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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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SoulWager
United States464 Posts
On January 27 2012 11:08 ArcticVanguard wrote: @Myrmidon: My case is just a regular ATX, will a microATX motherboard still work? And yes, I plan to get an aftermarket heatsink if I can spare the cost. The standoffs are different, some cases support both, but you need to double check. | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
On January 27 2012 11:07 Medrea wrote: I honestly cant remember all those years back, I seem to remember them taking either floppy or just being powered by the board iirc. Yep. Some PCIe cards still use floppy power as well. Not sure what he's talking about though since the only 6pin connector in the computer is a 6pin PCIe. On January 27 2012 11:11 SoulWager wrote: The standoffs are different, some cases support both, but you need to double check. No they're not... ATX is bigger so it requires more screws. Standoff positions are the same. | ||
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Medrea
10003 Posts
He said "it has a square in the center" or something like that which seems awfully strange. The squares are always upper right and lower left with every other form being a 6 sided parallelogram connection. | ||
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SoulWager
United States464 Posts
On January 27 2012 11:15 skyR wrote: Yep. Some PCIe cards still use floppy power as well. Not sure what he's talking about though since the only 6pin connector in the computer is a 6pin PCIe. No they're not... ATX is bigger so it requires more screws. Standoff positions are the same. No, there are mATX standoffs that ATX doesn't use, and vice versa. The ones for mATX only generally come uninstalled, so they don't short out an ATX board if you forget about them. Here's an example, scroll down to the part about the motherboard tray, and notice how all the standoff holes are marked: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1241/3/ | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
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Medrea
10003 Posts
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AAyeR
United States138 Posts
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AAyeR
United States138 Posts
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SoulWager
United States464 Posts
On January 27 2012 11:38 Medrea wrote: You dont have to bore holes in the case. Ive never seen a case that doesnt have the holes for mATX. I have seen cases that skimped on the extra standoffs though, and if he's reusing a case from some an old prebuilt computer, he might need extra holes too. | ||
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AAyeR
United States138 Posts
1) the display finally came on! thank you skyr! 2) the video card stopped making a whinny sound! now to put in windows xp. also i need to buy a usb wireless adapter, and starcraft 2! which usb wifi adapter should i buy? | ||
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ArcticVanguard
United States450 Posts
On January 27 2012 12:29 SoulWager wrote: I have seen cases that skimped on the extra standoffs though, and if he's reusing a case from some an old prebuilt computer, he might need extra holes too. I'm not, I'm upgrading a system I built myself. For some reason though, the name and brand of the case escapes me. | ||
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AAyeR
United States138 Posts
is this good enough for sc2?should my wifi adapter frequency band match my 3.1 ghz intel harddrive ??  i see this one is 2.5 ghz or something | ||
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SafeAsCheese
United States4924 Posts
The intent is gaming. Skyrim, DOTA 2, Starcraft, Guild Wars 2, Amalur, etc etc etc and whatever comes out for the next 2~ years. My Goal with this post is to ask you experts : While this build seem good, would it be WISE to upgrade? My logic is : I don't have a ton of money to blow. But if spending 900 instead of 700 means that I wouldn't have to spend 300-500 upgrading it to play new games, I would consider spending more. I am seeking a balance of cost : value. A friend said it may be better to just make a single big investment than have to upgrade constantly. Thanks for any help/opinions. I have 12~ days until another paycheck to make alterations CPU ---------- Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor 2500K is only 5$ more expensive than the 2500, and could be used in the future if I wanted to attempt overclock? CPU Cooler Not needed without overclocking, correct?- Motherboard ---------- ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard I have seen someone recommend ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard, which is 30$ more. Are they right, or is it not necessary and are they idiots?  Memory ---------- Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory Mushkin was recommended by skyR for being 5$ cheaper than others. Hard Drive ---------- Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive I do not put movies and stuff on my computer, and it would mostly only have games. I also have a backup laptop with 300+GB for storage. Should I consider something like a Crucial M4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk? Video Card ---------- Asus Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card Is this sufficient, or would you recommend spending 70$ more on a Radeon HD 6950? Case ---------- Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case I see no problems with this. Power Supply ---------- OCZ 550W ATX12V Power Supply skyR recommended this, and r/buildapc said a 600-700W power supply is only for those who wish to use crossfire or overclock. | ||
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MisterFred
United States2033 Posts
Looks fine. It just has to be compatible with whatever your wireless router puts out. But pretty much all those little wireless doohickeys are compatible with pretty much all the wireless routers out there. | ||
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Medrea
10003 Posts
6870 will be fine unless you are gaming at a very large resolution or something. For $20 intel has an insurance plan where you can overclock or overvolt the chip however rough you want and they will replace it should you break it. So if you are really paranoid about it, might as well go for it. 550W is enough to power your system twice over already so yeah 700W power supply is hilariously unnecessary here. | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
On January 27 2012 14:00 SafeAsCheese wrote:+ Show Spoiler + Hey all. skyR helped me with PM's come up with this. The intent is gaming. Skyrim, DOTA 2, Starcraft, Guild Wars 2, Amalur, etc etc etc and whatever comes out for the next 2~ years. My Goal with this post is to ask you experts : While this build seem good, would it be WISE to upgrade? My logic is : I don't have a ton of money to blow. But if spending 900 instead of 700 means that I wouldn't have to spend 300-500 upgrading it to play new games, I would consider spending more. I am seeking a balance of cost : value. A friend said it may be better to just make a single big investment than have to upgrade constantly. Thanks for any help/opinions. I have 12~ days until another paycheck to make alterations CPU ---------- Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor 2500K is only 5$ more expensive than the 2500, and could be used in the future if I wanted to attempt overclock? CPU Cooler Not needed without overclocking, correct?- Motherboard ---------- ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard I have seen someone recommend ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard, which is 30$ more. Are they right, or is it not necessary and are they idiots? Memory ---------- Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory Mushkin was recommended by skyR for being 5$ cheaper than others. Hard Drive ---------- Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive I do not put movies and stuff on my computer, and it would mostly only have games. I also have a backup laptop with 300+GB for storage. Should I consider something like a Crucial M4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk? Video Card ---------- Asus Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card Is this sufficient, or would you recommend spending 70$ more on a Radeon HD 6950? Case ---------- Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case I see no problems with this. Power Supply ---------- OCZ 550W ATX12V Power Supply skyR recommended this, and r/buildapc said a 600-700W power supply is only for those who wish to use crossfire or overclock. On January 27 2012 14:00 SafeAsCheese wrote:+ Show Spoiler + Hey all. skyR helped me with PM's come up with this. The intent is gaming. Skyrim, DOTA 2, Starcraft, Guild Wars 2, Amalur, etc etc etc and whatever comes out for the next 2~ years. My Goal with this post is to ask you experts : While this build seem good, would it be WISE to upgrade? My logic is : I don't have a ton of money to blow. But if spending 900 instead of 700 means that I wouldn't have to spend 300-500 upgrading it to play new games, I would consider spending more. I am seeking a balance of cost : value. A friend said it may be better to just make a single big investment than have to upgrade constantly. Thanks for any help/opinions. I have 12~ days until another paycheck to make alterations CPU ---------- Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor 2500K is only 5$ more expensive than the 2500, and could be used in the future if I wanted to attempt overclock? CPU Cooler Not needed without overclocking, correct?- Motherboard ---------- ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard I have seen someone recommend ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard, which is 30$ more. Are they right, or is it not necessary and are they idiots? Memory ---------- Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory Mushkin was recommended by skyR for being 5$ cheaper than others. Hard Drive ---------- Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive I do not put movies and stuff on my computer, and it would mostly only have games. I also have a backup laptop with 300+GB for storage. Should I consider something like a Crucial M4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk? Video Card ---------- Asus Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card Is this sufficient, or would you recommend spending 70$ more on a Radeon HD 6950? Case ---------- Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case I see no problems with this. Power Supply ---------- OCZ 550W ATX12V Power Supply skyR recommended this, and r/buildapc said a 600-700W power supply is only for those who wish to use crossfire or overclock. Asrock Z68 Extreme3 is capable of SLI / CrossfireX while the P67 Pro3 is not. The Z68 chipset also has some extra features over the P67 that aren't that useful to most people. Lucid allows for switching between the GPUs (useless), SSD caching (useless if you install all the programs on the SSD), allows you to use the integrated GPU (useful incase your card dies), and Quick Sync (encoding, useless for most people). Spending $30 more for a motherboard when you have no intention of doing SLI / CrossfireX is pretty idiotic. If you want to overclock than yes you want the 2500k. If you are not overclocking and opt for a regular core i5 2500, you want a H67 motherboard instead of a P67 or Z68 board. 64gb isn't that big. It's enough for Windows 7 and a maybe about half a dozen games (depending on size). SSD won't improve your FPS, it'll only improve loading times. If you're going to get a 64gb SSD, I highly suggest you get a HDD as well. A 6870 is fine for reasonably high settings. You can look at benchmarks yourself and determine whether a 6950 / GTX 560 Ti is worth the extra. Here's one of many: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4135/ Keep in mind most (all) of these benchmarks use the highest settings along with AA. A ~600w unit is not necessary for overclocking, it is only necessary for adding another GPU. Any quality ~500w unit such as the OCZ ZS gives you plenty of headroom for such a configuration because it will never exceed 300w under normal usage (gaming, browsing, etc). It'll be like less than 200w if you don't intend on overclocking. Investing in anything but the GPU isn't going to show you any noticeable gains in gaming performance. If you want to think long term than you can get a nice case (that will be used forever), a nice heatsink (that most likely will be used forever), a chair (that will be used forever), and monitors (that will be used until it dies). | ||
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MisterFred
United States2033 Posts
I've read that a lot of people who play WoW find SSDs makes a difference to them in-game (unlike most games, where only load times between games/missions are reduced). Apparently it has something to do with the game loading textures coming into their field of vision faster. You might look into that if your MMOs seem similar (I have no personal experience with it). If it sounds like something you want, then you might want an SSD that can fit all the stuff you want on it. For SC2 multiplayer, on the other hand, an SSD will reduce the amount of time it takes from starting the program till you enter your password to log onto battle.net, but that's about it - no big deal. | ||
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SafeAsCheese
United States4924 Posts
I did a lot of searching and it seems like 6870 is very close (within 10-15%) to the $60-70 more expensive GTX 560 Ti, so I guess I will go with the 6870 | ||
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KoTakUEurO
605 Posts
I don't need advice on which one to get, just where I can get one. Thanks! | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
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