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In the interest of speeding up answering people, I figured I'd post some general guidelines to how to ask about buying or building a new computer on the forums. Answering these questions can make it much easier and faster for the tech-heads here on the forums to answer your questions.
- What will you primarily be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
- What's your budget? (Real Dollars) Are tax and shipping included? This is important as it allows people trying to help you to suggest things appropriate to your budget.
- Where do you live? This is important as it affects what vendors you may buy from and how much shipping costs might be.
- Are you planning to buy or build?
- What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need. If you're unsure what exactly you need, say so.
- If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
- Will you be overclocking?
- What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? What is the resolution?
- When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
- What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
- Any specific must-have features? Must be able to max out Ultra-Mode? Must have 6+GB of RAM? Must have an SSD? etc.
- Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to use?
- Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to avoid?
- Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? (Note: If your current OS came with your computer, odds are that it is NOT transferable.)
To simplify things, you can copy and paste the entirety of the box below and then simply post your answers below the *** line.
Note: Use this information and start your own thread. Don't utilize the guide-thread itself to ask.
1) What will you primarily be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc *** 2) What's your budget? (Real Dollars) Are tax and shipping included? This is important as it allows people trying to help you to suggest things appropriate to your budget. *** 3) Where do you live? This is important as it affects what vendors you may buy from and how much shipping costs might be. *** 4) Are you planning to buy or build? *** 5) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need. If you're unsure what exactly you need, say so. *** 6) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. *** 7) Will you be overclocking? *** 8) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? *** 9) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? *** 10) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc. *** 11) Any specific must-have features? Must be able to max out Ultra-Mode? Must have 6+GB of RAM? Must have an SSD? etc. *** 12) Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to use? *** 13) Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to avoid? *** 14) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? (Note: If your current OS came with your computer, odds are that it is NOT transferable.) ***
**Terminology**
CPU - Central Processing Unit (the chip running the computer)
GPU - Graphics Processing Unit (Your video card. More specifically the main processing chip on the card.)
PPU - Physics Processing Unit (A processor dedicated to doing physics calculations.)
PSU - Power Supply Unit
SSD - Solid State Drive (A "hard drive" that uses flash memory as a storage medium instead of spinning platters.)
RAM - Random Access Memory (Non-storage memory used by the system.) Mainly expressed in GB (Gigabytes) nowadays.
VRAM - Video RAM Video cards nowadays come with their on-board memory (mostly). Usually expressed in MB (Megabytes) or GB (Gigabytes) nowadays.
MB - Megabyte (For hard drives: 1 million bytes, For RAM: 1.024 million bytes)
GB - Gigabyte (For hard drives: 1 billion bytes, For RAM: 1.024 billion bytes)
Hertz - Number of cycles per second. Used in timing and speed expressions for memory and various processing units (See GPU, CPU, PPU, etc) and other devices in a computer. Most commonly expressed as:[indent]Mhz - Megahertz (1 million cycles per second)
Ghz - Gigahertz (1 billion cycles per second)[/indent]
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer (A company that originally manufactured a product.)
VAR - Value-Added Reseller (A company that adds features to a product and resells it.)
Systems Integrator - (A company that specializes in bringing various components/subsystems together into a whole and insures those systems function properly together)
SLI - Scalable Link Interface - A proprietary technology used by nVidia to link two or more video cards and gain performance/features through parallel processing.
Crossfire - A proprietary technology used by AMD/ATI to link two or more video cards and gain performance/features through parallel processing. (A technology competing with SLI.)
USB - Universal Serial Bus (A technology used for linking various devices cameras, computers, printers, etc together.)
IDE: Integrated Drive Electronics (also PATA: Parallel ATA) - A legacy technology for attaching drives to a computer. Now superceded by SATA.
SATA: Serial ATA (The successor technology to IDE for attaching drives to a computer.)
