New and need a bit of guidence.

Weebee

Hello, I am Patrick. I am 16. I have been playing video games since I was really young, but I have never had any experience in building a computer. I have always bought store made computers and stuff equivalent that. My current computer is an AlienWare that I have receive for Christmas a couple of years ago from my father. I am just realizing that the already factory made computers aren't worth that price.

Well now that you know a little about me (but that might have been a little off topic ) we can get to my questions. I am really into gaming and I want to optimize my computer to have the best experience in which ever game I play.

Graphic Cards: I have searched around the internet for a week or so and I have found that the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro is a good card for the price. Both from the professional and the users reviews. I was wondering if there is another Graphics cards this isn't over the top in price and is just as good or better.
RAM/Memory: I want to know what memory and what kind of it is compatible with the Graphic Card and/or Motherboard and which do you suggest. I want about 1gb to 3gb of Memory.
Sound Cards: Eh, I don't really think to much about Sound Cards. I don't find them important. I use headphones anyways, so I don't need to be able to support like a 7.1 surround sound.
Motherboard/Processors: I haven't read much into Motherboard and/or Processors but I am open to suggestions.

Anything else a person can throw in I will also be greatly excepted.
I am not looking to spend a boat load of money but I am willing to go to a reasonable amount.

Thanks for any help, Patrick.

PS. Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

temeteus82

Hi there and welcome to DriverHeaven!

I wonder where you have read that ATI Radeon 9700 Pro is currently good card, that card is rather old and you can't get any new ones on the market.

If I were you I would get Intel's E8400 dual core CPU and some motherboard based on Intel's P35 or P45 chipset the later is newer and a bit better chipset. As for RAM if you are using 32-bit OS then get some RAM kit of 2 Gb DDR2 RAM at 800MHz, they are in 2 x 1Gb stick configuration. Sound chips are todays built in to the motherboard so if you aren't HC audio guy you might save some $$$ on that. And finally the GFX card. Depending how much money you like to put into it you might want to look AMD/ATi's Radeon HD3XXX/4XXX series or the nVidia 88XX series that has G92 core or the newer 9XXX series.

[EDIT] Thread moved to correct part of the forums.

procupine14

also fielding your RAM statement OP. You need to stick to even numbered RAM over 1GB ie. 2 4 8. Try to stay away from 3GB of RAM (even though there arent 3gig kits you can still do it with a 2 and a 1......but just dont)

Matth

Things got very confusing as Nvidia's new numbering scheme overlaps ATI's old.

An ATI Radeon 9700 Pro is a rather long in the tooth AGP card, it would NOT fit a new build.

Another common misconception, the graphics memory being "compatible with" something else started in the era of DDR on some motherboards and some graphics cards, with the misconception that graphics with DDR memory couldn't be used with an SDRAM motherboard. The only thing the graphics memory is, or needs to be, compatible with is the graphics card that the maker puts it on - these days, you do not get user upgradable graphics memory. The graphics card is a "black box", the only thing that matters is the connections.

Modern PCI-E systems require a PCI-E card, and 2.0 is backward compatible with 1.x.
Recent AGP systems require a 1.5V (4x/8x) AGP card and will not support old 3.3V (2x maximum) cards. AGP is dying out.
Very old AGP systems may require a 3.3V AGP card