New Build "halp!"

[lathia]

Hello!

I think it's time to upgrade from my old, why did you buy that thing? 2004 system. I've patiently waited 5 years to upgrade, but I think it's time!

First of all, I'd like to point out this will be my 1st build and I'm prepared as much as youtube and reading can get me. Second, specs wise I'm completely illiterate. Lets be gentle with terminology and not abuse acronyms! I've mentioned in other threads I was interested in an ASUS G73 series laptop but, well.. I want more bang for my buck. My budget as it stands is $1400-1500. I do however need a new monitor, keyboard, mouse, and possible OP (torrenting on it atm but having trouble) so lets take into account that. Also, I currently don't play FFXI or XIV but, perhaps in the future I will. Using this build mostly for other games (FPSs, CPSX2, etc).

In an attempt to not look like a lazy ass, I decided to somewhat get started.

Monitor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-275-_-Product

Case - average size for a large chassis if that makes sense. Whatever has room inside to work with.

PS - 700W range? Corsair?

RAM - 6 gigs, DD3. Not sure about MHz or if that even matters. Corsair?

CPU - Here along with the motherboard is where I'm dumbfounded. I'd prefer an Intel for w/e reasons though. I know i7's are the latest if that helps... .

Motherboard - ^

GPU - ATI

HDD - oooof 1TB is fine. Is it best to get 2 HDDs and have 1 dedicated for OP (1x 200gigs 1x 750g for storage?)

DVD/CD R's - Not into Blu-Ray so DVD/CD unless I can be convinced or fit into budget

Keyboard & Mice - No personal preference, something cheap but good

Heatsink/Fans - Same as MB/CPU, I have no idea .

Well, I had some options for the rest, but I got overwhelmed with all the combo deals and what part to combo with =/. Since all these parts are brand driven, I've decided instead I'll fill it in with preferences and hope someone can work with that. I know I'm probably missing something to add but it's escaping me at the moment. If there are any further questions feel free please, and apologize for making you work with no pay! I'd really appreciate all the input, and sincerely thank you all in advance.

[Isiolia]

Monitor - IMO, just don't go cheap. Obviously, the monitor is a major part of your computing experience...a good one goes a long way.

Case - The Cooler Master HAF series cases are very popular at the moment, and not too pricey.

PSU - Largely dependent on what video card setup you plan to have. 700W range is likely fine unless you're looking to put multiple Fermi based cards in. There are plenty of good PSU makes/models. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. Other things to look at on them are an 80+ rating, single 12V rail (though nearly all are now), and possibly cabling options.

RAM - The amount you get will depend on the platform you go with. For an X58/Socket 1366 system, 6GB is usually the starting point, since they can utilize triple channel, thus 2GBx3 is common, or 12GB. If you go with a lower end platform, dual channel is more the norm, so 4GB is common, or 8 GB. For gaming purposes, you don't need lots of memory, so 4 or 6 GB is fine.
Speed matters to a point. You want something that at least matches the "stock" speed for your chosen platform. Having the option to run a faster standard is common, however, and having more capable memory can also be helpful if overclocking. If you're getting an i7, DDR3-1600 isn't bad idea, even if "stock" is 1333. Corsair is one of the preferred brands for RAM, but there are other good ones.

CPU - Intel currently has two primary desktop platforms. You have the socket 1156 chipsets/CPUs, and the socket 1366 ones. The former is set to be replaced in January or so, whereas the latter isn't seeing a replacement until next fall I think. Socket 1156 is the "mainstream" platform - it's cheaper all around, but doesn't have quite as robust a feature set. Primarily, the issue is that it has limited PCIe lanes, so multi-GPU setups are constricted a little, and there can be performance issues with things like USB 3.0 if added. That said, it's still a very functional platform, and tends to give you more bang for the buck. The popular thing for that is the i5-750 or 760, overclocked. It lacks Hyperthreading, but HT doesn't offer much for gaming, and tends to add a lot of heat when OC'ing anyway.
On the higher end, you have the X58 chipset and socket 1366. It's more the enthusiast/workstation platform, and has a more robust feature set in terms of the "little things". It's a better performing platform, but generally not drastically so. The popular CPUs for this platform would be the i7-920, 930, and 950, anything past that goes up in price quite a lot. There's not usually a lot of fuss made over exactly which CPU is used, since at least with enthusiasts, overclocking them is practically a given, and any of those will likely run at 3.6-4Ghz without much of an issue. Obviously, if you're running stock, the 950 is the fastest of the bunch.

GPU - The 6900 series boards are coming out this month (supposedly), but given your price bracket, and that you need a monitor and everything, the 6870 will likely suit just fine.

HDD - The popular thing to do right now is to use a Solid State Drive as your boot/application drive, with a normal HDD for data/large game installs. SSDs have extremely fast access times, which you can't match even with very high end traditional hard drives. Since part of what slows down your OS is jumping around looking at a lot of little files, the access speed can make a noticeable impact. That said, SSDs are also somewhat expensive for the space, and a decent size one may be hard to fit in your budget.
IMO, it's nice to split OS/apps and data regardless, so even if you don't get an SSD, I'd recommend getting an OS drive and a data drive.

Optical - Can always swap it later. You're not looking at a huge price difference - maybe around $20 for a DVD burner, whereas a Blu-ray burner is $100 or less now.

Input - Personal preference. Hard to go wrong with something like a Logitech MX500/518 to start with as a mouse. I'd just buy a $15 OEM Logitech or MS keyboard to start with. There are higher end models, and very legit reasons to want one...but if you're trying to stay under budget, you don't -need- a $100+ microswitch keyboard/etc to set the machine up and all.

Cooling - You will most likely want to get a better CPU cooler - bang for the buck models tend to be the Cooler Master 212+ or Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7.

OS - Personal opinion, but if you're spending $1500 on parts, saying you can't afford another $100 or so on a legit copy of Windows that you'll likely be using for years is kind of weak. Home Premium 64-bit is $99, Professional is like $139 for OEM license (meaning you can't transfer it to another set of hardware).


As an aside, I build a new machine for myself less than a month ago:

Silverstone Raven RV02 case
750W PC Power and Cooling PSU
ASUS Sabertooth X58 motherboard
6GB of Corsair Dominator RAM
Corsair H50 cooler
i7 950
Sapphire Radeon HD6870
OCZ Vertex II 120GB SSD
LG Blu-ray burner
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

...which would be a bit out of your budget, though if you went with a cheaper case/cooler, DVD burner, cheaper RAM, and either a smaller SSD or no SSD, it'd about work.

[sruon]

I took Isiola build as a base and modified it

i7 Build

Pros:
Slightly better performance
No additional fee if you do decide to go SLI/CF

Cons:
$1700

i5 build
Pros:
Fits budget ($1500)

Cons:
Requires to upgrade motherboard to SLI

I only added parts I knew were top quality in these build, you can probably save $200 on each of them by taking lower quality ones but that's not something I'd advise.

Bonus:
-Monitor : You really don't want to cheap on that one, the one you linked looks meh.
-Mouse : I added the G500 because once you'll try it for FPS, you will never look back on other mice.

Not included:
-Keyboard ($3-$100)
-HDD ($30-$60) & SSD ($100+++++++), I'd advise going the SSD(OCZ Vertex) + HDD route if budget permits, if not HDDx2

[lathia]

Thanks a bunch for the input both of you.

@Isiolia: The HD6870 seems to be out of stock. Probably will have to wait on that and hopefully not for long. The SSD option is one that I really desire, but at the very most I could only increase my budget to $1600.. and that's pushing it. I'd have to look at Sruon's modified build that was based on yours then decide and or modify. It sucks that a new Radeon is around the corner but oh well, can't keep up with GPUs.

@Sruon: Both of the links send me to an empty wish list. Tried logging on newegg from a different station but no luck. Could you re-post them please. Actually I'm trying to find it in the public wish list too .

Again, thanks a lot for the very detailed input. I'll bug you guys some more later!

[Isiolia]

The 6870 is a new model as well. The 6850 and 6870 just went on sale on the last friday in October. They're solid price/performance, and thus, there's a rush to buy them (the price is actually above MSRP at the moment). That said, nearly all of the models on sale are reference boards, so other than the sticker on the shroud, and warranty, they'll all be pretty much the same.

Though the 6900-series boards are right around the corner, they'll be filling the higher end (and thus more expensive) market segment. Given the budget you're working with, and some of the other things you want to work in, I don't know that they'd be a good fit for your build anyway - not that you can't fit a $400-500 card into a $1500 build, but more that you need to sacrifice things elsewhere to do it.

A further consideration/consolation is that whatever single card comes out is unlikely to beat Crossfired 6870s - nVidia's new GTX580 doesn't, and it's a $500 card. Granted, single-GPU setups are preferable, but the point is more that you'd have an upgrade path if you found that a single 6870 didn't cut it, and you'd wind up spending similar or less money than buying the best single GPU card on the market (this week anyway).

[sruon]

Sorry, never really used Newegg

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=21219528 i5 build

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=21219408 i7 build

[Isiolia]

Could probably get it a bit more in budget with a different monitor - not that I'm a huge fan of the transition to 16:9 or anything, but a decent 23-24" panel like that is about $100 less, and would certainly be usable.

A more budget CPU cooler would also save $50 or so, and you could save a little by using lesser memory in the i7 build. While I wouldn't say the G500 isn't worth it per se (I still use my G5 from years ago), I'd maybe put that in the category of "upgrade later" as well - a $10 OEM bulk Logitech or MS mouse would work fine and keep the initial order cost down. Could also likely get away with cheaper on the case - an Antec 300 or similar HAF case would likely be about $50-60. They're good, but more basic.

While I personally just said screw it and ordered the slightly nicer components for my build, I think you could knock $250-300ish off those builds, which would be enough to fit in a decent SSD and a data drive. If you can't stretch the budget a little more to accomodate them.

Also, while it doesn't affect the price, both lists have an IDE DVD burner in 'em...lotta newer boards don't even have IDE (Sabertooth X58 doesn't), so just be aware of that if you start building a shopping cart from one of those wishlists - you'd want to get the SATA version of the drive.

[sruon]

orz, sorry I put this together quickly, didn't realize IDE.

But yes, everything you said is true.

[lathia]

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=14301565

All right, spent a couple of minutes and here is what I've so far reduced in price. The HD6870 will be bought through amazon $255 free shipping. For a total of:
~$1522.

Sadly, with an OS + a keyboard/mouse that will put me over $1600. Help me "compromise" something that wont impact everything else much. I was looking at some heatsinks but I really like the one you're using. I say that only because I saw an installation video and it looked easy enough . The case doesn't seem to have an opening on the back panel for easy access to heatsink installation but that shouldn't be an issue. Btw, is a mid tower enough size to begin with lol? I'm looking at that SSD and it brings tears to my eyes to let it go!

Thanks

[sruon]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ezer%20Pro%207 -$50 < I have a different one but from same company, good stuff.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=asus%20VW246 -$50 < I have this monitor, you won't regret it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-610-_-Product +$5 but -$15 after rebate and it's a better SSD than the other I /think/
Can save $5 getting the combo motherboard + the g.skill ram (they're good, have them as well)

$1,319.90
-50
-50
+5
-5
$1,219.90
+130 (Windows)
$1,349.90
+255
$1,600.90 excluding mouse/keyboard

Are you a student by chance? Could save $100 on Windows that way.

[lathia]

Ohhhhh! The other LG monitor was actually $10 cheaper. Forgot to add the -$60 black Friday special. However, the reviews aren't that great and you can stand behind that model, which I like ^^. The heat sink seems okay too. The SSD dumbfounds me lol. Basically the same specs besides the different model name. Can't find any difference on google too. Will take your advice though, thanks!

Puts me at $1499 no OS/Mouse/Keyboard.

I am actually a student also. A $30 Windows 7 sounds outstanding. To google!

Offer closed since January T_T.

[Isiolia]

Check with your school regarding Windows. If they sell bulk licensed software, they may have a good deal on it.

[lathia]

Unfortunately, the book store is run by an independent company. I will not be able to find anything remotely better than an online OEM version. If it's being sold that is