Building a New PC

135

Comments

  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    I am a big fan of silverstone cases, Solid and good air flow but i also have heard wonderful things about next cases as well.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Just a note regarding Mail-In Rebates... OCZ's rebate house is NOT one of the bankrupt ones. All OCZ rebates should be taken care of without issue. And if there is a problem, you know who to talk to. ;)
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited December 2008
    awesome. im really glad there are helpful people like you guys here. i would hate to go out and buy a bunch of components that dont work well together. ok, to sum up so far, my best bet would be go for an ATX motherboard, a slightly larger case (mid to large) and look for at least 4 fans, correct?

    now, i dont do gaming, apparently like you guys, so if i get a motherboard, and then i get a quad core, or a dual core processor, will i really need to get 2 or 4 gigs of RAM, or does that matter at all? i mean, i know that RAM is a big helper when it comes to processing information, but should i keep an eye on that as far as size, or just go for the bigger RAM to be safe?

    who knows, with all of that power that you guys are recommending, i may actually start playing games online! lol
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited December 2008
    ok, i just saw a deal (it looks like a great one) on a power supply, and i want to pull the trigger. could anyone please let me know as soon as you can, cause the rebate ends on the 31st. ill order it as soon as i get a positive response from one of you fine folks! im also adding on a dvd burner.

    here is the link:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012

    looks good, right?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Great choice.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    go for the bigger RAM to be safe?
    It would be my recommendation to go for 4GB of RAM. RAM is at an historical low price structure right now. The market is flooded. Considering how inexpensive it is right now, there's no reason not to go big. BTW, unless you are overclocking or tweaking your computer to the max, you won't see much of any difference between the expensive DRAM and the garden variety.
    with all of that power that you guys are recommending
    All we've been doing is introducing you to moderate standard, not even high end or high performance, but a good standard nonetheless.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited December 2008
    wow, i didnt expect a response that fast! awesome, and leonardo, what do you think of that power supply? good enough for what i need?

    also, i wasnt saying that you guys were recommending too much for me, just the way i typed it might have seemed a little off-put. my bad.

    thanks thrax for the input. i think im gonna pull the trigger tonight, if i get another positive response.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited December 2008
    on a side note, i guess im becoming a "regular"!

    <<<<<<<<<<

    lol
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Very good choice on the PSU. Go for it.
  • KhaosKhaos New Hampshire
    edited December 2008
    Rock on, sweet deal on that OCZ PSU which is manufactured by Fortron Source; a fairly reputable PSU manufacturer whose recent models with similar specs have received high marks for efficiency.

    Edit: That PSU @ $25 after rebates is worthy of a post in the Deals Depot! Crazy cheap for a quality mid-range PSU.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    I'm running one of those 600 StealthXstream 600 PSUs. Excellent choice. I don't think you can do better than that for the price. Good! It's running a Q6600 overclocked and Nvidia 9800GX2 overclocked (actually two 9800 'cards' sandwiched together), all at full load 24/7. It just purrs along very happy. Never a complaint. It's MUCH quieter than my Corsair 550s under nearly identical load.
  • KhaosKhaos New Hampshire
    edited December 2008
    Nice, Leo. Who's the OEM for the 600 SXS model you have? Is it also FST like the 500W?
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited December 2008
    thats just what i wanted to hear guys! thanks for the help. ill be ordering that tonight.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Who's the OEM for the 600 SXS model you have?
    No idea. Next time I'm in that case I'll jot down the UL number and see what comes up on a search. I'm not about to open it up and check the code on the PSU's PCB! It's still under warranty. :)
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited December 2008
    Just to pitch in my bit as I am too late for most of this...

    Make sure you get some good quality RAM and 4GB worth. Video processing takes up a fair chunk of it due to file sizes. The rest of the guys on here know far more than me and im sure they will have guided you right. Hope it goes well.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited December 2008
    ok, ordered! Now, im not sure what the "deals depot" is, but if someone tells me, ill be more than happy to apply it there. once again, thanks for all the input. now, since i havce to figure out my tv, im going to concentrate on that (with money being tight and all). but, as soon as its fixed, or resolved, then back to the pc, cause im really excited about building a kick ass unit.

    ill keep everyone informed as to the progress and other things that i need. you guys ROCK!
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Deal Depot & Trading Post It's our marketplace forum for buying and selling used computer components and related tech. We also use it for posting deals we find on same.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited April 2009
    ok, now its time to figure out what to get next. Do I need to buy the motherboard, or the processor first? If I know that I want a quad core processor, will any motherboard work (that has the same pin set)? Any suggestions on a processor? Obviously, I want the bang for the buck, but I cant afford $300 for one either! I haven't gotten the tower yet, but from what I can tell, most cases (mid to large) will hold anything I want, so I want to get the most important components out of the way first. Thanks for the help, guys.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Doesn't matter what order you buy in. You'll need both for your rig.

    This weekend I assembled an AMD Phenom II X4 940 system using a MSI DK790GX. It's a nice, easy to work with setup. That'd be a good start for an AMD rig, and with a good cooler, you could overclock it easily. I bumped the vCore to 1.4 volts, set the multiplier to 17 and had 3.4GHz without the system giving a second thought. And there's definitely more headroom for overclocking if I get the time to fiddle with it. Onboard graphics will cover you unless you've got a video card to slap in there. All you'd need is the heatsink of your choice and some DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 and a case to put it in.

    Intel wise, you could get a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3L and Core 2 Quad Q9400. That'd also be a good system. It lacks onboard graphics so you'll need a video card for sure.

    Core i7 offers the most performance gain but at a higher price premium. Core i7 920 processor (289) and a GA-EX58-UD3R ($185 after rebate) is a powerhouse system. You'll need DDR3 memory and a video card for it.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    In terms of what order to buy in, if your buying part by part, I normaly would tell anyone to wait the longest on the graphics card if your going to buy one, and the second logest on the CPU and chipset and RAM.

    You can buy the case/power supply optical drives and hard drives early.

    The reason being that the Graphics seem to go down in price, litteraly every couple of weeks. CPU's seem to be on a cycle thats not much longer, maybe six weeks to two months for most to drop in price from the point of release, then in incraments following. If you have to piece meal a system from paycheck to paycheck, buy the graphics last, and the CPU and chipset a little in front of that, hold off on them the logest because they are the parts the fall in price more often.

    Hard drives, cases, power supplies, a good deal today will be a good deal two months from now, those prices are pretty stable, now on a graphics card you can buy today, and next week you can see it for 15% less, thats just the way the market is, the CPU is generaly not as dramatic, but they do so frequent price drops as well, so defer those items until your close to build time.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Cliff is spot on.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited April 2009
    Well, thanks for the information, but............In case you didn't notice the name, I'm not knowledgable about over clocking and setting up voltage. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what you are trying to tell me, but I haven't got that far into it yet. I already have a power supply (OCZ 500 Watt), and I have 2 graphics cards (both are NVidia, one is a 5500 and the other is a 5200). I'm sure they are not the best, but they adapt for dual monitors, which is what I wanted.

    Cliff, thanks for the info. I will look into pricing that stuff when the time is right.

    I honestly just want to build a computer that will do my video editing and run streaming music at the same time without locking up or taking forever to process information. I guess that AMD seems to be the most popular brand for motherboards. Looks like that everyone always mentions those first, so I will assume that they are top of the line? But, if I decide on a processor that seems to be what I want, all I need to do is look for a board with the same number of pins (or i.e. compatible) with that chip? Also, when I buy the chip, will it matter about the RAM (will it have to be compatible with it), or does that only matter with the board? I figure that I will go with 4 gigs of RAM, so I can insure myself of less aggrevation, correct?

    Once again, thanks for all the help.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    We should change your name from "completely stupid" since you're a regular now and all :p

    also, you should get an avatar! Pull up a chair, take off your coat; you're staying for a while!

    :D
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    I guess from your standpoint, it's best to determine what processor you want first. By doing that, you'll then be able to determine your motherboard and RAM requirements. What you're doing doesn't require extreme performance. I think the AMD hardware I linked to in my above post, the AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor and MSI DK790GX motherboard, would be great for you. You could also substitute a three-core AMD Phenom II X3 720 processor. It's $145 and will do whatever you need.

    At this point, regarding memory I think you'll be best to purchase 4GB of any quality DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 memory you find. This kit from G.Skill would be nice, but you can find deals like that all the time on Newegg.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited April 2009
    Cool. Thanks for the responses guys. And Mr. Prime Suspect, I think I will change my name to "Not So Completely Stupid"! LOL Now, I will look into those processors and boards. The price seems to be right. Also, I have seen where people talk about programming there processors to control certain programs (i.e. quad core can control 4 things, dual core - 2 things, etc.). Is that right, and if so, how do you do that? Is that from the bios menu? When you install the chip onto the board and power up, does it give you that option? Just checking before I start getting all this stuff together.

    Thanks again for all the help guys!
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Your understanding of cores controlling things isn't correct. Let me help. A single processor core controls many things all at once. If you hit Control + Alt + Delete and look at the Processes tab, you'll see 30+ things your processor is doing at any given moment. Multi-core processors share that load evenly so one core takes half the processes and the other takes half the processes. The computer does this automatically.

    Some programs are very processor intensive. They use the processor's power to its fullest extent, making the processor work hard. When your processor is working that hard, it can make your computer seem slow, lag-y and unresponsive. Multi-core processors can help in this case, giving the power-hungry program a core (or many cores) all to itself while letting regular system tasks take place on their own core so things don't get slow and annoying.

    All this shuffling of processes across the cores is handled automatically. There are ways you can set certain things manually, but it isn't necessary. It's usually done through Windows; not in the BIOS.

    Unrelated: I found this RAM deal on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145215&nm_mc=OTC-RSS&cm_mmc=OTC-RSS-_-Desktop%20Memory-_-Corsair%20(XMS%20Series)-_-N82E16820145215 This is a very good deal.

    When you power on a system for the first time, you usually hit Delete to get into the computer BIOS. You'll then see many options for controlling settings. The first option tab always lets you see general system information like the motherboard's time (they have a built-in clock) and the connected devices. You check and see that the drives you've connected are listed first.

    After that, you find the option to set the boot order. You select your CD drive to be the first device, and then your hard drive.

    Then you save the bios and exit. The computer will reboot, you'll stick your Windows CD in the optical drive and it'll start loading your OS. It's very easy to do.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited April 2009
    Thanks Buddy. That explains alot. I always knew that the computer broke things up automatically, but programming each core was what I was wondering about. That was a great explaination. I also knew aboutgoing into the BIOS and setting the boot order and connected devices, just didnt know if had to program each processor or not. I really do appreciate all the help everyone has contributed.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited July 2009
    Well, I havent been here in a little while. Ive been trying to take care of other things rather than building my pc. I have now got the tower, the power supply and 1 disk drive. I have come across a couple of motherboards that I think are nice. I wanted to see if anyone could tell me if they are good enough for what I want to do. Thanks for the help from everyone in here.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131381

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128385


    Here is the tower that I have ordered (will be here in a day or 2).

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156189

    Here are a couple of chips I was looking at. I wasnt sure if anyone could tell me if its good enough or should I try something different. Just a refresher...I am building this computer for basic online web browsing but also for video editing and creating. I just want to make sure that there will be no lag or slowing down while working. Also, I hope to be streaming online radio stations while working. I will not be overclocking, since I dont really know how to do that yet. But, if I decided to, would any of thiese items be good for it, or do I really need to? Thanks in advance once again for the help.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103253

    Also, I will be buying the RAM once I have the motherboard. I wanted to get a board that would support 16 GB, so that way, I never have to worry about upgrading again. Good idea?
  • Nate_LapTNate_LapT Ferndale MI. Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Im a bit confused by your terms of video editing.
    Are you referring to actually creating a movie from a camcorder, or taking clips of footage and mastering a dvd. Or just backing up your dvd collection?

    What is your budget for this system?
    You say general web browsing which a system from 7 years ago could do that. Learning wise though this is a good thing to do.

    That gigabyte board should be ok, the asus doesnt have onboard video.
    and I would go with the tricore over the dual core for the few extra $

    as for 16gb, I wouldnt worry about going over 4gb for a while, unless you get hardcore into gaming video editing and loading 80+ tabs in firefox all at once.
  • The-Lovable-Mr--HaterThe-Lovable-Mr--Hater Planet Earth
    edited July 2009
    Thanks for the reply Nate.

    As for the video editing, I sometimes take movie clips and put them to music for the fun of it. Also, when I burn my own copies of movies, I will edit some of the parts (creat chapters, remove scenes, etc.). I want to be able to do all of this, while streaming music at the same time.

    The 16 GB thing, was basically, preparing for the future. I know it wont be something I need right now, but I could always upgrade, right?

    The budget is, there really isnt one, but I'm trying to keep it under $500 since I dont do online gaming.

    Any other input would be helpful.

    Thanks again in advance!
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