Computer Building Help

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pichael

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Hi everyone,

I want to build a computer, used mainly for gaming and surfing the web, and maybe miscellaneous things every now and then. Ive been doing some research, and i found a list of parts that I think are good (Links posted below). However, if anyone out there can find a better replacement, I would be very appreciative. Please keep in mind I'm on a budget of about $1000, and I still need a tower, a card reader and a dvd drive.

Thanks, Pichael


Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139032&Tpk=corsair 550

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254080

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220648

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115076

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128512

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697
 
Got some good stuff there, I am not familiar with that ram, and 8 GB is a little small for gaming. My main concern is if that power supply wouldn't be powerful enough to carry your video card, processor, and mobo under a heavy workload which would result from a typical gaming gaming session, especially with more graphically intense games (skyrim, mass effect 3)
 
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8 GB of ram is absolutely fine for gaming, although I would have chosen a different brand. The video card is fine, although you can do better for a budget of $1000 or less. Corsair is a good brand for a power supply, however I think you missed a little something:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Its 100w greater and costs the same price. It has nearly identical specifications as well. Just something to think about.

That i5 is good, but you have room in your budget (about $180 before rebates), so you can bump it up to a i5 2500k: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

With these small changes, you come out with about $100 left. However others may have some other ideas that will help
 
mcxphoenix said:
Got some good stuff there, I am not familiar with that ram, and 8 GB is a little small for gaming. My main concern is if that power supply wouldn't be powerful enough to carry your video card, processor, and mobo under a heavy workload which would result from a typical gaming gaming session, especially with more graphically intense games (skyrim, mass effect 3)
Click to expand...

Eight gigs is more than enough for gaming. Even for memory-intensive photo/video editing, art, etc. it's a pretty solid number. Also, 550w is more than enough for that build...

In general: The build is pretty fantastic, a couple quirks I'd adjust here and there but it's mostly preference. I do really like Digital's recommendation of upgrading from the TX550 to the TX650 V2. It's 100w more of a better unit for the same price (given the solidity of the TX650 V2, that's actually kind of a steal IMHO). If he ever decides to add a second GTX 460 or second 560 Ti for SLI/CFX later down the line, he'll be golden.

Monitor: I don't like Hanns-G. I always hear that their customer service is terribad and that their cheap prices come from cheap components(?). D; I would stick to noteworthy brands like ASUS, Samsung, LG, etc.

Video card: The 550 Ti lags badly behind the 560 Ti and really isn't worth the purchase over a GTX 460. EVGA cards are great... just not the 550 Ti. I would say that you should SLI a pair of GTX 460 1MBs or if you prefer a single GPU, pick up an EVGA 560 Ti 2GB.

RAM: Good number, fairly boss timing, and a pretty good brand but I would recommend something like this, or spend a little more for tighter timing: this little beauty. You're probably not going to see a major difference between the two timings in real time, but it never hurts to have the next step-up for that slight performance boost. Still, it might put you over-budget.

CPU: Digital recommended picking up a 2500K instead. Gotta back him up on that. If you don't intend to overclock and you're really straining to stay under-budget by the end of the order, pick up an i5-2500 (no K at the end... it's on sale for another $15 off) if you must--be forewarned that their multipliers are locked, and so you can't really overclock or tweak them at all--but it's the same chipset and architecture, just physically locked. Still, for what is normallly a ten dollar difference, the 2500K is more than worth the marginal difference in pricing.

Mobo: After reading about Gigabyte's lackluster performance in the motherboard department as of late (I think reflex even wrote about how bad they were doing...), I'd suggest another brand entirely. ASRock makes some great motherboards, like this one, and IMHO are becoming a rising star in reputable motherboard manufacturers.

Hard drive: Nice choice.
 
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Sli 460's and save some money else where :D 460's run about 120-200 each off newegg.
 
Muffinz said:
Sli 460's and save some money else where :D 460's run about 120-200 each off newegg.
Click to expand...
You can find 560Ti's for prices like that on overclock.net right now, people are selling them for cheap for Kepler
runo said:
Mobo: After reading about Gigabyte's lackluster performance in the motherboard department as of late (I think reflex even wrote about how bad they were doing...), I'd suggest another brand entirely. ASRock makes some great motherboards, like this one, and IMHO are becoming a rising star in reputable motherboard manufacturers.
Click to expand...

I'm actually getting that board now, since I couldn't find the gigabyte board I wanted from microcenter. Unfortunately that board isn't available there either, but its cheaper, and it has more options than the gigabyte board I was looking at has. Seems like a very good choice.
 
Muffinz said:
Sli 460's and save some money else where :D 460's run about 120-200 each off newegg.
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with this notion. SLI GTX 460 1GBs ($150 each) will throw a single 560 Ti (at just about the same price) to the ground when it comes to performance. I think the 560 Ti MIGHT outdo dual GTX 460 1GBs in multi-display setups, but only by a marginal amount.

There are things to consider; scaling in certain games, or if your motherboard will even support SLI--that ASRock board will, so no worries there--and if it has the proper PCI-E slotting to take full advantage of SLI (and again, that board does), but that's a given.

If I'm going to be completely honest, though, it may be worthwhile to postpone your order until at least mid-late April and wait for Ivy Bridge to launch and the 600/7K series nVidia/AMD cards to show their full lineup. If there's nothing you can afford or want so badly in any of those series, it'll at least knock the prices down on Sandy and the 500/6K series down a bit. The rest of the order isn't going to be affected by any price changes any time soon, but your GPU and CPU choices definitely will.
 
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Comparison of a 550 Ti and a 560 Ti is skipping a couple of cards (gtx 460 and gtx 560). However, I would definitely go with a gtx 460 (at least right now) in this price range. Specifically,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130750

EVGA, destroys a 550 Ti, and is even overclocked passed a gtx 560 (a gtx 560 is just an overclocked gtx 460, and this gtx 460 is manufacture overclocked even passed a standard gtx 560). A $270 card recommendation is forgetting that a budget is in place.

As for the ram, the amount is good, speed is good, and voltage is good. However, 4 sticks is not smart. Stick with 2x4gb, 1600, 1.5V. Right now, there are several for $45 on newegg.

Power supply, the TX modular line is not as good as the TX nonmodular line. I would recommend this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014

650W, 80 plus bronze, 4 pci-e connectors. 4 pci-e connectors will be important if you sli.

Motherboard is fine, or you could go with the cheaper p67 variant:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128488

P67 lacks ssd caching, but that is not very important.

I will agree that a 2500k is a better buy over your cpu for the ability to overclock (and these overclock well and quite easily). As for monitor, I would go bigger.

Do you need windows 7 as well? That is another $100 unless you can get it through your school cheaper.
 
Hey guys, right now the total about $800. However, Im still looking for a tower, card reader, and a dvd drive thats compatible and still within my budget.

Thanks for all your help.
 
Is that $800 including all of your picks? Or is that factoring in the changes I STRONGLY recommend you make. The power supply and gpu are a MUST change. The cpu is a very wise decision (though if you don't buy in awhile, ivy bridge will be released soon which is replacing sandy bridge).

As for the dvd burner, I recommend a cheap one (I assume you do not need blu ray playback or burning):

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244

Card reader, I believe this is the one I have:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820300608

Cheap ones should serve you fine. If you have a dvd burner from an old system, you could just reuse that.

As for tower, depends on how much you want to spend. Here are some decent ones that vary in price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146061&Tpk=nzxt gamma
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008
 
I'm your huckleberry said:
Is that $800 including all of your picks? Or is that factoring in the changes I STRONGLY recommend you make. The power supply and gpu are a MUST change. The cpu is a very wise decision (though if you don't buy in awhile, ivy bridge will be released soon which is replacing sandy bridge).

As for the dvd burner, I recommend a cheap one (I assume you do not need blu ray playback or burning):

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244

Card reader, I believe this is the one I have:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820300608

Cheap ones should serve you fine. If you have a dvd burner from an old system, you could just reuse that.

As for tower, depends on how much you want to spend. Here are some decent ones that vary in price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146061&Tpk=nzxt gamma
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008
Click to expand...

Yes, it's $800 including everything. Now, with the tower, DVD drive and Card reader its $925. But the last things I need are a keyboard and speakers. I found some good ones I like but they're a little on the expensive side. If at all possible I'd like a chiclet keyboard, the same ones that are on MacBooks. As for the speakers I dont need anything fancy, just something attractive and something that works. Thanks.
 
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I found everything that I was looking for, and it come out to $998 not including various shipping costs. YES!!!! Thanks for everything guys! If you have any more suggestions please let me know because I probably wont be ordering the parts for about another week.
 
I'm your huckleberry said:
Update your list with all the current products.
Click to expand...

Here it is:

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

Tower: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008

Card Reader: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820300608

DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254080

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

KeyBoard: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-KU-0833-Wired-Keyboard-Black/dp/B005EOWBHC/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1331763838&sr=1-4[/ame]

Speakers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121014
 
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_448_Cores/27.html

As I already said, this 460 is factory overclocked to give performance of a gtx 560 (a 560 is simply an overclocked 460). However, this 460 is even overclocked more so than a standard gtx 560. If you look at the graph for total performance for 1920x1200 (which takes into account all the games they benched), the 560 has roughly 60% more performance for about $10 more. Not bad.

You're basically getting this card for $50 less:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130661
 
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From what I can tell, and I'm no expert, the 550 ti is better. But I just looked at the details on newegg and I'm not sure if superclocked really makes that much of a difference.

Plus cant I superclock it myself?
 
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What???

I just gave you a link that shows the relative performance of all the video cards. How did you come up with the 550 Ti is better? Let me make this easy and pick out the relative numbers:

at 1920x1200, we have

550 Ti 49%
460 64%
560 76%

As I have said numerous times to you, the 560 is just an overclocked 460. However, the 460 I am recommending is even overclocked passed a standard 560 overclock. Thus, you are likely to get even more performance. The 550 Ti you are looking at is slightly overclocked as well though, so we will say the changes offset. Thus, if we have the performance of a 550 Ti as 100%, the performance of a 560 in comparison is 76/49=155%. Thus, it is 55% faster. However, this includes some games that aren't as graphics intensive which can actually lower the percentage. So again, not sure where you are seeing a 550 Ti is better. It is not even close. I am an expert.

As far as overclocking, you could overclock both. However, overclocking is not "covered" under warranty, so if it is damaged from say too much voltage, you are screwed. That, and given I would not recommend it to someone unless they have some tech savvy. However, both cards are likely to overclock some, but the 460 I linked to is overclocked so much over a standard 460, you probably do not need to overclock it. Especially compared to the performance you would get from the 550 Ti.

But get what you want, it is your money.
 
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