Building a Gaming Computer....

[Code-Red]

I decided to take it upon myself to build my first computer, and I would like some guidance/opinions. I'm starting off small, but ensuring I have plenty of room to work with in the future. I've got a budget of about $600-1000. I want to be able to play HL2 and Oblivion at almost max settings, and the occasional newer game as well.

Major
XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Mobo Socket 775 1333MHZ FSB
Intel Pentium D 925 3.0GHZ Dual Core Processor
2x EVGA GeForce 8600 GTS 512MB Superclocked SLI

I decided to go with the 680 because of the price point of it (both Mobo and CPU for $129). It doesnt overclock nearly as well as the P5K, but that really doesnt concern me (as I'll be putting a Quad Core in it when the time comes...). The 8600's I'm going to splurge on (I don't know if I can say that...some of your pricks probably have 88's ).

Minor
OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory
ThermalTake Soprano Case
Antazone CPU fan

Theres other stuff I'm missing. But all-in-all I figure this setup should run me no more that $900. What do you guys think?

[Code-Red]

Oh, and if anyone can recommend anything (gaming mice/keyboards, fan controllers, cooling products, etc), feel free to. Thanks.

[bizzle]

Pentium D? Are you high?

[Code-Red]

Are you blind? Its part of a package deal for $129. It's a 3.0Ghz dual core processor on the 775 chipset, and LIKE I SAID, it will be upgraded eventually.

What's your problem?

[bizzle]

That's not the point I was trying to make. I am just saying considering a Pentium D to begin with is a bad choice. They're like the Celeron's of CPUs.

[Ex-Cyber]

That's not the point I was trying to make. I am just saying considering a Pentium D to begin with is a bad choice. They're like the Celeron's of CPUs.

Considering that there are Conroe-based Celerons now, that might not be the best analogy.

[bizzle]

That's not the point I was trying to make. I am just saying considering a Pentium D to begin with is a bad choice. They're like the Celeron's of CPUs.

Considering that there are Conroe-based Celerons now, that might not be the best analogy.

You know what I mean. Hell, the newest Celeron is probably better.

[Covar]

i'd go with a single 8800GT over the 8600GTS. according to Tom's Hardware the 8800GT actually performs better than the 8800GTS.

[Code-Red]

A single 8800GT will outperform two 8600GTS's?

[Vlad Tepes]

A couple of months ago I built a gaming machine for about $940. I'm using XP, so I don't know how it performs with Vista, but I haven't had any troubles playing anything on the highest settings DirectX9 will allow. I haven't tried Oblivion, but I've played Bioshock, Crysis SP Demo, and Gears of War, and it runs them all extremely well. If you wanna see what I built, scroll to the botton of my xfire profile

[Covar]

A single 8800GT will outperform two 8600GTS's?

well here is the comparisson of the 8800GT with other cards. and from what i've been told about sli is that its usually better to just get the next card up.

[Code-Red]

Thanks Covar, that explains quite a bit. Problem is, is most of the 8800's are out of my price range.

I'm thinking I'll take Xylene's advice and go with a Q6600 instead. It's going to take much longer to build this computer than I really wanted, but hopefully it will be done right the first time. Just so you guys know what I'm currently working with:

AMD Athlon XP 3000+
768MB Ram
ATI Radeon x1600 Pro 256mb AGP

So even a Pentium D is a huge step up for me.

[Lartrak]

Are the new celerons really bad? I have a laptop with a Pentium M (which is a celeron), and benched it performs close to equal level P4s of the time (it's two years old now) - and it produces less heat and consumes less power.

[bizzle]

Are the new celerons really bad? I have a laptop with a Pentium M (which is a celeron), and benched it performs close to equal level P4s of the time (it's two years old now) - and it produces less heat and consumes less power.

A Pentium M is not a Celeron.

[gRiMgRaVy014]

Half-Life 2 is fairly old now.

Oblivion is better to shoot for.

[MKE]

after my recent experience with OCZ ram, i would choose a different brand. I just (wed) bought patriot extreme and will post back, but if you watch the slickdeals.net forums, 2gb corsair 800mhz goes as low as 40-50$ shipped.

And i would also look at a different CPU, you may be upgrading it in the future, but save yourself the money and buy a better one (the core 2 6300 OC very well, and they are fairly cheap)

[Ex-Cyber]

Are the new celerons really bad?

I don't recall benchmarks, but they ought to be pretty decent for the price. The new Celeron arch is basically just a single-core Core 2 with half the L2 cache.

[FETUS]

Look into patriot ram like mke mentioned. I've been happy with every stick I've bought.
mouse you'll want to go for the G5 most comfortable mouse I've held. unless your a leftie that is.

[|darc|]

mouse you'll want to go for the G5

qft

[Covar]

unless your a leftie that is.

i can't speak for all lefties, but for me i just use a mouse with my right hand. learning to use it with my left would be about as useful as learning to type with a dvorak keyboard.