Building my first computer, need helfpul sage advice

[nintennuendo]

So I'm building a computer for my mother for browsing and to vpn into work to do stuff on the weekend. I, however, will use it for hd movies and playing oblivion, half-life 2, and maybe fallout 3. I want to have a intel cpu with two cores at at least 2.6ghz each. I also want it to be quiet. I don't really know what else to look for. Are all motherboards compatible with all processors? Do all motherboards support all types of hard drives? If there is a in-depth faq on up to date hardware, I mean, I don't know what to look for and I'm trying to do this on the cheap.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

[BWiz]

Are all motherboards compatible with all processors?No. Intel processors use different sockets than AMD processors. And the Intel Core 2 Duo uses a different socket from the newer Intel i7 series.

Do all motherboards support all types of hard drives?The most common type of hard drive for desktops nowadays are Serial ATA drives. Most motherboards support this type of hard drive. There are other types of hard drives out there, thought I don't know too much about them since I've never considered using them.

Oblivion, Half-life 2, and maybe Fallout 3(Yeah! Gamer!) If you are going to be watching HD movies and gaming, you may as well invest in a top of the line graphics card. At least it'll last a while. I'd recommend the Nvidia 9 Series series. Get plenty of RAM too, though if you have a very powerful processor with large L1/L2 (L3?) caches, you don't need too much RAM, though more hurts your wallet more than your system. Also, consider getting a 10,000 RPM hard drive, instead of the classic 7,200. A 10,000 RPM hard drive will access information faster, so you won't have as long loading times. Of course, to reducing it even further, you would get Solid State Drive (SSD), though I'm not sure if they make it for desktops or not.

Just before you go buying things, do your research. My advice is to select your processor and graphics card first, then select your motherboard. Make sure your power supply can handle all the things you are plugging into it. Sufficient cooling is essential to the operation to your computer, don't overlook it. If you are investing is a top of the line computer, invest in a good monitor too.

Also, I'd suggest you learn more about comptuers before you jump into building one. It's simple, if you know what you are doing.

[ptmuldoon]

As a suggestion too. www.newegg.com is your friend.

You'll likely find decent deals on a motherboard, CPU combo. Since your new to building a PC, grabbing a combo deal will ensure your buying a cpu and MB that fit each other.

IMO, the most critical piece in the entire build process is setting the CPU carefully, and placing the CPU cooler on it without touching the top of CPU. Most factory CPU's ship with heat sync already on them. SO DON'T TOUCH IT!

After that, the entire thing is pretty much plug and play. you'll be able to figure out what goes where pretty much by just looking at it.

[oracleguy]

I would recommend getting at least 2GB of memory. Unless you really have a lot of money to spend, go with a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad over the newer Core i7 since it is new and expensive. Plus the i7s use DDR3 which is substantially more expensive right now than DDR2.

If you go with 4GB or more of memory you will need to run a 64-bit operating system which won't be a problem for games. It could be an issue for your VPN software if it doesn't support a 64-bit OS. OpenVPN clients support 64-bit however the Cisco one does not for whatever stupid reason.

Do some more research and start picking out parts and post back what you are looking at and we can answer more specific questions.

[nintennuendo]

My limit is 500$ max, and I've already got a good minotaur. Monitor. 19 inch dell flat screen, 1440x900. Enough for what she and I will use it for.

Another thing I'm worrying about are all the cables that go inside. I worked IT for two years where I mostly helped stupid users, but I took apart a fair few desktops, and there were a hell of a lot of cables and cords. do I need to purchase them all seperately, or do the things i'm buying, cards and drives, come with their own cords?

also, I'm even worse off on the area of cooling and fans. I have literally no idea what to do there, besides.. I hear liquid nitrogen is good for cooling? Should I dump the whole box in a bowl of it? They did it on Terminator 2 to the T1000 and he got pretty cold..

[peteyb383]

Don't worry about the cables... most of them come from the power supply and it's pretty self explanatory which ones go where, and there will be a bunch left over. You won't have to buy any other cables separately most likely, they typically with the motherboard and power supply.

As for cooling, for mid-level gaming i don't think liquid cooling is what you need, especially if your budget is $500.

Another thing to consider with HD's, besides RPM, is the cache. 32MB cut down loading times and boot up time for me by quite a bit.

[oracleguy]

Another thing I'm worrying about are all the cables that go inside. I worked IT for two years where I mostly helped stupid users, but I took apart a fair few desktops, and there were a hell of a lot of cables and cords. do I need to purchase them all seperately, or do the things i'm buying, cards and drives, come with their own cords?

also, I'm even worse off on the area of cooling and fans. I have literally no idea what to do there, besides.. I hear liquid nitrogen is good for cooling? Should I dump the whole box in a bowl of it? They did it on Terminator 2 to the T1000 and he got pretty cold..

The motherboard and power supply will come with all the cords you need. Liquid nitrogen cooling is extreme overkill for what you are doing and massively outside your budget (not to mention dangerous to work with). Just get a couple of fans for the case you picked and you'll be fine. Air cooling will be sufficient.

[BWiz]

If you know where to look $500 is enough to build a mid range system. Oracle's right, no need for liquid cooling. With $500, I'd for for an older Intel cores (I saw a $119 Core 2 Duo 2.8 ghz w/ 3mb L2 on newegg).

Your processor, graphics card and RAM are going to be the heavy hitters. So select them first. Find a decent motherboard and a case which can hold it all plus a fan or two. Worry about hard drives, sound cards fans etc after.

If you can scavenge parts from other computers, such as the ethernet/modem card, cd /dvd drives, try that, and it'll save you some cash.