EPTAny advice would be appreciated and apologise if I am posting something that is not meant to be here.
Computer Build Resource Thread - Page 153
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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. | ||
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Imalengrat
Australia365 Posts
Any advice would be appreciated and apologise if I am posting something that is not meant to be here. | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
On February 06 2011 00:35 zester wrote: I don't know if anyone can help me or not and don't know if I should have a singular thread but I thinking about building a computer with little experience in the hardware aspect. At the moment I am playing starcraft 2 on a laptop without a graphics card and feel I should enjoy the experience with better graphics. I am willing to spend around $1500 AUS but don't understand what I would be able to achieve with that, and which aspect of the computers hardware should I sink the most amount of money into. Whether that be an impressive motherboard or cpu i am unsure. Any advice would be appreciated and apologise if I am posting something that is not meant to be here. Sorry, I don't know Australia retailers or prices so I'm unable to put together a configuration for you. You generally want to spend the most on the graphics card followed by the processor and power supply. Something along these lines: Graphics Card: 20% Processor: 20% Power Supply: 10% Motherboard: 10% Case: 10% Storage: 8% Memory: 8% DVD Drive: 2% Windows 7: 10% | ||
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IPS.ZeRo
Germany1142 Posts
On February 06 2011 00:35 zester wrote: I don't know if anyone can help me or not and don't know if I should have a singular thread but I thinking about building a computer with little experience in the hardware aspect. At the moment I am playing starcraft 2 on a laptop without a graphics card and feel I should enjoy the experience with better graphics. I am willing to spend around $1500 AUS but don't understand what I would be able to achieve with that, and which aspect of the computers hardware should I sink the most amount of money into. Whether that be an impressive motherboard or cpu i am unsure. Any advice would be appreciated and apologise if I am posting something that is not meant to be here. When do you want to build it? The new intel processors are great, but there were some issues with the mainboards, so you might not be able to get them until march/april. So under the assumption that you can wait or the boards will become available again fast: CPU: Intel i5-2400 Board: Depends on the prices in the shop. Some H67 that got USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB GPU: Gigabyte 560 Ti OC Memory: 4GB or if you do heavy multitasking 8GB of the cheapest DDR3-1333 PSU: Coolermaster Silent Pro 500W (Very silent and it has cable management) Hard drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB Optical drive: Some cheap thing like the LG GH24 Case: Really depends on personal preference and what you are willing to spend. The Antec 300 is very popular. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
Intel Core i5-2400 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_1184&products_id=16402 MSI P67A-C45 (cheapest full ATX motherboard there) http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_711_1183&products_id=16439 G.Skill 2 x 2GB DDR3 RAM http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_538_913&products_id=13930 Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=12711 Samsung CD/DVD RW http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=13068 Antec One Hundred (pretty much an updated 300 with more cable management) http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_547&products_id=16318 Silverstone Strider 500W http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_535&products_id=15319 HIS Radeon HD 6850 (can get something more expensive here if in budget, like a GTX 560 Ti) http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1163&products_id=15914 | ||
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Zephy
Germany42 Posts
I've heard about this Sandybridge stuff acting up and being remade or something like that. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
It's safe to buy. As always with technology, there may be better X or Y being released if you wait until later, but you can buy Sandy Bridge now if you want, if you can still find it. + Show Spoiler + On February 02 2011 10:48 skyR wrote: Just got this from Newegg regarding Sandybridge: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you. Newegg has recently become aware of a design issue that is affecting recent models of Intel Sandy Bridge platform motherboards. We are working with Intel to identify the exact nature of this problem. As always, Newegg remains 100% committed to our customers' total satisfaction. In keeping with our commitment to our customers, we are extending the return period for your motherboard by 90 days or until replacements become available from the manufacturer, whichever is greater. Intel expects to have a new revision of the P67 & H67 chipsets out around April, at which point first-run motherboards with this issue will need to be physically replaced in affected systems. From a technical standpoint, the design issue can be bypassed fairly simply by not using the Serial ATA (SATA) ports that are affected. Your motherboard’s manual should identify your SATA ports by number, and at a minimum you should see ports 0-5 (6 ports in total) listed. Ports 0 and 1 are Sata Rev. III (6Gbps), and do not appear to be affected by this problem. Ports 2-5 are SATA Rev. II (3Gbps) and should not be used. For a thorough explanation of this hardware work-around, please refer to our video on YouTube: If you choose to use the hardware work-around option, there is no need to contact us at this time. We have your information on record and will email you as soon as the replacements become available. If you would like to discuss this with our tech community or read up on the latest updates, please visit our EggXpert forum: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/682006.aspx If none of the above options are suitable to your needs and you wish to return the board at this time for a full refund, please email us at intelsandybridge@newegg.com and include your sales order number so we can help you out with your return. If you have any concerns, please contact Newegg Customer Service for further information and assistance. Thank you for your support! | ||
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Zephy
Germany42 Posts
On February 06 2011 09:57 Myrmidon wrote: Look a couple pages back, or pretty much any tech site. There is a defect in the supplemental chipset that over time will degrade the performance of 4 of the SATA ports on all current Sandy Bridge motherboards. Eventually, the ports may become unusable. Any drives plugged into an effected port will not be damaged--just the link itself will die. Every effected motherboard will come with at least 2 other perfectly working SATA ports. If you are going to be using no more than 2 SATA ports, there is no problem. If you will use more than 2 SATA ports, you can just buy an internal SATA interface expansion card to handle the rest, so it's not really a problem then either. Or you can just get the motherboard replaced after April. It's safe to buy. As always with technology, there may be better X or Y being released if you wait until later, but you can buy Sandy Bridge now if you want, if you can still find it. Oh okay, thanks. I most likely won't be using more than 2 ports. Certainly not right off the bat. Let's go with Sandybridge then. The question regarding the safety of buying was more related to anything being released in next few weeks, which one should wait for. In any case, let's buy a PC  Let's answer some of those important questions: What is your budget? Around 1200€ I'd say. What is your resolution? Currently 1680x1050, but I might as well get a new TFT in which case I'll probably go for the 1920x1280 resolution, since I want to have 2 functioning PCs. What are you using it for? I'm aiming for a high end Gaming-PC. Occasional Photoshop usage or streaming and other common tasks, but nothing too extensive in those areas. What is your upgrade cycle? Usually around 3 years, after which I'll usually upgrade to an entirely new PC. When do you plan on building it? Next few weeks unless I should wait for something in particular. Do you plan on overclocking? Nope. Do you need an Operating System? Nope, MSDNAA ftw. Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire? Don't think so. Where are you buying your parts from? Was thinking about mindfactory.de or snogard.de Any other suggestions? I'm from Germany. Please give me some suggestions, I'm currently not really too informed about hardware. Thanks in advance  | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
Intel Core i5-2400 http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41226&agid=1617 Gigabyte GA-PH67A-UD3 http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41962&agid=1601 A-Data 2 x 4GB DDR3 RAM http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29543&agid=1192 Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43169&agid=707 Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28152&agid=689 Samsung DVD-RW http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29466&agid=699 Super Flower Amazon Plus 450W http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=30074&agid=1627 Antec Three Hundred http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=23029&agid=631 That is about 700€ before tax and shipping I think. This will do all the gaming, photoshop, etc. you want to do. There are no bottom-end questionable brands above, and you will not get much more performance by spending more. If you wanted to spend more and get higher-end parts that you may want to reuse in a future computer, here would be some changes or additions: + Show Spoiler + Solid state drive (SSD) -- to put the OS, programs, etc. on for faster loading, better responsiveness, better disk-intensive multitasking (e.g. loading multiple programs with a virus scan in background). You would put both the hard drive and the SSD in the working SATA ports and put the infrequently-accessed optical drive in one of the SATA ports that degrades over time. OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (or 120GB) http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36616&agid=1145 http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36617&agid=1145 GPU upgrade? A GTX 560 is already plenty. Check the comparison with the GTX 580 here. The big differences are mostly at resolutions above 1920x1200, and most of those tests have AA turned on and ridiculous graphics settings. I wouldn't think it's worth over twice the price. GTX 580 http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=39644&agid=707 Super Flower Amazon Plus 550W -- if running a GTX 580, a decent 450W is okay with your CPU but on the low side for sure, so upgrade to this http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=30069&agid=1628 Case -- whatever you like. The Fractal Design R3 is pretty quiet, if that's your thing. The longest GPUs (if you were to get something like a GTX 580 or HD 6970 which I don't recommend) may have trouble fitting, but you'd have to look at the exact model. You may want to add a 12 or 14cm fan on top, or of course just go with whatever case suits you fine. Fractal Design R3 http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=36379&agid=631 | ||
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Badfatpanda
United States9719 Posts
Intel i5 2500k CPU Biostar TP67B+ Mobo Kingston 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM (I figure that if I find I need more, I can just get 2 more =D) Zotac GTX 470 1280MB Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB Some random optical I'll pick up when I go to Microcenter for my processor Antec Three Hundred Case Rosewell Green Series 630W PSU (I know it may be a bit much, but I'm getting it for $49 and I'd rather be safe when I'm going to be overclocking anyway) The total rig comes up to $750USD even with tax where applied (Amazon is the only carrier of a mobo not recalled right now in my price range) | ||
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Teraldent
United States89 Posts
Hello everyone, let me start off by saying if you ever think of building your own pc, rather than having it built for you from a site, build it yourself. I have never build a pc, so about 2 months ago I decided to get one build from cyberpower. When it came it wasn't working, and when i send it back for repairs, they didnt do jack shit. Hopefully those fucks will give me my money back. If they do, then I want to use the same money to build a pc myself. Please help me out and tell me if it will work. Ok so basically my budget is $800-$850ish. I do not plan on overclocking, I plan on using fraps for recording, so a bigger hard drive will be preferable, I have a monitor, and speakers. I am mostly curious if this will work, and looking for a good sound card suggestionn As of now, I have put this together: Case Hard Drive Motherboard Video Card Power Supply Memory CPU Optical Drive OS | ||
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Imalengrat
Australia365 Posts
On February 06 2011 03:04 IPS.ZeRo wrote: When do you want to build it? The new intel processors are great, but there were some issues with the mainboards, so you might not be able to get them until march/april. So under the assumption that you can wait or the boards will become available again fast: CPU: Intel i5-2400 Board: Depends on the prices in the shop. Some H67 that got USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB GPU: Gigabyte 560 Ti OC Memory: 4GB or if you do heavy multitasking 8GB of the cheapest DDR3-1333 PSU: Coolermaster Silent Pro 500W (Very silent and it has cable management) Hard drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB Optical drive: Some cheap thing like the LG GH24 Case: Really depends on personal preference and what you are willing to spend. The Antec 300 is very popular. Yeah I have recently heard about the intel mainboard issues so I guess all I can do at the moment is wait until April. Thanks for a quick response and appreciate it very much so. Another question relating but peripherals as I heard from people that I would be spending maybe another 300-400 dollars for a good monitor/mouse/keyboard. Is this true? | ||
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FragKrag
United States11554 Posts
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cAPS
United States153 Posts
Looking to upgrade and improve my case's airflow. mobo is MSI 785GTM-E45 I currently have an Athlon II X2 250. Any recommendations on a good step up? I've scoped out the Phenom II X4 920 at the upper end of my price range (~$100) Also, upgrading from the HD 4850 1gig 256 bit I'm looking at the Gigabyte HD 6850 1gig 256 bit, again at the upper end of my price range. As for the airflow, I'm looking to modify my tt Lanbox Lite. Picture explains: + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/8Jqa5.jpg) Thoughts? Are these upgrades worthwhile? | ||
PolSC2
United States634 Posts
On February 07 2011 15:32 FragKrag wrote: I wouldn't spend more than $250 on mouse/keyboard/monitor. A passable, high resolution monitor would be around $160-180 and $70-90 for keyboard and mouse is much more than you actually need Don't skimp on a monitor. Why do people keep suggesting you buy a piece of shit monitor?  I'm getting the Dell Ultrasharp U2410. Expensive? Yes. But it will last a decade or longer before I'd want a new one, and it's an IPS panel. No eye strain. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
HD 4850 to HD 6850 is a significant but not huge upgrade. Maybe you could hold off on the CPU and get a more expensive GPU instead? Or maybe you could wait a couple of months, save some money, and upgrade to a dual core Sandy Bridge Core i3-2xxx (or i5), new motherboard, and DDR3 RAM. Power consumption on those is pretty low, so you're not looking at much heat to dissipate for that. Or wait even longer to see if Bulldozer looks promising. | ||
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cAPS
United States153 Posts
I have not overclocked the CPU. The position of the PSU in my case has prevented me from using a better cooler; the stock one barely fits. I'll go through with the relocation I outlined in my previous post, get a better cooler, and try overclocking it. Thanks mate. Would there be any problems with using a vertical cpu cooler and having it draw air up through the heatsink as opposed to pushing it down through? I've considered maybe it wouldn't cool the surrounding components as well this way, but I don't know how serious that is. | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
And they may not fit if your case is not large enough. So make sure you have a big enough case if you are going with a tower heatsink and not a downdraft heatsink. | ||
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holynorth
United States590 Posts
On February 05 2011 00:41 Myrmidon wrote: The cores are often partially or mostly defective, such that they won't overclock very well or that they just cause your computer to crash whenever doing anything stressful. "Defective" just means that there is some unintended flaw in the physical (chemical) composition of the transistors. e.g. some impurity in the silicon causing excess leakage current. In some other cases, the transistors are so messed up that you'd just get wrong values all the time, so the cores are completely unusable. It's common for an unstable system (overclock or unlocked cores) to load the OS but not pass through something like prime95. It's possible that you might be able to use all the cores or maybe 3 of 4 if you apply more voltage, which can compensate for less serious defects. Just wanted to update that I got my Hyper 212 Plus in this weekend. Prime95 has been running without errors for almost 24 hours now with the two cores unlocked at 1.28 volts at room temperature. I am extremely excited, saved me almost a hundred dollars. I have so much room to overclock since I am running at such a low voltage which will be my next step. Thanks guys! PS: It seems that Prime95 was crashing due to the heat. The stock cooler is so tiny compared to the Hyper 212. | ||
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decafchicken
United States20138 Posts
On February 07 2011 15:23 zester wrote: Yeah I have recently heard about the intel mainboard issues so I guess all I can do at the moment is wait until April. Thanks for a quick response and appreciate it very much so. Another question relating but peripherals as I heard from people that I would be spending maybe another 300-400 dollars for a good monitor/mouse/keyboard. Is this true? You can get a decent monitor for ~150...or 400 if you're on the IPS train. keyboard 5$? 20$? maybe 20-40 for a mouse? | ||
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FragKrag
United States11554 Posts
On February 07 2011 21:29 PolSC2 wrote: Don't skimp on a monitor. Why do people keep suggesting you buy a piece of shit monitor? I'm getting the Dell Ultrasharp U2410. Expensive? Yes. But it will last a decade or longer before I'd want a new one, and it's an IPS panel. No eye strain. Will normal users notice the difference aside from viewing angles? No. Is it worth it for people to buy high end IPS monitors if they can't even tell the difference? | ||
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