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When using this resource, please read FragKrag's opening post. The Tech Support forum regulars have helped create countless of desktop systems without any compensation. The least you can do is provide all of the information required for them to help you properly. |
Phew, thank you a176 for catching that about the GPU.
Regarding the power supply suggestion to get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094&cm_re=seasonic_s12ii-_-17-151-094-_-Product .. I will go ahead and get this one instead and trust you on that, because I don't know what makes a PSU better than another (for example, this one suggested is 520W while the original suggestion in my build was a 550W, so I would never have searched to find this PSU, let alone known that it is good). Also, I don't know what modular is exactly except it has less wires, though that sounds nice considering I've never built a computer before, so less confusion would be good.
Edit:
@Disregard: Ah!, good, makes me happy to know that it sucks 
and Oh, the Seasonic. I'm gonna take that advice to get that Seasonic unless someone has a better suggestion because of the reason I mentioned above.. I wouldn't know which other one to consider. The shipping price isn't a huge deal, I guess. But like I said, if modular means less confusion for me when putting the computer together, maybe that's a good idea?
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On November 29 2010 10:04 maxchgr wrote:Thanks again. I'm not gonna venture to try to find something better than BP550 Plus unless you have a specific suggestion, because I'd end up asking you to confirm the choice anyway as I'm not sure what would make one better than another. PS, one thing that kind of irritates me is that after doing all this research, I look at HP website and I can build almost this same computer (though it doesn't give all the details of the build) for just a bit over 800 which I think my build comes out to a bit over 800 as well. ie., it lets you choose i5 760, the GT 430 1.5 GB, 1 TB HDD). Biggest apparent difference to me is their best GPU offered is GT 430 1.5GB which I don't know how well that performs. If it sucks, that'd make me happy to know .
the issue with prebuilt ("OEMs") is that you don't really know what they are putting inside. They will say 4gb of ram, for example, but you don't know the quality of performance of the ram. Building it yourself, you know exactly whats going on in and have a good idea of how fast it'll run.
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I always thought 4gb of ram is 4gb of ram. Like, someone earlier posted a response to me that GTX 460 1GB is GTX 460 1GB but I guess nothing is generalizable.
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Short answer: jonnyguru.com is one of the most technically rigorous PSU review sites, and it gave the S12II Bronze 520W a 9.7 out of 10. The HAF 912 has room to store/hide cables, so I don't think a modular PSU is too important.
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I read some bad reviews on Palit so I'm gonna go with the other card even tho it's more expensive and has no combo :\
Edit: The gigabyte card's feedback reviews like all say that the card stopped working after a couple of months. WTF?
I don't know what to do. Are all GPU reviews like this?
Edit:
OMG, I need help I'm going crazy.
Because of the bad reviews on the other two cards, I'm thinking to go with EVGA, especially since someone said they're very trusted.
But what in the hell is the difference between these two cards???
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130566 and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130565 ??
Edit:
Screw it, I'm gonna wait until tomorrow until you guys respond hopefully. Maybe I'll get an additional discount since it'll be Cyber Monday. Probably not though.
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@maxchgr
Yes, you want a 64-bit operating system.
The EVGA FPB stands for Free Performance Boost and its just a firmware update that increases the clock speeds of the card and fan speeds. Nothing too important.
EE stands for External Exhaust. So the card has its fan at the back of the card sucking in all the air and pushing it through the heatsink and releasing it outside the case. Any of the GTX 460 without EE means that the fan sits in the middle of the GPU and the heat is being expelled in every direction. There's not that big of a difference so I wouldn't worry about it if you don't know what exactly you want.
Cards ending in -AR receive lifetime warranty upon registration and -TR only receives 2 years upon registration. Make sure you register your card when you purchase. You can find everything to know about EVGA's warranty service here: http://www.evga.com/support/warranty/
Nothing's perfect in this world so people are bound to experience issues. You just hear from these people a lot more than someone who is not experiencing issues at all. Palit is very popular in Europe and Asia. Palit and its sister companies are Nvidia's biggest partner and more than 50% of Nvidia cards are manufactured by them.
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What is your budget?
$1200
What is your resolution?
1680 x 1050 More specifically http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236050&cm_re=2ms-_-24-236-050-_-Product
What are you using it for?
Starcraft 2, WoW, Warcraft 3, First Person Shooters, Rts any other PC game I want to play
What is your upgrade cycle?
1-2 years
When do you plan on building it?
Mid December
Do you plan on overclocking?
A little bit, but not extreme
Do you need an Operating System?
Yes
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
I would like crossfire in the future, but not as of now.
Where are you buying your parts from?
Newegg
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leomon
Canada169 Posts
To all the pros out there, which one would you recommend? Going to use the system mainly for gaming at 1920x1200 and school work. I got a GTX 460 786 and the rest of my parts ready, just need a mobo and cpu.
Should I go AMD or Intel? Right now I'm looking at this:
AMD:
+ Show Spoiler +
Intel:
+ Show Spoiler +
Not going to crossfire/sli, but I might overclock the cpu if I need to. (will try to avoid it if i can)
Any cheaper motherboards or recommendations? Only thing I REALLY need from it is USB 3.0 ports
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5930 Posts
Why do you need USB 3.0 ports? Very little out there actually uses it right now and the onboard controllers aren't great right now. Dunno about AMD's offerings but most of the offerings on the P55 motherboards are pretty rubbish to be honest and I just end up using eSATA instead.
Personally, I'd go AMD and pick the cheapest Phenom II X4 since the difference between the 955 and 965 is not worth the $25 price difference at all. The 6 core processor is useless for you if all you are going to do is school work and games since nothing will use all 6 cores. Motherboard is your choice, depends on what you want on your motherboard's I/O and their features since Asus and Gigabyte are good motherboard companies and you probably won't notice a difference to be honest.
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@SkyR
Which card would you buy if it were you? Do you think I should go with Palit since it's cheaper?
Edit: The EVGA card seems to come with a utility software to tweak the card and an instruction manual and lifetime warranty so I think I'll go with that.
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@maxchgr
You can use the EVGA software on other cards as well. If I was buying an nvidia card, I'd get an EVGA.
Any board with the necessary connectors and cooling for your needs is good enough.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412 is nearly identical to USB3. TBH I don't even know what the difference is.
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Okay, good, cause I just bought http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130570 before you posted.
I also just bought the mobo you suggested.
And the rest of the parts as well  I hope everything will work out okay.
Newegg isn't showing my order yet in my account even though I just bought it and printed the receipt. I guess it doesn't process the order automatically.
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Alright guys, complete computer noob here. I am trying to figure out a realistic build/price for a good computer used for SC2 (lower graphics settings are fine, so long as there isn't copious amounts of lag). other functions it would serve would be regular web browsing, etc.
I don't know what overclocking is, so don't ask me if I am going to do it.
I am looking to build it for less than $1k, but would like to reduce the cost to as low as $500-600 (or lower? i dunno how realistic this is).
This would be a computer completely from scratch, i don't have a monitor or anything (I do have a mouse and keyboard).
any help would be greatly apprectiated, thanks.
+ Show Spoiler +
What is your budget?
$500-1k
What is your resolution?
dunno, need a monitor too...nothing spectacular needed.
What are you using it for?
SC2 and occasional web browsing
What is your upgrade cycle?
1 year
When do you plan on building it?
before christmas
Do you plan on overclocking?
no
Do you need an Operating System?
yes
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
huh? any reccomendations for noobs?
Where are you buying your parts from?
newegg, tigerdirect, any other online resource available in the US
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On November 30 2010 02:34 ishboh wrote:Alright guys, complete computer noob here. I am trying to figure out a realistic build/price for a good computer used for SC2 (lower graphics settings are fine, so long as there isn't copious amounts of lag). other functions it would serve would be regular web browsing, etc. I don't know what overclocking is, so don't ask me if I am going to do it. I am looking to build it for less than $1k, but would like to reduce the cost to as low as $500-600 (or lower? i dunno how realistic this is). This would be a computer completely from scratch, i don't have a monitor or anything (I do have a mouse and keyboard). any help would be greatly apprectiated, thanks. + Show Spoiler +
What is your budget?
$500-1k
What is your resolution?
dunno, need a monitor too...nothing spectacular needed.
What are you using it for?
SC2 and occasional web browsing
What is your upgrade cycle?
1 year
When do you plan on building it?
before christmas
Do you plan on overclocking?
no
Do you need an Operating System?
yes
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
huh? any reccomendations for noobs?
Where are you buying your parts from?
newegg, tigerdirect, any other online resource available in the US
good news is you can easily play SC2 on a $500-600 system, you just can't get too fancy with huge amounts of memory/storage/blu-ray burners, etc.
here are a couple good articles to start:
ars
toms
the way I see it, the "sweet spot" price-wise for gaming is something like:
$100-150 CPU+mobo
$100-150 graphics
$50-100case+power
$100-150 memory + HDD
$50-100 everything else (keybd/mouse/optical)
+ monitor
(400-650 range + monitor, for a system that should be good for 2 years at least)
shop around for good deals in your budget. the combo deals at newegg are great if you're building a whole system. have fun.
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Disregard originally recommended http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425
You recommended http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412
The order didn't go through for some reason and instead of trying a different credit card I thought I'd take a breather and compare prices one last time for the motherboard. Is that a good price on that card you just recommended? I don't even remember the price on the comparable suggestion by Disregard.
One thing I wanted to ask was about the SATA thing. That mobo says SATA 6gb/s and the HDD I just bought (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185) says SATA 3.0Gb/s. Did I buy a HDD that isn't as fast as I should have gotten or something?
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Building a comp for the first time and parts should be coming in for my this week. Have a 90 GB SSD coming and was wondering what (and how much) i can get away with putting on there.
Going to have Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit and Starcraft at the least. Office 2010 worth putting on there (and if so is 2010 64 bit worth getting nowadays or stick with 2010 32 bit or 2007)? iTunes ? Mozilla ? Never worked with SSD so not sure how much room 90 GB will give me and how much free room i should shoot to keep on the drive.
Thanks in advance.
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EPT
