PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Treble]

I set aside about $1300~1500 since its my first machine, the card ate up about $550 of that with warranty. Appearance doesn't matter too much, I care more about functionality.
As for HDD space, I figured small as possible for OS on one, maybe 750g or 1TB for the other.

[Jojimbo]

Could try this, MB isn't as good as the others and you could save $70 with a cheaper HDD

Or this is a better MB/cooler, no SSD

RAM in both of these can be OCed to 10-10-10-28 2133Mhz or so

EDIT:: Looking at the budget, might have to use the first one without an SSD

[oblit]

@Treble, for 3D modeling/rendering you will need a beefy processor more than a beefy GPU. The 2600K is not overkill as a matter of fact, I would recommend i7-3820 or an i7-3930K for 3D modeling/rendering machine. If you want to stick to Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge, I would recommend any i7.

Nvidia's 600 series are so power efficient so your 750 watts is more than enough, You could even run maybe two 680s in SLI as long as the power supply is 80+ certified.

For RAM, Corsair, G. Skill, Crucial brand are good, the Samsung Green 30nm DIMMs are also really good for overclockers. I would look for a ram that would run 1600mhz to 1866mhz @1.5v, you also want to look at the timings, you would want timings like 9-9-9-24.

SSDs are too cheap right now it's silly not to buy. SSDs are well worth it. I have four desktop computers and three laptops at home and they all running SSDs. Even my 3 year old's gaming computer runs in SSD.

I build 6-12 PCs a month and I always tell people not to skimp on a case. You will regret it, if you buy a cheap case, your system will run hot and loud and could cause overheating issues. Modern PC parts have built in safety features that lowers the speed when the components are reaching the heat threshold.

I would only recommend 40-60 dollar cases for PCs that have 200-300 dollars worth of components in it. If you have 1000 dollars worth of parts in it don't you think it's worth spending a little more for a good case to protect what's inside?

[Jojimbo]

I would have suggested a X79 board but 3820 isn't considerably better than i7 (advantage is that it uses an X79 MB which is a bit out of price bracket anyway) and the 3930k is too expensive as well.

Would have to increase budget to get a better case/mb/cpu/cooler and still maintain a half-decent hdd/psu

[Treble]

I'm willing to overstep the budget a bit if it means giving my machine better longevity. The overheating issue is what I was concerned with in getting a good case, but I'm pretty new to building so I didn't know how much was too much.
Thanks for the input on the SSD, I really wasn't sure about them; the last time I'd discussed them with someone, the SSDs were having stability issues but that was admittedly last year.
If I don't render, would I still need as beefy of a processor? Not that its something I should want to skimp on, but building a complete beast of a machine might chew up more of my bank account than I'm comfortable parting with just yet. Rendering generally takes more than one computer can handle so I don't know that planning for rendering animated scenes would be feasible (I can use machines at work for that instead).

[Jojimbo]

What else would it be used for? If gaming/general use then an i5 is all you need, i7s are only really good if you need the HTing for CPU intensive programs or need the extra PCIe lanes (in the case of 2011 i7s).

Oh and I would recommend IB over SB if you are planning SLI at some point, PCIe 3.0 x8/x8 would help (some even say anything less than 3.0 x16/x16 is bad) but you only need that power for multi-monitor setups

[oblit]

Well for gaming processor, I would only recommend an i5-2500k and that is all you really need for gaming. i7 for gaming is just an icing on cake lol. 3D rendering/Video editing is handled differently than game rendering. GPU takes care of the game rendering. It's kinda hard to explain though lol.

SSDs are much better nowadays than when it was new. You could get one of best SSD for cheap nowadays. For example Crucial M4 128GB for $59.99 plus tax or Crucial M4 256GB for $149.99 plus tax. The 128GB used to cost around $250 bucks.

When I put together a build for my friends, I make them pick the processor and the video card, then I would pick the rest of the parts and still give them a few options. If you can do that, I could make my recommendations depending on your budget.

@Jojimbo, 3930K is expensive, $589.99 retail but the same processor can be had for $164 plus shipping and tax. Take advantage of the retail edge program, if you want more details about this let me know.

If you look at my build, it cost about 3.8k-4k retail but I only spent 1.5K on it lol. Yes, it sounds unbelievable but I have a spreadsheet on the cost. It takes a bit of time but it was well worth it.

[Treble]

To put it the best way, I don't know any better between the processors. My boss suggested going for i7 because modeling in Maya can be CPU intensive, but a friend of mine said i5 would be fine, so I got conflicting information. Its probably not something to skimp on though so I guess I should just go for the i7.
I might go dual-monitor in the future (useful for texture mapping) but for now I'm just planning on one monitor. Could you explain the difference between IB and SB? I'm not at all familiar with a lot of this terminology, but I really appreciate the help.

[oblit]

IB natively supports PCIE Gen 3.0 and has a non 3rd party USB chipset. It also has a better version of Lucid Virtue.

[Buffy]

Thank you Oblit and Jojimbo. I decided to spend a few extra bucks and settle for something out of the Radeon 6870 HD series. However, I'm stuck between SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6870, XFX Double D HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB, and the HIS Radeon HD 6870 1 GB. The cesspool that is Google isn't too helpful in a 2 minute search.

FYI, I recently bought the XFX 7850, and have had some trouble with flickering in full screen, primarily in older games (CIV IV is the one it is most pronounced in). When I bought it on tigerdirect, it had zero comments. The performance of the card has been quite good, but I'm not sure if its the card, the driver, or the age of the game causing my issues.

[Buffy]

To put it the best way, I don't know any better between the processors. My boss suggested going for i7 because modeling in Maya can be CPU intensive, but a friend of mine said i5 would be fine, so I got conflicting information. Its probably not something to skimp on though so I guess I should just go for the i7.
I might go dual-monitor in the future (useful for texture mapping) but for now I'm just planning on one monitor. Could you explain the difference between IB and SB? I'm not at all familiar with a lot of this terminology, but I really appreciate the help.

I recently purchased the I7-3820 and it's a freaking tank. I had ffxi x3 and ffxiv open at the same time and CPU usage didn't break 30%. This is the link to the one I purchased: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=1884773

[Jojimbo]

Ivy Bridge is the most recent generation of intel core CPUs (i5 3570k and i7 3770k), Sandy Bridge is last gen (2500k/2600k)

IB has some new features compared to SB, native USB3.0, SATA3.0 and PCIe 3.0 (SB had third party USB3.0 and maybe SATA3? I forgot), it's better clock for clock by 5-15% but can't OC as far as SB can do so they tend to come out even if you are doing extreme(ish) OCing, uses less power though and has much better iGPU (not a concern if using dedicated GPU though).

By multi-monitor I meant surround/eyefinity where you are gaming across three screens, just having additional monitors active puts minimal strain on a modern GPU

@oblit: never heard of the retail edge program, is it some US only thing?

[oblit]

@Jojimbo, yes it's a US thing, sorry I didn't realize you were in UK. It's dirt cheap though, 164 for a 580 dollar CPU lol. I'm working on a 2nd one for my wife's PC, she is running 2700K right now but I could sell the 2700K and make money.

[Treble]

Oh, derping. Ivy Bridge vs Sandy Bridge, I get it now.
I'm guessing I should go for the IB i7 3770 (k or not?), and my gtx 680 is already being shipped. That's already around $900 of the $1500 or so that I set aside for this. I'm a bit uneasy spending much over my budget but I'll be willing to do so if it'll get me a good machine.

Edit: That processor Buffy posted looks relatively strong and is a bit cheaper than the others I was looking at, how does it compare to the other choices though?

[Ayuriae]

For example Crucial M4 128GB for $59.99 plus tax or Crucial M4 256GB for $149.99 plus tax. The 128GB used to cost around $250 bucks.
.

Where can you find this? I've only google'd and got 130ish for the 128 GB.

[oblit]

Where can you find this? I've only google'd and got 130ish for the 128 GB.

Wait until Amazon has it listed for $79.99 then order through staples then call or go to live chat, have them price match amazon and use 25 off 75 coupon.

Your total will be around 65 bucks after tax

[Jojimbo]

Oh, derping. Ivy Bridge vs Sandy Bridge, I get it now.
I'm guessing I should go for the IB i7 3770 (k or not?), and my gtx 680 is already being shipped. That's already around $900 of the $1500 or so that I set aside for this. I'm a bit uneasy spending much over my budget but I'll be willing to do so if it'll get me a good machine.

If you are doing CPU intensive stuff that doesn't require w/e the thing is that VMs can use then get the k and OC, you will get a lot more power out of the CPU.

[oblit]

It was funny because when Amazon did this, the 64GB was only $10 less.

[Buffy]

Oh, derping. Ivy Bridge vs Sandy Bridge, I get it now.
I'm guessing I should go for the IB i7 3770 (k or not?), and my gtx 680 is already being shipped. That's already around $900 of the $1500 or so that I set aside for this. I'm a bit uneasy spending much over my budget but I'll be willing to do so if it'll get me a good machine.

Edit: That processor Buffy posted looks relatively strong and is a bit cheaper than the others I was looking at, how does it compare to the other choices though?

Make sure you sockets match!

The one I posted is a LGA2011 socket, so make sure w/e motherboard you have decided on has the same socket listed.

edit: also the one I linked doesn't come with a fan. You can get a good fan easily though, that might account for the difference in price you are seeing.

[oblit]

@Treble, The 3820 is good but it's not unlocked, that means you can only overclock it by adjusting the BLCK. If you have microcenter near you, you could buy the 3820 for for $219.99(I think) plus $50 to $75 dollars off motherboard.