I have been thinking about this for a while, and I really have no idea where to start. I have never made a computer before, but I have tried looking online for guides. They don't really help though, as the majority are incomplete, outdated, or incorrect. If someone could walk me through it, it would be greatly appreciated.

I am getting a job in about 3 weeks, so then I will have some money to put in to this.

My goal is to have a fast gaming PC with the ability to upgrade pretty much everything, with a starting budget of between $1500 and $2000 Canadian. Also, I need to get parts from Canada, so that means no newegg (or as twitch calls it, "neweeg").

I want to be able to triple boot Vista, XP, and Ubuntu from a single boot loader. I don't take these in to consideration for price, since I can "get them for free".

I'm pretty techy so you don't really need to water down everything for me, I know what most parts do, and I am capable of using google if I don't.

If someone could link me to a good store, some guides, and give me some tips it would be awesome

That's great since US and Canadian dollars are about the same now, although I believe goods still cost more in Canada. You might want to exchange those Canadian dollars for US ones and get more for your bucks. Anyway, I just realized I don't want to pull up a whole list of parts for you to use. I'd go with a quad core Intel machine with 4 Gb of Ram and a 9800 GTX. Make sure to get a case that looks pretty and a power supply that isn't cheap.

www.tigerdirect.ca is basically the newegg of Canada, although they have a rather shitty layout.

Basically just make sure all your parts are compatible, and will fit inside your box. Triple booting Vista, XP, and Ubuntu would be worthless... Just pick Vista or XP + Ubuntu.

For all the parts I want, it would run me closer to 4K
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2477938&CatId=1842
NZXT Apollo Black ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports
85.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3591372&CatId=2758
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Processor HH80562PH0678MK - 2.66GHz, 8MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB, Kentsfield, Quad-Core, OEM, Socket 775, Processor
259.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2203982&Sku=TSD-750AS
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM
170,99 X2

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3327389&CatId=2261
OCZ Vista Gold Edition Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB)
117.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3532386&CatId=2775
Acer P243WAid 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2ms, 3000:1, 1920x1200 (WUXGA), DVI-D, HDMI
414.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3714950&Sku=P450-9116
XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 790i, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, Dual Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Firewire, eSATA, RAID
396.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3010720&Sku=O261-2010
OCZ / GameXStream / 1010-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / SATA-Ready / SLI-Ready / Active PFC / Power Supply
280.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3714953&Sku=E145-9800
EVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Card - 1GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDMI
569.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2597975&CatId=1427
Sling Media Slingbox PRO
242.97

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1717554&CatId=906
Iogear USB Bluetooth 2.0 Class 1 Wireless Adapter
36.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2175863&CatId=2692
Netgear WN511T PCMCIA Wireless Network Adapter - 300Mbps, 802.11n (Draft-N), RangeMax
109.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3556693&Sku=A455-2618
Asus Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity 7.1 PCI Sound Card
219.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2877891&CatId=3634
Philips SPD7000BD Retail Blu-ray Writer - 2x BD-R/RW, 12x DVD±R Burn, 12x DVD±R Read, SATA, Black
463.99

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 4 2008, 7:21 pm by Praetor.

I dont understand why you selected that ram...
I feel comfortable with http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3404049&CatId=3412
It has better ram timings

I do not think you need that much wattage in a power supply. I would choose one with high efficiency and a somewhere between 750-850 watts for sli
and modular cabling would be nice too but this site doesnt provide a nice table of information

Drop the wireless network adapter, you're building a desktop. You should probably also just go with an integrated sound card, because frankly, I've never seen a noticeable difference in sound quality. I have an enormous speaker setup, with no sound card, and it sounds perfect.

Don''t get a Blu-Ray burner right off the bat, disc drives are very easy to add, and those will be much cheaper in like 6 months. If you can get a similar motherboard without Firewire, it'd probably be cheaper. Also, you have 2 motherboards listed. The RAM you picked is INSANELY overpriced Never buy 2 GB sticks, max out at 1 since they're so much fucking cheaper. http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1558870&CatId=2261 Can just buy 2 of these for the same performance, and about 1/3 the price.

For things you should get better of... Go with an interior Bluetooth card, they're generally more powerful.

Ya, you can easily shave a few hundred, if not a thousand dollars off.

I'd like to add that a quad core system doesn't add much performance over a dual-core in terms of gaming performance.
A 9800GTX is about $200 cheaper.

I have no ethernet access in the area the computer would be going.

kk, I will take that in to consideration.

That would probably be smarter

I have an external FW HD.

Oops! I had a list of multiple options for each part, guess I forgot to remove that one.

Wow, that is a huge difference!

I couldn't find any? http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?page=1&Nav=|c:906|&Sort=0&Recs=10


Sweet, ty

Hmmm, you might want to try MAKING ethernet access. The hundred foot cable running from my basement to second floor through the attic of my house didn't cost that much.

http://www.ncix.com/

I recommend taking a look at that site too.

These are recommend products over the ones you previously picked

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=333315628&vpn=WD6400AAKS&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20Corporation
Quieter, cheaper, not much difference between space. It is not in stock now, but hopefully you can either find it somewhere else or it'll come in stock sooner or later. Even if the price raises, I would say it's worth it. It's very quiet as far as an HDD goes, and with only 2x320gb platters, it'll be a bit quicker.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3269 has a review of it.


http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=29218&vpn=RC%2D590&manufacture=COOLERMASTER
I recommend this case over NZXT Apollos.

First, your motherboard you picked supports DDR3 memory only. You picked DDR2. I will choose a DDR2 motherboard because there is no real addition to picking DDR3 at the moment.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=27638&vpn=LP%20DK%20P35%2DT2RS&manufacture=DFI
I like this motherboard a lot. It has a lot of the higher-end BIOS options, and is capable of running high FSBs. It's a lot cheaper than your choice too. There really isn't any reason to go with an nVidia chipset if you're not going SLI anyway.

For your powersupply, I recommend this.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=19831&vpn=CMPSU%2D620HX&manufacture=CORSAIR
TRUST ME, it is more than enough power to push a quad core and a 9800GX2. It's modular cabling is very nice, and it is one of the most quiet PSUs. Efficient, too.

As far as your speakers/sound card goes, if you have a good set of speakers there definitely is a noticable difference between onboard sound and a dedicated soundcard, especially if your onboard sound is really crappy. Some motherboards have better sound than others though. I think you would be fine without it.

Dual core is fine, quad core isn't popular yet so games don't really perform better. By the time quad is popular they'll be cheaper. You don't need 4gigs of ram, 2 is fine.

The machine your building is overkill. You can run games at the highest settings still even if you cut down some of those specs in half. 2 months later the machine your building will probably cost 500 dollars less so save yourself a bit of money.

I will have to disagree with you. I think Quad is rather cheap, and already some games are taking advantage of quad core processors. Also, DDR2 RAM is going to be very cheap before eventually doing what DDR did and becoming very expensive. It would say if you're willing to spend so much money on a computer, something like paying $50 more for RAM can improve your computer performance by a lot.

Also, Yoshi, the monitor he is interested in using is 24 inches which ends up being quite a high resolution. High resolution + high settings can definitely take it's toll on a computer like this. Overkill? I don't know about that, but it is quite a bit of money to splurge on a computer. But I guess I'm a bit insensitve to that now because if you think this is a lot, you haven't seen enthusiast forums -_-

There's also the whole, he could just buy a good cooling system and overclock the shit out of it factor.

Which reminds me, there isn't any aftermarket cooler listed in that.

I recommend the Xigmatek S1283 heatsink. Good performance, quiet enough, good fan, cheap.

I have a 32" HDTV hooked up to my computer, I play games at 1600x900 resolution and built my computer for $800. The only game I can't run on the highest settings so far is crysis.

1600x900 is not 1920 x 1200, and it takes a lot more proecessing power to run games at that resolution maxed with all bells and whistles. I would say right now it looks like the video card is really the only thing that can be considered overkill, that's it. But it still won't be able to max a game like Crysis with good frames so.. =\

PS: Around July I think both AMD and nVidia have plans to release a new GPU. Just a heads up.

It's still overkill, theres no need to buy a PC that expensive.

The need is having a better gaming experience. Whose to say member X's money should or shouldn't be used to achieve a better gaming experience. If you can't justify it for yourself, then I guess you don't have to buy it. My point is, it's not overkill if you're actually getting more performance that can be applied somewhere. We're still not really able to max Crysis. If you could max Crysis with a 9800GTX or a 9800GX2, then getting the GX2 would be overkill, but that's not the case.
But if money is a problem for him, then he definitely has cheaper alternatives that won't lose value as fast as your computer.

And just wondering, you made claims such as in 2 months your PC will probably cost $500 dollars less. Why do you figure this? What piece(s) of hardware in his computer do you see about to so steadilly drop prices in. I can see the GX2 being EOL soon or something, and maybe losing it's value a bit, but $500? That is a lot.

Is your porn collection seriously that big?

I torrent shit. All the time.

Yes.... Linux live cds... thats it... lol


Seriously though, about 120 movies, 10 games, 10 gbs of music, 2gbs of ebooks, and 7 seasons of tv shows (22 eps each) so yes I need the room