Building A Custom PC Question

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

Wow! Even though that much memory is not needed I would get it myself if I had the money.

But the watercooling, how does that work exactly? Do you put water in it lol?

Coolant runs through tubing from a reservoir to plates on the cpu and other culprits of heat production.

Here is a link to some liquid cooling products to give you an idea.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Category.aspx?C=1443

[Xerios]

Originally Posted by supersix4

I have a ton of HD bays in my comp I think like 8 or more but raid scares the shit out of me because if one crashes don't they all crash

Raid 0, you lose everything
Raid 1 has a 2 disk minimum its a mirror set... if u lose one u maintain uptime because the other is an exact copy, once u replace the dead drive you can mirror it again so you have 2 good ones.


Raid 5 and 6 are my favorite basically in a raid 5 you have a minimum of 4 disks and u can lose 1 at any time and it doesnt matter which one and u can still function 100%, once you replace the failed one it rebuilds itself

the whole point of raid is so u dont lose everything cept raid 0 which only exists so you can add a bunch of drives to make it appear as one big drive in which case u lose everything if one dies, the only reason a person would use that is to increase perfomance as far as speed.. it has no redundancy to it

[Xerios]

jono from your responses.. your gonna want a 32 bit os, and i could probably most definitely dumb down the video card to a cheaper one since i know what your occasional gaming is..

[jono_0101]

Originally Posted by Xerios

jono from your responses.. your gonna want a 32 bit os, and i could probably most definitely dumb down the video card to a cheaper one since i know what your occasional gaming is..

cool, good to know, have any idea where i can find a copy of vista, so i can just use my dads upgrade code? im sure i can find one on ebay or something, but it doesnt seem like stores are selling them anymore

[PrivatePixel]

With the exception of an LCD monitor, I have put together a DIY build that's flexible option-wise (i.e. gave the buyer more than one component in each category to choose from, depending on budget, brand preference and/or features). With rebates applied and before shipping costs, it's possible to spend as little as $685 for just the components alone. Also, shopping at other e-tailers can further reduce the overall cost (yes, there are reputable places to shop at besides NewEgg. Who knew? )

The first item in each category is my preferred pick, followed by alternatives I would consider. Direct links to each item is embedded in the listed price.

CPU:
Intel Core i5-750 (Lynnfield 2.66GHz; 95W; Quad-Core) - $179.99 (Micro Center; in-store only) || $199.99 (NewEgg)
Intel Core i3-530 (Clarkdale 2.93GHz; 73W; Dual-Core) - $99.99 (Micro Center; in-store only) || $119.99 (NewEgg)

CPU Heatsink:
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - $34.99 (NewEgg)
XIGMATEK ACK-I5361 Intel Core i7/Core i5 compatible Bracket Set (highly recommended with HDT-S1283) - $9.99 (NewEgg)

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 (Intel P55 chipset; SATA 6Gb/s & USB 3.0) - $119.99 with rebate (NewEgg)

PSU:
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W (SLI / CrossFire Ready; 80 PLUS Certified; Core i7 compatible) - $79.99 with rebate (NewEgg)
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W (SLI Certified / CrossFire Ready; 80 PLUS Certified; Core i7 compatible) - $64.99 after rebate (NewEgg)

Video Card:
XFX HD-545X-YNH2 (Radeon HD 5450 512MB 64-bit DDR2) - $49.99 (NewEgg)
POWERCOLOR Go! Green AX5450 (Radeon HD 5450 512MB 64-bit DDR3) - $39.99 with rebate (NewEgg)

Sound Card:
onboard HD audio - free
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels - $89.99 (NewEgg)
HT OMEGA STRIKER 7.1 Channels - $89.99 (NewEgg)

RAM:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (latency: 7) - $119.99 (NewEgg)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (latency: 9) - $109.99 (NewEgg)
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (latency: 9) - $119.99 (NewEgg)

DVD drive/burner:
ASUS DRW-24B1ST SATA 24X DVD Burner - $24.99 (NewEgg)
SONY AD-7260S SATA 24X DVD Burner with LightScribe support - $31.99 (NewEgg)

Hard Drive(s):
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB (32MB Cache) - $99.99 (NewEgg)

Case:
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP (CM 690) - $69.99 (NewEgg)
COOLER MASTER RC-330-KKN1-GP (Elite 330) - $39.99 (NewEgg)

Fans:
YATE LOON D12SL-12 (120mm case fan; CFM: 47) - $3.60 (Jab-Tech)

[jono_0101]

wow, i really appreciate all the responses so far guys, im gonna have to take a close look at all of these pieces and decide what to go with, go ahead and keep any recommendations you might have coming, im definitely going to look into some of the combo/bundle deals on newegg too, looks like i can probably save some money doing that too

[onyxbfly]

@PrivatePixel,

Does Jono even need a hd sound card if he gets the ATI Radeon 5xxx card? I fail to see the benefit of having both. If onboard sound is sufficient and in HD.

I'm not picking or being anal, Just trying to understand the reasoning behind the suggestion.

TIA

[BLindsay]

Originally Posted by Xerios

other than "4 Segate 1TB RAID-5" i like the setup, but what do you do that you need soo much horsepower?? you could practically create avatar on that setup (i know its a joke lol, avatar was setup using many servers and the HP blade c class blade system)

im working on a new setup over the next 2 years... since the one i have is only 2 years old and i built it for 7 years into the future lol.. i wanna raid 1 (2 drives for the OS) and raid 5 or 6 about (8) 2TB drives... i need space

Lol whats wrong with my RAID5 array? I happen to like it alot

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

Wow! Even though that much memory is not needed I would get it myself if I had the money.

But the watercooling, how does that work exactly? Do you put water in it lol?

here is a quick pic

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2526/img0152sv.jpg

and if u want to see the full thread

http://www.overclock.net/water-cooli...ld-thread.html

Be warned there are alot of pictures, let them all load, they auto resize

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by Xerios

Raid 0, you lose everything
Raid 5 and 6 are my favorite basically in a raid 5 you have a minimum of 4 disks and u can lose 1 at any time and it doesnt matter which one and u can still function 100%, once you replace the failed one it rebuilds itself

Hmm this raid 5 sounds like a good plan

I did raid 0 once and it will be the last time lol


LOL Pixel you did a ton of searching for him maybe you should get a % of the cost

[bad_code]

Originally Posted by Xerios

Raid 0, you lose everything
Raid 1 has a 2 disk minimum its a mirror set... if u lose one u maintain uptime because the other is an exact copy, once u replace the dead drive you can mirror it again so you have 2 good ones.


Raid 5 and 6 are my favorite basically in a raid 5 you have a minimum of 4 disks and u can lose 1 at any time and it doesnt matter which one and u can still function 100%, once you replace the failed one it rebuilds itself

the whole point of raid is so u dont lose everything cept raid 0 which only exists so you can add a bunch of drives to make it appear as one big drive in which case u lose everything if one dies, the only reason a person would use that is to increase perfomance as far as speed.. it has no redundancy to it

In Raid 5 when you loose one disk, the performance is impacted significantly. The missing data is rebuilt on the fly using the parity information. With raid 5 if you have 4 1TB drives you have the capacity of only 3 of them because an equivalent of 1 drive is used to store parity data when/if one drive goes bad.

With raid 5 the writing of data is slower because of the need to write or update parity data.

Also consider many enterprise systems don't use windows on their servers. Normally its OS400 or AIX (IBM OS's) also other unix os's even in our labs were are dumping all windows OSs for Linux and AIX due to viruses.

Many times when you have issues with your PC its due to a virus and you probably don't want to restore that data. Doesn't make much sense to waste all that space and performace with raid 5 or even raid 1.

I run RAID 0 with 3 drives and an internal external HDD for backup. Its connected using eSATA connector but its mounted inside the PC for easy transport.

As far as my suggestions for your PC I would not touch a 5400 RPM drive when you can get 7200 RPMs for a bit more or even less. I love tiger direct since they are 10 mins away in busy traffic.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...126&CatId=2459
You could get 2 of these and do raid 0

Also if you have a local store or know how to lookup drive models and dates you may be able to find a single platter 500GB drive which is faster than one which had multiple platters. The data is more densely packed and the sustained rate of transfer is higher over a longer period of time. You just need to know what to look for or ask your local mom and pop computer shop about it.

I like the motherboard suggestions people have posted. The thing I like to do though is to put a bit extra into the video card because that is where you can get good bang for the buck.

This video card is faster and cheaper than the suggestion from Xerios
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...152&CatId=3670
More memory will not make much difference if your video card isn't REALLY fast. In the price range you maybe looking you'd be wasting your money on 1GB of RAM.

This video card will make a HUGE difference compared to the others mentioned including my own. $179 vs $135
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...429&CatId=3585

A good power supply is always important. If you get a cheap 450 watt power supply and try running raid or add drives later you can run into power issues especially if you want to do SLI. I'd suggest a minimum 500 watt power supply.
$50
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...842&CatId=1079

Or a modular power supply so you don't have loose dangling cables hang around in your case:
$55
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...073&CatId=1079

My favorite is the audio card, being an audiophile and all. I love auzentech.
This sound card is $250 but will allow your computer with windows 7 to be a nice piece to your home theater and features 24p Support and HDMI 1.3a so you can run a single HDMI cable from your PC to your receiver and have 7.1 surround sound. They use chip sets from creative labs and even use their software with some tweaks.
http://www.auzentech.com/site/produc...theater_hd.php

As far as memory, if you are running a 64 bit OS 8GB of ram will make the OS run significantly faster than 4GB. I have 3 systems. 2 with 8GB and one with 4GB and the 4GB is noticeably slower. With 8GB the OS loads up completely into memory and doesn't have to hit the hard drive to load up parts at some point. 12GB is good if you want to do virtualization or video/sound editing. Other than that 8GB is good enough.

Before I build a system I ALWAYS do my research and save money where possible and get the best performance. I have checked all my video card suggestions and others to see the performance not per dollar but just speed and my cheap suggestion will save you $35 and be faster and my more expensive suggestion will be %50 than my fastest suggestion. OS's are going 3D so its not a bad idea to put some bucks into the video card.

There is no need to get a special heat sink if you are not going to over clock right away. The fan that comes with the heat sink is absolutely fine with the CPU.

Privatepixels suggestion of a 650 watt power supply with the suggested video card, sorry to say, I don't mean to be mean to him personally but that card would be nice on a cold day to keep my coffee warm but its not even half the speed of Xerios suggestion. You sure don't need a 650 watt supply for that. Why pay more money for a power supply than what your video card is worth?

[BDestroyer8418]

@jono_0101

Originally Posted by jono_0101

its going to be mostly for basic home computing (internet, research, word processing, work spreadsheets, etc...), a lot of media storage, and some occasional gaming, but nothing really crazy, and i didnt really give myself a price limit or anything, but i dont really want to go over $1000

If it was me get the i3 depending how long you plan on keeping this build (how often to you upgrade) you can get a nice Computer setup prob even with a Monitor keyboard and mouse for roughly $600 maybe even $500 or less. You are throwing money away by building something that will run $1000 when you won't ever push a Dual Core. You should only spend that much money if you decide your going to get into gaming,video editing, encoding anything that will push your chip in the next year or so. If not build a budget Kickass CPU and if you decide to get into any of that you can build another computer CPUs get outdated fast so it's not worth spending the money on something to help future proof when in 1/2yr something will be out that's better fast and cheaper.

If you think your going to keep it a few years 3+ I would go for the i7-860 over the i5-750 if you really think you want a quad core. You should have a Microcenter nearby from according to where you live. You can pickup the 860 on sale there for $200.

The 860 with HT is a better buy for the price. You will better future proof the build with the Hyper Threading ( you might get into encoding Blu Ray movies to store on your HDDS) and other stuff in a year or so that could help by having that 860 over the 750 for gaming the 750 slightly better but still the main thing for games is your GPU a i3 with a kickass GPU will run with a i5 750.

Frys had the i3/Gigabyte SD2H combo for $100 AR. You get on board video with the Clarkdale i3/i5 chips as long as the MB have the connections for it and it supports HD audio Bitstreaming.

You might want to look into AMD they have some really nice Chips out now.

@supersix4

Raid 5/6 is decent but still with the Raid 5 you can loose 1 drive if anytime during your rebuild you loose another drive you loose all your Data. Raid 6 you can loose 2 drives and still be able to get your Data recovered.

I'm building a 10-16TB Flexraid setup Storing Blu Ray rips with HD audio. http://www.openegg.org/FlexRAID.curi

Flexraid you can pick from few of the Raid engines. The thing with Flexraid is say you use the Raid 6 setup you loose 2 Drives you now still can recover all your Data, now during your rebuild you loose another drive with Regular Raid 6 you just lost all your Data on all disk say you had 6 HDDs with FlexRaid you only lost your Data on those 3 Hard Drives that failed all other Drives the data will be on your drives still.

Right now it's only a Snapshot Raid so it's best to use for Movie/Music collections or anything where the Data doesn't change much because to be fully covered everytime you change something edit/add etc you need to re sync the data he is in the process of getting the FlexRaid Live out where it re syncs on the Fly.

It's neat you should read up on it. Anything can be used to be part of your Raid a thumb drive, regular Raid Setup you can use HDDs of any size where in Reg Raid if you mixed drives sizes your drives sizes will be only the size of the smallest drive.

Originally Posted by Xerios

the whole point of raid is so u dont lose everything

This is not really true you are confusing the meaning of redundancy and backup they are not the same. The only true way not loose everything is to do full backup even have 2 or 3 backup copies which starts to get hard or expensive when you have TBs of Data. Thats where RAID redundancy comes in it helps you recover failed drives but it's still not a 100% true "BACKUP".

[bad_code]

How dose that work. It doesn't even look like it is raid at all. Seems like is running a process and you schedule a job to backup the info rather than being automatically updated as you write the data to the drive.

Excellent point on the redundancy vs backup. As I said when you get attacked by a virus you don't want to restore the system with the infected data so you still need a backup and in vista and win 7 there is a way to create an image to another drive. Hence my internal external hard drive.

[BDestroyer8418]

Originally Posted by bad_code

How dose that work. It doesn't even look like it is raid at all. Seems like is running a process and you schedule a job to backup the info rather than being automatically updated as you write the data to the drive.

Excellent point on the redundancy vs backup. As I said when you get attacked by a virus you don't want to restore the system with the infected data so you still need a backup and in vista and win 7 there is a way to create an image to another drive. Hence my internal external hard drive.

Yes I just wanted to point that out because when I first started to get into Raid and read up on it I was doing the same thinking Raid is a backup and well we both know how that goes.

Some more info on Flexraid and reg raid in here

[Show spoiler]I was running a 4 disk Raid 0 with a clone backup and I would choose to do the backup when I decided it was right like you are. I agree you don't want to have that Virus on your Raid 1/5/10 what every you decide.

I decided to go for a SSD. Since I didn't need really more than a 30GB Drive for my OS I got a OCZ 64GB drive for my OS and I have my games installed on another drives. I restart my computer few times a day and with the SSD faster boot times and it's alot quicker anything I click to open is instantly opened up I went from about 15ms to 0.01 ms

Yea it doesn't use Striping. So you can have your drives spin down and they will spin back on only when the data is be read/written where with Reg Raid and striping it will have to spin up all the drives that the data was striped too.

Another problem with Reg Raid is from what I heard is if your chipset or controller card goes bad your at risk of loosing all your data if you don't replace it with the same chipset/controller card. With this you can do what ever you want change chipset/cards when failed or go from Linux to Windows and you still have all your data on your drives. Your reset up them up build it and your back up and running.

Right now like I said it's just basic Raid Snapshot the Live version is not out yet (the Basic version it should not be used for your OS drive he even stated that you should not use your OS drive in the pool the Live version will be better for more users). I like that the Basic doesn't do real time I rather choose to backup resync or backup/clone my OS on my terms so I can install some programs etc for a few days and test everything to make sure a Virus was not inside.

I should have my Flexraid Media server up and running by next week so I can get a better feel for it than just from reading the forums.

You really need to read up on it in the forums there and on AVSForums to get a idea of it but it's really slick it's perfect for archiving storage data that does not change often. Just have to Re sync the data after any edits to your data and you will be covered.

There is also unRaid but I didn't read up on that alot. But unRaid is only free for up to 3 HDD if I remember if you buy it, it can support 16 or something maybe more now. Flexraid is free opensource.
http://lime-technology.com/ it's a NAS. Flexraid NAS will come out after Flexraid Live but he has not ETA on them. So you need Windows or Linux to run Flexraid.

But back onto topic for the OP. There a lot of us they can help you so don't be shy to ask questions about your build.

You mentioned something about where to buy Vista since you got a Win7 Upgrade or something.

If you have a .edu email or a friend you can buy Win7 Pro for $65. If you don't have a email send me a PM I can help you get one for free so you can buy that if your interested. http://www.microsoft.com/student/dis...s/default.aspx
It use to be $30 for Win 7 Home.

Any 5XXX can Bitstream HD audio. I wouldn't spend any money on them Nvidia cards there only DX 10 and can't Bitstream ( but the Nvidia cards will be fine for the OP, but I would still get a DX11 ATI 5XXX card to better future proof your build a little bit). I would get the 5770 over a 260. I like XFX for there Lifetime warranty on the video cards it's worth the few bucks more plus I think most of the cards are Double Lifetime so you can sell your card to someone and they can register it and still get the lifetime warranty which holds a better resale value.

HDD (need to sign up for the E-BLAST INSIDER @ NewEgg to use the codes)
WD 1 TB Black $89.99 with code EMCYSZR26 LINKY
WD 750GB Black $69.99 with code EMCYSZR25 LINKY
Or get one of these Samsungs LINKY

There's nothing wrong with the green drive but they should not be used to install for a OS. That why alot of people give some bad reviews on the green drives. Use the green drive for Data Storage Only that's what they were made for. Also spend the little extra and get Western Digital Black over the Blue.

Also the Western Digital HDD no longer will work in regular Raid because of TLER you need to buy there RE like these LINKY

Those Samsung will work in RAID.

I like the GSKILL Ram he picked out I also like these LINKY

[jono_0101]

Originally Posted by BDestroyer8418

@jono_0101



If it was me get the i3 depending how long you plan on keeping this build (how often to you upgrade) you can get a nice Computer setup prob even with a Monitor keyboard and mouse for roughly $600 maybe even $500 or less. You are throwing money away by building something that will run $1000 when you won't ever push a Dual Core. You should only spend that much money if you decide your going to get into gaming,video editing, encoding anything that will push your chip in the next year or so. If not build a budget Kickass CPU and if you decide to get into any of that you can build another computer CPUs get outdated fast so it's not worth spending the money on something to help future proof when in 1/2yr something will be out that's better fast and cheaper.

If you think your going to keep it a few years 3+ I would go for the i7-860 over the i5-750 if you really think you want a quad core. You should have a Microcenter nearby from according to where you live. You can pickup the 860 on sale there for $200.

if thats the case, i might just pick up the i7 for the same price as im about to spend on the i5 online, ill have to see if i can find a store near my house

EDIT: i just went and checked, theres a location about 15 minutes from my house, looks like ill be making a trip there this weekend, thanks for the heads up!

[BDestroyer8418]

Originally Posted by jono_0101

if thats the case, i might just pick up the i7 for the same price as im about to spend on the i5 online, ill have to see if i can find a store near my house

EDIT: i just went and checked, theres a location about 15 minutes from my house, looks like ill be making a trip there this weekend, thanks for the heads up!

No problem.

FYI: You should really consider buying it online and do in store pickup. My reason is they really want you to buy other cpu parts to go along with the discount they have on there chips. You will save yourself a head ache. Unless you plan on buying a MB there too.

i7 -860 Also you might want to go before Sunday night closing or atleast order it online before than Monday the new ad comes out and the 860 jumps up and down from $200 to $230 in there bi weekly ads. http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0317378

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/109?vs=108

Here's some Benchmark Results comparing the 750 vs the 860.

860 beat is across the board and is a better choice and has great Turbo boost. There is a thread on the xtremesystems forums LINKY that 2 guys compared the 860 vs the 920 through some awesome test the 860 is a beast.

Out of the Box the 860 beat the 750 the 750 could compete with the 860 with a small overclock but than again you can overclock the 860 too so the faster stock speed is the better buy plus you get HT You have 4 cores and then 4 virtual cores (vs the 750 only has 4 cores no virtual cores the i3/i5 Clarkdale have 2 Cores and 2 virtual cores) only a few apps benefit from this but like I said why not get it, its $20 more and could help out down the road for you.

Also you can get the i7-920 @ MC for $170 if theres any is stock mostly likely not but than they got the i7-930 for $200 as well. I have a 920 setup which is nice but it will run a little more right now unless you can get lucky and score one of those Frys combos for $290 or $310 AR. But it's takes some juice to get that puppy going.

i7-920/930 would be the better buy if you plan on ever going with SLI/Crossfire but since your not big into PC gaming then there's no need for it.

Just remember 750/860 Lynnfield can not use the video connections on 1156 socket motherboards only the Clarkdale i3/i5 can since it has the iGPU on the processor. Which means you will have to buy a discrete Video Card PCI-E Card.

You can also get a board with Sata III (6Gbps) and USB 3.0 to help you more down the road but one thing to remember is most users will never need the full speed of Sata III most don't even come close to SATA II Peak which is 250/MB. USB 3.0 will prob start to take off by next year.

If it was me I would get the cheapest board I can right now to get the job done by this time next year the new boards will be out the P65, H65 and Q65 and all of them will come standard with USB 3.0/ Sata III I would upgrade to one of those then.

[jono_0101]

probably going to go buy at least my processor this weekend, ill let everyone know what i ended up getting

[jono_0101]

just thought of another question, im pretty sure i already know the answer, but i figured id ask just to be sure, i cant take my hard drive from my current PC and put it into my new one im building, and use the OS from my current PC on the new one, can i?

[BDestroyer8418]

Originally Posted by jono_0101

just thought of another question, im pretty sure i already know the answer, but i figured id ask just to be sure, i cant take my hard drive from my current PC and put it into my new one im building, and use the OS from my current PC on the new one, can i?

I think you can with Windows 7 pretty easily (your Windows will have to be reactivated). But it's always best to start fresh your going to have to get alot of drivers to update with all that new hardware but Win 7 should take care of that but your still going to loose some performance.

Do you have another drive or get a External or Thumbdrive depending on the size of the Data you need to pull off your main OS drive back it up do a full format.

If you want to try it to just make sure you get everything going at 1st then go for it.

Also I wouldn't buy a huge OS drive 500GB should be more than enough. Then get 1 or 2 TB Data drive if you need it.

Also I suggest in buying a 2nd drive Similar to your main OS drive. Instead of doing a RAID-1 ( which is just a mirror of your drive, which is not good because it has to write to both drives and its slower plus if you get a virus now both drives get them) run a 2 or 3 Partition Spare

I have a few partitions on my Spare Clone OS drive.

Partition 3 - Clone of Win7 after all updates that are available and Install Antivirus,Spyware etc (run Antivirus then clone it)
Partition 2 - Install my main Apps
Partition 1 - Weekly Backup

This way if you want to start fresh you can just pick partition 1 on the clone drive and in a few mins you will be back to your fresh install after you clone it back to your Main OS drive.

Also say you downloaded a virus Pick partition 3 and clone it back to your OS HDD as long as you do weekly backups you want loose much.

For the $50-$100 more it's the smartest thing to do anything some happens you can be back to where you left off in less than 30 mins.

RAID-0 OS drive is fun to play with get 2 or 3 smallers drive run a RAID-0 get some fast speeds and do the same thing with the Spare Clone. Alot of people will tell you RAID-0 is bad it's not if you know how to backup your drive like I said no matter what happens to your HDD you could be back up with in 30 mins or so.

[Offender_Mullet]

Originally Posted by jono_0101

i cant take my hard drive from my current PC and put it into my new one im building, and use the OS from my current PC on the new one, can i?

Just do a fresh install. Your new motherboard will have different hardware/drivers than your old one. Even though Windows 7 recognizes new hardware and installs drivers right away.....it might cause a conflict in Windows.


The online stores are now at Guitar Center-type ridiculousness with their "huge sale" emails that I get almost every other day, so chances are if you buy one thing one week....it'll go on sale the next.

First off, whether you're shopping on NewEgg or any other site (Ewiz.com is great to btw and sometimes cheaper than NewEgg and I ended up buying most of my new components from them), always look at their combo pricing. Combo pricing is when they bundle a motherboard and cpu or video card and ram, etc. It'll save you some extra cash, usually $20-$50 depending on what you get.

I recently upgraded and spent about $1,000. Also, I built my dad a computer for $680, so everything is still fresh in my head for suggesting things to you. For your needs there's absolutely no logical reason to go over $800

I finally made the conversion from Intel/Nvidia to AMD/ATI hardware after 10 years of building my own computers and couldn't be happier. Don't believe the "Intel is the way to go" lines. Those are fanboys putting those things into your head.

My recommendations are different than the others, but I think these are better quality components, especially from a price-to-performance standpoint. Everything I've seen so far in this thread (including the ones I listed below) is "overkill" for your needs, but that's the way hardware is nowadays.......


CPU $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103674


Motherboard $105
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128416


Memory $110 (4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231193


Video Card $160 (DirectX 11 btw)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150462


500GB Hard Drive $55 (a hell of a lot better quality than Seagate/Western Digital)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152181


DVD Burner $22
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106333


Power Supply $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

TOTAL: $692


Optional Components:
Case $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119137

1TB Hard Drive $90 (you can use for storage)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185


.......I'm unemployed and on here a lot, so feel free to shoot me a pm with any questions.

[bad_code]

Originally Posted by Offender_Mullet

Memory $110 (4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231193


Video Card $160 (DirectX 11 btw)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150462


500GB Hard Drive $55 (a hell of a lot better quality than Seagate/Western Digital)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152181



.......I'm unemployed and on here a lot, so feel free to shoot me a pm with any questions.

That video card you are suggesting is not running very fast and the heat sync is fine for that clock speed, its not really a true 5770 with DX11. That is to say, if you were to look at charts for the performance of the 5770 it would not be the same for this video card. Besides there are no games worth playing with DX11 anyway.

This is just $10 more but much faster and better heat sync.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...559&CatId=3669

I would not touch a samsung HDD until I know how reliable they are and how fast and noisy they are. Stats don't tell you what they do, they say what they should do. I'd like to see some tests ran. The big thing is reliability. I have some 8 year old western digital drives that still work fine. I don't think samsung has been making HDDs for even 5 years. But hey if you need cheap maybe that's the way to go. I don't want to take the chance on wasting my money by paying 20-50 buck less just to have to spend another 100-200 bucks later. Not to mention all my code for work is on my computer even though its backed up to multiple servers and burned to DVD, its not always up to the minute.