Ey all me and my uncle gonna build our own computer for gaming !! Whats needed im not sure got some stuff but not everything... BTW where do you get the covers ? Can u giv e me a site for Canada ??? Please thanks ! :)

Unless you want to blow $200 for an OS, I recommend using Ubuntu Linux - everything's 100% free, including the CDs. You can get a 2-GPU graphics card (GeForce 6800s) and a motherboard for $600 total- a bargain. No CPU included, so try an AMD Athlon 64- best performance for your cash, but be sure to get a "64-bit" Ubuntu CD.

I heard if you lick capacitors it's beneficial; much the same as talking to plants.

_{my $0.02}

Send an E-mail to Pedro and he'll set you on the right track.

Do mac, eh. I've heard alot of good thing aboot them. Lol, Canada. No really. Do mac.

^ not for gaming. Not enough games for mac :'( Otherwise it would be the best computer ever.

Try just searching "gaming computer" on ebay. If you want to spend around 2000, you can get some amazing stuff.

I've heard Tigerdirect.ca is good too. I order stuff from their US site a lot and they are awesome.

PGG! Shame on you!!!

Macs can run Windows.

^ but a lot of the windows games aren't compatible. And yes, I know they run windows. It is awesome. Then again, it is mac. I just wish they had some better graphics cards in the macbooks.

My mac has awesome graphics.

Discard what DJ Wings has told you about getting Linux for gaming. Badddd idea, Although I love linux and its very fun to use, Its the worst for gaming out of the other two OS's XP and Mac. Not only is it not good for gaming , Getting your graphics card set up on them is a real pain in the butt.

Hehehe...

I can play many different games on linux... Or at least the ones I play. Enemy territory, Thinktanks, Nexiuz, Quake, Quake 2 etc. I could also buy quake 3, 4, and doom 3 for linux if I wanted to.

On ubuntu setting up graphics cards is easy, you can download easyubuntu, which sets up ATI and NVIDIA cards within minutes.

Sure windows has many more games, but I just don't play many of them. :P The only things I use windows for is NFS:U2, NFS:HP2, NFS:MW, Counter Strike, and Half life 1.(I could set up these last two to run on linux if I wanted to)

And I just know this is going to turn out to be a mac vs windows vs linux thread. I am going to stay away from this one because I always get flamed down by the mac fanboys. Personally I don't want to spend $700 for a mac when I am just going to run linux and windows on it anyway. My current pc does that very well already.

Last edited: Friday, August 11, 2006 at 9:57:52 PM

Well, maybe they've made things easier , but back in the days it was a pain in the ass getting your Nvidia Drivers set up.But still its not the best OS to run games, You say you can run Doom 3 on linux, I guarentee you it would be shit.

Sure, it's really not the best gamer OS out there. For that you should use windows. But linux does what I need to do, and that's all I care. :)

Official Linux port of doom 3 for purchase

SOULS NEED LOTS OF SOULS

On Ubuntu, just type in "sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx" and type in your account's password.

YOU might need a MOUSE! AND a KEYBOARD!

Don't forget a sticker on the back of the monitor that has the phone number to tech support. You'll never know when you'll need to ask "My computer screen is black, I think I broke it."

@ Everyone thanks for the tip I guess ill go back with sucky windows ( I dont wanna) Gah this computer I wanna build I want to last forever... Gonna spend around 2000-3000 <--- Yea that can be some $$ but it'll be worth it I hope !! Anyways w/ BillBoB And Racer figting over Linux... IDK I wanted to go linux on a FreBsD <-- watever its called... IDK people say Unbuntu sucks for gaming... Well my uncle know how to Boot alot of stuff so like when you turn on the computer it will ask you if you wanna Run Windows, Linux, FreBSD

What's needed?

More time than sense.

Ubuntu does NOT suck for gaming... However it depends on the games you want to run.

Xubuntu Dapper with IceWM is what I use for gaming, and it's almost lagless. NVidia cards are, like I said, easy to use.

Here are two sites that I have used before when making my own computer.
www.directron.com
www.tigerdirect.com
Here are two that have hardware/software reviews and how2s on them.
www.gruntville.com
www.dansdata.com
www.tomshardware.com

Hope that helps. :)

Last edited: Sunday, August 13, 2006 at 10:28:03 AM

^Ty vm but I need to know whats needed to build one like parts ect.... Well BTW How do you format a windows XP when building it ?

So far I got this...

Mother Board = 278.99 - A juicy one...

Hard Drive.... 149.99 200 GB <---

Vid Card ATI X1300 AGP 152.99

Power Supply <---- 63.99 is there a place I can get that cheaper... ? Racer you know any nice power supplys ?

^Ty vm but I need to know whats needed to build one like parts ect.... Well BTW How do you format a windows XP when building it ?

So far I got this...

Mother Board = 278.99 - A juicy one...

Hard Drive.... 149.99 200 GB <---

Vid Card ATI X1300 AGP 152.99

Power Supply <---- 63.99 is there a place I can get that cheaper... ? Racer you know any nice power supplys ?

500 watt power supply here: here

500 watts is what I have in mine and it works great and is more than you will ever need.

Do you have RAM, a case, optical drive(s,) cooling, sound card etc yet?

Here is a list of everything for a computer that I can think of right now.

-processor
-motherboard
-ram
-hard drive(s)
-cd rom drive(s)
-case
-sound card (if it isn't alread built into the motherboard)
-video card(s) (^same as above)
-powersupply (>300 watts is a good amount)
-cooling (including case cooling (if needed), porcessor cooling, and north bridge chip set cooling, video card cooling (possible ram cooling))
-Bios for motherboard (most motherboards come with these)
-cables for connecting your HD, CD rom to your motherboard

Then of course you will need keyboard, screen, and mouse.

Also as far as the cooling goes if you really want to have a stable gaming computer (or if you want to overclock it ;) ) you might want to look into water cooling. It is a bit expensive and scary to use a first (water and electronics don't mix well) but it is well worth the extra effort, and most of the water cooling today are very straight foward and easy to set up.

BTW I not sure what you mean when you say >

ASUS A8N SLI motherboard, with an AMD Athlon 64x2 4200+ (twin) CPU,
256MB Nvidea GeForce 7800 GT PCI-E video card

It kicks arse

I doubt I'll ever try it, but I have an idea for my own Linux distro. Start with Ubuntu's software repositories, then mix in some bleeding-edge features and XFCE, then make it all so you can run it off a live CD, with an optional HD installer, and you've got a 4-way cross between Ubuntu, Fedora Core, Mepis, and Knoppix. Instant l33tn355.

^^ Eh I was looking at asacally the same thing squidy !! Ty for the tips guys and help !!

Heh... Makes my pc feel so outdated...

EPoX 8ADR3+ Pro, AMD Athlon XP 2600+ overclocked @2.3 ghz, Geforce 6600GT 128mb AGP 8X, 1gb ram.

Mine really is outdated- it's a slightly-tricked-out Inspiron 2500 (40GB HD, 320MB RAM, 800MHz Celeron Coppermine, on-chip graphics, no 3D, CD/DVD combo with CD burning), which is why I don't use it for gaming.
My gaming PC:
AMD Athlon 1800 (?) @1400MHz, 40GB HD, NVidia GeForce 5200FX+, 1280MB RAM, XFCE& IceWM on Ubuntu 6.06.
But at least I have Ubuntu 6.06 (along with a WNIC that works on it) on the Inspiron. And dang, does it get bloated after a while. That's what a 768MB swap partition's for (basically virtual memory, but fixed).

This Mac....

Two 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processors
16GB (8 x 2GB) memory
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI) Graphics
Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
2 x SuperDrives
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Fibre Channel Card
Apple USB Modem
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Mac OS X Server (Unlimited-Client)
Logic Express preinstalled
AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro/Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll

Sub Total - $16,482.00

A Mac using Xeons? I thought it was only Cores. Friggin' l33t as hell.

Wow that is pointless.

Building a computer soon?

Here are some parts you may consider;

First thing I would look for when building
a pc is a case.

Here is one you might like: pc-6010
case by (lian-li) for $169 they can
also modify your case with swimming
plastic fish.

Then the next step I would take is to
find a good power supply.

A good but cheap one: trueblue 480-watt
psu for about $90 at antec

Then the motherboard: p4c800-E deluxe
for around $184 at ASUS

Along with the cpu: 3.2ghz P4 at $425
intel. (cheaper if you can find a whole saler)

Also you will need cooling: aluminum cpu
cooler $35 zalman.

Now you are ready for memory: 1gb ddr (400)
twinx1024-3200LLPT XMS $300 by Corsair.

And for video card: Radeon 9800 pro
for $380 by ATI.

For a audio card try: audigy 2 platinum
$175 by Creative labs.

A good but cheap monitor for its size:
mulisync 22in. FE2111SB $570 by
NEC-Mitsubishi.

DVD drive: dvd-120s 16x dvd-rom
$40 by pioneer

Or cd-rw drive: 52x/24x/52x CD-RW
drive $43 LG electronics.

Total price: 2400.00 (around)

Good luck putting all that together.

Coolboy, you might want to get a better video card than the X1300. Or, if you can afford it, get a motherboard with 2 PCIx16 slots and crossfire them (get another X1300 and link them together for better performance).

You honestly don't need a $100+ sound card unless you have a 7.1 surround system that absolutely needs it. In my opinion, just a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 works just fine, especially since it costs $60.

For a case, I would recommend one of those little cube cases, like the Ultra MicroFly ULT33115 (that's the one I have :) ). It changed my idling temperature (50C) and working temperature (70C) to idle at 30C and work at 37C. Only problem is, that particular case comes with an extra frontal fan, so you need to get a 3 to 4 pin adapter to plug it directly into the power supply.

If you really really want a mega-fast CPU, then get a Pentium D 805 and do this trick I found. Look here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/05/10/dual_41_ghz_cores_uk/
So you pay $100-ish for a CPU, and you can easily overclock it to a dual-core 4.1 GHz - faster than any expensive CPU I know! I've done it for my friend's computer, and it works because the CPU multiplier is x20 and the front side bus is 133 MHz. Normally, CPU's have x10 multipliers and FSB's of 200 MHz or so, so having the multiplier higher and the FSB lower makes it insanely easy to overclock it to the max... You just need to invest more money in a cooling system, so your CPU doesn't explode. :)

Www.newegg.com has great prices and low shipping.

Good luck with your computer!

Last edited: Friday, August 18, 2006 at 10:19:27 AM

You have got to be kidding me. About $150 US for a dual-core 4GHz? Does it give you a guide to how to overclock the FSB? I'm amazed. I bet it would be absolutely insane with Gentoo 2006, a 2x SLI 7900, 4GB RAM...

If you know how to overclock, it's a cinch. It has no trouble at all going on default voltage at 3.32 GHz, but upwards from there and the CPU cooling gets tricky. They recommend the Zalman CNPS9500 for a CPU fan and heatsink if you're going to be a wuss and overclock under 4 GHz, but upwards of that water cooling is a must.

I can build a great gaming PC for £600 - including 17 or 19" TFT.