Building a new computer

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pillar

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One of my co-workers wants me 2 build him a desktop with some of the tax income return that hes getting. Found out that he doesnt wanna overclock the cpu, so gonna set him up w/ an i5 cpu. Hes setting his budget around $800-900. My biggest issue is the motherboard. I got him setup w/ GSkill 4x4gb ddr3 1600 memory. I have 2 diff psu selected (620 & 630w). I have 2 different hd selected (3gbps & 6gbps drives). Im gonna tell him that hes gonna have 2 tone down on the video card for now til later. Case will have to be mid-tower. Not sure on a monitor just yet; same for kb & mouse. Optical drive will be simple dvd+/-r. Feel free to give any suggestions you may have. I also welcome your questions & will get feedback if I dont have the immediate answer.
 
1. you can go really cheap on the motherboard if you want since he isn't overclocking.

2. i5 2300 would probably be a good choice

3. 600w is wayyyyyy overkill. Something like 400-500 would be more appropriate, assuming you will be using something like a 6870 or 560Ti.



That's about all i can think of off the top of my head
 
I never like the idea of going "cheap" on anything.

Even if he is not overclocking, a cheap motherboard has limitations, I'd say go middle of the range on the mobo at the least for Intel chips.

As I appear to be more and more the AMD fanboy, I have to add that into the mix. With a good Phenom and an AM3+ board, hell, you're saving a bit 'o cash over the i5 and you can apply that to a better graphics card or a nice little SSD boot drive.

A good 500w power supply (bronze or silver) would suffice in his scenario. Save the money, bump to a good GPU that will hold him over for at least a year (6950?, 560ti?).
 
ASRock mobo, imo.

I'm using a 550 watt PSU on my build which is an i5-2500k, 560ti, ASRock mobo, 8gb G.Skill DDG3 ram, Spinpoint F3 1tb hdd and an optical drive.

Works great and was right around $1000
 
I do apologize for kinda resurrecting this thread, but its almost time to start ordering the parts & ive started getting a more reasonable idea of what all is gonna be needed. The following should be the final build idea. I told my co-worker that the hard drive will definitely be the last item to buy (wait til the hard drives start going back down). Give me your feedback if anything should be changed (other than the obvious).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157230
^Please let me know if you know of a better motherboard in this socket area.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231315
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136792
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126097
^This may change based on his request.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992
 
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1. Why the 2500? Do you neeeeed VT-d? I would go with the 2500K, especially since you are spending the $$$ on a P67 board.

2. $226 is ridiculous price for a 2TB drive
 
I know its only $10 difference to have an overclockable cpu. Got any better ideas on an i5 cpu that doesnt have overclocking capability, yet still has the speed?

Also when it comes to the hard drive, you know of a better 2tb hard drive for a less price w/ just as good of rating w/ something close to 5 year warranty?
 
No other manufacturer still offers a 5 year warranty. So no.

Why not just gt the 2500K then? Even if you don't overclock it will greatly help resale value, and if whoever is using the machine gets curious and decides they want to overclock, then the option is there.
 
1) You can cut the memory to 8GB, and save almost $50, letting you buy the 2500K.
2) Save another $40 and get Home Premium instead of Professional. Unless he plans on running a business with that PC, there's no reason to get the more expensive Pro OS. If it's really a must, take a closer look to make sure you're not paying more for something that HomePrem already covers at no additional cost.
3) Nothing wrong with the motherboard, but I'm a Gigabyte fan. And some of the advantages of a Z68 board over the P67 is overclocking and SSD caching, which can be a plus down the future upgrade path (SSD drives!).: $123 + Free Shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502
4) No video card?

Doing the basic math, your total build is roughly $916, including the $225 for the HDD (ouch!)
Assuming you go with my recommendations 1-3, you save $88 and spend an additional $20 for a net savings of $68.

Now here we got a choice to make: Does he really need a 2TB HDD? If not, and say he can get away with 1TB or 500GB even, then the cost drops from $225 to roughly $150 or $90, respectively, saving between $75-$135. So if you go with a 1TB HDD, you'll have about $143 for a video card (less S&H), with the 500GB HDD, you'll have a little more than $210, around the price for a GTX 560 Ti card or its equivalent. But if the 2TB is necessary, then we're at an odd point of pairing a fast CPU with no video card... May make more economical/performance sense to go with a i5-2400 or 2300 (rather not, but we're working with a budget so we need to get the best price/performance we can!).

I'm sure Reflex and Phobus will have a comment or two on some of the stuff I said (good, bad, interesting...), but every bit of help helps, right?
 
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Well he said that he def wants the 16gb (4x4) memory, we even talked bout that. I talked with him about getting 8gb & I think 8 may be good enough, since frankly his main thing will be in music production.

Yes I know the price of the hard drive is a big ouch, but until the flooding issue is over w/ in Thailand, them prices arent going down anytime soon. Ill talk with him about gettin Home Prem so he can save a lil $$ there.

If anything, I think hes gonna be stretching near the $1k mark, but itll be close. Also I noticed this 1 i5-2400. A lil less speed & saves a lil more $$.
 
Yeah, he doesn't need the 16GB if he's using it only for music production. 16GB is more akin to graphical production suites, and I can't imagine where 8GB wouldn't suffice for what he's doing.

I understand about the HDD issues. We all do, but if he can shave it from 2TB to 1TB, it does provide some budget cushioning for him.
 
8gb should be plenty...........16gb is the realm of like running numerous VM's and stuff as far as i know
 
Well the cool thing is that he said he would pay me $200 to build it all, which means that I can get myself a 128gb ssd, which ill put my os strictly on it.

How much space does win 7 take up? Also for some odd reason I dunno what happened to my win 7 pro disc, but my mom has win 7 hp. can i use her hp disc & use my win 7 pro key? Ive heard that the security features can be unlocked w/ that key, but would like confirmation on that please.
 
Also forgot to mention case fans. Sent an email to my co-worker bout this 4 pack of 120mm fans for his case, but I want something thatll blow more air thru. I currently have a Cooler Master Storm Scout case. I dont have any case fans on the side (which I want to add a couple). Any suggestions on some good case fans that really blow a lot of air (dont mind the noise as my speakers are usually up there in noise level)? Also is there some kind of software or physical switch that I can use to adjust it?
 
pillar said:
Well the cool thing is that he said he would pay me $200 to build it all, which means that I can get myself a 128gb ssd, which ill put my os strictly on it.

How much space does win 7 take up? Also for some odd reason I dunno what happened to my win 7 pro disc, but my mom has win 7 hp. can i use her hp disc & use my win 7 pro key? Ive heard that the security features can be unlocked w/ that key, but would like confirmation on that please.
Click to expand...

A clean install of Win 7 will take approximately 20-25GB of space, excluding any additional patches or security setups. And

About the Win 7 Pro key, take a look at this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html
 
reflex99 said:
1. Why the 2500? Do you neeeeed VT-d? I would go with the 2500K, especially since you are spending the $$$ on a P67 board.

2. $226 is ridiculous price for a 2TB drive
Click to expand...

Yes, I'll have to agree with reflex. You should go with the k series of processors. They tend to be more effieient and can be overclocked pretty good on air if needed.

Peace and happy gaming.
 
I would also like to suggest that anyone who is building a computer, they should never skimp on the power supply. Buy more than you need in wattage. You'll use less wattage and your computer will run more efficiently.

If you need 500 watts, go 600. If you need 600 watts go 700. Its not much of a price jump. You can skimp on all the other accessories but you should never skimp on the PSU.

I would highly recommend you staying with the more reliable manufacturers like:

Antec
Corsair
Thermaltake

They seem to be the best and do have gold series PSU with 5 to 7 year warranties. And their support is very good.

I'm not putting down the other manufacturers like: OCZ, Silverstone, Ultra, PC Power and Cooling which is now OCZ, BFG if you can find them, Enermax and EVGA to name a few. I've read good and bad reviews on all the supplies on the market. But ask many of our gamers who build systems in our clan and I gurantee most of them use Antec, Corsair or Thermaltake.

I personally use the Antec HCP-1200 for my recent computer build. Very quiet and very efficient so far.

I hope I was able to help you out somewhat.

Peace and happy gaming.
 
if you needed too you could scalvage form a older compter and take the ram cards aswell as posably some dvd burners and players
 
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