New build help

M

marmup

n00b
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Nov 26, 2006
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My current rig is 6 years old and I am ready to get another one. I have only bought pre built systems in the past, but I know I can save a lot by doing it on my own. I do have some concerns about building one myself, so that is why I am looking for some help. I can go to newegg, or mwave(they will put it together and test it). But since it has been some time since I last did some research on parts, this is where I hope I can get some help.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
PC gaming and web browsing
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
2-2.5k. Tax and shipping not included(I get 20% discount on what I buy)
3) Where do you live?
Ohio
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
I am building from scratch, so I need everything except a monitor.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
not reusing anything
6) Will you be overclocking?
I don't have experience with oc'ing, but would consider it.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I plan to get a 22' or 24' monitor
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next month
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I will admit, I don't know enough about these features. Any help would be appreciated
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
I will be upgrading to a new Windows 7
 
So... the monitor is not included in the 2-2.5k budget? 6 year old system, that's pretty old. You must be on an Intel P4 or Athlon 64 cpu system. An intel Core i5-750 with a Radeon HD 5850 should be a massive upgrade already.
 
2-2.5 is without the monitor(My employer will give me 20% off every 3 years for a new PC). My current system is the Athlon 64 with a Radeon 9800 XT.
 
I can get you started on the right track, but ultimately you'll have to make some changes based on your subjective needs.

CPU - Intel Core i7 920
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=i7_920-_-19-115-202-_-Product

Motherboard - Asus P6T Deluxe V2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3131365&cm_re=asus_p6t-_-13-131-365-_-Product

Memory - G.Skill 6GB DDR3-1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=g.skill_6gb_ddr3_1600-_-20-231-225-_-Product

Graphics - Sapphire Radeon HD 5870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2856&cm_re=radeon_5870-_-14-102-856-_-Product

That covers the "guts" of the computer, and comes out to about $1150. That leaves you roughly another $1000 for a case, power supply, and drives. You certainly have enough to get an SSD as your boot drive, so that may be something you want to explore. Otherwise, I think most will agree this is a fairly powerful system that will chew up anything thrown at it.
 
Hmm.. is this PC for your own personal use or...this pc is for work and it's being paid by your company you work for?
 
It will be for personal use as a gaming computer and web browsing. I am paying for it, but my employer has a PC assistance benefit we can use every 3 years.
 
Thanks for the ideas Bona Fide. Is the i7 920 much better than an i5? I have read that the difference in performance for gaming isn't that much more for the price.
 
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if I've been reading right, the only real noticeable differences will be slightly improved loading times (most likely fractions of a second). but I'm still learning too, so don't take my word over other's just yet, lol.
 
HardwareGuru is right, especially when you consider the fact that most of today's games are largely driven by the video card.

With a $2500 budget, you could easily afford to get a decent 1080p LCD monitor for gaming.
 
I haven't looked at any yet, but from what I have read, I may need a larger case due to the size of the video card(HD 5870). Is it true these cards are bigger than typical cards.
 
Yes, the Radeon 5870 is a very large video card. It measure over 11 inches so...some computer cases will pose a problem. A good example is the Coolermaster Mystique. This case will not fit a Radeon HD 5870 video card.
 
Thanks for all the replies as it has definitely helped. Any ideas as far as a case?
 
marmup said:
Thanks for all the replies as it has definitely helped. Any ideas as far as a case?
Click to expand...
Do you prefer a large, spacious case, a more mid-sized, or a (somewhat) compact case? There are models of each that can hold the newer video cards.

Full Tower: 279.99 Corsair Obisidian 800D
Mid-Tower: 99.99 Lancool PC-K62
Mini-Tower: 69.99 Antec Mini P180
 
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marmup said:
Thanks for all the replies as it has definitely helped. Any ideas as far as a case?
Click to expand...

Just a few:
$70 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$130 - Cooler Master Storm Sniper ATX Case
$140 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
 
youtube is your friend... There are so many how to videos.

and i second the storm sniper suggestion by evilpokemon.
 
Here is what I have come up with so far. I would appreciate any opinions or improvements suggestions. Please be nice ;)

CPU - Intel Core i5 750 $195
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

Motherboard - Asus P7P55D Deluxe $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=asus_p7p55d_deluxe-_-13-131-400-_-Product

Graphics - Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 $410
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...apphire_radeon_hd_5870-_-14-102-856-_-Product

Memory - Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB(2x2GB) 240 PINDDR3 1600 $128
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...lackline_4gb_(2_x_2gb)-_-20-146-871-_-Product

PSU - Cooler Master UCP RS700 700w ATX 12V $129
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171032&Tpk=cooler master UCP rs700

Case - Cooler Master Storm Scout $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196&Tpk=cooler master storm scout

HD - Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...n_digital_caviar_black-_-22-136-320-_-Product

DVD Drive - Sony Optiarc Black 24x DVD $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._8x_dvd+rw_12x_dvd+r_d-_-27-118-030-_-Product

CPU Cooler - Corsair Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50 $78
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010&Tpk=Corsair H50 Hydro

Sound Card - HT Omega Striker 7.1 24 bit 96khz $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001&Tpk=Ht omega striker

Windows 7 64bit - $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116716&Tpk=32-116-716


This comes to about $1600.00. I thought about a velociraptor for the HD, but they only have 150 GB. I toyed with the idea of getting 2 of those with a RAID 0. Any thoughts? I may have went over board on the PSU. For the i5 boards, I only found 4GB memory options. Can you add 2 more GB for 6, or is that overkill. Thanks
 
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You can't make it six because then you'll have three sticks, two of which are in dual channel. You're thinking of triple channel ran 3x2GB. For that you'll need i7.
 
I'm seeing a 300GB model.

199.99 300GB WD VelociRaptor Hard Drive

But from what I've read, VelociRaptors tend to be a disappointment in comparison to the much less expensive Caviar Blacks and much more expensive SSD's. And regarding the 6GB of ram, you can certainly do whatever you want. Lynnfield (P55) boards run memory in "teams" of two (dual-channel mode) to supposedly boost performance, where as Bloomfield (X58) systems run triple-channel. This is why Bloomfield users typically run 6GB of RAM (2GB x 2GB x 2GB), and Lynnfield users, 4GB or 8GB. In benchmarks, this has shown to be advantageous; in real-world scenarios, I haven't seen convincing evidence.
 
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Thanks for the clarification. I guess I will just stick with the WD Cavaiar Black instead of the VelociRaptor if there is not too much difference in performance.
 
Ditch the WD 500GB Black. It's a piss poor buy at $70 considering for the same price you can get the significantly faster WD6400AAKS drive:
$70 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Ditch the PSU as well as it is an extremely bad buy for the money considering that you can get a significantly better quality as well as higher rated PSU for just $10 more:
$140 - Seasonic M12D SS-850 850W Modular PSU

Ditch the RAM as that Mushkin will kill your CPU since it exceeds the maximum rated voltage for RAM when using a Core i5/i7 CPU: 1.65V. That Mushkin is rated at 1.85V to 1.95V. So unless you want a dead CPU, ditch the Mushkin and go with this RAM instead:
$94 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM

Even if the Muskin was rated at 1.65V, it still would be a bad buy for the money as you would not notice an iota of performance diference between the G.Skill RAM above and the Mushkin in real-world apps and games.

For just $40 more, you can get a CPU with HT that may help with future games:
$240 - Intel Xeon X3440 CPU

As for the motherboard: I am of the opinion that spending more than $160 on a P55 is a foolhardy decision considering that around $200 or so, you stray into Core i7/X58 territory. So either scale back your mobo to a P55 mobo below $160 or scale up to a Core i7/X58 setup. As far as I'm concerned, there's no middle ground betwen those two.
 
Thanks for the suggestions Danny. I will make some of those changes. Any downside to using the Xeon over the i5?
 
No downside really. It's just 133MHZ slower than the Core i5-750 but, it supports HT (Hyper threading) while the Core i5-750 does not.
 
I know it is shaky ground to differ with Danny Bui (I generally don't), but I felt it should be mentioned that there are other opinions regarding high-end P55 setups. Now I will scurry to a hiding place.
 
marmup said:
Thanks for the suggestions Danny. I will make some of those changes. Any downside to using the Xeon over the i5?
Click to expand...
In addition to HG's answers, the Xeon does OC a little lower than the i5 750: max of 3.6Ghz to 3.8Ghz compared to the i5 750's 3.8Hhz to 4Ghz.

TheQuestian said:
I know it is shaky ground to differ with Danny Bui (I generally don't), but I felt it should be mentioned that there are other opinions regarding high-end P55 setups. Now I will scurry to a hiding place.
Click to expand...

LOL!. Say your piece man. No one is gonna get butt hurt just because you disagree
 
Danny Bui said:
Ditch the WD 500GB Black. It's a piss poor buy at $70 considering for the same price you can get the significantly faster WD6400AAKS drive:
$70 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Click to expand...

Argh, I guess I should know, but why is the 640gb much faster than the 500gb model? Something with the platters?
 
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