Building my first PC

[Nuncio]

Originally Posted by leezard [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

/agree. Newegg has had some great Corsair deals recently, if your not seeing one atm I would suggest to keep looking. Rosewill psu's trash imo

Also, listen to the Nilbog. If you go AMD, ya better cool it with more than stock fan.

Listen to me. Forget the AMD unless you have specific 'needs' that are covered by the AMD line-up (which is really only 8 thread CPU's for cheap. Again, their IPC is about 65% of intel counterparts.)

[Knuckle]

Asus should be your motherboard if you are building a serious gaming rig, you don't want to scrimp on the motherboard, even though you are probably thinking the CPU/GPU are more important, a poor mobo will wreck your system.

Anything Asus for Mobo, intel is a gimme for the CPU, gforce line is dominate for gcard, i personally use corsair for RAM, that's one area where you can usually pinch the most gigabytes per dollar, just pick one of their high frequency 1333 or better models, Power Supply I've seen excellent reviews on the Thermaltake tough series, with any power supply unit you should use at least 700 watts depending on your rig if you are doing something stupid like multiple GPUs you'll need more like 1k to 1.2k.
Hard drive is the one area right now that I would suggest you do your own research. SSD would seem to be the way to go, if you have the cash go ahead and get one with a couple 100GB because it is a pain in the ass to try and run a 120gb SSD as your primary drive. I do not recommend a RAID set up or anything retarded aspergers like that, as if one drive fails it will fuck up a lot of stuff since your memory is distributed across all drives. For your secondary drive get a terabyte or 1.5 TB regular HDD. Western Digital makes a good HDD but are typically a little more expensive, as a secondary drive this is of less importance, this is where you will save music, videos, photos, and any programs not currently being used/played.

Cooling - This is a heated debate among a lot of folks. I personally watercooled a system around 5 years ago and would never do it again. It ran amazing for 2 years but the potential problems outweigh the benefits in my opinion. First, you need big tubing, a radiator of sorts to offset the heat, a larger and more expensive computer casing, a water pump, and reservoir. You will also need some anti-freeze type coolant that will prevent the tubes from collecting algae which will ultimately wreck your cpu/gpu. On top of that once you have everything hooked up, you need to do a test run to ensure there is no leaks by doing the paperclip trick on your PSU to jump start the waterpump without any hardware running.

Once you have a good quality watercooling system set up(i used mostly danger den parts, none of that garbage pre fab shit), you have to change the tubes once a year, and after the second year i said fuck that shit, draining out all the fluid, changing the tubes felt like reinstalling the damn thing every year.

I did do some massive overclocking however, at the time there was a 1.8ghz chip that I was able to OC to 3.0ghz dual-crore for everyday use, it was a C2D intel chip that was very, very overclockable. I imagine after 5 years intel has wised up to leaving cost budget chips open to this sort of thing and has probably locked the multipliers on all their cores on the new chips. You probably have to be Neo to unlock a new CPU these days.

So for cooling, I recommend a large CPU case that has excellent airflow with large fans, I used a Gigabyte brand case designed for watercooling, but lots of room and fans sucking hot air out and cool air in is what you want, so definitely review the case you choose carefully.

Throw on one of the higher rated air cooled CPU copper heatsinks with a big ass fan and your rig should be fine, even if you decide to do some overclocking.

For monitor I use Asus. They make the best CPU monitors for the dollar, hands down. LG surprisingly also makes some great gaming monitors at a low price. I'm currently using an Asus 25" monitor with 2ms(this means no blurring when playing games with lots of quick movement, such as a FPS), and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. Don't be a sucker and buy a 30" monitor for 200 bucks or something, it'll look like shit when your trying to move around in a fast paced game.


Well that's my garbled rambling, have fun, after the rig i built 5 years ago I bought a Asus laptop last year when my rig was struck by lightning, and it hasnt hitched playing skyrim or just about any game I've thrown at it. My only gripe is the primary HD is only 180GB and it's not a SSD. But I got the laptop for a much better deal than I would have building my own desktop other than the hard drive space.

[Knuckle]

Piffen after actually reading your post I'm pretty sure you are trolling, but regardless I'll bite since I enjoy these discussions. Ditch the AMD CPU, don't listen to anyone saying to get an AMD chip, they are simply not as efficient as intel processors and behind the mobo, the CPU is the most important purchase, I would take a 3.0ghz quad core intel chip over that AMD one you have in your cart.

The micro atx board is a terrible idea, get a full sized motherboard by asus, pair it with the appropriate intel CPU.

I have used radeon/ati GPU's in the past, and all I can say is you will probably have problems sooner than later, and their software suites tend to work like shit. Nvidia GPU's I do not have issues with.

Ditch the 530W rosewell piece of shit power suppply for something like thermaltake tough series 700W, and they come with a 3 year manufacturers warranty, not that mine ever acted up.

The G.Skill memory is probably fine.

Windows 8 is a step backwards in my opinion. It will catch on one day but they basically are beta testing windows 9 with you the consumer. Stick to windows 7, its the windows xp of its day for gaming.

[Nuncio]

Originally Posted by Knuckle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Asus should be your motherboard if you are building a serious gaming rig, you don't want to scrimp on the motherboard, even though you are probably thinking the CPU/GPU are more important, a poor mobo will wreck your system.

This isn't a 'serious' gaming machine. He doesn't need a 200 dollar mobo. He also shouldn't be buying foxconn or similar though, which is why I posted the asrock one, which is really quite good.

Anything Asus for Mobo, intel is a gimme for the CPU,

I covered mobo, and agree with CPU.

gforce line is dominate for gcard,

Not in the upper midrange, such as this 7770.

i personally use corsair for RAM, that's one area where you can usually pinch the most gigabytes per dollar, just pick one of their high frequency 1333 or better models,

I like corsair too, but mushkin is fine, as is PNY.

Power Supply I've seen excellent reviews on the Thermaltake tough series, with any power supply unit you should use at least 700 watts depending on your rig if you are doing something stupid like multiple GPUs you'll need more like 1k to 1.2k.

His rig does not require more than 500 watts from a good PSU. The 7770 is fairly low power pull. Hes got two sticks of ram, one HD and one CD. The lower end thermaltakes are, quite simply, junk. As I said, Antec or Corsair in the 450-750 range.

Hard drive is the one area right now that I would suggest you do your own research. SSD would seem to be the way to go, if you have the cash go ahead and get one with a couple 100GB because it is a pain in the ass to try and run a 120gb SSD as your primary drive. I do not recommend a RAID set up or anything retarded aspergers like that, as if one drive fails it will fuck up a lot of stuff since your memory is distributed across all drives. For your secondary drive get a terabyte or 1.5 TB regular HDD. Western Digital makes a good HDD but are typically a little more expensive, as a secondary drive this is of less importance, this is where you will save music, videos, photos, and any programs not currently being used/played.

I really doubt he can afford and SSD with the equipemnt hes already listed, so be realistic.

Cooling - This is a heated debate among a lot of folks. I personally watercooled a system around 5 years ago and would never do it again. It ran amazing for 2 years but the potential problems outweigh the benefits in my opinion. First, you need big tubing, a radiator of sorts to offset the heat, a larger and more expensive computer casing, a water pump, and reservoir. You will also need some anti-freeze type coolant that will prevent the tubes from collecting algae which will ultimately wreck your cpu/gpu. On top of that once you have everything hooked up, you need to do a test run to ensure there is no leaks by doing the paperclip trick on your PSU to jump start the waterpump without any hardware running.

Stock cooler on i5 at stock speeds is completely adequate, no water cooling or aftermarket required, ever.

Once you have a good quality watercooling system set up(i used mostly danger den parts, none of that garbage pre fab shit), you have to change the tubes once a year, and after the second year i said fuck that shit, draining out all the fluid, changing the tubes felt like reinstalling the damn thing every year.

Watercooling without extreme overclocking is a waste of money

I did do some massive overclocking however, at the time there was a 1.8ghz chip that I was able to OC to 3.0ghz dual-crore for everyday use, it was a C2D intel chip that was very, very overclockable. I imagine after 5 years intel has wised up to leaving cost budget chips open to this sort of thing and has probably locked the multipliers on all their cores on the new chips. You probably have to be Neo to unlock a new CPU these days.

Thanks for proving my point (he doesnt need watercooling. He's got a midrange card with a midrange cpu, OCing any one thing wont make much of a difference. Get of the WCing kick for him.)

So for cooling, I recommend a large CPU case that has excellent airflow with large fans, I used a Gigabyte brand case designed for watercooling, but lots of room and fans sucking hot air out and cool air in is what you want, so definitely review the case you choose carefully.

Throw on one of the higher rated air cooled CPU copper heatsinks with a big ass fan and your rig should be fine, even if you decide to do some overclocking.

There we go, kinda. Again, intel stock coolers are more than adequate.

For monitor I use Asus. They make the best CPU monitors for the dollar, hands down. LG surprisingly also makes some great gaming monitors at a low price. I'm currently using an Asus 25" monitor with 2ms(this means no blurring when playing games with lots of quick movement, such as a FPS), and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. Don't be a sucker and buy a 30" monitor for 200 bucks or something, it'll look like shit when your trying to move around in a fast paced game.

Notice he didnt list a monitor in his cart? Prolly cause he's not going to buy one because he already has one.
Yep.

Well that's my garbled rambling, have fun, after the rig i built 5 years ago I bought a Asus laptop last year when my rig was struck by lightning, and it hasnt hitched playing skyrim or just about any game I've thrown at it. My only gripe is the primary HD is only 180GB and it's not a SSD. But I got the laptop for a much better deal than I would have building my own desktop other than the hard drive space.

OK.

[fishingme]

Originally Posted by Nuncio [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This isn't a 'serious' gaming machine. He doesn't need a 200 dollar mobo. He also shouldn't be buying foxconn or similar though, which is why I posted the asrock one, which is really quite good.

.

I would listen to this guy. Also, there's absolutely no need to spend more than $800-$900 on a new gaming rig. It will easily play any game in the next 1-2years at max settings with max fps unless a groundbreaking new game engine comes along which isn't too likely considering game devs aim towards lower minimum settings to work or their profit margins are cut due to many people not wanting to upgrade to play a game.

[Piff]

Originally Posted by Nuncio [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Spend a little more money, and get something a whole lot better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116782 is 50 bucks more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157314 is 20 bucks more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371016 is 10 bucks more

80 bucks more and vastly superior.

thanks!

Originally Posted by Eccezan [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Piffen is almost level 54 btw...just sayin!

CHEERS!!! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thanks for all the help knuckle - no troll. i've got a nice 23 inch asus monitor myself.

Originally Posted by fishingme [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I would listen to this guy. Also, there's absolutely no need to spend more than $800-$900 on a new gaming rig.

Yeah that's what i'm really focused on. it will definitely be kept under $900. I'm building this rig with the intention that when i do find a game that needs more computing power, i'll be able to make the correct adjustments to my machine at that time.

Now for a new question before i show you all my updated list: If the mobo says it's only supported by a cpu with integrated graphics - what does this mean exactly. I'm obviously not going to invest in integrated graphics, but does this mean that i have to find a cpu with integrated graphics?

Alright here's the new list.. the case appears to have enough room and plenty of expansion, the SSD is only 120 but with the backup 500g WD blue i should be fine if it's only the stuff vital to the operating system and technical stuff not personal files. thoughts?

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[Nuncio]

Originally Posted by Piff [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

thanks!



CHEERS!!! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thanks for all the help knuckle - no troll. i've got a nice 23 inch asus monitor myself.



Yeah that's what i'm really focused on. it will definitely be kept under $900. I'm building this rig with the intention that when i do find a game that needs more computing power, i'll be able to make the correct adjustments to my machine at that time.

Now for a new question before i show you all my updated list: If the mobo says it's only supported by a cpu with integrated graphics - what does this mean exactly. I'm obviously not going to invest in integrated graphics, but does this mean that i have to find a cpu with integrated graphics?

Alright here's the new list.. the case appears to have enough room and plenty of expansion, the SSD is only 120 but with the backup 500g WD blue i should be fine if it's only the stuff vital to the operating system and technical stuff not personal files. thoughts?

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

All that means is that the CPU has to have the video built in for the 'board' to have buil tin video. You arent using onboard, and the CPU I linked you does not have the IGP onboard, and so doesn't matter.

One thing I'd do before ordering is to see if Asrock has a tested-memory list with that particular board, and buy memory that is on that list. If not, the gskill is prolly fine, but I generally use corsair or mushkin.

[Thulack]

All i have to say is get a mobo that supports core unlocking for 50 bucks and get a AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz for 70 bucks and you have your self a cheap ass quad core rig. I paid 340 dollars for a setup minus hard drive and can run anything i want.

[Nuncio]

Originally Posted by Thulack [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

All i have to say is get a mobo that supports core unlocking for 50 bucks and get a AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz for 70 bucks and you have your self a cheap ass quad core rig. I paid 340 dollars for a setup minus hard drive and can run anything i want.

An unlocked, overclocked 450 rana is still a lot slower than the i5.

[Thulack]

Originally Posted by Nuncio [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

An unlocked, overclocked 450 rana is still a lot slower than the i5.

But it is capable of doing everything i want without lagging. That is all i need and all most people need. You dont have to spend more then 500 dollars building a computer unless you do graphic design as a living.