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On October 13 2014 06:41 Durak wrote: Helping a friend put together a computer. I need some help picking out parts.
Budget Up to $1500 total but probably more like $1200. I am thinking ~$900 for the computer and then the rest for a monitor.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget? Monitor as mentioned above.
What is your monitor's native resolution? No monitor yet. 23" or 27". He doesn't play games competitively nor does photo editing so I'm not sure what he needs.
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings? He'll play whatever AAA titles come out most likely. Doubt he cares about anti-aliasing but looking at high settings.
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming? Word processing and movie watching.
Do you intend to overclock? I can overclock it before handing it off to him. I understand how to do it generally but I haven't done it before.
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire? No
Do you need an operating system? I plan to get him a Win 8 key.
What country will you be buying your parts in? Canada
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify. Any online retailer is fine. I'm familiar with NCIX, Memoryexpress, and Newegg.
As for storage, Crucial MX100 256GB and a 1.5 or 2TB mechanical drive would suffice. Also, unless we need a big case for the videocard or aftermarket CPU cooler for overclocking, I really like the Corsair 350D mATX.
You guys are awesome; Thanks for any help! I'll post in the TL Monitor Thread if you guys don't want to worry about that part of it.
I stuck to your exact parts / desired specs as close as possible.
Ended up being a shade under $1000 before shipping, so a little above your $900 budget. I think it's worth stretching to get up to a GTX 970. I also think the Haswell i5 is a worthwhile investment. If I was going to try to find something to trim, I think your storage requirements and case are a little pricey. I already cut back from a 1.5/2 TB (on newegg anyway, the 2 TB is less expensive than 1.5TB anyway) to a 1 TB HDD to get it under $1000.
If you had to get it down to $900 you could always scale back on graphics, but this seems like gtx 970 level budget. You can also pick up a perfectly nice case for $50 or so to save yourself a few pennies.
That's what I've got though
I'd get the XFX Core 450W if you have it or the Capstone 450W. The CX430 is OK for small web-browsing / office builds, less good if you're going for a gaming rig. Even if Haswell and Maxwell don't draw a lot of power, you should spend $10-20 more to get a good PSU.
I'd skimp on the case here and get something like a Cooler Master N200 to save money though that's just me. I guess the 350D looks nice enough. I would still consider the N200 just because it's such a nice case for $57.
Another case you should get your friend to look at is the NZXT S340, which is actually a pretty nice case for a rig such as this one. At $80 I think it's better than the 350D. Normally I would also recommend the Fractal Core 3500 however it's actually a bit too expensive at NCIX.
I'm really liking mATX cases because they're smaller and lighter with no disadvantages that I can see. I don't know why I would ever build with an ATX case again if I can get the same performance out of a smaller case. Don't need all that extra room for SLI/Crossfire, never going to need more than one optical drive, more than two SSDs+two HDs, etc.
The NZXT S340 is ATX so I'm not a fan. Are there any other well-priced and well-regarded mATX cases that you guys can recommend?
I just got a bitfenix phenom M... I think style wise it's very nice (enough so that it's now sitting on top of my desk). It's also pretty good feel in terms of quality as well as has plenty of expansion room (can run dual graphics, something 5-7 HDDs and/or 5 x 12cm fans). It's a bit different because of the design (psu inside and mobo "upside down") but I highly recommend it (although it's actually a bit wider than it needs to be).
fwiw the NZXT S340 is smaller by volume than the Fractal Design Define Mini and Node 804, Corsair 350D, Aerocool Deep Silence, and Phanteks Enthoo Evolv, among others.
Phenom / Prodigy M I think has worse cooling than most cases because of the funky layout. It's literally an miniITX design with revamped internals and layout to fit mATX.
A lot of the traditional tower-style mATX cases are just like the ATX versions but a bit shorter from having 3 fewer slots, not even really different.
Aside from those, there aren't even that many options in terms of styles and actual examples, other than the smaller stuff down to say Jonsbo (Rosewill) U3, Silverstone SG09 / SG10 that wouldn't fit 2 x 3.5" + 2 x 2.5".
Silverstone TJ-08 tries to shorten the depth a bit as well, not just the height compared to ATX, and it still seems like it should keep very good air flow unlike the mATX cases with strange design on the inside (PSU in the way and stuff). Someone here used it a while ago and seemed happy with the case.
On October 17 2014 11:35 Firkraag8 wrote: From AMD to Nvidia I would format the computer, I did the same from 7850 to 670 and there was issues even after almost perfect uninstalls.
That's what I thought would be the answer
But if I end up formatting, then that does allow for a few other opportunities with shuffling my SSDs / HDDs around, which I do want to do.
Since everything is backordered and whatnot it appears, I have time to finish what I need to finish before the eventual format happens.
On October 17 2014 11:35 Firkraag8 wrote: From AMD to Nvidia I would format the computer, I did the same from 7850 to 670 and there was issues even after almost perfect uninstalls.
I had 0 issues switching from my HD 6950 to a GTX 970. Just uninstall the AMD drivers (manually by register if you must be sure), then do a clean Nvidia install.
On October 17 2014 11:35 Firkraag8 wrote: From AMD to Nvidia I would format the computer, I did the same from 7850 to 670 and there was issues even after almost perfect uninstalls.
I had 0 issues switching from my HD 6950 to a GTX 970. Just uninstall the AMD drivers (manually by register if you must be sure), then do a clean Nvidia install.
That's why I said I would format because the last time I didn't have the same luck you did.
On October 17 2014 11:35 Firkraag8 wrote: From AMD to Nvidia I would format the computer, I did the same from 7850 to 670 and there was issues even after almost perfect uninstalls.
I had 0 issues switching from my HD 6950 to a GTX 970. Just uninstall the AMD drivers (manually by register if you must be sure), then do a clean Nvidia install.
That's why I said I would format because the last time I didn't have the same luck you did.
Well what was last time for you? It's improved a LOT since a couple of years ago, so it's definitely worth a shot to try again if you haven't in a couple of years.
On October 18 2014 13:54 Cyro wrote: Using advanced driver removal tools should make it fine to swap over
The AMD Driver remover tool does wonders. (Be aware, though, it yanks EVERY AMD driver, not just the GPU. I still haven't gotten my USB ports working quite right afterwards.)
I want to get a desktop comptuer for college so I decided on building off of mini-ITX form factor. I mainly just play league and starcraft and I already have RAM and an SSD from my laptop computer. + Show Spoiler +
On September 14 2014 01:38 Myrmidon wrote: The below is a pretty nice computer that should handle more than what you need but nothing all that excessive anywhere, slightly under budget. You can always upgrade the graphics card later when you want to play something more demanding.
Scroll down to the Performance Restoration section.
Oh nice I just picked up a 250gb 840 Evo for my laptop last week, since PC project is on hold until early 2015, i decided my current workstation needed a cheap & efficient upgrade.
And I've got to say, I'm very impressed. In addition to tangible performance benefits, Magician is giving me quite the numbers for seq. read/write, compared to the advertised specs, with proper overprovisioning and RAPID enabled o_o
On September 14 2014 01:38 Myrmidon wrote: The below is a pretty nice computer that should handle more than what you need but nothing all that excessive anywhere, slightly under budget. You can always upgrade the graphics card later when you want to play something more demanding.
If this build was to be done today, a few months later, what would some reasonable changes be?
Nothing except browsing around for slightly better deals in case prices changed. There's been nothing relevant and new in the product categories you're looking at.
Thought it's the best to ask in here, so here it goes, if im not gonna get the best the most general answer I am going to create a new thread: My budget is around £700 (+-50) and Im looking for a laptop. Things I am looking in here are first and foremost a 17'' screen. The games I am going to play well mostly Broodwar actually, yes Broodwar, however I am sometimes going to visit my Diablo 3 account or play some random game. Diablo most of the time at medium to low-high details, not much more than that. So guessing some kind of dedicated graphic card might be ok. What else to say Im most of the time am a heavy chrome/firefox user with 10+ windows open at all times. Suppose I need a ton of ram. And 2nd do I need a 64 bit system. I am a bit wondering am I going to have an abbility to run anything on it that already runs on a 32 bit. Of course would like to have some HD options as well. I've been away from the PC hardware world for a while so would need some guide of what's on top now. I don't know.
Any amazon, ebay, just links would be the most welcome. ty ( I Like Dell's : ) )
Hey Noob here , never built a computer . I have a 70$ pentium 4 that can't even run the most simple games
All I want is a computer that can run games like Sc2 at medium or higher , LoL , and maybe the upcoming heroes of the storm game . Oh and get sales from steam .
That post is very outdated (RIP Belial), nowadays you'd probably get a gtx750 (260x?) - if you want 4GB of RAM, 2x2gb is appropriate, but for 8, 2x4gb
Those games run much better on Haswell CPU's, and they start very cheap at the G3220. Those ones are called Pentiums, but that doesn't mean that they are anything like the CPU that you have now
If you're looking to save as much money as possible, there are maybe other things (cx430 psu is known for being $19.99 AR quite often, 1TB is a lot of storage etcetc)
On September 14 2014 01:38 Myrmidon wrote: The below is a pretty nice computer that should handle more than what you need but nothing all that excessive anywhere, slightly under budget. You can always upgrade the graphics card later when you want to play something more demanding.
If this build was to be done today, a few months later, what would some reasonable changes be?
Nothing except browsing around for slightly better deals in case prices changed. There's been nothing relevant and new in the product categories you're looking at.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iY9i8jA.png)
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