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Artex - Student  |
Ok so my dad took back the laptop he was letting me borrow and I need a computer-but I want a desktop. I don't know anything about how to pick computer parts or which are good, compatible with eachother etc., and I'm asking here because I'd rather have advice from you guys, who I trust, than from some random page I stumbled upon through google. The only part that I know for sure that I want is a good gaming wireless network card that reduces lag/packet loss/etc. I also need a monitor and keyboard the only thing I have so far is a mouse. The only game I play and plan on playing is Jedi Academy. I'm really looking for someone to give me a list of good parts that I should get. I know about newegg but I don't know if I'll be ordering stuff from there or if I'll be going to Fry's, either way your advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
EDIT: oh yeah I have $1,000 or 641.27 Euros to spend. _______________ Sluglife This post was edited by Artex on Mar 17 2008 05:17pm. |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student 
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Anytime _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." |
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Artex - Student 
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ok well i fixed everything. thanks for all your help amik! _______________ Sluglife |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student
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Sadly, I don't believe gaming grade video cards (minus the newer ones w/ HDMI input) work well with TV's. I'm able to use my 42' 1080i tv with my 8800 ok, but when I try to read smaller text, it's kinda hard. You can do a few things to improve your picture like making sure your tv is in "game mode" if it has that feature. Sharpening your tv's picture could help, playing around with different resolutions, contract and whatnot can also help.
If all else fails, try different inputs (VGA, DVI, s-video). I use VGA input and it does a good job, but most people agree anything under the 9x and RHD cards are bad with TV (excluding the bank busting workstation cards). _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." |
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Artex - Student
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yeah i bought some 30 dollar speakers which work fine, and i fixed it because there's a button on my TV remote that looks like this: >----<, which made it fit on the screen. but then the text got a bit fuzzy, and the pictures aren't very sharp. my friend said it could be the screen refresh rate, but it only has one option; 60 hertz, which is what it was on the whole time. any ideas? _______________ Sluglife |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student
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Make sure you have your drivers installed & updated. Assuming you have an Nvidia GFX card, right click on the desktop and go into Nvidias control panel thing w/e it's called. Make sure it recognizes your tv and set it to 720 or 1080 depending on what res your tv uses.
A little thing about HDMI though, I believe only the Radeon HD or the new 9 series cards are able to display HDMI input properly. Does your TV support DVI or VGA input? If so, DVI is good for <32 inches and VGA is better with bigger screens. You will need some speakers to hook up to your computer since VGA is purely video. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." This comment was edited by Augusta_Mintaka on Mar 21 2008 05:46am. |
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Artex - Student
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about $850, i actually had $973 to spend but im using my TV with a HDMI cable instead. Ok one last question-I got everything installed etc but the computer display is reallly blown up on my TV screen. I can't even see the start bar, how do I make it normal? _______________ Sluglife |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student
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Sure thing, how much did it come out to? _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." |
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Artex - Student
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well i basically got everything you said except two 1 gig sticks because it was about 70.00 for 1 and 80.00 for 2. i got a different case (same brand as the one you posted) but everything else is basically the same as what you just listed. thanks amik, masta!
_______________ Sluglife This comment was edited by Artex on Mar 19 2008 05:19pm. |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student
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If you want to do some price scouting on any specific part then Price Grabber and Price Watch are the way to go.
I also forgot to factor in the OS price, but you can probably convince MS to let you re-use your old OS cd if you have one. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." This comment was edited by Augusta_Mintaka on Mar 19 2008 07:41am. |
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Masta - Jedi Council 
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You gotta make sure what you want faith. If you buy a cheaper system and change your mind about other games later on, you'll surely regret your choice. However, if you do not change your mind, getting a cheaper system is the way to go. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student
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For JUST JKA, you can get cheaper parts. If you want a computer just for JKA, then get a 30 dollar stick of 1gb ram, a PD CPU, 7600 GT and you can get a 500 watt psu. If you get a screen that's like 20+ inches, I'd suggest to buy a better CPU cooler than stock. A good low end cooler can run around 30 dollars.
Anyways, I suggested a budget list of parts for a system that would probably only need an upgrade if you went to Vista. It would make a rather future proof system. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." This comment was edited by Augusta_Mintaka on Mar 19 2008 01:56am. |
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Masta - Jedi Council
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In my opinion, if playing jka is going to be the only visually intensive thing you plan on doing with that system, investing much into a fancy video card or cpu is going to be somewhat of a waste. Anything on the lower spectrum of the GF7 series is going to render jka at speeds you probably do not even want to, and an older single-core cpu is going to be absolutely sufficient as well. Also, 1GB of RAM is enough to cache half of the game already, so i don't see the value of getting more than that. Seeing as such a setup is going to be relatively light on your purse, i'd recommend spending the extra money (if at all) on either getting a big LCD screen or a good sound system (or both), so that you'll at least be able to enjoy music/movies in a very high quality setting.
That is, if you really want to be fancy :p _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. This comment was edited by Masta on Mar 18 2008 09:21pm. |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student
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Those cards certainly seem nifty and statistics show they improve ping in some games by 5-7 and fps by up to 10%. It's just that, do you want to spend 150-250 dollars for that card? Perhaps it can be a later upgrade. Anyways, here are some parts I believe will be good for you.
-CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300. Not the fastest dual core, but it's widely noted to be very responsive to overclocking with little heat. ($149.99) -MotherBoard: XFX nForce 680i LT SLI. This is an older model motherboard, but it is still a great mobo with a good warranty to boot (new mobo's these days are breaking down a lot.(149.99) -RAM: OCZ SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel 2048MB. I like this RAM, it was on my old computer for a while with little problem. A word to the wise, if you pick a different ram and aren't going to overclock it, make sure you buy one with the same frequency as your mobo (usually it's 800mhz or 1066mhz). The ram would still work, but if it's over the mobo support, it will be automatically underclocked. Also corsair, kingston and mushkin are different brands you can get. (69.99) -Drives: Basically anything from Sony, Pioneer or Samsung. For cost sake, I'll just throw in two Sony DRU190A 20X DVD Rewritable Drive ($80) Graphics Card: XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Video Card - 256M. Low power, good price, reliable and quiet. If you ever play more graphic intensive games, you can easily buy another for SLI and it would be like having one of those big 800 dollar cards. (99.99) PSU: Ultra X-Pro 600-Watt. Enough power for the system and extra if you want to add new hardware. Good company too for a great price. (79.99) -HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive. Cheap, reliable and good storage. (99.99) -Case: Ultra Black Aluminus ATX Mid-Tower Case, this case is light and pretty popular for it's price. (99.99) That's about 830 from TigerDirect and shipping will probably be another 50. I'm not sure how much Frys would be for the parts, but it should be the same price if not cheaper. You can get a 17'' screen for probably 150 w/ tax and I guess you'll have to go over the limit for the keyboard by like 10-30 dollars. You can probably substitute cheaper parts (like a cheaper mobo) to get some more money for a network card. I think it should be your lowest priority though. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." |
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Artex - Student
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thanks! im probably going to go to frys and look around with a friend today. oh and i saw some wireless cards called KILLER K1 and M1 which were supposedly "gaming network cards". i have cable/broadband but i lose packets cuz im on wireless in my room upstairs so I was wondering if anyone knows whether or not those so called made-for-gaming network cards really help? _______________ Sluglife |
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Augusta_Mintaka - Student
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I can list parts later when I'm off my super slow wireless, but an alternative to individual parts would be a bare bone system. They have all the parts required to run. All that's left would be an OS (windows xp) and a video card since integrated video is really bad in most cases. Oh and your wireless card.
I go to Frys a lot and they have a good selection of bare bones with nice discounts. As far as wireless network cards go, I would get one from Linksys. Anyways, I'll research some parts later for you. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." |
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