hoping for a nice start!

[joshuatm]

well, have been watching this forum for ages, and decided i want to make one (a pc) since i only have a laptop at the moment.
i think i know what to do- but could some people tell me how to start? not the modding, but like gathering the hardware etc, and what i need exactly. then i'll need help for modding!....

thank you very much.

[sirkillalot617]

well to start with whats your budget and what do you want to use it for:D

[AKA_RA]

if you look at sir kill a lots signature, it gives you can idea of the components you will need.

CPU
Motherboard
RAM
Graphics Card
Sound Card
Hard drive
Case

All you really need other than that is a cd or dvd rom, power supply, and, depending on what hardware you purchase, a floppy drive. i own 1 floppy drive for my 3 runnings pcs, and it isnt even installed. even when it was installed i only used it to install things like Raid or SATA drivers for the hard drives. Also, these days motherboards come with on-board sound. If you get a decent motherboard, which is advised :P , it should be perfectly fine. Honestly, i don't see the point of investing in a sound card unless you need something like 7.1 surround sound or plan on using the PC for high quality recording sessions of some sort.

[joshuatm]

woah thanks for the reply.

just what i thought i needed- great!

hmmmm maybe over all i would pay around £800 - £1000, but not all at once.
ummm lol i want it for hard core gaimg!

like a 400gb hard-drive 2/3gb ram, amd processor (i don't know much about them..) and i don't know really about video (i want sli/crossfire-what's better?) or what raid and sata is. isn't raid real fast?
and then the motherboard.. oh jeez help me! since i don't think all processors or video card go with all motherboards do they?
and then where should i buy them all from?
thanks again!

[jdbnsn]

(i want sli/crossfire-what's better?)

I am running 2 ATI 1900 PCIe cards in crossfire mode and this is what advice I can offer you from my perspective. Getting Crossfire to work properly is incredibly complicated, don't believe the ATI advertisements because they spin great press but their support is just not there. I have seen SLI work pretty well, but not used it myself so can't really comment. But for you I really believe if you want the best performance spend more on a top of the line graphics card (whatever is best at the time) and it will give you better results than 2 slightly older cards and should cost less also. I am about to pull my second card out as it ran better with just one.

[sirkillalot617]

If you want a gamin pc that il last id advise a dirext x 10 graphics card when they get a bit cheaper

[joshuatm]

hmmm thanks everyone.

so first i will need to pick a motherboard.. ok.
i'm looking at newegg now (i'm in the uk, motherboards from the us can be used here can't they, i just need a uk psu?) but i'm really not sure which one to get. or where to start. since i'm not sure which exact processor i will get (amd).
which ones do you recommend?
and why?
thanks soo much.

[DaveW]

Have a look at Scan.co.uk for UK goods. Unsurpassed customer services.

-Dave

[joshuatm]

woah thank davew, i like the site, it has some things i havent seen before!

like these cases.. http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/SitePage.asp?SSPID=323 i love them. that means i won't need to mod.. or maybe, but i wouldn't want to ruin it.

grrr i understand a little about matching componentss to the motherboard, but there are so many, and i don't know what's good..

thanks!

edit: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=446802

i want it. now. lol.

[jreffy]

no offense to you previous posters and responders, we all want to help. However...


STOP EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW!


The FIRST thing you need to do is educate yourself. As helpful and knowledgable these people are on this forum (they've helped me a TON), you're going to need a lot of base knowledge to understand a lot of what they are talking about. For example, you may have some people suggesting a part...that's great, but are you going to understand WHY they think so highly of that GPU, or CPU, or motherboard?

No matter where you go, or where you get help from, nothing will educate you and stick with you more than going out and doing it yourself. Go to the bookstore/amazon and get yourself this book, or one like it;

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Ultimate-Gaming-Machine-ExtremeTech/dp/0471755478/sr=8-1/qid=1164654094/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1064831-8811001?ie=UTF8&s=books

That book has been a HUGE help for me. Sure it might be a tad bit outdated as far as the parts it compares and suggests, but the important thing it does is teach you about the features and parts of every computer component. What's the northbridge, what does it do, how do you calculate processing speed, etc. etc.

Using this forum is a great start to getting some advice, but I think picking up a book and learing some backround yourself would be a huge benefit that you won't regret.