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Building a computer for the first time. Could use some input.
raige
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay, so I decided that the best way to get the computer I want is to build it b/c every pre-built seems to have stuff I don't really need and costs more than it's worth to me. This is a new project for me and I only recently started researching. Here's what I have in mind, let me know if you have any input and I will sing your praises.
I have about 1600 total to spend on hardware, including the monitor, I think. (I'm getting this refund check this week and I'm not sure if it might be for more, but it shouldn't be less than that.... I hope!) I'm going to be using it primarily for gaming and working with Maya (in addition to the normal stuff of dicking around on penny arcade forums and such of course.) So I know I need a good graphics card, ideally at least 512mb and a decent monitor. I know the NIVIDIA 8800 640 mb is pretty much the best, but I think it's out of my price range since all the other parts go up in price equivocally when you get one really nice one, right? If anyone knows of a decent mid-range/upper-mid-range graphics card with 512mb, that would be of great help.
And then I start getting confused. I'm under the impression that I should get at least a dual-core and I'm trying to figure out whether the Intel Core 2 Duo or the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600 is better bang for the buck. And how strong of a PSU do I need to run this stuff? From what I've read a 500w should be good enough, but is that right? Because I seriously don't want an insufficient PSU.
Otherwise for main parts, I'm not really sure what to get for a motherboard, but I guess that depends on the cpu I choose... and I was thinking of getting a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 GB HD. I don't need a ton of storage space as I make use of my external in a big way.
Anyways, I know I just said a lot and probably sound like I have no idea what I'm doing because mostly I don't, but any help is seriously appreciated.
I have about 1600 total to spend on hardware, including the monitor, I think. (I'm getting this refund check this week and I'm not sure if it might be for more, but it shouldn't be less than that.... I hope!) I'm going to be using it primarily for gaming and working with Maya (in addition to the normal stuff of dicking around on penny arcade forums and such of course.) So I know I need a good graphics card, ideally at least 512mb and a decent monitor. I know the NIVIDIA 8800 640 mb is pretty much the best, but I think it's out of my price range since all the other parts go up in price equivocally when you get one really nice one, right? If anyone knows of a decent mid-range/upper-mid-range graphics card with 512mb, that would be of great help.
And then I start getting confused. I'm under the impression that I should get at least a dual-core and I'm trying to figure out whether the Intel Core 2 Duo or the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600 is better bang for the buck. And how strong of a PSU do I need to run this stuff? From what I've read a 500w should be good enough, but is that right? Because I seriously don't want an insufficient PSU.
Otherwise for main parts, I'm not really sure what to get for a motherboard, but I guess that depends on the cpu I choose... and I was thinking of getting a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 GB HD. I don't need a ton of storage space as I make use of my external in a big way.
Anyways, I know I just said a lot and probably sound like I have no idea what I'm doing because mostly I don't, but any help is seriously appreciated.
raige on
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Got a Antec sonata III (comes with 500Watt PSU and stock cooling that keeps everything at or below 50 celsius)
Got AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
Cheap 50€ ASUS Mobo that is good enough for me
2x 1 gb Corsair DDR2 800mhz RAM
ATI Radeon HD2900XT 512mb edition
The only problem, I had with my build was that I couldn't get another fan mounted, but I don't think I need it... Also, the fan on the video card is pretty loud.
I think you can get a 8800 for a little more than the HD2900XT, maybe get a P182B and a 600Watt PSU instead and a monitor should still be affordable, along with the test of the stuff you might need.
Antec Sonata III plus the built-in PSU
Asus P5B Deluxe (I would replace this with a P5K if I was buying one today)
Core2Duo E6700 (I would go with a 6750)
GeForce 8800GTS 640MB
2 gigs Corsair RAM (you can buy whatever brand you like)
500 gig HD (your hard drive depends on how much storage you need; if possible get a 10k rpm one but that might not be an option at the size you need)
So I'd go with that.
Add this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16824254020
Should come out around $1600. Looks pretty good to me, personally. Motherboard could be nicer, but it should be fine.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
The two things I'm most unclear about right now are motherboards and power supplies. It's my understanding that Asus is the best mobo to go with if you have Intel, and that I get, but I don't really understand the differences between the lower-end and higher-end motherboards. What makes the P5K better than the P5B deluxe or the P5L and so on?
Also, I've been told repeatedly to be careful about my PSU because if that fucks up, nothing's going to work of course. So, I gather that 500W should be good, but what about the voltage or rails? I really don't understand what that means. And how much should you spend to get a PSU that won't crap out with the C2D and the 8800GTS? Is it a bad idea to get a case that has a built-in power-supply if it has the wattage you need?
I know that's a lot of questions - just trying not to make a stupid mistake while trying to stay in budget. The money arrives tomorrow! So as soon as I get this figured out, I can start ordering parts. I'm so psyched. Thanks again for the advice. You are the cat's pajamas. (which is old lady talk for you're cool.)
(It has "Expensive, Average, and Budget" price levels)
As far as power supplies, you can search around online for some reviews, but basically the corsair models are the way to go right now. Top quality at mid-range price. If you're not going to use SLI or get a more power hungry card in the future, the 450w corsair would be fine for ~$70. If you want to "future proof" the power supply, get the 520w or 620w model for the extra bucks. Newegg doesn't always have the best deals on power supplies (they do on most everything else), so you might be able to save 10 or 20 bucks shopping around if that is important to you (of course when I'm spending as much as you are, I'd rather just have my order all in one place than save that little bit getting one or two parts somewhere else...your call).
To answer the person above me, and to point to a great resource, here's the Twice and Future Computer Thread: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=8387
First post is obviously a great starting point, if you need more specific advice ask in the thread. I have a post in there pretty recently with some links that might help you picking out an lcd, also. From one of those forums (Anandtech) there's also a great mobo source that will help you with the differences between those boards (and all the others, too, plus recommendations): bah, can't open the page right now, but just google anandtech, find the motherboard forum, and it's the sticky
Graphics cards are always a moving target. What I ussually do is check hardware sites like hardocp.com and try to buy "one model" under the best. They ussually give the price/performance ratio (not always, but more often then not). Also you can look in hardforum.com they have a buy/sale/trade forum - which ussually gives good deals on "one model under the best" cards (from hard core gamers upgrading to the best, they sale off their old card).
I like Core 2 Duo... Intel has been in the lead for awhile now... you can check benchmarks on the interwebs if you want, but C2D kills the X2s.
Should be fine. What matters is the quality of power. I would suggest an Antec or True Power... it's better to buy a decent 500W PSU then a cheap and crappy 1,000W one.
Seagates are good drives. I like em, they have 5 year warranties which is nice.
For mother boards:
Personally I like Asus.. they make solid, good, cutting edge boards for a decent price. Just make sure you get the lastest drivers and firmware for them. - I would suggest them for gaming rigs, cheap computers (if you get their low ends) and good workstations.
Tyan/Intel have solid and stable boards, but they are ussually hard if not impossible to overclock. I would suggest them for everything but hardcore games. They make good reliable workstations and servers; but nothing fancy far as cutting edge gaming goes. Can also make cheap computers if you buy their low ends.
Some people love Gigabyte and Abit... they have a lot of features for gaming workstations; but I've heard people bitching about stability problems which has kept me away... your millage may very though.
Also... another thing to look into is the Shuttle "mini" computers. They can be decent computers and gaming rigs, but since they are so small there is some "gotchas" you have to watch out for.. they ussually only take one or two cards and some of them won't take these new "big and fat" video cards. They can also have heat problems if not problem managed. Lastly sometimes performance is traded for size... and could also cost more then a "normal" sized setup with same specs. Some people love them though, and I think they are cute; so going to put that out there for you if you want to look into them.
So here's the current set-up I have in mind, unless it turns out I have less money than I think I do, which is entirely possible. I'm planning to get pretty much all the parts from newegg, except for maybe the PSU which I saw a super good deal for on Buy.com for 90 bucks!
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3
CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply
ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner included extra White bezel, with 12X DVD-RAM
So far my price is up to $1,144.94. I haven't yet decided on a monitor (mostly just keeping an eye out for a good deal) or a case. If anyone knows of a cheap-ish case with good airflow, that would be awesome. I'd love to get one that looks pretty to go along with my beautiful set-up, since as a true-blue white-trash kid this is by far the coolest/most expensive thing I've ever even considered, but I know that a lot of the flashy ones are over-priced with crappy plastic parts. Any other suggestions or additions - like am I completely forgetting about some rather imporant part? -for example.
Oh! and OS - I don't know if I should go with Vista or XP. Is it just a matter of preference at this point? because all of this stuff should run Vista smoothly, yeah? Are there still lots of problems with Vista? I'd read a few things but most a few months old.
Is 4GB of ram overkill? Would it be better to just go with 2 for now and if I need it, buy the other 2 down the road?
I know I'm a broken record here, but seriously many thanks guys.
4gb ram is probably overkill, as on 32-bit vista or xp you'll only be utilizing ~3gb. If you wanted to utilize more than that you'd have to get 64-bit vista, which from what I can tell is just a royal pain with the lack of decent drivers right now. I would go with 2x1gb for now, and 32-bit vista home premium oem for ~$120.
Thats some useful information regarding Vista, can anyone else corroborate?
I'm looking to get a new system to coincide with the release of WAR, and am hoping to go dual core and vista with a kickass vid. card and maybe a physics card as well.
Anyone see any obvious flaws in logic there or any general tips for building something like that?
MWO: Adamski
Ah, wasn't aware of vista issues with maya.
Edit: For the person asking for corroboration on vista 64 issues/32 memory limit:
http://www.vistaclues.com/reader-question-maximum-memory-in-32-bit-windows-vista/
http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00001.htm
Just googled for those, I'm sure there's more.