Help Building I5/I7 Setup..

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
154
Ok so I haven't built a computer for a while....its been about 4 years. I'm still running an athlon 64(2.0ghz) socket 939 and an AGP video card....needless to say I need to upgrade, and I want to do so before the new COD comes out.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Gaming, Web Browsing, Photoshop and School stuff.

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

I was wanting to stay in the $1500 range including shipping and taxes.

3) Where do you live?

Kansas City, Missouri. (I do have microcenters)

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.

I need all new parts, except a case. Everything is pretty outdated, I doubt my current 500w psu will work.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially
specific about the power supply. List make and model.

I don't plan on using anything besides my speakers, mouse and keyboard.

6) Will you be overclocking?

I do not plan on doing much OC'ing.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

I need to upgrade monitors BADLY! Dont need anything huge but i'm only using a 15" monitor right now, would like to have at least a 20"

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

Within the next month. (for the new cod 2) I play FPS games mainly. Some warcraft.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

I don't know, but have been reading about Crossfire and SLI a lot so may do one of those setups one day...but to start off going with 1 video card. Would like it to be a bad ass card though (the new ati cards i read about are pretty awesome)

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
I have all the software I need. Do not need anything.


I have been reading a lot about the i5/i7 setups and think that they are the way to go. I am not sure if I should do the 1156 socket or what socket type to do? Will it really matter for what I am wanting to do? I have been out of the computer loop for a while so I am not sure what exactly to buy! Please help me out! Thanks.

-Ryan
 
How heavy of a Photoshop user are you? In addition. what kind of school stuff are we talking about here? Do you also do any kind of virtualization work?

The above three questions will determine if you need a Core i7/LGA1366 or Core i/LGA1156 setup.

Also, there's a problem with your answers to questions 4 and 5. In 4 you said you were reusing a case but in 5 you said only speakers and KB/M. So are you reusing a case or not? If reusing case, which case is it?
 
Danny Bui said:
How heavy of a Photoshop user are you? In addition. what kind of school stuff are we talking about here? Do you also do any kind of virtualization work?

The above three questions will determine if you need a Core i7/LGA1366 or Core i/LGA1156 setup.

Also, there's a problem with your answers to questions 4 and 5. In 4 you said you were reusing a case but in 5 you said only speakers and KB/M. So are you reusing a case or not? If reusing case, which case is it?
Click to expand...

So i've looked into cases a bit and it seems my current case is not correct.

I need to get a new case.

Also, i'm not too heavy into photoshop and with school I wont really be doing any virtualization work. I'm just doing my general office programs and light photo/video editing. Nothing really extreme or intense.

Sorry for the confusion.

My main concern is really gaming capabilities.
 
Ok, You're better off with a Core i5 build then due to your answers:

$159 - Core i5 750 from Microcenter
$140 - Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R Intel P55 ATX Motherboard
$86 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$260 - XFX HD-585A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB PCI-E Video Card (whenever this card gets back into stock)
$95 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$32 - Samsung SH-S223L SATA DVD Burner
$95 - Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU
$160 - Asus VW224U Black 22" DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
---
Total: $1027 plus tax and shipping.

Didn't include a case since I thought you should pick one out yourself. But here are some of my recommendations:
$50 - Cooler Master Elite 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$50 - Cooler Master Elite 331 RC-331-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 332 RC-332-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$50 - Thermaltake WingRS 201 VJ60001N2Z ATX Case
$60 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$60 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$105 - Thermaltake ElementS VK60001N2Z ATX Case
$135 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$200 - Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$200 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$220 - Silverstone FT01-B ATX Case
$250 - Lian Li PC-V1200B Plus II ATX Case
$240 - Lian Li PC-A71B ATX Case
$285 - Silverstone TJ09-B Full Tower ATX Case
$320 - Silverstone TJ10-B Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
 
eeny meeny miney mo...

And you won't ever need CF/SLI for a 20-22" monitor (1680x1050) or lower. Its not even really needed for 1920x1200, but you will start to see some benefits to dual card configs at that res.
 
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