17 replies to this topic

[Technical Pickle]

So it's come to the point where I need a new computer, the only problem is I have no idea when it comes to selecting one I'm looking for a computer that can handle heavy games, mainly the ones coming out late 09'/into 2010, and runs them as smooth as silk (Mainly interested in Dragon age origins, The old Republic, and Diablo III) the only other thing I need the computer for other then gaming, would be the internet, I don't need programming or anything that's not nessicary (But microsoft word would be nice) I've asked around many sites and it comes to my attention that it would be good for me to build my own computer which is where I need someone to step in, I'm not cheaping out but i'm not blowing alot of money either so there doesn't need to be that much of a compromise for money costs, (My absolute maximum to blow on it is 2000 but i'm hoping it will cost less, maybe around 1000+) So I was wondering, Could somebody please help me out! It would be much appreciated!

(I really need info on the things I need to buy, the assembly I can get someone to do, also i'm a Canadian resident so if it can be shipped to canada or you can find them in a store around the vancouver region it would be much appreciated, thank you for your time )


EDIT: Well after I posted the thread I did some researching and found some of the things I need, let me see what you think about them and if they will all fit together?

CPU: http://www.tigerdire...AIN#detailspecs

Motherboard: http://www.tigerdire...AIN#detailspecs

Hard drive: http://www.tigerdire...;Sku=TSD-1000H4

Video Card: http://www.tigerdire...p;Sku=P450-4892

So i'm missing a case and a powersupply because I got confused when trying to find those so I need help with those, also is it nessicary to get a dvd burner? (Unless i'm wrong isn't it just to create CD's and stuff and not needed for PC gaming? [Unless the thing you put the gaming cd in doesn't come with the motherboard/case thing :S ])

the moniter and mouse and keyboard I will deal with later right now I just want the tower, also if you could recommend a better cooling thing for the CPU that's not too expensive and will make it better it would be appreciated

How did I do so far?

Edited by Technical Pickle, 21 August 2009 - 09:48 PM.

[Raktor]

Need RAM, case, powersupply, optical (DVD burners are cheap, just get one). The processor & motherboard you've specced look fine. The hard drive is mediocre, go with Western Digital. (But everyone has their own preference) The graphics card will last you into 2010 too. My personal preference sides with nVidia, but each to their own. RAM, you'll need DDR3. Probably 6GB - 3x2GB. Power supply, look for something decent, high quality, high efficiency, probably about 650-750W. Make sure it's a name brand. Case, whatever suits you. Just make sure the board will fit. Stock cooling for the CPU should be fine unless you intend to overclock - though the i7s do run a slight bit hot. You'll get by though.

[alpinewarrior]

I did a little research for a friend a few weeks ago who was looking to build a gaming computer for around 1000/slightly more. Through looking through benchmark reports on tomshardware, anandtech, etc, this is some of what I found: - Core i7, of course, demolished the cheaper AMD phenom IIs. For most tasks (video editing seems to be an exception), AMD gives marginally better bang for the buck. But since your budget is 1000-2000, this doesnt seem like an issue. So core i7 920 definitely seems like the best cpu for the price - Based on the benchmarks research, the 4890 will handle most current games just fine. The most demanding games, like Crysis, will do quite well with a single 4890, unless youre talking very large monitor, and max res. In this situation, the 4890 looks like it will do so-so. But so-so performance with Crysis is pretty much awesome performance with all other games. But to get max GPU performance right now, the GTX 295 will give that. From what I've seen, it is approximately equal to a pair or 4890s, a little better than a pair of 4870s. But a pair of 4890s is cheaper. So going with the 4890 you picked now looks good, and then later on, you can just add another one. A single one will definitely give you high end performance for a few more years, and a 2nd one later on should give you high-end a few more years after that. ************ Given your budget, for max performance, I would definitely go with 10000 RPM HDDs, as opposed to the 7200 you selected. Another option, given your budget, would be to go with solid state disks. Pros: Significantly faster for read/write. I havent personally looked at any detailed benchmarks, but I remember seeing an article that stated something like 30% improvement for intensive read/write operations over a (7200 or 10,000 RPM??) SATA. Also, no moving parts, so you don't have the same potential breakdown issue as with HDDs. Also, they are quiet Cons: Cost a lot more (a few hundred for a large one), and don't come in as high of capacities. Also, in a few years, they will likely be much cheaper *************** RAID configurations (0 or 5) will give you better performance when read/writing from the disk. Of course, this requires at least 3 HDDs, which isn't that big a deal given your budget. Given your budget, a $300 motherboard looks OK. But there are plenty of high end ones that run $150-200, with the same features. This money could go towards bells and whistles like a monitor, blue ray drives, or solid state disks **** Liquid cooling will also: Look cool, be quieter, and allow more overclocking (if youre into that sort of thing), which can potentially increase performance for intensive tasks by 10-20%. Although, i'm definitely not the guy to go to when it comes to OCing details, but this is definitely an investment that would extend the range of your computer. ******* Blue cases are scientifically prove to yield better performance. So blue case, or pay the consequences. ******** Another note: When it comes to components, even with your budget, you definitely want to keep in mind the principle of decreasing return on investment. So for CPUs, for example, for something like a corei7 920 gives you about the ideal performance for your cost. A 500 dollar or 100 dollar model is not going to provide nearlly 2x or 4x the performance. So even with a high budget, my own preference would be putting the money into monitor, sound, maybe an extra blue ray drive, and other bells and whistles. With a 2000 budget, you have a lot of room for bells and whistles after getting high-end core components

Edited by alpinewarrior, 03 October 2009 - 12:10 AM.

[Doug]

All good points above. As to DVD - RW....... that's a definite "Yes". If for nothing else, you should have the immediate ability to create the system backup DVD when first installing your OS. As an extention, I'd recommend Acronis or Ghost (I prefer Acronis) and an External HD, to take periodic or incremental drive image .iso backup from which you can restore if you run into problems. Restoring your system from External HD can take as little as a half-hour and you are back up and running. (You will need to be able to burn Restore DVD with Acronis, so that's another reason to "just buy one".) Best Regards

[Doug]

(But microsoft word would be nice) Consider the (free) Open Office.

[Mr_Nevada117]

Hey I am thinking on building a computer myself once I get the money and parts to build it so all I can really offer ya is what I have so far so in cas you want to change your Proccecor or junk then well you can



http://www.newegg.co...N82E16882269004
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136490
http://www.newegg.co...ital-_-22136296
http://www.newegg.co...0-093-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826104075
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16833156242
http://www.newegg.co...0-119-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16823175103
http://www.newegg.co...Inc.-_-33122219
http://www.newegg.co...ASUS-_-13131390
http://www.newegg.co...2-023-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co.....rive external
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16882339160
http://www.newegg.co...0-458-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...ntel-_-19115212
http://www.newegg.co...2-015-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...onic-_-24116402
http://www.newegg.co...9-043-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...1-185-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...5-012-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...6-055-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...5-027-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835100009
http://www.newegg.co...0-244-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...5-708-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...x... video card
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16842102068
http://www.newegg.co...9-040-_-Product
http://www.newegg.co...9-179-_-Product



Well there you go hopefuly this should help you in building


For the Mobo

[Doug]

I like the WD Black at 7200rpm and 32mg cache for better performance. Plus Black offers a 5 year warranty, better than the 3 year warranty offered with Blue or Green. I don't think you need that extra RAID controller since the motherboard already gives you that capacity. Mr. Nevada... What do you need an external CD ROM for? Seems you are skimping on RAM 2x1gb ? good price and good product, but I'd want much more considering the upper range specs of your other listed compenents. Stick with the ViewSonic Monitor over the Acer <-- just my opinion. Your uninterrupted power supply has some nice features. May not be compatible in US.

[L0v3LESS]

I did a little research for a friend a few weeks ago who was looking to build a gaming computer for around 1000/slightly more. Through looking through benchmark reports on tomshardware, anandtech, etc, this is some of what I found:

- Core i7, of course, demolished the cheaper AMD phenom IIs. For most tasks (video editing seems to be an exception), AMD gives marginally better bang for the buck. But since your budget is 1000-2000, this doesnt seem like an issue. So core i7 920 definitely seems like the best cpu for the price


- Based on the benchmarks research, the 4890 will handle most current games just fine. The most demanding games, like Crysis, will do quite well with a single 4890, unless youre talking very large monitor, and max res. In this situation, the 4890 looks like it will do so-so. But so-so performance with Crysis is pretty much awesome performance with all other games.

But to get max GPU performance right now, the GTX 295 will give that. From what I've seen, it is approximately equal to a pair or 4890s, a little better than a pair of 4870s. But a pair of 4890s is cheaper. So going with the 4890 you picked now looks good, and then later on, you can just add another one. A single one will definitely give you high end performance for a few more years, and a 2nd one later on should give you high-end a few more years after that.


************

Given your budget, for max performance, I would definitely go with 10000 RPM HDDs, as opposed to the 7200 you selected. Another option, given your budget, would be to go with solid state disks.

Pros: Significantly faster for read/write. I havent personally looked at any detailed benchmarks, but I remember seeing an article that stated something like 30% improvement for intensive read/write operations over a (7200 or 10,000 RPM??) SATA. Also, no moving parts, so you don't have the same potential breakdown issue as with HDDs. Also, they are quiet

Cons: Cost a lot more (a few hundred for a large one), and don't come in as high of capacities.

Also, in a few years, they will likely be much cheaper


***************

RAID configurations (0 or 5) will give you better performance when read/writing from the disk. Of course, this requires at least 3 HDDs, which isn't that big a deal given your budget.


Given your budget, a $300 motherboard looks OK. But there are plenty of high end ones that run $150-200, with the same features. This money could go towards bells and whistles like a monitor, blue ray drives, or solid state disks


****

Liquid cooling will also: Look cool, be quieter, and allow more overclocking (if youre into that sort of thing), which can potentially increase performance for intensive tasks by 10-20%. Although, i'm definitely not the guy to go to when it comes to OCing details, but this is definitely an investment that would extend the range of your computer.


*******


Blue cases are scientifically prove to yield better performance. So blue case, or pay the consequences.


********


Another note: When it comes to components, even with your budget, you definitely want to keep in mind the principle of decreasing return on investment. So for CPUs, for example, for something like a corei7 920 gives you about the ideal performance for your cost. A 500 dollar or 100 dollar model is not going to provide nearlly 2x or 4x the performance.

So even with a high budget, my own preference would be putting the money into monitor, sound, maybe an extra blue ray drive, and other bells and whistles.

With a 2000 budget, you have a lot of room for bells and whistles after getting high-end core components

Sorry, I saw this and just had to comment. As a disclaimer, the next recommendations may be offensive. haha

core i7 demolishes phenom IIs
..
yeah, if you take 980GX and put it against an old X3. I don't want to get into this argument, but gaming isn't so processor intensive that you need something like that.
Phenom X4 955 or the Core i5 750 will fit your needs fine...

Moving on to that video card recommendation, this individual must be playing Crysis at 1280x720 with everything set to medium. With most monitors at 1680x1050 or higher, I highly doubt that the old 4 series card will fit your needs. GTX 275/HD 5830 should do the trick.

Okay, the whole RPM issue is also bothering me here. I'm not claiming I'm a tech genius, but 10,000 rpm is just overkill. It's not as if it's not faster, it certainly is: but the thing is, will you ever use it? Unless you handle sustained, intensive data transfer (which does not entail gaming) you won't need it. A cheaper, 7200 rpm drive will suffice.

I once read somewhere that RAID 0 led to strange errors in Windows, but if you want to do RAID 1 or RAID 5 be my guest. Not that it's needed or anything, and the tangible performance increase from RAID isn't "spectacular". No comment on the motherboard, because what he says is true.

No need for liquid cooling, and I'm all for blue cases.

Personal preference time: put money into monitor, gaming mouse, and your actual computer. We don't need to look cool if it will cost us more money, do we?
I could even configure a newegg for you, if you would like.

Edited by L0v3LESS, 07 May 2010 - 11:00 PM.

[frenzy5]

..

yeah, if you take 980GX and put it against an old X3. I don't want to get into this argument, but gaming isn't so processor intensive that you need something like that.
Phenom X4 955 or the Core i5 750 will fit your needs fine...

Moving on to that video card recommendation, this individual must be playing Crysis at 1280x720 with everything set to medium. With most monitors at 1680x1050 or higher, I highly doubt that the old 4 series card will fit your needs. GTX 275/HD 5830 should do the trick.

Okay, the whole RPM issue is also bothering me here. I'm not claiming I'm a tech genius, but 10,000 rpm is just overkill. It's not as if it's not faster, it certainly is: but the thing is, will you ever use it? Unless you handle sustained, intensive data transfer (which does not entail gaming) you won't need it. A cheaper, 7200 rpm drive will suffice.

I once read somewhere that RAID 0 led to strange errors in Windows, but if you want to do RAID 1 or RAID 5 be my guest. Not that it's needed or anything, and the tangible performance increase from RAID isn't "spectacular". No comment on the motherboard, because what he says is true.

No need for liquid cooling, and I'm all for blue cases.

Personal preference time: put money into monitor, gaming mouse, and your actual computer. We don't need to look cool if it will cost us more money, do we?
I could even configure a newegg for you, if you would like.

I'm also looking into building my own gaming comp since all I currently own is a Macbook. I'm a newbie and just getting into this stuff. Pretty much everything L0v3LESS said agrees with what my local comp store guy told me. I think I'm going to go with an Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor but what's the difference with the 660 and 661? This guy at the store says I should really go with two vid cards at least also. Could someone let know what would be a good one that would remain viable for while and does that sound right tech and money wise?

THANKS.

Edited by frenzy5, 10 May 2010 - 03:32 PM.

[L0v3LESS]

I'm also looking into building my own gaming comp since all I currently own is a Macbook. I'm a newbie and just getting into this stuff. Pretty much everything L0v3LESS said agrees with what my local comp store guy told me. I think I'm going to go with an Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor but what's the difference with the 660 and 661? This guy at the store says I should really go with two vid cards at least also. Could someone let know what would be a good one that would remain viable for while and does that sound right tech and money wise?

THANKS.

Er what 660 and 661 are you referring to? And yeah, that's basically the only i5-750 XD
I'm not sure why you would ever get two video cards. I mean, you get dual 4870s in crossfire, for example, it ends up being around the same price and performance as a 5850.
I'd rather go with a single card, why would you just want to take up extra space, have to deal with games that don't support crossfire (although, admittedly, most do nowadays) and have to deal with more heat going through your system? SLi from nvidia is the same deal.

Also, think of the future: if you get two cards, a top-of-the-line card that will end up costing around the same is going to be around in another two years, after another tech cycle. I personally don't see the benefit of SLI/crossfire, but go for it if you really want to..

What kind of "stuff" are you looking at doing? Just gaming? At what resolution do you expect, what games (Crysis&Metro 2033 are very different from Portal 2, for example). What about video editing, or encoding?

[frenzy5]

I meant the Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale 3.33GHz LGA 1156 87W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Model BX80616I5661 and the Intel Core i5-660 Clarkdale 3.33GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Model BX80616I5660. The only differences I noticed were the wattage and two dollars more for the 661. I'm really just looking to build a decent gaming computer for less than purchasing it ready to go, that I'll also use some for college. I use the mac for video editing. Thanks for the input big time. This forum has been helpful.

[L0v3LESS]

Well then that would be the difference. The wattage. I mean, it's tremendously small and if you're going to be gaming you'll need a 650-W or higher PSU anyway. So it doesn't really matter. Well, it doesn't sound like any kind of Crysis at 1080p maxed out. So, one video card is cheaper. Your motherboard & case are also very important, don't just buy any cheap old mb now. Just for reference

[frenzy5]

How about GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard?

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128425

And does the cpu and motherboard dictate what kind of vid card I should get? GeForce, Radeon, or Intel?

XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
* Radeon HD 5850
* 1GB GDDR5
* PCI Express 2.1 x16
* Chipset Manufacturer: ATI
* Core Clock: 725MHz
* Stream Processors: 1440 Stream Processing Units
* Effective Memory Clock: 4.0GHz
or
HIS H585F1GDG Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity
* Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress ...
* 1GB GDDR5
* PCI Express 2.0 x16
* Chipset Manufacturer: ATI
* Core Clock: 725MHz
* Stream Processors: 1440 Stream Processing Units
* Effective Memory Clock: 1000MHz (4.0Gbps)
* Model #: H585F1GDG
* Item #: N82E16814161302
* Return Policy: VGA Replacement Only Return Policy

all the info is from newegg.com

sorry so many questions but like I said, I'm pretty new to this. i guess the main games I'm working on this for are Total War and later Starcraft II, Diablo III, Civ 5...
THANKS

Edited by frenzy5, 15 May 2010 - 10:37 AM.

[L0v3LESS]

prefer HIS. that's just my opinion tho XFX isn't that great of a manufacturer, altho they're okay for nVIDIA

[DarkKaze]

I'm also looking to build a gaming PC, I looked into it and here's what I have so far (that should include everything but the monitor). My knowledge of the hardware aspect of computers is quite limited, so any suggestions/things I should change would be much appreciated. Thanks for the help

Edited by DarkKaze, 24 May 2010 - 05:16 PM.