Alright, I would be eternally grateful if someone could build a computer for me.

I need a quad core with a great graphics card... preferably intel for graphics card/motherboard/cpu

I know this sounds ridiculous... but i'm not entirely sure what is compatible with what.

I have 1200 dollars to spend, please help.

Why exactly do you need a quad?
What's considered a "Great" graphics card? They have cards that can be combined (2 or 4 bridged).
Intel stuff is expensive as hell.

Lots of things you have to specify.

Intel doesn't make graphics cards. XD

I'll have a build ready for you soon, in the meantime, don't listen to the rest of these yahoos as most of them come to me for advice.


All right, here's your build:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127427
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106276
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231241
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835202006

$1,105.06 after tax and shipping to my area. Enjoy.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 4 2009, 12:24 am by Excalibur.

You tower-obsessed hooligans. I just say spread everything out in a cabinet and stick a space cooler and some fans in there.

I takes longer for the different parts to talk to each other then.

How?

ITT: Trolled

Yeah let's just go with that...

Intel does make graphics cards. At least, that's what Google says.
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/index.htm

That isn't a graphics card. That is an integrated chipset, IE the worst graphical option possible and not an actual card.

Just wondering... what would you need this for?

"That is an integrated chipset, IE the worst graphical option possible and not an actual card. " - I has integrated chip set, i R fail.

I bought a laptop last year for convenience. I would very much like a desktop computer and i have a lot of money saved up.

EDIT: (Thats why im asking )
DOUBLE-EDIT: Thanks excalibur, awesome. . I would send you some minerals but.... haha.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 4 2009, 3:53 am by midget_man_66.

Why not just a DVD burner instead of a DVD-ROM? They cost basically the same if you are only looking for the cheap ones anyway.

edit:

I suppose they aren't as cheap as when I last checked. You would pay about $4 to $7 more for a DVD burner, but it is probably worth it if you ever have any use for it even at least once or twice.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 4 2009, 6:51 am by ShadowFlare.

Or get a DVD-ROM and a DVD Burner. It's annoying to have to save to the computer, the burn.

If you make copies of DVDs often. Most people probably don't.

Too many unnamed links, Excalibur! Hard to keep track of which ones I've checked. =oP As I look through them in this reply, I'm going to name each one for everyone else and give my opinion on them for the OP.

Case: Excellent case. Excalibur helped point me to this case when I was building my own rig just this January. It's very roomy, and looks tasteful. I love the large 120mm fans, since they don't have to move as fast to push the same air, and so none of the higher-pitched ear-drilling whining of smaller 80mm fans. With three included fans and plenty of open ventilation, my processor cooks at a pleasant 95-100 degrees F with an ambient temp of 80 degrees. Compared to my laptop that broils at 130 degrees. The side fan does collect a film of dust for me rather quickly, but a quick wipe of a paper towel solves that, and a few blasts from a can of air can clear out any internal dust. Although I have yet to take advantage of it, I love how there's a place to install a fan right behind the motherboard where the CPU is, so you can cool from both sides.

Mounting drives is a breeze, with simple locking mechanisms instead of screws. There are plenty of screws, though, for mounting the motherboard and PCI cards included in a place you'll never lose -- along both sides of the internal drive bay skeleton. Very handy.

Along the right side of the motherboard are neat plastic cable-management ties, helping to keep your cords from obstructing airflow and creating dead pockets of air. I would recommend taking them out when mounting your motherboard. I couldn't get mine in because of them, so I had to gently take my mobo back out and pray I don't accidentally bend a capacitor or some ill-fated accident shuffling it around. The ties are attached in a screw-like fashion, so you'll need to twist them to get the ties out.

The power supply is mounted on the button, with a vent below it that a higher-quality PSU with two fans can take advantage of. The PSU would draw air in through the bottom and out the back, eliminating it from the heat footprint of your system.

Size-wise, this case is a beast compared to more standard towers. My only real criticisms for this case, though, would have to deal with the power button and a bottom placement mount for another fan. The power button is along the side and must be pushed in at a certain angle to swing the button in, making it a little clumsy to work with (people unfamiliar with your case might not even be sure how to turn it on, which actually may not be such a bad thing). The reset button is almost just as big as the power button and right below it, which has caused me to accidentally press it a couple times. Finally, there is a place to mount a fan at the bottom, but with the PSU being mounted on the button it doesn't seem possible for a fan to exist there with all the power cords in the way. If you got a modular PSU, that might be avoidable.


Hard Drive: I actually got this hard drive, and for only $5 more you get an additional 140GB. Technically, though, you actually only get 590GB, because they measure a Megabyte as 1000 bytes instead of 1024 bytes like Windows. Not sure if Seagate does the same thing or not, so the gap might be a little less if not. Other than that, aside from brand name, both have the same specs and free shipping.


Video Card: Ah, the new kid on the block. To think only four months ago I paid the same price for the 1GB 4870. Though the 4890 still doesn't compare to the X2 4870, so if you have an extra $150 in your budget you may want to go for that ($400 instead of $250).

Not sure if you're an Nvidia fan, though, as a number of AAA games are designed with GeForce in mind. When I was trying to decide, the benchmarks were close enough, so I went by physical difference. The GeForces are larger and require more power, while Radeons run hotter while idle but not as hot as the GeForce at full load. I figured physical size couldn't be changed, so Radeon won there. More power cannot be changed either, meaning a higher electric bill, so Radeon wins again. Finally, hotter on idle seemed easily remedied with good cooling, while hotter on load would output more overall heat and be harder to manage, stressing components more, so once again Radeon wins.


Optical Drive: Hm, Excalibur seems to be cheaping out here. For only $24 with free shipping you could get a Sony DVD burner. For a few dollars more, you could even get a drive with LightScribe, which lets you actually burn your own labels and images onto the cover of the CD.


Power Supply: Nice, I got the 600W Corsair. It came in a neat cloth pouch that I’m now using to store my external HD. When I was building my rig, many more knowledgeable then myself said 600W was overkill for my system, but I reasoned it gave me room for expandability. The Corsair is 80 Plus certified, too, meaning its very energy-efficient.

You might want to check out some of the modular PSUs for sale. Like I mentioned with the case, those extra unused power cables take up space. Here’s a 620W Corsair modular system. It’s $30 more, but has a $30 mail-in rebate. Though, the 750W has a $20 mail-in rebate, so in the end you’d pay $20 more for modular at less wattage.

Either way, remember the PSU is the heart of your computer and is never something to be cheap on. A faulty PSU can damage components or even fry your whole system, and an underpowered PSU can result in less performance, system instability, and crashes.


RAM: I also got G.Skill. Lots of RAM at a very reasonable price. These particular sticks are PC8500, whereas I got PC6400. I did so because, at least at the time, the price gap between the two was higher and the returns were negligible, since higher RAM speed won’t help if that’s not where your bottleneck is in your system (which comes down to your CPU). These are snazzy.


Motherboard: Cool. I’ve always found mobos to be confusing as heck. For your comparison, I got the Asus P45 Pro. Looks like the Gigabyte supports twice the RAM, which is nice if you’ll be using Vista (I’m on XP so I only see 3.xGB of my RAM). Asus has one more PCI Express x16 slot and one less normal PCI slot. That means with the Gigabyte board, you cannot do CrossFire/SLI (bridging two of the same video cards together enabling them to act as one unit). The Gigabyte board has 2 more rear USB ports, one more IEEE port, and an Optical S/PDIF. So overall, the Gigabyte appears to be the better board, unless you ever plan to use CrossFire/SLI or need more PCI Express slots (normal PCI is a dying dinosaur).


Processor: Looks good. I went with the $100 cheaper 3.0GHz Duo Core, but you have a larger budget than I did. This processor should serve you very well. If I had the money, though, I’d totally go for an i7 system.


Aftermarket Heatsink: It was actually recommended to me that the included CPU heatsinks of late have been performing very well and I probably didn’t need anything extra like this. I followed their recommendation, reasoning I can always get one afterward if I needed. Haven’t needed to.


CPU Bracket: Interesting. Haven’t used one so I cannot comment.


Thermal Compound: Again, like the aftermarket heatsink, I skipped this. All three of the above additions are an added $50 in cost. If you don’t plan on overclocking, you could apply those funds to even better components (like the Radeon X2), a second hard drive or optical drive, or other hardware pieces like a sound card, speakers, mouse/keyboard, etc.

With all of these components, always check out the combo deals! Sometimes you’ll find the two exact pieces you were already going to get, now with a discount!


___

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 5 2009, 10:57 am by Hercanic.

I was going to mention it sometime but forgot. If you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, or an operating system for it, remember to factor those into the cost.

Thanks alot Hercanic, it was very insightful. Im delighted to see so much active interest in this topic, thanks all... guys.

Only problem I have with Hercanic's post is the HDD:
That isn't any old 500GB drive. That's a 7200.12, it's all one platter. Fast, light, effective.

Interesting. Didn't know about that, good to know. The picture doesn't seem accurate then.

One a side note, the Caviar 640GB has two 320GB platters.