QUOTE what is the ideal price of actually building a good gaming pc, and also about how many games can you actually hold on your pc, and play. Well, first of all it really depends on what country you live in. Some countries dont have very good mail ordering sites and companies. If you wanted to build your own computer it would be best to buy the parts online or from a trusted auction site. Buying them from a computer shop would have to be one of the most expensive ways. They know they can overprice... so they do. If you are unsure on putting together your computer you can ask them to do it. Anyway, say what country you live in and ill be able to give you a price

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Im in the US, and id like to build one to atleast be able to run Quake and maybe another game.

As far as bulding a pc I know how, it's just when it gets into performance of th epc and which graphics cards to get. I have a tough time

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for vid card i would go with nvidia, i play Call of Duty 2 alot and i get great gameplay with a nvidia Geforce4 MX 420

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Pretty much what I did is I bought a cheapo computer and I just upgrade it whenever I can. So basically if your parts don't work you can buy new ones and better for cheap at places like http://newegg.com (what I use). And if you have paypal or someone else you can trust that does you can sell the old part on e-bay to make some money off it.

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I do have one that im getting ready to use. some one is selling me a gaming mother board, I m not sure if thats true but this certain person did get it for free from a gaming convention a while back, and i think it was a ATi or something similar as far as a brand, I may be wrong tho.

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With COD2 graphics is a must (with smoke grenades etc) Dont forget to upgrade your RAM though. You probably want around 1gb of RAM for perfect COD2 playing, although you can get away with it on 512.

Also you might want to upgrade your internet? Remember lag is how long it takes to get info from one computer to another. Try playing in local games etc.

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I am about to get myself a new gaming computer, too, so I'll tell you about my concerns and what helped me pick the parts. My budget is around 2000 euros, which is around 2500 USD.

The computer specs are:

350W Power source (I might ask for a 400W instead)
AMD64 Athlon X2 at 4200 (dual core processor)
MSI motherboard for AMD64 x2
2Gb DDR2 Kingston RAM (2 x 1Gb dual channel)
SATAII 160Gb Seagate Hard Drive
GeForce 7900GTX (trying to see if I can get a GeForce7950 GX2, you should check it, it's beautiful, 1gb memory!).
TFT 17" PHILIPS 170s6FS
And a forced ventilation system

I picked all those parts (except for the motherboard, I let the guy at the computer shop pick it for me, as he probably knows more than me about compatibility) after I read this awesome PC parts picking guide: http://shsc.info/PCPartsPickingGuide (I really hope the link is not out of place). It is very easy to read and understand, it explains to you the reasons why you should pick something over something else, or just tells you the difference between two components so you are more free to choose between them.

The guide basically says this:
-Compare performance / price, there are certain points in which the price of a processor is too high for the performance improvement it has (for example, ProcessorA vs ProcessorB, PA has a performance of 100% and costs 100 USD, while PB has a performance improvement of 10%, but a price rise of 80%, you'll do better buying PA). This goes for graphic cards too.
-AMD is better for gaming, 3D rendering, video editing and that kind of stuff, while INTEL is better for A/V enconding and heavy multitasking. However, for dual-core processors, AMD is faster than INTEL in almost everything
-When it comes to motherboards, you should pick it by socket type and "if you have $100 to spend on a motherboard, you should really only bother with nVidia nForce 4 and Intel 915/925/945/955 chipsets on the AMD and Intel sides respectively".
-RAM: get DDR2 dual channel memory, which means: two sticks of the same amount (2x512 for example). You'll have to tell the person that'll install everything for you that you want them on dual channel, because maybe they won't do it.
-Graphic cards: it's the same thing as with the processors, but I, personally, want to buy the 7950 gx2 because it has a double processor, which means you have SLI technology in one graphic card, and that's awesome. The price difference between the 7900 and the 7950 is around 100-150 euros (125-280 USD). But, in my opion, it'll be worth it.
-Sound cards: if you're not going to mess around with sound editing, don't bother. I'm not going to buy a sound card.
-Hard drive: cost, warranty, performance, and noise output are the things you might want to check when looking for a Hard drive, in the guide they suggest some models based on said criteria.
-GET A GOOD POWER SUPPLY
-CD/DVD drive? For reading DVD/CD, and burning CD, get something cheap. For DVD burning "get a NEC ND-3520A (or the ND-3550A, which is an updated version with dual-layer -R support)."

I hope this helped.

 

 

 

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If you need a really good value computer for gaming i recomend you this site, http://www.tomshardware.com/ , it have reviews for motherboards, hard disks, etc, and also for full computers, i Recently acquired my computer BASED on they reviews, and now im soooo hapy with my computer! Give a try!

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Thanks alot, im sure it will come to good use

You may want to get a bigger harddrive. Youll find as the capacity gets higher the cheaper it is.

EG 80gb could be $100

160 could be $200

320 could be $270.

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fenrisulfr - Get atleast a 450W PSU. 350W really is cutting it close and upgrade path will be limited.
About the Gfx Cards. 2 7900GTX's is about the same as a 7952GX2, but way faster. Even though A 7952GX2 is esentially two 7900 Cards on one, its still slower for other reasons. I'd also recommend more Hard Drive. And a forced ventilation system? What on earth do you mean by that?


Panzer - Say what your budget is and then I can construct the best compuer (or around) from whatever source you chooose...

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