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First Computer Build - Programming and Gaming

N

nikkos

n00b
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
5
Hey Everyone,

I'm building a computer to do a lot of things. I want to be able to have multiple OS's (Vista, Leopard, Linux, Solaris, and maybe a couple others). I'm a Computer Science major and I want to be able to do just about any kind of programming so I want to be able to run Visual Studio and other programming environments. I also plan on using it for gaming. It doesn't have to be ridiculously amazing for games, but just able to play most games pretty decently. Its ok if the new Crysis cant run at max graphics but I want to be able to play WoW, COD, Oblivion 4, and Fallout 3 with nice graphics and with a nice Frame Per Second rate. The biggest reason I'm building this computer is to be able to try any kind of program out there regardless of things like the OS. I don't want to be limited in any way unless absolutely necessary. The main focus is to learn and experiment with programming and a little hacking, and also play some games.

Budget: $1000 willing to go a little over but not by too much, so far what I have picked out is less than 850 with shipping.

Location: I live in a suburb of Chicago which is where I'm going to be building it, but in august I'm taking it to Indiana for the school year.

Parts I need: I really want a fast processor, quad core to be able to have many applications running at the same time, I want a decent graphics card for gaming, and at least 4G RAM. I think it would be really cool to put everything inside a clear acrylic case even though the case has bad reviews but I am willing to go with a more reliable case.

I will not be reusing any parts.

I would like to overclock a little, although I'm not sure when/why, i just want to get as much out of my computer as possible.

Right now I'm going to be using a 19" monitor, but there is a very good chance I will be upgrading to a 22"-23" monitor in the next 6 months.

I plan on ordering parts this coming Friday as soon as I cash my paycheck.

Motherboard: I want to be able to add another hard drive and more RAM later on, but I will not be using multiple screens so I don't think I will need multiple graphics cards.

I don't have any OS's at the moment, but I get good deals for windows and mac (OS) through my school so I'm not looking to buy those anywhere else and those are not included in my budget.

Also excluded from the budget: Keyboard, mouse, and monitor, along with all the OS's

So far this is everything I have picked out on Newegg.com:

CD/DVD Drive:
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model SH-S222A - OEM

CASE: (this i am willing to change if it doesn't work with the parts, i just thought it was cool)
Sunbeam ACIII-T Transparent Clear Acrylic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

HARD DRIVE:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM

POWER SUPPLY:
Rosewill RP550V2-D-SL 550W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - Retail

RAM:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail

MOTHERBOARD:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

80mm FANS:
MASSCOOL FD08025S1M4 80mm Case Fan - Retail (6 of them, which comes to about 10$)

-Now I found a cool deal with the processor I want to get and a good graphics card which saves me a decent amount, and the graphics card comes with 2 gifts, Terminator Salvation and COD (both of which are very appealing to me)

PROCESSOR:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 - Retail

GRAPHICS CARD:
EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI ... - Retail

That's everything! I know its a long post but any comments are very much appreciated. Right now the total sits at $826 with shipping.

One last thing: I will be living in a fraternity next year, so if anyone knows of any good ways to secure my tower with like a lock or something. I just want to make it so that someone can't just pick it up and walk out with it. Not trying to defend against a chainsaw or anything though.

Thanks in advance to everyone!

-Nikkos
 
you wont be limited "in any way" with programming even if you stick with Windows only, between Visual Studio, Oracle's development tools, Eclipse Platform, and trusty Notepad, you're pretty much able to tackle anything your major will require of you (and your professors will tell you exactly what they expect you to have, use, and so on)

Solaris vs Linux won't gain you a thing, same for OS X, BSD, etc, it'll just give you a POSIX environment -> you lose all of Visual Studio and .NET support but gain vi/nano


I would get a different PSU, capacity and brand, given the rest of your hardware (not knocking rosewill, just doubt that unit will handle this entire thing)


runing OS X on non-Apple hardware is a violation of the DMCA, given that piracy is not advocated on these boards, I'm guessing that fits into that realm as well (you're breaking a few apple copyright laws and violating their EULA/TOS agreements), also for grins, your pricing on windows probably isn't much better than OEM via newegg/ZZF/CDW

all of those games will do fine with your hardware choices (your hardware is overkill for everything except Fallout 3, and even there, its a bit much)

I would ditch the 80mm fans, if the noise doesn't drive you mad, it will drive a roommate mad

physical security, you can put a chain around the computer and hook that to the desk/radiator/floor/etc, fairly simple to do

and just a final nitpick:
its The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, not "Oblivion 4"
 
I don't have enough time right now (but I will try later tonight) to thoroughly answer your questions, but offhand:

1) I'd go for an i7 920 setup with 6GB DDR3.

2) If you're programming, as a first-timer I wouldn't overclock with that machine until you have the hang of truly stability/error-checking your overclocks with Prime/Linx/Memtest/etc. It needs to be extremely "stable" for programming or you could end up with broken programs due to errors not of your own fault in the code.

3) Get a quality PSU... make sure you do a little homework on reputable sites such as HardOCP's PSU reviews, Jonnyguru, etc. that really test them thoroughly. Generally most of the Corsair lines are good, especially the TX/HX models from 520-850w. It's worth the cash.

4) I would go for a normal-clocked GTX 260 216 if you are going for that, since they can be had for $130-150 generally instead of the $200-ish card you linked of the same kind. EVGA is a good brand pick though.
 
COOLER MASTER RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail and COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Combo $160

MSI X58M LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail and MSI N260GTX-T2D896-OCv3 GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $335

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail $280

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM and OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail Combo $168

LG 22X DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model GH22LS50 LightScribe Support - OEM $28

COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail $30

Total before S&H $1001

I know it is $200 over your current budget but it would give you the best long term value for your money.
 
Awesome, thanks for the posts, I'll look into those parts, especially cause long term is something I'm considering
 
I recommend a Core i7 920 with at least 8 (if not 12) gigs of RAM. Such a setup will allow you to exploit a high-speed VM approach to running multiple OSes for development/test-bed purposes. Assuming you do all of your gaming in Windows, Virtualization has many advantages over dual booting. It's much more flexible, much easier to manage, and it gives you the ability to run multiple OSes at once. While a Core 2 Quad is no slouch at virtualization, the Core i7 screams with VMs. It's as if Virtualization and the i7 were made for each other (and in fact, they were.)
 
Hey I know this is a different topic, but should I go with FedEx shipping over UPS?

It will cost me 100$ more to go with FedEx than UPS for 3-day delivery, but if there's a much better chance that my parts won't be damaged I'm considering it.

If there is any place on these forums where people have talked about this I'll just check it out, otherwise I was wondering if people could give me some feedback, from what I have read so far, it seems it might be better to go with FedEx.

Thanks,

Nikkos

PS: i'll remove this if there is a thread already on shipping
 
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