PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Airenn]

OK, mobo question. (AMD AM3 processor)

If I am getting 4x4gig ram sticks @ 1600 do I have to have a mobo that says it takes 1600 without overclocking or would this be ok:
Memory Standard: DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600*/1800*/2000* (OC)

or this:

Memory Standard: DDR3 800/1066/1333(supported by CPU model)/1600(OC)

Also what brands are good? Biostar/MSI/Asus are what I'm looking at.

[Arkanna]

The asterisks in your first example indicate that that speed setting is considered overclocking because it is not officially supported by the chipset. As long as you get memory that's rated at 1600, you can run it at 800, 1066, 1333, or 1600 without worrying that it can't handle it. If you buy memory rated for 2000, it's capable of doing 2000 even if you only set the board to run it at 1333. Basically you can set the board to run the RAM at whatever speed you want, no matter what the RAM is rated, but you're more likely to actually be able to get higher speeds while stable if the RAM is rated to do it. Hope that's clear. :-/

I'd stick with Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI. Avoid ASRock. Never owned a BioStar board.

[Airenn]

The RAM I am getting is 1600.

I was worried that the board wouldn't be able to handle it well if the only way to get it to RUN 1600 was by overclocking because of the asteriks.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

The free PC I got from 2007 Fanfest is starting to seriously show age. As a replacement what sort of layout could I get with around $1500 for a moderately solid "gamer" build?

[Olo401]

*cracks knuckles* btw I'm gonna leave out the hard drive because of the floods & price gouging & supply shortages

[avelle]

Yeeeep, as Olo has proven $1500 will buy you a beast of a machine. If you really wanted a SSD (though you didn't mention it at all, just a fyi) there's some wiggle room in that build. You could go with an i5 2500k for around $100 less which would probably give you enough room for a good sized SSD while maintaining your $1500 budget.

[Boyiee]

I don't think I'd go with a gtx580 in that build.

Better performance per dollar elsewhere.

shit, you could crossfire two 6950's for that price... unlockable ones, overclocked, you pretty much have 6970's.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

I figured I'd have to get an lame overpriced SSD for the OS drive and recycle my 1TB drives for maintained por-errr music. And would it be possible to have all this awesome to fit correctly into a Coolermaster Cosmos? Full tower but can't remember if the PS has to go in upsidedown or whatever. If not what full tower would fit correctly?

And 500 for a single GFX card might be a little steeper than what I remember?

[Boyiee]

No, its one of the highest end single gpu's. It is over priced for the performance it provides and you can get better performance out of 2 cheaper cards in sli/crossfire, or just fine performance out of a lesser card.

I would consider a 6950 or 6970, or two 6950's. I wouldn't buy nvidia right now. There is a price drop due soon however, with the new gpu's coming within the next 4-6 months.

[Cantih]

Ok, with the sale gates about to open, may as well give my setup a final shakedown.

Oh god, so much text.

Spoiler: show

No need to work too hard with advice, I can't afford the PC right now. Earliest in theory is March next year, more likely June. (IF things don't gang aft agley again like this year. I was supposed to have this thing 5 months ago, with the 2nd card in March.)
I'm mainly planning to see if I can find a part here and there at a deep sale, trying to drive down the final total price in the long run.
I won't be getting the CPU, GPU, or Mobo now, due to Ivy Bridge and NVidia/ATI's new cards slated to come out early next year, going to wait on new benchmarks and prices before finalizing those parts.

I'm looking for more options so I have a better chance of catching a sale. Equal parts at the same or lower price, or better parts at the same price (or lower price, but I think I didn't miss any). Quality brands matter.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2py4


And to explain any quirks

Spoiler: show

1. The basic plan is to get a 2nd videocard down the road when additional funds become available, so the PSU is going to look too beefy for the system. Though I also need a check, will 850 be enough for a pair of GTX 570/HD 6970, or am I going to need 950?
And one thing I'm not clear on is "rails", what exactly do I need to be looking for? I've never seen a guide that explained them well.

2. In trying to save money, no SSD yet. I can live with a single drive for yet longer. Same goes with no BD drive, don't need to burn them, and have a PS3 to play them.

3. Win 7 professional has that XP mode, Win 7 home does not. I like playing old games, would it be a good idea to get pro, or will I be fine without it? Also, not going to pirate it, too much hassle. I've had enough fun running custom firmware on my PSP.

4. Also, I plan on plugging my PC AND PS3 into the monitor. The monitor thankfully has speakers and I have an ok set of headphone jack speakers I use on my laptop, but if the monitor speakers are too crappy, I'll eventually need a superior sound solution.
Does anybody know of any affordable speaker systems that have input capabilities for PC audio AND a PS3's non-HDMI outputs (maybe even the TOSLINK, though everything I've looked up says no on that)?
Or some other funky way to handle the situation? (though I'd like to avoid running the audio and/or video through the PC like with a video capture card or independent audio card.)

[Cyn]

Honestly, you should just stick the money into an account. Or your sock drawer, w/e. Even if you find some decent deals for some of the parts, buying parts 5 months in advance of putting the build together is probably not the best way to do it.

[Caiyuo]

I'd agree with Cyn, it's advice I've gotten repeatedly when trying to do something like this. Even speccing out things this far in advance when they're so likely to change based on how well anything new does or doesn't do seems like extra work.


Also "budget build" should always mean pirating fucking windows

[Cantih]

Alright alright, I'll sit on it no matter what.
Really though, not even the monitor is a safe bet?

[Caiyuo]

I wouldn't, I've seen a lot of announcements and releases from companies pushing more consumer-level IPS monitors and by March who fucking knows what might come out and how it might affect prices for what's already out. Shit, the only thing I would consider is a case seemingly because for budget builds it seems like nothing besides Antec 300s are ever mentioned.

[Airenn]

Do you already have a DVD writer, even an old one?
I just shoved my OLD OLD one from 5 years ago into this new computer.

You really don't need a good one, a shitty one will do. You'll probably make more DVD's than use it so even tho an old one is much slower/louder, it works (mine anyway) so I wasn't going to spend the money on a new one.

Small Edit: Also when I realized I probably only used it 10 times in the last year ... yea.

[Cantih]

Negative, an SXGA retardomonitor that was used to replace the original CRT that died is the only thing left, everything else was recycled years ago.
All I have is my laptop, and its starting to show it's age. Even trying to play 720p video will make it chug and weep.

[Skai]

Hoorah! Been wanting to upgrade the comp so I guess now is a good time to do so. Here's what I got so far. I have been looking exclusively at the NewEgg's Black Friday sale so far. Any better alternatives? Wanna invest in an SSD but not familiar with them so I have no idea where to look. I already have a case (Antec 900), GPU (GTX 560 Ti), a monitor, an optical drive, and hard drives.

[Boyiee]

Trying to build a ~800-900$ pc for a friend. Getting fucked with the harddrive shortage and sales. Tried to use the same items my other friend used, which cost him around 800 total, but I don't have a HDD or cd drive and am already at $820 lol. I doubt he'll order soon enough to catch that 2500k from black friday so had to downgrade.

Guess this dude is just gonna have to wait, and/or recycle his old parts. Although it does have 85$ in MIR's so far, so I'm close.



edit: just saw that ram in post above probably grabbing that instead lol

edit2: sold out lulz 4gb it is

[madpersian]

These are the parts I got but I haven't assembled yet, so I have time to redo this if necessary:

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)
GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 1280 MB GDDR5
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Corsair Enthusiast Series 850-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Power Supply
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Fractal Design Arc Midi Black High Performance PC Computer Case
Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard
ASUS VS238H-P 23-Inch LCD
SteelSeries Sensei Laser Gaming Mouse

Leaving out a large internal HDD for when prices go back to normal. Also, I got the large PSU so I can buy another GTX 570 when the new cards get released and run an SLI setup. I want to use the computer for FFXIV and any other PC MMOs i happen to be interested in.

I'm really tempted to go with liquid cooling but I'm thinking of holding off until I actually feel a demand to over clock my CPU.

I didn't list with a screen pic because I'm buying parts from many different sites.

[Asai]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...9&Sku=C13-5720

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231314

What's the difference?