[Spearce]

Alright I'm a noob at building computers. Never done it before however have always wanted to. I am building one on a 2.3k budget which I think will be fine. Here is the list of the items I currently have selected to build the computer.

Motherboard
Deluxe/ Wireless Edition Socket AM2 AMD ATX Motherboard (Currently have this one selected)
or
ASUS AI LifeStyle Gaming Edition Socket 939 AMD ATX Motherboard

CPU Processor
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6 GHz Socket AM2 Processor-In-A-Box

Cooler
Thermaltake Big Water 735 Liqiud Cooling System

Computer Case
Nine Hundred ATX Ultimate Gamer Tower Case, No Power Supply

Power Supply
ToughPower 750 Watt ATX Internal Power Supply Unit

DVD Drive
dvd1040i 20x Super Multiformat LightScribe DVD Writer, Internal, ATA

Hard Drive
Raptor X 150GB Hard Drive

Computer Memory
2GB(1GBx2) PC2-5300 667MHz 240pin DDR2 DIMM Memory Kit

Video Card
Radeon X1650 Pro Video Card, PCI Express, 512MB DDR2
or
GeForce 8800GTS Video Card, PCI Express, 320MB GDDR3 (Currently have this one selected)

Monitor
H170L 17-inch LCD Monitor, Silver/Black

Speakers
X-540 5.1 Speaker System

and
Windows Vista Home Premium

That is currently what I'm looking at and it brings my total to 2,280.00. If you would like the links to those items just go here [http://www.compusa.com/products/conf...or+details%2E]

Thanks for help^^

[Soundy]

Nice toy Although offhand, I'd suggest going with a bigger monitor - a 20" Widescreen LCD shouldn't cost that much more than a 17, maybe an extra $100, and you'll really appreciate the bigger screen.

[bdimag]

27"!!!!!

[n2gun]

i would say stay with xp as operating system hear every day of someone having trouble with vista.

[WarC]

Messin' around with a water cooling solution is going to be a pretty big jump for a guy who hasn't built a computer before. You might just want to use the stock processor heatsink at first.

[Photopilot]

XP if you go Vista you will be out exploring on your first building adventure and there is no one to help you, if you go XP there are plenty of experts to help you through things

Get regular cooling no need to go advanced with water if you are a NOOB.

22" widescreen monitor at the minimum. LG or samsung 226BW
Or the Gateway 26". Available at Gateway for around $550. Go to Circuit City, Best Buy or any other store and check out all the monitors this one will blow you away.

[BlooChoo]

and go with a Nvidia card for now...as atm it is more future proof...the 8800 is already direct x 10 compatible...and ATI cards dont support pixel shader 3 which is what alot of the new games are using....so stick to Nvidia

[BlooChoo]

and a tip for processor ther...AMD won the war b4 multi core came out...Intel are having a proce drop on the 22nd of july due to core 3 being released...hence the expensive quad core 2 Q6600 is set to make a 50% (count it!) drop from $530 to $266

[BlooChoo]

ooh..another thing..if your looking to make a gaming rig that runs very fast it is worth having 2 drives...one fast running but smaller system drive to instal and run the games...and a larger drive to hold things...for example...if you filled your raptor up with medai and work as well as the games...the computer would have to trawl through the extra files on the disk in ordr to find the game files you need..making it vitally slower for online gaming (i say vitally, the difference is a few millisecs...but thats the difference between dodging the bullet or being caught in the head) btw the raptor is an ideal choice for system drive....so ur onto the right combo ther....

[BlooChoo]

and as the other guys have stated...forget vista for now..it is actually very system heavy and crap for gaming....the fact that microsoft are proudly saying that its good for gaming by making the instals alot smaller...they forgot that the other resources are going to have to be drawn from the computer itself thus making it slow!! and go for at least 19inch and at least 4ms refresh...i sugest : 19" Asus PG191, with a nice resolution of 1280x1024, and a very quick 2 ms refresh rate (best for gaming)

[Azelino]

I think that it is unnecessary to have that powerfull Power Suply i think 450 - 500 Is enough and its cheaper in the long run

As for the hard drive i would get a 36 gb raptor and a 500 gb 7200 rpm

I would get more memory maby 4 x 1 gb RAMS

Geforce 8800GTS is the obvious choice in this one

As for the monitor I would either choose 20-Inch LCD Monitor or 2 17-inch Monitors and set (for more info http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/5...elp-w-2-a.html *check post 6 on more info)

up a dual view

Buy Windows Vista Home Premium

And I would consider buying XP aswell or maby finding it on the internet wink wink :>

[BlooChoo]

4 gb is a bit ott at the moment...it maybe worthgetting that much in about a year or so...but 2 will be fine, same with vista..i wouldnt go for that for at least a year...and on your budget go 8800gtx or ultra rether than gts!!!!