Thanks, Brain Wreck. I am thinking now that maybe if I get a computer I won’t build it. It doesn’t really look like my thing.
I’m not so sure that building your own PC saves money even if you disregard software. What it does mean is that you get exactly what you want and you can save money by re-using components from previous systems.
And I’d beware of water cooling. On another messageboard I read, one person lost $2000 of equipment through a leak. What you can do, though, is use other fluids instead. They cost, however, but IMO you should view it as insurance. That board is down at the moment else I’d provide a link.
If I had a lot of money to throw down on a gaming PC, I’d be salivating in antipication of next month’s release of the Optimus keyboard. It uses tiny organic LEDs to make the surface of each key a sort of miniature color screen that can be changed at any time.
You lauch your favorite game, and instead of pressing, say, Ctrl to shoot your gun, you’re pressing a key with a picture of a gun on it. All of your controls are brightly and clearly labeled and the unused buttons are dimmed out.
Really cool stuff.
For low-end to mid-end systems I’m in agreement, there’s no money to be saved in building. When building a high-end system, though, I definitely notice that machines they want to sell you for $4000 can be built for $2500.
Agreed with Brain Wreck.
I took the most timid steps…first a custom-ordered computer (Gateway), then a custom-built via Fry’s and finally the build my own.
I probably didn’t actually save money until the last point, when I built my own custom rig and put ONLY what I wanted into it.
Things I learned: places like Monarch.com that will hook up your motherboard/CPU/memory and check for problems before they ship are worth their weight in gold.
Second: The latest Athlon 64s run REALLY cool and don’t need any sort of liquid cooling nonsense. Really, the liquid cooling is only for the serious framerate junkie and has NO impact on real-world performance.
Third: If you get an uber video card it will have it’s own cooling, so again: liquid cooling is pointless. The only thing you need is a big power supply.
I just swapped out my Radeon X700 (a PCI-E card pretty much equivalent to the 9800 Pro) for an X1800XT. The card is amazing, of course…the only problem was the two slots it took up. After some creative wire running I got the beast in my computer and I couldn’t be happier.
I’m guessing that since you just updated this thread that you went with PCI-E for your video card.
Anyway, congrats on the new system anf here’s hoping that it runs perfectly!
This looks like a good place to ask a question I have about adding some RAM to my system. I have 3 slots for my RAM, with 2 512 meg sticks of DDR DIMMs. My mb manual says I can place DIMMs in Sockets 1 & 3 (my present setup), Sockets 2 & 3, or Sockets 1, 2, & 3. I want to add another 1 gig stick of RAM into the system. Does it make any difference what socket I drop it in?
I’m not sure if it’s genuinely neccessary, but a lot of techs I know swear by the method of always putting the largest stick of RAM in the first slot.