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I wrote this thread to answer some very common questions here on HardForum, "What do I put in my PC", "Is this a good build", and how do I get the best deal?
I'll be recommending an AMD-based system in this thread due mostly to upgradability-- Socket 939 allows for unparalelled expandability with the option to upgrade to an FX-series or a Dual-Core processor later this year, and support for SLI, and the only available chipset with an integrated hardware firewall, et cetera. Intel motherboards will need to be replaced with ones supporting a new chipset to use a Dual-Core CPU, and current tests show AMD's dual-core offerings best Intel's in almost every category either way. The current Athlon 64 CPUs are also faster in most tasks than their Intel counterparts, run cooler, cost less and use less power. If you are among the Intel faithful and would like to protest this, please don't do it here, as I will update this thread recommending an Intel chip and such-based system if it becomes the best deal in the future. I appreciate your understanding.
That said, let's get on with the guide, shall we?
I've divided this into two parts. First off, a step by step breakdown of picking the parts on your own. The second part is a list of 'scenario' PCs for various uses and price ranges and the parts I'd recommend go into them.
STEP ONE: BUILD OR BUY?
Most users here, I think, will be more interested in the idea of building their own machine from scratch. This gives you more control over how it goes together, and to a degree, more control as to what to do if you want to upgrade later if something goes wrong. You'll usually pay a decent bit less by this route and learn
a lot, too.
If you do choose not to build your PC, try to find a cheap local shop that will
assemble the machine for you from the exact parts you pick, or go to my favorite custom builder site, http://www.monarchcomputer.com .. who will let you configure the exact parts you need with some extremely reasonable prices.
STEP TWO: Picking a Motherboard
The board you pick is going to be the heart of your machine. It will specify what
type of CPU you can use at what speed, what RAM you must use, what type of video
and expansion cards you can install, what variety of hard disk you can install and
how many, and what kind of case you can use, among other factors. So it's important
to pick the right one.
At this point in time, for the best balance of cost to performance and for the longest
and most fulfilling upgrade path, a board supporting Socket 939 is the most advisable. These boards can be broken down into a few categories beyond that, but the most important are Chipset and supporting features like SATA, FireWire, RAID. You must, of course, pick which boards have the exact featureset you desire. For your chipset, the nForce 3 and 4 will provide the most stability, speed and have a spotless track record, so they are usually your best choice unless you are on a very, very strict budget.
The two varieties' most crucial difference, since features like SATA, FireWire, RAID, audio subsystem types, et cetera are vary across the board (no pun intended) on both, is the expansion slots provided. nForce 3 based boards will provide AGP and nForce 4 boards will provide PCI-Express, and neither will provide the other. If you are buying a new video card, you will want to get a PCI-Express version and nForce 4, as most performance cards built after the present series will be for PCI-Express (and probably not have an AGP version.) If you have an AGP card already and don't want to replace it, you'll want to go with AGP, but bear in mind you'll likely need to replace your board to replace your video card later.
There are also 3 types of nForce 4. Standard nForce 4 is best passed over. nForce 4 Ultra provides more bandwidth and speed to components and a richer featureset. nForce 4 SLI, is just like nForce 4 but provides *2* PCI-Express x16 slots, which, if filled with identical SLI capable nVidia cards (like 6600GTs and 6800GTs) will let you run the cards in tandem for a very significant performance boost. You can also use this type of board as a more open-ended upgrade path, where you can install 1 6800GT now and another later when prices are down (it is not presently advisable to opt for 2 6600GTs, as the performance is below 1 6800GT in most tests with the present nVidia driver SLI implementation. This may change, and probably will.)
QUALITY NFORCE3 939 BOARDS:
- Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939
- MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
QUALITY NFORCE4 939 BOARDS:
- DFI NF4 Ultra-D
- DFI NF4 SLI-D
- Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
- Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9
- GIGABYTE GA-K8NXP-SLI
- MSI N8N Neo4-F (or so I hear. I wouldn't buy an MSI board again, myself. Too many bad experiences.)
- MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
- MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI
Once you've decided which variety of board you're going with, a lot of your other choices will become quite easy (hopefully).
STEP THREE: Picking a Processor
Right now, your real choices are the Athlon 64 and the Athlon 64 FX for Socket 939. The Athlon 64s are the normal CPU lineup, and the 64 FX's are the ultra high end. Needless to say, the FX series processors are faster. However, this is not to say that they are always the best buy. For most users, it is more advisable to go with a 3000+ or 3200+ even for a heavy duty gaming or heavy-lifting system, for the simple fact that price and performance are not entirely proportional. A ~$900 FX-55 costs SIX TIMES more than a ~$150 3000+, but the gain to be had from moving from a 3000+ to an FX-55 is closer to 15% than it is to 600%.
A 3000+ or 3200+ is able to sustain amazing framerates in all of today's games, even the most physics heavy ones like Half-Life 2; perform competitively in tasks like video/audio playback, compiling, encoding, rendering, et cetera. Overclocking can also bring you
into FX territory performancewise for $0 spent except for cooling apparatus, which aren't required to be extravagant at all for most Athlon 64 overclocks.
A second reason to opt for a CPU that isn't extraordinarily top of the line now, is that should you want to sell your CPU and switch to one of AMD's Dual Core Athlon 64 X2's later this year, they will drop into most existing Socket 939 boards with no other parts requiring replacement. Should you go this route, you can sell your CPU for close to its original purchase value, while chips from the FX series are already at a higher price point and likely to plummet in resale value much quicker when the time comes to upgrade. On a side note, FX series processors also run hotter and consume far more power than non-FX models.
When making the choice of what core to opt for, you'll mostly have to decide between Winchester and Venice. Venice only recently became available and is tricky to find, but should you get one, you won't pay much more, yet you'll get slightly higher performance, SSE3 support and probably more importantly-- SUPREME overclockability. Initial tests have shown these cores capable of several hundred MHz overclocks on stock cooling and voltage, meaning you can attain FX-series performance for only around $150. These are impressive savings you can easily pass on by investing in other more powerful omponents or just pocket. A Winchester core will run the tiniest bit cooler and require a bit less power, but these decreases in power/heat are not really enough to warrant the loss of clock scalability Venice offers, unless you are in a rush to get your CPU ASAP and don't intend to do any overclocking.
STEP FOUR: Picking Memory/RAM
RAM is an important part of your build selection, as picking shoddy RAM can mean your system is extraordinarily unstable. Now, this does not mean that you need to purchase any sort of 'Performance' RAM with a name like 'XMS', 'Ballistix', 'HyperX', 'Low Latency', et cetera. It simply means you should buy from a company with a reputation for producing good quality RAM. For an Athlon 64 based system, you will need DDR400/PC3200 RAM, make sure not to confuse this for DDR2, as it is not compatible. It's advisable to purchase Corsair Value Select or Kingston ValueRAM for the most ensured reliability at an extremely economical price point.
A common misconception is that to overclock the CPU, RAM clocked higher than 400 MHz (DDR400/PC320) is required-- it is NOT NECESSARY to purchase RAM rated for clocks higher than 400 MHz, as when overclocking on the A64 platform, you are able to reduce the RAM clock divisor to keep the RAM from running past its rated spec, even if the CPU is overclocked. Running the CPU host clock overclocked and the RAM synchronous to it does provide a small performance gain, but it is usually not worth the extra cost investment and is generally overshadowed by any significant CPU overclock.
Another myth is that low latency memory has a strong impact on system performance, or allows improved overclocking. Latency tightening actually only causes miniscule performance gains measured well under 5%, usually only detectable in sensitive synthetic benchmarks. These gains are usually achieved by purchasing RAM that is 200% or more of the cost of value-priced RAM which is every bit as reliable and almost exactly as quick despite looser timings. RAM Latencies are also entirely unrelated to CPU overclocking and will have entirely no impact on the clocks you can attain in that realm. The same goes for the price bracket of the RAM, 'HyperX' or 'Performance Series' etc. RAM will not affect your system's overclockability.
RAM should be installed in identicial pairs for Dual Channel support, which dramatically increases CPU to RAM bandwidth and speed and can provide a significant speed boost. It is not necessary, and not advisable, to purchase RAM in "Dual Channel Kits". You can just as easily buy 2 identical sticks when you purchase your RAM, and you'll save money for it. There is no benefit to a kit.
STEP FIVE: Picking a Video Card
If you're a gamer, this is going to be a very important step for you. The first obvious choice is, nVidia or ATi? Neither company has a real inherent advantage, so this issue will come down to upgradability, features, and perhaps brand loyalty on your part.
In the budget bracket, the nVidia 6600GT is unrivaled for cost-to-performance. For about $175, you can have a card that will perform exceptionally well in any modern game, at around 1024x768 with 4x Antialiasing, 8x Anisotropic Filtering; or 1600x1200 at 2xAA, 8xAF, et cetera. They also support all modern standards such as Pixel Shader 3.0 and DirectX 9 Support.
For about $100 more, the ATi X800XL is a highly recommendable card, as it performs about on par with a 6800 GT for significantly mess money. The 6800 Ultra and X850XT are usually not terribly advisable due to their extremely high prices, and very small gains compared to the FAR cheaper models below them.
Now a critical decision, SLI or otherwise? With nVidia's SLI technology, you can use 2 identical nVidia video cards that support it (e.g. 6600GT, 6800GT) work in tandem for higher performance. This can attain the highest performance on the market by combining 6800GTs or 6800 Ultras, but it will come at quite a cost. Since modern games do not truly push the limits of midrange cards like the 6800GT, the more recommendable option to buying 2 cards outright is to buy one 6800GT now, and one identical 6800GT later, when prices have fallen, thus saving money compared to buying a card from the next generation (Which we'll probably see in 2006.) No SLI support exists for any ATi cards yet, but if that changes in the near future remains to be seen (it probably will, but not too soon.)
STEP SIX: Picking Drives
The first thing to consider is your hard drives. Parallel ATA or Serial ATA? Size? Brand? Speed?
Serial ATA disks are not inherently faster (as the mechanics in the disks are the true bottleneck and not the bus they are on.) But SATA's NCQ support can increase your disk performance. The cables are also thinner and restrict airflow in the case much less than Parallel rounded cables or ribbons. There are some downsides to SATA, though. SATA will more often than not complicate a Windows XP installation by requiring a floppy be used to install the SATA controller driver, unless it's slipstreamed into the install disc. The cost is also a bit higher. If these are not issues for you, Serial ATA disks are just fine. Otherwise, you should probably opt for PATA. Bear in mind you can always use a Parallel ATA disk for your OS and Serial for additional disks, it's fine to mix and match. It should go without saying that to use Serial ATA drives, you must have a Serial ATA controller (most boards come with one integrated onto them these days. But check on it before you buy.)
The next issue is speeds. Most disks are 7200 RPM, this is the rotational speed of the platters inside the disk. The exception is the Western Digital Raptors, which spin at 10,000 RPM. While it is usually the instinct of someone building a high-end system to opt for these disks, it's not truly the ideal choice. For the price of one Raptor, one can get nearly 400 GB of storage from cheaper disks that are nearly as fast, and almost
entirely silent, that also emit less heat. Raptors have an unfortunate tendency to emit an irritating whining noise, and some obnoxiously loud head chatter. If you're not very sensitive to PC noise, have a good means of keeping the disk cool and plenty of money to spend on a small performance gain, you can go with Raptors, but I highly recommend 7200 RPM disks.
When selecting a 7200 RPM disk you should ideally opt for smaller disks rather than one large one. The cold hard truth is that hard disks are just one big moving part (with a few nonmoving parts tacked on) and they can, and do, fail. Smaller disks hold less data and when one of them inevitably goes (god forbid) you won't lose anywhere near as much with say, one 160 GB disk as one 400 GB one. Buy them based on the best warranty, if you can.
When it comes to brand, the best choices are usually Seagate 7200.7 or 7200.8 series disk or a Samsung Spinpoint, as they provide low cost, high speed and reliability, a great track record, and extremely low noise, almost to the point of being entirely inaudible (under a couple case fans, they ARE entirely inaudible.)
Now, Optical drives. Buy based on what you need to read, write, and burn, and be sure to get a good brand to ensure reliability. The brands I'd most recommend are NEC and Lite-On, though Plextor drives are also quite nice. One of the best deals on the market is the NEC 3250A series, which support DVD+R, -R, +/-RW, and are capable of Double layer burning. They come in a variety of colors and sell for about $50 making them very, very affordable. They are also almost entirely silent even under operation at full speed.
It's never a bad idea to add a second drive just for reading DVD's and CD's for on-the-fly duplication, but don't waste extra money buying a second burner if you can possibly avoid it.
STEP SEVEN: Picking a Power Supply
Power supplies are extremely important. Using a shoddy one can mean anywhere from system instability to total failure and damage to your hardware. So it's vital you pick the right one for your needs. This doesn't mean to exaggerate your needs and spend far more than you should on a supply that's delivering 3x more juice than your machine can soak up, so do read on and make sure to get a good deal.
The most important thing about buying a power supply is that Wattage is a myth. Power supplies these days supply so much amperage to devices on the 5v and 3.3v rail that the more that's added in each manufacturer's newest models is irrelevant, no matter how much it raises the average wattage of the 3.3v, 5v and 12v rails together. What truly matters is how much juice is supplied, in Amperes, on the 12v rail.
You can add this up using the excellent charts on this page:
http://www.shsc.info/powersupplyguide
... which also contains a more verbose explanation of what I am briefly summarizing here. Add up the total amperage of the components that will go into your system, and leave a little extra headroom for future upgrades, and pick your supply accordingly. Pick it from a brand name you know can be trusted-- one that won't make up phony ratings (like 700W for $40), will give you a supply that won't die and possibly fry your whole system, and one that won't make your PC sound like a jet engine.
A short list of brands that are ideal:
Antec, Enermax, Fortron, SeaSonic, PC Power+Cooling, Tagan.
A list of supplies to avoid:
Deer, Eagle, Sky Hawk, about anything with an animal in it, AND AVOID ANYTHING THAT COMES WITH A NON-ANTEC CASE. THIS CANNOT BE STRESSED ENOUGH.
A great deal can be had by purchasng one of Antec's mini-tower cases like the Antec Sonata with a True380 supply, which is enough to run almost any modern machine that isn't really pushing any absurd power requirements. Your standard PC with say, an Athlon 64 3200+, a 6800GT, 1 or 2 hard disks and an optical drive will not even come close to maxing out the supply included with the case (read the next section for more on that topic) and it's a great overall value.
STEP EIGHT: Picking a Case
The kind of case you pick is going to depend largely on what you need to fit in it, and what kind of size, shape and appearance matches your personality and environments, of course. However, there are some guidelines to follow.
Don't skimp on it and buy something for $30 with a window and 15 fan cutouts in it, odds are it's shoddily built and is going to come to bits shortly after purchase. But don't go spending >$100 unless you really have money to throw into holes, or are very fanatical about your system's appearance. I'm not going to try and tell you what you like and don't, just remember to not go overboard and remember that excess money spent on superfluous aluminum cases is money possibly better spent on beefier internals instead.
Remember that having loads of 80mm fans will generate an irritating whiny sound, and produce less real airflow than 120mm fans, which generate far less air turbulance. Well placed 120mm's will be very, very quiet, and if you stick a fan controller on them and tone them down a notch, you can find a good equillibrium between heat and quiet that can put your system at fantastically low, possibly even near-inaudible, levels.
Antec offers one particular deal I will bring up, Antec Sonata cases which are small, managable Mini-Towers which come in black, fit standard ATX form factor motherboards, and include a very powerful 380W power supply (read the above section) and a quiet 120mm fan in the rear that is enough to cool the whole system with no intake fan in most cases. It's solidly built, fits plenty of drives and is quite a deal given the included bonuses and features. Just a suggestion, pick the case you like an run with it.
STEP NINE: Picking Audio
You may be wondering why this is way the hell at the end. It's at the end because I'm not an audio fanatic, and I'm the wrong person to talk to about any kind of enthusiast audio. That said, I listen to tons of music and play tons of games, and good audio quality is important to me. I've never been done wrong by nForce 2, 3 or 4's onboard AC97 codec audio, and modern boards with chipsets like nF3 and 4 now supply things like 5.1 output support and optical audio. So if you aren't fanatical (like me), this may be a very good, economical choice for you. I'm not going to take the risk of steering you wrong with an expansion card, so you can let someone else advise you in that realm.
I'll be recommending an AMD-based system in this thread due mostly to upgradability-- Socket 939 allows for unparalelled expandability with the option to upgrade to an FX-series or a Dual-Core processor later this year, and support for SLI, and the only available chipset with an integrated hardware firewall, et cetera. Intel motherboards will need to be replaced with ones supporting a new chipset to use a Dual-Core CPU, and current tests show AMD's dual-core offerings best Intel's in almost every category either way. The current Athlon 64 CPUs are also faster in most tasks than their Intel counterparts, run cooler, cost less and use less power. If you are among the Intel faithful and would like to protest this, please don't do it here, as I will update this thread recommending an Intel chip and such-based system if it becomes the best deal in the future. I appreciate your understanding.
That said, let's get on with the guide, shall we?
I've divided this into two parts. First off, a step by step breakdown of picking the parts on your own. The second part is a list of 'scenario' PCs for various uses and price ranges and the parts I'd recommend go into them.
STEP ONE: BUILD OR BUY?
Most users here, I think, will be more interested in the idea of building their own machine from scratch. This gives you more control over how it goes together, and to a degree, more control as to what to do if you want to upgrade later if something goes wrong. You'll usually pay a decent bit less by this route and learn
a lot, too.
If you do choose not to build your PC, try to find a cheap local shop that will
assemble the machine for you from the exact parts you pick, or go to my favorite custom builder site, http://www.monarchcomputer.com .. who will let you configure the exact parts you need with some extremely reasonable prices.
STEP TWO: Picking a Motherboard
The board you pick is going to be the heart of your machine. It will specify what
type of CPU you can use at what speed, what RAM you must use, what type of video
and expansion cards you can install, what variety of hard disk you can install and
how many, and what kind of case you can use, among other factors. So it's important
to pick the right one.
At this point in time, for the best balance of cost to performance and for the longest
and most fulfilling upgrade path, a board supporting Socket 939 is the most advisable. These boards can be broken down into a few categories beyond that, but the most important are Chipset and supporting features like SATA, FireWire, RAID. You must, of course, pick which boards have the exact featureset you desire. For your chipset, the nForce 3 and 4 will provide the most stability, speed and have a spotless track record, so they are usually your best choice unless you are on a very, very strict budget.
The two varieties' most crucial difference, since features like SATA, FireWire, RAID, audio subsystem types, et cetera are vary across the board (no pun intended) on both, is the expansion slots provided. nForce 3 based boards will provide AGP and nForce 4 boards will provide PCI-Express, and neither will provide the other. If you are buying a new video card, you will want to get a PCI-Express version and nForce 4, as most performance cards built after the present series will be for PCI-Express (and probably not have an AGP version.) If you have an AGP card already and don't want to replace it, you'll want to go with AGP, but bear in mind you'll likely need to replace your board to replace your video card later.
There are also 3 types of nForce 4. Standard nForce 4 is best passed over. nForce 4 Ultra provides more bandwidth and speed to components and a richer featureset. nForce 4 SLI, is just like nForce 4 but provides *2* PCI-Express x16 slots, which, if filled with identical SLI capable nVidia cards (like 6600GTs and 6800GTs) will let you run the cards in tandem for a very significant performance boost. You can also use this type of board as a more open-ended upgrade path, where you can install 1 6800GT now and another later when prices are down (it is not presently advisable to opt for 2 6600GTs, as the performance is below 1 6800GT in most tests with the present nVidia driver SLI implementation. This may change, and probably will.)
QUALITY NFORCE3 939 BOARDS:
- Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939
- MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
QUALITY NFORCE4 939 BOARDS:
- DFI NF4 Ultra-D
- DFI NF4 SLI-D
- Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
- Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9
- GIGABYTE GA-K8NXP-SLI
- MSI N8N Neo4-F (or so I hear. I wouldn't buy an MSI board again, myself. Too many bad experiences.)
- MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
- MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI
Once you've decided which variety of board you're going with, a lot of your other choices will become quite easy (hopefully).
STEP THREE: Picking a Processor
Right now, your real choices are the Athlon 64 and the Athlon 64 FX for Socket 939. The Athlon 64s are the normal CPU lineup, and the 64 FX's are the ultra high end. Needless to say, the FX series processors are faster. However, this is not to say that they are always the best buy. For most users, it is more advisable to go with a 3000+ or 3200+ even for a heavy duty gaming or heavy-lifting system, for the simple fact that price and performance are not entirely proportional. A ~$900 FX-55 costs SIX TIMES more than a ~$150 3000+, but the gain to be had from moving from a 3000+ to an FX-55 is closer to 15% than it is to 600%.
A 3000+ or 3200+ is able to sustain amazing framerates in all of today's games, even the most physics heavy ones like Half-Life 2; perform competitively in tasks like video/audio playback, compiling, encoding, rendering, et cetera. Overclocking can also bring you
into FX territory performancewise for $0 spent except for cooling apparatus, which aren't required to be extravagant at all for most Athlon 64 overclocks.
A second reason to opt for a CPU that isn't extraordinarily top of the line now, is that should you want to sell your CPU and switch to one of AMD's Dual Core Athlon 64 X2's later this year, they will drop into most existing Socket 939 boards with no other parts requiring replacement. Should you go this route, you can sell your CPU for close to its original purchase value, while chips from the FX series are already at a higher price point and likely to plummet in resale value much quicker when the time comes to upgrade. On a side note, FX series processors also run hotter and consume far more power than non-FX models.
When making the choice of what core to opt for, you'll mostly have to decide between Winchester and Venice. Venice only recently became available and is tricky to find, but should you get one, you won't pay much more, yet you'll get slightly higher performance, SSE3 support and probably more importantly-- SUPREME overclockability. Initial tests have shown these cores capable of several hundred MHz overclocks on stock cooling and voltage, meaning you can attain FX-series performance for only around $150. These are impressive savings you can easily pass on by investing in other more powerful omponents or just pocket. A Winchester core will run the tiniest bit cooler and require a bit less power, but these decreases in power/heat are not really enough to warrant the loss of clock scalability Venice offers, unless you are in a rush to get your CPU ASAP and don't intend to do any overclocking.
STEP FOUR: Picking Memory/RAM
RAM is an important part of your build selection, as picking shoddy RAM can mean your system is extraordinarily unstable. Now, this does not mean that you need to purchase any sort of 'Performance' RAM with a name like 'XMS', 'Ballistix', 'HyperX', 'Low Latency', et cetera. It simply means you should buy from a company with a reputation for producing good quality RAM. For an Athlon 64 based system, you will need DDR400/PC3200 RAM, make sure not to confuse this for DDR2, as it is not compatible. It's advisable to purchase Corsair Value Select or Kingston ValueRAM for the most ensured reliability at an extremely economical price point.
A common misconception is that to overclock the CPU, RAM clocked higher than 400 MHz (DDR400/PC320) is required-- it is NOT NECESSARY to purchase RAM rated for clocks higher than 400 MHz, as when overclocking on the A64 platform, you are able to reduce the RAM clock divisor to keep the RAM from running past its rated spec, even if the CPU is overclocked. Running the CPU host clock overclocked and the RAM synchronous to it does provide a small performance gain, but it is usually not worth the extra cost investment and is generally overshadowed by any significant CPU overclock.
Another myth is that low latency memory has a strong impact on system performance, or allows improved overclocking. Latency tightening actually only causes miniscule performance gains measured well under 5%, usually only detectable in sensitive synthetic benchmarks. These gains are usually achieved by purchasing RAM that is 200% or more of the cost of value-priced RAM which is every bit as reliable and almost exactly as quick despite looser timings. RAM Latencies are also entirely unrelated to CPU overclocking and will have entirely no impact on the clocks you can attain in that realm. The same goes for the price bracket of the RAM, 'HyperX' or 'Performance Series' etc. RAM will not affect your system's overclockability.
RAM should be installed in identicial pairs for Dual Channel support, which dramatically increases CPU to RAM bandwidth and speed and can provide a significant speed boost. It is not necessary, and not advisable, to purchase RAM in "Dual Channel Kits". You can just as easily buy 2 identical sticks when you purchase your RAM, and you'll save money for it. There is no benefit to a kit.
STEP FIVE: Picking a Video Card
If you're a gamer, this is going to be a very important step for you. The first obvious choice is, nVidia or ATi? Neither company has a real inherent advantage, so this issue will come down to upgradability, features, and perhaps brand loyalty on your part.
In the budget bracket, the nVidia 6600GT is unrivaled for cost-to-performance. For about $175, you can have a card that will perform exceptionally well in any modern game, at around 1024x768 with 4x Antialiasing, 8x Anisotropic Filtering; or 1600x1200 at 2xAA, 8xAF, et cetera. They also support all modern standards such as Pixel Shader 3.0 and DirectX 9 Support.
For about $100 more, the ATi X800XL is a highly recommendable card, as it performs about on par with a 6800 GT for significantly mess money. The 6800 Ultra and X850XT are usually not terribly advisable due to their extremely high prices, and very small gains compared to the FAR cheaper models below them.
Now a critical decision, SLI or otherwise? With nVidia's SLI technology, you can use 2 identical nVidia video cards that support it (e.g. 6600GT, 6800GT) work in tandem for higher performance. This can attain the highest performance on the market by combining 6800GTs or 6800 Ultras, but it will come at quite a cost. Since modern games do not truly push the limits of midrange cards like the 6800GT, the more recommendable option to buying 2 cards outright is to buy one 6800GT now, and one identical 6800GT later, when prices have fallen, thus saving money compared to buying a card from the next generation (Which we'll probably see in 2006.) No SLI support exists for any ATi cards yet, but if that changes in the near future remains to be seen (it probably will, but not too soon.)
STEP SIX: Picking Drives
The first thing to consider is your hard drives. Parallel ATA or Serial ATA? Size? Brand? Speed?
Serial ATA disks are not inherently faster (as the mechanics in the disks are the true bottleneck and not the bus they are on.) But SATA's NCQ support can increase your disk performance. The cables are also thinner and restrict airflow in the case much less than Parallel rounded cables or ribbons. There are some downsides to SATA, though. SATA will more often than not complicate a Windows XP installation by requiring a floppy be used to install the SATA controller driver, unless it's slipstreamed into the install disc. The cost is also a bit higher. If these are not issues for you, Serial ATA disks are just fine. Otherwise, you should probably opt for PATA. Bear in mind you can always use a Parallel ATA disk for your OS and Serial for additional disks, it's fine to mix and match. It should go without saying that to use Serial ATA drives, you must have a Serial ATA controller (most boards come with one integrated onto them these days. But check on it before you buy.)
The next issue is speeds. Most disks are 7200 RPM, this is the rotational speed of the platters inside the disk. The exception is the Western Digital Raptors, which spin at 10,000 RPM. While it is usually the instinct of someone building a high-end system to opt for these disks, it's not truly the ideal choice. For the price of one Raptor, one can get nearly 400 GB of storage from cheaper disks that are nearly as fast, and almost
entirely silent, that also emit less heat. Raptors have an unfortunate tendency to emit an irritating whining noise, and some obnoxiously loud head chatter. If you're not very sensitive to PC noise, have a good means of keeping the disk cool and plenty of money to spend on a small performance gain, you can go with Raptors, but I highly recommend 7200 RPM disks.
When selecting a 7200 RPM disk you should ideally opt for smaller disks rather than one large one. The cold hard truth is that hard disks are just one big moving part (with a few nonmoving parts tacked on) and they can, and do, fail. Smaller disks hold less data and when one of them inevitably goes (god forbid) you won't lose anywhere near as much with say, one 160 GB disk as one 400 GB one. Buy them based on the best warranty, if you can.
When it comes to brand, the best choices are usually Seagate 7200.7 or 7200.8 series disk or a Samsung Spinpoint, as they provide low cost, high speed and reliability, a great track record, and extremely low noise, almost to the point of being entirely inaudible (under a couple case fans, they ARE entirely inaudible.)
Now, Optical drives. Buy based on what you need to read, write, and burn, and be sure to get a good brand to ensure reliability. The brands I'd most recommend are NEC and Lite-On, though Plextor drives are also quite nice. One of the best deals on the market is the NEC 3250A series, which support DVD+R, -R, +/-RW, and are capable of Double layer burning. They come in a variety of colors and sell for about $50 making them very, very affordable. They are also almost entirely silent even under operation at full speed.
It's never a bad idea to add a second drive just for reading DVD's and CD's for on-the-fly duplication, but don't waste extra money buying a second burner if you can possibly avoid it.
STEP SEVEN: Picking a Power Supply
Power supplies are extremely important. Using a shoddy one can mean anywhere from system instability to total failure and damage to your hardware. So it's vital you pick the right one for your needs. This doesn't mean to exaggerate your needs and spend far more than you should on a supply that's delivering 3x more juice than your machine can soak up, so do read on and make sure to get a good deal.
The most important thing about buying a power supply is that Wattage is a myth. Power supplies these days supply so much amperage to devices on the 5v and 3.3v rail that the more that's added in each manufacturer's newest models is irrelevant, no matter how much it raises the average wattage of the 3.3v, 5v and 12v rails together. What truly matters is how much juice is supplied, in Amperes, on the 12v rail.
You can add this up using the excellent charts on this page:
http://www.shsc.info/powersupplyguide
... which also contains a more verbose explanation of what I am briefly summarizing here. Add up the total amperage of the components that will go into your system, and leave a little extra headroom for future upgrades, and pick your supply accordingly. Pick it from a brand name you know can be trusted-- one that won't make up phony ratings (like 700W for $40), will give you a supply that won't die and possibly fry your whole system, and one that won't make your PC sound like a jet engine.
A short list of brands that are ideal:
Antec, Enermax, Fortron, SeaSonic, PC Power+Cooling, Tagan.
A list of supplies to avoid:
Deer, Eagle, Sky Hawk, about anything with an animal in it, AND AVOID ANYTHING THAT COMES WITH A NON-ANTEC CASE. THIS CANNOT BE STRESSED ENOUGH.
A great deal can be had by purchasng one of Antec's mini-tower cases like the Antec Sonata with a True380 supply, which is enough to run almost any modern machine that isn't really pushing any absurd power requirements. Your standard PC with say, an Athlon 64 3200+, a 6800GT, 1 or 2 hard disks and an optical drive will not even come close to maxing out the supply included with the case (read the next section for more on that topic) and it's a great overall value.
STEP EIGHT: Picking a Case
The kind of case you pick is going to depend largely on what you need to fit in it, and what kind of size, shape and appearance matches your personality and environments, of course. However, there are some guidelines to follow.
Don't skimp on it and buy something for $30 with a window and 15 fan cutouts in it, odds are it's shoddily built and is going to come to bits shortly after purchase. But don't go spending >$100 unless you really have money to throw into holes, or are very fanatical about your system's appearance. I'm not going to try and tell you what you like and don't, just remember to not go overboard and remember that excess money spent on superfluous aluminum cases is money possibly better spent on beefier internals instead.
Remember that having loads of 80mm fans will generate an irritating whiny sound, and produce less real airflow than 120mm fans, which generate far less air turbulance. Well placed 120mm's will be very, very quiet, and if you stick a fan controller on them and tone them down a notch, you can find a good equillibrium between heat and quiet that can put your system at fantastically low, possibly even near-inaudible, levels.
Antec offers one particular deal I will bring up, Antec Sonata cases which are small, managable Mini-Towers which come in black, fit standard ATX form factor motherboards, and include a very powerful 380W power supply (read the above section) and a quiet 120mm fan in the rear that is enough to cool the whole system with no intake fan in most cases. It's solidly built, fits plenty of drives and is quite a deal given the included bonuses and features. Just a suggestion, pick the case you like an run with it.
STEP NINE: Picking Audio
You may be wondering why this is way the hell at the end. It's at the end because I'm not an audio fanatic, and I'm the wrong person to talk to about any kind of enthusiast audio. That said, I listen to tons of music and play tons of games, and good audio quality is important to me. I've never been done wrong by nForce 2, 3 or 4's onboard AC97 codec audio, and modern boards with chipsets like nF3 and 4 now supply things like 5.1 output support and optical audio. So if you aren't fanatical (like me), this may be a very good, economical choice for you. I'm not going to take the risk of steering you wrong with an expansion card, so you can let someone else advise you in that realm.
