03-16-2003, 10:50 PM
All depends on your budget, and what you're looking for.
Start here:
http://www.pricewatch.com/ - Best site ever for finding products, and CHEAP.
http://www.newegg.com/ - A good quality store for your PC needs.
http://www.crucial.com/ - Never buy memory ANYWHERE else.
Processor? I'd go with a Pentium 4, no less than 1.6 GHz. You can always overclock it, but it all depends on your budget.
RAM? Try to get a motherboard that supports DDR RAM, NOT RDRAM. DDR SDRAM is about the same cost as traditional SDRAM, but ALOT faster (like SDRAM, comes in varying flavors of speed). Find out what your motherboard supports, and try to find a motherboard that has at least 3+ DDR RAM slots.
Motherboard? I like Asus, but Gigabyte also make great boards. Check out their sites, and check out their prices.
http://www.asus.com/ - ASUSTek
http://tw.giga-byte.com/ - Gigabyte
My personal favorite motherboards:
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/...-e/overview.htm
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/...8x/overview.htm
Cheap, and powerful.
Graphics card you said you had lined up. Personally, I run a GeForce4 Ti 4200 64 MB. The 128 just ain't worth the extra dough. If you're gonna spend that much on the 128 4200, you're better off buying the 4400. My card suits me plenty fine for all my gaming needs, but if you want more power, go for it. Again, you can always overclock your video card.
http://www.tomshardware.com/ - Good hardware review site.
http://www.overclockersonline.com/ - Teaches you how to overclock, and what you need to do it.
Overclocking is a tricky business, but it's a cinch to do when you know how, and when you have what you need. The two biggest things to remember about overclocking: 1) BABY STEPS. Increment your increases as small as possible, i.e. between 1 - 5 MHz. 2) COOLING. Overclocking creates more heat. If you don't have proper cooling, and/or your computer doesn't have proper airflow, you'll kill it in no time.
One more thing: Get enough power. You can NEVER have too big of a power supply. 450 Watts is usually sufficient for even a monster PC, but I wouldn't go ANY less than 350. That's a bare minimum. 400 - 450 is a good range, although more can always help. The more power you have, the more stuff you can put in there. Otherwise, you'll blow the unit trying to cram too much stuff onto a little power supply.
Oh yeah! ALOT of online stores sell "OEM" OSes with the purchase of a piece of hardware. DIRT CHEAP. A $40 hard drive can get you Windows 2000 Professional for ~$90. Not a bad deal, eh? The catch? No box, no manual. :P That's what OEM means. It's just the CD. But, who ever needs the box or the manual? :P Point is, try to pick up an OEM OS with your purchases. It'll save you a ton, and your PC is worthless without an OS. ;) Hell, you could probably get Windows 2000 / XP Professional AND Windows 98 with two seperate purchases for under $150, if you wanted.
And that brings in the final piece of the puzzle: The OS. Windows 98 is supposedly THE gaming OS. Not the most stable of OSes, but good, nonetheless. XP is a bit of a distant second, with 2000 right by it. I, personally, use Windows 2000. But, it all depends on what you're going to be playing. Alot of games, even some older ones, WILL run under Windows 2000. Alot won't, however. There are tools to get them to (apcompat.exe, found on the Windows 2000 CD), as well as built-in compatability mode (like in XP, except you have to manually enable it). I personally hate XP, but alot of people seem to like it. Windows 98 will do what you want it to, but not much else. ;) Choose what you want, and get the opinions of others. I'd go with 2000 or 98, myself, but if you feel comfortable with XP, or aren't bothered by it, go for it. Choose what you think will be best.
And BTW - Welcome to the Light Side of computing. ;) Once you switch, you'll never go back. The Dark Side is not worth it. ;) Cause MACS SUCK! :P
Start here:
http://www.pricewatch.com/ - Best site ever for finding products, and CHEAP.
http://www.newegg.com/ - A good quality store for your PC needs.
http://www.crucial.com/ - Never buy memory ANYWHERE else.
Processor? I'd go with a Pentium 4, no less than 1.6 GHz. You can always overclock it, but it all depends on your budget.
RAM? Try to get a motherboard that supports DDR RAM, NOT RDRAM. DDR SDRAM is about the same cost as traditional SDRAM, but ALOT faster (like SDRAM, comes in varying flavors of speed). Find out what your motherboard supports, and try to find a motherboard that has at least 3+ DDR RAM slots.
Motherboard? I like Asus, but Gigabyte also make great boards. Check out their sites, and check out their prices.
http://www.asus.com/ - ASUSTek
http://tw.giga-byte.com/ - Gigabyte
My personal favorite motherboards:
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/...-e/overview.htm
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/...8x/overview.htm
Cheap, and powerful.
Graphics card you said you had lined up. Personally, I run a GeForce4 Ti 4200 64 MB. The 128 just ain't worth the extra dough. If you're gonna spend that much on the 128 4200, you're better off buying the 4400. My card suits me plenty fine for all my gaming needs, but if you want more power, go for it. Again, you can always overclock your video card.
http://www.tomshardware.com/ - Good hardware review site.
http://www.overclockersonline.com/ - Teaches you how to overclock, and what you need to do it.
Overclocking is a tricky business, but it's a cinch to do when you know how, and when you have what you need. The two biggest things to remember about overclocking: 1) BABY STEPS. Increment your increases as small as possible, i.e. between 1 - 5 MHz. 2) COOLING. Overclocking creates more heat. If you don't have proper cooling, and/or your computer doesn't have proper airflow, you'll kill it in no time.
One more thing: Get enough power. You can NEVER have too big of a power supply. 450 Watts is usually sufficient for even a monster PC, but I wouldn't go ANY less than 350. That's a bare minimum. 400 - 450 is a good range, although more can always help. The more power you have, the more stuff you can put in there. Otherwise, you'll blow the unit trying to cram too much stuff onto a little power supply.
Oh yeah! ALOT of online stores sell "OEM" OSes with the purchase of a piece of hardware. DIRT CHEAP. A $40 hard drive can get you Windows 2000 Professional for ~$90. Not a bad deal, eh? The catch? No box, no manual. :P That's what OEM means. It's just the CD. But, who ever needs the box or the manual? :P Point is, try to pick up an OEM OS with your purchases. It'll save you a ton, and your PC is worthless without an OS. ;) Hell, you could probably get Windows 2000 / XP Professional AND Windows 98 with two seperate purchases for under $150, if you wanted.
And that brings in the final piece of the puzzle: The OS. Windows 98 is supposedly THE gaming OS. Not the most stable of OSes, but good, nonetheless. XP is a bit of a distant second, with 2000 right by it. I, personally, use Windows 2000. But, it all depends on what you're going to be playing. Alot of games, even some older ones, WILL run under Windows 2000. Alot won't, however. There are tools to get them to (apcompat.exe, found on the Windows 2000 CD), as well as built-in compatability mode (like in XP, except you have to manually enable it). I personally hate XP, but alot of people seem to like it. Windows 98 will do what you want it to, but not much else. ;) Choose what you want, and get the opinions of others. I'd go with 2000 or 98, myself, but if you feel comfortable with XP, or aren't bothered by it, go for it. Choose what you think will be best.
And BTW - Welcome to the Light Side of computing. ;) Once you switch, you'll never go back. The Dark Side is not worth it. ;) Cause MACS SUCK! :P
Roland *The Gunslinger*