, has an AM3+ amd chip and mobo, so you can upgrade to a better chip in the future. If you plan on upgrading getting another 550ti for sli in the future, get another mobo, this one only has 1 pcie 2.0 x 16 slot.

Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157291

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148543

Gpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

Psu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152040

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147073

Hdd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770

Could add an optical drive for ~$20 more dollar.

Total price= $491.43 plus shipping.

 

Okay. If I were to go ahead and do that one, what could it handle? In terms of games, etc.
It also seems much more difficult to upgrade then if I wanted to go with i3 and a proper motherboard. (Would I regret not going intel?)

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

Not more difficult to upgrade at all. In high power gamong applications, more expensive intels will beat more expensive amds, but in a $500 rig, and in this case, i believe the amd is better. Games are more based off of gpus anyways. Plus the cpu i told you to use is a quad core, so applications that use multiple cores will fare better with it. You should be able to play most games on high setting, definately medium. I believe laptop just does not like amd, which is why he chose the intel.

 

Oh, I see.
And for the record, I'm currently running:



So I'll likely see a pretty nice improvident? haha..

 

Definately an improvement, especially in terms of graphics. Plus i believe i you could compare the benchmarks and game fpses on both cpus, and the amd will win.

 

Okay. Thankyou so much for your help.
(I think I may get the items with shipping fees from Amazon.)

One more question.. how do you load the OS onto the computer? Well.. get the OS in the first place.

 

You have to buy the OS, unless you want to use linux, and if you want to game, you dont want to use linux. It will come on a disk, basically you just pop it into your optical drive and let it run. OR if you want to save $20 on an optical drive, put the disk in the laptop your on now and you can put it on a 4gb flash drive. You will have to lookup how to do that, but it is not hard at all.

 

Alrighty. Great.
Thankyou so much for the help!