Advice on building a computer. Pssst, Pemalite get over here

[S3AnD3]

Hey Everyone,

I'm sick of lag and playing with high fog so I've decided I'm going to build my own PC. I've been reading an awesome guide http://www.build-your-own-cheap-computer.com. It links to tigerdirect.com which seems cheap and ships to Australia. They also sell Barebones kits like this one: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... u=B69-1399. Not really sure on my budget, I would love for it to be under $750. I was just wondering if that's an accurate guide and if that barebones kit is good. I will probably customize the Graphics Card in the kit as it's not that good.

Thanks

[DreamingInsane]

It's alright I guess, not the best I've seen, but alright.

You're still going to need a graphics card since that isn't included in the bundle.
And might also want to get a HDD for your stuff.

As in,


SSD = Operating system disk
HDD = Everything else disk

Just my point of view from that. :3

[KingCrab]

I recently built my own rig for ~$700.
Specs:

Phenom II 1045t x6 CPU

1tb Samsung HDD

Radeon HD 6870 Graphics card

8 GB ram

ASUS motherboard (can't remember which one)


I also bought a new 720 W psu and cooling case. Extremely happy with it. You can also easily crossfire two 6870s for great results.

I ordered all my stuff from newegg

[S3AnD3]

OK, thanks both of you. With the barebones kit linked, it says Intel HD Graphics (CPU Embedded). Does that mean they're built in to the processor?

[Lim-Dul]

OK, thanks both of you. With the barebones kit linked, it says Intel HD Graphics (CPU Embedded). Does that mean they're built in to the processor?

Yes, it seems to have an on-board GPU. All of these suck without fail.

[S3AnD3]

OK, thanks both of you. With the barebones kit linked, it says Intel HD Graphics (CPU Embedded). Does that mean they're built in to the processor?

Yes, it seems to have an on-board GPU. All of these suck without fail.

Thought so. I think I'll just build it from scratch and buy parts from newegg.com.

[dobby_ashy]

As I said in game, here the set-up I original had and have altered over the past year. Its not a bad set-up, many may disagree, but I was on a similar budget to yours. This is from what I remember buying.

Case
http://www.ebuyer.com/165238-cm-storm-s ... -2000-kkn1

CPU
http://www.ebuyer.com/186428-amd-phenom ... 965fbgmbox

PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/263995-corsair-60 ... psu-600guk

Motherboard
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Componen ... ctId=41327

Graphics Card
http://uk.insight.com/productinfo/graph ... e&src=FRO1

Memory
http://www.ebuyer.com/178943-corsair-4g ... 3m2a1333c9

HDD
http://www.ebuyer.com/150515-western-di ... wd5000bevt

I used an old crappy DVD drive that i had from a previous computer. And then a few months later upgraded the Ram to 12 GB. At the time came to about £570 including buying Windows 7.

[S3AnD3]

OK. I've taken in what everyone has said and this is what I'm looking at:


Case Cooler Master RC-430-KWN1 Elite 430 Mid Tower ATX Case - ATX/Micro-ATX, USB, Audio, 120mm Blue LED Fan, Black $50
MotherboardAnd CPU Bundle ASRock Z77 Performance LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core i5-3450 Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz $340
Graphics Card EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $135
Power Supply and Optical Drive COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS500-PCARD3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB $125
Memory (RAM) CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R $60
Hardrive Western Digital WD5000AAKX Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 3.5", SATA 6Gbps, 7200RPM, 16MB

Sorry for the crappy layout. The main things I'm worried about is the following:

* Is everything compatible? If someone could just check it would mean the world to me!
* Do I need any more fans? I think The case has one and also the Processor comes with one.
* Is my Graphics Card good enough? I want my Graphics Card to be pretty good.

Thanks So Much!

EDIT: The ends of the links are also cut off for some reason. You'll need to copy the whole thing and paste it instead of just clicking it. Holy crap Ollieboy is amazing for fixing my links. (Hint: Click the underline and bolded title)

[KingCrab]

I was originally going to get the GTX 550, but then I went with the Radeon 6870 because it was like $20 more for a huge performance difference. It ranked much higher in the performance area than the GTX 550.

[S3AnD3]

I was originally going to get the GTX 550, but then I went with the Radeon 6870 because it was like $20 more for a huge performance difference. It ranked much higher in the performance area than the GTX 550.

Ok, I might swap it out for that.
Is everything there compatible? I'm pretty sure they are, just want to double check.

Thanks so much Ollieboy! You're amazing <3

[KingCrab]

Upon quick glance, everything seems compatible.

Though I used the 500W PSU that came with my case and it wasn't enough. I know it's a combo deal, but I recommend something along the lines of at least 720W.

[Ollieboy]

Unless you're running 20 GPU's, 500Watt is plenty. I have a super overkill 800Watt and I regret everything.

[Sanjar Khan]

Can't hurt to buy more watt for future upgrades

[Ollieboy]

Well that's true but it would probably save him about $60. But still, if you are fully upgrading you might as well go for that extra bit I guess..

[KingCrab]

Unless you're running 20 GPU's, 500Watt is plenty. I have a super overkill 800Watt and I regret everything.

I'd still recommend it. As khan said, it helps with future upgrades. I couldn't even turn my rig on with 500W.

[Pemalite]

Avoid Coolermaster power supplies, they're just cheap and nasty, have a low efficiency rating and lack many protection mechanisms and actually output less power than they're advertised.

The PSU I would go for is a Corsair TX 650w at a minimum and it will probably out-live the rest of your computer. - Heck I still have an old Corsair HX 620w that I got 6 years ago that resides in my secondary PC and runs pretty much 24/7 under load doing folding@home and never caused any drama even with Dual GPU's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139020

Also... Save some money, don't bother with 1866mhz memory, there is hardly any performance difference between DDR3 1333 and 1866mhz ram with the sole exception of Integrated graphics which need the bandwidth (Aka. AMD's Llano and Trinity).
The sweet spot in my opinion is DDR3 1600mhz ram, something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820220570
But if you can save $10 - $20 and put it towards a better CPU or GPU you will get a much larger performance return.

If you can't go higher in price on the GPU, then ditch the Geforce 550 Ti and get a Radeon 6770 which is slightly cheaper (Comes down to $90 with a rebate) and is just as good from a performance perspective. - But I would highly suggest something much beefier especially if you expect to play *all* games at maximum image quality with a 1920x1080 resolution or higher.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150560

[KingCrab]

Here's what I recommend for the slight price difference.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150521

[S3AnD3]

Ok.

I've made a couple of changes according to what you guys have told me.Everything is same but these changes:

RAM: Patriot Signature 8GB DDR3 (Pemalite linked it)
Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 Power Supply - 650 I thought I'd upgrade it, like Khan and Kingcrab said.
Graphics Card: XFX HD-677X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (Pemalite linked it)

Might upgrade CPU or/and Motherboard later on? Not sure yet.

I think I'm going to buy the case and power supply right now.

[Intertoothh]

I got all my ATI (well, AMD now) cards from Sapphire, they never let me down.

[S3AnD3]

Yay

I just ordered the case, power supply and the optical drive (I changed it to pioneer) from PC Case Gear. I was going to purchase it from tigerdirect.com but the shipping was $260 .
The case should come in the next 24 hours, the power supply and optical drive in the next 5 working days. All together it cost $216, including shipping & handling.

[Pemalite]

Derp. I should have noticed you were Australian before you mentioned PC Case Gear.

In that case grab the Kingston HyperX ram, DDR3 1600mhz, 2x 4gb kit for only $59.

As for your drives... You could go with a 2tb 5400rpm drive and a 60gb SSD for Windows? Costs a bit more, but SSD's are worth it.
Just avoid the Western Digital Green drives, the heads constantly park and un-park every 8ish seconds which creates allot of wear and tear.
Conversely you could try and find a 2tb external drive for $99 and remove the casing and whack it into your rig too, cheaper than buying bare drives.

As for the GPU PC Case gear have a clearance special on a Zotac Geforce 560 for only $159 which would be much faster than a Radeon 5770/6770/7770 and Geforce 550 Ti/560 SE, also keep an eye out at AusPcMarket.com.au they sometimes sell very decent cards way below costs and the prices include shipping and card charges which PC case gear don't. (Who do a 2% card charge.)

[Sanjar Khan]

Alternatively, apparantly, marry pemalite and be set for life.

[JustOnePanda]

I have a question, are there like any extra parts needed to build a computer, like extra wires, wire converters, etc.?

[Sanjar Khan]

Nope

[Allie]

I have a question, are there like any extra parts needed to build a computer, like extra wires, wire converters, etc.?

You might want to stock up on cable ties! Otherwise, everything you need will be included with the parts you buy.

[Trepvalkyrie]

To anyone who builds a new PC, I can say but one thing:

Do not ever skimp on PSUs. I've run through 3 in about 2 years. I just upgraded my comp last weekend and once again I managed to cause a small fire due to a combination of me being an idiot and bad PSUs. Anyone looking for a PSU should automatically buy the Corsair TX 650w as Pem suggests. I know someone who has one and his PC hasn't caught fire. Which means it earns a recommendation from me.

A very wise choice S3AnD3 you won't regret it.

[Pemalite]

I know someone who has one and his PC hasn't caught fire. Which means it earns a recommendation from me.

You would hope it wouldn't catch on fire.
Corsairs will always shut down before damage is ever incurred or if the load is to great or if you even have a power surge.

Plus, not sure about the Corsair PSU's but with the Corsair water coolers, if they leak they will help replace damaged components, I would assume the same thing would apply if it was the PSU at fault that damaged components.

I have a question, are there like any extra parts needed to build a computer, like extra wires, wire converters, etc.?

You might want to stock up on cable ties! Otherwise, everything you need will be included with the parts you buy.

Corsair PSU's come with cable ties.

Sometimes you may need to buy 24 pin or 8 pin ATX extension cables because your case is incredibly large and the PSU cables are too short, but that's about it.
I usually buy them anyway to route cables behind the motherboard tray so shit is tidy.

And Fan power cable adapters or a fan controller, some motherboards just never have enough fan headers to run all the fans.

[KingCrab]

As for the GPU PC Case gear have a clearance special on a Zotac Geforce 560 for only $159 which would be much faster than a Radeon 5770/6770/7770 and Geforce 550 Ti/560 SE

When i fist posted my link, the Radeon HD 6870 I bought was $149 with the rebate. It highly outperforms the Geoforce 560

[S3AnD3]

Thanks Pemalite and everyone else for the advice . I'm really pumped to get this computer up and running, is everything on that list definently compatible? I'm pretty sure it all is, just want someone to double check.

[S3AnD3]

In that case grab the Kingston HyperX ram, DDR3 1600mhz, 2x 4gb kit for only $59.

Sorry for double posting.
Do you think 8GB will be enough? One of my friends is also in the process of building a computer and he is getting 2 8GB sticks because he thinks 8GB isn't enough.
I trust you over him