Building a Gaming/Recording Computer, help!

[JtWo]

Well yeah, my friend introduced me to this new world of computers and made me realize how shitty my stuff actually is. Can you guys help me figure out what I need with my budget? Since I have a band, I wanna use this to record, while still being able to bring my computer to LAN nights and kick some ass. Help me out yeah? BTW, I work 2 jobs, making about $160-$260 depending on my schedual every 2 weeks from each job. Hopefully that will help figure out my price range.

[S14DB]

I can't figure out your price range from that.

The fact is that you'll have to pay twice as much for a computer that does 2 things. Anything with gaming is going to be expensive cause you're using the latest and the greatest.

I would recomend a Mini-ATX box cause it sounds like your going to be hauling this around with the band and LAN parties.

[zero.counter]

I would say between $700 and $1500 depending on configuration...hardware/software/needs

[Muzzy]

if u get a mini-atx case....make sure there is plenty of air flow....plenty!!! like 2 up front 2 in back fat CPU fan and a side fan or 2.

ASUS or ASROCK board...AMD 64 3000-3200 processor. atleast 512MB DDR2 3200!! 200GB SATA HD!! um......some kinda audio capture card..a good one...i dont know much about that. LAN will be integrated in the board........blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah SUK IT DRY BITCH....THANK YOU....wut??

:: randomness::

[ghostuss]

omg since when zilvia.net become financial advisor.net haha...

anywayz, if you not gonna get LCD monitor, this can be done 500-800. If you want to get LCD it's 1000 or more. Really it all depend on how fast you want to go. Personally I think the Athlon Barton 2500xp is good enough with mobo, ram, probably gonna run you 200. since you want to game you need a decent graphic card that goes 100-200. Then just the sound card. Since you want to record, I say go with an audigy 2 sound card, another 100. Now hard drive, DVD/CD rom, case w/ power supply, totally another 100-200. Price is very vague and sometime outdated. I can probably build a decent machine with CRT screen of any size, basic mouse keyboard and 2.1 speakers for under 800. Add in another 100 if you want stereo system, better mouse/keyboard.

Note: 800 might be a lot but consider you won't cheap out on most important stuff such as graphic card, sound card, ram, etc. Like how most computer manufacturer such as Dell, HP do.

Also I would suggest, if you going to build ur own machine. Read up on deals at sites such as
http://www.bensbargains.net/ , dealsea.com, fatwallet.org ,etc They have HOT deals on computer parts that you can just collect over time and spend like 1 afternoon to piece up the machine. Also newegg.com is another good site to get good deal computer parts. When I don't feel like actually waiting on the deals, I would buy all from newegg and wait until they fedex the stuff to me and just put everything together in 2 hours or less. I have built a few computer for friend and families. Don't be scared at doing things urself, go search for some online instruction. THink of it this way, building computer is so ez, it's like playing w/ toys. I have done it since 12 years old, and that is like 7 years ago. If a 12 year old can do it, you can =).

[Muzzy]

i skate on a AMD 3200xp...its pretty good....real fast. but i said AMD 64 because its the latest...might as well take advantage of that new 64 bit software they are developing

[ghostuss]

I have it in my system right now. Really that performance boost is too little to be recognized. If you don't do hardcore graphic editing, engineering stuff. You don't need that. He will be satisfied with 2500 since he sounds like coming from a 800mhz or 1ghz computer. With some decent graphic card, and enough RAM he can tear through games such as Doom 3, HL2 without a problem.

Also another thing I would strongly suggest is to get 2 hard drives. One large, say 200GB and one small say 60-80 GB. (You can part one big hard drive into one small and one large but I would get two.) Run ur windows and all software off smaller HD. Put all ur junk, picture, video, mp3s in the 200GB hard drive. Store as little to ur smaller HD as possible. That way it guarantees you a fast machine down the road. Cause most of the time, hard drive is what's really slowing most computer down. That's why formating makes a huge difference. You can use those new, fast hard drive such as SATA, etc. But really from reading through reviews, it's like 5-10% performance upgrade. Again not worth the money. I would suggest SEAGATE hard drives. I have built many machine with the Seagate Barcuida IV (spelling?, 1:30am... tired) IV serious hard drives. - it's reliable, quiet, fast.
Anywayz if you want more advise just PM me.

[infinitexsound]

pricewatch.com tigerdirect.com

[ghostuss]

For pricewatch you have to watchout some of the shady stores. Not all online stores can be trusted.

Tigerdirect - I have always heard bad things about them such as vendor pay them comission, etc. Don't even go there.

Fatwallet has always been the biggest deal site. THey even let the buyer have the cashback that they get from sending customer to some of the large online sites, such as Dell Home/B, Staple, Office Dept, I dunno you name it. They actually paypal you the 2% money. I have gotten like 10-20 bucks before from buying some LCD monitor off Dell website with a FAT discount like 20% off + 30 dollar off 450 or something. Then bensbargain and dealsea are like the oldest. Now there might be a lot more but I still go to those sites for electronic needs. Now I am in the market for the small ass Canon SD20 digital camera

WARNING: THose deal sites can get addicting.

[JtWo]

Actually...I get FAT ass discounts at Fry's because my aunt works there. I bought A few fans, some LEDS, and a comp mic that would originally cost $32+ for $17 :] So yeah, I just need a list of parts.

[Muzzy]

i like bananapc.com way better. really good prices and newegg.com is good too i guess.

[zero.counter]

Yes, newegg is good people...

[JtWo]

Sup doods...I'm here again asking. Here's a few parts I've came up with...I got these from my aunt, I still need more parts but here's what I have so far.

Some kinda AMD motherboard
Maxtor 40gb harddrive
PC100 128MB SDRAM
Some kinda LAN thing
Expertcolor sound card
Data Fax 56k

I'm waiting on some more stuff. She said she got these at some store that sold used parts. I think that's a bad thing :-\ But oh well. I need another harddrive, and some more ram things...and some other crap which I don't know...what am I missing?

Sorry for the bad pic

[HyperTek]

i dropped $500 into my video card (6800gt) about 7 months ago .. only cuz I had a ballin job and a fat paycheck.. now im like back to poor part time student pay.. sucks... sorta wish I spent my cash to finish my car back then.. but oh well.. I love computers.. they will always keep you busy while you save your money instead of going out all the time.

[sandcrawler]

case: since you want to LAN, you need something portable. consider a Shuttle barbones system or the smallest aluminum case you can find. I like Lian-Li's series of aluminum mini-towers

motherboard: since you want to do video editting, get serial ATA RAID onboard. also recommend SATA2 or SATA IDE, but not necessary. serial ATA is useful because you can daisy chain the drives- my friend has ten 200gb drives in his tower

power suppy: 300w to 400w depending on your video card.

cpu: if you can afford it, buy a 64-bit chip. if not, AMD's Barton series of XP chips will do

ram: 1GB to 2GB (or more) of DDR2 or DDR

hard drives: two of the highest capacities possible for your RAID array (250 GB and up). SATA2 if you can afford it, SATA if not. run RAID mode 0 to maximize partition size(s) and speed

video: NVDIA if you play OPENGL games, if not ATI's x800 if you have the money. if not, the ATI 9800 series will do. (you'll want the one with digital video in/out)

sound: digital 6.1 if you have the money, but anything digital will do

dvd: dvd writer, any brand will do- they all work just as well. 16x dual layer recommended

monitor: good deals on www.gotapex.com and www.spoofee.com

[that180guy]

64 bit processors are gangster.....but are pretty useless as of now...untill the come out with 64bit based programs.

and if ur gonna audeo record.....audigy is good, but not the best. m-audio is gangster, what most recording studioes use if im not correct. mad cash of ram...u always need ram, lol

[prophet_19]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL....3.1.0.0.0.1.0

best bang for the buck.. Windows is retaded when it comes to graphics, editing, recording. Its only good for 3d shit.

[Giant Robot]

Save up for a long ass time... it's well worth it

[prophet_19]

I will get one of those dual chip G5s whenever i grad and get a real graphics job.

[that180guy]

Originally Posted by prophet_19

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL....3.1.0.0.0.1.0

best bang for the buck.. Windows is retaded when it comes to graphics, editing, recording. Its only good for 3d shit.

my nor cal brother makes a extremely valid point

[JtWo]

I've decided on some stuff. The Aspire X-Dream II w/ 420w power supply in black for the case, Intel Pentium 4 3.0E Prescott 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 478 CPU, ATI 100-436011 Radeon 9200....uhmm...what else am I missing?

[S14DB]

Originally Posted by JtWo

I've decided on some stuff. The Aspire X-Dream II w/ 420w power supply in black for the case, Intel Pentium 4 3.0E Prescott 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 478 CPU, ATI 100-436011 Radeon 9200....uhmm...what else am I missing?

A much better video card... 1GB ram

[rokmplutonium]

CD or DVD Driver

Rather then the ATI 9200. I would rather get an ALL-IN-WONDER card.
The AIW X800 XT is probably the newest AIW car out from ATI right now. (Expect to pay an arm for this)

Probably the most overlooked product. FANS or somekinda cooling unit.

[S14DB]

I would say PCI-E 850.

[JtWo]

Errr...taht little mini mac looks good right now...LOL. Hm..aren't macs slow?

[Giant Robot]

Mac's are crap for gaming, but for multimedia programs, video, audio, editing, etc..they are the shits

[sandcrawler]

apple is excellent but very few video game titles are ported for the mac

I would recommend a DVD writer- they aren't expensive at all and far more useful. you're not saving much if you choose not to buy one

you'll need a 3D card w/ video capture if you want to do video editing and gaming

I recommend at least 1GB of DDR ram

300w or 350w is more than enough for you. you won't need such a high wattage power supply unless you plan to buy:

1. a video card that needs to be powered directly from the power supply (ex: ATI x800), instead of through the AGP port like conventional cards

2. many hard drives