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Hello everyone, I've been reading this thread for the past 2-3 weeks and trying to sort out unnecessary questions regarding my new gaming/work pc, but there are some things that I'd like to ask nonetheless, so thanks in advance to everyone who can answer me. Any input is very much appreciated.
What is your budget?
Roughly 1200 Euros, but I can get to 1300 if needs be.
What is your resolution?
1920x1080, single monitor - just bought a new 24” LCD and planning to stick with it for quite some time.
What are you using it for?
Mainly gaming, but I'm sure there will be instances where I'll have to fire up work-related programs, which means audio/video editing and encoding, oftentimes with big files/workloads.
What is your upgrade cycle?
I'd say three years, but I'm willing to spend a bit more to make it as future-proof as possible.
When do you plan on building it?
Heh. I really don't know if I should wait until after Christmas or not, because the main reason I want to build it in the next couple or months is the fact that now I have the budget to do so properly.
Do you plan on overclocking?
Sometime down the road, that's why I was tempted to get an OC-friendly motherboard, even if it might cost a lot (Maximus IV Extreme-Z looks inviting). Same reason for my CPU choice, i7-2600k.
Do you need an Operating System?
No.
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
Not right now, but I'd like a system that might easily handle that too.
Where are you buying your parts from?
This is the dicey one. I'm from Italy, and price-wise, mindfactory.de was the best place I found online, but they just emailed me to tell me that they don't send stuff over here. So my options right now are either Amazon.com (I know shipping's gonna murder me, but I might be able to cushion it with the money I'm saving by buying in dollars), Amazon.co.uk or overclockers.co.uk. Additional suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
That said, I had something like this in mind:
CASE: NZXT Phantom
CPU: Intel i7-2600k
MOBO: Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z
RAM: 2x4Gb Corsair Vengeance 1600 LC9
PSU: Corsair AX850
HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212 (or Hyper 612S)
GPU: Gtx 570 (either Asus or EVGA, possibly not one of those 3-slot monsters I've seen around, since I might want to keep it to add another one in SLI sometime later)
DVD: Samsung SH-123BL (or nearest equivalent, just to have something that can read Blu-Rays as well)
Got two HDDs I plan to recycle from the old rig, plus all peripherals.
Again, thanks for every suggestion/observations you might have, and a huge thank you to those that made this great thread.
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Even with an OC-unfriendly P67 or Z68 motherboard, you can probably still hit 4.4 GHz no problem, so I don't see the big deal. Just don't get an OC-unfriendly motherboard; a high-end one is not necessary but I guess nice if you have no better way of spending money.
I strongly recommend cutting some stuff here and there and getting an SSD instead. Particularly drop the SLI-ready options like the motherboard and power supply, since you're not going to want to SLI GTX 570s years later and you don't need to do so now with a 1920x1080 monitor.
The case is somewhat large and a bit overkill. People seem to like it though.
If you can get cheaper RAM, I'd just do that, if it saves more than a few euros.
The i7-2600k won't be better than the i5-2500k for gaming. Every once in awhile it might be like 20-30% faster for some editing and encoding, but is that worth almost 100 euros price difference?
hardwareversand ships to Italy for 30 euros:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/infoagbprivat.jsp
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You don't need a flagship board. Novice overclockers will definitely not take full advantage of a flagship board such as the Maximus IV Extreme-Z. A ASUS P8Z68-V Pro will be drastically less expensive and will still provide you with plenty of features you still won't be using.
The only triple slot GTX 570 is the ASUS DirectCu II. You can still do SLI with this monster as these high-end boards do have a PCI-E x16 layout capable of accommodating two of these - there just won't be any breathing room for the first GPU.
Unfortunately you can't futureproof by pouring money into existing technology. LGA1155 is being replaced by LGA1150 in 2013. The only components that will stick with you for the rest of your life until they die or you have a change of taste will be the case, power supply, heatsink, dvd-drive, and HDD - basically all the components that have no impact on FPS.
A GTX 570 SLI configuration will be a joke in three years. You are much better off doing a SLI setup right now if you are interested in maxing games for whatever reason.
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Yes that looks just right, but the microcenter deal is in store only (you know that and are going in person, right?), the Corsair CX430 V2 deal is I think over, and I'm not seeing that hard drive combo.
I'm not sure if there's much better than $90 for 500GB now:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=57878
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I'd generally prefer a better graphics card with that processor but assuming it's mainly for SC2 it's totally fine and when 7xxx and 6xx come out it's an easy upgrade route with that PSU.
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Thanks Myrmidon&skyR: I automatically looked for the most OC-friendly mobo I could find because I don't know anything about it, but if I can get pretty much the same (safe) results that I'll look for with a cheaper board, I'm all for it.
Supposing that I settle for a P8Z68 and an Asus Gtx560 Ti, which brand of SSD do you think would give me the best bang-for-buck ratio?
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I have a couple questions:
Ok so i have an antec 300 and a MSI P67A-C43 (B3) motherboard installed in it (no other parts) and i was wondering if i could take the AMD athlon II x4 640 processor out of my current PC and put it in there, would it be compatible? It will be some time before i get a new processor and i would like to switch over to the new MB and case.
Also, how would i go about putting my HDD in there as well while both keeping all my data and my version of Windows 7.
Thanks!
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On November 24 2011 06:47 Kerans wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Thanks Myrmidon&skyR: I automatically looked for the most OC-friendly mobo I could find because I don't know anything about it, but if I can get pretty much the same (safe) results that I'll look for with a cheaper board, I'm all for it.
Supposing that I settle for a P8Z68 and an Asus Gtx560 Ti, which brand of SSD do you think would give me the best bang-for-buck ratio?
Crucial M4 would be the best option.
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On November 24 2011 06:54 SnowSC2 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I have a couple questions:
Ok so i have an antec 300 and a MSI P67A-C43 (B3) motherboard installed in it (no other parts) and i was wondering if i could take the AMD athlon II x4 640 processor out of my current PC and put it in there, would it be compatible? It will be some time before i get a new processor and i would like to switch over to the new MB and case.
Also, how would i go about putting my HDD in there as well while both keeping all my data and my version of Windows 7.
Thanks!
No you can't do that.
You would just plug in your HDD and that's it. There may be some compatibility / stability issues if you choose not to do a fresh installation.
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Thanks for the updates, I updated my build.
Turns out sale has ending -.-
Thanks you guys.
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On November 24 2011 06:58 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On November 24 2011 06:54 SnowSC2 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I have a couple questions:
Ok so i have an antec 300 and a MSI P67A-C43 (B3) motherboard installed in it (no other parts) and i was wondering if i could take the AMD athlon II x4 640 processor out of my current PC and put it in there, would it be compatible? It will be some time before i get a new processor and i would like to switch over to the new MB and case.
Also, how would i go about putting my HDD in there as well while both keeping all my data and my version of Windows 7.
Thanks! No you can't do that. You would just plug in your HDD and that's it. There may be some compatibility / stability issues if you choose not to do a fresh installation.
so i can just run off of the windows partition on the HDD without losing any data right? i also don't have a key or anything for windows, was preinstalled.
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Yes like I said, there may be issues if you choose to do that.
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On November 24 2011 07:10 skyR wrote:
Yes like I said, there may be issues if you choose to do that.
oops i mean can i install windows from it, rather than just transfer.
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You can't install windows from a HDD. You need a CD or USB drive.
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On November 24 2011 07:19 skyR wrote:
You can't install windows from a HDD. You need a CD or USB drive.
Ah thats what i thought, ok thanks for answering my dumb questions!
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On November 24 2011 07:08 SnowSC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 24 2011 06:58 skyR wrote:On November 24 2011 06:54 SnowSC2 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I have a couple questions:
Ok so i have an antec 300 and a MSI P67A-C43 (B3) motherboard installed in it (no other parts) and i was wondering if i could take the AMD athlon II x4 640 processor out of my current PC and put it in there, would it be compatible? It will be some time before i get a new processor and i would like to switch over to the new MB and case.
Also, how would i go about putting my HDD in there as well while both keeping all my data and my version of Windows 7.
Thanks! No you can't do that. You would just plug in your HDD and that's it. There may be some compatibility / stability issues if you choose not to do a fresh installation. so i can just run off of the windows partition on the HDD without losing any data right? i also don't have a key or anything for windows, was preinstalled.
How's that possible? There should be a key. Every prebuilt my family has ever had has had a windows key at the side of the case. If it's not that kind of a prebuilt, you shuold be able to get it from someone. As the final option you could try calling microsoft.
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On November 24 2011 07:39 Shikyo wrote:Show nested quote +On November 24 2011 07:08 SnowSC2 wrote:On November 24 2011 06:58 skyR wrote:On November 24 2011 06:54 SnowSC2 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I have a couple questions:
Ok so i have an antec 300 and a MSI P67A-C43 (B3) motherboard installed in it (no other parts) and i was wondering if i could take the AMD athlon II x4 640 processor out of my current PC and put it in there, would it be compatible? It will be some time before i get a new processor and i would like to switch over to the new MB and case.
Also, how would i go about putting my HDD in there as well while both keeping all my data and my version of Windows 7.
Thanks! No you can't do that. You would just plug in your HDD and that's it. There may be some compatibility / stability issues if you choose not to do a fresh installation. so i can just run off of the windows partition on the HDD without losing any data right? i also don't have a key or anything for windows, was preinstalled. How's that possible? There should be a key. Every prebuilt my family has ever had has had a windows key at the side of the case. If it's not that kind of a prebuilt, you shuold be able to get it from someone. As the final option you could try calling microsoft.
Ok found, it. Got this tower from a friend, the sticker was removed and put in with the booklet.
through all this, today i learned that i might be retarded.
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Hello! I'm planning on building a new computer over thanksgiving break. It is for gaming, streaming, and programming. I may do some video editing and stuff like that, but no hardcore. Basically -- I like to run a lot of stuff at once!
So just glancing threw newegg and doing a little bit of research this is the first one I came up with. My budget is around 2.3k...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sxwiT.png)
Any thoughts or pieces you think I should replace? I don't really want that case, I want one that looks awesome. I'm currently using a HaF Coolmaster 932 and I love it but a change of scenery would be nice. I'm also planning on doing RAID-1.. Or is it RAID-0.. forgot
Thanks!
So far I've learned :
2 gtx 560s would be better than the 580
The hardrives suck
The ram sucks
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EPT
