I have been browsing this forum, and many others, and one thing in particular that I saw a lot of people having trouble with is computer building. I saw some good advice, I saw some bad advice, but mostly bad. I want to try and fix this problem, so I made this thread to offer help to any questions you may have about building a computer. I have been building computers for myself and others for the past 2-3 years (only 17).
First off, I love to be proven wrong, or corrected, so if you feel like I am wrong, feel free to correct with reason.
Some reasons to NOT buy an Alienware, dell, hp, or other:
They often use generic parts, including Motherboards, PSUs, cases, and RAM. This completely robs you reliability wise.
It also removes the option to upgrade, because the PSU is too week, and/or uses proprietary connections.
I recommend building your own computer (it is really simple), especially if you are on a budget.
Some reasons to build your own computer:
It is a good experience to have, in case you need to fix your own computer, or build a computer for somebody else.
You have total control, you know how to upgrade your graphics cards, hdds, cpus, ect.
You paying for the QUALITY of the parts, not paying for the whole business and the grunt who assembled your computer.
If you are requesting help for a particular build, please answer these questions.
Budget:(400+) (unless you have good existing hardware, with 400$ -100 for OS, you cannot do much.
Website: (For US and CA people, newegg.com will be used.)
What is the primary use: (Play D3 max settings, play D3. , photoshop work or video encoding?)
What pieces do you already have?: (hdd,case, monitor, mouse, keyboard)
Operating System: Will you be purchasing your OS? or will you be using Linux, or torrent your OS. (I can help in this department via pm)
Current hardware: (cpu,mobo,psu) See if you have anything we can work with.
$0 budget, just curious. Say I have $500 to spend on upgrades or a new machine, what should I do?
I have a 10 year old mid-atx case with a 750W psu. Current motherboard is an ASUS M2N-E SLI, 3 gigs of 240pin DDR2 800 ram (one stick worked just long enough to get itself out of warranty) and the CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Windsor 3000. Monitor is fine, optical drive is fine, hard drives should be fine, OS has one more install on the three-seat license (7 Ultimate). Copy-paste of my GPU is: 2 x ASUS EN7300GT SILENT/HTD/512M GeForce 7300GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI.
Given this setup and the theoretical budget, would you build a new box or just upgrade? Primary use is gaming, RTS/FPS and D3 (of course!) - it was rebuilt for WoW 3.0. Secondary use would be the rare video encoding, GIMPing photos, watching movies, office-style work.
ETA: I have built about 6 machines if you count rebuilds of this one (on my 4th mobo setup), so I am fully sold on your concept.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition
PSU: Antec 750W 80 Plus Certified
Case: Sentey Optimus Extreme Mid-Tower Atx
Video Card: Asus Gtx 560 Ti
RAM: 8 GB G.Skill 1600
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
OS: 7 Ultimate 64bit
Storage: 1 TB Caviar Black SATA 6Gb/s
Boot Drive: 64 GB SATA III SSD
Optical Drive: Asus Blu-Ray Burner
Monitor: Asus 21.5" 1920x1080 5ms LED Backlight Full HD HDMI
I think that about covers my current build. I just ordered it all from Newegg yesterday. The Mobo is designed for the upcoming Bulldozer processor from AMD to be released shortly. I will be upgrading to that and putting the 1100T in my girlfriend's computer.
$0 budget, just curious. Say I have $500 to spend on upgrades or a new machine, what should I do?
I have a 10 year old mid-atx case with a 750W psu. Current motherboard is an ASUS M2N-E SLI, 3 gigs of 240pin DDR2 800 ram (one stick worked just long enough to get itself out of warranty) and the CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Windsor 3000. Monitor is fine, optical drive is fine, hard drives should be fine, OS has one more install on the three-seat license (7 Ultimate). Copy-paste of my GPU is: 2 x ASUS EN7300GT SILENT/HTD/512M GeForce 7300GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI.
Given this setup and the theoretical budget, would you build a new box or just upgrade? Primary use is gaming, RTS/FPS and D3 (of course!) - it was rebuilt for WoW 3.0. Secondary use would be the rare video encoding, GIMPing photos, watching movies, office-style work.
ETA: I have built about 6 machines if you count rebuilds of this one (on my 4th mobo setup), so I am fully sold on your concept.
I assume your PSU is still kicking, hopefully it is a good brand, and hopefully your HDDs are SATA. A case is a case, as long as it has good airflow you are fine.
This is a tough one, both your CPU and your graphics card are dated. I am not sure which FPS you play, but assuming D3 is the most demanding game you play. Since D3 isn't very graphic intense, I would push more towards the CPU.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition
PSU: Antec 750W 80 Plus Certified
Case: Sentey Optimus Extreme Mid-Tower Atx
Video Card: Asus Gtx 560 Ti
RAM: 8 GB G.Skill 1600
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
OS: 7 Ultimate 64bit
Storage: 1 TB Caviar Black SATA 6Gb/s
Boot Drive: 64 GB SATA III SSD
Optical Drive: Asus Blu-Ray Burner
Monitor: Asus 21.5" 1920x1080 5ms LED Backlight Full HD HDMI
I think that about covers my current build. I just ordered it all from Newegg yesterday. The Mobo is designed for the upcoming Bulldozer processor from AMD to be released shortly. I will be upgrading to that and putting the 1100T in my girlfriend's computer.
Looks good, but since you are going to retire the 1100T pretty soon (assuming bulldozer doesnt have any more setbacks), I think the 955 should hold you over, and be probably be plenty for your gf.
Check around on the 990FX (the whole chipset), I have seen a few posts of VRM/Phase instability, which may cause a recall of the chipset on some boards.
Check out the Samsung F3 1TB HDD which is #1 in cost:performance ratio. It also has combos on ALL of the Corsair PSUs such as this bundle.
What SSD are you picking? I would stay away from OCZ, as the minor increase in performance is not worth the instability. I would look into the Crucial M4, or the older C300. Or an Intel SSD, as those are much more reliable.
I am assuming you like the looks of that case? If not there are some other budget contenders such as the HAF 912 (I personally love my HAF 932, the whole line is great) or the coolermaster 692
Also, thank god I am not alone, seems like many around here like spending 100-200$ for some body else to do 30 minutes of work. (if you even consider it work, I consider it fun)
Nice, that's about where I thought I should go as well. I had been looking into the i5 2500k previously. But like I said, the budget isn't there. I figure unless something changes drastically, I'll be building a new box in about 2 years.
Do I need an upgrade... And if I do. what components? I am trying to build the baddest ass Diablo 3 machine. this means like gaming mouse / keyboard / head set / speakers / monitor etc that would make my experience the best
*I already have some good stuff though, but for Diablo 3.. it could always be better :)*
CPU: Intel I7 920. 2.66 GHZ quadcore
Ram: 6 Gigs of 1333 Ram
Harddrive: Crucial Solid state 128 gigs... running 500/500 read/write
DiskDrive: NO disc drives
GFX Card: MSI 460 GTX superclocked... 1 gig onboard memory, got it overclocked with MSI at around 850 core speed
Nvidia 3D & 22 inch Asus 3D monitor... This 3D reallly kills my FPS. So its sitting in my closet Atm
PSU: 650Watt Modular powersupply *SLI ready the box says*
Case: RavenFrost2.
CPU cooling: Corsair H60 Liquid cooling *I dont know how to OC my CPU so this is basically useless atm =\
Motherboard: Gigabyte like UD5 or something. Supports Crossfire and SLI. *no USB3 or 1666 memory.. not too sure how important that is anyway..
I am using a Logitech G35 headset
Cyborg Rat 7 Mouse
Logitech G19 keyboard but cant find power cable.. so no lights or usable LCD screen =\.
VEERY standard computer speakers from like 1998, but the quality isnt bad and can get decently loud.
Any ideas? Should i get like a 30 inch display.. or 3 displays. Maybe a good mousepad XD. Any ideas are welcome
Looks pretty good to me, Internal components are fine. Your GTX 460 is newer then my GTX 275 and my card has no trouble maxxing out games. With SC2 im getting 70 FPS so should be sweet for D3
How many displays do you have atm? think 3 is over kill for gaming.
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You know its going to be a good day when you enter a corner sideways.
Do I need an upgrade... And if I do. what components? I am trying to build the baddest ass Diablo 3 machine. this means like gaming mouse / keyboard / head set / speakers / monitor etc that would make my experience the best
*I already have some good stuff though, but for Diablo 3.. it could always be better :)*
CPU: Intel I7 920. 2.66 GHZ quadcore
Ram: 6 Gigs of 1333 Ram
Harddrive: Crucial Solid state 128 gigs... running 500/500 read/write
DiskDrive: NO disc drives
GFX Card: MSI 460 GTX superclocked... 1 gig onboard memory, got it overclocked with MSI at around 850 core speed
Nvidia 3D & 22 inch Asus 3D monitor... This 3D reallly kills my FPS. So its sitting in my closet Atm
PSU: 650Watt Modular powersupply *SLI ready the box says*
Case: RavenFrost2.
CPU cooling: Corsair H60 Liquid cooling *I dont know how to OC my CPU so this is basically useless atm =\
Motherboard: Gigabyte like UD5 or something. Supports Crossfire and SLI. *no USB3 or 1666 memory.. not too sure how important that is anyway..
I am using a Logitech G35 headset
Cyborg Rat 7 Mouse
Logitech G19 keyboard but cant find power cable.. so no lights or usable LCD screen =\.
VEERY standard computer speakers from like 1998, but the quality isnt bad and can get decently loud.
Any ideas? Should i get like a 30 inch display.. or 3 displays. Maybe a good mousepad XD. Any ideas are welcome
I am guessing you purchased your computer pre-made? Regardless, at this point in time there is no reason to upgrade anything really. I would start saving $ for your next build. You are 100% fine, you should have no problem playing on max settings with @ 1080p.
As far as buying more monitors...What monitor are you using currently? (give size and resolution). No, you could only use 2 with out a graphics upgrade. Also, D3 won't work with 3 monitors. You should be able to disable your "3d" monitor, making it a normal one. Dual monitors could still be useful for browsing the web or watching a movie while gaming.
Hey I'm thinking of making a new build, I have a fine one now, but I need a new one for Photo/Vid Editing/Gaming/School. So I looked into something and found that I could get a good Capture card called the BlackMagic Intensity Shuttle. It implores USB 3.0 as a connection interface to the comp, while providing a bypass through the shuttle to the TV and can record uncompressed 1080i footage @60fps. The only problem though is that it says it is recommended to have a Raid Array. I am not to sure about this stuff I can build a general computer answer allot of questions but am not to good with Raid.
Specifically I want to know if I should Put the raid array as Raid 5 or 1+0 or 0+1, Second I want to know if I should make the Raid Array in the Build I am looking at while having an SSD run my Os and games and another HDD for storage of said video music and photos. OR if i should place the raid array on another computer so that way it doesn't mess up any of my OS or any other files on my system should a drive failure occur. Third If a drive failure is to happen how do i find out which one failed and how do i replace it?
My next build btw is this
CPU : AMD 8 Core Bulldozer CPU AM3+
Ram : G.Skill ripjawX series 1333MHz DDR3
HDD for the Raid array : WD Caviar Black 2TB drive 7200RPM Sata 6.0 Gb/s X 4
SSD for OS and Gaming : Corsair 60GB SSD Sata III
HDD for Finished Vids and photos and music : WD VelociRaptor 600GB sata III X 2 (Maybe X 4 to equal the capacity of the 2TB drives in Raid Not sure if it makes sense to limit it by a good 800GB)
Mobo : Asus Crosshair Formula V AM3+ (Might go down to the sabertooth one not sure i fi really need this although the ROG connect features are nice.)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 6970 Rev.2 (Coupled with my 6950 from sapphire Rev.1 flashed to a 6970 I'll crossfire these bad boys)
Case : Custom Danger Den Double Wide Tower 21 All Acrylic With Red LED fans all arounds
CPU cooler : Noctua NHu12 SE2
I have a Razer Black Widow Ultimate Keyboard
Razer Naga Epic Mouse
Razer Megalodon Headset
Razer Destructor Mousepad, although this is changing as soon as the D3 Wizard Qck comes out.
Logitech Z520 speakers
I'm eventually going to Liquid Cool this, but for now Air is fine for me. Also already have a Blu-Ray drive and a 750W XFX PSU IDK if i have to upgrade to 1KW. Also Going to buy a Dell U2410 IPS Panel so I can get a nice solid color reproduction, I'm open to recommendations as I've heard phenomenal and dismal reviews about this screen.
EDIT : Also I agree completely Fuck Alienware/dell/HP Overpriced garbage if you ask me. Alienware gets the goodstuff but honestly way too overpriced, for the price of my build I'd only get a 6970 xfired a good CPU mobo ram and HDD maybe an SSD but no raid arrays.
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Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
Was looking for some advice as I'm getting ready to pick out my video card. The monitor I want includes an interface of DVI, VGA, and HDMI. So HDMI is the best part, right?
However, there are two video cards I'm debating on. But one's interface type says HDMI, but the other says mini-HDMI. So is there a problem with the mini one? Would that mean the monitor needs to also have a mini-HDMI interface???
Do I want to play with such a resolution? I had a feeling DVI was sufficient. But I heard that like HDMI was the very best so I just wasn't sure if there was much of a difference.
Hey I'm thinking of making a new build, I have a fine one now, but I need a new one for Photo/Vid Editing/Gaming/School. So I looked into something and found that I could get a good Capture card called the BlackMagic Intensity Shuttle. It implores USB 3.0 as a connection interface to the comp, while providing a bypass through the shuttle to the TV and can record uncompressed 1080i footage @60fps. The only problem though is that it says it is recommended to have a Raid Array. I am not to sure about this stuff I can build a general computer answer allot of questions but am not to good with Raid.
Specifically I want to know if I should Put the raid array as Raid 5 or 1+0 or 0+1, Second I want to know if I should make the Raid Array in the Build I am looking at while having an SSD run my Os and games and another HDD for storage of said video music and photos. OR if i should place the raid array on another computer so that way it doesn't mess up any of my OS or any other files on my system should a drive failure occur. Third If a drive failure is to happen how do i find out which one failed and how do i replace it?
My next build btw is this
CPU : AMD 8 Core Bulldozer CPU AM3+
Ram : G.Skill ripjawX series 1333MHz DDR3
HDD for the Raid array : WD Caviar Black 2TB drive 7200RPM Sata 6.0 Gb/s X 4
SSD for OS and Gaming : Corsair 60GB SSD Sata III
HDD for Finished Vids and photos and music : WD VelociRaptor 600GB sata III X 2 (Maybe X 4 to equal the capacity of the 2TB drives in Raid Not sure if it makes sense to limit it by a good 800GB)
Mobo : Asus Crosshair Formula V AM3+ (Might go down to the sabertooth one not sure i fi really need this although the ROG connect features are nice.)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 6970 Rev.2 (Coupled with my 6950 from sapphire Rev.1 flashed to a 6970 I'll crossfire these bad boys)
Case : Custom Danger Den Double Wide Tower 21 All Acrylic With Red LED fans all arounds
CPU cooler : Noctua NHu12 SE2
I have a Razer Black Widow Ultimate Keyboard
Razer Naga Epic Mouse
Razer Megalodon Headset
Razer Destructor Mousepad, although this is changing as soon as the D3 Wizard Qck comes out.
Logitech Z520 speakers
I'm eventually going to Liquid Cool this, but for now Air is fine for me. Also already have a Blu-Ray drive and a 750W XFX PSU IDK if i have to upgrade to 1KW. Also Going to buy a Dell U2410 IPS Panel so I can get a nice solid color reproduction, I'm open to recommendations as I've heard phenomenal and dismal reviews about this screen.
EDIT : Also I agree completely Fuck Alienware/dell/HP Overpriced garbage if you ask me. Alienware gets the goodstuff but honestly way too overpriced, for the price of my build I'd only get a 6970 xfired a good CPU mobo ram and HDD maybe an SSD but no raid arrays.
Okay, long post lets see here...
I don't think a RAID array is required, from what I found plenty of people are using black magic with out one. From my understanding they want you to use one to put less stress on your system, and use less RAM.
The VCs are out dated, and basically useless. The only thing they are faster than a good hdd in is random reads, but they have slower everything else, not to mention the horrible cost. In your case, a SSD as a boot drive is better, combined with a raid 0 array for WRITE speeds.
My advice, is to buy 2x 1TB WD blacks, or Samsung F3s if you want slightly faster. These will go in to RAID 0.
Then once the content you are recording is written to drives you can transfer them to 2TB storage drives that are set up in RAID 1 for some redundancy. This is the most effective way to do it while keeping costs down and avoiding an expensive RAID controller. If a HDD fails in RAID 0 you loose ALL of your data in the array. As far as Raid 5 or raid 1 if a drive fails you replace it and it will rebuild the array that was on it, it usually takes a few hours. If you are really hard core, and plan on having like 20TBs of storage, you may want to look into building a home server.
Stay away from razor products, many others, and my myself have had issues with their quality control, and they have absolutely NO costumer service. I have been sticking to Logitech lately.
750w is enough for that build since you aren't folding or anything. By 750w I mean a seasonic 750w, and I am guessing that is the XXX XFX that is modular, and is made by seasonic. Don't try this on a crappy non brand PSU.
I can't help with the IPS panels, personally I am not too picky in the area. I would DEFINITELY find some videos ect because different monitors have different feels and black light bleeds, and a big thing for me TEXT.
You will want to get some faster RAM for that build, as I think Bulldozer is overclocked via the base clock unlike the SBs and upcoming IBs. By faster RAM I mean better speeds, the timings aren't effected by the BLCK, so they don't need to be that low. Personally, I am not holding my breath for Bulldozer, I think it will be a disappointment.
If you have any more questions, I may be able to help, if not then check out overclock.net, as there are some very knowledgeable people over there.
Was looking for some advice as I'm getting ready to pick out my video card. The monitor I want includes an interface of DVI, VGA, and HDMI. So HDMI is the best part, right?
However, there are two video cards I'm debating on. But one's interface type says HDMI, but the other says mini-HDMI. So is there a problem with the mini one? Would that mean the monitor needs to also have a mini-HDMI interface???
DVI and HDMI are the highest quality. If your monitor has build in sound, or you want to plug it up to your TV, then I would suggest a card with an hdmi or mini hdmi.
If you are using a monitor with a resolution greater than 1080p (ex 1600)(you will know because it costs more than 500$) you will want to get a graphics card with 2 DVIs.
Other than that you can get DVI to VGA converters, and you can get mini hdmi to hdmi cables (what most are).
Thanks for the info! The monitor I've decided on has both inputs anyway so I guess I'll be good to go.
My next question is, I've narrowed my choice down to two different barebone kits. Both have i5 processors, but one is a 2500k and the other is a 650. Are there major differences between these two? Also, one has a 550 watt power supply while the other has a 600 watt one.
You will want to get some faster RAM for that build, as I think Bulldozer is overclocked via the base clock unlike the SBs and upcoming IBs. By faster RAM I mean better speeds, the timings aren't effected by the BLCK, so they don't need to be that low. Personally, I am not holding my breath for Bulldozer, I think it will be a disappointment.
If you have any more questions, I may be able to help, if not then check out overclock.net, as there are some very knowledgeable people over there.
Okay so what do you think i should get? 1600, 1800, 2000, or 2133 MHz? and what makes you think that bulldozer will be a disappointment? I'm waiting for them to come out obviously so if i read bad reviews I'll just switch to a core i7 2500k and a Asus Maximus IV Extreme Z with the Z68 chipset instead of the P67
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Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
Crap, there's also this one I'd like advice on. I think after doing some reading I do want the i5-2500k.
So now it's between that one there I just showed and this one. The specs seem mostly the same but the motherboards are different brands. I know less about motherboards than most things about computers. So any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I really think I have it narrowed down between these two though....
I read in some reviews about how the PSU is mounted on the bottom and this causes some problems with connecting other hardware. Is this really much of an issue or can I easily get past it?
You will want to get some faster RAM for that build, as I think Bulldozer is overclocked via the base clock unlike the SBs and upcoming IBs. By faster RAM I mean better speeds, the timings aren't effected by the BLCK, so they don't need to be that low. Personally, I am not holding my breath for Bulldozer, I think it will be a disappointment.
If you have any more questions, I may be able to help, if not then check out overclock.net, as there are some very knowledgeable people over there.
Okay so what do you think i should get? 1600, 1800, 2000, or 2133 MHz? and what makes you think that bulldozer will be a disappointment? I'm waiting for them to come out obviously so if i read bad reviews I'll just switch to a core i7 2500k and a Asus Maximus IV Extreme Z with the Z68 chipset instead of the P67
1600 or 1866 should be fine, just something higher than the stock 1333, because if you have to OC with the bclk you want your ram to be able to keep up. Also remember on voltage, I assume Bulldozer will have the same 1.5v "warning" limit on ram.
I would take a risk with any new technology, I mean, with AMD bulldozer will be a VERY immature processor, and there for it may not live up to the initial hype. Anyways, falling back onto the 2600k isn't bad, since hardly anything can really stress a 2600k in normal usage.
Crap, there's also this one I'd like advice on. I think after doing some reading I do want the i5-2500k.
So now it's between that one there I just showed and this one. The specs seem mostly the same but the motherboards are different brands. I know less about motherboards than most things about computers. So any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I really think I have it narrowed down between these two though....
I read in some reviews about how the PSU is mounted on the bottom and this causes some problems with connecting other hardware. Is this really much of an issue or can I easily get past it?
Might I ask why you are going barebone? The savings that may come from buying a kit rather than individual is usually less than 50$, and if you factor in the horrible power supplies that come with them (you don't even want to use them), the savings is not there.
If you could give me a better understanding of your budget, and the purpose of the build I should be able to come up with a build that fits your budget, without compromising in areas that you should not. What type of graphics card do you plan to pair with this? or do you just need this for office use?
Also, newegg.com has better prices than tigerdirect most of the time, not to mention in most states you don't pay shipping nor taxes.
I'm willing to buy a separate power supply outside the kit in order to protect my investment. Can I get a really decent one for 50-60 bucks?
yeah i think corsair has a pretty decent series, also if you are going for a good gpu look for at least 60 A on the 12V rail and not multi-12v rails those tend to be worse than single 12v rails at 60 A
JW would you recommend dual gtx 580's or dual 6970's, i know that the 580's r better i just wanna see what you guys think cost:preformance ratios and other stuff like that
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Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
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First off, I love to be proven wrong, or corrected, so if you feel like I am wrong, feel free to correct with reason.
Some reasons to NOT buy an Alienware, dell, hp, or other:
They often use generic parts, including Motherboards, PSUs, cases, and RAM. This completely robs you reliability wise.
It also removes the option to upgrade, because the PSU is too week, and/or uses proprietary connections.
I recommend building your own computer (it is really simple), especially if you are on a budget.
Some reasons to build your own computer:
It is a good experience to have, in case you need to fix your own computer, or build a computer for somebody else.
You have total control, you know how to upgrade your graphics cards, hdds, cpus, ect.
You paying for the QUALITY of the parts, not paying for the whole business and the grunt who assembled your computer.
If you are requesting help for a particular build, please answer these questions.
Budget:(400+) (unless you have good existing hardware, with 400$ -100 for OS, you cannot do much.
Website: (For US and CA people, newegg.com will be used.)
What is the primary use: (Play D3 max settings, play D3. , photoshop work or video encoding?)
What pieces do you already have?: (hdd,case, monitor, mouse, keyboard)
Operating System: Will you be purchasing your OS? or will you be using Linux, or torrent your OS. (I can help in this department via pm)
Current hardware: (cpu,mobo,psu) See if you have anything we can work with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls
I have a 10 year old mid-atx case with a 750W psu. Current motherboard is an ASUS M2N-E SLI, 3 gigs of 240pin DDR2 800 ram (one stick worked just long enough to get itself out of warranty) and the CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Windsor 3000. Monitor is fine, optical drive is fine, hard drives should be fine, OS has one more install on the three-seat license (7 Ultimate). Copy-paste of my GPU is: 2 x ASUS EN7300GT SILENT/HTD/512M GeForce 7300GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI.
Given this setup and the theoretical budget, would you build a new box or just upgrade? Primary use is gaming, RTS/FPS and D3 (of course!) - it was rebuilt for WoW 3.0. Secondary use would be the rare video encoding, GIMPing photos, watching movies, office-style work.
ETA: I have built about 6 machines if you count rebuilds of this one (on my 4th mobo setup), so I am fully sold on your concept.
In progress: Barbarian, WD
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition
PSU: Antec 750W 80 Plus Certified
Case: Sentey Optimus Extreme Mid-Tower Atx
Video Card: Asus Gtx 560 Ti
RAM: 8 GB G.Skill 1600
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
OS: 7 Ultimate 64bit
Storage: 1 TB Caviar Black SATA 6Gb/s
Boot Drive: 64 GB SATA III SSD
Optical Drive: Asus Blu-Ray Burner
Monitor: Asus 21.5" 1920x1080 5ms LED Backlight Full HD HDMI
I think that about covers my current build. I just ordered it all from Newegg yesterday. The Mobo is designed for the upcoming Bulldozer processor from AMD to be released shortly. I will be upgrading to that and putting the 1100T in my girlfriend's computer.
I assume your PSU is still kicking, hopefully it is a good brand, and hopefully your HDDs are SATA. A case is a case, as long as it has good airflow you are fine.
This is a tough one, both your CPU and your graphics card are dated. I am not sure which FPS you play, but assuming D3 is the most demanding game you play. Since D3 isn't very graphic intense, I would push more towards the CPU.
This build gives you basically the best cpu you can get for the $, but a mediocre graphics card.
Intel i5 2500k + Asus P8P67 - 350$
4GB DDR3 G.Skill RAM 1333 cas8 1.5v - 40$
Asus 5770 - 110$
Total = 500$
Since a lot of your PC is old, this might be a better option. Some of the items in this build are out dated, so you may be able to pick them up used locally (Be very cautious when doing so though).
AMD 955 CPU + Asus M4A87TD EVO AM3 Board (can be updated to AM3+ for bulldozer)
4GB DDR3 G.Skill RAM 1333 cas8 1.5v - 40$
Asus 5770 GPU - 110$
A good budget card
Antec Earthwatts 650w - 65$
I am unsure of your upgrade habits, but 650w should allow you to sli in the future, or allow you to upgrade to pretty much any graphics card.
Samsung F3 1TB HDD - 65$
Total = 485$ + Shipping
You would use your existing case and your existing dvd drive (hopefully the dvd drive is sata)
You could attempt to sell your PC on craigslist (or other local site) for a few hundred bucks, and then upgrade to this build.
Looks good, but since you are going to retire the 1100T pretty soon (assuming bulldozer doesnt have any more setbacks), I think the 955 should hold you over, and be probably be plenty for your gf.
Check around on the 990FX (the whole chipset), I have seen a few posts of VRM/Phase instability, which may cause a recall of the chipset on some boards.
Check out the Samsung F3 1TB HDD which is #1 in cost:performance ratio. It also has combos on ALL of the Corsair PSUs such as this bundle.
What SSD are you picking? I would stay away from OCZ, as the minor increase in performance is not worth the instability. I would look into the Crucial M4, or the older C300. Or an Intel SSD, as those are much more reliable.
I am assuming you like the looks of that case? If not there are some other budget contenders such as the HAF 912 (I personally love my HAF 932, the whole line is great) or the coolermaster 692
Also, thank god I am not alone, seems like many around here like spending 100-200$ for some body else to do 30 minutes of work. (if you even consider it work, I consider it fun)
In progress: Barbarian, WD
*I already have some good stuff though, but for Diablo 3.. it could always be better :)*
CPU: Intel I7 920. 2.66 GHZ quadcore
Ram: 6 Gigs of 1333 Ram
Harddrive: Crucial Solid state 128 gigs... running 500/500 read/write
DiskDrive: NO disc drives
GFX Card: MSI 460 GTX superclocked... 1 gig onboard memory, got it overclocked with MSI at around 850 core speed
Nvidia 3D & 22 inch Asus 3D monitor... This 3D reallly kills my FPS. So its sitting in my closet Atm
PSU: 650Watt Modular powersupply *SLI ready the box says*
Case: RavenFrost2.
CPU cooling: Corsair H60 Liquid cooling *I dont know how to OC my CPU so this is basically useless atm =\
Motherboard: Gigabyte like UD5 or something. Supports Crossfire and SLI. *no USB3 or 1666 memory.. not too sure how important that is anyway..
I am using a Logitech G35 headset
Cyborg Rat 7 Mouse
Logitech G19 keyboard but cant find power cable.. so no lights or usable LCD screen =\.
VEERY standard computer speakers from like 1998, but the quality isnt bad and can get decently loud.
Any ideas? Should i get like a 30 inch display.. or 3 displays. Maybe a good mousepad XD. Any ideas are welcome
How many displays do you have atm? think 3 is over kill for gaming.
I am guessing you purchased your computer pre-made? Regardless, at this point in time there is no reason to upgrade anything really. I would start saving $ for your next build. You are 100% fine, you should have no problem playing on max settings with @ 1080p.
As far as buying more monitors...What monitor are you using currently? (give size and resolution). No, you could only use 2 with out a graphics upgrade. Also, D3 won't work with 3 monitors. You should be able to disable your "3d" monitor, making it a normal one. Dual monitors could still be useful for browsing the web or watching a movie while gaming.
Specifically I want to know if I should Put the raid array as Raid 5 or 1+0 or 0+1, Second I want to know if I should make the Raid Array in the Build I am looking at while having an SSD run my Os and games and another HDD for storage of said video music and photos. OR if i should place the raid array on another computer so that way it doesn't mess up any of my OS or any other files on my system should a drive failure occur. Third If a drive failure is to happen how do i find out which one failed and how do i replace it?
My next build btw is this
CPU : AMD 8 Core Bulldozer CPU AM3+
Ram : G.Skill ripjawX series 1333MHz DDR3
HDD for the Raid array : WD Caviar Black 2TB drive 7200RPM Sata 6.0 Gb/s X 4
SSD for OS and Gaming : Corsair 60GB SSD Sata III
HDD for Finished Vids and photos and music : WD VelociRaptor 600GB sata III X 2 (Maybe X 4 to equal the capacity of the 2TB drives in Raid Not sure if it makes sense to limit it by a good 800GB)
Mobo : Asus Crosshair Formula V AM3+ (Might go down to the sabertooth one not sure i fi really need this although the ROG connect features are nice.)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 6970 Rev.2 (Coupled with my 6950 from sapphire Rev.1 flashed to a 6970 I'll crossfire these bad boys)
Case : Custom Danger Den Double Wide Tower 21 All Acrylic With Red LED fans all arounds
CPU cooler : Noctua NHu12 SE2
I have a Razer Black Widow Ultimate Keyboard
Razer Naga Epic Mouse
Razer Megalodon Headset
Razer Destructor Mousepad, although this is changing as soon as the D3 Wizard Qck comes out.
Logitech Z520 speakers
I'm eventually going to Liquid Cool this, but for now Air is fine for me. Also already have a Blu-Ray drive and a 750W XFX PSU IDK if i have to upgrade to 1KW. Also Going to buy a Dell U2410 IPS Panel so I can get a nice solid color reproduction, I'm open to recommendations as I've heard phenomenal and dismal reviews about this screen.
EDIT : Also I agree completely Fuck Alienware/dell/HP Overpriced garbage if you ask me. Alienware gets the goodstuff but honestly way too overpriced, for the price of my build I'd only get a 6970 xfired a good CPU mobo ram and HDD maybe an SSD but no raid arrays.
However, there are two video cards I'm debating on. But one's interface type says HDMI, but the other says mini-HDMI. So is there a problem with the mini one? Would that mean the monitor needs to also have a mini-HDMI interface???
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Okay, long post lets see here...
I don't think a RAID array is required, from what I found plenty of people are using black magic with out one. From my understanding they want you to use one to put less stress on your system, and use less RAM.
The VCs are out dated, and basically useless. The only thing they are faster than a good hdd in is random reads, but they have slower everything else, not to mention the horrible cost. In your case, a SSD as a boot drive is better, combined with a raid 0 array for WRITE speeds.
My advice, is to buy 2x 1TB WD blacks, or Samsung F3s if you want slightly faster. These will go in to RAID 0.
Then once the content you are recording is written to drives you can transfer them to 2TB storage drives that are set up in RAID 1 for some redundancy. This is the most effective way to do it while keeping costs down and avoiding an expensive RAID controller. If a HDD fails in RAID 0 you loose ALL of your data in the array. As far as Raid 5 or raid 1 if a drive fails you replace it and it will rebuild the array that was on it, it usually takes a few hours. If you are really hard core, and plan on having like 20TBs of storage, you may want to look into building a home server.
Stay away from razor products, many others, and my myself have had issues with their quality control, and they have absolutely NO costumer service. I have been sticking to Logitech lately.
750w is enough for that build since you aren't folding or anything. By 750w I mean a seasonic 750w, and I am guessing that is the XXX XFX that is modular, and is made by seasonic. Don't try this on a crappy non brand PSU.
I can't help with the IPS panels, personally I am not too picky in the area. I would DEFINITELY find some videos ect because different monitors have different feels and black light bleeds, and a big thing for me TEXT.
You will want to get some faster RAM for that build, as I think Bulldozer is overclocked via the base clock unlike the SBs and upcoming IBs. By faster RAM I mean better speeds, the timings aren't effected by the BLCK, so they don't need to be that low. Personally, I am not holding my breath for Bulldozer, I think it will be a disappointment.
If you have any more questions, I may be able to help, if not then check out overclock.net, as there are some very knowledgeable people over there.
DVI and HDMI are the highest quality. If your monitor has build in sound, or you want to plug it up to your TV, then I would suggest a card with an hdmi or mini hdmi.
If you are using a monitor with a resolution greater than 1080p (ex 1600)(you will know because it costs more than 500$) you will want to get a graphics card with 2 DVIs.
Other than that you can get DVI to VGA converters, and you can get mini hdmi to hdmi cables (what most are).
My next question is, I've narrowed my choice down to two different barebone kits. Both have i5 processors, but one is a 2500k and the other is a 650. Are there major differences between these two? Also, one has a 550 watt power supply while the other has a 600 watt one.
So here is the slightly more expensive one.
And then here is the other one which seems comparably good but it doesn't have 3.0 usb ports.
Help me decide! I want to order one of these today.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Okay so what do you think i should get? 1600, 1800, 2000, or 2133 MHz? and what makes you think that bulldozer will be a disappointment? I'm waiting for them to come out obviously so if i read bad reviews I'll just switch to a core i7 2500k and a Asus Maximus IV Extreme Z with the Z68 chipset instead of the P67
So now it's between that one there I just showed and this one. The specs seem mostly the same but the motherboards are different brands. I know less about motherboards than most things about computers. So any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I really think I have it narrowed down between these two though....
I read in some reviews about how the PSU is mounted on the bottom and this causes some problems with connecting other hardware. Is this really much of an issue or can I easily get past it?
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
1600 or 1866 should be fine, just something higher than the stock 1333, because if you have to OC with the bclk you want your ram to be able to keep up. Also remember on voltage, I assume Bulldozer will have the same 1.5v "warning" limit on ram.
I would take a risk with any new technology, I mean, with AMD bulldozer will be a VERY immature processor, and there for it may not live up to the initial hype. Anyways, falling back onto the 2600k isn't bad, since hardly anything can really stress a 2600k in normal usage.
Might I ask why you are going barebone? The savings that may come from buying a kit rather than individual is usually less than 50$, and if you factor in the horrible power supplies that come with them (you don't even want to use them), the savings is not there.
If you could give me a better understanding of your budget, and the purpose of the build I should be able to come up with a build that fits your budget, without compromising in areas that you should not. What type of graphics card do you plan to pair with this? or do you just need this for office use?
Also, newegg.com has better prices than tigerdirect most of the time, not to mention in most states you don't pay shipping nor taxes.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
yeah i think corsair has a pretty decent series, also if you are going for a good gpu look for at least 60 A on the 12V rail and not multi-12v rails those tend to be worse than single 12v rails at 60 A
JW would you recommend dual gtx 580's or dual 6970's, i know that the 580's r better i just wanna see what you guys think cost:preformance ratios and other stuff like that