New comp soon, need opinions/thoughts

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Matts96HB

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So, my parents have agreed to help me buy/build a computer for my birthday and christmas. Basically, I'm going to have ~$1k to build or buy just the tower. I'll be using my TV as a monitor, and I already have a mouse and keyboard.

That being said,
- I do not have any experience building machines
- Would like something that can play Blu Ray DVD's.
- Must be geared towards gaming

I was thinking of just buying something like this:
INTEL i7 920 QUAD CORE CUSTOM GAMING COMPUTER SYSTEM - eBay (item 400078967245 end time Nov-12-09 20:39:31 PST)

Not that exact setup, but something pre-built from eBay.

But, considering I am new at this.. I figured I would come here and ask a few people with experience for some ideas. Keep in mind ballpark 1k cost, and just needs to be a decent tower basically.
 
tv as a monitor sucks for the most part... everything is just too big and you won't get anything 'done'. i dunno, i would never enjoy that.

that's not a bad price for that system, but it doesn't come with an OS installed... or anything else. and the 500gb hard drive is pretty small by todays standards. no mention of power supply either.
 
tv as a monitor sucks for the most part... everything is just too big and you won't get anything 'done'. i dunno, i would never enjoy that.


better than you think. you just need an HD capable video card to make it work correctly. nobody likes upscaled 320x200.
 
tv as a monitor sucks for the most part... everything is just too big and you won't get anything 'done'. i dunno, i would never enjoy that.

that's not a bad price for that system, but it doesn't come with an OS installed... or anything else. and the 500gb hard drive is pretty small by todays standards. no mention of power supply either.
I think I would probably get a smaller 20" LCD for when I'm on the net, or stuff like that. But the TV would be nice for movies.

The hard drive is the weak spot of that system, I was going to look into getting a bigger one for it, but I think that kind of defeats the purpose of buying a new system.
better than you think. you just need an HD capable video card to make it work correctly. nobody likes upscaled 320x200.
I'm going to make sure I get an HD compatible card, I think it'd be kinda pointless to have otherwise.

A question in regard to graphics cards.. what card would work best with the i7 processor? I have heard mixed reviews on running certain cards with certain processors, just want to make sure that it runs as smoothly as possible.
 
Call dell.

I used to build computers for a living, and now I just phone up dell. Its easier. And with the deals they are offering these days, its about the same price as building one, and zero headache. The XPS lineup is nice. I've owned 3 different XPS machines. One died, we still use the other two. And the one that died lived an incredibly hard life for years, it wasn't dell's fault, it was just used the fuck up.
 
you've come to the right place my friend :p

anyway. it really depends on what you want to do. ill list the strengths and weaknesses of Core i7/i5 and AMD Phenom II X4

Core i7:
Pro
-Currently the fastest thing on the planet.
-Overclocks well
-Supports CF and SLi
-Will support 6 Core CPUs (Gulftown)
-Triple Channel Memory
-All have Hyper-threading
-Bandwidth galore
Con
-Very expensive CPUs
-Very expensive motherboards (X58 chipsets only)
-Very hot (stock temps get up to 70C+ when fully loaded)

Corei5:
Pro
-Still very fast (750 and up match or beat the 920 stock)
-Clock decently well with a bit of voltage
-Integrated PCI-E on chipset (very fast for gaming)
-Boards are much cheaper than X58
-8XX series have hyperthreading
-Run much cooler than Core i7
-Improved Turbo-boost
Con
-Some motherboards toast the CPU when overclocking heavy (Foxconn Sockets)
-Most motherboards only support CF and not SLi
-If running two monster graphics card (ie dual gpu cards), can be possible bandwidth straved
-Will NOT support Gulftown

AMD Phenom II
Pro:
-Very affordable processors (almost all under $200)
-Very affordable motherboards (full loaded cost around 200 vs 300+ for Intel)
-Comparable performance to Core 2 Quad
-Overclock very well with little to no voltage bump
-Runs considerably cooler than Intel
-Can upgrade to Hexa-core (Thuban) depending on motherboard chipset
-AM3 processors can use either AM2+/AM3 boards (DDR2/DDR3)
Con:
-Performance still a bit behind on Core i7/i5
-No SLi support (that i know of)


Summary:
Core i7: Upgrade often and want the best performance and money is no concern.
Core i5: Want great performance, but not the best and flexible budget.
Phenom II: Want good performance and on a strict budget.

Video cards a bit trickery. But all in all, the new ATi 58xx/57xx spank anything Nvidia has. And if you are going to game at all, the bare minimum would be either a 9800GTX/GTS250 or ATi 4850/4750. All around $100. You can get away with older parts like 8800GT/9600GT etc, but spend the extra 20 bucks and performance will much be better. In theory, ATi cards work better with AMD systems and Nvidia works better with Intel because lesser drivers mean lesser junk which means less of a chance of system conflict. But really, Ive never experienced it and dont hear many people complain about it except for newbs. I mean shit, the fastest system is an Intel Core i7 paired with a few ATi 5870s simply because they are the fastet in the their respective fields.

As for hard drives; your system is only a fastest as the slowest part. And the slowest part would be your hard drive. If your budget allows, I highly highly recommend a SSD (solid state drive) from either Intel or an Indilix controller based drive. Only problem is it cost around $200 for 120gb where as a good traditional cost $50 for 500gb or $80 for 1 TB. However, the difference between response, access time, boot time, is like a Civic and an F430. But if you do choose regular HDD i would get either a Samsung F3 or Western Digital Black 500gb single platter hard drive. Why? Less moving parts = faster drive. 2 in Raid 0 would be awesome. Than get a 1TB drive like a WD Green for storage and back up because its cheaper and runs cooler.

Now cases are very subjective. As long as you have one 120mm for intake and one for exhaust, youre good to go. Of course, the more the better. However, build quality, space(room), removable motherboard tray, etc.. are excellent things to have but they up the price. And not to mention looks, thats important too =).
Current favorites among the enthusiast community are:
Cooler Master CM690, Cooler Master HAF, Corsair Obsidian, Antec 900, various Lian Li and Silverstone cases.

For power supplies, stick with known quality brands and you wont regret burning your $1000 system. OCZ, Corsair, PC&P, Antec, Enermax, and Seasonic all make great power supplies. And rule of thumb is, your power supply should be running around 60-80% load becauses thats where its happiest and most efficient. Gives it room to breath and its not wasting power whilst not doing anything. So if youre system draws 400 watts, look at around 600-700 watt.

As for motherboards, youll need to do research as I havent really kept up with them. Too many to look through but top tier is ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and squeezing there, EVGA. More familiar with the chipsets.

Lastly, for optical drives Pioneer and Samsung are all great drives. Blue-ray seems to go to either Pioneer or LG. They dont matter much anymore because they all perform well. I say get the cheapest. Id get a blue-ray one IF you have to have one to watch movies and a DVD burner. Use only the blue-ray to rip the BR movies to a) save the laser from wearing out b) decrease access time and use the dvd for everything else.


If you need more help visit these sites and forums:
Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews (monthly best money for graphics card)
AnandTech: your source for hardware analysis and news <- like a lot
www.bittech.com
techPowerUp! - The latest in hardware and gaming
www.vrzone.com
XtremeSystems Inc <- like a lot

And of course, you can post here or PM me and ill guide you through whatever I can.

PS You can get upgrade copy of windows 7 for $30 if you know anyone that is affiliated with a college. Or various torrent sites for "demos":ph34r:
 
you dont need spend a grand to have a nice system....but if you can do it nice....I have an IBUYPOWER and i love. Look into custom building yours at www.ibuypower.com
 
Okay, so I thought I'd bump this back up because at the end of next week I think I am going to order my new PC. I found it on CyberpowerPC, which also customizes gaming rigs like ibuypower. Here's what I've got in mind:
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 - 2.66ghz 8m cache
Motherboard: Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset
Memory: 6gb (2gbx3) DDR3
Video Card: 2x Ati Radeon 5770 1gb ddr5
Hard Drive 1: 64GB Kingston Solid State Disk
Hard Drive 2 (data drive): 1TB (250gbx4)Sata-II 3.0gb/s 7200RPM HDD
and an LG DVD/RW drive for now, bluray later maybe.

What do you all think? The primary purpose of this machine will be gaming, movies, music, and research for school.
 
mm looks solid but just a couple of suggestions.

unless Cyberpower is having a great sale or something, it would be much better to build it yourself because youll get the hands on experience, most of the time itll be cheaper and you know the quality of the parts. now for the parts.

i920 will be replaced very very soon with i930 for the same price. why should you care? built on smaller node which usually improves temps and overclocking headroom (if you care to do it). also, you get a free bump in speed (133mhz) and improved turbo boost.

i prefer 1 very fast video card to 2 medium linked cards. because youre case has much less clutter that helps with cooler temps, 2 video cards will generate more heat, draw more power and sli or cfx doesnt always scale will in every game. i would only suggest 2 cards over one when those two cards are considerably cheaper than that 1 fast card, but as of now 2x5770 equals roughly 1 5850 in price and performance.

for ssd, kingston makes good drives, just make sure its either uses indilix or intel controller and supports TRIM. TRIM will help it be fast even when it gets filled with data.

lastly, why 4 hdd????? just get 1 1tb, itll be 100 bucks where as 4x250gb would cost a bit more over that, draw more power and create more heat. if youre worried with reduancy, get 2 and put it in raid 1. no reason to get 4x250gb unless you have them lying around.
 
They aren't really having a sale, I just have never put a computer together before. I have a friend that is familiar with them, but I'm not too sure how familiar.

I think I will take your advice on the video card setup. I'll go with one 5850 for now and use the extra dough to put towards an i940 or i960 processor.

Also on the HDD, I think I'll go a little bit larger, and maybe just get one or two drives like you were saying, the combination of the 2 video cards and 4 hdd's probably would cause a heat problem
 
putting together a rig isnt very hard. just make sure you ground yourself and take the time to do it. most of it will be wiring and making it look clean. and probably the most involved part is doing research on parts, unless overclocking of course. if you can work on cars, you can put a rig together.

as for putting more dough into a processor, that would be okay, but the i7 is just a overclocking beast so you really wont gain much buying the higher models except headroom when you do overclock. but then again, if youre doing critical data work like rendering for a studio or something, there are possibilities of data corruption in the frames(rare though). or youre just not comfortable messing with it.

lastly, the i7 gets pretty damn hot, so if you do plan overclocking, get an aftermarket heatsink. something that is a tower design and with a 120mm fan.
 
i actually just got a call to put a rig together, so ill post some pics and instructions if you want.
 
Pics and instructions would be awesome.

This sounds like its going to be a little bit of a challenge, but I think I'm going to try it.
 
Why go with the 4x250gb instead of just a 1tb drive? or 2 500gb? Honestly I wouldn't want to bother with a RAID array unless you know how to troubleshoot it. Plus, 4 drives will use more power than a single drive solution. Probably a bit cheaper, too.

Any particular reason for the SSD? They are really expensive, unless you really really need the lower access times.
 
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