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New Build help needed

G

garry26

Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2003
Messages
641
First ill answer questions as listed in the sticky guide on this forum. Then I will add some info and an idea of my mindset to help with responses.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, Watching vidoes, netflix, hulu, etc

2) What's your budget? 1k-1.5k. More on that later
3) Which country do you live in? NYC

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Video Card, Hard Drive, DVD Drive/BluRay(?), Ethernet, Case & fan(s).

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Monitor & other peripherals, The OS? I have a licensed copy of WinXP Home Ed.

6) Will you be overclocking? No. Unless I happen to buy an already overclocked video card like I did with my current pc.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? 24 inches, 1920x1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? 1) Over several months & I'll pay to have it built. Or 2) I buy a barebones system that have the parts I cant install (case with mobo, cpu, HD, dvd drive & fans) and buy the ram & vid card via sales.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? I dont understand the terminology (raid, sata, etc). I need a good long lasting board (no ECS garbage!) that has various connectors for transferring vids/pics from camcorders, phone, flash drive, etc

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? WinXP Home Ed. Not sure if its 32 or 64bit.

I hope to get deals where ever possible so I can concentrate on more important components such as the CPU, Video Card, and other parts that are usually expensive. For example, Im told hard drives are cheap GB-wise, and that RAM and DVD drives can be found fairly cheap as well. I think it may be better (and cheaper) piece-by-piece + paying to have it built. If that's the case, that will be my option, as I like being able to pick and choose.
 
I inserted my answers in the quote.

garry26 said:
First ill answer questions as listed in the sticky guide on this forum. Then I will add some info and an idea of my mindset to help with responses.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, Watching vidoes, netflix, hulu, etc

OK

2) What's your budget? 1k-1.5k. More on that later

OK

3) Which country do you live in? NYC

OK

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Video Card, Hard Drive, DVD Drive/BluRay(?), Ethernet, Case & fan(s).

OK

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Monitor & other peripherals, The OS? I have a licensed copy of WinXP Home Ed.

Download preview copy of Windows 8, then buy Windows 8, and or just buy an oem version of Windows 7 Pro for $100 bucks (for mroe stability). Upgrade is only like $30 or something to Windows 8.

6) Will you be overclocking? No. Unless I happen to buy an already overclocked video card like I did with my current pc.

Might want to moderately OC the CPU tho, they have room for that without struggle nowadays.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? 24 inches, 1920x1080

OK

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? 1) Over several months & I'll pay to have it built. Or 2) I buy a barebones system that have the parts I cant install (case with mobo, cpu, HD, dvd drive & fans) and buy the ram & vid card via sales.

Get a 3570K processor with a Asus Maximus V Gene, or another Asus or MSI board with HDMI in your budget, total about $430 for both, then run on intergrated graphics until you can afford a real GPU.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? I dont understand the terminology (raid, sata, etc). I need a good long lasting board (no ECS garbage!) that has various connectors for transferring vids/pics from camcorders, phone, flash drive, etc

Start reading up on features, performance is mostly standardized now, its all about the features and bios and drivers and RMA services, ETC. Stick with a good brand.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? WinXP Home Ed. Not sure if its 32 or 64bit.

No reason to do 32bit unless you know you need it. Go 64bit. OEM Windows you have to pick one, retail comes with both discs. But you can only use one at a time. OEM is for that PC only, Retail is movable between PCs, but costs $150 more, est.

I hope to get deals where ever possible so I can concentrate on more important components such as the CPU, Video Card, and other parts that are usually expensive. For example, Im told hard drives are cheap GB-wise, and that RAM and DVD drives can be found fairly cheap as well. I think it may be better (and cheaper) piece-by-piece + paying to have it built. If that's the case, that will be my option, as I like being able to pick and choose.
Click to expand...

Shop Newegg, Amazon, Tiger Direct, Directron, frozencpu. Keep an eye on prices, use Amazon wish list.

If I was on a budget but wanted a good system, I might do these parts (prices are estimated, not sure what they add up to, but I have some standards):

$200 Asus Maximus Gene V Mobo, use the better than normal intergrated sound.

$230 Intel 3750K CPU

$430 Asus GTX 670 TOP GPU

$160 Seasonic X750 PSU

$130 Cooler Master Haf XM Case

$100 Some Corsair XMS3 or Low Profile Vengence DDR3 1600 RAM, at least a 2x4GB kit, if you can, get two. RAM is cheap. Don't buy tall heatsinks, they are a gimmick to me.

$90 Corsiar H80 CPU Cooler

$40 Two Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1850rpm Fans (FrozenCPU.com) for the Corsair (stock fans suck). "pcapex" promo code for all FrozenCPU orders, 5% off.

$30 Get yourself some noctua TIM, some 4" zip ties, and some artic clean TIM cleaner and purifier.

$120 14x LG Blu Ray Burner

$215 Intel 180GB 520 Series SSD (Amazon backed vender via fulfilment by amazon)
 
My WIndows XP Home Ed is a retail version.
I cannot go with the inboard vid card because I want it to be useable emmediately.

The Mobo is a tad steep.
The Vid Card is way up there.
The PSU is a bit steep
The case is almost 2x what I expected.
Fans for the Ram? Really?

The DvD drive (or blue ray) I plan to go cheap as possible, as I rarely use it.
I plan to use a regular hard drive (not SSD) are also cheap. So the prices you mentioned are scary. A decent 500gb drive is like $100 or so.

I was using an ebay barebones build-it-yourself store as a price guide :p
Can I post it?
 
No fans for RAM, its for the CPU Cooler, the CORSAIR H80 is a CPU Cooler. I didn't specifiy which Corsair product, but I never use fans for ram, so...

I meant the Intel 3570K CPU which is an i5 Ivy Bridge, and Ivy Bridge GPU is pretty nice for getting by on. MSI Z77 based motherboards are the best value and are stepping it up as of late, perhaps you can get $150ish and get a good one, google a review for the right model.

By all means, get a WD Caviar Black HD to go with that SSD, but by no means think that its ok to forever ignore the SSD factor. I won't build a system without it anymore. The HD drive is the biggest bottleneck in any decent PC nowadays, as Anandtech said "its the differece between a hanglider and a rocket ship!". Swallow the red pill and see just how deep this rabbit hole goes!! Besides ram, it is the best upgrade you can give your PC, I'd upgrade to a SSD before upgrading my CPU. No joke. Put windows and programs on the SSD, put movies and music on the HD. Really you need both. Games can go on either one depending on the amount of games you have and SSD space you have from your budget. I'll be rocking 240GB for my SSD with a 2TB HD.

Go for a cheaper Corsair PSU, if you must, I'd keep the 670 GTX as your choice for gaming, it will last you a long time and is the current upper sweet spot hotness, $130 for a case is not that much, unless you want to slum it in a really dinky metal box. Your gonna want good cooling, that is the best value to cooling out there if not a bit of an aquired taste. If you want a cheap drive, get a sony NEC chipset based "opti something" DVD Burner for like 25 bucks, XP is ancient come join us in Windows 7 land and gosh WIndows 8 is the best price of all - FREE!!!!!

Anyway, I do push for quality, but I don't think you will be out of your budget if you go with a combination of the above suggestions from my two posts. You want the sweet spot, not too much, but still quaility for your dollar. I get it. Hope that helps!!!!! That is what I would do. The system should not be too much, esp if you live on the Ivy Bridge GPU for a while.

but keep in mind, I think the best parts to keep are the 3570K cpu, the GTX 670 cpu, and the Intel SSD. Samsung 830 SSDs are cheaper if you need a step down, and they are still out of this world. Stick with Intel 330 or 520 series and Sammy 830 series on the SSDs. And you can't go wrong with the Haf XM on a budget. I look at these parts alot, the reviews are good, they are worth the money. Oh and buy all at once or within two months. Any longer and the landscape will change on you and you might not save as much as the parts drop in price or get replaced by better ones. If you need, you can step down the GPU even, I don't look at the mid low end cards, so I'm unfamilar. Personally, I'd rather go IVY B GPU and wait until I could rock a 670, but that is just me.
 
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garry26 said:
1) Over several months & I'll pay to have it built. Or 2) I buy a barebones system that have the parts I cant install (case with mobo, cpu, HD, dvd drive & fans) and buy the ram & vid card via sales.
....
I think it may be better (and cheaper) piece-by-piece + paying to have it built. If that's the case, that will be my option, as I like being able to pick and choose.
Click to expand...
Neither are good options. And here's why:

Option 1): Doing a build piece by piece and over time can work but only if you know a lot about computer hardware, can stay up to date constantly, and have really good luck. I've seen too many people stupidly choose a part that's on sale even though it's a total piece of crap hardware at even the sale price. So just because the part is on sale doesn't mean it's actually going to be a good buy. In addition, there have been cases where if the part was bought on a sale, it ends up being completely outdated, overpriced, and/or not usable due to other deals and new hardware releases with different requirements.

There are also cases where the hardware you've bought is DOA but you won't know until the entire build is compeltely bought. By then, you'll be out of the store return period and you would have to deal with manufacturer. Which will further delay the build of course. Then there's the cost of getting the PC built. If the cost of getting the PC built by someone else costs quite a bit of money, it effectively negates all the sales you just went through.

Now with that said, I've actually built a PC over a period of several months. But that's due to me being having to be up-to-date in order help people in this forum with their own PC builds and a little bit of luck that the parts weren't DOA.

Option 2) 99% of the time, a barebones DIY setup will have a shitty PSU. So you have to tack on the cost of a new PSU. But a lot of times those barebones comes with low quality motherboards, slow hard drives, and probably even slower CPUs. They're generally oriented towards DIY'ers who don't know how to build a good PC and want to build a crappy PC that's not for gaming.

My option, option 3, is this: Either buy everything over a period of no more than one month or just all in one go using a build list we give you and just build the thing yourself. Or at worst, pay someone else to build the PC. Either way, don't stretch the build over several months unless you know a lot about computer hardware and can keep up to-date. Considering that you mentioned an eBay barebones (you're allowed to post eBay links btw), your sig, and that you're asking for help here on the forum, that's probably not going to be the case.

Also since you have Windows XP, that basically limits you to 4GB of RAM unless you know for sure that you have a 64bit key. In addition, that kinda rules out SSDs as well IIRC.
 
Yeah been trying to talk him out of XP but I didn't explain why. Like you said ram issues it's just a pretty old OS I wouldn't do it. And Windows 8 is free to try. Sure eventually you have to buy it but that's down the road, plus if you use the Ivy Bridge GPU then you don't have to worry about the graphics card that saves you a lot of money, get you bye for now and afford you the chance to buy a really nice one later on. There's very detailed reasons for every part I pick actually, usually based on a shit ton of reading.
 
That said I have a hard time settling for lower end parts I know that. But it also means I never get burnt.
 
For example my first PC build was actually a dfi Motherboard that went bad, but had I known what I know now I know that Asus reputation is better and I would've went with them. I focus more on performance and reliability than actual cost savings. So my idea of a econobox pc is a lot more expensive than some
 
Well TBH if your budget is that high and you aren't getting windows or peripherals or overclocking/tweaking and are happy with your display....,

Your budget is a little high.
 
NeoDiNardo said:
Yeah been trying to talk him out of XP but I didn't explain why. Like you said ram issues it's just a pretty old OS I wouldn't do it. And Windows 8 is free to try. Sure eventually you have to buy it but that's down the road, plus if you use the Ivy Bridge GPU then you don't have to worry about the graphics card that saves you a lot of money, get you bye for now and afford you the chance to buy a really nice one later on. There's very detailed reasons for every part I pick actually, usually based on a shit ton of reading.
Click to expand...

NeoDiNardo said:
That said I have a hard time settling for lower end parts I know that. But it also means I never get burnt.
Click to expand...

NeoDiNardo said:
For example my first PC build was actually a dfi Motherboard that went bad, but had I known what I know now I know that Asus reputation is better and I would've went with them. I focus more on performance and reliability than actual cost savings. So my idea of a econobox pc is a lot more expensive than some
Click to expand...

You know, there's an edit button at the bottom of every post you make. Mught want to use that in the future ;)

Anyway, I also have detailed reason as to why some of the parts you chose weren't too great of a choice as well. That's also based on a ton of research as well. Considering that I post quite often in this particular subforum, I sorta have to keep up-to-date on hardware.

I generally balance performance, reliability, and cost with budget in mind. Kinda have to in this particular subforum.
 
NeoDiNardo said:
If I was on a budget but wanted a good system, I might do these parts (prices are estimated, not sure what they add up to, but I have some standards):

$200 Asus Maximus Gene V Mobo, use the better than normal intergrated sound.

$230 Intel 3750K CPU

$430 Asus GTX 670 TOP GPU

$160 Seasonic X750 PSU

$130 Cooler Master Haf XM Case

$100 Some Corsair XMS3 or Low Profile Vengence DDR3 1600 RAM, at least a 2x4GB kit, if you can, get two. RAM is cheap. Don't buy tall heatsinks, they are a gimmick to me.

$90 Corsiar H80 CPU Cooler

$40 Two Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1850rpm Fans (FrozenCPU.com) for the Corsair (stock fans suck). "pcapex" promo code for all FrozenCPU orders, 5% off.

$30 Get yourself some noctua TIM, some 4" zip ties, and some artic clean TIM cleaner and purifier.

$120 14x LG Blu Ray Burner

$215 Intel 180GB 520 Series SSD (Amazon backed vender via fulfilment by amazon)
Click to expand...

Your build is way over his budget, generally when people specify a range they want to stick to the lower end of that range, in this case $1k. Also I think a copy of Windows 7 should definitely be included in that budget.

The 3570K is a good CPU, I think that can be done with the budget. But I'd tone down on pretty much everything else, especially the mobo, CPU cooler and fans.
 
Sorry! Just trying to help and I'm on my iPhone, so I can't edit as easy. But I usually don't post here, I was just giving it a whirl. I may not know how to budget the best but I do know how to build and pick out nice parts, takes a certain amount of reading and dedication to research, and knowing the best review sites, etc. my advice can't be that far off given the right budget, sorry I could not help more for a reserved budget.
 
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Resonses to Danny Bui and NeoDiNardo
NeoDiNardo said:
No fans for RAM, its for the CPU Cooler, the CORSAIR H80 is a CPU Cooler. I didn't specifiy which Corsair product, but I never use fans for ram, so...

I meant the Intel 3570K CPU which is an i5 Ivy Bridge, and Ivy Bridge GPU is pretty nice for getting by on. MSI Z77 based motherboards are the best value and are stepping it up as of late, perhaps you can get $150ish and get a good one, google a review for the right model.

By all means, get a WD Caviar Black HD to go with that SSD, but by no means think that its ok to forever ignore the SSD factor. I won't build a system without it anymore. The HD drive is the biggest bottleneck in any decent PC nowadays, as Anandtech said "its the differece between a hanglider and a rocket ship!". Swallow the red pill and see just how deep this rabbit hole goes!! Besides ram, it is the best upgrade you can give your PC, I'd upgrade to a SSD before upgrading my CPU. No joke. Put windows and programs on the SSD, put movies and music on the HD. Really you need both. Games can go on either one depending on the amount of games you have and SSD space you have from your budget. I'll be rocking 240GB for my SSD with a 2TB HD.

Go for a cheaper Corsair PSU, if you must, I'd keep the 670 GTX as your choice for gaming, it will last you a long time and is the current upper sweet spot hotness, $130 for a case is not that much, unless you want to slum it in a really dinky metal box. Your gonna want good cooling, that is the best value to cooling out there if not a bit of an aquired taste. If you want a cheap drive, get a sony NEC chipset based "opti something" DVD Burner for like 25 bucks, XP is ancient come join us in Windows 7 land and gosh WIndows 8 is the best price of all - FREE!!!!!

Anyway, I do push for quality, but I don't think you will be out of your budget if you go with a combination of the above suggestions from my two posts. You want the sweet spot, not too much, but still quaility for your dollar. I get it. Hope that helps!!!!! That is what I would do. The system should not be too much, esp if you live on the Ivy Bridge GPU for a while.

but keep in mind, I think the best parts to keep are the 3570K cpu, the GTX 670 cpu, and the Intel SSD. Samsung 830 SSDs are cheaper if you need a step down, and they are still out of this world. Stick with Intel 330 or 520 series and Sammy 830 series on the SSDs. And you can't go wrong with the Haf XM on a budget. I look at these parts alot, the reviews are good, they are worth the money. Oh and buy all at once or within two months. Any longer and the landscape will change on you and you might not save as much as the parts drop in price or get replaced by better ones. If you need, you can step down the GPU even, I don't look at the mid low end cards, so I'm unfamilar. Personally, I'd rather go IVY B GPU and wait until I could rock a 670, but that is just me.
Click to expand...
Since I'm on a budget so something has to give. So I have to balance my design by spending on the more important parts, and skimping on others w/o getting garbage.

Hard Drive: Id get a regular drive for now to save. Then Get a SSD later. Unless I could get a small cheap SSD immediately.
issue:- How to move the OS to the SSD later if I buy one later w/o reinstall.

movies, music- I was convinced by a virus & data loss to use an external drive to save my movies & music periodically. However, I do favor big hard drives

Video Card Id like the best vid card I could afford under budget constraints. So Id probably have to stick to the top mid-range card or low high-end card. My gaming involves online games from nexxon, Kingdoms of Amalur, dragon age 2 (old, but yea), and perhaps some skyrim in the future.

I'm not the constantly upgrading type. I only 'upgrade' if something breaks or if a need arises.

Im reading a pc building book that states the order of importance for gaming is: Vid Card, RAM, CPU, etc (Is this true?)so Id like to spend according to this.

Danny Bui
-I would make sure that pieces are compatible. I ask lots of questions here when buying a PC, and I have a techie that helps with ideas as well. Also, Id make sure they are better than what I have now 4 years old :
Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40GHz, 4gb ram
GeForce 8800 GTS 512 OC

Barebones This system was partly barebones from ebay. The seller has a drop-down menu from which to choose parts for custom building. When I chose incompatible parts, it would tell me. I researched every part and chose better than default parts for cooling. I chose a better CPU fan (middle of the list), PSU better than default, a side fan, back fan, and chose a tall aluminum case (middle of list) which was what was recommended for better cooling at the time. It was NOT $130. Quite sturdy. Only now having overheat issue after 4yrs.

A current link of that ebay store
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-i7-96...=Desktop_PCs&hash=item5ae6f1f355#configurator

Windows XP- Yes it is 64bit. I just checked

piece-by-piece issue I foresee
-Buying a part and seeing it drop $100 3 months later. I hoped you guys would let me know which parts drop in price less often, when abouts they drop in price, etc. So I would buy accordingly to minimize lose to price drops and to take advantage of price drops :)

My Budget - I would happily spend less. I said 1K - 1.5k, because I think I may have to spend an extra $500. I would begrudgingly spend it if need be. Its more like $1000 and +$500 if I must to get must have needed components.
 
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I think it comes down to the grey area slider of enthusiast slanted bargain and money slanted bargain. Often there is one side or the other, it's a good performance orientated product for the money or it's a good price for the performance on offer but not quite as sexy.

The Asus ROG Maximus V Gene offers flagship performance, features and design for $150 less than a full on ROG mobo, at the expense of a few bells and whistles, pci slots and sata ports you may never ever use on a budget anyway. The integrated sound solution is more advanced which helps save you money on sound cards and gets you better than bargain intergrated sound. If you care about that, It's a good deal if you want to save money on the performance slanted parts. You get a board from Asus in a flagship line who is arguably the greatest motherboard manufacturer, with a great bios, great IMHO RMA service, etc.

But the other guys are right in that it's not a great bargain in and of itself just for bargains sake. It's not the same bargain as a lower-priced $125 motherboard that does the job with excellence but is not quite as sexy. The gene mobo hits a different kind of sweet spot than say a $125 MSI board. At one point you just have to take the advice and figure out what it is that you're looking for and what will make you happy.

For my money, even if it's overkill, I would rather have the Asus Maximus V Gene. And I suppose most of my advice is structured around that. But no matter what your build priority slant is, you can find ways to bring down your build price in some parts while splurging in others. As long as your build balence is not out of whack like a 670 gpu and 2gb of ram for the main mobo. The best thing you can do us read sites like techpowerup.com and read reviews and educate yourself and figure out what you want out of your money.

So if u have a strict budget, you may even weigh waiting vs settling. Just don't get upgraditis and regret not waiting, or wait too long and regret not having a pc! It's all about balances and what you want to your money. I center on the upper end sweet spot myself. I'm not quite as good as getting my bang for buck ratio down further, because I know that won't make me happy and I'm not willing to settle that far down. I'm definitely not the best person to be given out bargain priced advice, but I know the machine I listed above would rock, those parts are all well received in the reviews, I'm from brands I've trusted, I built my grandmama a phenom ii $750 pc, and I've built me a $3000 ivy bridge monster, and I would be happy to own that machine I listed above. Even with a few choice downgrades to bring the price down. I'd push for those parts, but you could lower the gpu, CPU cooler, PSU, etc.

I'd fight hard to keep the haf xm case, the 3570K CPU (run intergrated gpu for a spell, save money for now), the asus mobo, the GT fans, and a Samsung 830 SSD. But that's just me.
 
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Good luck! And try to build all at once that's the best advice listed here. I might've been overzealous in the GPU recommendation for the 670 but it's just the current hotness !!!
 
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garry26 said:
Im reading a pc building book that states the order of importance for gaming is: Vid Card, RAM, CPU, etc (Is this true?)so Id like to spend according to this.
Click to expand...
Partially true. While video card will usually be first and foremost the most important part in a gaming PC, I would rank the CPU and RAM as equally important. But the RAM is only important up to a certain point. So if you have a system with only 2GB of RAM, 4 to 8GB of RAM would be a big performance increase in overall system responsiveness. But once you get past 8GB of RAM, RAM ceases to become that important. As for the CPU, a lot of games these days are CPU heavy (BF3 and Skyrim for example). As such, in some cases, the CPU will be more important than the GPU (SC2 for example).
garry26 said:
A current link of that ebay store
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-i7-96...=Desktop_PCs&hash=item5ae6f1f355#configurator
Click to expand...
The inclusion of so many shitty PSUs as well as the fact that setup is fairly old are clear signs that the build has a good chance of not being a good buy. Any computer enthusiast/builder worth his salt would know that Logisys PSUs are total pieces of shit. As such, that manufacturer has zero credibility with me.

garry26 said:
Windows XP- Yes it is 64bit. I just checked
Click to expand...
Good but still doesn't change the fact that it's not an optimal OS for a SSD. Stick with a regular drive until you can afford Windows 7 or Windows 8 and a SSD. So while your $1500 budget could easily fit a small SSD, I wouldn't do so due to your current OS.
garry26 said:
piece-by-piece issue I foresee
-Buying a part and seeing it drop $100 3 months later. I hoped you guys would let me know which parts drop in price less often, when abouts they drop in price, etc. So I would buy accordingly to minimize lose to price drops and to take advantage of price drops :)
Click to expand...
If we could predict when price drops or even price increases occured, we'd be rich. We can't really predict with a high level of certainty when price drops occurs, when prices might dramatically increases, or when sales occurs. For example, in December 2011, a series of floods struck Thailand. Unfortunately thats where a majority of hard drive manufacturers had their factories. The factories were flooded and prices for hard drives dramatically increased. Yes there were/are a bit of price gouging and fear mongering involved. But nonetheless, hard drive prices haven't been the same (i.e low). If we had predicted that, we would have been really rich.

In addition, no one could have predicted that Nvidia would price their current GTX 6xx series GPUs so well that AMD's higher-end GPUs would become fairly poor choices for the money. Then again, no one knows if AMD will further drop the price on their cards or not. Also, no one knows if Microcenter will still have the same deals they had the previous month. There have been times when MC has the same deals as the month before and other times when the deals were very different. No one predicted that SSDs would suddenly drop in price like they did early this year.

With that said, the only part thats currently on a stable/current trend is RAM: RAM prices have been going up over the past several months. As such, if current trend continues and barring a sudden uptick in production, RAM prices will be steadily increasing in price in the next several months. So if there's any part to buy first, it's the RAM.

And you seem to be forgetting all the other issues I brought up with buying piece by piece over several months. Those issues won't magically disappear by ignoring them.

Now, how come you just can't follow my option 3?
 
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I would say build priority should be for a gamer:

Pick a platform: Z77

Get enough ram cus it helps a ton and is cheap: Get 16GB, no lower than 8, more ram is better than better performing ram, but get 1600 DDR3 4GB matched sticks.

Get as nice GPU as possible. 670 is the one to get now, but you could try a lower recent amd gpu or a 500 series Nividia.

Get a 120GBish SSD + HD! Seriously, u thank me later. I'd upgrade to a SSD before upgrading my CPU in most setups, unless your CPU is older than the intel 920 CPU. Stick to intel 330/520 series and Samsung 830 series.

Get a good CPU, the lowest is the 2500K. No reason to order older than this at $200.

Get a good cooling setup so your box is not toasty gaming, heat is the enemy, haf xm, corsair H series CPU cooler with GT AP-15 fans in push pull will be perfect, not break banks and wont make wallets cry, and worth every penny. Does not matter if you get the top H80 model, but I'm done dealing with big heavy CPU heatsinks.

And get windows 7/8!!! How are you going to game on an old OS anyway? It's not well supported at this point. And honestly by the time that PC building book was published it'll be severely updated. You're better off reading websites that are up to date that have Monthly building advice

Edit: wow time to buy my ram then. Prices going up again???
 
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garry26 said:
Windows XP- Yes it is 64bit. I just checked
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I'm sorry to say this, but Windows XP x64 has never been that well supported by applications or games to begin with. In fact, there has never been a retail version of Windows XP x64 at all: The only legitimate way that you would have gotten XP x64 would have been through MSDN. Every single retail copy of Windows XP that was ever sold was strictly 32-bit IIRC. (By the way, Windows XP x64 is not the same OS as regular Windows XP at all; in fact, it was actually based on the Windows Server 2003 core rather than regular Windows XP.)

And Windows XP is now no longer legitimately supported any further for individual users. Although XP is currently in the Extended Support phase, which is set to expire in less than two years from now, Extended Support is legitimately applicable only to business and corporate users of the OS.

Therefore, you will need to factor in the cost of a new copy of Windows 7 in the budget: The games that he's planning to get will not run on XP x64 at all, and might not run on regular XP at all.
 
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NeoDiNardo said:
Pick a platform: Z77
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Since he's not overclocking, that opens up the H77 chipset as well.
NeoDiNardo said:
Get enough ram cus it helps a ton and is cheap: Get 16GB, no lower than 8, more ram is better than better performing ram, but get 1600 DDR3 4GB matched sticks.
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Do note that the RAM should also be rated at 1.5V or less. Any higher and you risk damage to the CPU.

NeoDiNardo said:
Stick to intel 330/520 series and Samsung 830 series.
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I have to add that the Crucial M4 and Plextor m3 series SSDs are also fairly solid.
NeoDiNardo said:
Get a good CPU, the lowest is the 2500K. No reason to order older than this at $200.
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Two things:
1) The OP isn't overclocking. As such, no need for a K series CPU unless the K series is actually cheaper than the non-K.
2) Where the hell are you seeing the 2500K for $200?

For his needs, he'll be fine with any non-K Intel Core i5 CPU. The Core i5 3450 or Core i5 2400 at $190 are solid choices for him.
NeoDiNardo said:
Edit: wow time to buy my ram then. Prices going up again???
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Ever so slightly. RAM that once was at $35 not too long ago are now at $40 and even $42. So yeah, RAM prices are going up just slightly.
NeoDiNardo said:
Not bad at all if that HD is any good.
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Not that great apaprently: According to Newegg, roughly a 30% failure rate. Then again, those who have problems tend to be more vocal with their opinions.
 
Can't argue with any of those points giving your reasoning. I'm not sure that I like the garbage collection on the M4, which has the potential for performance loss over the long-term. I'm not familiar with the Plextor, but that's a smaller company without a good sized validation process, Indeed the m3/m4 are solid performance for the money. But the Samsung 830 is a step up in my opinion, they have better validation processes and they're pretty much the current bargain choice for anandtech. Intel 520 is the performance choice. I have not read reviews on the Intel 330 however, but I plan on buying a 520 anyway so it wasn't on my list of things to do this week. Anandtech goes on to mention that while SSDs like the sand force from ocz can be great, having a big validation process really helps. There're not many players that can match Intel and Samsung in this regard.

I believe on occasion the 2500K was on sale for about $200 or $205. Definitely that low in Micro Center, but not everybody has that near them... Honestly I didn't check before I quoted that. The lowest I've seen that 3570K is $230. Of course not every processor comes with built-in GPUs, which I consider an advantage even if it's just uses as a backup between gpus, if you ever upgrade between selling them or whatnot. Or even if one just fails. Yes I did forget to mention the 1.5v on ram, I have 1.35 I think on mine.

True you don't need to overclock but nowadays the boards practically overclock themselves you might as well get a K processor but I suppose you could save some money and go with the non-K. Some of this is just me going with what I know I have no interest in the non-Z77 boards. Since you mentioned it I'll google it up and see just how they differ.
 
NeoDiNardo said:
True you don't need to overclock but nowadays the boards practically overclock themselves you might as well get a K processor but I suppose you could save some money and go with the non-K. Some of this is just me going with what I know I have no interest in the non-Z77 boards. Since you mentioned it I'll google it up and see just how they differ.
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Actually, you were misled about the "self-overclocking". You confused it with the Turbo Boost feature that every single i5 and i7 CPU has - K or non-K. That makes the K CPUs a waste of money for most people who don't intentionally overclock, unless that person is one of those people who uses the integrated IGP frequently or as his/her only GPU. Besides, even on an overclocking-capable motherboard, the K CPUs will generally not run at any higher speeds than a non-K CPU of the same nominal model number unless the owner/user intentionally overclocks the CPU (the singular exception is the i7-3770, whose non-K version is clocked 100MHz lower in the non-Turbo frequency than its K sibling).

And the H77 boards do not allow the user to intentionally overclock the CPU. However, they still support the Turbo Boost function if the CPU has one - only in this case, the only supported settings for Turbo Boost are On/Off (or Enabled/Disabled).
 
I found a 2500K for $220 delivered both at Amazon and newegg, used to be like $240 before the ivy bridges came out, but then you could spend a few more bucks and get the ivy bridge 3570K or as you mentioned any ivy bridge i5 would be a decent choice. An intel rep once told me that the 2500K was the biggest bargain they have ever released. Having owned it I kind of agree. Sandy bridges are still decent but now that we have ivy I guess it makes sense to just go with Ivy.
 
I wasn't referring to the auto turbo boost, ROG boards have an auto overclock function in the bios, I'm not sure but I think they also have a button for it right on the board itself.

Agreed that if you don't overclock it's potentially wasted money. But the 3570K is only $237 delivered on amazon. That's a decent price if nothing else. But we're starting to get into that bargain vs performance parts thing. As I've said, I always slant towards performance. I want that option overclock. Maybe I won't do it today but I may do it next year.
 
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NeoDiNardo said:
Tell that to be overclock button on my ROG motherboard, or the auto overclocking feature on the bios. I said practically automatic not completely!! But I agree that it's useless unless you plan to overclock, and not all boards have that feature. In fact I only overclocked it on one or two occasions last time, but I just like knowing I can and I will do it more in the future too.
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Fair enough.
 
Ha ha sorry I tried to edit my response to sound less aggressive but you quoted me before it took!
 
NeoDiNardo I never use sound cards so thats not an issue.

I just need a good quality mobo that will last, has the necessary connectors, and extra connectors (holes like I call them LOL) so I can plug things. Although some end up unused.

Danny Bui
Now, how come you just can't follow my option 3?
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Several reasons. (In order of importance)
1-I cant do 1k in 1mo "responsibly." I could for other things, but a PC is a non essential.
2- The Ball & Chain squawks when sudden "non essential" 4 digits are spent. The more non-essential, the more squawking. PC ranks high on non essential list :(
3- Buying all in 1mo, probably means less sales to take advantage off. Sales lessen squawking. I was forced to buy my previous PC, $300 & lasted 3.5yrs despite heavy gaming use by the ball and chain.
4- Setting aside 1K+ over 2-3mos and then buying wont work because ball and chain....
 
Sounds like the ball and chain is your underlying problem, maybe you should explain that spending $1k over 1 month is the same as spending $333 over 3 months which is the same as saving up $1k over 3 months then spending it.
 
garry26 said:
NeoDiNardo I never use sound cards so thats not an issue.

I just need a good quality mobo that will last, has the necessary connectors, and extra connectors (holes like I call them LOL) so I can plug things. Although some end up unused.

Danny Bui

Several reasons. (In order of importance)
1-I cant do 1k in 1mo "responsibly." I could for other things, but a PC is a non essential.
2- The Ball & Chain squawks when sudden "non essential" 4 digits are spent. The more non-essential, the more squawking. PC ranks high on non essential list :(
3- Buying all in 1mo, probably means less sales to take advantage off. Sales lessen squawking. I was forced to buy my previous PC, $300 & lasted 3.5yrs despite heavy gaming use by the ball and chain.
4- Setting aside 1K+ over 2-3mos and then buying wont work because ball and chain....
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Well, that's very, very bad news. The reason why I would have recommended spending so much money all at once because you would have ended up spending even more money (and sometimes much, much more money) in the long run by buying parts piece by piece. You would end up forfeiting all discounts and end up paying the full list price on each and every part. Thus, the system that you would have spent $1,000 for had you purchased all of the parts together would have ended up costing you at least several hundred dollars more if you buy the separate parts over a period of months. At that rate, he will be permanently stuck with a system that cannot run anything at all current or even recent whatsoever. This is because software publishers cannot support old equipment forever, and that eventually old software (or more specifically, the latest version of a software that's compatible with such old hardware) would no longer be supported at all by the publisher.

And that still does not cover the OS dilemma: Most current games require Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 SP1 just to even run at all.
 
garry26 said:
NeoDiNardo I never use sound cards so thats not an issue.

I just need a good quality mobo that will last, has the necessary connectors, and extra connectors (holes like I call them LOL) so I can plug things. Although some end up unused.

Danny Bui

Several reasons. (In order of importance)
1-I cant do 1k in 1mo "responsibly." I could for other things, but a PC is a non essential.
2- The Ball & Chain squawks when sudden "non essential" 4 digits are spent. The more non-essential, the more squawking. PC ranks high on non essential list :(
3- Buying all in 1mo, probably means less sales to take advantage off. Sales lessen squawking. I was forced to buy my previous PC, $300 & lasted 3.5yrs despite heavy gaming use by the ball and chain.
4- Setting aside 1K+ over 2-3mos and then buying wont work because ball and chain....
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Dude that is so fucked up. You need to either kick her ass to the curb or just buy an xbox.
 
LoL relax. Its 2.5months tops. I can get Win7, the case, PSU, and case fans first since those are less likely to go down in price anytime soon. Leaving the Big 3 (CPU, Vid Card, RAM), and mobo for later because those are more likely to drop. The Hard Drive(s) can be now or June depending.

You forget Im using a 4yr old system I got off that ebay store that didnt give me hardware issues until now. Once fixed, itll keep on ticking. Only reason for a new pc is that this will be obsolete soon like someone mentioned. So even 2011 parts will be 'advanced' compared to this soon-to-be dinosaur.

But yes, it's decided:
Win7
Intel 3570K CPU or Intel Core i5-2500K- depending on performance vs $$ ratio.
Other components are undecided as of yet.

Question: Win8 is free, but how do I get it on a brand new system with no OS? Do they send me a disk? Cus I cant DL it if the new system has no OS to begin with (sorry if i sound silly).

Oh, and you guys do realize May is over today right? So 'technically' 1.5mo's tops.
 
Sorry to hear, you may have to get creative. I still think intergrated ivy gpu is a good option till you can finish, then upgrade the gpu another month.

If anyone can get you threw a budget crisis, it's those other guys. They do this all day it seems, I just wondered in this forum. My system for example has a 3770K and 670 GTX, I look at expensive SSDs and cases as possibilities, and I don't so much as budget as buy away. Sometimes I even upgrade later. But I figure I save from laptops that everyone buys nowadays cus my machine is better for less and more flexible. And being single helps in building a kick ass PC. But I'm also not getting laid tonight, so it's a wash.
 
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NeoDiNardo said:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2012/05/18/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-may-2012/1


Boom!! Builders guild!!
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DO NOT USE. . I am honestly surprised to see this garbage on Bit-tech, I usually enjoy their articles.
The "Affordable All-Rounder May 2012" is a particularly horrible build.

Pairing a Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 $140 with an i3 2100. What!?. First off, if you are buying an i3 you don't need an overclocking chipset like a Z68. Secondly, you shouldnt be choosing a Z68 for $140 with any CPU when you can buy a midrange Z77 for the same price. How about using an H77, B75 or even H61 and using those savings on something productive instead of paying for overclocking features you wont use.

4gb 1600MHz DDR3. Why? Spend some of the money you are wasting elsewhere on 8gb of cheaper 1333

Why are they recommending a $30 aftermarket cooler for an i3? Is Arctic Cooling sponsoring that build? Ridiculous.

They suggest a $110 Enermax 525w PSU which is clearly inferior compared to the HX650 they suggest in the very next build for a mere $10 more. Both are overpriced for that build.

With the money they wasted with those selections you could have gotten an i5 CPU or upgraded the GPU to a 7850.
 
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