Okay, I'm wanting to upgrade my computer. I need a new one because mine gives me the blue screen every once in a while and my graphics card has weird graphic glitches so i will need a new one of that.

I was wondering for the smart PC people on here who have built their own and made an awesome gaming PC if they could help me pick the right things i need to make my PC awesome.

I will be buying a new one from the store and just buy the parts i need to add to that PC to make it better.

Money doesn't matter. (I mean it does but i just want to get a good look at what the best things are) I want to know what the best graphics card is, what CPU i need the system RAM that is needed as well. Also will windows 7 be better for games. I mean i won't be able to get a new PC until this fall and W7 is coming out then so i'm sure i will get that.

Thanks for any of the replies and help that you give me.

Also and you don't have to do this, only if you wish to take the time to help a little more. What would be the best set up for maybe say 1500? I have been looking around to see what i would need but i don't know too much about this stuff. All i know is what's new is what is better but that isn't always true. So thanks again for any help.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227142

Something along those lines?

In any case it depends on what you want:

If you're waiting till October you can get the new Direct X 11 cards from AMD which are likely to be extremely quick. Beyond that im not sure if you'll see the new Nvidia cards in volume this year.

What size monitor are you gaming with? (Determines the GPU).

Do you need a new monitor (Determines price/features).

What date have you set as your 'trigger date' as in when abouts are you looking?, which determines whether you should wait for the Nvidia cards or go with the AMD cards.

What games do you play, also how do you respond to slowdowns (determines level of performance overall)

I probably will wait until October if things go right if not i may not be able to until the beginning of 2010.

Right now the size of my monitor is 15" i belive. I could have had a 17" for the same price but they were out it made me mad.

I am planning on getting a new monitor somewhat bigger.

I guess my first answere answers this one. If not let me know.

I play like WRPG, Sim games. But i'm wanting to get more into PC gaming a little so i may move up and start getting games like GTA or others for the PC.

Thanks for the help. And i like the PC you showed me it would be perfect.

Wow, a $1500 budget. I was happy spending $400 on mine haha.

About the video card, your best choice right now is a Radeon 4890, for less than US $200. That's 'right now'. You might want to wait a bit just as Squilliam says.

I always hear about people building their own PC's. Is that what you did. But i don't really understand it. My brother i think kind of does it but i haven't really asked much. I know he must up one time and burned his memory or erased it or something because i think he was suppose to wear some type of glove.

$1500 will buy you a lot of computer, even starting from scratch. Start with recommendations from Tom's Hardware.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-sff,2312.html

Skip the micro ATX X58 Mobo; no need unless you're building a small profile PC (which will run into airflow/heat issues when overclocked). Won't bother recommending a case since I have no idea if you plan to recycle or what form factor you prefer or how much of your budget you want to sink into it.

Tom's has plenty of good recommendations for X58 boards based around an i7 build (920 offers best bang for buck at $280 when overclocked). There are now quite a few under $200 that should cover your needs.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cheap-x58-motherboard,2368.html

For best price/performance with overclocking, the AS Rock X58 Extreme ($170) should be near the top of your list.

Higher end boards can exceed $300, eating a significant chunk of your budget for features you may not use or need. Probably better spent on faster video cards instead.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/x58-motherboard-i7,2164.html

The Asus P6T Deluxe (under $300) is a very popular X58 board for system builders, but supposedly it doesn't actually support both Crossfire (it does) and SLI (does not). Check to confirm first if you're planning on using Nvidia cards.

For $1500, skip the GTX260 Core 216 and go with a pair of GTX275s which will give you the same performance (or better) than a $500 GTX295 at a lower price.

The GTX295 should be reserved for higher end builds than your budget permits that plan on going quad GPU. You can always buy one today and add a second later when they're cheaper naturally but one still costs more than a pair of GTX275s today.

If you prefer ATI, then a pair of HD4890s will give you very similar performance to a pair of GTX275s.

Other basics should be 3x2GB 1600mhz DDR3 RAM, 1TB HDD for primary (RAID config or 10K boot drive is up to you for extra) a 750w supply (many would use a 1000w supply which is overkill for this build; better to spend the same amount on a higher quality 750w PSU instead), whatever type of optical drive you want ($30 for your basic DVD burner, about $200 if you want to add a BD burner for whatever reasons).

I'm not doing the breakdowns and totals because there are too many variables depending on available deals at the time and individual selection of specific components, but that's about a $1500 build, including the $100 OEM Windows license which should be X64, recommending Windows 7 (due October); don't know your time table for putting this together. If you can still get the discounted upgrade installer, order that. Upgrades are $50 for Windows 7 Home Premium, $100 for Business which is as cheap as it will ever be.


Big disclaimer: All info on video cards is CURRENT. Windows 7 will bring DX11 to the table and with it a new wave of DX11 compatible video cards.

However, the pricing will likely be similar ($500+ will be your top end dual GPU, single card, top end single GPU cards will run between $200-300 or a bit more).

Also, for a strictly gaming rig, the i7 isn't actually essential, but will give you the best in terms of longevity. Doing a high overclock on an E8500 dual core system ($180 CPU that can easily be overclocked over 4ghz on air) may be near ideal for today's games, but very near future top end games may start making full use of quad cores, and none is faster than the i7.

^Wow, thanks for all that. I mean it's a little over my head but if i read it more and go over it better i'm sure to uderstand once i look stuff up. I mean 1500 will probably be the most i could do but i don't really want to it's just what i could maybe do lol. But thanks again. I be looking over all of this.

No glove; grounding strap.

Not really necessary if you can remember to discharge any static electricity on metal before handling electro static sensitive components. I never use one and have yet to ruin a component. I do however always use scrubbed clean hands while handing components. Don't touch contacts of components and don't provide power to anything until you are finished building and ready to boot up.

Also, better to work on concrete or hardwood, not carpet and don't wear rubber soled shoes if you do.

I don't know if you're actually planning on building yourself and what your level of technical savvy may be. You'll get a better spec computer for the same price if you do, but you won't have a working system if you can't figure it out properly.

Build price doesn't include display I'm sure you've noticed. And a higher end build like this would be criminal to use with anything less than a 24" 1920x1200 display.

If you use anything smaller (22" 1680x1050), use the money you would have spent on your second video card on the monitor. You really don't need that much video card for almost all current games at that resolution.

I kind of just plan to build it in store or computer. Because i really can't do that myself. But thanks for the advice.