Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Geek Culture / Learning to 'Shop for PC'

Author
Message
dab
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2004
Location: Your Temp Folder!
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 08:06 Edited at: 24th Jan 2009 08:10
Link
My first purchased PC was one that I customized off of Costco.com xD

Anyway, everyone says that you can get better deals if you buy the parts yourself, and put it together. I really wanted to learn to do this. So I've been looking on Tigerdirect.com (great website) to get a small shopping list. As of now, I can't afford to buy it, but I just wanted to get a general idea.

So here are my links of consideration. Please comment on compatibility, price, or anything else I might have missed or not known.

2 of these 20" Monitors - $129.99/each
========================
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4108000&sku=S197-2018

Vista Ultimate 64bit with 500gb HDD $189.99
========================
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4303031&sku=TSD-500GB

A cord for the HDD above $9.99
========================
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=504523&sku=C250-2138

DVD Writer $59.99
=======================
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4312674&sku=P67-2002

The barebones kit $369.99
=======================
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4387772&sku=P450-9118

XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition Video Card $249.99
=======================
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4296573&sku=P450-264


Total (Including Shipping): $1,297.67

Any comments or concerns please post. I'd love to hear anything you have to say really. I'm just trying to learn the ropes of all this hardware mumbo-jumbo

Thanks!

Need a new hideout for all your conversations? Join dab-Media IRC. irc.dab-media.com:6667
Need PHP coding done? Contact me. Jobs done for as little as $15/hour! Email me for more information.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Toasty Fresh
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: In my office, making poly-eating models.
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 08:15
Link
Looks good, but you might want to consider a motherboard or a processor...

Also, apparently the HD Radeon 4870 performs better than a GTX 260, according to australian magazines. I have one myself, it's bloody excellent.


http://gunn3rgames.net/forum/index.php?referredby=19
Back to top
Profile PM Email
dab
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2004
Location: Your Temp Folder!
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 08:17 Edited at: 24th Jan 2009 08:19
Link
If I'm reading the Bare bones kit correctly, it includes a motherboard, ram, hard drive, power, a case, and a quad core CPU <3

Regarding the GPU thing, the chipset is a nvida one, and Tigerdirect says that if I use a nvidia gpu, I can get a bit better performance.

Need a new hideout for all your conversations? Join dab-Media IRC. irc.dab-media.com:6667
Need PHP coding done? Contact me. Jobs done for as little as $15/hour! Email me for more information.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 15:01
Link
The prices seem to be a bit on the high end. You might want to compare with newegg.com.

"I acctually quite like this site. And noone will know because this is a secret..." - Anonymous
Shhdb.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Satchmo
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th May 2005
Location:
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 15:42 Edited at: 24th Jan 2009 15:49
Link
Here's a better processor for the same price - $110
Here's a better hard drive for the same price-$55
Here's a decent PSU for a cheaper price-$30
Equal ram for a lot cheaper-$40
Case for a little cheaper-$50
A decent mobo for cheaper-$90

Total:$375

That just replaces the barebones kit and already you save $50 and get a slightly better kit. I'm pretty sure these should be compatible but someone else should confirm.

Edit: It looks like your buying another 500gb drive along with the one that comes with your barebones kit, I recommend this 1tb drive instead, and just buying vista separately.

Back to top
Profile PM
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 15:58
Link
I dunno if I'd get an open box mobo again from newegg. The price difference is offset by the fact that you don't get any cables, and no backplate

Also, the ram you chose, while compatible, will run a bit slower than it could. You should get DDR2 1066 capable RAM in a 1066 capable mobo.

"I acctually quite like this site. And noone will know because this is a secret..." - Anonymous
Shhdb.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
dab
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2004
Location: Your Temp Folder!
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 20:06 Edited at: 24th Jan 2009 20:15
Link
Quote: "You should get DDR2 1066 capable RAM in a 1066 capable mobo."


Reading all that went right over my head xD

Anyway Satchmo, the items you listed there, would that mean I'd need to place the CPU in the motherboard? Doesn't that mean I need some kind of glue paste or something like that? Just to let you know, I've never done anything like this before which is why I really decided its time to learn.

Anyway thanks for the links guys. I'll do a bit better shopping on NewEgg.com My big questions are on the items I'm looking for:

Motherboard: What am I looking for? Like how do I know which one is better than the other?

CPU: While I know that the faster the ghz, the faster it is. But my concern is the putting it together and compatibility with the mobo.

RAM: This is just confusing. I Know that 4gb is amazing, I just don't know what types of Ram is better than others. To me anything with a bigger number in front is better

Video Cards: This ultimately confuses me. No doubt about it.

DVD Writers: This is kinda confusing. It seems that the faster write/read speeds are pretty important. I know that it must use the same type of connection as the motherboard offers (SATA or whatnot).

Hard Drives: Write speeds, size, connection type (For motherboard) are all that I'm aware of atm.

Thanks everyone, Keep 'em coming

Need a new hideout for all your conversations? Join dab-Media IRC. irc.dab-media.com:6667
Need PHP coding done? Contact me. Jobs done for as little as $15/hour! Email me for more information.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 20:14 Edited at: 24th Jan 2009 20:58
Link
Quote: "Reading all that went right over my head xD"


That was aimed at Satchmo choice of ram.

Ram is offered in different speeds. Disregarding speed for a second, there's three main types of ram in use today. DDR, DDR2 and DDR3.

You can buy motherboards that support any one of the three. (sometimes there's mobo's that support 2 types, but you should avoid these, as it's really an extra convenience feature to people upgrading old computers).

So you choose the motherboard, and the motherboard supports one of the three types of ram. On top of that, the motherboard supports a speed for that ram. The speed can range from 400mhz up to 1366mhz or more.

If you look at the specs of the motherboard Satchmo picked out, it supports a ram speed of 1066mhz. However, Satchmo has some ram that's rated to run at 800mhz. Now, most motherboards can run slower speed ram (up to a point), so that ram will likely work. But for a couple pennies more, you can get ram rated to run at 1066mhz which will perform better, cuz it's clocked faster.

There's other considerations to take into account, including the front side bus speed of your processor (which you would buy to run at the same speed or faster than your ram), so you'd want to research more into how to determine the best fit, or just have us look it over ^.^

"I acctually quite like this site. And noone will know because this is a secret..." - Anonymous
Shhdb.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
dab
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2004
Location: Your Temp Folder!
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 20:16
Link
Aww that makes a bit more sense. Do you mind if I add you to MSN so we can discuss this a bit more?

Need a new hideout for all your conversations? Join dab-Media IRC. irc.dab-media.com:6667
Need PHP coding done? Contact me. Jobs done for as little as $15/hour! Email me for more information.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 20:49 Edited at: 24th Jan 2009 21:01
Link
sure, but I won't be home for another 8 hours. If you can wait that long

Also, I came up with this:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10658206

Which came 30 bucks over budget But I couldn't think of what to downgrade to make it come in at the price you listed

Anyway, this should have everything you need, and is much faster, and can theoretically be overclocked up to 1600fsb (~33%) without pushing anything but the processor. And if you buy proper cooling and are lucky enough to get a cpu that can hit it, if that's your thing.

The EE (extreme edition) core 2 quad (~$1500) is the only processor that's clocked normally at 1600fsb. I thought about picking out lower clocked ram (since it wouldn't be necessary to have 1600mhz ram when a normal cpu doesn't run that fast), but it's the same price as 1066mhz ram, which is what the cpu I picked out is clocked at.

"I acctually quite like this site. And noone will know because this is a secret..." - Anonymous
Shhdb.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
dab
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2004
Location: Your Temp Folder!
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 21:01
Link
Wow, not bad. Personally I'd prefer AMD but that is a nice setup too (no reason for this preference, just me xD )

Yea I suppose I can wait 8 hours

Anyway thanks for the help so far.

Need a new hideout for all your conversations? Join dab-Media IRC. irc.dab-media.com:6667
Need PHP coding done? Contact me. Jobs done for as little as $15/hour! Email me for more information.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 24th Jan 2009 21:19 Edited at: 24th Jan 2009 21:20
Link
Hmm, in that case:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10658626

Which comes out under, so I tacked on an extra hdd. Change around as you see fit (Oh, with the extra HDD, you'd probably need an extra SATA cable. The mobo comes with 2 sata cables)

"I acctually quite like this site. And noone will know because this is a secret..." - Anonymous
Shhdb.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Toasty Fresh
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: In my office, making poly-eating models.
Posted: 25th Jan 2009 02:39
Link
Quote: "Video Cards: This ultimately confuses me. No doubt about it."


If you want the best, most powerful fudging GPU on the market, get a HD Radeon 4870 X2. It's really. Really. Powerful.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Satchmo
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th May 2005
Location:
Posted: 25th Jan 2009 04:05
Link
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10658626

Nice, but he might want to avoid the 1gb sticks and go with something bigger so he can upgrade later, maybe 2gbx2, especially if he gets 64 bit vista.

Back to top
Profile PM
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2025-06-07 20:17:36
Your offset time is: 2025-06-07 20:17:36