My friend gave me a Asus M4A77TD motherboard and an Nvidia 8400 graphics card, so I scrounged together some parts and built a new computer to replace the ancient pile of fail that I've been using.

AMD Phenom II X2 Black Edition 3.2Ghz dual core processor
2GB RAM (I'll be buying another stick soon)
1Tb hard drive
LG DVD burner (It was $25 and I didn't want to spend the extra on a blu-ray drive)
600w power supply
Windows 7 Ultimate (What can I say, it was free and I'd like to play some games)

And this case:





So far it's been doing pretty well. A huge leap from my Pentium 4 2.0Ghz.
The case fans are keeping it nice and cool. The highest temp I've seen so far is 37C.

That's pretty damn nice.

I'd like a new puter but I don't think I'll be buying one. I'm prolly going to stick with my laptop and my current puter until it dies.

How much did you pay altogether?

About $270 (£182) out of my pocket.

AMD wasn't my first choice, but considering the motherboard was free and their processors are a great deal, I can't complain.
$100 for a 3.2Ghz isn't bad at all.

That is a pretty good bargain you got there.

Win7 a 64bit version?

My bro bought a copy for his laptop and it flies.

Yeah, 64bit.

Well this graphics card really fucking sucks and I'm going to need a new one soon.
As soon as I get paid I'll be ordering something better.

I was gonna warn you about that, but decided to keep my mouth shut, since it was free after all :)

But, since your looking, I recommend an ATI Radeon HD series, either a 5670, or a 4850. Both will run in the 100-120$ range, and generally have the same specs. But on the bright side, you'll be "Future-proofed" for a while.

Yeah I knew it wasn't very good to begin with, but I figured it would at least get me by for a couple months. It's been crashing a lot lately (even when playing a DVD) and it's pissing me off.
You don't have to worry about hurting my feelings or anything :lol:

I was think about spending around $180 (my brother finally payed back some money he owed me, so I have a little extra to spend).

I seem to remember the Radeon cards had a lot of issues in Linux. Has that improved in the last couple years?


I had been looking into a GTX 260 as it seems to get pretty good performance, but then I read that EVGA "recommends" 36A on +12v for the power supply. My PSU only lists 32A.
Then again, they did say "recommended" and not "required" so I dunno. I don't want to drop that kind of money on a graphics card and then have to turn around and spend another ~$100 for a good PSU to run it with.

Reading on Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-radeon-power,2122.html) it looks like my 32A PSU should be able to power a 260 if I wanted (with the 260 using 15.9A).

I'd be open to an ATI in the same price range that offers better performance, but from what I've seen they seem to all be pretty close performance-wise or the Nvidia slightly edges out the ATI card.

Here's the one I've already started on, but probably have another couple of months until it's 100% up and running:
Antec 1200 Custom case (Pic below) - Purchased
Asus Crosshair 4 Formula Mobo (Pic also below) - Purchased
AMD Phenom II X6 2.8 GHz Processor - Will get next week
8 Gigs G.Skill DDR3 2000
XFX ATi Radeon HD 5770 1 Gig (Eventually, 3 of these in CrossFire)
A few Red and UV Cold Cathodes inside, 5" Color/Graphic LCD Display (To hide the reservoir), BD-RW Drive, and Water cooled completely with UV Red coolant. Honestly though, I'm looking at about another 8 months until it's up and running though :lol:
In an unusual name change for one of my PC's (Usually SlutBox V*), I've named her "XaoC" >:)

Mobo:

Case (Set me back almost 370$ to get powder coated candy apple red on the inside):

That's hot.

Semi-related since it's about computers. I started my first day of training at CompTIA, they wanted everyone to take a preliminary assessment test. I got a 97 of 100 score :lol:

Lulz :up:

Nice PC, God. I'm diggin' that case a lot.

Mine is fucked at the moment, thats why I haven't been posting that much recently.

I got a good deal on an EVGA GTX 260, so I've got that in there now.
It handles Battlefield Bad Company 2 pretty well. Damn that game is addictive :lol:

I got it on the Steam sale for $33. I wouldn't mind playing Modern Warfare 2, but I'm not gonna shell out $60 for it.

This is one sexy computer.

Thats a really nice card, man. *jealousness* lulz

MW:2 is a joke compared to COD:4. If you can get a copy of that cheap I'd highly recommend it. MW:2 isn't necessarily a bad game, its just not as good as the original in my opinion.

Got moar ramz.
8GB now (4x2GB) for some dual channel goodness.

Also hooked up my old monitor, so now I've got a 23" (1920x1080) and a 19" (1440x900).

My geek cave is slowly coming to fruition :up:

Nice. You have a very epic room. Just know you'll never be as epic as me.

I can only dream.

You seriously have no idea who you just insulted, do you?

I'm aware that he's God, but that wasn't really that insult, considering that I said his room was cool, maybe even cooler than me. Please excuse my aspergers.

:lol: What in the hell were the chances of 2 people with Aspergers being on this board?

High, considering this IS the internet.

Praise him....

And worship Stan