cluelessnoob94

Me and my friends decided to start building a computer (desktop) and finish it by middle of summer at the latest. I did a little bit of research, but I simply don't know which components are better, and I'm a bit lost. I have some specific questions and what parts I should get in general.

I definitely want to get a Intel core 2 quad or higher, mabye i7. My friend told me to get i7, but I'm not sure. I really want to make my computer upgradable for as long as possible.

1. I was thinking of the BFG GeForce 9600 GT for a graphics card. I know where to get this for less than 100 dollars, so I guess It'll work. Is it easily upgradable? and is it a good choice?

2. I'm just buying a terabyte SATA hard drive, 7200rpm. Is there a cheap, reliable one?

3. My friend's brother told me I should keep two hard drives, one for the OS and important programs, the other for games, movies, general files, music, etc in the case of a massive virus attack. Is this a good strategy? and how much extra will it cost? I still want to stick with a terabyte if this happens.

I have a budget of $1000, but I really really want to lower that. But, if I see like a godly suggestion by the greater community, then I can go up to 1100.

I'm hopelessly lost on the motherboard, everything. The computer case, I'm working on it.

Please, please give suggestions and possible answers and builds.
Thank you all...

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cluelessnoob94

Also I'm considering 8 gigabytes of ram... is this smart?

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the hangover from 10 energy pills and 48 hours of making computers and gaming with your friends is IMMENSE.

SgtSpike

Definitely go for an i7 with that budget. It'll keep it upgradeable well into the future. You won't be able to get one of the really high-end i7 boards, but I've heard that even the MSI board is a decent one.

I would look at the ATI lineup for a video card... I believe they're the king of performance/price currently, especially for midrange cards. Look at the 4770 and 4850.

Will possibly add more specific build info later on... we'll see.

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cluelessnoob94

Which is better; the ATI 4850 or the Geforce 9600? and which is more upgradable?

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the hangover from 10 energy pills and 48 hours of making computers and gaming with your friends is IMMENSE.

Yogi

Got a few questions for ya
What is this comp going to be used for? Do you plan to SLI or CrossFire the video cards? What resolution are you going to be playing at? A midrange i7 might cost about $1200 but it might be possible to get it to $1100.


EDIT: Will you be needing an OS too?

Ramzinho

the ATI 4850 can't be compared to the 9600GT. compare it to the GTX200 series

But honestly i don't know which is better, i have been stuck with Nvidia since forever so you won't get an objective opinion out of me

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greenPlastic

4850 is better. Easily.

-iceblade^

the 4850 and the GTS 250 are competitiors

if you're gaming, it'd be best to go with an AM3 Phenom II build, that way you can upgrade for quite a while. i7 isn't really worth the price jump in terms of games from what i have read. the Phenom II's also compete with the 45nm Intel quads pretty well...

1. don't bother with a 9600GT. it's very old. the card to have atm (just released) is the 4770. you could get 2 if you go Crossfire and get 20% more performance than a 4890, or spend more and get a 4890 and then add another down the road (the smarter option IMHO).

2. this HDD is cheap, reliable, and very fast

3. it's a good strategy but only really necessary if you are either paraniod or don't know how to browse the web safely. it'd be better to put the drives in Raid but then you will have to front another $110 for an identical drive to the one i listed and that can be used on something else... +, raid doesn't necessarily save you from viruses.

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Jason4i7

I also second the i7 choice. But instead of the msi board, go with the gigabyte x58 board. The GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R is a great board, offers lots of standards Gigabyte has been known for and offers sli and Xfire. so it will leave both upgrade paths open for you. Plus with the i7 setup, you can get a decent ram kit for the same price if not cheaper then the 8 gig kit, and get better performance. Just my three cents.

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e_dogg

If you have the money, go for i7 since it's the latest and greatest. The Core2 CPUs will eventually be discontinued. But they're still a great CPU.

To answer your questions...

1) You can do much better. The Nvidia 9800GTX+ or ATI 4870 video cards will do much better with games. Also, video card choice is more important than CPU choice for gaming. My sig rig will play pretty much anything at full graphics even though the CPU is a couple years old now.

2) The Western Digital and Samsung terabyte drives are very good and not too expensive.

3) You can get a smaller drive to go along with your terabyte drive. I think a 250gb drive is about $40-50 these days and would be more than enough space.

And 8gb of ram is a little overkill. It wouldn't hurt anything, but you'll still get good use out of 4gb. Just make sure your OS is a 64-bit OS (Vista Home Premium is your best bet).

Edit: I should also mention that you can't really "upgrade" a video card. You can sometimes do some volt modding or replace the cooling which will void the warranty. I'd personally go with an Evga brand 9800GTX+ card since they offer an overclocking tool and lifetime warranty...plus it's not too expensive.

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