Thread: Question for building a new comp.

Well Im rebuilding my first comp soon and i was wondering if you guys can answer a few ?'s for me.

How do I tell the difference between PCI slot and AGP slot, by the look or what?

What is a good processor thats not expensive like $200 would be my budget on that.

And whats a good motherboard?.

This is all pretty new to me. Help me out a lil bit please.

When you purchase a MB it will tell you in the specifications what slots that it has. As for the mother board I personally like ABIT and ASUS but the main thing IMO at this point is to purchase a MB that is quad core ready. That way in the future you will be able to do a massive upgrade to your PC by just puchasing a new CPU. As for a CPU around $200 I would choose this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003

You best bet is to post your total budget here and allow mctrange to design a PC based on your total budget. In the end it is still your decision.

Nuck

Hey money i dont know if your in the houston area or not but if you are id try a store called NEOBOX. best damn custom pc people around. They can get anything for you at a very reasonable price. Also about the MB question id go with ASUS, and like Nuckle says if you plan on that comp being hardcore ready then one with quad core support is the way to go, if not at least duel core.

Originally Posted by Nuckle

When you purchase a MB it will tell you in the specifications what slots that it has. As for the mother board I personally like ABIT and ASUS but the main thing IMO at this point is to purchase a MB that is quad core ready. That way in the future you will be able to do a massive upgrade to your PC by just puchasing a new CPU. As for a CPU around $200 I would choose this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003

You best bet is to post your total budget here and allow mctrange to design a PC based on your total budget. In the end it is still your decision.

Nuck

Thanks for the info that was really helpful. Since im gonna have to work on it slowly simply because my family are having trouble with money, it will be a while before it gets all done. Im gonna build it on my own to learn about computers better, how they run and things like that.I'll try to get the budget together.

Originally Posted by ShOoK

Hey money i dont know if your in the houston area or not but if you are id try a store called NEOBOX. best damn custom pc people around. They can get anything for you at a very reasonable price. Also about the MB question id go with ASUS, and like Nuckle says if you plan on that comp being hardcore ready then one with quad core support is the way to go, if not at least duel core.

I live in Kansas. If i could i would. Im gonna try for the quad but i dont know about that yet. thanks

Based on what you just told me I highly advize you to not purchase parts a piece at a time. If money is tight then you need to just start saving money until you have enough to build. By doing it over time you will end up at start up having a PC that could already need upgrades. That being said I am not sure what type of time frame that you are looking at. Save up about $700-$800 and then you can build a nice box.

Nuck

The frame is an old Gateway case i can send a pic if needed and ill save up. Its got space but its almost full. Thanks for the advice.

One issue with using an old case with new components can be that you will have heat issues. The older gateway cases did not do a great job keeping things cool and by moving to more memory, a larger CPU, a bigger video card and larger powersupply to run it all heat is going to be more of an issue than ever. A case alone can easily lower CPU temps 15-20F. A new case may not be manditory but it would certainly be something I would do if I were in your situation. You may also find that the video card you select will not fit in your current case as most of the higher end cards now are huge. My 8800GTX look like a toaster oven sitting in my case.

Do you currently have a high end video card?

Nuck

no but im gonna buy a nvidia 7000 series, so i can play css on it.

Originally Posted by money$$$$

The frame is an old Gateway case i can send a pic if needed and ill save up. Its got space but its almost full. Thanks for the advice.

Nuckle has a good point about reusing your Gateway case. I just looked at Gateway's web site and many of their computers have cases that are what they call "uATX" format. Just so you know, there are industry standards that dictate where certain items are on the motherboard, such as the CPU socket, expansion slots, rear panel connectors, and mounting holes. You have to make sure that your Gateway case is mechanically compatible with the motherboard you want. Most likely, you will be looking at an "ATX" size motherboard, which is bigger than a uATX and would not fit in a uATX case.

If you post the model number or part number of your Gateway machine I will look on the web and try to find what size case you have.

22997272 that should be it.