help with building a computer

[Gripper]

OK, I admit it.

Every day in my realife job I deal with customers who want "X", but will only pay for "Z".
When I post here I indulge myself and only pay attention to the "want" half of the equation...after all, there is no financial incentive for me to struggle reconciling desire with disposable income.

If a person walked into the shop and requested a machine to play F.E.A.R. (or Doom3 or RollerCoaster Tycoon 10 or whatever) on a budget of $350 my best offer would be to let them rent time on my PC, cause you sure as hell cannot build a gaming box for that amount.

Besides, how many of these threads are just blue sky dreams anyway?
Seems like the majority of the "Help me build a machine" topics never make it beyond the pixellated stage.

Such is life Clocker our hopes and dreams are what keep us going,take yourself you are always pushing the boundrys of what is possible,if we don't dream we don't strive to better things,I started my computing with a ZX81,there was no way I could concieve I would have a machine like I have now way back then,yet I still strive for the best on a limited budget,such is life

[ApacNTS]

well as depressingly true as that is. i have all intentions of making a machine, it would be nice to have it around october, but logically it'll be later. either way, you were another voice that convinced me of the power amd has to offer.

[clocker]

either way, you were another voice that convinced me of the power amd has to offer.

If you would kindly notify Mary at AMD Partner Disbursement my commission check will be expedited.

Thanks in advance.

[ApacNTS]

as of now i've pretty locked down my cpu, cddrive, harddrive, ram, and such, yet to buy. mobo and case will have to be sorted after my next problem.

which card should i consider actually buying that would give good performance.

the x800/50 or the GeForce 6800. considering these cards are around 200 on ebay it's not quite so bad.

if you have another choice that's around that pricerange or even a little over, feel free to drop it on me. given up the cheap system tactics. even my friend told me to wait and build something of quality instead being stupid and hating the end result.

[Wolfmight]

I really recommend 1gb ram. Once you have a gig, you won't need to worry about it anymore...Windows will "rarely" run out, so you'll never see those intense laggs.

[Peerzy]

Agree'd 1GB is such an improvement over 512mb and 2GB atm isn't really needed unless you're doing massive ammounts of video editing and game playing at the same time.

[ApacNTS]

yeah i see that, had already factored that in, i mean 1gb for around $60 or so is worth every penny .

[Peerzy]

That doesn't sound right. In the UK $60 is about £30 and you can just about get a shit budget stick of 512 for that. So i'd check out reviews before buying as it might be cheap unbranded budget shit.

[ApacNTS]

hmmm looks like your right. must have been thinking about another type of ram from before. let me ask you, do you think it's necessary to have a heat spreader on a stick of ram for gaming? or would it be fine without it?

[Peerzy]

I've never needed one, thought about getting one last time i made an Ebuyer order but they didn't have the one i wanted in stock. To be honest i doubt it really does massive ammounts of difference and im sure it's just for show. Certainly not needed but if you've got a nice case with a side panel and stuff an extra £5 to make your ram look nice and maybe cool them down a few degree's won't break the bank.