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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. |
Hello,
I want to get some RAM and I have a question.
I have 2GB of ram and I want to get 2 more GB. My cpu is : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
I have 2x 1Gb of RAM and 2 empty slots. I want to know if I can get 1x2Gb or I need to get another 2x1GB.
Any other informations are welcome.
Thx.
It'd really help us if you told us exactly what ram you have (and dont just say gskill ripjaws 1600, there are like 10 different ripjaws 1600 alone, say the part number, speed, timings).
Yes, you can add a 2GB stick, it's done all the time, especially in laptops. It's not really recommended though, and you generally want to keep as much similar as possible, so if you are asking what to buy, try to get 2x1gb sticks of similar speed and latency.
If you are asking if it's safe, it's 100% safe, worst case scenario you are just unstable and need to downclock or ie cant overclock as far.
I mean I could give you an exact answer and tell you exactly what to buy but my answer can only be the same quality as your question - completely lacking details and vague.
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Just to nitpick :p
Treat i.e. like "that is" and e.g. like "for example"
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Vertex series of SSD is not really recommended.
ARE YOU NEAR A MICROCENTER OR BEST BUY? Get BB to pricematch if not near microcenter, get 3570k for just $189, save money there.
I'd go for a samsung 830 128gb instead - faster, more reliable, and i dont think you really need 256gb over just 128gb. How much is your current computer using (go to computer, properties, how much of pie is used up...).
the 7850 for $159 with farcry/farcry dragon is actually a better deal, you should get that instead and then sell the games off. you need a heatsink as well... but id just hold off for now on a heatsink since no sale right now, maybe in an hour there'll be one.
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On April 21 2013 03:12 Snaap wrote:
Hey guys, maybe someone colud help me out. My old PC (AMD Phenom 955 4x BE, 8 GB Ram, decent GPU) broke and unless it a power supply issue I will probably have to buy a new one. (Its been running for 4 years without me changing any parts so I kinda feel like that it will be easier and probably cheaper simply to buy a new one then first trying to figure out what is broken etc)
What am I looking for?
budget 500-600 (I'm willing to pay up to 800 if its really worth but I dont think I need that much)
It has to support 2 monitors (preferably even a third TV) in 1900 x 1200 resolution
I should obv have enough power for office, browser
I need to use CAD software and Eclipse for univesity but its nothing fancy so it shouldnt be a problem
It has to play HD videos
I'd like to be able to play games in my native resolution with normal/mid graphics
I dont want to worry about having to upgrage for 3-4 years
How much power do I need if dont want the new PC to feel slower then my old one (-> see first line)
oh and btw I'd prefer to go with an Intel this time.
Thanks for any advice!
Snaap
EDIT: I looked a bit on the net and found the Intel i5-3570 CPU+GPU, is the integrated GPU good enough for my purposes or would I need an addional one?
In the "info" box of this GPU it says that it supports 3 monitors - does this mean that I can simply connect 3 monitors?
Is the CPU good enough for me?
What RAM should I go for, G.Skill still good?
What about motherboards, something I should keep in mind?
I will be using my old Antec P183, this should not cause any problems as it's more then big enough right?
uhhh why would you not try to fix it? Are you serious? You could just fix the small issue, replace it, and then sell your build for $300-400, and buy a new computer for maybe $100 more.
Can you tell us exactly what is wrong with it? You are insane if you aren't goign to fix it. It's very likely just a single comopnent, like the PSU, is dead, not the whole system. You could use most of the parts for a future build too - your gpu, ram, hdd, case, all of that is the exact same in a new build anyways.
Did you overclock? You'd get a very large performance boost if you simply overclocked, it'd be a lot cheaper than buying a new computer... an intel cpu + motherboard will cost basically three times more than your phenom, and be about twice the performance. is your current pc slow? a phenom x4 can stream sc2 on hd pretty well. I mean if you are struggling in like bioshock, then all you need to do is replace your gpu, not a whole new system....
And the integrated gpu is not enough for gaming. Gskill does not make ram, they assemble ram, there's only like 2-3 companies that actually 'make' RAM these days, and companies like gskill, corsair, etc, buy the ram from them and then put it on a circuit board and sell it, dont worry about ram or ram brands, you just buy the cheapest ddr3 (and you already have ram, why buy new ram? prices have skyrocketed on ram).
your case is fine.
you should really hold off on any decisions, it sounds like you are about to make a lot of bad decisions and it doesnt sound like you know exactly what you are doing here. You could probably do a very, very simple fix to your PC to get it up and going, i cant imagine it's too weak for your needs, if you wanted to upgrade all youd need to do is buy a new cpu and motherboard, not an entire system, you could sell your current system and basically buy an upgrade for 'free' (ie keep gpu and hdd and case) if you were savvy enough.
I can pretty much promise you it'd be a lot simpler to just fix your current pc then buying a new one lol. Seriously, it's extremely easy to troubleshoot PCs. does the power supply boot up, does the fan spin when it's turned on? Do you have a case speaker (ie does your computer 'beep' when you turn it on), if so, remove the ram, what happens when you turn it on?
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On April 21 2013 06:39 Belial88 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 21 2013 03:12 Snaap wrote:
Hey guys, maybe someone colud help me out. My old PC (AMD Phenom 955 4x BE, 8 GB Ram, decent GPU) broke and unless it a power supply issue I will probably have to buy a new one. (Its been running for 4 years without me changing any parts so I kinda feel like that it will be easier and probably cheaper simply to buy a new one then first trying to figure out what is broken etc)
What am I looking for?
budget 500-600 (I'm willing to pay up to 800 if its really worth but I dont think I need that much)
It has to support 2 monitors (preferably even a third TV) in 1900 x 1200 resolution
I should obv have enough power for office, browser
I need to use CAD software and Eclipse for univesity but its nothing fancy so it shouldnt be a problem
It has to play HD videos
I'd like to be able to play games in my native resolution with normal/mid graphics
I dont want to worry about having to upgrage for 3-4 years
How much power do I need if dont want the new PC to feel slower then my old one (-> see first line)
oh and btw I'd prefer to go with an Intel this time.
Thanks for any advice!
Snaap
EDIT: I looked a bit on the net and found the Intel i5-3570 CPU+GPU, is the integrated GPU good enough for my purposes or would I need an addional one?
In the "info" box of this GPU it says that it supports 3 monitors - does this mean that I can simply connect 3 monitors?
Is the CPU good enough for me?
What RAM should I go for, G.Skill still good?
What about motherboards, something I should keep in mind?
I will be using my old Antec P183, this should not cause any problems as it's more then big enough right? uhhh why would you not try to fix it? Are you serious? You could just fix the small issue, replace it, and then sell your build for $300-400, and buy a new computer for maybe $100 more. Can you tell us exactly what is wrong with it? You are insane if you aren't goign to fix it. It's very likely just a single comopnent, like the PSU, is dead, not the whole system. You could use most of the parts for a future build too - your gpu, ram, hdd, case, all of that is the exact same in a new build anyways. Did you overclock? You'd get a very large performance boost if you simply overclocked, it'd be a lot cheaper than buying a new computer... an intel cpu + motherboard will cost basically three times more than your phenom, and be about twice the performance. is your current pc slow? a phenom x4 can stream sc2 on hd pretty well. I mean if you are struggling in like bioshock, then all you need to do is replace your gpu, not a whole new system.... And the integrated gpu is not enough for gaming. Gskill does not make ram, they assemble ram, there's only like 2-3 companies that actually 'make' RAM these days, and companies like gskill, corsair, etc, buy the ram from them and then put it on a circuit board and sell it, dont worry about ram or ram brands, you just buy the cheapest ddr3 (and you already have ram, why buy new ram? prices have skyrocketed on ram). your case is fine. you should really hold off on any decisions, it sounds like you are about to make a lot of bad decisions and it doesnt sound like you know exactly what you are doing here. You could probably do a very, very simple fix to your PC to get it up and going, i cant imagine it's too weak for your needs, if you wanted to upgrade all youd need to do is buy a new cpu and motherboard, not an entire system, you could sell your current system and basically buy an upgrade for 'free' (ie keep gpu and hdd and case) if you were savvy enough. I can pretty much promise you it'd be a lot simpler to just fix your current pc then buying a new one lol. Seriously, it's extremely easy to troubleshoot PCs. does the power supply boot up, does the fan spin when it's turned on? Do you have a case speaker (ie does your computer 'beep' when you turn it on), if so, remove the ram, what happens when you turn it on?
First of all thanks for taking the time to answer my questions (:
Now, the issue with my PC is that it suddenly went of and wont start again, i dont have speakers so I cant say anything about the beep unfortunatly.
I opened it up a couple of hours After it went out and when I tried to start it the fans worked for maybe half a second and that was it. (Plus it doesnt make any noise at all, so I assume nothing boots up)
Now I opened it again took out the ram and tried to boot but again nothing except for the fans turning for a moment.
There are two reasons why I wanted to simply buy a new one - I kinda need this done relativly fast because I have to do informatics and engineering stuff von university every week and it's a pain in the butt if you cant do it at home and plus all the parts are really old - I kinda expect everything to start dying rather sooner that later.
But you seem like you know what you are talking about, so if you think its worth repairing I'm all ears, please let me now how you would proceed. (My first step would be change the psu and see what happens)
btw I was fine with my setup, I veery rarely play games and everything else worked fine, I had some issues with the gpu (Windows would freeze for a couple of seconds and show me a driver problem popup (yap driver was always updated) but wasnt really big of a deal)
No I didnt overclock I never really had the need tbh. Oh ok thanks for the info, I had really no idea about the ram :D
btw My current setup:
AMD Phen BE x 955
770-c35 MSI motherboard
GTX 260 extreme plus
Edit: So basicly I wouldnt really need an upgrade right now but I was buying a new system I was going to get a bit more then I really needed because I would feel bad if my new pc was slower then my 4 year old one :D
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On April 21 2013 07:41 Snaap wrote:
I opened it up a couple of hours After it went out and when I tried to start it the fans worked for maybe half a second and that was it. (Plus it doesnt make any noise at all, so I assume nothing boots up)
Now I opened it again took out the ram and tried to boot but again nothing except for the fans turning for a moment.
That's typically either a power supply or motherboard that's failed. My money is on the motherboard.
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On April 21 2013 07:50 Craton wrote:Show nested quote +On April 21 2013 07:41 Snaap wrote:
I opened it up a couple of hours After it went out and when I tried to start it the fans worked for maybe half a second and that was it. (Plus it doesnt make any noise at all, so I assume nothing boots up)
Now I opened it again took out the ram and tried to boot but again nothing except for the fans turning for a moment. That's typically either a power supply or motherboard that's failed. My money is on the motherboard.
is there any easy way to find out which one it is or will I have to change one of them?
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You can swap in a replacement and if it works then you know which was the problem. If you have a PSU tester then you can pull out your PSU and use that, though I've had mixed results with how accurate those are. Beyond that, I doubt it.
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On April 21 2013 06:33 Belial88 wrote:Vertex series of SSD is not really recommended. ARE YOU NEAR A MICROCENTER OR BEST BUY? Get BB to pricematch if not near microcenter, get 3570k for just $189, save money there. I'd go for a samsung 830 128gb instead - faster, more reliable, and i dont think you really need 256gb over just 128gb. How much is your current computer using (go to computer, properties, how much of pie is used up...). the 7850 for $159 with farcry/farcry dragon is actually a better deal, you should get that instead and then sell the games off. you need a heatsink as well... but id just hold off for now on a heatsink since no sale right now, maybe in an hour there'll be one.
Then I will change the SSD to the Samsung 830 128gb but its out of stock right now. Should I just go for the 840 Pro for $150?
I'm not near a microcenter or a tigerdirect, but there is a Best Buy near me. I'll go check now what they have there.
I like how you used layman's terms to explain that, haha^^ But I understood what you meant.  My old computer is actually gone but as I remember, C drive was only about 75~100GB filled.
EDIT what is the difference between a 1GB and 2GB video card realistically speaking?
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Are they still even making 830s? I would think they're phasing them out for the 840 line.
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On April 21 2013 06:26 Belial88 wrote:Show nested quote +Hello,
I want to get some RAM and I have a question.
I have 2GB of ram and I want to get 2 more GB. My cpu is : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
I have 2x 1Gb of RAM and 2 empty slots. I want to know if I can get 1x2Gb or I need to get another 2x1GB.
Any other informations are welcome.
Thx. It'd really help us if you told us exactly what ram you have (and dont just say gskill ripjaws 1600, there are like 10 different ripjaws 1600 alone, say the part number, speed, timings). Yes, you can add a 2GB stick, it's done all the time, especially in laptops. It's not really recommended though, and you generally want to keep as much similar as possible, so if you are asking what to buy, try to get 2x1gb sticks of similar speed and latency. If you are asking if it's safe, it's 100% safe, worst case scenario you are just unstable and need to downclock or ie cant overclock as far. I mean I could give you an exact answer and tell you exactly what to buy but my answer can only be the same quality as your question - completely lacking details and vague.
I checked and this is what is written on my memory stick : Hynix 1GB 2Rx8 PC2-5300U-555-12
I googled it and this is the information I got :
Cycle Time: 6ns
Cas: CL5
Data Transfer Rate: 667Mhz
Memory Clock: 166Mhz
Voltage: 1.8
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Try ebay if you want the exact same RAM.
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Just realized I will need some more cooling because I'm gonna be overclocking. Is this one a good deal? It's $35ar.
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Now, the issue with my PC is that it suddenly went of and wont start again, i dont have speakers so I cant say anything about the beep unfortunatly.
I opened it up a couple of hours After it went out and when I tried to start it the fans worked for maybe half a second and that was it. (Plus it doesnt make any noise at all, so I assume nothing boots up)
Likely a motherboard or PSU issue. When you turn it on, does the fan spin in the power supply? Low quality power supplies can go dead after 2-3 years, it's not uncommon, so that's my guess.
Even if you build a new computer you are going to need a power supply. I mean we should do a bit more testing, but basically if we can deduce it's likely the PSU then just order the cx430 and throw it in. The parts aren't really that old, I would imagine most of your stuff is still covered under warranty. If something really is wrong, you could get it replaced for free.
No I didnt overclock I never really had the need tbh. Oh ok thanks for the info, I had really no idea about the ram :D
Well you were talking about upgrades, so it's kinda silly to talk upgrades if you didn't overclock your build imo. I mean you are just paying money for performance you could have for the price of a $20 heatsink, basically.
A phenom x4 build is very easily worth a good $300 on craigslist, it's definitely worth your time to fix it up.
It's really important you tell me ALL of the components you have, I dont know why you insist on making it difficult for us to help you. Tell us the case you use, the heatsink, the exact ram model, i mean you need to be telling what mouse you use and what temperature air you breath man, do you want this fixed or not? I'll be happy to pay you a flat $100 for you to just ship me your computer if you dont want to go through the trouble, I'll pay you right now.
For example, now that you told me what model your motherboard is, I'm actually very suspect that your motherboard likely blew out. You should take a flashlight to it, and look at the VRM (google it). You need to look for BLOWN CAPS (google it), or any sort of browning, discoloration, burn marks, etc. Check the backside as well, you should be able to see from the other side (IF YOU TOLD US WHAT CASE YOU HAD I COULD TELL YOU HOW TO DO THIS)You could do the same for your power supply but that's a bit more advanced and not worth the trouble and it'll void the warranty, preventing you from getting a free replacement if it really is your PSU.
If your current system was fine I'd literally recommend you just buy the exact same comopnents for your next build, but i dont think it's necessary for you to do that. I mean really, if you give us more information we could basically tell you to just replace one component, instead of you buying a phenom x4 again when you already have a perfectly working one.
If you dont want to go through the trouble, there's a huge market for AS/IS components, I'll be happy to pay a pretty penny for your components and I can figure out for myself if it's good or not. Going rate on a good phenom x4 is around $60-80, but going rate on a as/is phenom x4 is about $20-40.
A PSU tester won't really tell you if you have a good power supply or not, they are pretty useless. Do you have access to a digital multimeter (or even analogue) by any chance? Anyways inspect your motherboard, and, turn on your system and tell me if the fan spins in the power supply or not.
Then I will change the SSD to the Samsung 830 128gb but its out of stock right now. Should I just go for the 840 Pro for $150?
I'm not near a microcenter or a tigerdirect, but there is a Best Buy near me. I'll go check now what they have there.
I like how you used layman's terms to explain that, haha^^ But I understood what you meant. My old computer is actually gone but as I remember, C drive was only about 75~100GB filled.
I dont believe 830s are manufacturered anymore but they are still covered under warranty and many places still sell them. Just check the usual suspects on who has the best price for a samsung 830 128gb - amazon, newegg, tigerdirect, frys, wal-mart.com (youd be surprised how many awesome deals they have), bestbuy (yes bestbuy has awesome prices... a bit further between though), ncix, and check a price checker like google shopping and pricegrabber. Prices on SSDs have risen a bit. There's also ebay but I wouldn't honestly recommend buying SSDs off ebay, in general (ie the intel x25-m and 320 are usually on good prices there since no one sells them anymore, but id go with 830 instead unless you are poor like me).
I checked and this is what is written on my memory stick : Hynix 1GB 2Rx8 PC2-5300U-555-12
I googled it and this is the information I got :
Cycle Time: 6ns
Cas: CL5
Data Transfer Rate: 667Mhz
Memory Clock: 166Mhz
Voltage: 1.8
Okay so what's stopping you from buying that exact ram again? Google, buy resultys. $15/each.
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On April 21 2013 11:49 pRo9aMeR wrote:Just realized I will need some more cooling because I'm gonna be overclocking. Is this one a good deal? It's $35ar.
That's actually an awesome deal, but I'd recommend you go with the LQ-315 instead. Nice catch! I assumed the 315 and 310 were jacked up with the 320.
Anyone else looking for a heatsink would do well to get the LQ-315 for their build. It's a mid-range heatsink, just like any other mid-range heatsink, and at $39 it's a good price since it's one of the better mid-range heatsinks.
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On April 21 2013 11:55 Belial88 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 21 2013 11:49 pRo9aMeR wrote:Just realized I will need some more cooling because I'm gonna be overclocking. Is this one a good deal? It's $35ar. That's actually an awesome deal, but I'd recommend you go with the LQ-315 instead. Nice catch! I assumed the 315 and 310 were jacked up with the 320. Anyone else looking for a heatsink would do well to get the LQ-315 for their build. It's a mid-range heatsink, just like any other mid-range heatsink, and at $39 it's a good price since it's one of the better mid-range heatsinks.
I'll take that recommendation! Also, do I need to buy the thermal compound? I've never done this kind of stuff before.
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It'll come with half decent paste, but in the future you can buy coollaboratory liquid ultra for a good like 5-15*C temp drop, or something like pk3, masscool, for $3 for a 1.5g bit off ebay for a good 3-8*C temp drop (which is an awesome deal). You can also email a lot of thermal paste companies for a sample, and most will be happy to oblige. I've had a 1.5g bit of pk-3 last well over 20 remounts, you really don't need to use much paste at all when mounting.
basically it's not necessary, it'll have it's own tim. But $3 for the best ceramique thermal paste is a great deal. It's best bought if you figure you need more cooling. Although the energy you save from lower temps probably will justify the cost, especially if you consider it like $3 / 20 since you arent using the whole tube.
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Hey guys this is my first computer I am trying to "build" and I'm asking for advice about anything fundamentally wrong with my hardware choices. I would also like any subjective advice as well but try to distinguish between the two. My uses for the computer will be playing sc2, league of legends, skyrim, and the occasional new games like farcry, assassins creed, bioshock. Streaming is also something I'd like to do and hopefully this build will work with that. I like to think its a mid-range build but I'm very new to computer parts in general, so here goes.
These parts are not bought yet, still making final decisions.
case: Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with Five Fans, window side panel, top HDD dock
No specific reason, it comes with 5 fans and is hopefully big enough to fit everything *crosses fingers*
monitor: Using my original Dell 20" monitor
Cuz its free!
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
500W is enough right? I dont plan on upgrading other parts anytime soon.
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7Q-16GBRL
16GB is enough right? To play sc2, run music, and stream?
MOBO: ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Is this motherboard sufficient? I'm not entirely sure if it is or not.
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
Good enough? I dont know a ton about how 'good' this is or not.
Hard Drive (HD for short?): Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
1TB is enough for my uses, I have my old hard drive I'll be using for the majority of data storage.
GPU: HIS H779F1GD Radeon HD 7790 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Good enough for farcry3 I believe? And def good enough for sc2
So yea let me know the facts, your thoughts and suggestions :D
Whether you agree or disagree with others about this setup please let me know ^^
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monitor: Using my original Dell 20" monitor
Cuz its free!
first off this is a huge fail. You dont buy such a nice computer as you propose, to use on such a crappy montor. You need to put at least $100 (more like around $150, but sales occur) for a proper 1080 monitor. If you are goignt o use a 20" dell then just buy a phenom x4 and gtx 460 cheapo build. or really just a pentium and 4870 lol.
case: Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with Five Fans, window side panel, top HDD dock
No specific reason, it comes with 5 fans and is hopefully big enough to fit everything *crosses fingers*
Totally ignore how many fans a case comes with. Unless the case is over $100, the fans will always be garbage on them. Companies will sell a $20 case with 2 $3 fans in it and charge you for $40, or they'll sell a normal case with an extra fan and call it the elite version for $20 more. If you need fans, petrash tech shop sells yate loons for $5 a pop, $20 for 5, which is way better than any case fan on a case below $100.
The window on it, like basically all cases with a window, is cheap plastic. If you want a window, you are much better off installing one yourself (just cut a huge hole with a drill, use $3 rubber trim so it looks smooth and clean on the edges, tape a sheet of cell cast acrlyic on the backside, you can get a free 12x12 sample from a local plasticier. My point is that the window looks great in pictures online, but in real life it'll look like cheap junk. The blackhawk uses colored black plastic, it looks like crap.
There's no ssd mount inside the side panel. The space behind the motherboard panel is more fitting to a modern $20-40 case, not a high end case. Lack of cable routing ports. I wouldn't really recommend this case. Corsair carbides are a better mid-range case, or nzxt phantoms or fractal designs or zalmans.
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
500W is enough right? I dont plan on upgrading other parts anytime soon.
First off, for any modern intel system single gpu system that doesnt use the most high end gpu or cpu (ie i7 extremes, 7950), 300w is overkill. Secondly, Quality > Quantity. The CX500 is just the CX430 with a few different parts in it. It's a totally arbitrary value. Other companies would take the CX500 and sell it as a 300w PSU. Wattage means nothing.
I've had 2 CX500s blow out on me, when an LED went out and shorted (two totally different brands of LEDs, part bad luck, part bad psu). Corsair' support is awesome though, so if you insist on a cheap, bad psu, go with the cx430 where the low price justifies the lack of quality. If you aren't running lots of peripherals and LEDs then the CX430 is good enough quality. Corsair actually gave me a cx600 and paid for the shipping, for my cx500 blowing out a 2nd time in 2 weeks. Of course I'm not going to use a cx600 in my i7-3770k system and ud5h, no way am i risking my parts blowing out, but i do know if they did, corsair would cover all of it. I just got tired of fixing up my cables:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/n1QjMM0.jpg?1)
As you can see, I dont want to do this a 3rd time. Actually I've done this 5 times, but 3 times due to the cx psu's blowing out...
If you want a 'midrange' PSU, go with an xfx pro 450w or silencer mk3 400w instead.
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7Q-16GBRL
16GB is enough right? To play sc2, run music, and stream?
2GB would be enough for that lol. You really don't need much RAM in a modern build. 4GB is more than enough for gaming, since games are 32bit OS. 8GB is nice if you decide to go dual monitor - it's not that dual monitor takes a lot of RAM, it's that gaming while pulling up a browser of chrome with a bunch of tabs and looking at it will use lots of RAM, but you can't do that on single monitor. Plus, RAM prices are really high.
16gb of ram is just absurd, that's for servers and such lol. Not to mention you picked terrible ram out. Streaming doesn't take any ram. Playing music doesnt take much ram. Gaming takes very little ram, like you can game just fine on a 2gb system (just have to close out of everything else,you can stream on 2gb though since streamign doesnt really use ram). Ram prices are really high so consider just buying a single 4GB stick for the time being until you really need more, but the cheapest ddr3 ram is fine.
MOBO: ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Is this motherboard sufficient? I'm not entirely sure if it is or not.
That does not have the right holes lol. You need to find an LGA1155 socket motherboard, with a Z77 chipset. Basically, buy the Z77X-D3H from newegg, if you live by microcenter then the Pro4 if you okay with buying a cheap, low quality motherboard that will get the job done and will save you some money, although i'd recommend a better board if you have the money or think you might enjoy overclocking.
Hard Drive (HD for short?): Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
1TB is enough for my uses, I have my old hard drive I'll be using for the majority of data storage.
huh? Look at how much your drive is using, are you even using more than 100GB? Seriously, check how much storage you are currently using. A HDD sucks ass so hard, never use a HDD unless you are forced to. Most people wouldnt even use more than a 64gb SSD, much less a 128gb one. Put it this way - i noticed a bigger difference in going from a fast HDD to slow gen 2 SSD, than going from basically a pentium to a 5ghz i7-3770k. SSD is everything, it's basically the heart of the modern computer in general usage tasks. No, it doesnt affect gaming or FPS, but literally everything you would do on a laptop, is basically the speed of your SSD. Get an SSD.
Samsung 840pro 128gb or crucial m4 from newegg, samsung 830 is really the best value imo and you just buy that from amazon or some other site, look it up, whatever.
You got the graphics card right though!~
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Hi Guys this is a build for a friend has wondering if any is wrong or anything you guys can upgrade we are Australian just for playing sc2 maybe some higher end stuff and a bit of programming
CPU: Intel i5-3570
GPU: Power Color Radeon HD 7870 XT
MOBO: Asrock H77-PRO4-MVP
SDD: SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120GB
PSU: OCZ Fatality 550W PSU
RAM: Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
CASE: Aywun A1-923-U3NP
anything else we have covered like screens and stuff
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