Cheap Build, eTailer bought.

M

Maplehamwich

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
1,539
Looking for advice on a build,

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Will be Gaming, Using the Adobe Creative Suite, and general Web/Word processing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Hoping to stay between $500-600 CAD.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Live in Alberta Canada. Some Canadian eTailers are MemoryExpress, Newegg.ca, NCIX and Tiger Direct. Could do American, but import fee's boost prices quick.
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.
Looking for CPU, MB, Ram, PSU, GPU, Keyboard, Case, HDD (Don't need a lot of HDD space. Could Max at 300gb as I have a 2TB network drive.)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Mouse and Monitor
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1680x1050, 21"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
By August 2012.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? etc.
Hoping for SLI for future gaming performance, when the rig starts to age. Overclocking features. General expandability and future-proofness. HD Audio Output. Fast networking speeds. As many USB inputs as possible (3.0?).
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, W7 64.
 
If you're planning on waiting until August to build this computer, please check back in July or so for build advice, as it will probably have changed by then.
 
There is an encore boxing day sale at a local retailer that I am considering, this friday. They have an i5-2500k, Gigabyte GA Z68X UD3H B3 and Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600mhz Kit for $309.99 CAD.

So I was considering jumping on that. Anything comparative? Should I wait for Ivy Bridge to come out for cheaper Sandy, or will it decrease?
 
More than likely, the IB release will have minimal impact on SB prices (if any at all) simply because it's Intel and SB chips will continue to sell. Look at things like the Q-6600 and the i7-920s and the markets/prices those chips still have.

EDIT: What you might have is a lot of people with 2500K's looking to make that minimal upgrade, but unless you're buying used, that won't really matter.
 
Right now it looks like Sandy Bridge prices won't be affected very much by the release of Ivy. The deal you listed is pretty good, however, would you be able to build it immediately if you bought now?
 
Yep, if the deal is good enough, I'm willing to buy that now and hunt for a cheap video card, case, PSU, HDD and keyboard.

With the video cards, I'm willing to go cheaper/less performance now with an eye to upgrade single in a few years and possibly up to SLI/Crossfire after that as performance decreases relative to application. I'll likely not be updating my monitor any time soon, probably not even the next few years.

I was hoping for a mechanical keyboard for better gaming experience, but willing to go cheapo as core components make more sense on a tight budget.
 
Any opinions on the Motherboard and RAM? That sale is tonight and I am still trying to decide if I should go for it.
From what I have read the board has just about everything I want, but I'm not sure about it's overclockability or Gigabyte's reputation amongst enthusiasts. I'm partial to ASUS.

I really have no idea about RAM.
 
Gigabyte's a pretty good brand, no reason not to go for it, and it will overclock decently well. For RAM, corsair Vengeance is fine, just keep an eye out for clearance issues if you plan on getting an aftermarket HSF. In general, any Corsair, Kingston, G.Skill, etc ram are fine as long as they are DDR3, Dual Channel, and under 1.5V.
 
Well, sale came and went without me be able to snatch a deal. The next day of the sale I decided to check things out just in case, and found they were adding new stock throughout the day. So I ended up panicking and getting this setup.

Zalman Z9 Plus Case w/ Fan Controller
ILC: 823884201888 SKU: MX31654
$49.99 - $10.00 MIR

Patriot Gamer 2 Series, Division 2 Edition DDR3 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-12800 Enhanced Latency Kit
ILC: 815530011002 SKU: MX32035
$34.99

Corsair Builder Series CX500 V2 Power Supply
ILC: 843591011457 SKU: MX32938
$39.99

Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200rpm SATA III w/ 16MB Cache
ILC: ST500DM002 SKU: MX35469
$79.99

Core™ i7-2600K Processor Bundle w/ Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherb
$449.99

HIS Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
ILC: 4895139006322 SKU: MX35404
$144.99 - $35 MIR

Thoughts?
 
Maplehamwich said:
Patriot Gamer 2 Series, Division 2 Edition DDR3 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-12800 Enhanced Latency Kit
ILC: 815530011002 SKU: MX32035
$34.99
Click to expand...
Return this RAM unless you want a dead CPU. That RAM is rated at 1.65V which is well above the max RAM voltage recommended for Intel CPUs. Find RAM rated at 1.5V or lower if you don't want a dead CPU.
Maplehamwich said:
Corsair Builder Series CX500 V2 Power Supply
ILC: 843591011457 SKU: MX32938
$39.99
Click to expand...
Go back and grab either an Antec High Current Gamer or Neo Eco5 20W PSUs, Seasonic 520W PSU, or the Corsair CX600. You're gonna need the extra power for the GPU swap in a sec.


Maplehamwich said:
Core™ i7-2600K Processor Bundle w/ Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherb
$449.99
Click to expand...
Unless you're doing a lot of video editing/rendering, that 2600K was a bit of a waste. You would have been fine with the 2500K.
Maplehamwich said:
HIS Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
ILC: 4895139006322 SKU: MX35404
$144.99 - $35 MIR
Click to expand...
Due to your usage, I would recommend a Nvidia card as its been shown that Adobe software can take advantage of Nvidia's CUDA tech. See if you can get a GTX 560 instead.
 
Danny Bui said:
Return this RAM unless you want a dead CPU. That RAM is rated at 1.65V which is well above the max RAM voltage recommended for Intel CPUs. Find RAM rated at 1.5V or lower if you don't want a dead CPU.

Go back and grab either an Antec High Current Gamer or Neo Eco5 20W PSUs, Seasonic 520W PSU, or the Corsair CX600. You're gonna need the extra power for the GPU swap in a sec.



Unless you're doing a lot of video editing/rendering, that 2600K was a bit of a waste. You would have been fine with the 2500K.

Due to your usage, I would recommend a Nvidia card as its been shown that Adobe software can take advantage of Nvidia's CUDA tech. See if you can get a GTX 560 instead.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of those recommendations. However, while the GTX 560 (non-Ti) would be fine with an i5-2500K, if the OP sticks with the i7-2600K, he should aim for a GTX 560 Ti or higher. However, the combination of the GTX 560 TI or higher plus an i7-2600K may need a good 650W to 750W PSU, especially when overclocking the CPU.
 
In that case, if the OP does stick with the 2600K and goes for the GTX 560 TI, I recommend grabbing the Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU.
 
Thanks for the heads up guys. I wasn't able to get a i5-2500k as it was sold out, and the i7-2600k kit seemed like a good enough deal that I'd be happy with it. So I'm sticking with the i7 but I'll take the other stuff into consideration!
 
Maplehamwich said:
Thanks for the heads up guys. I wasn't able to get a i5-2500k as it was sold out, and the i7-2600k kit seemed like a good enough deal that I'd be happy with it. So I'm sticking with the i7 but I'll take the other stuff into consideration!
Click to expand...

At least take the RAM recommendation: That's the part that's putting your PC in danger.
 
Ended up going quite a bit over my budget. But here's the build.

Zalman Z9 Plus Case w/ Fan Controller
Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200rpm SATA III w/ 16MB Cache
Core™ i7-2600K Processor
Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherboard
HIS Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
GSKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB PC3-12800 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 4GB)
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M Modular Power Supply
ThermalTake Challenger Gaming Keyboard, Black

All told it's ~850 after MIR.
 
I got all the components, put it together, booted it up. Everything was fine. I noticed the power cable was a little loose, so I pushed it in more and the system shut down. Now the power supply doesn't seem to deliver any power.

I'm guessing it was a Power supply failure. I'm hoping no other components were damaged. But if all I did was plug in the power supply more, I'm thinking they should be fine. There shouldn't have been any voltage spikes or anything right?

Any recommended hardware monitoring software that I could use to make sure the rest of my components are doing dandy?
 
Last edited:
Unplug and replug the PSU.

The stickied "Basic TroubleShooting Guide" has a ton of links to software for monitoring hardware.
 
The PSU had died.

System is all up and running and it's perfect. BF3 1680x1050 (Max Monitor Resolution) on Ultra and Photoshop is a dream!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top