[CallyWood]

I'm looking at building a new rig, specifically for gaming


Motherboard

Processor

Ram

Vidcard


Specifically, I want to make sure these are all compatible. This will be my first home built rig and you can understand my apprehension, but I want something that is going to work well, and no have to be bought from best buy for an inflated price.

I would appreciate all your tips. I'll be using my existing case, power and hard drive for the time being to save money. I want the ability to have multiple monitors, hence the card, and I want to eventually add a tv tuner card and use it as a pvr.

How will the vid card gel with the onboard card? I honestly have no experience in this, and know some people are running 2 vid cards, but I have no idea how that works. There are thousands of websites with information, but I don't know who to trust.

Let me know what you think!


I'm open to other retailers, there's one here in the city http://www.cbit.ca/ which would be nice to buy from and have the parts today, but I'm still a n00b

[Weirdoman]

Having onboard vid and a card is no problem. You tell the bios to prioritize one over the other. I'm not sure of foxcon boards, there are other decent name brand ones under 100 that aren't micro atx (unless that's what your case is). So long as you know what processor you're getting, newegg makes it easy to narrow down compatible boards with the grouping sections on the left (socket A, 775, Core2Duo/Quad). Then grab memory to fit that.

[CallyWood]

wow... I've never seen a post from you, weirdo, that was that easy to read..

The hardest part for me is choosing a motherboard. I have the choices narrowed down to ASUS or Intel, but it's just finding the features I want for a good price.

My budget is around 600 for the build, because once I buy a new LCD, tv tuner card, and vid card with multi-monitor support, it'll be around 1000 I'm guessing.

A good sound card would be nice, but I plan to hook the system to a sony receiver and use my bookshelf speakers most of the time (i likes my loud)

I'm looking at a Core2 Quad processor because I know nothing about the i7's and they're really expensive. I not only want it for gaming, but you know my photoshop will need the CPU. running on a P4 it still freezes the system for more intensive procedures.

I have the standard size tower, so it doesn't need to be a micro atx card. I've been looking and like I said before, the number of options are overwhelming.

[WIDOWMAKER99]

check out meanys post ..

he found a decent little motherboard /cpu combo on tiger direct

http://www.tigerdire...u=MBM-G31-E2200

also keep in mind your new build might need a new power supply to feed your new system i found that out the hard way when last year i bought the ATI radeon HD 2600 XT card ..it needs at least 17 amps off the 12 volt rail ..hadda buy a new power supply 550 watt coolermaster unit

the card you picked .. needs 22 amps!

you can find that rateing on the side of any power supply

just checked the specs on the link ya posted ...

Minimum of a 350 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 22 Amp Amps.)
Minimum 400 Watt for SLI mode system.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)

so yea add a power supply to your shopping list ....

as to FOXCONN motherboards .. i'm getting one tomorrow ..it's an older p4 socket 775 board .. think i'm gonna grab like a P4 3.6/ 2meg cache prescott cpu for it

then buy a good case when the tax refund comes in a month or two

[WIDOWMAKER99]

little info i just found out too go read the wiki page about foxxconn

Foxconn is the trade name of the Taiwan based firm Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Ltd.) (LSE: HHPD). Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of electronics and computer components worldwide, and mainly manufactures on contract to other companies. Although sometimes referred to as an original equipment manufacturer, Foxconn would be more accurately described as an original design manufacturer.[citation needed] Among other things, Foxconn produces the Mac mini, the iPod and the iPhone for Apple Computer; Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp.; various orders for American computer retailers Dell, Inc. and Hewlett Packard; the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 for Sony; the Wii for Nintendo;the Xbox 360 for Microsoft, cell phones for Motorola, and Amazon Kindle.[2][3] [4]

i think they know how to make motherboards ..

i never knew they diid all that .. but i do remember seeing foxconn even labeled on alot of older pc cards i have .. going all the way back to my first 286 !

[CallyWood]

well I took a look at meanies board and although it would work, it only supports 4gb ram, and it's a core 2 duo, when I'm looking at a core 2 quad. is there really a noticible difference between duo and quad? My parents bought an HP with a core 2 quad, and I love the machine, but I can't find the same one anywhere. hence why I'm building my machine.

Honestly, I'd be happy to go buy something pre built, but you can never get the info on free pci slots, available ram slots, type of ram... because I would be adding a second vid card and tv tuner to anything I get. If the existing video is sufficient for light gaming then great.

Lets put it this way. I'll use the customer method. I want my computer to:

1.Play games clearly and quickly without a high deman on the computer resulting in lag, the whole thing crashing when something pops up in the background, and such.

2. Record tv shows and view them (the second monitor output will be to my projector for just such reason)

3. Archive music files

4. Run photoshop relatively stress free, as in, the computer won't freeze during high power tasks.

5. post on forums.sofposse.com about my awesome computer

[Iron Monkey]

I d'no hoss...I've tossed more Foxconn trash than I can shake a stick at.

Stick with ECS or BIOSTAR on the cheap...they've gotta better track record/more reliable.

[CallyWood]

BTW thanks for all the help, I'm gonna get the parts from a place here in the city in a few weeks and I'll defintely take some pictures for you guys.

Another question for ram and the power supply. When choosing the power supply, am I supposed to see which item needs the most power and choose a supply that matches that need, or get a supply with a little higher rating?

If the motherboard is rated for 1200 DDR2 ram, does that mean it won't take anything else? Or can I use a higher number like 4200 DDR2 ram? Such as in this board

[WIDOWMAKER99]

installed that FOXCONN board here today .. bios is kinda tricky .. memory it only likes corsair and samsung dimms as far as i can tell .. his shitty old ram sucked and failed to post .. also the guys PSU SUCKED ass so that ruled out his agp vid card
as that failed to post ..popped in my better psu ,vid and ram ...system was fast ,stable and windows installed in 20 min

[WIDOWMAKER99]

CallyWood, on Jan 17 2009, 05:08 PM, said:

BTW thanks for all the help, I'm gonna get the parts from a place here in the city in a few weeks and I'll defintely take some pictures for you guys.

Another question for ram and the power supply. When choosing the power supply, am I supposed to see which item needs the most power and choose a supply that matches that need, or get a supply with a little higher rating?

If the motherboard is rated for 1200 DDR2 ram, does that mean it won't take anything else? Or can I use a higher number like 4200 DDR2 ram? Such as in this board

get a good PSU .. if it's cheap .. it is cheap .. look for SLI supported on the box if your gonna go SLI .. corsair makes a good PSU so do companies like antec and thermaltake got he most wattage you can afford would be my answer ..at least 750 watt or more if your gonna SLI

as to ram i dunno

pc 1200 ? dunno as i have no cash for going up a ddr3 board yet

jeep has that same motherboard ASUS P5Q so PM him and ask about his experience with it