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New budget build

J

jonbutler50

n00b
Joined
Aug 29, 2012
Messages
41
Hey guys, My last computer has been thrashed recently and am looking for advice to see if this is a good budget build, and to fill in the holes that I haven't figured out yet.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Interning for A+ certification, then I graphics design. Playing WoW and SW:ToR

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Budget around $6-700 USD. Yes.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

I live in Hawaii, so I'm trying to buy most things at Bestbuy.com to cut out shipping fees, or Amazon.com and TigerDirect.com
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 need a motherboard, cpu, ram, psu, chassis, and dual-band wifi card for 5.0Ghz router.
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 Seagate Baracuda 7200 1tb hdd, and GTX 550ti salvaged from old build, both eight months old.
6) Will you be overclocking?
I will be over-clocking, but not at extreme levels.
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Main monitor HP x20LED, 1280x00 2 weeks old, second monitor old Dell 20" 1280x1080 vga 4 years old or so
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I plan on buying in the next two or three weeks, half this paycheck and half next paycheck
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 need SATAIII, USB3, might need crossfire or SLI after internship for graphics.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, I have Win 7 Ultimate SP1 x64 that I can use.



My build that I have put together over the last two months, thanks largely to this site and build-gaming-computers.com, is:

MoBo
ASUS P8Z77-M Intel Z77 Motherboard $130 Bestbuy.com

CPU
Intel Core i5-2500K BX80623I52500 Unlocked Processor $219 Bestbuy.com

RAM
Corsair - XMS3 2-Pack 4GB DDR3 DIMM $46 Bestbuy.com

Chassis
Cooler Master - RC-350 Chassis - Black $52 Bestbuy.com
Comes w/ 500w psu, but I will be replacing that asap.

PSU
Corsair CMPSU-500CXV2 Builder Series™ CX500 Power Supply $64 Bestbuy.com

Then another 550ti when I can pick one up.

I have not been able to find a wifi card worth shipping over here, but will be looking around town in the next few days. I would take any suggestions.

To calculate shipping you can use zipcode 96826.

Thanks guys
 
Which Corsair RAM is that?

PSU wise, the cheapest yet still decent quality PSU that I can recommend for your setup is this Antec Earthwatts 650W Green:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Antec+-...pply/3345073.p?id=1218396602768&skuId=3345073

Case wise, swap the case for the better cooling and quality Coolermaster HAF 912:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Cooler+...ssis/2305176.p?id=1218320074469&skuId=2305176

Also, at your low resolution, unless you're getting that second GTX 550 TI for $50 or less and you're gonna get a monitors with a resolution of 1920x1080+, not worth going SLI. You're better off just saving your money for a better single GPU.
 
You don't really need a 2500k when a 3470 will do you just fine since you aren't trying to do any extreme overclocking.
 
Ok, mistake on the sceen res, its 1600x900. But I understand what yu mean about the sli. So skip that for now.
Is it better to get 2 4GB sticks of ram, or 1 8GB stick? I am stuck between the patriot gamer 2 ram our the corsair xms3.
I want to keep the 2500k so that I can start to over clock, and won't need to upgrade, and its not that much of a price difference.
 
Well you have 4 slots. If you go with 4GB sticks, the most you can upgrade to is 24GB total.
If you go with 8GB sticks, you can max out at 32GB.

4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16
4 + 4 + 8 + 8 = 24
8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 32

Up to you if you want to be able to upgrade to 16GB, 24GB or 32GB at a later date without having to replace the ram completely.
 
Ooh, ya, and I will go with the psu and case suggested thanks.
And I do most of this from my phone while the bus, so that's why my replies look like a four year old wrote them.
 
It's cool, I sometimes post from my phone as well.
 
The RAM is an ok but a tad pricey choice.

As for the SSD, it's crap. If you want something of good quality, reliability, and performance as well, stick with the Crucial M4, Samsung 830, Corsair Performance Pro, Plextor M3, or Intel 520 series SSDs.
 
if you lived near a microcenter they have a IB 3570K for 189 dollars. its unfortunate they do not ship. ha didnt realize you were in Hawaii.. yea theres nothing here that ive seen so far computer wise.
 
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OK, so I ordered the CPU and the tower, switched out some parts.
MOBO:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/GIGABYT...155)/5429779.p?skuId=5429779&id=1218650461505

RAM:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair...dule/5418406.p?skuId=5418406&id=1218642183718

SSD:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair...rive/3674093.p?skuId=3674093&id=1218425885827

The motherboard I swapped because it is a little better upgrade on all the hardware with WiFi and bluetooth, as I was having a hard time finding a dual band WiFi card around here for cheaper than $70.

The RAM has better reviews, and its only a few bucks more. Can I use only one stick of RAM, or do I need a pair?

The revied of the SSD on [H]ocp was better than most of the others, so I went with that, and I don't have more than 200GB worth of data on my present computer now, so I don't really need a hdd if i get that imo.

One other thing, I can't believe that a lot of the parts I'm picking up are cheaper at Bestbuy.com, not even considering shipping.
 
jonbutler50 said:
OK, so I ordered the CPU and the tower, switched out some parts.
MOBO:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/GIGABYT...155)/5429779.p?skuId=5429779&id=1218650461505

RAM:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair...dule/5418406.p?skuId=5418406&id=1218642183718

SSD:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair...rive/3674093.p?skuId=3674093&id=1218425885827

The motherboard I swapped because it is a little better upgrade on all the hardware with WiFi and bluetooth, as I was having a hard time finding a dual band WiFi card around here for cheaper than $70.

The RAM has better reviews, and its only a few bucks more. Can I use only one stick of RAM, or do I need a pair?

The revied of the SSD on [H]ocp was better than most of the others, so I went with that, and I don't have more than 200GB worth of data on my present computer now, so I don't really need a hdd if i get that imo.

One other thing, I can't believe that a lot of the parts I'm picking up are cheaper at Bestbuy.com, not even considering shipping.
Click to expand...

One significant problem with your choice of an SSD:

The Corsair Force GT is a Sandforce-based SSD that's not from Intel. As such, you may run into random BSOD issues, including BSODs that occur just sitting at the Windows desktop for no apparent reason.
 
OK, so I think I got my final build down now.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/gueJ

I already have the monitor, gpu, hdd, and os. The case and the cpu are in the mail.

I'm still taking suggestions for the rest or if you have anything else to add. Thank you all for your help so far.
 
Better, but you still have that GTX 550 Ti on that list. Even at its current street price, it's not that great of a buy. In fact, I would personally not pay more than about $80 for it - new. (This is in light of GPUs from the competition around the 550 Ti's price point that beat it in overall performance.)
 
The gpu is left over from my old build, I have that already. I will be replacing that after I get the rest of the pc build. What would you recommend replacing it with?
 
jonbutler50 said:
The gpu is left over from my old build, I have that already. I will be replacing that after I get the rest of the pc build. What would you recommend replacing it with?
Click to expand...

What would be your new GPU budget? I guess how much would you have left after the rest of the purchases.
 
I am almost at my budget now, but will purchase that outside of my current budget. I can spend about $3-400 on a new gpu. More if need be.
 
Completely and utter overkill for your relatively low resolution resolution BUT it's such an extremely good deal that it doesn't matter if it's overkill or not:
$200 - XFX HD-695X-CDDC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card
 
Damn I should have got in on that deal when I first seen it.
 
YAY, got my case today, get the cpu on Tuesday, then I gotta wait till I Friday to order the rest.
What thermal compounds are recommended? Should I use the one that comes in the processor kit, or buy something else? I have Arctic Silver high density polysynthetic silver too.
 
jonbutler50 said:
What thermal compounds are recommended? Should I use the one that comes in the processor kit, or buy something else? I have Arctic Silver high density polysynthetic silver too.
Click to expand...
Are you using the stock HSF or a 3rd party HSF?
 
Just use the stuff that came on the cooler. It's not going to make enough of a difference to waste your time removing the stock stuff anyway. Only time I would bother doing that is if I had to remove the hs/f after mounting it then intended to reuse it.
 
\loud primal scream... Best buy screwed up my freaking order twice and tried to charge me twice for everything. So not ordering from there again. Ordered the psu, and decided to get the patriot viper 3 2x8gb memory pack. I know its over kill, but it looks awesome, and I needed something to make me feel better. Is that ram good? I know that I should have asked first, but I'm very impulsive with hardware. I will update build when I get home. All I need now is a mother board and I can get the system put together. Then the ssd, gpu and cooler to complete.

Somehow my $800 budget build is gonna cost me almost $2000.
 
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Specific model number or a link to what you bought would help.
 
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