PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Treble]

Unfortunately I'm not anywhere near where those stores are located.
@Buffy: Thanks for mentioning that, I didn't even know that's what the sockets were. A lot of the mobos suggested were LGA1155 but I did see an expensive Sabertooth that has the same sockets.

To recap, my only current purchases are these:
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130771
Mouse: http://amzn.com/B0055QZ216 (sniped for $20 during an amazon sale)

All other considerations:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/aLk2
Up past $1600 without case, monitor and optical drive though. Yikes.

[oblit]

Where are you located Treble?

I have tons of computer parts laying around, mostly in new condition, some are still sealed in box.

Asus 24" LED monitors for $145
Asus 23" LED monitors for $125
Asus optical drive $10
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm $75

If you are considering Hyper 212, you should just buy Thermaltake Frio instead, it's now $29.99 after $10 MIR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106150

It was $65 bucks last week, and it has been on retail for 65-89 bucks for a while.

It's a lot better than 212, Frio has 2 fans, thicker heat pipes, more heat pipes than Hyper 212. The 212 is overrated because it was one of the best CPU coolers and the cheaper ones years ago. But now people make better parts. To be honest, I wouldn't pay more than $5 for the Hyper 212. Because even the better Corsair A50 goes on sale for $5 and the two fan version A70 go on sale for $10.

[Treble]

Columbia, South Carolina. Closest one of those stores is in Atlanta, GA which is usually a 3~4 hour drive.
Are those monitors True Color? I do illustration/graphic design type stuff as well, so color fidelity is important (though I don't know what the difference looks like myself).
Prefer DVD-writeable and BR playable at least on the optical drive, how much more expensive would that run?
And yeah, I looked at the Frio when I first started considering building, but saw how popular the Hyper 212 was when I was reading through this thread so I figured it was the best bet. I'll go with the Frio though, I think.

[oblit]

Well yeah like I said Hyper 212 was the best years ago. But now it's way behind new HSF's lol. Check this out http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...id=2523&page=5

At low and high settings TT frio beats the 212.

Anyways, if you want a true color. I have Dell IPS monitors, but these are expensive lol. I was using two 23" Ultra Sharp IPS monitors before I started 3D vision gaming. After seeing Nvidia 3D Vision there is no way i'm going back to flat gaming. It's that good! It's not the same as IMAX or any other 3D gimmicks out there lol.

Anyways I also have Samsung BR drive, These normally retails for 60-80 bucks. I'm selling one for $45. I wish you lived closer, I'll hook you up lol.

[Fairy-Killer]

I'm building a rig of my own for the first time, with the intent of doing 3D modeling and possibly animation (Maya/Zbrush) at home as well as some gaming. I set aside a relatively large budget for this, but I still want to make sure I'm not missing any deals or spending more than I need.

I already bought a video card, decided to go big on it (EVGA gtx 680) since I'm upgrading from more than archaic gear. I kinda want to tailor my build around this purchase and the fact I'd do 3D modeling but I don't know how it will affect my other parts choices.

I bookmarked that PSU Corsair 750w power supply mentioned a little earlier in the thread but haven't purchased it yet -- that should be enough power for what I want to do, right? As long as I'm not rendering, I think.

I know I want a SLI-capable mobo in case I feel the need to use a second card in the future, but beyond that I don't really know what to choose. I was told go with Sabertooth or P8Z77-V Pro, but what will be best for my needs?

Processor: I was looking at the i7 2600K, but I'm not sure if that's too much or not.

RAM: I was also told to get at least 16 gigs of RAM, but looking at all the different types of RAM, its confusing for a first-timer. People I asked recommend Ripjaws though.
Case: I really have no idea beyond "good space and ventilation/cooling". I was looking at the Cooler Master HAFs (932 and X) but they're pricey, open to other options. Also not sure whether I'd need additional fans or not.

Hard drives: Figured I would go with two, but I was told SSD isn't really worth the price tag yet and that I could get more for less money by going with regular HDDs.

Other than that, I don't really know what to look for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Unless your programs are using hyperthreading, I wouldn't exactly suggest an i7. Even then the $100+ mark up is questionable. The i5-3570k is one of the best CPUs and overclocks well on stock voltage. If you don't plan on overclocking, don't get a K processor as the extra money will be worthless. Damn you for getting a GTX 680. They were all out of stock so I settled for a HD 7970, but was able to fully overclock it to my desire. As for the motherboard, I *cannot* suggest the Asrock Z77 Extreme4 as others mentioned previously as mine came with the top PCI-e port nonfunctional. This kinda defeats the SLI aspect of your rig. For you, yes I would suggest 16 GB of RAM doing rendering and such. I think the performance gaps are worth noting between 1600 MHz and 1866 MHz but after that, they tend to drop off quickly. Personally, I purchased 16 GB of 1866 MHz Ripjaw Xs. Hard drives... I grabbed 2 SSDs as I have a 2 TB external and they were extremely cheap ($70 a pop), I cannot stress enough how snappy everything is with a SSD. My restart times are 20~ seconds. Also, case wise, I'm completely happy with my Rosewill Thor v2, I really don't know if a HAF would really be that much greater than this. I'll build my PC on pcpartpicker and send you the link so you can see what I did.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/aLCK

[Treble]

I wish I did too, this place is almost as barren for jobs as it is for technology. I dunno about 3D vision, it hurts my eyes if I look at it too long and if I'm going to be using it for working on 3D models... well, that would be kind of awesome, but perhaps impractical.
I think I got confused between the Deep Color and True Color; a lot of LCDs I'm seeing are 24bit which is what was recommended to me. I don't need a huge monitor either, 23" at max I guess. Almost as big as my bedroom TV, lol. Does LED backlighting make a big difference?

Edit: @ Fairy-Killer
Ah, thanks. And yeah, I was given impression that if I found a 680 I should snap it up if humanly possible. The price tag is pretty hefty but from what I understand its worth the investment.
I did notice the Asrock had some negative feedback when I was reading online, which is why I was sort of hesitant to consider it. I had a gut feeling the K processors would be more than I'd need, but I wasn't totally sure. Did you get those SSDs and the 2TB on sale? Those prices are quite nice compared to what I've seen lately. A friend of mine keeps telling me that getting the SSDs isn't worth the extra money to squeeze out just a little less load time, but I don't know what to think.
For the record, I don't know how to overclock or whether I need to -- totally new to PC building, so I'm having to learn as I go.

[oblit]

LED back-lit is much brighter and clearer than CCFL and it's also about 10x more energy efficient. LED back-lit monitors are also thinner. That's what I thought about 3D, fake passive/active 3Ds(other 3D's that is not a 3D Vision 2) hurt my eyes. But 3D Vision 2 is a different technology, I needed a special monitor for this one, In order to produce real 3D you will need a monitor that has a 120hz input. The HDTVs nowaday that says 240hz only has 60hz input and 3D vision will not work them.

Anyways as far as SSD goes, I'd say yes SSD is well worth it on any modern builds, you are building a high end machine and storage would be the bottleneck if you don't go with SSD.

Did you play Skyrim on PC or console? I've installed Skyrim on a friends build before on a regular 1.5TB hard drive. He has a high end build but I saw the load time difference on games that requires a lot of loading. Loading his game from the main menu takes about 25-40 seconds, and zoning in and out town would take him about 5-20 seconds. On SSD it takes about 1/4 to 1/2 of a second to zone and about 2 seconds to load the game. I recorded this video back then when someone was asking about SSD: www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhee

The time spent loading adds up, someone that would be playing for 2 hours with regular HDD would spend about 10-15 minutes of the time loading the game. While a SSD user would spend about 20-30 seconds lol.
On games like Battelfield 3 though it wouldn't matter as much. There is really no big difference between 15 seconds(SSD) load time vs 40 seconds(HDD) because you are going to be playing in that map for a while before your PC gets another chance to load something again.

It really depends on what you are going to be using the PC for.

[Treble]

I haven't played Skyrim yet, but I was going to get on the PS3 when the price came down. I don't do too much PC gaming except RTS/RPG/MMO, mostly because I never had a rig capable of doing much more than XI, WoW or Starcraft; but I wouldn't mind playing some other PC games if I can. I figured if a machine could handle 3D modeling, it could handle some games but I know they probably take different resources (games heavier on the GPU, Maya/Zbrush heavier on the CPU, right?).
I think I'll consider the 3D Vision 2 when I have more disposable income, but for now I'm willing to settle for LED backlit unless the prices are close enough to make it a wash (doubtful).
If I could find SSDs for $70-ish like Fairy-Killer suggested, I'd snap them up in a heartbeat though. I'll keep an eye out for good deals at least. Thanks for all your advice too, this has been pretty enlightening for me.

[oblit]

3D Vision 2 could be expensive though, I had to add another GTX 680 on top of the monitor I had to purchase, the monitor is $650 retail. But I was lucky enough to get it for half price. In 3D vision, the game/image is rendered twice, 60 frames per second on each eye, so your GPU(s) will be rendering 120fps. That's why I call it real 3D lol. Unlike the fake 3Ds that would only render your image/games 30 fps on each eye, that's the kind of thing that give people headache.

Here is a $69.99 after rebate SSD 128GB, I'm not a big fan of OCZ but they are one of the top brands for SSD.http://www.amazon.com/Agility-2-5-In...=ocz+agility+3

[Treble]

I see, that makes sense; but I think its a bit beyond the scope of what I can feasibly budget at this time. When I've built up my budget again I might consider doing it though, because that sounds pretty awesome.
What don't you like about OCZ? Just for the sake of reference.
Edit: Yikes, just reading the reviews makes me hesitant to buy one of these.

[oblit]

OCZ used to be the best in SSD business, but about 2 years ago, they try to cheat people on the nm chips they were using. They were selling the same product but started using different slower chips. So people were pissed off. But they are bouncing back now though. My 3 year old son's computer uses an OCZ SSD and so is one of my laptops and I never had any problems so far. Their warranty service is good, but I like Crucial, Intel, Corsair and Samsung's SSDs better.

[Fairy-Killer]

Samsung always makes a good reliable product. OCZ seems to be a fast or... Not working type of company. As for my storage, I actually found a 2 TB USB 3.0 external right before the whole hard drive crisis thing for $90. It was just basically dumb luck. Both of those SSDs were on sale. As for longevity of a SSD, from my understanding, they have gotten a lot better and I figured why not chance it. Which GTX 680 did you get? Because the Asus directcu II is apparently the beast to get right now (I got the HD 7970 equivalent).

Overclocking... It's actually real easy nowadays. There's so many programs and tutorials to help you through it. Personally, I didn't mess with the voltages and was able to do a 4.4 GHz 3570k, 1125 core clock, 1550 memory clock HD7970. My processor never gets above 55 C and my GPU never gets above 65 C. I'd suggest doing it because it's as simple as changing a slider and a lot safer than back in the day. I'm not nearly as good as Oblit for help, but as I just scoured the market for the best of the best (for the price), I can probably help with some purchases.

[oblit]

Like Fairy-Killer had mentioned. Overclocking is a lot easier and safer nowadays, even if you try to fry your hardware it will not be easy lol. Also the companies cover overclocking damage under warranty.

The 2 TB USB 3.0 for $70 is a great flood pre-Thailand-flood. You could still get great deals on hard drives especially external hard drive post flood. I've been buying 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB and 3TB hard drives for $9-$19 brand new. They are external but what I would do is take the hard drives out and put them in builds and give away the external enclosure for free.

You will just need patience for this one though, what you want to do is watch what Staples, Best Buy, Office Depot and Office Max coupons. The best one is the $20 off any external hard drive coupon. When this coupon is active, try finding clearance hard drives on OD, OM or BB. OM and BB would rarely have clearance external HDDs, but OD often have them. Clearance price for 500GB-3TB external hard drives are from 10-30 bucks. So order them online or go to the store then later on have them use competitors coupon, in this case we are talking about the $20 off any external HDD from Staples. Your total is going to be $0-$10 bucks lol. But you cant buy anything unless your total is more than $0.01 so you will need to find a filler. GL!

Oh Fairy-Killer you mentioned you got the Asus DCII version of the 7970 and I notice your avatar could mean Texas something... Did you happen to be jordanco that purchased a 7970 from me last week? lol

[Fairy-Killer]

No, but I sent you a PM a bit back asking for a different GPU. I saved enough money on other things to drop $500~ on a card so I upgraded. I need to find software that will let me go above the 1125/1575 max because with the custom cooling on this sucker, I should be able to pump 1.3 GHz and 1.6 GHz memory. Still wish I could have found an Asus 680.

[Jojimbo]

MSI Afterburner can have the limits removed for clocks and voltage (one requires modifying a line in a config file)

[Fairy-Killer]

MSI Afterburner can have the limits removed for clocks and voltage (one requires modifying a line in a config file)

I've been using afterburner. It won't let me change the voltage and the core/memory is 1125/1575. If you know how, that'd be of great help.

Edit: Nevermind, got it. Now I have full control and a huge disclaimer. Let the games begin...

[Treble]

Which GTX 680 did you get? Because the Asus directcu II is apparently the beast to get right now (I got the HD 7970 equivalent).

Overclocking... It's actually real easy nowadays. There's so many programs and tutorials to help you through it. Personally, I didn't mess with the voltages and was able to do a 4.4 GHz 3570k, 1125 core clock, 1550 memory clock HD7970. My processor never gets above 55 C and my GPU never gets above 65 C. I'd suggest doing it because it's as simple as changing a slider and a lot safer than back in the day. I'm not nearly as good as Oblit for help, but as I just scoured the market for the best of the best (for the price), I can probably help with some purchases.

EVGA SuperClocked+ 02G-P4-2684-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card, Overclocked to 1124MHz & Includes EVGA Backplate (copypasta from newegg)

Sorry for the absence, I decided to sleep on it and think about how much I could really spend on this little building adventure but I'm still conflicted; I need it to practice my craft and do work at home, so its kind of a business investment for me, but at the same time its quite a huge chunk of money to drop for a guy reasonably fresh out of college. I'd still be fine on bills and food/gas but the price range things are getting into is getting close to half of my current savings.
I got a 750g Hitachi external HDD for like $70 early last year, but wow, 10-30 bucks for multiple TB? I was skeptical about using external drives as primary storage, just cause I felt like the device would be safer buried in a sturdy case with comfortable cooling, but I wasn't aware you could take the enclosure off and hook it up in the case like a normal drive. That's a really interesting strategy.

[oblit]

I've been using afterburner. It won't let me change the voltage and the core/memory is 1125/1575. If you know how, that'd be of great help.

Edit: Nevermind, got it. Now I have full control and a huge disclaimer. Let the games begin...

GL with your OC! The 7970 DCII that I sold didn't OC very well unfortunately. My wife was only using it for 9 days and I replaced it with EVGA GTX 670 FTW. The 7970 was a great card but they are too expensive compared to their counterpart. The 3DMark11 score for the max overclocked 7970 was P8010 while the 670 was doing P10000+ 3D mars. And that's not even max overclock, I only got it to 1240mhz so far and no memory OC yet. I should be able to get up past 1300mhz if I'm lucky.

Radeon should really drop the price on their cards to make things competitive. That's not even accounting for Nvidia's features such as Adaptive Vsync, FXAA and Physx. I love the look of the 7970 DCII though lol, it's so badass looking.

Check out the transformation:

Before:
http://tryimg.com/1/2vqv.png

After:
http://tryimg.com/1/2bob.png
http://tryimg.com/1/2ata.png

[Purrrfect]

Are the gtx's nowadays still loud as fuck like they were in the 470/80 time? That was probably 90% of the reason I dropped it for a 5850.

[Cyn]

The 500 series was released to take care of the noise/heat/power issues that the original fermi cards had. Not sure how quiet the 600 series is though.