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First time builder needing advise

M

Mattyb08

n00b
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
16
1) What will you be doing with this PC?
gaming, using as a video/ music player, some 3d rendering

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
no specific dollar amount, but i am on a very tight budget, but i'm willing to pay for what I want

3) Where do you live?
Fargo, nd

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
I have a laptop, so literally everything, i'd like some suggestions on a wireless keyboard/mouse, monitor, and some decent but affordable 2.1 speakers also

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Nothing

6) Will you be overclocking?
I never have before, but i definitely would like to

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? I would like suggestions i'm thinking around the 22in range. I would like hdmi, but not if there is a large price difference. From what i've been reading response time doesn't matter so much, so i'd just like a good performing one

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Buying parts slowly over the next couple months(i don't want to see my bank account take that kind of hit all at once haha)
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
not interested in raid, single gpu is fine

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
I have a legit key for windows 7(thank you college :D)


Case:
Nothing fancy, I was thinking Antec 300

PSU: No idea what size I need or good brands

MOBO: Again, very open to suggestions on this

CPU: i7 920

Cooler: Fan thats not crazy expensive

Ram: this looks like a pretty good deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365

Hard drive: not interested in SSD, not sure whats good now for a good primary one, but i was thinking a western digital green for media storage

GPU: I don't need a top of the line one, i'd like a good bang for the buck

I was planning on buying off from newegg, but i will shop elseware if the price is right
 
Mattyb08 said:
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
no specific dollar amount, but i am on a very tight budget, but i'm willing to pay for what I want

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Buying parts slowly over the next couple months(i don't want to see my bank account take that kind of hit all at once haha)
Click to expand...

Ok these two responses are troublesome:

- If you're on a very tight budget please tell us the limit of that budget. We need to know your limit. Otherwise, some of the more loopy people here are gonna start recommneding $3000 builds for no reason.

- Don't buy parts slowly over time UNLESS there's an extremely awesome deal. Trust me, you're gonna end up spending MORE money when you buy parts/build a PC over time as well as getting inferior parts as some parts will be overpriced, outdated, out of stock, or out performed within two months. Especially the prices of RAM and GPU. So in other words, wait until you can buy everything at once and then buy. It RARELY works out when you buy parts over time.
 
OK here's what I'm looking at so far, more than likely it will be within the next month, and besides gpus the prices don't really change that much within a few month timespan. Also i was just reading about the 920 possibly being replaced soon? does anyone know any more info on that?


LG dvd burner: 23.99
Antec 300: 59.99
WD6401AALS 74.99
WD10EARS 89.99
OCZ Gold (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600: 149.99- 20mir
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R: 188.99- 15 mir
i7920: 288.99
Total so far: 876.96

Monitor: 200 range?
PSU depends on what size i need
Keyboard/speakers/mouse could i get something decent for 100 total?
Cooler not quite sure what i need to spend, don't need top of the line
GPU I don't know, where is the 150 range going to put me?

Yeah so thats what I'm thinking so far anyway
 
Get the Samsung F3 500 gb $55 (Fastest HD short of a velociraptor)
Get Gskill 1600 runs 149.99 at newegg - 159.99
For the PSU you can get the Neo 620 in a combo with the Antec300
Coolermaster 212plus for the Heatsink cooler
The 5770 is the gpu in that range
 
Mattyb08 said:
OK here's what I'm looking at so far, more than likely it will be within the next month, and besides gpus the prices don't really change that much within a few month timespan. Also i was just reading about the 920 possibly being replaced soon? does anyone know any more info on that?
Click to expand...

You're also forgetting availability as well. There are some parts available today that weren't available two months ago (i.e the mobo and the HDD I'm about to recommend). And prices for RAM has changed a bit over the past two months. Also note the prices of PSUs also vary quite as well. The i7 930 will replace the i7 920 around mid Feb to late March according to curernt rumors.

Oh and the X58-UD3R is a piss poor choice for a motherboard since it defeats one of the main reasons to go with a X58 chipset/LGA 1366 CPU in the first place: The capability to use 12GB of RAM using 6 sticks for a relatively cheap price. The X58-UD3R only has 4 RAM slots. Go for the updated version for $12 more which has 6 RAM slots, USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s:
$210 - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 ATX Motherboard

HDD wise, the Samsung F3 500GB and the Samsung F3 1TB outperforms the WD 640GB Black:
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$90 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

GPU wise, the $150 range pretty much gets you into the HD 5770 range in a month or two or the HD 5750 range if buying right now
 
Danny Bui said:
You're also forgetting availability as well. There are some parts available today that weren't available two months ago (i.e the mobo and the HDD I'm about to recommend). And prices for RAM has changed a bit over the past two months. Also note the prices of PSUs also vary quite as well. The i7 930 will replace the i7 920 around mid Feb to late March according to curernt rumors.

Oh and the X58-UD3R is a piss poor choice for a motherboard since it defeats one of the main reasons to go with a X58 chipset/LGA 1366 CPU in the first place: The capability to use 12GB of RAM using 6 sticks for a relatively cheap price. The X58-UD3R only has 4 RAM slots.
Click to expand...

OK thats fair enough, and about the motherboard......shit.... i've looked at so many i didn't even think to look at how many slots were in it, i agree with you completely on that, and i also forgot about usb 3.0 which i also want. Is the 930 supposed to be a lot better?
 
Mattyb08 said:
OK thats fair enough, and about the motherboard......shit.... i've looked at so many i didn't even think to look at how many slots were in it, i agree with you completely on that, and i also forgot about usb 3.0 which i also want. Is the 930 supposed to be a lot better?
Click to expand...

The i7 930 is only clocked about 133Mhz faster than the i7 920 due to the one extra multiplier. So in other words, not really. It only exist because Intel released the i7 860 clocked at 2.8Ghz which made many who went with the i7 920 CPU clocked at 2.66Ghz/X58 chipset a bit miffed. The release of the i7 930 is solely to make choosing between the Core i7/P55 and Core i7/X58 slightly easier now that they will both have CPUs clocked the same.
 
Danny Bui said:
The i7 930 is only clocked about 133Mhz faster than the i7 920 due to the one extra multiplier. So in other words, not really. It only exist because Intel released the i7 860 clocked at 2.8Ghz which made many who went with the i7 920 CPU clocked at 2.66Ghz/X58 chipset a bit miffed. The release of the i7 930 is solely to make choosing between the Core i7/P55 and Core i7/X58 slightly easier now that they will both have CPUs clocked the same.
Click to expand...

OK so its basically the exact same chip, but it comes overclocked 133mhz from the start?
 
Mattyb08 said:
OK so its basically the exact same chip, but it comes overclocked 133mhz from the start?
Click to expand...

Not exactly OC'd. More like the i7 930 has a CPU multiplier of 21 whereas the i7 920 has a CPU multiplier of 20. Hence the 133Mhz difference.
 
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