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Rosewill Challenger Black Gaming
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1 GHz
OCZ 500MXSP 500W
MSI P67A-G43
G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1GB Superclocked
Western Digital RE4(on hold until prices stabilize)
ASUS 24x DVD Burner
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Hey guys,
First time poster and needing some tech advice. The parts above are the proposed pieces of my first build. The bolded items are those that I have already obtained, so as you can see the vital parts have not yet been purchased which is where I need you. My main goal is to make a sensible, mid-high gaming computer. I'm planning to use this for HoTS and D3. I don't plan on overclocking and never run anything on ultra especially SC2 since I play on lower settings to see DT's, damn ghosts, observers, etc. My upgrade cycle is probably 2 years? I just want a balanced system where nothing is bottlenecked. If you want to know my budget, I'm trying to stay within the price of the parts above.
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If you aren't OC'ing, you won't need a p67 mobo, get a cheap h61 or h67
rest is ok, but the gtx460 is overpriced these days, generally an hd 6850 or 6870 will cost about the same ? and be much better
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Western Digital RE4 is the enterprise line, which is way overkill for consumer computing. Caviar Blue is plenty fine (and you're not going to notice a performance difference), as are alternatives from competitors.
Don't get pre-overclocked graphics cards as you could do that yourself, and the gains are small anyway. Unless you can find a GTX 460 for like $140 it's not worth it though: HD 6850 is of comparable price or better and a little more desirable overall, HD 6870 is usually a better value, GTX 560 is usually a better value (generally $5-10 overpriced compared to HD 6870), and so on.
I'd just get the HD 6850 if you have no intention of running games on the highest settings.
MSI P67A-G43 is overkill since you're not overclocking. Some cheaper motherboard (H61, H67, Z68 also okay) will do just fine. Get one with USB3 or SATA3 if you would want those features.
i5-2400 is good.
edit: with the savings...you could spend on a sturdier or otherwise better case--the three fans are way overkill for this kind of config btw; though they're doubtlessly not of very high quality given the price. Or a BluRay player if needed. Or maybe get an SSD if that would fit the budget (e.g. Crucial M4 64GB for $108...note that you'd want a SATA3 motherboard for that.)
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Depending on your resolution i would go with 6850 (for 1680x*) and 6870 (for 1920x*) as suggested. Or simply whatever goes on the best special.
one thing to think about: you can either save ~50$ and get a cheaper mobo as suggested or spend ~20$ more and get a 2500k and overclock it (I know you said you didnt want to) as it will help you in starcraft and will possibly increase your upgrade cycle.
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Show nested quote +On December 06 2011 05:50 Rachnar wrote:
If you aren't OC'ing, you won't need a p67 mobo, get a cheap h61 or h67
rest is ok, but the gtx460 is overpriced these days, generally an hd 6850 or 6870 will cost about the same ? and be much better
So the 6850 and 6870 actually perform better on benchmarks? Given that EVGA is coming out with their next gen within the new year, would you still recommend the HDs if the price of the 460's drop? With the current internal HDD prices, I don't see myself buying one until maybe the prices become more reasonable which is possibly the end of Q1 to mid Q2. Is there a market/price watch I should be on the lookout for?
Show nested quote +On December 06 2011 05:50 Myrmidon wrote:
Western Digital RE4 is the enterprise line, which is way overkill for consumer computing. Caviar Blue is plenty fine (and you're not going to notice a performance difference), as are alternatives from competitors.
Don't get pre-overclocked graphics cards as you could do that yourself, and the gains are small anyway. Unless you can find a GTX 460 for like $140 it's not worth it though: HD 6850 is of comparable price or better and a little more desirable overall, HD 6870 is usually a better value, GTX 560 is usually a better value (generally $5-10 overpriced compared to HD 6870), and so on.
I'd just get the HD 6850 if you have no intention of running games on the highest settings.
MSI P67A-G43 is overkill since you're not overclocking. Some cheaper motherboard (H61, H67, Z68 also okay) will do just fine. Get one with USB3 or SATA3 if you would want those features.
i5-2400 is good.
edit: with the savings...you could spend on a sturdier or otherwise better case--the three fans are way overkill for this kind of config btw; though they're doubtlessly not of very high quality given the price. Or a BluRay player if needed. Or maybe get an SSD if that would fit the budget (e.g. Crucial M4 64GB for $108...note that you'd want a SATA3 motherboard for that.)
For my build, what mobo and case would you recommend? Don't watch bluray on my comp and don't intend to. With the current internal HDD prices, yea SSD's look nice as I already have a 500GB external, but would the 64 function well if let's say I only have the stock desktop software, SC2 and Windows 7 and have everything else on the external?
I will be running on a 1920x1080 and based on what Ata is recommending, I should hit on the 6870?
Edit: Also, if I go with 6870, what would be the i5 2400 AMD equivalent be? I'm an Intel/nVidia loyal, but damnit, I'll trust you guys.
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The Radeon HD6850 performs similar to that of a GTX 460 but consumes less power. The Radeon HD6870 performs better than both.
The GTX 460 isn't in production anymore, retailers are just selling whatever is left of their stock.
Prices aren't likely to return back to normal for HDDs that soon. It's probably going to be near the end of 2012 or sometime in 2013.
There is no AMD equivalent to a core i5 2400. AMD processors are equivalent to that of the Core 2 Duos and Quads which were released nearly five years ago. You don't have to switch to an AMD processor if you get an AMD graphics card. Get rid of this stupid belief because it's not true that AMD gimps their card's performance on other platforms.
If you want to be loyal to Nvidia, you can get a GTX 560 instead which is similar to that of a Radeon HD6870.
A 64gb SSD will be enough for what you want. Windows 7 with SP1 is about 17gb, Starcraft II is about 10gb, and some other stuff like browser, microsoft office, messengers, etc will be like 5gb.
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You can get an i5 with an 6870 ... don't get an AMD cpu
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On December 06 2011 05:50 Myrmidon wrote:
MSI P67A-G43 is overkill since you're not overclocking. Some cheaper motherboard (H61, H67, Z68 also okay) will do just fine. Get one with USB3 or SATA3 if you would want those features.
What's the difference between c43 and g43 besides crossfire/sli support?
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On December 06 2011 06:27 SnowSC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 06 2011 05:50 Myrmidon wrote:
MSI P67A-G43 is overkill since you're not overclocking. Some cheaper motherboard (H61, H67, Z68 also okay) will do just fine. Get one with USB3 or SATA3 if you would want those features.
What's the difference between c43 and g43 besides crossfire/sli support?
That's more or less it in general. For the P67 lineup, the C43 version is missing MOSFET heatsinks for the CPU power circuitry. There might be some other smaller trivial differences as well, but the significant thing is the Crossfire/SLI support on the G line.
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On December 06 2011 06:32 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 06 2011 06:27 SnowSC2 wrote:On December 06 2011 05:50 Myrmidon wrote:
MSI P67A-G43 is overkill since you're not overclocking. Some cheaper motherboard (H61, H67, Z68 also okay) will do just fine. Get one with USB3 or SATA3 if you would want those features.
What's the difference between c43 and g43 besides crossfire/sli support? That's more or less it in general. For the P67 lineup, the C43 version is missing MOSFET heatsinks for the CPU power circuitry. There might be some other smaller trivial differences as well, but the significant thing is the Crossfire/SLI support on the G line.
Ok thanks, so in case i did break my mobo:
On December 06 2011 05:39 SnowSC2 wrote:
So im an idiot and after taking my MB (p67-c43) out of the box and figuring out where to place my standoffs, i set the board on the outside of the anti-static bag it came in. I didn't know this was bad at the time, is there any way to test if its dead without a cpu? i have a spare PSU and GPU i can test it with.
would i be better off grabbing the g43 anyway since the price is so similar even though im building a single gpu system?
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What happened other than setting it down off of the bag? It seems very unlikely for anything bad to happen if you placed it on a non-conductive surface and still pretty unlikely to be bad if it was placed on a conductive surface without it being plugged in.
There's not really a way to test without the CPU.
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So..I finally finished building my computer after classes. Atm I do not have a monitor, but my case did supply me one of those speaker thingy that hooks up to the front panel of the motherboard. If it beeps, does it mean that it's a success..with like everything, excluding the hdd which I have yet to hook up.
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On December 05 2011 09:46 Molybdenum wrote:Show nested quote +On December 05 2011 08:28 olabaz wrote:
Yes for a few seconds the CPU fan spins before turning off. Yes, everything spins for a few seconds when it turns on. Like I said before, the case fan spins when the CPU is not on the motherboard but once it IS plugged in, it only turns on for a second. Are you trying it with the CPU, and a stick of RAM with the monitor hooked up to the onboard? If it's still not booting, RMA the mobo because it has a bent pin. Why are you so set on getting this to work when you have a piece that is already defective? It sucks, but waiting for the RMA is probably the best choice, especially because it seems brand new, you can go through the retailer.
No, just the CPU and the fan. I already sent the mobo back, I just wanted to make sure that was the only problem and once I get a new one everything would be fixed.
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One beep is good. More than one beep is bad (check the motherboard manual for specifics). This is hardly a guarantee that everything is working properly though, just that the motherboard thinks it's okay to start booting from whatever.
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On December 06 2011 06:40 billy5000 wrote:
So..I finally finished building my computer after classes. Atm I do not have a monitor, but my case did supply me one of those speaker thingy that hooks up to the front panel of the motherboard. If it beeps, does it mean that it's a success..with like everything, excluding the hdd which I have yet to hook up.
Beeps can mean it POSTed successfully but it can also mean there's an error. Look at your motherboard manual. Usually, if you hear a single beep and the configuration stays on than you were successful.
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On December 06 2011 06:25 skyR wrote:
The Radeon HD6850 performs similar to that of a GTX 460 but consumes less power. The Radeon HD6870 performs better than both.
The GTX 460 isn't in production anymore, retailers are just selling whatever is left of their stock.
Prices aren't likely to return back to normal for HDDs that soon. It's probably going to be near the end of 2012 or sometime in 2013.
There is no AMD equivalent to a core i5 2400. AMD processors are equivalent to that of the Core 2 Duos and Quads which were released nearly five years ago. You don't have to switch to an AMD processor if you get an AMD graphics card. Get rid of this stupid belief because it's not true that AMD gimps their card's performance on other platforms.
If you want to be loyal to Nvidia, you can get a GTX 560 instead which is similar to that of a Radeon HD6870.
A 64gb SSD will be enough for what you want. Windows 7 with SP1 is about 17gb, Starcraft II is about 10gb, and some other stuff like browser, microsoft office, messengers, etc will be like 5gb.
That stupid belief is thrown out the window(we learn something new everyday) and I'm pretty set on the 2400 paired with the 6870 now. The SSD vs internal HDD is still up in the air. Thoughts on that anyone? Also, what mobo would suit this build. I don't plan to SLI/Xfire and the upgrade cycle will only really cover the GPU if at all. I'll most likely just build a whole new rig in 2 years. Would the Biostar H61 MLC do the trick? Again, I'm just focusing on the balance of the build.
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another question. being stupid as i am, i screwed all 6 screws onto the pegs that stick out from the case to the mobo without realizing there were specific screws i was supposed to use. i assumed they were all the same cuz they do in fact look exactly the same unless you squint at them XD. fortunately, only 2 were the wrong screws and it was a pain in the ass to get them out. i'm going to try my best to explain..but one of the motherboard holes in which you screw has scratches that are hardly visible. all of the scratches are within the outer circle. did i do something that might outright destroy or even affect my mobo in some way?
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On December 06 2011 06:46 Alisto wrote:Show nested quote +On December 06 2011 06:25 skyR wrote:
The Radeon HD6850 performs similar to that of a GTX 460 but consumes less power. The Radeon HD6870 performs better than both.
The GTX 460 isn't in production anymore, retailers are just selling whatever is left of their stock.
Prices aren't likely to return back to normal for HDDs that soon. It's probably going to be near the end of 2012 or sometime in 2013.
There is no AMD equivalent to a core i5 2400. AMD processors are equivalent to that of the Core 2 Duos and Quads which were released nearly five years ago. You don't have to switch to an AMD processor if you get an AMD graphics card. Get rid of this stupid belief because it's not true that AMD gimps their card's performance on other platforms.
If you want to be loyal to Nvidia, you can get a GTX 560 instead which is similar to that of a Radeon HD6870.
A 64gb SSD will be enough for what you want. Windows 7 with SP1 is about 17gb, Starcraft II is about 10gb, and some other stuff like browser, microsoft office, messengers, etc will be like 5gb. That stupid belief is thrown out the window(we learn something new everyday) and I'm pretty set on the 2400 paired with the 6870 now. The SSD vs internal HDD is still up in the air. Thoughts on that anyone? Also, what mobo would suit this build. I don't plan to SLI/Xfire and the upgrade cycle will only really cover the GPU if at all. I'll most likely just build a whole new rig in 2 years. Would the Biostar H61 MLC do the trick? Again, I'm just focusing on the balance of the build.
Any H61 boards such as the Biostar H61MGC or Asrock H61M-VS are fine.
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On December 06 2011 06:48 billy5000 wrote:
another question. being stupid as i am, i screwed all 6 screws onto the pegs that stick out from the case to the mobo without realizing there were specific screws i was supposed to use. i assumed they were all the same cuz they do in fact look exactly the same unless you squint at them XD. fortunately, only 2 were the wrong screws and it was a pain in the ass to get them out. i'm going to try my best to explain..but one of the motherboard holes in which you screw has scratches that are hardly visible. all of the scratches are within the outer circle. did i do something that might outright destroy or even affect my mobo in some way?
I think it's only cosmetic damage. Relax.
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you THINK?! sry first time builder. so paranoid right now bahaha
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EPT
