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please help a total NOOB build a great gaming rig


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I HAVE RE-EDITED THIS POST IN ORDER TO BE MORE CLEAR AND HOPEFULLY MORE SPECIFIC ABOUT MY WANTS/NEEDS- thanks to everyone who has already given me input

 

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First, let me start by stating that I know very little about computers. I know the basic terminology, but to give you an idea of my experience, my current PC is really just a glorified typewriter that i use for little other than internet browsing.

 

i have always been a bit of a gamer, but i have only ever used PS3 and XBOX consoles. This will be my first ever gaming PC. I am looking to complete a build for a very solid rig that can double as a media center in my living room. I do not plan on storing much media on this computer because I have a very small music library and I primarily use Netflix for videos- but I will be using it as my primary DVD and Blu-Ray player for movies that I currently own.

 

My biggest requirements for this rig are: (1) the ability to play Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas at their maximum resolution and maximum (60?) frames per second, while they are running mods such as FOOK, FOOK2, MMM, and maybe some retexture mods…and for very long periods of time. (2) It needs to be as quiet as humanly possible so as not to disturb my wife who will be watching television less than five feet from the PC. (3) To keep the cost under $1000 US, and preferably around $750 US. I already own a 27-inch Samsung P2770FH monitor that i play my PS3 on, so a monitor will not be neccessary

 

I will be saving the money to build this rig over the next several months (hopeful completion in July 2011) and any information that anyone could give me, or any advice that you could offer would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

Thank you

 

CASE

no thrills and no frills. I don’t care about how it looks, I don’t want any lights or windows or any of that kind of stuff -- but I do care A LOT about getting the maximum cooling capacity because I play video games during ALL of my free time (6-8 hours per day, 10+ on weekends)

 

PSU

? ? ? ? ? I really don’t know the first thing about this area

 

MOBO

? ? ? ? ? Yet another area I really don’t know the first thing about

 

OPTICAL DRIVE

Blu-Ray player – make and/or model suggestions appreciated

 

RAM

Don’t really know that much about this area either. Is there a major gaming difference between 4GB and 8GB? Do I need 8 gigs to perform mods on FO3 and FONV? Not to play mods, to eventually attempt to create my own. I also don’t want to be forced to upgrade soon, so I would rather get more than I currently need

 

GPU

? ? ? ? ? This area has really got me stumped- there are simply too many options…a friend told me that I should get a Nvidia because of the “PhysX” option that eliminates a lot of work on the CPU, but once again, I really know nothing about the GPUs currently available

 

HDD

If for no other reason than to keep noise level to a minimum, I am considering taking the HDD from my existing computer and supplementing it with an SSD that has my games loaded directly onto the drive…is this even a good idea? My current HDD stats: Seagate Barracuda 80GB / 100MBps / 7200 rpm -- and it’s not even half full

 

CPU

I am really torn in this category, because I am totally unfamiliar with the differences between AMD and Intel -- I have only ever owned two desktops and one laptop. Both desktops had AMD CPUs and RAM, and the laptop is an old Sony Vaio I got used from a friend-- dont know the specs

 

***Please let me state from the beginning that I will NOT be getting an i7- from everything that I have read and heard, the i7 is WAY more machine than I will be using. I might be recording videos and posting them to YouTube, etc. but I still think the i5 would be my maximum

 

***I would also like to note that I have no idea if I will be overclocking because I seriously don’t even know what that means

Edited by GremlinArsonist
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I found an article for a custom built gaming rig that costs under $1000 in one of my magazines. These are the components:

 

Case: Cooler Master 690 II Advanced

PSU: Antec 750W True Power TP-750

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Pro

GPU: Asus Radeon HD 6850

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 (Before anyone says WHAT, NO OVERCLOCKING, let me remind you that the guy who wrote this article took on the challenge of building a gaming rig using Intel's new Sandy Bridge architechture with a budget of $1000 so a sacrifice was made here. With a Core i5-2500K the machine would cost an extra $100.)

Cooler: Stock Intel (Remember, no overclocking with the i3-2100. A Cooler Mast Hyper 212+ CPU cooler costs around $30.)

RAM: Corsair 2 X 2GB DDR3/1333

Optical: Lite-On iHAS424-98 DVD Burner

Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 1TB

OS: Win7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM

 

Total cost in the article was $956. Prices may very, and the only reason I didn't go with a AMD CPU build is because the AM3 chipset is a dead man walking unless the AM3+ chipset has been cancelled.

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Drop the optical drive and windows and you'll have room for an i5.

 

If you know where to find the drivers to make games work on a Linux OS, great, but how do you install a game from a disk without an optical drive? Plus, he can always upgrade to the i5 or even an i7-2600K later on which is something to factor in when it comes to building a gaming rig.

 

Maybe you can get the Phenom x4 955 instead of the core i3.

 

With the Asrock 870 Extreme3 motherboard.

 

Unless the release of the AM3+ chipset has been delayed or cancelled, I'd wait on AMD motherboards.

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