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First Time Build!

J

Jojah17

n00b
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
12
Hey guys, self-professed lurker here looking at completing my first build. Thanks for any help in advance!

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming/Web Browsing/Using as a wired media server for my ps3
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600-$700
3) Where do you live?
Atlanta, GA (Fry's and Microcenter are closeish- however I do pay tax on newegg)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case/PSU/CPU/MOBO/GPU/RAM/HDD/Optical Drive (I know it says not to say everything but my current setup is a 7 year old P4)
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?
At this time no but I wouldn't mind the option for future proofing.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22-23"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next week
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
not a clue
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
No, would need an OS as well.


I'm open to any and all suggestions. The only idea I've been tossing around in my head is the $49 9800 GTX at Fry's. Is it worth it to pick up two of these to SLI? Granted I am most certainly a rookie in this department but I figure with the wealth of knowledge on these forums I could figure it out. Thanks again!
 
I can't suggest getting 2 9800 GTX as too cost of a powersupply which can run that. you could better off spending money on single GTX 460.
 
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This is where Danny Bui comes in to put together a build from Amazon to avoid the taxes.
 
Heh, I bet some of you guys were itchin to go on Hardforum but, couldn't. I sure was trying to every so many minutes. LoL. I thought was going to be down for only a few minutes?

Anyways, time for us to get back to work and pour out some of our guruness. Hehe
 
Which games are you considering playing? At what resolution? Which level of visual quality?

Do you have a monitor in mind?
 
Jojah17 said:
[/COLOR]3) Where do you live?
Atlanta, GA (Fry's and Microcenter are closeish- however I do pay tax on newegg)

....
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case/PSU/CPU/MOBO/GPU/RAM/HDD/Optical Drive (I know it says not to say everything but my current setup is a 7 year old P4)

....
I'm open to any and all suggestions. The only idea I've been tossing around in my head is the $49 9800 GTX at Fry's. Is it worth it to pick up two of these to SLI? Granted I am most certainly a rookie in this department but I figure with the wealth of knowledge on these forums I could figure it out. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
When did Newegg start charging tax for GA residents? Something new everyday.

Your answer was correct actually. Many people just answer "Everything" and that's too much of an open-ended answer.

Your budget is not enough consdering the parts that you need for 9800GTX SLI.

HardwareGuru said:
This is where Danny Bui comes in to put together a build from Amazon to avoid the taxes.
Click to expand...
Done and done:
$80 - AMD Athlon II X3 440 CPU
$150 - Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard + G.skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$115 - XFX HD-485X-ZNFC Radeon HD 4850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$45 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$20 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$50 - Corsair 400CX 400W PSU
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$120 - Hanns·G Black 19" DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
$100 - Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM
---
Total: $720 plus tax

HardwareGuru said:
Heh, I bet some of you guys were itchin to go on Hardforum but, couldn't. I sure was trying to every so many minutes. LoL. I thought was going to be down for only a few minutes?

Anyways, time for us to get back to work and pour out some of our guruness. Hehe
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had SC2 to keep my mind off the forum :D
 
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Wow, I am an idiot. You're totally right, Newegg doesn't charge tax in GA. I don't know why I thought they did. Sorry bout that.

As far as games/visual quality goes. I'd like to play SC2, TF2, L4D2, etc. My PS3 is still my primary gaming source but I'd like to have a PC that can handle most games at medium or better settings. I don't need a super screaming rig right now that can max out every game but I was hoping that I could build a decent platform that will be upgradeable and allow me to game for a couple years (as I learn and grow more comfortable w/ upgrading the hardware).

Also, I should've clarified that I don't need a monitor recommendation included in the budget. I was hoping to get the PC in around $600-$700 and then spend $175 on the peripherals I will need. If its easier to think about the package as a whole then my budget would be ~$875.

Thanks again for all the help!
 
Well then here's another build:
$300 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPu + ASUS CuCore Series EAH5770 CuCore/2DI/1GD5 HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$150 - Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard + G.skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$56 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$20 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$95 - Antec Neo Eco 620C 620W PSU + Antec VSK-2000 ATX Case
$100 - Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM
$120 - Acer G205HBbd Black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
---
$841 plus tax and shipping.

Do note that the above combo deals disappears on August 1st. So if you missed those combo deals, come back and post again and we'll setup another build for ya using August combo deals.
 
That build looks to be right around where I would like to be....I guess the inevitable question now is: do you think there will be better deals for August? Thanks for all the help.
 
Jojah17 said:
I guess the inevitable question now is: do you think there will be better deals for August?
Click to expand...

I can't say. The combo deals are pretty varied. There might be a better deal or two or they might be crappier.
 
Okay, quick update: went out of town Friday afternoon and missed out on all the combo deals from last month. However, I did acquire these parts (for about $50 after MIR):
PSU: Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Case: SILVERSTONE PS05-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Tool-less Installation Design Computer Case

That leaves me with Ram, GPU, CPU, MOBO, HDD, and Optical still to acquire. Thoughts on the above parts? Suggestions? Would love to spend about $700 on the rest now. Thanks in advance!
 
Since you are using your computer as a media server, 500GB might be short, depending on the size of your media library.
There is a combo that replaces all of Danny's 3 first options except for the video card for $6 less, video card included. All components have better specs except the CPU (-0.2MHz.)

$360 mega combo:
- CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz 4-core
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX
- RAM: OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1600
- Hard disk: Western Digital Caviar Green 750GB SATA II 3Gb/s

$140: Video card: ASUS CuCore Series EAH5770 CuCore/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 5770 1GB

I'll let you check if the prices on the other components have changed.
Check also if you need blu-ray. If you plan to, it can easily be added later. It's over your current budget.
And if you have a digital camera or camcorder, an internal multi-card reader makes your rig really multimedia.
The one on newegg and that I have is $30, I'm pretty sure there are cheaper options.

You didn't mention keyboard, mouse, and speakers in your first post.
 
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Chimel that combo you linked isn't the right one, but I do know the one you are talking about. While the motherboard and CPU are good, I would scrap the HDD and the Ram. The HDD is a green, thusly 5400rpm, and because the 500gb that Danny suggested is a single platter 7200rpm drive it is much faster. I would avoid any HDD that isn't 500gb or 1TB. Most of the 500GB/1TB drives we all suggest here are 500gb platters.
 
Oops, fixed, thanks Shadowssong.
Yeah, the disk is not my favorite either, and it's SATA II, but that's what is in the deal.
Combos are all about compromise, the earlier 500GB disk was also not satisfactory to me.

I understand there is quite a difference between 7,200 and 5,400 rpm, but I didn't think the difference between single platter and dual/triple platter disks would be important for a home user doing gaming, browsing and managing a media library. Is there really such a big performance loss?

For my curiosity, why would you drop the faster RAM? Are OCZ memory chips not reliable?
 
Chimel said:
I understand there is quite a difference between 7,200 and 5,400 rpm, but I didn't think the difference between single platter and dual/triple platter disks would be important for a home user doing gaming, browsing and managing a media library. Is there really such a big performance loss?

For my curiosity, why would you drop the faster RAM? Are OCZ memory chips not reliable?
Click to expand...

The number of platters for a given capacity directly impacts the sequential (physical) transfer rate. A 500GB drive with a single platter often transfers at greater than 125 MB/s on the outer tracks while a drive of the same capacity but with three platters will struggle to even reach 70 MB/s on the outer tracks. And that's not to mention that the more platters that a drive has, the hotter (temperature-wise) it will run generally. And heat is one of the biggest killers of electronics. And yes, a 5400 rpm hard drive with 500GB platters will perform at about the same physical transfer rate as a 7200 rpm hard drive with 320GB platters. (For the record, that 750GB WD Green uses two 375GB platters, which perform at about the same level as a 7200 rpm hard drive that uses 250GB platters - in other words, it will top out in the 90-ish MB/s on the outer tracks.)

And the reason why we are recommending "slower" RAM is due not only to the official AMD specs (DDR3-1333 is the fastest officially supported RAM speed on the Phenom II X4 CPUs), but also because the faster RAM is also a bit too expensive for virtually zero real-world performance improvement. Moreover, OCZ's quality control on its memory products has been relatively spotty compared to that of other brands.
 
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Chimel said:
For my curiosity, why would you drop the faster RAM? Are OCZ memory chips not reliable?
Click to expand...

check out the data storage forum.. there is a 10 page thread about OCZ's warranty & some of there not so hot practices..

I personally have never had a problem with an OCZ product, but I don't want to deal with any brand name that doesn't consistently keep there name good across everything they do.. Thus OCZ's crap ass PSUs will keep me from buying OCZ ram or SSD's
 
Wow that discussion is wayyy over my head. How do you tell if an HDD is a single platter or not? I think I understand the concept but don't know how you tell...

Any thoughts on these deals:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials...aign=E0883 eNews 20100803&utm_source=ACT_BYO&


I was considering the Phenom X2 955 BE or the Athlon X4 635. Possibly the Phenom X4 965 BE. All coupled with the 785G-E53 ATX board.

Anybody got any insight about those deals?
 
Yeah, I also think that's too much masturbating...
Both the Seagate XT and Western Digital Black 2TB drives have 138MB/s of sustained data transfer, better than the 1TB or 500GB models, and as for the increased heat, HDDs actually work better at higher temperatures according to Google's study of its own datacenters, plus both disks are backed by a 5-year warranty.

From a consumer's perspective, these disks are better than the single or two platters versions in all respects. Even the difference of areal density on the same 500GB platters between the XT (329 Gb/in²) and the WD (400 Gb/in²) does not translate into a faster transfer rate. These potential platter issues seem to have been addressed by the manufacturers, no doubt in part thanks to the feedback from this forum.

A bigger concern to me is the 50MB/s drop when the disk reaches 90%+ of usage, but that's valid for all disks, regardless of the platters. The WD VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 600GB has 3 platters and even so is the fastest SATA drive on the market. Probably the most costly too.

About the DDR3-1600 RAM, it's only about $10 extra for 4GB, and it's really nothing compared to all the DDR3-1800 or DDR3-2000 beasts that you can find on newegg. DDR3-1600 gives you a slightly better advantage for over-clocking too. Anyway, that's just what was in the combo deal.
 
Jojah17 said:
Wow that discussion is wayyy over my head. How do you tell if an HDD is a single platter or not? I think I understand the concept but don't know how you tell...

Any thoughts on these deals:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials...aign=E0883 eNews 20100803&utm_source=ACT_BYO&


I was considering the Phenom X2 955 BE or the Athlon X4 635. Possibly the Phenom X4 965 BE. All coupled with the 785G-E53 ATX board.

Anybody got any insight about those deals?
Click to expand...

I picked up the 1055t and MSI board for $209. Hell of a deal if you ask me. From all of the reading I've been doing, the 6 cores will scale well when overclocked.

If you plan on going to MC and overclocking, pick up a Cooler Master Hyper 212 while you're there. $20 less than Newegg and its supposed to be beastly.
 
Alright guys so here's where I'm at (decided to go a bit cheaper on the build than originally planned but hopefully left myself room for upgrades:

Case:SILVERSTONE PS05-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Tool-less Installation Design Computer Case
PSU:pSU: Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Total: $50 (After MIR)
OS: Windows 7 64 Bit ($85)
Optical: ASUS Black 24X DVD+R ($20)
CPU: Phenom x2 555 BE
MOBO: MSI 785G-E53 ATX
Total: $117 (After MIR)

Have some Amazon credit lying around so I was considering this monitor:
http://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-201...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1281113769&sr=8-2

Thoughts on the monitor? Potential issues? Better deals?

I still need ram, hdd, and a gpu...any good combos out there that would match the current state of my build? Thanks so much for all the help- this site is an incredible resource.
 
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Yeah go with the same RAM and HDD that I linked back in my first post in this thread. That HDD doesn't come with decent combo deals but is still one of the best consumer class drives out there.

GPU wise, go with either the $160 HD 5770 1GB or GTX 460 1GB depending on how much of your budget is left.
 
Jojah17 said:
Any thoughts on that monitor?
Click to expand...

To me, 1920x1080 on a 22" seems a tad cramped. Better on a 23" or 24" IMO. Yes that's only an 1-2 inch difference but it's a big difference IMO.
 
Getting close, just added the :
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive ($45-amazon)

Grand total is sitting at:
$317

Still searching for deals on Ram, GPU, and/or Monitor. Going out of town for all next week so I can take my time and try and sniff out some deals.

Danny, I am considering a 23/24 inch 1920x1080 monitor. How do you think this system will be able to handle that size/resolution? With a 5770 1GB? With a 460 1 GB? Was actually strongly considering this 460: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WUXNPO/ref=oss_product if that makes any difference. Thanks for all the help as always.
 
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Jojah17 said:
Danny, I am considering a 23/24 inch 1920x1080 monitor. How do you think this system will be able to handle that size/resolution? With a 5770 1GB? With a 460 1 GB? Was actually strongly considering this 460: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WUXNPO/ref=oss_product if that makes any difference. Thanks for all the help as always.
Click to expand...

The CPU should be enough for 1920x1080. GPU wise, the HD 5770 should be just fine with high settings with SC2. But for other games, more than likely you're looking at medium settings. I'd go for the GTX 460 1GB if you can.

More than likely stock of that video card will run out when it's actually fully released. Or the price will increase.
 
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Thanks Danny. In that case, im going to go with the original G. Skill Ram you posted.

Finally made up my mind about GPU and Monitor. Was tossing around the idea of 24" 1080p w/ a 460 but Im going to be reasonable (this being my first build and not gaming all that much) and go with a 22" and 5770.

Here's the monitor I like:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236050

As far as the 5770 goes whats the best option? I've heard alot of conflicting points of view. Im thinking the Sapphire Vapor-X ($140 after MIR) seems like great price/performance ratio. I know XFX has the double lifetime warranty but I don't think I'll be re-selling so it doesn't seem worth it. After awhile, the ability to OC the card a bit does seem appealing. Anybody have any opinions? Thanks!
 
Jojah17 said:
As far as the 5770 goes whats the best option? I've heard alot of conflicting points of view. Im thinking the Sapphire Vapor-X ($140 after MIR) seems like great price/performance ratio. I know XFX has the double lifetime warranty but I don't think I'll be re-selling so it doesn't seem worth it. After awhile, the ability to OC the card a bit does seem appealing. Anybody have any opinions? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Just the lifetime warranty itself is enough for me to spend the extra cash for the XFX branded cards.
 
Done and done. Got back from vacation on Saturday evening and had the build completed by Sunday evening. Unfortunately, a bum optical drive kept me from installing my OS until last night but Fry's had the same drive for roughly the same price and Newegg is letting me return the DOA drive with free shipping and no restocking fee. Total cost ended up around $720 and will be about $680 after MIR's.

Had a blast and will definitely be upgrading/building more in the future. Thanks to everyone for the help.
 
No camera= no pics unfortunately. I do have a couple questions. I downloaded Core Temp but can only see Core #0 temps. In speed fan I see only 1 Core temp as well. Any reason I can't see the temps of the other core? Both cores are recognized in task mgr and CPU-Z. In Core Temp the temps ranged from 55-58 degrees when under 100% load from Prime95 blended test is that about normal for a stock HSF? Basically I am trying to figure out if its worth it to pursue unlocking on the stock HSF. Thanks!
 
Jojah17 said:
No camera= no pics unfortunately. I do have a couple questions. I downloaded Core Temp but can only see Core #0 temps. In speed fan I see only 1 Core temp as well. Any reason I can't see the temps of the other core? Both cores are recognized in task mgr and CPU-Z. In Core Temp the temps ranged from 55-58 degrees when under 100% load from Prime95 blended test is that about normal for a stock HSF? Basically I am trying to figure out if its worth it to pursue unlocking on the stock HSF. Thanks!
Click to expand...

No idea. Temps sound fine. Don't unlock.
 
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