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Need help with my new PC

L

Lowen

n00b
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
40
Hello everyone!

I want to buy a new PC in the next couple of days, but I would like to have some advice from you guys, as it will be my first self-built PC. Are there things to improve, is everything compatible and will it be more or less future proof? I tend to update my PC every 4-5 years.

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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming and Office work. It is very important to me that the games run smooth on 2560x1440. Games I play or will be playing in the future are Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Battlefield 3, Doom 4, Skyrim and Bioshock: Infinite.

2) What's your budget? Im willing to spend about 3000 dollars. This includes the monitor. Right now I would spend 2422 swiss francs for the below listed parts, which are ~2646 US Dollars.

3) Which country do you live in? Switzerland.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? Ok I put together a list with things that seemed good to me, please tell me if any parts aren't compatible.

Monitor: Dell UltraSharp U2711.

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Case: Haf X.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue, 2x4GB, DDR3-1600.

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V

Processor: i7-3770K.

Graphic Card: Asus GTX-680 2GB.

Mass Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB.

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST (I never watch Blu-Rays on my PC).

Powersupply: Seasonic X-760 (SS-760KM) Gold - 760 Watt

CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 evo

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Nothing, everything will be new.

6) Will you be overclocking? No, I don't know how it's done.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? 2560x1440 and 27'.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? The PC has to be ready when Diablo 3 is out! :D I'm willing to wait if Ivy Bridge or the Z77 boards provide any significant advantage (provided they are out before D3 hits = 15. of may), but I haven't read anything impressing besides the Lucid Virtu MVP thing. If not, I will buy the parts as soon as you guys gave me some advices!

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.

I don't know what half of this stuff is, but I guess the motherboard I chose has most of these.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? No.

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What do you think of this system? And one last question: Do you think an antistatic strap is necessary? I will build the PC on a parquet floor so I don't think I will be charged when building it, but I don't know.
 
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If you just remember to touch the metal of the case before you grab a bare component it will ground you out fine.

I would suggest an SSD for your operating system. Could fit a nice 240GB in there with your budget.

800W PSU is fine, I'd also look at a 750 or even 650 Crucial or Antec, since you don't plan to overclock.
 
Lowen said:
Graphic Card: Asus GTX-680 2GB. (Are there any differences between those: https://www.digitec.ch/ProdukteVergleichen1.aspx?artikel=237221,237222,237730)?
Click to expand...
Stick with the Asus as the quality is more assured.
Lowen said:
Powersupply: I have no idea what I need to power up all this. I was thinking somewhere around 800W. Can someone help me out here please?
Click to expand...
You would be fine with a solid 650W PSU like the Corsair TX650 V2 650W or the Seasonic X-650 650W.

Lowen said:
I'm willing to wait if Ivy Bridge or the Z77 boards provide any significant advantage (provided they are out before D3 hits = 15. of may), but I haven't read anything impressing besides the Lucid Virtu MVP thing. If not, I will buy the parts as soon as you guys gave me some advices!

Motherboard: P8Z68-V/GEN3 (Question: Should I wait for Z77 so that I can use Lucid Virtu MVP?)
Click to expand...
I recommend waiting for Ivy Bridge since it's coming out in a month or so. It's gonna offer about a 15% to 20% performance increase over current SB CPUs. Especially since you're the type that updates his PC every 4-5 years.
 
Hey! Thanks for the fast answer!

@tcraig_4096: I thought about adding an SSD, but I don't think it holds any benefits for me. As I understood it, SSD just improves your boot-time and reduces loading times in games. But since I turn my PC on only once per day and turn it off in the night, boot-time is not really important to me. And I don't really care if I have to wait 5-10 seconds more in the loading screen when gaming.

To the PSU choice: Will there be a downside when using a PSU which has far more Watt than needed? Like wasting electricity and having a higher bill at the end of the month?:p I want to stay safe with the Watt needed, but if this wastes energy, I prefer to have the most "optimal" one.

@Danny Bui: Thanks for the advice, I think I will wait then for ivy bridge!
 
Originally Posted by Lowen
To the PSU choice: Will there be a downside when using a PSU which has far more Watt than needed?
Click to expand...

Actually yes. Your wallet mostly.

The board looks fine, might wanna pop in a i7-3770k if it comes out in time.

With a 3000 dollar budget though, an ssd is really a good choice. Load times in games are reduced to basically none, and boot time is also increased. If you get a 128GB one, it'll only set you back about $150 (or less with a good deal).

Also, I honestly think the Haf X is ugly, I would recommend this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146089

Good PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139015&Tpk=AX850 (sexy cables too :D)
 
Changes in red, could someone adress my issue with the motherboard pls? I think I will start ordering the parts right after that^^

Thanks for the anwer computersmakemeQQ! I will stick with the Haf X though, I really like the look of it. And isn't 850W too much? I read several times now that the gtx 680 only needs ~550W, so 650 would be perfect I think, just to be safe.
 
Your compare link doesn't work.

But looking it up myself, the only major difference between the -V and -V Pro is that the the -V Pro has an extra USB 3.0 internal port and an extra chasis fan connector. That's about it AFAIK. Either will fit your requirement to use the HAF X's four fans.

Yes 850W is a tad much but if the AX850 is the same price as that Seasonic X-660KM, then go with the AX850. If not, the X-660KM is fine.
 
I haven't got the chance to build the PC as I'm waiting for ivy bridge, but I came across a few questions when reading the manual of the motherboard.

First a question to the internal connectors: Whats the difference between "Intel Z77 Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors" and "Asmedia Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors"? I want to stick my HDD into a 6 Gb/s slot, but I don't know which one.

It also sais under the Asmedia chapter: "The SATA6G_E1/E2 (navy blue) connectors are for data drives only. ATAPI device not supported." An HDD is a data drive... or not?:confused:

My second question is regarding the TPU and EPU switch. I read that those two are basically an auto-overclock feature. Would it be worth to buy a non-stock cooler for the processor and get more overclock? Some people say they are not effective at all, while ASUS sais it is hightly effective.. (27% more speed, 80% energy savings).
 
The Intel is the native SATA controller of Intel's chipsets. As for which SATA 6.0Gb/s port you should put the HDD on, either one will work as the HDD performance will about the same on either controller. However if you plan on using a SSD in the future, stick the SSD on the Intel controller for optimal performance.

ATAPI in this case means CD/DVD burners. So in other words, only stick hard drives on the AsMedia.

Yes IMO.
 
Thanks for the clarification!

Do you have a recommendation for a good cpu cooler? I don't need the best one, just enough so that my system has a nice overclock after switching the TPU switch :p
 
Can I plug the fourth chassis fan into the CPU_OPT? CHA_FAN 1-3 are already used and I'm wondering if I can use the optional cpu fan slot to power up the last chassis fan.
 
Yeah it doesn't really matter. The only thing is if there are any sensors monitoring on that fan header, it will probably be labeled wrong on programs that output the results since it's a case fan you're connecting to it. It also might get throttled with temp. changes.
 
Ok, no big deal then^^. I think I will connect the rear fan to the CPU_OPT since the cpu and rear fan are quite near to each other and should change together when the temperature of the cpu changes.
 
Hello again, I'm building it right now, but I have some issues...

1) The Haf X has a "1394 cable" which comes from the front... but it seems like this connection isn't supported anymore on the z77. Should I just cut the cable off?

2) Shouldn't I be able to stick the sticks of the Q-connector (USB) totally into the USB connector? It looks really ugly (like this: http://www.mjk-trading.de/pics/usb q-connector.jpg) and I don't want to destroy it by using too much pressure.

3) I have two SATA connectors which I don't know if they are 3gb or 6gb. One is from the Haf X from the front and the other one is a 2-port USB 2.0 and eSATA module(s) accessoire which comes with the motherboard (looks more or less like this: http://www.abacuswob.com/media/catalog/product/A/S/ASUSMulti-functionalmodule_2USB_1394_-1_2.jpg). I havent found any information about their speeds on the official sites, does someone of you know it?
 
Try turning the frontside USB (Q-Connector, whatever you call it) around and inserting it, it should go in all the way.

Refer to your motherboard manual, does it say anything about question 3?

1394 is firewire (I think, IIRC). If you don't need it tuck it somewhere.
 
How do you mean "turn around"? The holes let me insert it only in one way, but only half way, after that I'm scared to push more because thos sticks look so sensitive.

No it doesn't say anything, neither on the official homepage..

EDIT: Well it doesn't matter, I pushed it in without the Q-connector (usb).
 
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I finished today with everything but I have a problem once again.

The pc doesn't seem to recognize if a Lan cable is in or not. I can't use the internet due to this and I don't know how to fix it. When I push the lan cable into my old pc, the lights near where I plugged it in turn green. In the new pc nothing happens. Do I need to buy a network card or something? I thought this should work without it.
 
Lowen said:
I finished today with everything but I have a problem once again.

The pc doesn't seem to recognize if a Lan cable is in or not. I can't use the internet due to this and I don't know how to fix it. When I push the lan cable into my old pc, the lights near where I plugged it in turn green. In the new pc nothing happens. Do I need to buy a network card or something? I thought this should work without it.
Click to expand...

Did you install the drivers?
 
Hello again, I ran into some problems.. haaa so the first one is that in my bios, I get the following image:

http://tinypic.com/r/2evcao3/6

http://tinypic.com/r/2akb9qv/6

The first time I started the computer, I got One continuous beep followed by four short beeps (= Hardware component failure) and it said that the *CPU-Fan* (not the case fans like the images would suggest) is not working.. But I can clearly see that all of them work! All of them are rotating just fine so I don't know why the motherboad is displaying it like this.

The beep is normal now btw, but the chassis fans 1,2,4 are still red, like there would be a problem with them. They are working though, are silent and keep everything cool as far as I can tell with my hand.
 
Reset CMOS?
Try unplugging the "problem" fans (not the CPU one though), turn on the PC, and see if the error/beeping still occurs.
 
Hey, I reseted CMOS and I still get the error "CPU Fan error". I turned down the "chassis 1-4 Fan Speed Low Limit" and the BIOS shows them now as normal (not red anymore). But this morning I still had to press F1 because of the CPU Fan error and I simply don't get why...

Played skyrim and the max temp was 47º for the CPU so the fan is working I guess.
 
Did you plug the CPU fan into the specific CPU fan power pins?
 
Yes I just checked it this morning and it was in the CPU_Fan. I swapped it to the CPU_Opt and still got the error. Then I swapped it back to the old one and the error didn't appear. I hope this fixed it, I will tell you if anything happens again! Thank you!
 
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