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Need help with new system build

G

Gantidae

n00b
Joined
Mar 2, 2011
Messages
7
First hello and thanks in advance for any help. I was referred here by a friend that received some help from the people here. What I really need is advice on a CPU and motherboard. I'm behind the times on Intel vs AMD. I'd like a system that will last me for a while. At least three years. Five would be better.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
This will be a gaming computer.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I'm looking at $500 - $600 US.

3) Where do you live?
Pennsylvania

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.
I'll need a CPU and motherboard. Perhaps an aftermarket CPU cooler?

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I have a video card, memory, sound card, hard drive, power supply, and CD/DVD drive.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have an Acer 22" widescreen monitor. 1680x1050 that I will continue to use.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
As soon as possible.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s?
I'll need SATA 6Gb/s for my hard drive. I don't plan on using RAID though I may use my old hard drive as a backup device. It is a 250Gb SATA 3Gb drive. The case has four 2.0 USB ports in front. 3.0 USB and SLI capability would be nice.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I bought a copy of Windows 7 64 bit for this build.

Thanks in advance again. I think I covered everything. If there are any questions I will respond with an answer as quickly as I can.

Current hardware that I can find links for:
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

I'm not sure of the power supply model number but it is a Silverstone 750w modular PSU.

The sound card is a Creative X-fi gamer card of some sort.
 
Last edited:
Let's wait a week. By that time, NewEgg will have some better combo deals that you could take advantage of.

Do you live near a Micro Center B&M store?
 
I do not. I've never even heard of them before. Looking online the closest store to me is in Philly which is three hours away from me.

Newegg will probably be my purchase place unless some other sites have better prices or some other reason to shop them.
 
I have updated my original post with more information. Any help is greatly appreciated. I have the funds now. I've managed to put them together sooner than I had originally anticipated. :D
 
Which games are you playing now? What do you want to play within the next six months?

How old is the Silverstone power supply?

Are you willing to wait for the Sandy Bridge re-release? Do you prefer to build now?
 
Sandy Bridge is back out.. Just at the very leading edge of it.

If you can wait a few weeks there will be alot more options for the motherboard. But if you want to build now there is nothing really wrong with that either.

here is what I would do if building today with your budget.

230 Intel Core i5-2500K
130 BIOSTAR TP67B+ LGA 1155 Intel P67
30 COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
85 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)

And I know you already have ram. But your corsair is 1.65v where SB is best paired with 1.5 or lower. And your budget covers the cost with ease & you should be able to sell your current kit for a pretty penny still (I would guess at least 60 bucks). And since the SB chips run pretty cool I threw on a good after-market cooler. There is certainly better, but you shouldn't need better even with a good OC (unless your pushing for every last Mhz).

Of the 1155 boards out right now on newegg the options are Biostar or MSI & as of late MSI's quality has been brought up to question where as biostar has been producing very solid boards. If you want to wait a couple weeks you can get a better board from asus or gigabyte most likely, but unless your planning to go SLI/Crossfire you probably wont gain anything other then the name brand.
 
Yeah the flaw is in the chip set. The boards on new egg are fine.and i5 over i7 because of better bang for buck in gaming
Posted via Mobile Device
 
I looked a little bit into myself. It says the B3 stepping is what fixes the problem.

My only real problem now is that I already have memory with a listed speed of 1600.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224
The board you suggest looks good but it's out of stock. The only other board listed says its memory standard speed is 1333. To my knowledge that makes the board and my memory incompatible. In fact the only board that has a standard memory speed of 1600 is the only you suggest. Also it's only Biostar that has the B3 stepping listed on their boards.
 
All the ones now for sale should be b3's so I wouldnt worry too much about that unless your buying used.

As for the ram the speed of 1600 is backwards compatible with a 1333 board, but with SB the extra ram speed doesn't get you anywhere so there is no reason to have the faster. & as I pointed out above its the voltage on corsair ram you have @ 1.65 that is not good for SB. Its not the speed. As I pointed out above I would sell the dominator kit you have & buy new ram more fit for SB to avoid any potential issues in the future. Not to mention that with the 3x2gb kit you cant run it in dual channel due to the odd amounts leaving you with 4gb of ram. Overall the G.Skill I linked above will get you better overall performance & less likelihood of problems later.
 
Thank you very much for your explanation and patience.

If you don't mind answering one more question. What's the difference with i5 and i7? If I can squeeze out a little extra cash should I go with an i7?
 
Gantidae said:
Thank you very much for your explanation and patience.

If you don't mind answering one more question. What's the difference with i5 and i7? If I can squeeze out a little extra cash should I go with an i7?
Click to expand...

Generally i7 has HT whereas i5 does not. For gaming, HT doesn't really matter.
 
Gantidae said:
Thank you very much for your explanation and patience.

If you don't mind answering one more question. What's the difference with i5 and i7? If I can squeeze out a little extra cash should I go with an i7?
Click to expand...

As Danny pointed out the advantages of the i7 over the i5 dont really do you any good for gaming. If you were building this for other uses the recommendation could be different. But yea gaming I think the i5-2500k is best bang for buck.
 
Danny Bui said:
Generally i7 has HT whereas i5 does not. For gaming, HT doesn't really matter.
Click to expand...

Actually, the i7 has eight threads while the i5 has four threads. Specifically, the i7 has four cores with HT while the i5 can be had with four cores without HT or two cores with HT (although there is currently no SB-based i5 with the latter core/HT configuration).
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, the i7 has eight threads while the i5 has four threads. Specifically, the i7 has four cores with HT while the i5 can be had with four cores without HT or two cores with HT (although there is currently no SB-based i5 with the latter core/HT configuration).
Click to expand...

what has what to do with the price of rice in china? The question was already answered with the correct answer & you just reiterated that in an overly complicated explanation.
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, the i7 has eight threads while the i5 has four threads. Specifically, the i7 has four cores with HT while the i5 can be had with four cores without HT or two cores with HT (although there is currently no SB-based i5 with the latter core/HT configuration).
Click to expand...

Nerd alert.
 
bastage said:
what has what to do with the price of rice in china? The question was already answered with the correct answer & you just reiterated that in an overly complicated explanation.
Click to expand...

He simply added additional information that I did not add. Some people may want that additional information.
 
Danny Bui said:
He simply added additional information that I did not add. Some people may want that additional information.
Click to expand...

OP had already responded with "Thanks, guys. You've been a big help."

Dont get me wrong I wasn't meaning to be rude or anything to E4g1e, Just kind of overkill for the conversation at hand.
 
Hehe, sorry but, i couldn't help but laugh and giggle on these previous postings.
 
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