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Help building computer

T

trueromeo6

n00b
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
10
Need help ASAP please! Looking to build a new gaming computer from black friday and cyber monday deals. My budget is around 1200$ my old gaming PC is around 5 years old so i pretty much have to start from scratch. I dont know what is good out there for the money, the 2 processors i am looking at is either an Intel I7 4770 or an AMD 9370. I need a computer built with accessories for around 1200 using one of those 2 processors. Other specs i want (good video card) obviously , 8-16 gigs of ram (i will probably get 8 gigs to start 2x4 and have 2 channels free for another 8 later on), a SSD (120 gb is all i really need) and a good motherboard.

Please help me!

Thanks!
 
Please answer the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST!" so that we can help you better.

Also, why those two CPUs? They're not exactly good choices depending the situation. Also, did you really have to wait until the last minute to plan a new PC for BF and CM? That's just asking for trouble....
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Gaming and Videos

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

1200-1300 max

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

Albany NY

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.

Case, Ram, Processor, Fans, Motherboard, SSD HD, Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, Power supply

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?

I will be attempting to overclock yes

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

1920 x 1080

[/COLOR]8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

within the next 3 days

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)? UEFI? etc.

usb 3.0

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

64 bit windows 7


Now for your other 2 questions. I waited till now because I did not know about this site. My brother told me about it tonight, and those 2 processors seemed to be the best around for the money for my price range (if I am wrong there please correct me!) thanks!
 
Yeah both CPUs are definitely not good choices for your price range and needs. Since you're gaming, that pretty much means Intel is your best bet since they tend to outperform AMD CPUs in games. However, again, since you're only gaming, you don't really need the Core i7 4770 either since most games these days don't take advantage of the Core i7 4770's HT feature. Another reason why the 4770 is a bad choice for you is that you're planning on overclocking: The Core i7 4770 cannot be overclocked at all. You need Intel's K series CPUs to overclock. So that means the Core i5 4670K or the Core i7 4770K. For your needs, the Core i5 4670K will be fine.

A few more questions:

1) How long is the drive to these Microcenter locations for you?
http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/westbury.aspx
http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/yonkers.aspx

2) What games are you planning to play?

3) Which edition of Windows 7 do you have? Home Premium? Pro? Ultimate?
 
It is a decent drive, and the 4770k is actually on sale for 270 right now on newegg, so I was looking at that one.

Games playing:

League of Legends, Diablo 3, other mobas?

I also do alot of streaming videos and playing videos from my slave drives

I currently have windows 7 pro
 
How long will you be up for? I'm setting up a build list for you right now but it may require you to buy rather quickly.
 
I was going to go to sleep, but I can stay up for another hour or two. If that is not enough time, I can be awake in about 8 hours.
 
Nah, you'll be fine:
$280 - Intel Core i7-4770K CPU
$125 - Asus Z87-A Intel Z87 Motherboard
$72 - Crucial Ballistix BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$299 - XFX R9-280X-TDFD R9 280X 3GB PCI-E Video Card
$160 - Samsung 840 Evo Series 250GB SSD
$85 - Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$21 - LG GH24NS95B DVD Burner
$85 - Seasonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W Modular PSU
$60 - Corsair Hydro H60 Liquid Cooling System
----
Total: $1187 shipped

Choose your own case. I highly recommend the following cases:
$50 - Corsair Carbide Series 200R ATX Case
$75 - Corsair Carbide Series 300R ATX Case
$90 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK White Full Tower ATX Case
$100 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$110 - Antec 1100 ATX Case
$110 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black ATX Case
$125 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom 530 Black Full Tower ATX Case

Of the parts listed, the CPU, mobo, SSD, HDD, and liquid cooling system are actually on sale.
 
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Is there a comparable one with fans as opposed to liquid cooling? I have never dealt with a liquid cooling system so I do not know how to trouble shoot them at all. I like the CPU mother board and graphics card. I actually won't need the regular HDD i have a 2TB slave already so I was planning on installing that into the new PC when built. Do you recommend a mid or a full case?
 
Also is a 550 power supply going to be enough, or should I look into a 650 or 750 to be on the safe side?
 
trueromeo6 said:
Is there a comparable one with fans as opposed to liquid cooling? I have never dealt with a liquid cooling system so I do not know how to trouble shoot them at all.
Click to expand...
Go with this HSF then:
$60 - Thermaltake Frio Advanced HSF
trueromeo6 said:
Do you recommend a mid or a full case?
Click to expand...
I recommend both. Some full tower cases are worse than a mid-tower case and vice versa.
trueromeo6 said:
Also is a 550 power supply going to be enough, or should I look into a 650 or 750 to be on the safe side?
Click to expand...
You didn't mention any plans for Crossfire or SLI. So yes a 550W PSU will be enough. With that said, $15 more does get you a 650W PSU:
$100 - Seasonic G Series SSR-650RM 650W Modular PSU
 
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Ok, i have been working off of what you put together, and modifying slightly.

So far i have 3 items and it totals 789.

Ive got these selected

ASUS Z87-PRO (V EDITION) LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (I have a wireless card if I need to hook it up, but i am almost always hard wired in for LAN)

Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770K

XFX Black Edition Double D R9-280X-TDBD Radeon R9 280X 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

My next question is which ram do you prefer (100 budget range) for 8 gb. I know you selected the single stick for 74. Ive always run my ram in channels as opposed to single stick. Do you recommend 1x8gb over 2x4gb? and if so why? I know the gskills ripjaw series is on sale, but its also an older type of ram. Should I be looking into a new model of ram?

Thanks!
 
trueromeo6 said:
ASUS Z87-PRO (V EDITION) LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (I have a wireless card if I need to hook it up, but i am almost always hard wired in for LAN)
Click to expand...
Why did you get this motherboard (especially one that's newly released and therefore major bugs haven't been ID'd yet) over the Asus Z87-A I recommended earlier? In other words, what features did the Asus Z87-Pro have that justified the extra $55 for you?

trueromeo6 said:
My next question is which ram do you prefer (100 budget range) for 8 gb. I know you selected the single stick for 74. Ive always run my ram in channels as opposed to single stick. Do you recommend 1x8gb over 2x4gb? and if so why? I know the gskills ripjaw series is on sale, but its also an older type of ram. Should I be looking into a new model of ram?
Click to expand...
The performance increase from single to dual channel is 5% under the best of conditions. So the performance aspect of dual channel RAM is very negligible IMO. I try to recommend one 8GB stick of RAM as much as possible since it allows one to upgrade to 32GB of RAM without replacing any stick of RAM. Doesn't matter how old the RAM is as long as it's DDR3 and is rated at 1.5V. If you have no plans whatsoever to upgrade past 24GB of RAM and the 2 x 4GB set is $50 or so, then yeah, go for the 2 x 4GB set.

So I'm going to recommend the same RAM I recommended earlier.
 
Taking another look at the motherboard you recommended, I can find it on Newegg for 95 after MIR so I might opt for that one now, as I do not see why I chose the one I did over yours besides than the release date.

I need a 750 power supply for the video card

With the single stick of ram, if I get a second one, would I place it in the regular slot that I would normally run with dual? as in skip one, or do I place it right next to it?

And which of these cases do you recommend- one is a mid, the other is a full- I need to make sure that everything will fit inside of them

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

or

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced - High Air Flow Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0 and All-Black Interior
 
trueromeo6 said:
I need a 750 power supply for the video card
Click to expand...
No you don't. That 750W recommendation is a "cover your ass" measure by GPU manufacturers to account for the sheer number of shitty power supplies out there. You'll be fine with a 550W PSU.

trueromeo6 said:
With the single stick of ram, if I get a second one, would I place it in the regular slot that I would normally run with dual? as in skip one, or do I place it right next to it?
Click to expand...
The slot for dual.

trueromeo6 said:
And which of these cases do you recommend- one is a mid, the other is a full- I need to make sure that everything will fit inside of them

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

or

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced - High Air Flow Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0 and All-Black Interior
Click to expand...

I would not recommend either of those cases:
The Antec 900 is a rather cramped case with rather shitty cable management. The Antec 900 is a clear example of "just because it's popular, doesn't mean it's actually good." As for the HAF 932, it's better than the Antec 900 (well anything is better than shit) but the quality of the case is a bit lacking IMO compared to the other cases on my recommended case list. In addition, for a case listed as a "full tower", it's still rather cramped inside. Finally, it's just plain fugly to me.
 
This is what I ended up getting:

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

XFX Black Edition Double D R9-280X-TDBD Radeon R9 280X 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-S-B 750W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Bronze Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire Power Supply

ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770K

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0

LG Internal Super Multi Drive SATA Model GH24NSB0

Thermaltake CLP0596 130mm Frio Advanced CPU Cooler

Razer DeathAdder 2013 Ergonomic PC Gaming Mouse

What do you think?- I went with the 120 gig SSD as opposed to 240 because it's mostly going to have the operating system on it. I have the 2 TB slave
 
That PSU wasn't that good of a choice since it's a fairly old design now. I mean it's not shit but that was not a good buy at all. I highly recommend canceling the order and getting the Seasonic PSU I listed earlier for the massive leap in quality and performance.
 
Dangman said:
That PSU wasn't that good of a choice since it's a fairly old design now. I mean it's not shit but that was not a good buy at all. I highly recommend canceling the order and getting the Seasonic PSU I listed earlier for the massive leap in quality and performance.
Click to expand...

i second this, you cant go wrong with seasonic, Rosewill is generally crap.
 
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