PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Overburn]

Ah, that was the other thing that I forgot to mention since I thought it had been an updated screenshot of my shopping cart when I changed it. That was replaced with this.

[Not Kuno]

Need a laptop. I have 3 requirements:

Cheap
Can play FFXI
Trackball (I think that's what it's called.. the little stub you use as a mouse in the middle of the keyboard)


The last one I think is going to be the hardest to find. Anyone have any suggestions? I know nothing about laptops so this isn't my area of expertise at all. The only laptop I could ever use was my old one, and that was cause it had a little thing in the middle for a mouse. I hate any sort of touch shenanigans.

[Purrrfect]

Need a laptop. I have 3 requirements:

Cheap
Can play FFXI
Trackball (I think that's what it's called.. the little stub you use as a mouse in the middle of the keyboard)


The last one I think is going to be the hardest to find. Anyone have any suggestions? I know nothing about laptops so this isn't my area of expertise at all. The only laptop I could ever use was my old one, and that was cause it had a little thing in the middle for a mouse. I hate any sort of touch shenanigans.

Just to clarify, a trackball is :

Spoiler: show

http://c2mw4.com/img/product/apple_powerbook.jpg

What you want is usually a pointing stick or track stick or mouse stick.

[Isiolia]

Pretty much anything by Lenovo should have that. Otherwise may want to look at business models.

[KCem]

What is the difference between an AMD and Intel processors? And which would I be better off with?

I'm looking to build my first PC over the summer and I'm pretty n00b with this stuff (but saving money is a priority). My main question is will the difference affect me at all, given that the most taxing things I'll want to run on the machine for FFXIV/FFXI and Age of Empires Online (maybe Battlefield 3, if I don't pick it up on PS3).

I've seen some performance comparisons with Intel chips having a clear lead, but will any of that make any difference to my light gaming needs? And is the performance difference worth the extra price? I don't mind paying a little more if it's worthwhile.

I googled for an answer but just got indecisive opinions and fanboys.

[Isiolia]

There are plenty of actual differences between Intel and AMD processors. The practical difference is that it'll affect the chipset/motherboard you need to support it. Past that, it's a matter of performance for the money, which is always in flux.
A general answer is that AMD often beats out Intel in bang for the buck at lower price points, and Intel (lately) has tended to rule the mid/high end price points. AMD does have a new product line coming out shortly though.

IMO, if you can afford to work it into your system, an i5 2500k is still the ruling price/performance sweet spot. If you can't (or don't want to) fit that into your build, then comparison shop between i3s and AMD chips.

Gaming in general is not as CPU heavy as other tasks - it can still depend on the game, but by and large your GPU will matter more. A $1k CPU with a $60 GPU will struggle, a $120 CPU with a $200 GPU will run anything on the shelf nicely (on your average display configuration at least).

[KCem]

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of help I needed. I think I'll go down the i5 route as you have suggested.

[Kurokikaze]

My friend linked me to this and its actually fairly decent breakdown:

Spoilered for huge.

Spoiler: show

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1306501588

[Amastacia]

Yeah, that's not bad at all.

Cases are always kind of handwavey, especially once you're out of the bargain basement level, since people have widely varying tastes, and not many people do good case reviews (e.g. test airflow, actually build systems in them and compare apples to apples, etc.).

PSUs I'd harrumph a little at the high end, there are much better options than what is being suggested there (all of their suggestions are old models), but not bad choices for budget end. If you're building an "Enthusiast" grade PC, you shouldn't be settling for "any 80+ unit" when you can easily take an 80+ Gold that's actually well-designed and built home for under $150.

[Orph]

Was looking for some advice on a PC I'm looking to build. I picked out most of the parts from reading this topic and am trying to see if there are any changes I should make. My last computer, which I rushed and bought because my laptop broke was destroyed by the post office when I sent it home. They should be giving me a check for $810 by the end of next week. That is roughly how much i have to spend. I took out the hard drive and the gpu from that computer so I'm not looking to buy either of them at the moment. Here is what I have picked out so far:

Intel 15 2500k: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072
Asus P8P67: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131705
Seasonic Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151098
Corsair RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145345
Computer Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129066

The heat sink everyone recommends is out of stock so I need to look into some other ones. This is my first PC build so I am kinda just reading reviews and guides so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Amastacia]

I'm sure the Hyper212 is in stock somewhere. Don't always have to buy everything from Newegg.

Everything there looks good, only thing of note missing is GPU, but I imagine you're looking at the GTX 560 Ti, Radeon 6950, etc. Either of which would be plenty kickass.

[Almaut]

I would also recommend looking for the Hyper212 at a local shop. My local fry's had it for 24.99 which most were actually open boxed to 22.99 simply because I think people bought it without taking into account how tall the thing is. I have the Antec nine hundred two case and I had to remove the side panel fan just to get the thing to fit properly.

[Jodwahh]

Lookin at gettin this rig built and then shipped to me. If you guys could give it a once over and recommend anything then please do.


Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE


Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics


Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI


Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)


Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready


Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 130MB/sW)


2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)


1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£48)


Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT


Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)


Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)

[Almaut]

If you're willing to go with a different brand SSD wise, I would look into something that utilizes SATA 6GB/s which would give you twice as much read and nearly three times as much write speed for roughly around the same price per GB's. Something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227706 would be a good example.

[Jodwahh]

Ahh yeah I didn't notice that was a 3 gb/s SSD. I'll certainly change that to a different one. Anyone else notice anything off or should that be about good to go?

edit: Also, thanks!

[Ohemgee]

So when are the Ivory bridge chips coming out?

[Boyiee]

Got a friend who needs some new internals. Cpu/Mobo/Ram and a HDD or SSD if the price fits. He wants to spend $425. He doesn't think he'll overclock. He plays a ton of WoW, cod2 at tournament level, and wants to be able to play SWtor.

Since no OC, and with that list of games... I was thinking i5 2500? Which may leave room for an SSD+HDD combo. Any suggestions? I haven't built a sandy bridge setup, waiting till the 2011's at the end of the year. Sandy is dual channel right?

edit: lol going to be no room for ssd... Pretty sure that $425 is a set number.

edit2: This is what I've come up with so far, but it is slightly over the price I wanted.

Mobo+CPU combo $321.98
Ram $42.99
HDD $43.99

comes to 457.66 with tax and shipping. I might have some coupons I can use though.

[Caiyuo]

balls, they just had a -15% memory sale a few days ago, too. There's a -$10 off $50+ for new customers (NEWCUSTOMER10) if you can wrangle that, though.

[Boyiee]

Well I can,t but maybe he can. Think I've spent over 10k on newegg by this point.

Had some sweet coupons last week after buying something but they were 72hr only. He can probably wait a few days since hes been on his laptop this long as it is.

[Caiyuo]

Yeah I've been flipping through slickdeals because I saw lots of 10/15% off coupons recently as well as some promo codes for recent purchased but nothing I can find now seems to work, at least not with my account if they're not available openly.