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On November 18 2010 07:52 Salv wrote:OK, so I did some thinking and I've decided to listen to the advice in this thread and build my own computer. I trust others when they say that it's really not that difficult. I do have a few questions however: - I live in Canada. Considering newegg.com is the place seemingly where every one orders their parts, am I going to get boned when it comes to shipping and paying duty to send it to Canada?
- I have a $1100.00 budget, give or take a hundred or so. Is this enough to build a gaming computer to be proud of? Obviously it wouldn't be top of the line, but can I build a powerful computer with this budget, or should I save more before investing?
Thanks in advance for addressing my questions. Hopefully ordering, receiving, and building my first custom computer is as easy as every one says. 
$1000 should be more than enough.
www.newegg.ca
and, www.ncix.com
should be all you need.
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On November 18 2010 07:52 Salv wrote:OK, so I did some thinking and I've decided to listen to the advice in this thread and build my own computer. I trust others when they say that it's really not that difficult. I do have a few questions however: - I live in Canada. Considering newegg.com is the place seemingly where every one orders their parts, am I going to get boned when it comes to shipping and paying duty to send it to Canada?
- I have a $1100.00 budget, give or take a hundred or so. Is this enough to build a gaming computer to be proud of? Obviously it wouldn't be top of the line, but can I build a powerful computer with this budget, or should I save more before investing?
Thanks in advance for addressing my questions. Hopefully ordering, receiving, and building my first custom computer is as easy as every one says.
www.newegg.ca has a deal with their shipping couriers so you will not pay customs / duties if you decide to order from newegg.
If you live in Canada, newegg is not the best place to purchase your parts as their prices and shipping prices are often quite high. NCIX, Memory Express, and Canada Computers is where you want to buy from as a Canadian. NCIX and ME gives you the ability to pricematch other Canadian competitors. Use www.shopbot.ca or www.pricebat.ca to help you get the lowest price.
$1100 is plenty to build a powerful gaming rig.
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OK, I'll look at those sites. I'm not really sure what parts are worth it, or are powerful though. I also had a problem in the past where some parts I had weren't compatible - I think the motherboard didn't have the right connectors or some such problem. Would any one be able to finagle up a good $1100.00 build, and then I can price shop around to find out where it would be cheapest?
I wouldn't need a keyboard, mouse, monitor or any of that. I suppose the new Window's would be worth it, no point using XP again when I can use something new. Sorry, I'm just useless when it comes to picking out computer parts and what's a good deal. I'd wind up with a bunch of junk that doesn't work together.
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Radeon HD6850 $190
2x2gb 1600MHz GSkill $80
Gigabyte P55 UD4 $170
Core i5 750 $190
Western Digital Black Caviar Black 1TB $80
Coolermaster 690ii Advanced $80
Coolermaster Hyper 212+ $20
Windows 7 Home Premium $99
All prices are estimates. Total comes to around $900. This is going to be my build (except with a Lian Li case) if Sandybridge ends up being too expensive =p
edit: ops forgot a psu, a seasonic or corsair 500w - 600w should be around $100. I'd personally get an X series if I needed a new one.
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On November 18 2010 08:10 skyR wrote:
Radeon HD6850 $190
2x2gb 1600MHz GSkill $80
Gigabyte P55 UD4 $170
Core i5 750 $190
Western Digital Black Caviar Black 1TB $80
Coolermaster 690ii Advanced $80
Coolermaster Hyper 212+ $20
Windows 7 Home Premium $99
All prices are estimates. Total comes to around $900. This is going to be my build (except with a Lian Li case) if Sandybridge ends up being too expensive =p
edit: ops forgot a psu, a seasonic or corsair 500w - 600w should be around $100. I'd personally get an X series if I needed a new one.
Sorry, what do you mean when you say, "I'd personally get an X series if I needed a new one.". I do need a power supply, so any corsair 600w should be adequate? If the prices are accurate (I'll go look this up right now and edit this reply with the price I got), this would perfectly fit my budget.
Not that I don't trust your opinion skyR, but could I get some other opinions on what was quoted here? It's a hell of a lot more powerful than what I currently have, that's for sure. .
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X series as in Seasonic X560, 650, 660 or Corsair AX650. Fully modular, 80+ Gold certified, and the fan adjusts itself based on temps so it'll be completely silent when the system is idle and the fan will last longer because it doesn't spin constantly.
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OK. On NCIX I just looked up everything. Every thing was a bit more expensive than your estimates, but when there are ten items, those small bits can add up. $20.00 here, $15.00 there, etc. The price quoted for me was $1,417.72 . I'll check out some other sites though for better prices.
EDIT: Whoops! No that's incorrect actually. While look at the motherboard, there was a Core i750 deal with it that saved a little bit of money, but I forgot to take out the individual motherboard I had added. The price is actually $1,227.74 .
NewEgg.ca gives a very similar price: $1,123.91 .
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Hi TL,
I've been playing SC2 on my macbook pro and I'm getting sick of hooking it up to an external monitor and only being able to run it at the lowest settings and still have performance issues in the late game. It's for this reason I've decided to build myself a gaming computer, this is my first build and I'm in need of a lot of help.
My Budget:
$600~
Resolution:
1680 x 1050 (Yes I already have a monitor)
What I'm using it for:
I would like to play Starcraft on high/ultra settings without problems. I'm also interested in streaming so keep that in mind. Other than that just basic school/web browsing use.
Upgrade Cycle:
I plan on playing SC2 for a very long time.. That being said, I don't plan on upgrading if I can play and stream SC2 fine.
When do I plan on building it:
As soon as i can, preferably before my christmas break which starts Dec 21st~
Overclocking:
No
Need an OS:
Yes
I plan on buying from newegg, and I've been browsing for about an hour or so and I've come up with this build. Feel free to bash it because I really don't know much about which components will be compatible with what.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.548306
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case +
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 CMPSU-430CX 430W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply
Combo (I'm especially worried about the PSU here, It seems like a low wattage compared to most builds I see here and the reviews aren't the greatest, but the combo with the case is nice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.547344
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor HDX925WFGIBOX +
BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
Combo (The motherboard was cheap but I didn't see anything on it that made me stray away from it, plus it got good reviews. Again is also a nice combo.
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
250 GB is fine for what I'll be doing
ASUS EAH4870/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
I liked this one because it got good reviews and several said that they were able to play SC2 on ultra with ease.
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ
Just some RAM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
Just an OS. I heard if you are a college student you can get a discounted windows 7.. I searched and I found a windows professional update disc for around $75 but I need a full install so I'm not sure if there is a deal elsewhere..
LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDP118-04 - OEM
I needed a disc drive as well.
Total comes to 584.92 + $24 shipping - $40 MIR, so there is room to improve given my budget
Some other quick questions I had about building a PC:
Since I've never built one before i'm not sure if the cords that I need to install everything come with the items. Some of the reviews I read said that they had to purchase them separately.
Also with black friday coming along I was wondering what sort of deals newegg usually has and if they would be helpful to me.
So if you guys could take a look and leave some feedback it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks TL :D
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On November 18 2010 08:29 Salv wrote:Show nested quote +On November 18 2010 08:10 skyR wrote:
Radeon HD6850 $190
2x2gb 1600MHz GSkill $80
Gigabyte P55 UD4 $170
Core i5 750 $190
Western Digital Black Caviar Black 1TB $80
Coolermaster 690ii Advanced $80
Coolermaster Hyper 212+ $20
Windows 7 Home Premium $99
All prices are estimates. Total comes to around $900. This is going to be my build (except with a Lian Li case) if Sandybridge ends up being too expensive =p
edit: ops forgot a psu, a seasonic or corsair 500w - 600w should be around $100. I'd personally get an X series if I needed a new one. Sorry, what do you mean when you say, "I'd personally get an X series if I needed a new one.". I do need a power supply, so any corsair 600w should be adequate? If the prices are accurate (I'll go look this up right now and edit this reply with the price I got), this would perfectly fit my budget. Not that I don't trust your opinion skyR, but could I get some other opinions on what was quoted here? It's a hell of a lot more powerful than what I currently have, that's for sure. .
If you're not overclocking, you can drop the Hyper 212+. The Gigabyte UD4 mobo is significantly more higher-end than what you need probably, so you could save maybe $50 there and still get a nice, reliable board with USB3 and other good features. Seasonic X series PSUs are some of the highest-end units that are likewise probably more awesome than you need. On an HD 6850 and i5-750, you don't need any more than a decent 430W PSU (some $50-70 already gets a reliable, efficient unit at that wattage capacity).
If you cut costs like I suggest, you could go under budget or spend more on a faster GPU or a small-capacity SSD instead.
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@PaiNt)
All the cables, screws, and necessary parts will come with the retail packaging. Only OEM and open box products will not come with these things. But don't worry about purchasing harddrives or disc drives that are OEM as the motherboard will come with the necessary cables to connect these things. Some manufacturers include a lot of the necessities so you'll end up with a bunch of leftovers when you're done.
The college deal for the windows 7 was for just an upgrade if I remember correctly and I think the deal ended back in January. If you're a college student majoring in a computer field, you can often get a copy of Windows free at your IT department.
Corsair is a reputable company and the CX430 is made by CWT. Not as good as Seasonic but it's still good. I don't think you need to worry.
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@PaiNt):
That looks like a good build for what you're trying to do. There's definitely some corners cut in terms of getting a HD 4870 (a 2-generations old GPU with no DX11, but SC2 is not DX11) and that Biostar mobo, but those are decent deals on fairly powerful parts.
430W is plenty for what you would be getting. However, that unit is pretty much just a 380W PSU with a 430W label. Granted, as skyR pointed out, it's still a decent unit; also, you don't need up to 380W anyway. The reason for the bad reviews is just because Corsair used to offer a 400CX that was superior.
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If you're going to drop a grand or more on a PC, I really think you should be getting a solid state drive. They're dropping in price (I picked up a high-quality 90gb SSD for 160 on newegg yesterday, was a shell shocker deal), and in my opinion you're going to get a lot more noticable difference than getting a cheaper hard drive and spending that money elsewhere.
SSD rigs feel noticeably different than rotational drive rigs, even rotational drive rigs in raid 0. Once you start spending a thousand bucks on a gaming computer, you're already going to have hardware that can run your games at high levels. Spend the bit extra on an SSD and your computer is going to feel much, much nicer. Spend that extra on a slightly upgraded GPU and you're almost never going to tell the difference.
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On November 18 2010 10:31 skyR wrote:
The college deal for the windows 7 was for just an upgrade if I remember correctly and I think the deal ended back in January. If you're a college student majoring in a computer field, you can often get a copy of Windows free at your IT department.
Nice I'm a Computer Science major, I'll definitely check this out. That could help free up a lot of my budget. Thanks for the input.
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On November 18 2010 10:40 iEchoic wrote:
If you're going to drop a grand or more on a PC, I really think you should be getting a solid state drive. They're dropping in price (I picked up a high-quality 90gb SSD for 160 on newegg yesterday, was a shell shocker deal), and in my opinion you're going to get a lot more noticable difference than getting a cheaper hard drive and spending that money elsewhere.
SSD rigs feel noticeably different than rotational drive rigs, even rotational drive rigs in raid 0. Once you start spending a thousand bucks on a gaming computer, you're already going to have hardware that can run your games at high levels. Spend the bit extra on an SSD and your computer is going to feel much, much nicer. Spend that extra on a slightly upgraded GPU and you're almost never going to tell the difference.
Wouldn't a SSD with a lot of space cost a lot of money?
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Ah I see. I'm looking to get this computer [speaking generally, not this exact build] within the next few weeks, so I think I would probably have to spend a bit more. BestDirect.ca seems to have the best overall prices though, most of the items you listed are from there and are 7-12% cheaper than what I quoted earlier. I'm going to look up the prices there and see how it compares to NCIX and NewEgg.ca.
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On November 18 2010 11:12 Salv wrote:Show nested quote +On November 18 2010 10:40 iEchoic wrote:
If you're going to drop a grand or more on a PC, I really think you should be getting a solid state drive. They're dropping in price (I picked up a high-quality 90gb SSD for 160 on newegg yesterday, was a shell shocker deal), and in my opinion you're going to get a lot more noticable difference than getting a cheaper hard drive and spending that money elsewhere.
SSD rigs feel noticeably different than rotational drive rigs, even rotational drive rigs in raid 0. Once you start spending a thousand bucks on a gaming computer, you're already going to have hardware that can run your games at high levels. Spend the bit extra on an SSD and your computer is going to feel much, much nicer. Spend that extra on a slightly upgraded GPU and you're almost never going to tell the difference. Wouldn't a SSD with a lot of space cost a lot of money?
The idea for most desktop users with an SSD is to use a smaller-capacity SSD with one or more HDDs for storing larger files and data.
Most reads and writes occur only on a small percentage of a large drive for most users anyhow. With some $120 (a little less if you find a good deal) you can get a good 60GB SSD to store the OS and commonly-used applications, with a decent amount of leftover working space. SSDs are about 2 orders of magnitude faster than HDDs on small random reads and writes, so there is a large performance increase noticeable in many usage scenarios. Data in larger chunks like movies, music, etc. would not load much faster with an SSD anyway, since accessing them has more to do with sequential read/write performance.
SSDs also make less noise (obviously) and use less power, though the power difference won't matter for a desktop.
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On November 18 2010 11:15 Salv wrote:Ah I see. I'm looking to get this computer [speaking generally, not this exact build] within the next few weeks, so I think I would probably have to spend a bit more. BestDirect.ca seems to have the best overall prices though, most of the items you listed are from there and are 7-12% cheaper than what I quoted earlier. I'm going to look up the prices there and see how it compares to NCIX and NewEgg.ca.
BestDirect is a sister company of NCIX. You know you can pricematch everything at NCIX right and can just use a site comparing website like shopbot.ca instead of going through multiple sites =\
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On November 18 2010 15:12 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On November 18 2010 11:15 Salv wrote:Ah I see. I'm looking to get this computer [speaking generally, not this exact build] within the next few weeks, so I think I would probably have to spend a bit more. BestDirect.ca seems to have the best overall prices though, most of the items you listed are from there and are 7-12% cheaper than what I quoted earlier. I'm going to look up the prices there and see how it compares to NCIX and NewEgg.ca. BestDirect is a sister company of NCIX. You know you can pricematch everything at NCIX right and can just use a site comparing website like shopbot.ca instead of going through multiple sites =\
Ah, I didn't know that. I'd like to get everything from once place though, wouldn't that be less of a hassle? Either way, on BestDirect.ca, every thing comes to a subtotal of $1,047.65, and free shipping for orders over $500.00. I
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Hey again. So after getting advice from a couple of people and making a few decisions of my own I have updated my build. I replaced the 5770 with the gtx 460. I have decided not to get a monitor for the time being and use my current LCD display and instead get a quad core CPU. I may just see what deals pop up on 20"-22" monitors in my area on black friday.
Here is my current build so far.
+ Show Spoiler +
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EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/GtFuW.jpg)
