PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Ramor]

Only thing I'm not to sure about is the choice of video cards. Any advice on the cards? I've never used nVidia before, so I can't comment or make any decisions on their products.

I've heard the AMD cards with eyefinity are real nice for a triple monitor setup on one card, though I'm mostly unfamiliar with AMD cards because all of the ones I've ever bought have failed on me in less than 6 months. If you want an nvidia card though, the GTX560 Ti is pretty amazing for the price range (250$~, probably less come black friday/cyber monday) and is pretty easy to OC and is of course easy to SLI like most nvidia cards and the card itself idles/under load runs pretty cool compared to a lot of newer cards, so if you're just running air even on stock voltages you could OC one of those things pretty easy. Though I'm not real familiar with multiple monitor setups as I've always used one so I can't really speak to that aspect of your build from an nvidia standpoint.

[Binkie]

New build that I'm going to be purchasing in the next 2 weeks. Going to be doing a lot of PhotoShop + hardcore gaming on this computer running 3 monitors. Also, I know I don't have a PSU in that picture but their currently out of stock on the Corsair 1200watt supply I was eyeing.


I have a WD 1TB HDD at the house that I recently purchased, so I don't need another.

Spoiler: show

http://i44.tinypic.com/oac5s6.png

Only thing I'm not to sure about is the choice of video cards. Any advice on the cards? I've never used nVidia before, so I can't comment or make any decisions on their products.

2nd gen i7s use dual channel ram, not triple like the 1st gens.

[Auspice]

Since my 4 year old PC died today, I'm suddenly in the market for an upgrade. The only things I need are a new mobo, CPU, GPU, and RAM. Hopefully I can get a machine that will be able to play Skyrim maxed out or damn close to it. I'm still sorta just starting out with shopping and I'm not seeing much difference between the Intel Core i5-2500 3.3GHz and the Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz; well, not $100 difference at least.

[Ramor]

Since my 4 year old PC died today, I'm suddenly in the market for an upgrade. The only things I need are a new mobo, CPU, GPU, and RAM. Hopefully I can get a machine that will be able to play Skyrim maxed out or damn close to it. I'm still sorta just starting out with shopping and I'm not seeing much difference between the Intel Core i5-2500 3.3GHz and the Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz; well, not $100 difference at least.

i5-2500k is your best bet unless you inherently understand the differences in computing between the 2500k/2600k, just stick to the i-5. RAM is cheap as shit and GPUs are also pretty cheap, read a few pages back on the people building new computers and you should have a pretty good idea of what to look for

[Auspice]

Righto, here's the build I've come up with. Reusing my old monitors, case, and PSU(CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...imic/newpc.jpg

I'm thinking about dropping the SSD and just partition the Caviar for my OS install and games; or would that be a bad idea?

Am I wasting my money on anything silly?

Once I build a machine I completely stop looking at PC hardware so my knowledge is extremely outdated since my last build was in early 2008 lol

[Caiyuo]

Fucking christ at that WD black price, if that's adjusted for flood interruption I might look and see if you can find something fucking reasonable somewhere locally

[Auspice]

Oh, I forgot about that! Maybe I will hold off on the WD and get the SSD for the time being. What's the "normal" price on those?

Also, tossing around the idea of upgrading my monitors and getting a couple of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236052

My main reason for wanting to upgrade is so I can hook my PS3 up to one of the monitors but I'm not sure how I'd hook the sound into my old Logitech speakers, would I use one of these? http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

EDIT: The Logitech speakers came with a little box that you plug the red/white audio cords into and the other side has plugs for the orange/green/black. If I nabbed 3 of those Y splitters I'd be able to hook it all up, right?

[Caiyuo]

Well, for usual price I can honestly say I've never seen an SSD drive actually be the cheaper between the two. I can't say off the top of my head as I'm not sure what's special about current WD Blacks compared to Blues since I thought Blacks were the 10k rpm models, but for reference, 1TB Samsung F3s could be had for about $60 a few months ago during sales, so that price is soaking up a ridiculous amount of your budget.

Also, HDMI from the PS3 to the monitor? If they're computer speakers you could just use the headphone jack on the monitor, otherwise someone else would be better suited to answer.

[Binkie]

You have the wrong socket motherboard there.

[Auspice]

Also, HDMI from the PS3 to the monitor? If they're computer speakers you could just use the headphone jack on the monitor, otherwise someone else would be better suited to answer.

I'd like to be able to have my speakers hooked up as normal to the PC and also have the PS3 connected to it as well so I don't have to unplug or switch shit around all the time.

You have the wrong socket motherboard there.

Well shit, I did have http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130574 but thought I could save some money by switching; too bad I didn't pay attention to the socket. Was also considering this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131706

[Senji]

Operate off of the ssd for now.

I would upgrade your gpu, atm its by far the weakest link.

We should get a headline saying not to buy any hds for a bit. I was shocked when I read that manufactures are normally ahead of the game supply side by only about a week.

[Ramor]

I'd like to be able to have my speakers hooked up as normal to the PC and also have the PS3 connected to it as well so I don't have to unplug or switch shit around all the time.



Well shit, I did have http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130574 but thought I could save some money by switching; too bad I didn't pay attention to the socket. Was also considering this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131706

personally i like the p67 set, especially paired with the 2500 it seems to be all around friendly.

but if you're willing to drop the cash for lack of space for a SSD i can say personally that with your OS+steam (or whatever you'd use a lot) on those things it's fast as shit as most modern computers the HDD is actually the bottleneck since they can only read/write so fast compared to your RAM/CPU speeds being so high on almost everything these days. not that it's a huge issue, just sort of one of those min-maxing deals at this point. personally i'd run with a SSD then get either an external or a WD blue for space.

[Isiolia]

My main reason for wanting to upgrade is so I can hook my PS3 up to one of the monitors but I'm not sure how I'd hook the sound into my old Logitech speakers, would I use one of these? http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

EDIT: The Logitech speakers came with a little box that you plug the red/white audio cords into and the other side has plugs for the orange/green/black. If I nabbed 3 of those Y splitters I'd be able to hook it all up, right?

You can certainly hook up a PS3 with HDMI for video, and then using the composite jacks for audio. From what I can tell, your Logitechs actually have two sets of inputs - the stereo composite jacks, and the Green/Black/Orange 3.5mm jacks for surround sound from a PC (at least, that's what newer ones have built-in). If that's the case, you shouldn't need splitters, assuming your PC is hooked up via the 3.5mm jack(s).

Technically, if a monitor has a headphone jack you can use that to pull audio off HDMI as well - but keep in mind that it'll be downmixed to two-channel audio (as per HDCP spec). 'course, if you're only hooking up a PS3 with stereo cables, then that's all you'd get anyway.

[Arkanna]

New build that I'm going to be purchasing in the next 2 weeks. Going to be doing a lot of PhotoShop + hardcore gaming on this computer running 3 monitors. Also, I know I don't have a PSU in that picture but their currently out of stock on the Corsair 1200watt supply I was eyeing.


I have a WD 1TB HDD at the house that I recently purchased, so I don't need another.

Spoiler: show

http://i44.tinypic.com/oac5s6.png

Only thing I'm not to sure about is the choice of video cards. Any advice on the cards? I've never used nVidia before, so I can't comment or make any decisions on their products.

A little late I know, but my only recommendations:

1) You're going with a really strong machine there, so get an i7-2600k, not a vanilla i7-2600. It's an overclocker's motherboard, might as well drop a few extra bucks on an overclocker's CPU.

2) Someone else already said it, but Sandy Bridge i7's use dual-channel memory, not tri-channel. 8GB or 16GB are your options.

3) I'd go with a different SSD. Your motherboard can make full use of a Sandforce-2281 SATA3 SSD, so I'd go for it. They have higher transfer rates than the Crucial you chose. I personally run two 60GB Corsair Force GT's in RAID 0 as a boot drive, it's fucking amazing and 120GB is plenty for a boot drive. The 60GB version is $120, the 120GB version is $202, the 180GB version is $310, and the 240GB version is $420 (if you absolutely need that much space on your boot drive).

Also, the video card should be fine.

*edit* Oh, and a 1200W PSU is overkill for that system, you could get away with a good 750W, or a decent 850W+.

[Auspice]

Operate off of the ssd for now.

I would upgrade your gpu, atm its by far the weakest link.

We should get a headline saying not to buy any hds for a bit. I was shocked when I read that manufactures are normally ahead of the game supply side by only about a week.

Is $250 reasonable for a 2TB WD Black Caviar?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136792

As far as the GPU goes, I'm not sure where my best option for upgrading should be. Is ATI still ahead of NVidia? I'm torn between these two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...60%20ti%20hawk
Tom's Hardware puts the 6950 in the same range as the 560GTX TI but the ATI is $20 more and has 2gb instead of the NVidia's 1gb, is the $20 difference worth it even if they're in the same league?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127562

Also, is my 500W Corsair PSU going to be able to power all this?

[Isiolia]

Is $250 reasonable for a 2TB WD Black Caviar?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136792

Yes and no. I would recommend you go very modest with the HDD, or reuse one for the initial build. Drive prices have skyrocketed of late due to production issues (here).

It might not be a bad price right now, but it's a terrible price as compared to a few months ago.

[Arkanna]

Is $250 reasonable for a 2TB WD Black Caviar?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136792

As far as the GPU goes, I'm not sure where my best option for upgrading should be. Is ATI still ahead of NVidia? I'm torn between these two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...60%20ti%20hawk
Tom's Hardware puts the 6950 in the same range as the 560GTX TI but the ATI is $20 more and has 2gb instead of the NVidia's 1gb, is the $20 difference worth it even if they're in the same league?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127562

Also, is my 500W Corsair PSU going to be able to power all this?

ATi vs nVidia is really a toss-up. I'd go with whichever one you're more comfortable with from a brand-loyalty perspective. 2GB frame buffer will help if you game at high resolutions but really, only then (with high resolutions being north of 1920x1200).

Is your 500W PSU a quality unit? That's stretching it pretty hard in my opinion.

[Auspice]

ATi vs nVidia is really a toss-up. I'd go with whichever one you're more comfortable with from a brand-loyalty perspective. 2GB frame buffer will help if you game at high resolutions but really, only then (with high resolutions being north of 1920x1200).

Is your 500W PSU a quality unit? That's stretching it pretty hard in my opinion.

Here's the one I have, it was highly reviewed when I bought it 4 years ago and actually 520W(oops!):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139001

I found a cheap open box special on a decently sized HDD that will hold me over until the prices come back down. :D

[Arkanna]

That's a good-quality PSU. I guess all you can do is try it. If you get bluescreens or other instability, that's the first thing I would look at though. 520W is below my nominal baseline these days (700W+).

[Gryffes]

I got a pair of these for PS3 + PC use:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Surro...0349040&sr=8-1

It has multi input, so my pc is connected via normal cable, and I'm using the RCA ( white+red cables from component out ) from PS3> Speakers.

Nice convenient setup that requires 0 fucking around.