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      01-24-2012, 11:01 PM   #1
Anthrax
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Need help building a new PC

Hey guys, so I built a gaming PC about 4 or 5 years ago and this week my motherboard decided to die so rather than replace the mobo I\'m just going to build a new one.

I figure there are at least a few other computer nerds lurking these forums so any input would be appreciated.

I\'m doing a custom build, just looking for advice on parts. I want to spend less than $2k so I imagine I\'ll end up with 8-12 gb ram, an i5 and an ati 7xxx. I\'d like to have at least a small SSD and a z68 mobo.

Any advice you guys can offer is appreciated!
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      01-25-2012, 08:29 AM   #2
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Pretty sure newegg had a combo package for near those exact specs for like $1400.

Found it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.791304

The vid card is a little lower end than what you want, but you could upgrade. It's got two HDDs, one a 60GB SSD and the other is a 1TB 7200 rpm drive. Liquid cooling as well, which could easily be dropped for something else if you so choose.
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      01-25-2012, 08:38 AM   #3
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I just built a medium-range computer last August:
i5 2500k now at 4ghz, 8 gigs of ddr3-1600 cas8 ram, gigabyte z68-ud4, ati 6950 1gb. No SSD though. I reused my HD and PSU so total was about 750 for all the new parts including case (CM HAF 922 Plus) and CPU cooler (CM Hyper 212 Plus).

Starting here you have a long way to go to reach that 2k budget so upgrade accordingly!
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      01-25-2012, 08:48 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Templar View Post
Templars' link looks pretty solid. You might be able to nickel and dime some of those parts for slightly cheaper if you really worked at it, or if you lived near a MicroCenter. But otherwise it's not a bad package. Also, the SSD is a little small for my test even as just a boot drive. But it's enough to do the job.

I liked all the very easily removable filters that case had on the fans.

Also, a note on the AMD 7000 series. Currently, there is only 1 card on the market. I think the 2nd might be out sometime this week or next. But your options here are pretty limited until they roll out more products in the line.

With today's prices, you can get a pretty high end machine for sub ~$1500. A ~$2000 machine is basically just a $1500 machine with SLI or CrossFire.
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      01-25-2012, 09:02 AM   #5
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Agree with all the above. 60GB is pretty small, but SSD's are still kind of pricey and the more space you get, the more you'll pay. Like he said though, you can nickel and dime some of the other options and make more room in your budget for a larger SSD.

Also, I'm an nVidia fanboi, so I wouldn't get the ATI card at all, but that's just me My laptop has ATI graphics and it's just great, so no complaints either way! If you can wait a little longer, I think I read elsewhere that nVidia is coming out with some newer stuff. So either you can blow some cash on the new stuff or the prices on the current stuff will drop considerably. Your choice!
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      01-25-2012, 09:21 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Templar View Post
Also, I'm an nVidia fanboi
I am as well. Enjoy our biased recommendations!
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      01-25-2012, 11:25 AM   #7
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Haha, first off, I posted on two pc forums yesterday and have yet to get responses. I'm not sure why I ever stray from my beloved bimmer forums...

But yea, I'm a nVidia fanboi too and with the projected release of their new card being bumped to February I might just wait for that. I also read in another thread here that intel is supposed to launch a new processor soon... Looks like waiting a month or so might be the best idea right now.
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      01-25-2012, 11:50 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthrax View Post
Haha, first off, I posted on two pc forums yesterday and have yet to get responses. I'm not sure why I ever stray from my beloved bimmer forums...

But yea, I'm a nVidia fanboi too and with the projected release of their new card being bumped to February I might just wait for that. I also read in another thread here that intel is supposed to launch a new processor soon... Looks like waiting a month or so might be the best idea right now.
Dunno if I'd wait for that, because then you'll also want to wait for the price shock to go down.

Look at the 3930K, it's not even all that incredible and the proc plus mobo will set you back quite a bit. I expect the same once the new die comes along. If you're building a gaming rig, there's really no better option (on the Intel side) than the 2500K, if budget is a concern.
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      01-25-2012, 04:32 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ragingclue View Post
Dunno if I'd wait for that, because then you'll also want to wait for the price shock to go down.

Look at the 3930K, it's not even all that incredible and the proc plus mobo will set you back quite a bit. I expect the same once the new die comes along. If you're building a gaming rig, there's really no better option (on the Intel side) than the 2500K, if budget is a concern.
The 3930K is a Sandy Bridge-E chip. 'E' stands for Extreme. This is by all intensive purposes a hardcore enthusiast's chip, and no one would ever recommend such a chip to another person asking for help simply selecting components. It is priced as such. ~$1300

The new Intel chips will not be Extreme enthusiast editions, but rather general market processor solutions. Looking at Intel's current mainstream product lineup and pricing, it ranges from $200 - $400. This will be the expected price range for the new Ivy Bridge CPU's.
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      01-25-2012, 08:18 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UltimateBMW View Post
The 3930K is a Sandy Bridge-E chip. 'E' stands for Extreme. This is by all intensive purposes a hardcore enthusiast's chip, and no one would ever recommend such a chip to another person asking for help simply selecting components. It is priced as such. ~$1300

The new Intel chips will not be Extreme enthusiast editions, but rather general market processor solutions. Looking at Intel's current mainstream product lineup and pricing, it ranges from $200 - $400. This will be the expected price range for the new Ivy Bridge CPU's.
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/C..._Configurator/

Really can't beat it for the money from what I can tell. Put in a GTX 570 card and sit back for a few years.
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      01-25-2012, 08:48 PM   #11
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Don't ever buy from cyberpower
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      01-25-2012, 09:03 PM   #12
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With a 2k budget you can build a great computer. Are you going to reuse your old screen, mouse, keyboard, case, etc??
I would go with a x79 motherboard but theres only like 2 cpu's that support that socket and cost a lot. So I guess you should use the z68 with a nice i7 2600k. Easily overclockable to 4ghz. Add in a quad channel 16gb ram, buy a 64gb crucial m4 SSD for boot up and another hard drive or two or whatever your taste is. For graphics card, well you can go with the best ATI that just came out, 7970 which is going for 550 on newegg. Or if you want to wait for nVidia's upcoming card then just get a 560 gtx TI and use the step up program from evga to get their newest card (You just pay the difference)

Theres a lot of options out there for creating a rig for 2k. it just depends what you have to work with and what you need/want from the rig
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      01-25-2012, 09:09 PM   #13
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Yea, I'm reusing all of my other hardware, the 2 grand is solely for the tower itself.
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      01-26-2012, 08:24 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TimZ View Post
With a 2k budget you can build a great computer. Are you going to reuse your old screen, mouse, keyboard, case, etc??
I would go with a x79 motherboard but theres only like 2 cpu's that support that socket and cost a lot. So I guess you should use the z68 with a nice i7 2600k. Easily overclockable to 4ghz. Add in a quad channel 16gb ram, buy a 64gb crucial m4 SSD for boot up and another hard drive or two or whatever your taste is. For graphics card, well you can go with the best ATI that just came out, 7970 which is going for 550 on newegg. Or if you want to wait for nVidia's upcoming card then just get a 560 gtx TI and use the step up program from evga to get their newest card (You just pay the difference)

Theres a lot of options out there for creating a rig for 2k. it just depends what you have to work with and what you need/want from the rig
Is there really a need for 16GB of RAM?

Not trying to be an asshole, just curious as to why you mentioned that much. Seems like a little bit of overkill to me.
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      01-26-2012, 08:16 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Templar
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimZ View Post
With a 2k budget you can build a great computer. Are you going to reuse your old screen, mouse, keyboard, case, etc??
I would go with a x79 motherboard but theres only like 2 cpu's that support that socket and cost a lot. So I guess you should use the z68 with a nice i7 2600k. Easily overclockable to 4ghz. Add in a quad channel 16gb ram, buy a 64gb crucial m4 SSD for boot up and another hard drive or two or whatever your taste is. For graphics card, well you can go with the best ATI that just came out, 7970 which is going for 550 on newegg. Or if you want to wait for nVidia's upcoming card then just get a 560 gtx TI and use the step up program from evga to get their newest card (You just pay the difference)

Theres a lot of options out there for creating a rig for 2k. it just depends what you have to work with and what you need/want from the rig
Is there really a need for 16GB of RAM?

Not trying to be an asshole, just curious as to why you mentioned that much. Seems like a little bit of overkill to me.
I know it's overkill but why not when it's priced so low (roughly $80).
I currently have 6gb on my system and it can be a bit too little for me at times especially with ram intensive programs.
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      01-26-2012, 09:14 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by san~man View Post
Don't ever buy from cyberpower
Would you mind elaborating on this?
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      01-27-2012, 02:14 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthrax View Post
Hey guys, so I built a gaming PC about 4 or 5 years ago and this week my motherboard decided to die so rather than replace the mobo I\'m just going to build a new one.

I figure there are at least a few other computer nerds lurking these forums so any input would be appreciated.

I\'m doing a custom build, just looking for advice on parts. I want to spend less than $2k so I imagine I\'ll end up with 8-12 gb ram, an i5 and an ati 7xxx. I\'d like to have at least a small SSD and a z68 mobo.

Any advice you guys can offer is appreciated!
i7 2600k $280
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0354587
get 4gb ram x 2 or 3 depending on your ram channel

Mobo is completely up to you, just get a decent quality one that works with good warranty and slap an audio card on there if you want if you are an audiophile like I am.

I have 580gtx sli'd, they running fine on corsair hx1050 AND I'm running 2 motor water cooling setup. From my experience I ran BF3 on ultra with a single 580gtx 3gb @ 1920 x 1200. So its your choice, I do video editing so that extra was a good help. You can reuse your PSu depending on what rating you've got. My computer reads about 800 ~ 850w drain on full load on cpu and gpu with the 2 motors running and 2 ssd. 7xxx series ain't bad since you can just download the patch for phyx these days instead of getting a phyx card.

If you got a good case with airflow, I don't see the point of getting a new one. I got a microcenter around, so if you need a hook up with a CPU just hit me up.
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      01-27-2012, 02:17 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Templar View Post
Is there really a need for 16GB of RAM?

Not trying to be an asshole, just curious as to why you mentioned that much. Seems like a little bit of overkill to me.
If you are like me, I run multiple instances of Photoshop, with various things like vegas, lr, and multiple tabs of internet running and I eat up at least 8gb real quick. But if you are just going to game 8 is more than enough, skyrim or bf3 doesn't even eat up 2gb.
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      01-27-2012, 02:22 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TimZ View Post
With a 2k budget you can build a great computer. Are you going to reuse your old screen, mouse, keyboard, case, etc??
I would go with a x79 motherboard but theres only like 2 cpu's that support that socket and cost a lot. So I guess you should use the z68 with a nice i7 2600k. Easily overclockable to 4ghz. Add in a quad channel 16gb ram, buy a 64gb crucial m4 SSD for boot up and another hard drive or two or whatever your taste is. For graphics card, well you can go with the best ATI that just came out, 7970 which is going for 550 on newegg. Or if you want to wait for nVidia's upcoming card then just get a 560 gtx TI and use the step up program from evga to get their newest card (You just pay the difference)

Theres a lot of options out there for creating a rig for 2k. it just depends what you have to work with and what you need/want from the rig
And from my experience, its not good to have HDD and SSD mixed, you can really tell the difference between when you are reading or writing files from each of them. Just get a single good SSD or raid0 it if you want to, and get a external network HDD and put files like movies in there. If you prefer just the fast boot, its not a bad idea though; but I really get impatient
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      01-27-2012, 10:11 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 325iii View Post
And from my experience, its not good to have HDD and SSD mixed, you can really tell the difference between when you are reading or writing files from each of them. Just get a single good SSD or raid0 it if you want to, and get a external network HDD and put files like movies in there. If you prefer just the fast boot, its not a bad idea though; but I really get impatient
I don't understand your logic at all in this. You want them to get a network drive instead of an additional internal HDD? Just because you don't like having a SSD and a HDD in the same box with each other?

There is nothing wrong with using a SSD as a boot drive, and having a HDD for storage in the same machine. If you notice a different here, I guarantee you will notice it being over a network...
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      01-27-2012, 10:40 AM   #21
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If you don't like the system Templar linked, here is a list of components.

$121.99 ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157271

$319.99 Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115070

$499.99 ASUS ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5 GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121429

$46.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231314

$89.99 OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341018

$159.99 Corsair Graphite Series 600T CC600TM Mid-Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139007
(Same case as above, the video on this case really impressed me. The filters rock!)

$89.99 Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608018

$79.99 ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135252

$89.99 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136769

$199.99 Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167050

Total: $1,698.90

Switch out Video cards and add ram as you please. If I was buying today, this is what I'd most likely go with. The reason for the 580 and not the 7970 is that AMD does a terrible job keeping their drivers up to date with brand new releases. For example, their Skyrim driver was like 2 months late.

On the HDD choice, HDD's are still recovering from the price inflation. So I picked a cheapish one with decent size that should last until they get back to their normal prices.


*EDIT* There are 2 3GB EVGA GTX 580 cards that are slightly more expensive. But probably worth the extra performance, and EVGA has a 90 day upgrade program which may prove great with the looming release of the new nVidia cards. See later posts for more info on this.

2 more GTX 580 card choices:
$549.99 EVGA 03G-P3-1595-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Classified ULTRA 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130751
(This card is factory overclocked, with beefed up cooling.)

$529.99 (using a $20 Mail-in Rebate) EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3GB 384-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130655
(This is only better if you know you will benefit from the mail-in rebate!)
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      01-27-2012, 12:18 PM   #22
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That case is terrific, the filters are cool and the overall design of the case is fantastic. I really like that build.

Is there any reason to wait and go with ivy bridge over sandy bridge?
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