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First time building a new computer

Discussion in 'Technology' started by MxRacer190, Apr 20, 2012.

  1. Apr 20, 2012 at 1:45 PM
    #1
    MxRacer190

    MxRacer190 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    I'm contemplating purchasing and building a PC. This will be my first time building my own. I have a 12 year old Dell that has bit the dust. It will be used mainly to play two games (DiabloIII and LoL). May play more in the future.

    My build:
    Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078

    MSI H67A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130616

    G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231402

    Samsung by Seagate Spinpoint F3 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

    SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

    ASUS 24X DVD Burner
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

    Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case & Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS BRONZE PSU Combo
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.867806

    Subtotal: $607.92
    Total (After rebates): $577.92



    Approximate Purchase Date: Today

    Budget Range: 500-600 after rebates

    System Usage from Most to Least Important: Games>school work>browsing

    Parts Not Required: keyboard, monitor, Win7, mouse

    Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg because I will be using their "preferred account" with 12 months no interest.

    Country: US

    Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

    Overclocking: No

    SLI or Crossfire: ???



    Any shaving of the price I could do without loss of performance? OR is this a legit build That I should go ahead with? Any red flags?
     
  2. Apr 20, 2012 at 2:00 PM
    #2
    Cypherian

    Cypherian Well-Known Member

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    Hey,

    I don't have a bunch of time at the moment to go over your part selection but something to think about before purchasing. I play wow it does not support SLI or Crossfire. I have not looked deeply into Diablo3 but since it's made by Blizzard also check to see if it supports either. If you can hold off buying today I will check out what your selections are and see what you have going on. I custom build and repair PC's on the side and have been for a long long time lol IE first machine I built had a 386 chip and the seperate 387 math coprocessor. There are others here as well that have the knowledge to help you so if I don't get to it first they might. One other quick suggestion as a gamer the more ram the better ensure the board can take up to a min of 8 gb Win7 is a memory HOG.... On quick review your limiting your self with an I3 try for an I7 board with what ever I7 chip you can go with for cost as later on down the road you can up the chip and not have to rebuild. The board you selected though if you have to go with it suports more then enough memory.

    Cypher
     
  3. Apr 20, 2012 at 2:10 PM
    #3
    goufcustom

    goufcustom 7.62x63mm

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    Well, you have a good plan, and building at home is a great idea, I have done a few over the years, and they are pretty easy. If you have a friend that can help you that makes the first build go faster, and makes you feel a little more confident.

    As for parts, and I am not sure how this will work with your budget but it shouldn't me too far off.

    I would stick with Crucial or Cosair, don't bother getting the heat sinks, if you aren't going to over clock then they are pointless, so you would be better served getting a higher quality ram.

    For the processor, spring for the i5, it will serve you better with the gaming and such long term.

    Once you pick the ram and the processor, then you may need to find another motherboard, but the one you picked is good too. Make sure the motherboard can accept 16+ Gbs of Ram, and 4+ slots total, you will expand down the road.

    Also see if you can spring for a 10k hard drive, don't go below 7.2k like the one you have, or try one of the new Hybrid drives, it is way faster than a Prius... lol, basically it puts all the stuff you are using, i.e. operating system and games, on the solid state part and leaves all the boring stuff, i.e. word files and stuff you aren't using at the moment, on the 7.2k or 10k portion, so you get a nice amount of space but you also get lots of performance.

    For a case, on a first build, see if you can find one that has a "removable motherboard tray" it makes things so easy, you can put it together on the removable part and then put that in the case once you are done.

    Finally for a power supply, use this site: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp, this will give you a ball park for how much power you need, get a little extra but don't go over board with it.

    Oh, check out Zalman for aftermarket heat sinks, likely won't need one, but they rock.

    Also NEWEGG FTW! I have built 5 computers using them, and they always have good deals and fast shipping.
     
  4. Apr 20, 2012 at 2:12 PM
    #4
    12Tac

    12Tac Well-Known Member

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    Your build out looks great. Should be a good system. MIS boards are solid, if you could afford it, I'd suggest an i5 processor.
     
  5. Apr 20, 2012 at 2:42 PM
    #5
    MxRacer190

    MxRacer190 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Thanks. I'll wait on you to over look it. Not in too big of a hurry.

    Cool. didn't know about that PSU calculator. thanks

    I would like an i5, but for $100 more? ehhh. Don't most games use the GPU more than the CPU anyway?
     
  6. Apr 20, 2012 at 6:22 PM
    #6
    khx73

    khx73 Well-Known Member

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    I'd recommend an SSD for your OS/Apps drive. The performance boost is worth it. Put all the fat stuff on the 500GB like music, movies, games.
     
  7. Apr 20, 2012 at 6:24 PM
    #7
    BMOC

    BMOC Well-Known Member

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    Gettin ready for that D3! :D :D
     
  8. Apr 20, 2012 at 6:24 PM
    #8
    wileyC

    wileyC Well-Known Member

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    this!

    or do two drives; get a low capacity SDD for a primary drive, and a larger capacity HDD to put s/w apps, media, and paging file...
     
  9. Apr 20, 2012 at 6:39 PM
    #9
    Boring

    Boring This space unintentionally left blank.

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    The newest gen Intel Core chips (Ivy Bridge) are coming out really soon. I plan on buying one to update my computer. You might want to wait. They sip a little less power and have a little more performance.

    Best of luck and ground yourself often. ESD kills computers.
     
  10. Apr 20, 2012 at 8:59 PM
    #10
    Krazie Sj

    Krazie Sj Resident Jackass

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    I dunno your budget but here's a few things I've learned.

    Get two older cards and SLI or Crossfire them. You'll get better performance out of them. Something like a 460 can be overclocked to 560 specs easily. I'm currently doing it in my laptop and it works flawlessly.

    SSD drive is worth every penny and then some. I will never go back to putting my OS on anything but an SSD from here on out. I can start and use my computer within 3 seconds of windows loading. And that's with the drive nearly maxed out for available space.

    Get a big PSU. The bigger the better. When you upgrade in the future it's one less thing to upgrade. And unlike MOBOs and chips, PSUs don't change slots or plugs. They're universal across the board. I have a 1000 Watt in my desktop for my SLI 8800GTS's.
     
  11. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:03 PM
    #11
    wileyC

    wileyC Well-Known Member

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    mostly agree, though i'd caution that the older vid cards won't support the latest directx and open gl rendering, ...have slower memory
     
  12. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:05 PM
    #12
    steve o 77

    steve o 77 braaap

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    I went through the same thing last september.

    I ended up going with the i5 due to the fact that I do a lot of solid modeling.

    Also, I highly recommend getting a small SSD to run the OS and commonly used apps like firefox and MS office. My system literally takes less than 30 seconds to fully boot, and power point/excel/word/etc open up instantly, no lag whatsoever.
     
  13. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:05 PM
    #13
    Krazie Sj

    Krazie Sj Resident Jackass

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    I'm not saying get a 2009 card, but he doesn't need whatever card that came out today when a 6 month old card would do just as well.

    We're still on DX11 aren't we? My 460 can rock that.
     
  14. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:11 PM
    #14
    SnowroxKT

    SnowroxKT Well-Known Member

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    I would second the SSD for at least the OS ;)
     
  15. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:12 PM
    #15
    steve o 77

    steve o 77 braaap

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    I think you're 4th or 5thed lol.

    Point is they're awesome.:cool:
     
  16. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:15 PM
    #16
    SnowroxKT

    SnowroxKT Well-Known Member

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    lol yeah I know, just too lazy to count them! :D
     
  17. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:19 PM
    #17
    wileyC

    wileyC Well-Known Member

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  18. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:20 PM
    #18
    jtav2002

    jtav2002 Kenny Fuckin Powers

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    I'd agree with the others with springing for an SSD if you can afford. Budget aside I'd do that for your main drive with your operating system and a HDD for all your media, etc. I've had the itch to do a new build but just rebuilt mine last year with an I7. I've done a couple builds for myself as well ad building one for my neighbor. My first one went pretty smoothly its not hard just a little tedious your first time making sure you get everything hooked up right.
     
  19. Apr 20, 2012 at 9:34 PM
    #19
    tacobert

    tacobert Active Member

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    Looks good. A couple things you may want to consider

    *i5 chip instead of the i3. This is well worth the upgrade
    *mobo isn't bad. Gigabyte makes great mobo's so you may want to look at those if you're looking to do some minor tweaking.
    *save money on the case and go with the antec 300. You can get these for $50 and get a good power supply.
    * WD caviar black are great HD's and super fast.
     
  20. Apr 21, 2012 at 12:36 AM
    #20
    khx73

    khx73 Well-Known Member

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