Building a new rig...

[PopeTiberii]

So, the time has come for me to build myself a new rig... The one I've got is around four years old at this point, possibly older, so that means I need to start one from scratch... Damn you, video card makers for fucking AGP over.


Anyway, Alwyn (and others), I'm looking to build from scratch, and I'm looking for the following basics:

• Motherboard
• Core 2 Duo or Quad Core CPU
• Dual Channel RAM
• 8800GT Video Card

With that in mind, I'm trying to keep it fairly cheap to make it easier to convince the wife to let me upgrade. And, while I know which video card I want, if there's something better in that area, or if certain manufacturers of them are better than others, well... Any help is appreciated.

Any questions, lemme know.

Thank in advance!

[Abraham Smashington]

I picked up a sweet 8800gt for like 200 bucks a few weeks ago. Alwyn can get the exact one I'm sure.

[Alwyn]

Well if you're going for price, i do recommend the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500, the chip is fairly cheap and its made from the new 45 nano meter chips... about $200 last i checked. I just read a review for the new nvidia 9600 gtx, sounds awesome but i do still recommend SLI 2x 8800 gt vid cards... they are cheapest for amazing results about 150-180 each. For a mobo i would go with Asus or Intel with a p35 chipset but the main concern that you should check is that the mobo can run a 1300MHz frontside bus. Memory... that is a hit and miss but get the max speed that your mobo can support whether its pc2 8000 or ever 10000 get the fastest your board will support. Depending on what OS u plan to run get 4GB atleast, but XP pro 32bit cant deal with 4GB... i recommend that you install a server OS like 2003 standard edition... sounds crazy, but its the most stable OS... and then bump your mem to about 4gb... to start with

[Alwyn]

The cheapest rig that will last you the next 5 years will run your about a grand, if you need help building it, let me know... i love building machines.