Alright, this post aims to be a useful guide for LumenLab computer users (yes, that is all of you). This post is also aimed to convince more people to build their own computers. Of course this isn't for everyone, but you don't need to be a rocket scientist to do this. First off, why would you want to build your own computer? For a variety of reasons. First, it gives you direct control of what goes in or out of your computer. Nothing you don't want, nothing extra, just what you want. Higher quality parts. Brand name computer vendors like to use name products for the big parts so they can advertise and generic parts for the small parts. This has many problems on many levels. Namely that if one small thing goes, the entire system can be inoperable. Its easy, and its also much cheaper than buying an equivolent Brand PC. You also will understand your computer much better after you build, even just one computer. Heck you might end up making some money because you can do simple things like swapping out parts for people and helping them out. Anyways, here it goes. Note: this thread is aimed at the high end gamer who is on a budget. That means a high performance computer at a good price. This is not meant for just "e-mail/word processing/ internet". Note: as I am writing this, it is August 4th, 2005, keep in mind that things change daily in the computer world.

There are a few basic components to your computer.

Motherboard
CPU (Processor)
RAM
Hard drive
Video Card
Sound Card
Network Card
Opticals
Case
Powersupply

If you have all of the above, you pretty much have a full computer. Lucky for us, most motherboards now come with an integrated sound and network cards. While most gamers cringe at the sound of "integrated", do not be afraid. This isn't the video realm that we are talking. Most modern motherboards come with very very good sound and network cards. So, lets start with those. I have limited myself to AMD64 systems. I have built 200+ rigs from PIII 733 machines up to a 256 node beowolfe cluster based on AMD64s and in my mind for the gamer or value person, AMD64 gives you the best results at a good price. (I'll post about Intel vs AMD later.)

Motherboards
Just about every company makes a high end AMD64 motherboard. They are all extremely high quality and are even becoming aesthetically pleasing. As of this moment, these are some of the choices you have.

ASUS A8N
Asus A8V Deluxe
BFG BFGRNF4U
ECS KN1
ABIT Fatal1ty AN8

All of these are high end AMD 64 Boards and will serve you well, they are all about $100 some a little more.


CPUs

AMD64 chips can be confusing, even for someone like me that basically lives around them (while I write this, I actually have 8 AMD64 chips in 6 different machines in the same room as me) But here are some basic pricing as of this writing (courtesy of newegg):

AMD64 Venice 3000+ ($146)
AMD64 Venice 3200+ ($190)
AMD64 Venice 3500+ ($265)
AMD64 Venice 3800+ ($339)
AMD64 San Diego 4000+ ($474)
AMD64 San Diego FX55 ($819)
AMD64 San Diego FX57 ($1,100)

These are the main line flagship gaming CPUs. Even the lowest end CPU, the 3000+ will run high end games at medium/high settings. They are great CPUs and all of them (these are all retail prices) come with heat sinks and fans.


RAM

Some might yell at me for this, but in my mind, "good ram" is seriously over rated. Yes, it is true that quality does matter, but not to change prices by a factor of 2. Generic sticks of RAM work fine with normal systems, although I think that it would be not only stupid, but pointless to build an FX55 system and stick in generic ram. That having been said. DDR on AMD64 systems should be bought in packs of two, ie two sticks at a time to utilize the dual channel memory. Technical mumbo jumbo aside, always by your ram in two sticks, unless you see yourself upgrading very very soon. Its faster and hey if one stick fails, you will still have a working computer. That having been said. Your best bet is to pick up two sticks of 512mb DDR400 PC3200 ram. It is flooding the market and is dirt cheap. It isn't THE fastest, but it is more than adequet for gaming standards now. I've seen my favorite brand, Crucial or even Corsair Ram, two sticks of 512mb go for $90 on newegg! Thats a gig of ram for $90 total.


Hard drives

This is another area that we consumers are lucky in. The market is flooded with good, brand name, cheap hard drives. Just a quick search at www.slickdeals.net or www.bensbargains.net will show you the number of cheap, large hard drives that are on the market now. I think the last one I saw was a 160gb drive for $40. While size does matter, for most people, the difference between a 160gb and a 250gb or 400gb drive is very little. Very very few people have music collections or movie collections that big (although, if one looks at my storage server, they will see that I have over a terrabyte of storage space and it is 70% filled ). Anyways, to the hardware. There are two routes with hard drives, the "old" IDE and the "new" SATA. IDE are ribbon cables (the grey ones that go to hard drives and CD drives) where as SATA use thin cabling about a 1/4 of an inch wide. Besides being faster, SATA drives also have the smaller cable profile making them much much more attractive in a crampped case. But here is the thing. The price differential between a SATA drive and an IDE drive is staggering. Sometimes as much as 5-6 times as much for a SATA drive (with all of the new internet deals)! So I usually recommend finding the best deal within your budget.


Video Cards (oh boy... here we go...)

This is the absolute hardest section to write, because there isn't a simple answer like most of the other sections. It would be hard to find a computer enthusiast who disagreed on major issues with the other sections, but when it comes to video cards, there will always be a huge debate, and that is a good thing. Why? Why is it good that it isn't simple? Because video cards are the single biggest variable with high end gaming. This means that companies are going to always fight to give you the best card possible at the lowest price to beat out the rest of an extremely competative market. Now, this is MY take. I stand by it as a basic outline, but this is never as simple as it seems. Two companies to consider, ATI and Nvidia. Now, I was an ATI fan boy, then went to Nvidia for a while and now I actually own both of their high end cards. This is the BEST outline for video cards that I have ever seen, just numbers, nothing else.

http://users.erols.com/chare/video.htm

Nothing is as simple as it seems, the numbers don't tell you the whole story, but in the simplest terms, the higher the Bandwidth (BW), the better the card. This is not a coorelation = cause thing!!! This is a coorelation that happens to work out well with video cards. What this does do for us is immeadiately illuminate the value level cards and the performance cards.

Performance cards (look at the names here then go to that spreadsheet and see if you can see the pattern for yourself)

ATI
9600XT
9800, 9800Pro, 9800XT
X800, X800GT, X800Pro

Nvidia
GF6600GT
GF6800 (all varieties)

Note that not all of these cards are the tip top of the line from each company, they are simply the performance cards. It should be noted that AGP slots are being phased out and any new gaming or performance computer will be using PCI-E (PCI express). If you need more explanation it can be for another time.


Opticals
I didn't think that I actually was going to write a section like this, but hey I was amazed when I actually did the research.

Options:
CD-Rom --> $15
DVD-Rom --> $20
CD Burner --> $21
DVD Burner --> $35

I mean wow! You can get a DVD-Burner for $35 now... I remember buying my CD Burner for $200 way back when. I would seriously consider what you need before you buy. Not many people have a REAL use for a DVD burner and while it can't hurt to have it, it can be a complete waste of money. I generally use my network to transfer files or my 2gb USB drive and not CDs, but thats just me.


Cases and powersupplies
This section has too much variety to put into words. Quality in the powersupply does matter for high end systems, but I'll save this for another day if people need the help





Cliff Notes:
1) Building your own computer isn't hard and can be very rewarding/cheap
2) Lot of good motherboards to choose from
3) AMD64
4) DDR400 PC3200 (1gb)
5) Cheap, good hard drives all over the place
6) Lots of good video cards to choose from
7) Opticals have come way down in price

Agreed, but to be honest I think most people willing to build a projector will know most of the above already.

Oh, and the price difference between IDE and SATA nowadays is negligible. I have found on many occasions that an SATA drive is CHEAPER than it's IDE sibling.

And you didnt mention hard disk manufacturers. The only make I would ever recommend is Seagate.

And you have too much time on your hands!

I wrote it for another forum and figured, well, since I spent the two hours to write up the damn thing I might as well put it somewhere else as well. And I disagree about the hard drive prices. Retail, SATA prices may be coming down, but when is the last time you saw a 200gb SATA drive for $60? . Also, Western Digital makes unbelievably good drives as well.

I have heard a suprising amount of newer WD drives dying prematurely recently, and I have lost trust in them.

And the drive I saw that was cheaper in SATA format was 80gb. Perhaps the bigger ones are different... (and of course theres a slight chance that IDE drives are just overpriced in this country and the SATA ones arent).

EDIT: Very informative article, by the way. Good information there.

ummm, this article is interesting considering you mention gaming on a video forum. Most here that are looking for computer help are hoping to post-process the video they are going to play, and for that, AMD is NOT the best choice. PURE MHZ is what you want, and for processing video, (FFDshow, etc) you want Intel!!!

NOW, not to start a flaming war, just open to giving suggestions more clearly: your intended audience, and what YOUR preference is.

Hope that helps those that are reading - There are MANY options - best to do your OWN research based on what YOU want to use the computer for. I will suggest that people check out www.avsforum.com for HTPC (Home Theatre PC) info!!!!

Ricoks

You think an Intel chip will outperform an AMD of identical cost?

I think not.

what does cost have to do with what i said. I am just saying that when you are looking at processing video, like with FFDshow, you want MHZ, not performance numbers that matter in games. and for that, it's INTEL!!!

now, no doubt, AMD makes some great stuff, and their newer 64s do it well, but NOT as well as a higher Intel does for post-processing video on the fly (like upscaling DVDs to our higher resoultion!!!!)!!!!

That's all i'm saying, and thought it should be noted. Cost was never mentioned as a consideration, he just told you how to build an AMD based system, that's all!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes that is true that Intel still has the edge in things like post processing ffdshow etc. But you can very easily get 2.6 on air with a a64 3000+ venice core. As long as you use a good mobo that locks the pci settings and you use good ram that will take the oc and higher voltage if needed. Then the performance gap in post processing is pretty much out the window and for dirt cheap you get a evil cpu in all areas on the cheap.


Also AMD is making alot of headway in the dual cpu end of the a64, they are starting to get some real nice results with there design in that end, and over taking intel in alot of areas in that field as well.

I'm sorry. But this is simply not true. You will not get better performance because of "pure MHZ". This was written for a variety of forums. And point of fact, for simply DVD playback and post process video you don't need a monster machine. Actually a well designed small linux box will do the trick. That comes down to how well coded the software is.

Actually when you get into 1080 feeds or heavy processing with ffdshow on a dvd a fast system makes a world of difference. I can do a fairly large chunk more with my a64 system as far as post processing goes when I OC it from 1.8 to 2.4

I think I can see a war beginning here...

Well its kinda funny as cpu and vid cards tend to get die hard supporters of their brand. Me personally I am a AMD foo as I do a fair chunk of gaming and I am decent at OC'ing so I can get my AMD a64 chip up in the range where it performs very well for post processing etc. And even at stock speeds it has huge gains over comparable priced intel chips in other areas (gaming being a key one for me). And once its overclocked it buries them, so for me its a clear choice.

But for others who don't game and don't OC, and are solely building a htpc intel is a very good choice as out of the box they multi task very well and do a good job of post processing.

So it really boils down to needs and uses for your box, I mean both companies build great products for the niche in the market.

Agreed - this is the most comprehensive answer! NOW, if every forum discussion re: CPUs would start with this sentence, no more flaming wars!!!!

Anyway, you will be happy with either direction you go, just make sure it is going to fit YOUR bill (not necessarily the $$ bill, but use bill as well)

Ricoks

No, no, no....now Cyrix is the best....what you got, huh...what you got?

Hehe, Cyrix... I seem to remember the 1ghz C3 (wow, 1ghz!) being outperformed by an ageing Pentium 2!!