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Joetheeskimo

By Joetheeskimo
in Yoda’s Swamp

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Joetheeskimo Newbie

Joetheeskimo

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My brother enlisted me to find parts for his new top-of-the-line gaming computer while he's in Missouri. He told me that Newegg.com will give me recommendations one parts to buy if I tell them I want a gaming computer with the latest parts. Apparently, that's not the case.

 

So, I was wondering if anyone here knew of a site where I can find out how to figure out what's compatible, and what the latest equipment is? Price isn't too much of an issue, although we're hoping to keep it under $2000.

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GonkH8er Newbie

GonkH8er

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DO NOT buy AMD at the moment :) The new intel conroe chips are wiping the floor with even amd's high end chips. Despite having been an AMD fanboy for years, i can admit that intel has the far better chip at the moment. FAR better.

 

 

Go for an intel E6600 or so, a nice 975 motherboard (ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe or a DFI Infinity 975X/G) , and 2 gig of DDR2 (corsair or OCZ)... video card wise, a 7900gt or gtx should sort him out for a while... its best to stay 1 or 2 video cards behind the latest releases. the 7950's are only for people with far too much money.

 

I'm planning an upgrade to an intel system quite shortly, and I havent run intel since my old P2 350 :D

 

 

http://www.anandtech.com is a great source for info on the latest hardware, also.

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Joetheeskimo Newbie

Joetheeskimo

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Thanks for the tips.

 

One thing that I really need help with is, how do I know what's compatible with what? I often hear there are different types of "sockets" and things like that, but being a hardware n00b I can't make any sense of it. Anybody willing to help out a little?

For a start, how can I tell what is compaitable with my motherboard?

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GonkH8er Newbie

GonkH8er

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Ok heres a crash course in computer hardware.

 

Your processor that you choose will be a certain 'socket'... be it 939 or AM2 (AMD) or 775 (Intel). When intel and amd create newer and faster processors, often they have to totally change the design of the processor, therefore making the processor physically different (often with more pins underneath, or no pins at all :o)

 

Amd is currently changing from socket 939, to socket AM2. The main reason they did this is to have their processors support DDR2. Socket 939 processors were not able to do this.

 

Intel socket 775 processors HAVE been able to use both DDR and DDR2 ram for a while. The reason for this is because all current AMD chips have the memory (ram) controller built into the processor... so a change in type of ram used would need new instructions written into the processors memory controller, therefore, a new line of processors.

 

Intel processors however have their memory controller on the motherboard, so to add DDR support to intel socket 775 processors, one only has to change the motherboard.

 

The fact that AMD put the memory controller on the processor was both a good and bad thing. Good in the sense that it's quicker. On non AMD64 design systems, when the processor wants to access the ram, it has to go by via the motherboards memory controller, and then to the memory, and then back again to the memory controller, then back to the processor. Because the AMD chips have the memory controller built in, the signal can effectively go straight to the ram and back. The result? much faster ram access times

 

The bad part is that as soon as DDR2 started becoming standard, not only would people have to upgrade their motherboards, but also their processors to support DDR2.

 

 

Basically, DDR2 is coming in now in a big way. Youd be silly to go for a DDR1 system at the moment. Youd really shortsuit yourself in terms of upgrades down the track.

 

 

Another thing with determines compatability between a processor and a motherboard is the motherboards 'chipset'... the chipset of the motherboard basically determines which processors can be used with it. The newer the chipset, the greater the range of processors that can be used.

 

An intel '975' chipset board (from any manufacturer, but go for a decent brand, like asus or dfi) will give you compatability with all the latest intel conroe chips.... which are definetely the way to go.

 

If you did decide to go an amd system, them an 'nforce 590' chipset board would be in order.

 

So.... what have we got so far

 

1) Choose a processor (eg- intel conroe E6600 socket 775)

2) Find out motherboard requirements for that processor (socket 775, intel 965 or 975 chipset... preferably 975)

3) After narrowing down the motherboards, choose one with the features you need (extra sata hard drive ports? high quality onboard sound? trusted brand? eg- ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe)

4) Choose appropriate RAM (eg- DDR2, 2 x 512? 2 x 1gig? Brand? (Corsair, Geil, GSkill, OCZ). dont go too overboard with ram... you dont have to get the latest and greatest ram. The really high end stuff is only for people who overclock their systems and like to fiddle with memory timings.

5) Choose a video card (Obviously youll be looking at a PCI Express video card. NVidia has a fairly good hold on the high end video card market at the moment, so going NVidia would be a safe bet)

 

Video card wise, the NVidia gefore 7 series cards are the latest and great. In the NVidia cards, theyre usually represented by a 4 digit number and a suffix eg 7800GT.

 

The first number basically tells you what generation NVidia gefore card it is, in this case, 7

 

The second number will GENERALLY tell you how powerful the card is, on a scale of 1 to 10. The 7950's are the latest and greatest. The 7800's were the high end cards previously.. 7600's are a midrange card, and 7300's are low end cards... all in the new generation of GeForces.

 

The letters on the end also tell you thing. In general with new nvidia cards...

 

No suffix- stock standard version of a card.

GS- budget version of a card (often used for pci-express cards changed over to AGP so older systems can use them)

GT- More powerful than the stock version of the card

GTX- the creme de la creme of that series of cards. They only stick GTX after high end cards, so if you have a GTX of some sort, its going to be a good card.

 

Personally, id recomment looking at the 7900gt's... or even the gtx's if you can stretch that far... theyre a great card, and with the release of the 7950's, theyre coming down in price.

 

One thing to remember about video cards is that larger about of video ram does not always mean better performance.

 

Video cards are a lot like computers. It doesnt matter how much RAM you keep shoving into a computer. If you dont have a fast processor to match it, its useless. Same principal with video cards. Not only do they have an allocated about of video ram (128, 256, 512), but they also have a core speed, which is not often written on the box.

 

Eg- a 6600gt with 128 meg of ram will wipe the floor with a 6600 with 256 meg of ram, because the gts have a higher clock speed, and thats what counts. You dont need to shell out for a 512meg or 1 gig video card.

 

 

 

Oh, one more thing. A lot of people neglect this too and run into troubles. One component you should seriously invest into is the power supply. That generic 400watt that comes with your blingy new case isnt going to cut the mustard. Invest in a name brand power supply. You dont have to go for a whiz bang 700W. A 400watt will suffice, as long as its name brand. It's not just about the wattage of the power supply, but the different ampage amounts they put out on their voltage rails for your components (eg--- ****ty power supply has 13a on the 12V rail... decent powersupply will have 20a or upwards, or a dual 12Volt rail setup.) A ****ty power supply could mean the end of your components if it decides to keel over :) Invest in around a 500Watter name brand (Ultra, Thermaltake, Antec, Superflower... theres many out there..)

 

so there you go.

 

Processor

Motherboard

Ram

Video Card (Dont spend over $500 on this.... itll only halve in price in a few months ;) and youll be super pissed off)

Power supply

 

 

After that, the rest is all personal preference.

 

Hard drives (seagate or WD... NOT maxtor :))

Case (a nice coolermaster or antec case maybe?)

DVD burner (pioneers and LG's)

 

the skys the limit

ill read over this and see if it makes sense... or if ive left anything out.

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