Like/want to build computers? Get in hurrrrrr

[jbot]

I'm looking to build a PC. The last straw was when my current desktop's sound card crapped out on me (it's a probably about 10 years old or possibly older) in the middle of a weekend long fap binge. It was that, or after I moved the computer from one house to the "new" one the sound crapped out, but either way, it's an old POS and I want a new one.

The goal for the PC is to: be somewhat future-proof-y (I realize it will probably be utterly obsolete in 2-3 years), play currently existing games at high levels, be able to have up to 12 separate video windows simultaneously (lol) and the other usual stuff.

I have a few components already from a previous build that I started and never finished for a few stupid reasons.

I have this absolutely retarded case

and this equally retarded heatsink

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article251-page1.html

I'm not sure I can or want to use this heat sink though.

and a couple hard drives. I will have a monitor, have mouse and keyboard.

I have this PSU that I never used but i'm not sure if it will still work...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002

So assuming the case, PSU all still work, I need a processor, motherboard, ram, video card, and i should probably get an SSD.

I don't necessarily have a budget, but I'd like to keep the above components under $750. less is bettar, obviously.

noob instincts tell me I should get a i7 (maybe like this one here: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0383144 but i'm having a hard time finding a mobo to mate with it. i'm reading up on socket 1155 and 2011 but I havent kept up on this stuff and am finding myself getting lost/impatient.

anyway, anyone have any thoughts, or recommendations?

[CoolWhip]

You might want to look into getting an AMD Phenom x6 1090t or 1100t (Don't go for the bulldozer series). It will give you great performance and is far cheaper than the i7. Plus you can overclock it to over 4Ghz per core.

[magley64]

Ivybridge I7 processor...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_%28microarchitecture%29

I'll get you more info on motherboards, I forget the name of the company.

[jbot]

thanks brahs. i considered the AMD, but it's enough of an ass ache to read up on intel... i havent even gotten to the amd's yet.

magz, that's my big problem with the i7 ivy/sandy vagina chipsets... i have no idea what mother board to go with.

i will note i'm not looking to water cool or anything crazy like that. i probably won't do a whole bunch of high overclocking (mostly due to the heat/energy consumption when you start pushing it) but if it's easy enough to do, i would consider it.

[Disclaimer]

I think the ivys are still the 1155 socket... and you'll want a Z68 motherboard.

Take the info above with a grain of salt....im on my phone so i skipped the verification step, you'll have to do that yourself.

[jbot]

I think the ivys are still the 1155 socket... and you'll want a Z68 motherboard.

Take the info above with a grain of salt....im on my phone so i skipped the verification step, you'll have to do that yourself.

then get on your computer and provide some verification. this isn't one of your totally unfounded, poorly supported liberal tirades, you know.

...ohhhhhh ho ho ho ho ho

[CleaveTheGreat]

Yeah Ivy and Sandy bridge are both socket 1155. And you don't necessarily need Z68. If you only plan on doing light overclocking P67 will work fine and is cheaper. And just a personal opinion but I would definitely go Intel over AMD as far as current gen CPUs go. A K series i5 will outperform almost all AMD cpu's that I am aware of.

[magley64]

Yeah Ivy and Sandy bridge are both socket 1155. And you don't necessarily need Z68. If you only plan on doing light overclocking P67 will work fine and is cheaper. And just a personal opinion but I would definitely go Intel over AMD as far as current gen CPUs go. A K series i5 will outperform almost all AMD cpu's that I am aware of.

and an I5 is just I7 without hyperthread.

[CleaveTheGreat]

and an I5 is just I7 without hyperthread.

For the most part

[Cheech]

unless you're trying to run retarded amounts of crypto shit all day long, a i7 is just throwing your money away. i5 2500K is more than adequate, and you retain the possibility to overclock if you want to. Mine's been running at stock without incident and is plenty fast for MW3 at max settings for everything (AMD 6870)

Ivybridge didn't wow me based on the limited reading I've done. It kinda looks like Intel saw how badly AMD fucked up the Bulldozer and decided to phone it in themselves this time around.

[Disclaimer]

Z68 has onboard video, which is nice should your Radeon 7980 xfire / Nvidia 580GTX dvi Sli megaporn x4 video card ever crap out. Cleave is right, you dont NEED the z68, but you dont need AC in your Porsche either.

[CleaveTheGreat]

Z68 has onboard video, which is nice should your Radeon 7980 xfire / Nvidia 580GTX dvi Sli megaporn x4 video card ever crap out. Cleave is right, you dont NEED the z68, but you dont need AC in your Porsche either.

Haha fair enough

[BDBGoalie]

i5 2500K unlocked will do most anything you need. i7s are a waste of money IMO.

Micro Center's package deals with M/Bs and processors sometimes beat online prices.

A good CPU cooler will help keep the temps lower and prolong the life of the system.

Get a full tower with lots of modular expansion options. If you get the right one, you shouldn't need to ever buy another one. The more ventilation and fan bays the better.

SSD for OS/Boot, and a 1GB HHD or larger for internal storage

750W P/S will keep you going for a while, unless you like really beefy GFX cards.

GFX cards are all over the place in price and performance. ATI is whooping NVidia lately.

Optical drives are cheap and almost useless nowadays, save Win and driver installs.

DDR3 is pretty cheap now too.

Onboard sound works fine for me.

A quality 27" monitor will make the computing experience all the better.

That should leave you with just replacing the GFX, M/B, CPU, and memory when the future demands it. Maybe a large SSD when prices come down..

For example:

My current system:

i5 2500K (Stock clock) (~$175)

Cooler Master CPU Cooler (~$30)

Gigabyte M/B (~$125)

Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600 ($50)

ATI Radeon HD 6950 (Unlocked shaders) (~$300)

Corsair 30GB SSD (~$100)

WD 2GB HHD (~$75, bought while overseas)

Optical drive (~$10)

Thermaltake 750W P/S (~$200)

Thermaltake Chasar MK-1 Case (~$110)

So a little over $1100, and the major stuff is covered, with little need to upgrade for a while. Even when I do have to, it is only the GFX, M/B, CPU, and memory if DDR3 is obsolete at that point.

The $300 for the 27" monitor was well worth it. The screen real estate is awesome and makes everything look awesome. Still runs at 1920x1080 so no crazy GFX requirements either.

Pretty basic except the GFX and SSD, and it runs anything I've thrown at it great.

I've been building computers for 10 years or so, so send me a PM if you have any other questions.

Edited May 29, 2012 by BDBGoalie

[magley64]

EVGA motherboard and Video card, (awesome warranty $20 will get you 10 years I believe)

corsair for power, SSD, and Ram.

[jporter12]

I'm cheap, so I upgraded my system a few months ago with a AMD FX-8120 Gigabyte 970A-UD3 motherboard combo from Microcenter. I also threw 8 GB ram in it, and a 60 GB SSD (wish I had gone with a 120.) It runs pretty well. I just wish my case had better airflow to keep it cool.

[BDBGoalie]

Make sure you set up the SSD with a storage HHD. You will also have to do some partitioning and extra effort to keep the SSD clean and uncluttered. (If anyone has figured out how to actually move the User directory to another drive, let me know. I think I went through 5 Windows installs before I gave up)

It will also take longer to install things on the SSD.

But the insane boot times and access times are well worth it.

[Strictly Street]

Shop around.

http://pricewatch.com

I got an mobo P67(USB 3)/i5 2500K cpu/750 pwr supp/16gb RAM/AMD 6870 vid card for about 600 bones.

Not the bleeding edge stuff, but solid components that will last a couple of years.

If the mood is upon me I can, and have, run it up to 4.2ghz on a stock heat-sink.

Starts to get a bit warm, but its pretty snappy. Better heat-sink I could leave it that way.

Case was $50 from Microcenter with 6 120mm quiet fans in it already. Already had monitors/mouse/keyboard/HDD etc.

That is all.

Edited May 29, 2012 by Strictly Street

[jporter12]

Make sure you set up the SSD with a storage HHD. You will also have to do some partitioning and extra effort to keep the SSD clean and uncluttered. (If anyone has figured out how to actually move the User directory to another drive, let me know. I think I went through 5 Windows installs before I gave up)

It will also take longer to install things on the SSD.

But the insane boot times and access times are well worth it.

Moving the user directory isn't exactly how I do it. What I do is move the directories that windows uses in libraries. Example, setup a Photos dir on your storage drive. Right click the photos library, add that dir and remove the others that are listed. Do the same for docs, etc... I usually do this to make reloading easier, avoiding having to copy stuff over, or having to restore from backup (which I don't have a backup solution in place right now !)

[Exarch]

Ssd is a waste of money unless you have plenty to spare.7.5k - 10k rpm is plenty. Try www.newegg.com they have been great to me. I would post you a killer build for your range, but seeing how you wouldn't give 2shits I'm not going to unless you ask.

Your psu should be fine, I usually drop a 750w psu in higher end units with no trouble. aftermarket heatsinks arnt really needed for anything you plan on doing, a good airflow case(antech1200) would be money better spent. the case is super quiet with all fans set to low including gfx and CPU fans while only running like 42c on high end shit.

if you want my recommendation just let me know and I'll piece something together for you that I think you'll like.

Oh btw if you go x58 u want tripps otherwise you want duals. I see that mistake pretty often.

Btw, I usually charge a $100 or 10%(whichever is greater) for PC builds, but if you need help putting her together and feel like driving pretty far when you get it I'll do it free.

Edited May 30, 2012 by Exarch

[jbot]

i'm told SSD makes a BIG difference for OS performance, so I'll probably stick with that

i was also told there are issues with certain ssd's that fail within a few months of use, or other issues. are there any particular ssd's people have at least a few months experience with?

[magley64]

Ssd is a waste of money unless you have plenty to spare.7.5k - 10k rpm is plenty. Try www.newegg.com they have been great to me. I would post you a killer build for your range, but seeing how you wouldn't give 2shits I'm not going to unless you ask.

10k's are not nearly as fast or reliable as ssd...

Its just old tech

Corsair makes good ssd's according to a trusted friend...

[BDBGoalie]

Moving the user directory isn't exactly how I do it. What I do is move the directories that windows uses in libraries. Example, setup a Photos dir on your storage drive. Right click the photos library, add that dir and remove the others that are listed. Do the same for docs, etc... I usually do this to make reloading easier, avoiding having to copy stuff over, or having to restore from backup (which I don't have a backup solution in place right now !)

What I wanted to do is completely relocate the User's Directories to the HHD, so the computer saves all the user settings as well as the pictures and such without any additional work from the user. Sadly I found that trying to move that stupid folder completely is nearly impossible.

[BDBGoalie]

Ssd is a waste of money unless you have plenty to spare.7.5k - 10k rpm is plenty. Try www.newegg.com they have been great to me. I would post you a killer build for your range, but seeing how you wouldn't give 2shits I'm not going to unless you ask.

Your psu should be fine, I usually drop a 750w psu in higher end units with no trouble. aftermarket heatsinks arnt really needed for anything you plan on doing, a good airflow case(antech1200) would be money better spent. the case is super quiet with all fans set to low including gfx and CPU fans while only running like 42c on high end shit.

if you want my recommendation just let me know and I'll piece something together for you that I think you'll like.

Oh btw if you go x58 u want tripps otherwise you want duals. I see that mistake pretty often.

Btw, I usually charge a $100 or 10%(whichever is greater) for PC builds, but if you need help putting her together and feel like driving pretty far when you get it I'll do it free.

An SSD will work much better than a HHD. The access times are way better, and no mechanical parts to fail.

I'm happy to help with builds without charging. Food and beer is always appreciated though.

[Exarch]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136767

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227753

$320 vs $90... $230 difference, the money is best spent elsewhere, that's all I'm saying. Lets be honest, 7.2k is not as good as the ssd, but you need to look at the build as a whole... You can't throw the best of something in a budget build, you can't throw crap in their either, you need to make a compromise.

I have built quite a few systems in my time, but you can't just toss money around in a budget build(especially on a HD or DVD/blueray burner) that will eat up alot of your budget. $750 can build a nice system if you know what you are doing, otherwise you will go over budget or get stuck with something you don't want.

Look at timing for example, will you notice a difference while playing your high end game? Probably not, why waste the extra $$ on latency?

Is LC better than a fan? Sure, but is it needed?

If he had an unlimited $ build or a higher budget than $750 SSD would work, but not for what he wants. Sure he can get a 40GB SSD, but that's just a waste. Save the $$ and spend it on the mobo(most people cheap out on the mobo )

[Exarch]

10k's are not nearly as fast or reliable as ssd...

Its just old tech

Corsair makes good ssd's according to a trusted friend...

http://www.corsair.com/en/ssd/performance-pro-series-ssd/performance-series-pro-256gb-ssd-hard-drive.html

$500 for 250GB? Gtfo...

Actually, corsair is pretty nice... I have used their ram and psu without a hitch, I can't vouch for the SSD, but they are a brand name I would trust.