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Sometime yesterday, my laptop began making a funny noise when the fan kicks in. It sounds like the fan motor is beginning to die, which is a bad thing. However, it gives me an excuse to buy a new computer. And this time I think I'll want to build a PC. I already own several good external components. Monitor, mouse, keyboard... even an external harddrive (though I think I'm gonna use that to back up the stuff I have on my laptop before it blows a gasket). But I still need a box and all the variable parts that go along with that.
I haven't built a PC in over 5 years, and haven't been paying attention to the technological advances of the PC market since then, so I could use your advice, TL.net! I feel like I'm on borrowed time now with my laptop, so time is of some essence-- I won't be willing to wait too long (a week, max) for prices to drop. So I need some fairly accurate info now.
I was planning on building a new PC when SC2 came out anyway, but circumstances have created a sped up timeline for that... and unfortunately I can't predict the future. And I don't know enough about current technologies to make an educated guess, either. Because I don't want to buy a second PC as soon as SC2 comes out, I need your guys' help predicting the sort of economically feasible components that will be necessary to run SC2.
I'm living on a budget so I don't think I can justify buying the latest and greatest of everything. The parts that are most important to get right, imo, is the video card and secondary concerns go to RAM and the processor. If there's anything else I need to be overly worried about, let me know.
Besides hardware concerns, I'm also interested in consensus thought on XP vs other operating systems. I'm still using XP, and its what I know best, but how's Vista? I'm sure Vista will be compatible with SC2, but does it run all my favorite older games (BW, most importantly)? Are there alternative operating systems that are stable and perform well on gaming machines (I doubt this, but just asking)?
I'm gonna go google "building a PC" and see what I can figure out on my own. Please leave a comment if you have any ideas that would help me in making smart economical purchases.
Thanks!
 
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some good sites to help
newegg.com
tigerdirect.com
i can't really help more, seeing as i never built my own comp, but those sites do sell barebone kits and all the parts needed to buy a computer
as for vista, i feel its just a whole bunch of useless shit that the average user doesn't need, but good for the computer retard who thinks its a good idea to install virus.exe when prompted
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You will probably not be able to run sc2 with everything on max if you buy a new PC now with budget parts. What price range are you looking for btw?
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another good site is techbargain.com
Sorry I can't help you here; I also want to build my own computer but I have a problem knowing which motherboard is compatible with the other PC parts I have.
Starcraft works with Vista ^^. Even if it didn't I'm sure you can check the compatibility box. There won't be any significant fundamental change from XP to Vista, but I'll tell you this: once I went to Vista, I couldn't go back. Vista's graphics make computing a much better experience. just make sure you get more than 1 gb of RAM. XP it was godly with 1 gb, but Vista 1 gb lags on me at times of hard usage.
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SR18: I'd like to keep it around $1000 US, but there's some flexibility there. If there's a combination of really nice parts that I want that takes me over $1300, I might go for it... but it'd have to be really nice for me to justify. If I can get away with it, I'd like to stay under $1000. For me, the point of building the PC rather than buying some pre-built machine is to find that sweet spot between power and price. Unfortunately, atm, I don't know enough to really take advantage. Which is why I'm requesting info here.
Thanks for the links, yogurt.
You too, Axsynthe. Depending on price difference, I may stay with XP. It works well, and RAM requirements aren't excessive. I stayed with win98 much longer than I probably should've for similar reasons.
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Edit: Thanks Sr18, I'll take a look at your suggestions. Will continue to edit as I change my mind about things.
Tech Geniuses: Will it work? Can I build it? Do I need more? Can I get away with less?
Just did a little window shopping. I'm not tech savvy, so I just went by price, customer reviews, and guess-work. Could use some input especially with regards to the bolded questions above and ideas on motherboards and powersupplies (I'm unsure whether their are potential compatibility issues and how to deal with them if there are).
Preliminary Window Shopping:
Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail-- $79.99
Harddrive: Seagate Barracuda ES ST3320620NS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM-- $94.99
Video Card: XFX PVT80GGHF4 GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported HDCP Video Card - Retail-- $249.99
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail-- $29.99
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail-- $186.00
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail-- $144.99
DVD-ROM: ASUS Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A3T OEM - OEM-- $18.99
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail-- $49.99
Power Supply: Rosewill RP500-2 ATX12V v2.01 500W Power Supply 115/230 V CSA, CB, TUV, FCC, UL - Retail-- $49.99
Network Adaptor: EDIMAX EW-7128G IEEE 802.11b/g PCI Wireless Card up to 54Mbps Data Rates 64/128-Bit WEP, 802.1x, WPA, AES - Retail-- $21.99
Speakers: Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 Black Speaker System - OEM-- $38.99
OS Software: Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM-- $89.99
Preliminary Total: $1055.89 +shipping&handling. Rebates already assumed.
I'm gonna do a little more research before I make any decisions.
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For hard drives, I find it much easier to buy them in stores like Fry's, and usually every week there will be at least one or two stores that have really really cheap hard drives, and if you can wait until thanksgiving thats when computer stores have the biggest sales, but if not, id recommend checking out pricewatch.com even though newegg does have a lot of the cheapest parts.
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EPT
