• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Asking for help in building!

H

hauie9344

n00b
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
Messages
5
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
-Maya, Z-Brush, After Effects, photoshop, Video Streaming, maybe more gaming if PC can handle it

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
-$1000 before tax and shipping

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
-Savannah, GA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
"everything" lol
Motherboard
CPU
Case
PSU
RAM
Video/Graphics Card
Wireless Card
2 TB worth of storage
1 Large SSD
optical drive (dvd)
Keyboard & mouse
2 monitors
64-bit windows 7

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None

6) Will you be overclocking?
Not now, Dont think I need too

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Looking to buy 2 new monitors - 24” would be nice, nothing less then 20"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.

Several USB Ports (2.0 is fine)
firewire
SATA 6GB
large amounts of ram (4 sticks)

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No, need to buy – windows 7


I would be extremely appreciative of anyone who could inform me of what parts would give me the most bang for my buck. Thanks in advance.
 
Could you raise your budget significantly -- like, to around $1500 or $2000?

We could build you a complete system, including at least one monitor, for around $1000, but we would have to make some serious compromises. Off the top of my head, we'd have to buy only one monitor, omit the SSD, (possibly) buy a 1TB hard drive instead of a 2TB drive, and omit the video card for the time being.
 
Ok, one monitor will be fine for now. That is something I can easily add. Same with the SSD. As long as I have 1 or 2 TB of just hard drive space I should be good for now.

Also I dont need a keyboard or mice anymore. A buddy of mine told me he had extra. I know thats not a lot of money saving but its some.

I know I can always add more hard drives and Ram later. I just need to make sure that I get a good CPU and Motherboard.
I would like to go with intel, I know its more expensive but ya. I just dont know how good AMD really is. Also I didnt know if the intel i5 would be good enough or if I would have to get the i7?
 
i originally wanted to give you an intel i5 build but being that a mobo and cpu alone is $300+ it kind of foils the budget... that's a Six core AMD setup, It should be well more than enough to do what your planning.
I'll try to fix up a Intel list again but it more than likely gonna need a $1400-1500 budget
 
Here's an Intel-based build, but I had to make a few compromises:

$180 - ASUS VS239H-P 23" 1920x1080 IPS panel monitor
$245 - MSI Z77-G43 and Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM combo deal
$210 - Intel Core i5-3470 and Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS combo deal
$36 - G.Skill F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT 2x4GB DDR3 1333
$100 - Seagate Barracuda STBD2000101 2TB 7200 RPM HDD
$20 - Rosewill RNX-N250PC2 wireless PCI adapter
$13 - Vantec 4-Port FireWire 400 PCI Host Card
$60 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620 watt power supply
$3 - 6-foot AC power cable (for PSU)
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite ATX mid-tower case
=====
$897 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

First off, the compromises that I made were:
- No second monitor
- No video card -- the onboard graphics should be enough, but you can't play games
- No SSD
- The i5-3470 isn't as good for multi-threaded programs as a true hex-core or Core i7 processor

I don't know how well the i5-3470 will perform in multi-threaded programs. And I believe that Maya works better with a workstation graphics card than consumer video card. (The reason why I didn't include any video card in my build is because I consider a mid-range card like the HD 7850 or the GTX 660 Ti to be the bare minimum you need for this system. Your $1000 budget is very restrictive in that regard.)

In a perfect world, you'd replace the processor with either the i7-3770 or the i7-3770K, add a 256GB Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 SSD, and buy one of the aforementioned video cards to "round out" this build. Instead of 8GB of RAM, you'd also have 32GB via two 2x8GB kits.

Regardless of what you choose, you need to keep the monitor and operating system. Monitors using IPS panels offer greater viewing angles and more accurate color reproductions than cheaper monitors that use TN panels. (For best results, however, you should also consider buying a monitor calibration unit like the Datacolor Spyder4.) Windows 7 Home Premium is limited to 16GB of total RAM. In this case, you should stick with Windows 7 Professional.

Could you increase your budget some more? Could you reach one of the Micro Center locations in the Atlanta area?
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I know my budget sucks, but that is really all i am stuck with and what I might have to do is just do a rebuild in like 3 years and replace processor and motherboard and stuff.

But for now would the AMD FX6200 Zambezi 3.8GHz be better then the Intel Core i5-3550 or i5-3470? If so that is fine and then I would be able to spend more money on other things.

So if that would be better for my money then I guess just some builds using the AMD would be good.

Thanks for the advice on the computer monitors and the IPS.
 
either route you go with the 2 setups i provided will be on par with each other or close runnings.

you more than likely wont be finding much better deals, atleast not until newegg comes out with their mobo/cpu combos this month
 
hauie9344 said:
But for now would the AMD FX6200 Zambezi 3.8GHz be better then the Intel Core i5-3550 or i5-3470? If so that is fine and then I would be able to spend more money on other things.
Click to expand...

Nope, not a chance. Basically stick with Intel.
 
like danny said, stick with the intel build i configured for you, its actually cheaper some how and it is better performance
 
Ok. So I was wondering, if I brought my budget up some.

No Keyboard, No mice
No SSD

1 Monitor - IPS panels
1 TB Hard Drive
8 GB of ram - or do you think I need more??
MotherBoard
Video Card
Intel i-7 - just dont know which one?
Windows 7

So basically everything is the same with the other builds which kept me around $1000. Now I am wondering how much more would it cost for me to bump up to the i-7 for better performance? And what type of build are we looking at?
 
To meet your requirements, you'd have to spend roughly $300 more:

$316 - Intel Core i7-3770 and LG GH24NS90B DVD Burner Combo
$245 - MSI Z77-G43 and Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM combo deal
$75 - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL 2 x 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$132 - MSI R7770-2PMD1GD5 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$110 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
$120 - Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$57 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$30 - Asus PCE-N15 Wireless Adapter
$13 - Vantec 4-Port FireWire 400 PCI Host Card
$3 - 6-foot AC power cable (for PSU)
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite ATX mid-tower case
$180 - ASUS VS239H-P 23" 1920x1080 IPS panel monitor
=====
$1321 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

As you can telll, I started with Tiraide's build and upgraded it here and there. If you don't want to game at all, you could drop the video card and use the onboard. That'll make room for the SSD as well. Yes I included a SSD as that'll make a big difference in the performance of the PC. You definitely need more RAM as 16GB is just a starter. I included a better wifi card and better HDD compared to Tiraides' original choices due to the higher budget. You'll be able to upgrade to 32GB of RAM later on due to the above RAM setup and OS choice.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top