Advice for New Build

[layzie]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? Mainly gaming and a bit of work
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $1000 but willing to budge
3) Where do you live? San Francisco
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
I will be needing the following:
Motherboard
Ram
CPU (2500k/2600k?)
CPU cooler
SSD
Computer Case (Thinking antec 193? But maybe it's too big. Something sleek and not overly sized like the antec 900, if not I will just get 193)

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
Corsair HX620 - is this enough?
ATI 5870
X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro
Seagate ST31000340AS 1TB
2 tb hd samsung spinpoint f4

6) Will you be overclocking? No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22 inch dualed with a 17 (need to upgrade this, but will later)
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within a week

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video?
USB 3.0 would be cool just to stay up to date with technology.
Firewire

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, windows 7 64 bit.

I am looking to make the purchase for the pieces within the next few days, so any tips/advice will be greatly appreciated. My 8800gt burned out and it totally screwed up my computer. Might as well upgrade the whole thing right?

 

[Dangman]

Since you live in California, I recommend buying as much of your parts from Amazon.com proper as possible as Amazon.com proper does not charge tax to CA residents whereas Newegg does. When I say "proper" I mean that the parts must be sold by Amazon.com itself, not through one of its affiliates/partners

Now to get the parts:
- Regarding the motherboard and CPU, just want to make sure of one thing: Are you absolutely 100% sure that you will not be overclocking? The answer to that question is very important as it's gonna dictate which CPU and motherboard type you should get.

- HSF wise, I recommend this HSF:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156

- I recommend this RAM:
$40 - Patriot PSD34G13332 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM

- SSD wise, I'd go with the Crucial C300 64GB:
$120 - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SSD

- Yes your current 620HX will be enough

- Case wise, the P193 is a poor poor choice for the money. There are significantly better quality cases for around the P193's price range. My first recomendation for a case would be this:
$110 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case

Sleek and very quiet. However if that case doesn't do it for you, some other cases to consider:

$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$90 - NZXT Tempest Evo TEVO-001BK ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$106 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$165 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$220 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$220 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$220 - Lian Li PC-A71F Black ATX Case
$290 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
Retired cases:

 

[tonytnnt]

- I recommend this RAM:
$40 - Patriot PSD34G13332 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM

This is a 4GB stick btw, not 2.

 

[layzie]

Thanks Danny for the quick turnaround in terms of providing advice.

For overclocking - it is not something I feel comfortable doing and I am fine just leaving the computer stock. Any from here worth it?
MB+CPUs

For ram - it seems standard nowadays to go 6 gb - 8 gb at least from the systems I've seen. Is it worth buying another stick of patriot to go 8?

I just saw this on the hot deals page for SSD Sandforce. Should I get this? Also in terms of installing the games - would it matter if I installed all my games on my 1tb/2tb drives? Would it be a major hinderance? Or maybe I should aim for trying to get a 120 gb SSD as my boot drive? Another option would be the velociraptor?

I really like the cases you linked me especially the fractal design one. I think I might get that one.

 

[tiraides]

People are going to tell you that overclocking is worth it, but if you don't want to do it, then don't do it. Having said that, if you're avoiding the overclocking route, then you don't need the more expensive i5-2500k (get the "plain" i5-2500) and P67 motherboard (grab an H67 board instead, which is a bit cheaper).

We're recommending 8GB of RAM only because it's very cheap. But 8GB isn't really needed for gaming. Go ahead and grab two sticks of the RAM that Danny Bui is recomending.

We don't normally recommend Sandforce SSDs because their real-world performance doesn't match what was advertised.

 

[tonytnnt]

For overclocking - it is not something I feel comfortable doing and I am fine just leaving the computer stock. Any from here worth it?
MB+CPUs

For ram - it seems standard nowadays to go 6 gb - 8 gb at least from the systems I've seen. Is it worth buying another stick of patriot to go 8?

I think the reason Danny is asking if you're 100% sure that you won't be overclocking is because only certain Intel chips can overclock, and you usually pay a small price premium for them. All of the combos in that other post are overclockable combos, and you can probably get a non-overclockable combo for less. With your $1000 budget though it might not be a huge deal.

As for getting 8 GB of RAM, a lot of games are still 32 bit (and therefore can't use over 4 GB), and those that are 64 bit don't generally require over 4 GB. However, if you have money left over in your budget, or if you find a great sale price, go for it -- it certainly won't hurt.

 

[layzie]

Well, I actually don't mind paying a slight premium for overclocking. But I'm 80% sure I won't be overclocking. If it doesn't require any additional cooling, etc, I won't mind messing around with it.

For the CPU, would it be better to get an i7 to stay up to date so I don't have to upgrade sooner down the line? I guess I have to research the difference between an i7/i5.

 

[Dangman]

Well, I actually don't mind paying a slight premium for overclocking. But I'm 80% sure I won't be overclocking. If it doesn't require any additional cooling, etc, I won't mind messing around with it.

In that case, go for the Core i5 2500K then. Also none of those Cheif Value combos are worth it since you live in California. The CA tax will pretty much negate all the savings. Again, buy as many parts as possible from Amazon.com to avoid tax.

Go for this mobo:
$145 - Asus P8P87 LE Intel P67 ATX Motherboard

For the CPU, would it be better to get an i7 to stay up to date so I don't have to upgrade sooner down the line? I guess I have to research the difference between an i7/i5.

Stick with the Core i5 2500K since games do not take advantage of HT that well. HT is pretty much the biggest difference between the i7 and i5 CPUs.

Other notes:
- Don't bother Velociraptor drives.
- Installing your games on the 1TB or 2TB drives will be fine and not a major hinderance.

 

[layzie]

Okay, cool good to know. What are your thoughts on the SSD deal?

 

[Dangman]

Okay, cool good to know. What are your thoughts on the SSD deal?

Exactly what tiraides said: I don't recommend current Sandforce SSDs at all since their real world performance is significantly lower than stated specs.

 

[layzie]

Sorry, totally missed that part of what tiraides said. Hard to read on a VGA 8 bit color resolution right now. Will start looking at places to buy these parts. Thanks! I guess I would also have to buy an enclosure for the SSD.

Do you guys usually use the cables provided with the product, or use separate cables independently bought?

 

[Dangman]

Do you guys usually use the cables provided with the product, or use separate cables independently bought?

I use what's provided.

 

[layzie]

Great, thanks a lot for your help Danny!

 

[layzie]

How would you say these compare to the patriot listed above G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB

 

[E4g1e]

How would you say these compare to the patriot listed above G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB

Those G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series modules will cost less than the DDR3-1333 RAM Danny recommended if you use the promo code before Wednesday evening. However, since you are in California, the sales tax will completely wipe out the difference - and then some. As a result, even with the promo code, that RAM will still cost you a couple of dollars more than the two Patriot DDR3-1333 modules Danny suggested.

 

[layzie]

But performance wise, are those couple dollars (I'm guessing $3-4) worth the difference? According to the specs, it seems to be faster, but maybe I'm reading it wrong.

 

[tonytnnt]

But performance wise, are those couple dollars (I'm guessing $3-4) worth the difference? According to the specs, it seems to be faster, but maybe I'm reading it wrong.

The Ripjaws are capable of running at higher speeds than the Patriot memory. However, with a Core i5-2500k you'll usually only see performance gains of a couple percent from the faster memory.

 

[Dangman]

But performance wise, are those couple dollars (I'm guessing $3-4) worth the difference?

Nope.

 

[layzie]

Thanks again for all the advice. So I put together the computer, everything works great, when it runs.

The case is awesome, really love the suggestion Danny.

Anyhow, I've been running into a lot of problems with what I believe is the Asus motherboard, specifically USB losing power and random freezing every few minutes. I looked into this and it seems to be affecting a lot of people on this forum. It's been a pain and not something I think I want to deal with now. So I am looking into returning this motherboard and exchanging for a different motherboard, maybe from evga, msi or gigabyte. Do you guys have any suggestions as to which?

I found these to be of comparable options albeit a bit of a price difference.

MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67
Gigabyte P67A-UD4
EVGA p67 SLI

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tonytnnt]

Oh man, Im sorry to hear that. MSI's P67 motherboards have been pretty good this round. I'm very happy with my G45 board. The only problem is that they seem to not like some memory modules that have timings faster than CL9. What RAM did you end up getting?

 

[layzie]

I got the patriot ones listed above. I am guessing that should be fine right?

I also realized I need an IDE connector for my DVD drives (not exactly positive, just always connected it as IDE or does it have both?). Guessing will have to switch to an SATA DVD drive. Suggestions welcome!

 

[tonytnnt]

The Patriot memory you listed is CL9 at 1333 MHz according to Patriot's website, so you should be fine with any of the MSI motherboards.

I can't recommend that Gigabyte board for the money. A motherboard that is more in line with the Asus you originally picked out is this MSI P67A-G43 for $130. However it lacks Firewire, which you could fix by getting an addin card or by stepping up to the MSI P67A-G45 (which has Firewire) for $153 after 9.5% sales tax at Newegg. Note that both of these boards lack eSATA (though the GD65 has 2 eSATA ports and a Firewire port.) I actually like these MSI boards a lot more than the current Asus offerings. They're cheaper, they seem to be working better, and they're cabable of running their PCIe x16 slots in an x8/x8 configuration rather than an x16/x4 configuration, which is helpful for SLI or Crossfire (higher end Asus boards can run in x8/x8 though.) However, they all lack an IDE port for your DVD drive. You'll have to either purchase a SATA DVD burner for about $20 (be sure to use promo code EMCKFKC38 for free shipping -- I checked Amazon but Newegg is cheaper even with 9.5% taxes) or an addin card. If you decide to go with the GD-65, Amazon is about $1 cheaper than Newegg if you take taxes and shipping into account.

Based on your original post's Firewire requirement, I would go with the MSI P67A-G45 and the Samsung DVD burner, both purchased from Newegg. However, if you can live without Firewire, get the MSI P67A-G43 from Amazon and either the above DVD drive from Newegg, or this one from Amazon.

 

[layzie]

Tonytnnt,

I really appreciate the quick follow-up. Being at work, it is a bit harder to navigate through everything currently, so outlining everything was very helpful! I went with the G65, figured I might need the extra SATA ports. I also bought that samsung DVD burner from Newegg. I'm hoping that this install goes without any hitches! I ordered the G65 from newegg, using 1.5% cashback from fatwallet and got the shoprunner 2 day shipping deal. Came out to about $194ish.