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Like/want to build computers? Get in hurrrrrr


jbot

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Unless you plan on doing manual overclocking and/or doing very CPU intensive stuff (i.e. video editing, folding,etc) the i5 is the WTG. Also, the stock heatsink is just fine if you aren't doing what I described in the first sentence.

As far as mobo's go, there are few stinkers anymore and most of those are just fine, just don't overclock very well. Stick with ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI and you can't go wrong. Just make sure they support the features you need/want (i.e. USB 3.0, SATA III, etc).

I'll add ASRock to the list of a-ok brands. I was a HUGE Asus fanboi for a long time, I took a chance on ASRock and I've been very happy with it.

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hmm, ok. i guess unless i hear something compelling to the contrary, i'm going to start aiming my focus on the "value/efficient" build.

so... z68 or z77? i actually dont even know what the hell a z77 is.

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hmm, ok. i guess unless i hear something compelling to the contrary, i'm going to start aiming my focus on the "value/efficient" build.

so... z68 or z77? i actually dont even know what the hell a z77 is.

Z77 is the IvyBridge chipset. Brand new offering from Intel. I haven't done a ton of research on benchmark differences, but just shooting from the hip I'd say you can do about the same for less with the Z68, which is the SandyBridge chipset.

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My lappy has the Intel I5 450M with the ATi Radeon HD5870 and it plays BF3 at almost full settings. It's very fast.

Based on my experience I would go with an Nvidia GPU and an Intel I5. I7 is not fast enough to be worth the increased cost and my experience with the Ati GPU hasn't been great. The Nvidia user experience is superior.

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That doesn't make any sense. If you want a cutting edge computer in 3 years, you're building a new PC in 3 years. Even with the most expensive of everything currently available, it won't be "cutting edge" in 3 years. Passable? Sure.

That was exactly my point. I was saying build cheap now save for later, then gut and rebuild with your saved money in three years. He mentioned gaming in three years.

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Z68. Save the money.

I built a system back in December for one of my sons for xmas. I had the same questions you have Jbot. I ended up going with 2 small mirrored SSD's to boot off of, and a spinner for data/porn. The intel boards also have that fancy smancy caching feature caching frequently accessed data on a small SSD and booting off of a spinner, but I just decided to be baller and go balls deep.

The folks who are recommending value over performance, IMHO are steering you down the right path. The i5/Z68 will be more than sufficient for what you want to do, and the cutting edge in current CPU's don't justify their cost. Again, IMHO.

The best advice I could give you...is if you can wait until xmas time....WAIT. The deals will be out of this world. You'll have to deal with a lot of rebates, but I received every single one I mailed out (made copies too...it was almost $300 in rebates) and there are a lot of combo deals for free games or GPU's. Worth the wait.

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I would use Z77 over Z68, again it is USB 3.0 native out of the box V using a 3rd party driver. Most of them are PCI 3.0 too, this won't make a shit bit of difference today but it might in 2 years when video cards progress more.

Z77 is NOT just for Ivybridge and Z68 is NOT just for Sandybridge, they both are 1155 socket boards. I'm currently running a Z77 Gigabyte board with a i7 2700K Sandybridge CPU.

This is my Gigabyte Z77 motherboard but there are others available much cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545

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I may be interested in upgrading my desktop boot drive from an Agility 3. Let me know what you have. Jbot, I was going to post some stuff on here, but my head hurts from shaking it so much at Exarch's posts. I have built and worked on literally hundreds of computers over the years. Let me know if you have any specific questions or want some help.

I went ahead and just did a 'for sale' thread here: http://ohioriders.net/showthread.php?p=850888#post850888

Been wanting to put them up for sale for a while but I hate (the process of) selling stuff and have been procrastinating.

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i went to microcenter today to see what they had there. they didn't have a z68 board in stock i wanted to look at (same as what cheech got) but they might get it in tomorrow. if so, i'm putting in an order for i5 2500K with the z68 board an some ram i'm going to buy for now. i might return the ram. i'm going to have them put those components together and test to make sure everything checks out (I have a tendency to break these things, and everything else i touch), they quoted me $10 so i didn't think it would hurt.

i'm going to start ordering the other junk (SSD, GPU) tomorrow, assuming they get the board in. if not, i'm going to have to re-evaluate my options.

thanks for all your help so far. keep the advice coming. if the board i want doesnt come in tomorrow, i am still considering the i7 option as it is about $150-ish more overall.

anyone have recommendations on GPU? the one they tried to sell me was like $400+ for a ATX 670 or something like that.

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i went to microcenter today to see what they had there. they didn't have a z68 board in stock i wanted to look at (same as what cheech got) but they might get it in tomorrow. if so, i'm putting in an order for i5 2500K with the z68 board an some ram i'm going to buy for now. i might return the ram. i'm going to have them put those components together and test to make sure everything checks out (I have a tendency to break these things, and everything else i touch), they quoted me $10 so i didn't think it would hurt.

i'm going to start ordering the other junk (SSD, GPU) tomorrow, assuming they get the board in. if not, i'm going to have to re-evaluate my options.

thanks for all your help so far. keep the advice coming. if the board i want doesnt come in tomorrow, i am still considering the i7 option as it is about $150-ish more overall.

anyone have recommendations on GPU? the one they tried to sell me was like $400+ for a ATX 670 or something like that.

Dude, this ASRock board is the easiest thing I built on, ever. You don't even have to fuck with all the little case headers for power/reset just to test things out, there's a power button on the board itself. I think you'll be very happy with it, and with the added D3 performance you'll be making your people proud in no time. So is Microcenter going to build-in the proc/mobo/ram in the case, or are they just bench-testing it to make sure you don't have any DOA bullshits?

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And Scuba, thanks for letting me know that my SSD firmware was out of date. That was fucking harrowing, I ran the dinky Linux tool which failed on the first try, then automagically found a Internet connection on the second reboot and updated my firmware. I went from 2.15 to 2.22, I hope this was worth it... :)

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And Scuba, thanks for letting me know that my SSD firmware was out of date. That was fucking harrowing, I ran the dinky Linux tool which failed on the first try, then automagically found a Internet connection on the second reboot and updated my firmware. I went from 2.15 to 2.22, I hope this was worth it... :)

I need to know, is it even worth the hassle to update? I'm on 2.15 with my agility 3

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Dude, this ASRock board is the easiest thing I built on, ever. You don't even have to fuck with all the little case headers for power/reset just to test things out, there's a power button on the board itself. I think you'll be very happy with it, and with the added D3 performance you'll be making your people proud in no time. So is Microcenter going to build-in the proc/mobo/ram in the case, or are they just bench-testing it to make sure you don't have any DOA bullshits?

thanks for your recommendations. it's an excellent budget build. i always get into trouble with these things cause i go crazy thinking "well, if i just spend a little bit more" and before i know it, i'm building a $2000 computer.

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Yeah... not like you want the operating system to be quicly accessible:rolleyes:

Pretty sure I said you want the OS on your SSD in the comment you quoted :dunno: which is why I said OS is a given ;)

As far as the basics, keep that on the HDD, if it gains little to no performance from the SSD no need to take up valuable space.

SSD still isn't worth the $$, the extra performance upgrades spent elsewhere more than make up for the drive difference, just don't drop below 7.2k and keep your shit defragged(there is an option to do this automatically)

CPU/gfx/ram are all much better options to spend the extra $$ on for performance upgrades or a better mobo for future upgrades and better bios. $100+ is too much to waste on a budget build of $750 or so....

CPU $300

Gfx $200

Mobo $125

Ram $125

(since he has case/hd and all the other stuff)

What are you going to chop down? $100 is alot to cut out...

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SSD still isn't worth the $$, the extra performance upgrades spent elsewhere more than make up for the drive difference, just don't drop below 7.2k and keep your shit defragged(there is an option to do this automatically)

:confused: Most of the rest of the conscious world disagrees with you. Almost universally, every tech professional believes an SSD is the single biggest bang for your buck upgrade you can do for your PC. With the price of hard drives skyrocketing due to flooding in the far east and the price of NAND flash dropping, this has never been more true.

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If you build a computer right, even if the tech is old it will still work great.

I built a Core 2 Duo system back in 2008 that was still practically functional in 2011. A simple over clock to create a 1:1 ratio of FSB to RAM speed kept it moving really nicely.

I love my SSD. It makes everything except installs faster. (Takes longer to write to flash memory than to a platter). The boot times and access times make you hate working with antiquated technology.

I use a 60GB Corsair, and still try to live by mechanical drive rules (Never more than 75% of the drive filled). I have managed to keep it right at about 35GB, so the OS and required programs aren't that heavy.

I run all my games off the storage drive. (I create a partition file directory in the storage drive and put that folder in the programs file) Once they are loaded, they run great and don't really need to access the drive (Most of my games are online in some manner or another).

The PITA part is your User Directories. Windows saves that crap in the User's file, and the User's file cannot be moved. It is always being used unless it is in debug mode, and once you move it to another drive and create the junctions and such, the OS becomes unstable. So you always have to keep and eye out and make sure your files are being saved on the storage drive.

GFX should be ATI. Their cards are working really well, and the prices are spot on. I use a HD 6950, and flash the card to unlock the shaders. It makes the card like a HD 6970 without the cost. I'd advise just modifying the shaders and not the clock speeds.

Again, feel free to send a PM if you have further questions.

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Pretty sure I said you want the OS on your SSD in the comment you quoted :dunno: which is why I said OS is a given ;)

As far as the basics, keep that on the HDD, if it gains little to no performance from the SSD no need to take up valuable space.

SSD still isn't worth the $$, the extra performance upgrades spent elsewhere more than make up for the drive difference, just don't drop below 7.2k and keep your shit defragged(there is an option to do this automatically)

CPU/gfx/ram are all much better options to spend the extra $$ on for performance upgrades or a better mobo for future upgrades and better bios. $100+ is too much to waste on a budget build of $750 or so....

CPU $300

Gfx $200

Mobo $125

Ram $125

(since he has case/hd and all the other stuff)

What are you going to chop down? $100 is alot to cut out...

headdesk.jpg

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thanks for your recommendations. it's an excellent budget build. i always get into trouble with these things cause i go crazy thinking "well, if i just spend a little bit more" and before i know it, i'm building a $2000 computer.

I know that feel, bro. :) I think you're going to be happy with it.

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