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.
On April 05 2011 17:17 skyR wrote: Well lucky for you the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB is bak in stock =p
Your case and power supply also has mail in rebates.
Haha, perfect! I'll be paying $10 more for the hard drive, then, but considering the rebates that means I'm actually $10 under what I thought! I'll be buying everything tonight! I just double checked the power usage again to be sure, and, with everything running 100% and even all USB ports drawing power, I should only hit 437W.
Thanks for your input, guys! I'll be sure to update when I get everything (and if I have problems building, lol)!
On that note, is there a tutorial anywhere that you guys suggest for a first-time builder? I'm sure I'll be fine, but I want to be as prepared as possible. I'm a very research-minded person when it comes to stuff like this.
Windows 7 for $30 for anyone with access to a .edu email address. Should help y'all out there who are building new systems.
Full disclosure, it is an "upgrade" version, so you're technically supposed to be upgrading from a previous XP, Vista, etc installation. However, there are ways around that...
On April 05 2011 17:17 skyR wrote: Well lucky for you the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB is bak in stock =p
Your case and power supply also has mail in rebates.
On that note, is there a tutorial anywhere that you guys suggest for a first-time builder? I'm sure I'll be fine, but I want to be as prepared as possible. I'm a very research-minded person when it comes to stuff like this.
Two big tips to save you from a lot of headaches.
1) Make sure you don't shock any of your computer parts 2) DO NOT screw your motherboard directly into the computer case! Use your standoffs/risers to elevate the motherboard.
NCIX has weekly salaes and their current sale ends tomorrow so I'll come up with a build for you tomorrow when their new sale starts. NCIX is a Canadian retailer and all their prices are listed in CAD.
Do you still want them to assemble it for $50 or are you putting it together yourself?
You're going to have to wait until mid-late June for new processors from AMD. Waiting will always result in lower prices but are you going to wait forever and never buy a computer? If you need it now, you should buy now.
If you're just going to be playing SC2 and D3, you won't be needing to upgrade anything in the next 3 years.
And yes installing the operating system takes a few simple steps. You can either buy it for ~$95, get it for free from your university, or download it illegally.
Yeah, I'm going to buy it sometime soon so I won't really wait til the new processors are out.
I'm still going to pay for them to assemble my computer, but I am not taking that price into consideration in the $650.00 I'm hoping to spend a MAXIMUM of $900.00 in the whole computer 30 for keyboard 30 shipping 50 assembly 140 monitor So that leaves me at ~650.00 to spend just on the computer.
Thanks a lot for your help btw, I really appreciate it.
Just wanted to thank everyone again who helped me pick out my computer. On it now. Took me a lot longer to put it together than I estimated but it's all together now and I'm pretty stoked. Will be fooling with it and opening it up a few more times to deal with transferring hard drives over but it's all good.
Thanks! The first one is excellent. I'd strongly recommend it to the rest of you guys if you're even a little unsure about what you're doing. It's succinct yet well-explained.
I bought the first round of parts earlier tonight! The hard drive sold out again before I could nab it and the video card was also out of stock, unfortunately. I put an alert on them and got everything else (except for the CPU since it's bundled with the video card, of course). Excited to be started!
On April 06 2011 15:05 Legatus Lanius wrote: is there any difference between the ud3 and ud3r gigabyte p67 mobos? i mean important differences
UD3R has a different color.
Aside from that, the voltage regulation modules are different. I'm not sure about the other components, but from pictures you can see the UD3R has a 8+2 phase design, while the UD3 has a 4+1 phase design. This should effect overclocking in theory, but it looks like the UD3 VRMs are decent enough unless you're trying to break 5.0 GHz or something like that.
On April 06 2011 15:05 Legatus Lanius wrote: is there any difference between the ud3 and ud3r gigabyte p67 mobos? i mean important differences
UD3R has a different color.
Aside from that, the voltage regulation modules are different. I'm not sure about the other components, but from pictures you can see the UD3R has a 8+2 phase design, while the UD3 has a 4+1 phase design. This should effect overclocking in theory, but it looks like the UD3 VRMs are decent enough unless you're trying to break 5.0 GHz or something like that.
ah thanks, was wondering why it was 20 bucks extra :X
What is your upgrade cycle ? Around 4 to 5 years. I try to keep my computer as long as possible (i.e.: until it has trouble running average games on average settings) so I don't mind spending a few dollars more to have something that will last a long time.
When do you plan on building it ? In the next few weeks.
Do you plan on overclocking ? Not really.
Do you need an operating system ? Yeah, probably windows7.
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire ? Not really.
Where are you buying your parts from ? newegg.ca unless there are better deals somewhere else.
Right now, it's a little expensive, but like i wrote in the upgrade cycle part, I don't mind if it will last a good amount of time. However, I'm wondering if there are some incompatibilities or maybe some better options for any of the parts. I haven't built a computer myself before so I'm not sure about anything. I already have a standard hdd and a dvd drive from my current computer that I plan on transferring to my new one. Any input would be greatly appreciated !
www.ncix.com offers pricematching, better deals, and faster shipping. Their new sale starts tonight so I'll come up with a build for you when their new sale comes up.
There is no point in getting a core i7 2600k for gaming purposes. Furthermore, you don't need a 750w power supply if you are not going SLI / Crossfire, a quality 500w power supply would be perfect.
On April 06 2011 15:05 Legatus Lanius wrote: is there any difference between the ud3 and ud3r gigabyte p67 mobos? i mean important differences
UD3R has a different color.
Aside from that, the voltage regulation modules are different. I'm not sure about the other components, but from pictures you can see the UD3R has a 8+2 phase design, while the UD3 has a 4+1 phase design. This should effect overclocking in theory, but it looks like the UD3 VRMs are decent enough unless you're trying to break 5.0 GHz or something like that.
ah thanks, was wondering why it was 20 bucks extra :X
Do NOT be cheap on purchasing a quality VRM phase motherboard. You can fry up your board if you get one of those cheap 4+1 phase designs that claim to work really well. Hell the recent GTX 590 video card was supposedly blowing up motherboards because of the phase design on the mobo. I'd go with the 8+2 phase design... if it's only $20 more get it!
2 things you should never go cheap on is your power supply and your motherboard. Unless you want to blow shit up and have to get brand new parts or even worse a fire. >.<
It's ok to avoid expensive boards that have all that extra features shit on it like SLI, USB 3, Bluetooth, but if it has crappy VRM phase design avoid it like the plague.
www.ncix.com offers pricematching, better deals, and faster shipping. Their new sale starts tonight so I'll come up with a build for you when their new sale comes up.
There is no point in getting a core i7 2600k for gaming purposes. Furthermore, you don't need a 750w power supply if you are not going SLI / Crossfire, a quality 500w power supply would be perfect.
Ok, thank you. Do you have a recommendation for a psu ? or would any at 500w do the job ? Also, is an i7-950 a better choice for the cpu ?
No, the core i7 950 is Intel's last generation of processors. You want a core i5 2400 or 2500 if the computer is just going to be used for gaming purposes. i7 provides hyperthreading and a bit of extra cache, both of which will show very minimal performance gains in gaming. The majority of games today utilizes only two cores so paying an extra $100 for hyperthreading is not worth it.
I'll come up with a build for you later today when NCIX's new sale starts.
Wow thanks a lot skyR that's awesome! What a quick response too! Just one Question. I'm normally an Nvidia fan when it come to the GPU. Is there anything close to the XFX Radeon HD6950 2GB on the Nvidia side? If so, what about the XFX Radeon do you find better? Just curious. Thanks so much!
HD 6950 is a little bit better and more expensive than the GTX 560 Ti, but it's pretty close. It depends on the game. HD 6950 2GB version can usually be flashed to be a HD 6970, if you're up for that. But actually, with the overclock potential of the GTX 560 Ti and comparing factory overclocked GTX 560 Ti against HD 6950, they should be roughly even or maybe even in Nvidia's favor.
The build below comes to a total of $716 (before mail in rebates), a little over your budget but well worth it imo. Let me know if you need to cut it down. You could get this BenQ 21.5" monitor for $130: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=52148&promoid=1312 which would bring your total to $846 (before mail in rebates).
EPT
