Building a Computer

[Flames9_RN 358]

Trying to build my first ever computer and man is it frustrating,lol! Everyone has their own prefs!! Pretty much have it figured out, but still!! Whewwwwww!!

[Ban Hammer 13,335]

Trying to build my first ever computer and man is it frustrating,lol! Everyone has their own prefs!! Pretty much have it figured out, but still!! Whewwwwww!!

whatcha building?

[Danu 19]

Trying to build my first ever computer and man is it frustrating,lol! Everyone has their own prefs!! Pretty much have it figured out, but still!! Whewwwwww!!

I love building computers. Once you get a hang of it its super easy and the nice thing is you know all the things you put into it and the brands of it, unlike a pre-built.

[Ontarkie 14,221]

My husband and second oldest built themselves a new computer, my sons first and husbands 3rd I think. The nice thing about building it is you get alot better for less. My son payed for his with his own money from his first job. He started working at the ball park last year and worked all summer. He was very happy being able to build one. Not bad for a 15yr old. He did all the work himself of choosing parts making sure they where compatible and such. He manage to build a pretty awesome computer.

Edited August 30, 2010 by Ontarkie

[Flames9_RN 358]

I think i should have a pretty good gaming system when I'm done!! Have learned a great deal so far! Luckily my wife is far more technical than I,lol

[Ontarkie 14,221]

I'm not that technical either. The kid knows more then me. Building is the way to go if you want a gaming computer. What site are you using for building it.

[Flames9_RN 358]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/

and http://forums.mysuperpc.com/ and pretty much buying everythign from Newegg or amazon!! We shall see! I have come to a conclusion on a few items, such as the AMD Phenom 965 3.4 GHZ, the Lian Li Mid-ATX case, the AFX 1GB HD5850 video card, cheapo DVD writer, Windows 7, the power supply. Just unsure about the Motherboard! There are soooo many choices! Trying to stick with a Gigabyte or ASUS board, but there are still so many,lol!! I'm not a huge gamer, play call of Duty and the EAS sports games such as NHL 2010!! Just want something to last a a few yrs!! I could save a dfew $$ and get the Phenom 955 and overclock it, but its only like $15, so why not just get the 965,lol Time for a nap--work tonight!!

[Danu 19]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/

and http://forums.mysuperpc.com/ and pretty much buying everythign from Newegg or amazon!! We shall see! I have come to a conclusion on a few items, such as the AMD Phenom 965 3.4 GHZ, the Lian Li Mid-ATX case, the AFX 1GB HD5850 video card, cheapo DVD writer, Windows 7, the power supply. Just unsure about the Motherboard! There are soooo many choices! Trying to stick with a Gigabyte or ASUS board, but there are still so many,lol!! I'm not a huge gamer, play call of Duty and the EAS sports games such as NHL 2010!! Just want something to last a a few yrs!! I could save a dfew $$ and get the Phenom 955 and overclock it, but its only like $15, so why not just get the 965,lol Time for a nap--work tonight!!

I just rebuilt my system (after the roomy's cat ate a wire and shorted out my board). I got the phenom 965 as well, and the board i got with it was the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H. Its really nice so far. When i first rebuilt i bought an ASUS 89somethingorother and some 1600 DDR3 that was suppose to be compatible, but turns out its not. Just as a forwarning, a lot of boards are being wierd with the 1600, go with the 1066 or 1333 DDR3, its still just as good. In WoW now I'm averaging frames of about 60+ during 25m fights where I was at 2 before, and everything runs so clean and smooth. Love it!

[Flames9_RN 358]

I just rebuilt my system (after the roomy's cat ate a wire and shorted out my board). I got the phenom 965 as well, and the board i got with it was the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H. Its really nice so far. When i first rebuilt i bought an ASUS 89somethingorother and some 1600 DDR3 that was suppose to be compatible, but turns out its not. Just as a forwarning, a lot of boards are being wierd with the 1600, go with the 1066 or 1333 DDR3, its still just as good. In WoW now I'm averaging frames of about 60+ during 25m fights where I was at 2 before, and everything runs so clean and smooth. Love it!

cool!! Think i will go with the 965. They say i could save a few $$ and just overclock the 955, but for like $10, will just buy the 965

Was looking at that MOBO as well. A few have recomended the GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard for $180. Am I gaining much by going for this more $$ ($40)mobo???????

Trying to stay around $1000. Need Windows 7 as well. Do NOT need monitor, mouse/keypad

So far, this is what I'm thinking:

Processor: AMD Phenom 965 3.4 GHZ

MOBO: GA-890FXA-UD5 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD

HDD: Samsung F3 1 TB

DVD/writer, Sony or Samsung OEM(all are around $17-$25!!)

RAM: Not sure, sort of confuses me,lol

CASE: have liked a Few Lian Li and Antec

Power Supply: 600W, think it was a corsair modular, some say a OCZ would suffice

Video card: XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity

Guess I'm just really stuck on the MOBO and the case and maybe the power supply!! Not a huge gamer, and who knows how much I will upgrade,lol

Any suggestions would be super. Keep in mind im a Noob when it comes to this stuff, never built a computer before, but have found a lot of good websites. thanks

[Udella&Wiz 325]

As a person that has built MANY computers here are my words of wisdom.

Don't skimp on hard drive and RAM. Those are always the two biggest bottle necks in any computer, and by this I mean amount of RAM (memory) and hard disk speed not size. Think about a solid state drive as your boot drive and a 10,000 rpm drive for storage. Yes they are more expensive but the performance boost is well worth it. I just recently put a SSD drive in my computer and the difference was amazing. I really don't know much about the AMD processors and since I wouldn't want to steer you in the wrong direction as far as MB or Memory goes I won't recommend any thing in particular. The only thing I'll say is, however much memory you think you want, double it. If you think you want 4 get 8. Also make sure you get a 64 bit version of Windows 7 so you can access all that memory. I looked up that MB and honestly the first one seems fine unless you plan on doing 3 way cross fire in the future. A 600 W supply is sufficient for what you have but if you want to do X-Fire in the future it may not be enough. As far as the case goes pick one you like the looks of and is made of metal but I'm partial to Antec. Great cases that are easy to work on and very solidly built. Any questions send us a message.

Wiz

[Kimbear 53]

Workign for a franchise of stores in canada for 10 years and building them sellign them etc. my number one rule is Pay attention to the RMA procedure!!! AND preferably get 3 year warranty on all the parts. Companies like Asus, Gigabyte and a few others all get sold to stores by one major wholesaler in the usa and canada. they have very good return policies with the stores so if you run into a problem you get it fixed/ exchanged asap. Comes in handy.

Also some offer whats called Advanced RMA, ocz used to do this so does intel. you call them up they ship you a new one, with return sticker, and you change the part, and ship the old part right back. this way no downtime.

Personally for these reasons i prefer Intel, also the cpu's are better at overlcockign and wont burn out as easily as the AMD ones. AMD is very very fussy about quality of the rma'd chip. one minor flaw and they will reject the part for replacement.

Dont be stingy on your ram or power supply or HDD, get the best you can afford, it makes a world of difference. Personally i LOVE seagate, 5year warranty is best in business, and they have advanced RMA.

if your overlclocking make sure your ram sticks match get a KIT, preferably same stats on each piece as well. and get a motherboard you can adjust voltages in .1 increments if you can. so you can completely tweak and customize safely bit by bit.

also if you overclock, change the heat compound on the cpu fan or by a replacement one, preferably use arctic silver, it pulls the heat off the core better and wont degrade like the stock stuff.

Based on my video card experiences in editiong and games etc..i much much much perfer nvidia, less driver issues, smaller drivers, easier to deal with.

do not get samsun..UGH worst returns in the business lol.

what you can do is call up the computer stores around town ask for the rma department, and ask the guy..what he reccomends, or if this or that brand has alot of returns. or do your research on google, majorgeeks.com another great site.

basically it all comes down to what do you want to do with your machine...that much of a simple question will tell you what you need and how much.

[Danu 19]

cool!! Think i will go with the 965. They say i could save a few $$ and just overclock the 955, but for like $10, will just buy the 965

Was looking at that MOBO as well. A few have recomended the GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard for $180. Am I gaining much by going for this more $$ ($40)mobo???????

Trying to stay around $1000. Need Windows 7 as well. Do NOT need monitor, mouse/keypad

So far, this is what I'm thinking:

Processor: AMD Phenom 965 3.4 GHZ

MOBO: GA-890FXA-UD5 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD

HDD: Samsung F3 1 TB

DVD/writer, Sony or Samsung OEM(all are around $17-$25!!)

RAM: Not sure, sort of confuses me,lol

CASE: have liked a Few Lian Li and Antec

Power Supply: 600W, think it was a corsair modular, some say a OCZ would suffice

Video card: XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity

Guess I'm just really stuck on the MOBO and the case and maybe the power supply!! Not a huge gamer, and who knows how much I will upgrade,lol

Any suggestions would be super. Keep in mind im a Noob when it comes to this stuff, never built a computer before, but have found a lot of good websites. thanks

No problem! This is what I would love to do for a living

For the mobo - the difference between those 2 boards is the one you were recommended seems like its more for duel video carding (crossfire). The thing about running 2 video cards in tandum is that unless they are the same card, the preformance doesnt really pick up all that much, and also the gain you get from having 2 video cards is (in my opinion) not worth the cost. Especially for what your plans for this computer are and the video card you have chosen (which is a good one, I have the last series down, the 4780). I would go with the lower costing one, its not going to cost you anything in preformance, plus it has onboard video incase something ever happens to your video card, so you can still see whats going on.

For the power supply, I HIGHLY recommend an ASUS or Thermaltake, right now I'm running an ASUS Earthwatts 650, and it more than covers whats in my system, 600-700W will do whats in your machine as well.

Case - I love my Antec 900. I know the case is a few years old but with all those fans I never overheat, even in the middle of summer down here in Cali. I had an Xblade before this that would cause my system to overheat a lot because there simply wasnt enough room in it. It probably seems like a huge case but once you have everything in there, with all the wires, theres not all that much space left, so make sure the case you choose has good ventilation and space.

Memory - I'm running 4GB of Corsair (2GB sticks). The product code of the stuff I'm running is CMV4GX3M2A1333C9. 4GB should be ok for most games you are looking at at the moment, and if you feel its too slow you can always add more later.

About overclocking. Even as someone who has built their system for years, I never overclock, because things can go wrong if your settings aren't just right and you can end up burning out your system, especially without enough cooling. I would definately say just go with the 965 instead of OCing the 955, not worth it if something bugs up. Same with your memory.

Forgot Hard drives. I personally prefer Western Digital because of the history I have with them. They have amazing returns, quick turn around and don't put out hardware updates that brick their HDDs.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Danu

[look2me40 0]

It's not that hard...just takes some patience and intuition. Hardest part is figuring out what particular part is making things go wrong.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Its a funny process! 1 person loves seagate hard drives, another says they are junk,lol Most of the forums i have been on, love the Samsung F3 1TB,lol And many say 1 doesnt require more then 4GB memory, so its a frustrating process, much more than my immigration process,lol'

I just want to ensure that the MOBO I buy, supports AMD's next batch of chips--Bulldozer! From my readings Intel is comign out with a new line of chips and the current mobo may not suppurt them???? fun and games! Im currently on a 3yr old dell XPS 410, Pentium II 1.2 GHZ with 1GB ram and a crappy video card and it does ok!

I dont foresee me adding a second video card! The sports games are that intensive--I do not think!! Thanks all

[Danu 19]

That motherboard supports the 6 core processors from AMD should you choose to get one later. Personally when I do an upgrade, it usually takes awhile and then I just replace a few things at a time (last year I upgraded the video card, this year the mobo/memory/processor). The reason people say you dont really need more than 4GB is because though you might get the 64 OS (Which I would recommend), most games are still designed for 32, so they don't utilize the full 4GB (a 32 OS has stuff in its coding that allocates memory differently, and will never utilize above 3.5GB, so anything more than that is a waste). I'd still go with the 64 and 4GB because the OS itself is faster and processes things better, and it will utilize as much memory as you throw at it. I wouldn't go less than 2GB on a system now adays as most games require at least that, and if you are running things in the background it slows things WAY down.

My only issue with seagate is that last year or the year before they released a line of TB drives that had an issue that would brick them (make them useless, no way to fix them). To attempt to prevent more from doing that, they launched a hardware update that actually broke more drives. I've never had an issue with my WD's but we saw a lot of issues with Samsung drives in laptops coming back broken.

Intel Vs AMD - I always go AMD because the preformance for mid level gaming is the same, you only really see a huge difference in the high high end intels, and they are EXPENSIVE. I don't really want to pay 2-3x more just because it says intel, for a chip that is overkill for what I'm doing anyway. My current setup is perfect for WoW, Starcraft 2, Left 4 Dead...etc.