PDA

View Full Version : Building new PC



PotshotPolka
20 Jul 2008, 05:44pm
Well I've decided to build myself a new pc from the ground up.
I'm setting the ceiling for expenditures at $1500-1750.
Probably Quad core with a GeForce 8200+ videocard.
The only things right now that I'm curious about is power supply, graphics card, motherboard, and the case/fans.
I'll be researching on my own but if you have any good sites with deals (besides newegg) I'd be glad to hear it.

Dr. Intelligencia
20 Jul 2008, 05:57pm
I built mine for 1200$, without peripherals and monitors. I'm just talking about the tower here.

CPU- YES GET A QUAD CORE they are awesome. I can compile a map 4 times faster than my roommates. Intel makes better quads than AMD.

RAM- grab 2 gigs of DDR2 for great performance, 4 gigs for awesome. I have 4 gigs and I've never slowed down in performance.

Power supply- I recommend a modular one, like the "XION Supernova XON-600F14R-201", which I'm using. You're going to want 600W or higher if you're getting a geforce 8 series.

Mobo- once you've picked all the other parts, fill in the slots on newegg's Advanced Search. Pick a newer model, the type isn't all that important. It just has to fit your case and all your other parts.

Case- pick your favorite color.

I'd also recommend a 8800 gts, because they've got great performance and handle anything Source throws at you, and most other engines as well.

PotshotPolka
20 Jul 2008, 06:10pm
This motherboard caugt my attention, just the fact that it's massive. It's a off market but it does use nvidia chipsets.
Tyan Thunder N4250QE (S4985) Workstation Board
Can buy it on newegg for 650.

Dr. Intelligencia
20 Jul 2008, 06:56pm
>>Tyan Thunder N4250QE (S4985) Workstation Board

Holy fuck, are trying you building a computer capable of cognitive thought?

PotshotPolka
20 Jul 2008, 07:00pm
For teh lulz.
But $650 is tempting, does it have any bottlenecks for video/graphics performance, I know it's rank 16th as the fastest system for supercomputers, but that doesn't matter to much for me, I'm simply on a mission to build a pc that will be up to standards a decade from now.

Dr. Intelligencia
20 Jul 2008, 07:38pm
For video, the limiting factor is the PCIe x16 interface, which is the fastest available interface type for video cards. Any board with PCIex16 will have this problem, but it's not much of a problem.

No computer built today will be inside standards 10 years from now. I can't see anything you could make today being standards compliant in 4 years. This board is totally out of the question. They don't even make cases that hold it.

PotshotPolka
20 Jul 2008, 10:36pm
Say what you will. That motherboard shall be mine. :laugh:
I'll be the backup system for the dedicated server in case it ever crashes.

Dark Torcher
20 Jul 2008, 10:54pm
provided, that is, if you have enough bandwidth

I can't help you with a config unless you can give a reason for the pc and what you're thinking about

if you just want to play CSS faster, you most likely just need a faster processor and maybe an NIVIDA 8800 or the ATi's version
but if you buy that motherboard, you better not wimp out on the other parts, as you're only as good as your weakest link, so buying a motherboard like that and putting in DDR2 800 won't be that good

and as mentioned before, you cannot future-proof a computer since the only possible way is to have a self-upgrading pc, which is currently impossible
10 years is too long for anything out now to still be in play, the 8800 came out little over a year ago, and they're mid-range now, in two or three years they will be value cards

anyways, to help you, I need more info //

PotshotPolka
21 Jul 2008, 08:01am
I was joking about the Tyan, it's a workshop/server motherboard, ffs it can hold up to 38GB of RAM.
It's strictly gaming pc, I was thinking of the 8800 GTS videocard, but I haven't decided if I want a higher level one yet.

TofuShop
21 Jul 2008, 08:43am
I was joking about the Tyan, it's a workshop/server motherboard, ffs it can hold up to 38GB of RAM.
It's strictly gaming pc, I was thinking of the 8800 GTS videocard, but I haven't decided if I want a higher level one yet.

I own the superclocked version of the 8800 GTS with a quad core and 4 gigs. I have been able to run anything and every so far at high graphics but I suspect an upgrade will be needed sooner or later. As of now it certainly does the trick and dishes out some great performance. The superclocked version or if you were to overclock it yourself, runs just as well as the GTX but even cooler so i would stick to saving that extra nickel.

Get a good case because these cards are pretty large and if you were going to go dual you may have some problems if not. Thermaltake Armor is quite nice although heavy, but they have plenty of space with great ventillation. I also recommend a heatsink and fan in one. Newegg has a great selection for just about anything and with prices hard to beat. 800w for a powersupply. I don't go for the liquid coolant even though it looks badass; can be a pain to install and a bitch to clean up. When it comes to liquid and expensive machinery just stay clear. Maybe a little thermaltake past such as artic silver on the heatsink will add a little more comfort and protection.

For the motherboard i have questions myself but I forget the name of mine and i can't seem to find a duplicate on newegg anymore. I saw a fairly descent one that held a good 16g worth of memory and copatiable with both AM2 and 775 so that seemed like a good investment for future upgrades as well.

I say Windows P. for an operating system since I have never been a big fan of Vista. I can see the potential but still don't think everything has been out long enough to consider it a real replacement.

I dropped a good 2.5k on my build only a year-year half ago to get what you are aiming for now(roughly $1200-$1500), so don't miss out on those great deals. Worth it for sure.

AppleShark
21 Jul 2008, 08:52am
I don't know how much you're willing to spend on the graphics setup but I would be more inclined to go for an ATi at the moment. Anything from a 4850 to a 4870x2 (yet to be released) should provide ample grunt for most everyday games/applications. The superior scaling of Crossfire in comparison to SLi also makes the cards very "upgrade-friendly". If you're set on using an nVidia, then I recommend waiting for the release of the 4870x2 as it will no doubt knock even more of the price of nVidia's current line-up.

Dark Torcher
21 Jul 2008, 09:22am
if he's going top-line, that is probably the best option for his budget
but if you want to stay under $1200, a dual-core or quad-core + an 8800 should suffice for gaming such as source
you're not going to able to play Crysis 2560x1600 at very high, but that game is over-rated and I find nothing appealing about it

Crossfire is upgrade-friendly as Apple says, since it does not require matching cards as NVIDIA does for SLi

but what you buy is your choice to make

TofuShop
21 Jul 2008, 09:29am
if he's going top-line, that is probably the best option for his budget
but if you want to stay under $1200, a dual-core or quad-core + an 8800 should suffice for gaming such as source
you're not going to able to play Crysis 2560x1600 at very high, but that game is over-rated and I find nothing appealing about it

Crossfire is upgrade-friendly as Apple says, since it does not require matching cards as NVIDIA does for SLi

but what you buy is your choice to make

I played Crysis at high with the 8800 GTS, but only having 2g of ram at the time was pushing it. You would definentally need to raise it to 4g if you wanted solid gameplay.

I also aggree, Crysis wasn't much in my opinion. I finished story mode in a day and there wasn't anything really special about it except for the dissapointing ending. Online play was good for about 5 minutes. - The onyl good thing about it was using it as a test run along with BioShock for my new build. Yeah, it handled it.

I still haven't seen anything about what you were planning on playing. If you were going to play the top rated high end games than this build would work, but if you were going soemthing purely CSS or around that general category, you could cut the price for hardware in half and still come out on top.

PotshotPolka
21 Jul 2008, 02:56pm
I'm not trying to be economical here, I'm building a pc that will still be capable of playing most new games four years from now, and after looking around I've decided I'll spend $2000, no skimping.

Crimson
22 Jul 2008, 11:28pm
Get HDspeakers! :-DD Best for playing CoD4.

Dark Torcher
23 Jul 2008, 03:41am
Get HDspeakers! :-DD Best for playing CoD4.

Headphones are better for gaming, as you can tell precisely which direction a certain sound is coming from. If you do get headphones, invest in good ones. I got me Sony Noise-Canceling headphones which cost me $90, but I think they're worth it, and with an Auzen 7.1 Prelude sound card, it just puts gaming audio even higher. But speakers are good... if you want to listen to music.

PotshotPolka
16 Aug 2008, 10:37pm
Bump.

If anyone has any reason to pick this setup apart tell me now, tomorrow I will begin ordering all the components. I believe the rig is solid, I spent about 4 hours in all comparing prices and reviews, so I'm sold I believe.

ASUS P5K3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131181

Q9550 CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041&Tpk=q9550

SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131181

OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227336

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135156

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148136

The motherboard comes with relatively high performance sound cards, I was looking at the X fi by Creative but I heard it was buggy.

...And Vista because the Radeon 4850 runs on DX10.

Dark Torcher
16 Aug 2008, 11:31pm
your computer will do good,but I'm just going throw some stuff out that you can consider:

Aftermarket CPU cooler: I can see you're buying the Q9550 (it'd be cheaper to just buy the 9450/9300/6700 and overclock it, as I'm running on a Q9450 oc'ed @ 3.0ghz with 53C) the stock cooler won't allow much overhead space to overclock, and if you just want to get the job done, I'd recommend a Zalman 9700 fan, it also has blue leds to match the case

You mislinked the card, but the ATi card, I have nothing to say about, since most high-end gfx perform relatively the same, and you won't be able to see the difference between 45fps and 47fps, but one thing I always feared with ATi was cooling, as they just look too slim, which is why I bought NVIDIA (i rather have a noisy, but cool card, than a card overheating and about to melt, but quiet)

I really do recommend getting a sound card, Sound cards are made specifically to make music, game effects, etc, the thing in the motherboard is just there to make sound, nothing else, it may be decent, but it sure won't beat a dedicated sound card; you said you won't be skipping out on anything, so find a sound card that would fit your needs
I have an Auzentech Prelude, it gives me what I need to hear

your motherboard is okay, but you may run into some problems if you ever get into overclocking, first, your board is not technically a DDR3 1333 supported, it has to be overclocked to be able to support RAM that fast
it will work for your ram, but I do suggest getting a higher end board since you look like you're trying to enter the DDR3 spectrum

which brings me to my last point, the RAM
you're buying an over-rated piece of RAM that was made just to show off the Fatality logo, they are better pieces of RAM with tighter timings
by no means is this RAM bad, i'm just saying the pricing is mainly for the name

here's some things I believe:
-the reviews on newegg are written by people who got products that didnt work (i only had to rma a board once, no problem, just wait a week)
-computers must be balanced, fast ram=fast cpu=fast gfx == fast pc ( no bottleneck )

your current build will work, but I thought you would go for more

PotshotPolka
17 Aug 2008, 07:03am
your computer will do good,but I'm just going throw some stuff out that you can consider:

Aftermarket CPU cooler: I can see you're buying the Q9550 (it'd be cheaper to just buy the 9450/9300/6700 and overclock it, as I'm running on a Q9450 oc'ed @ 3.0ghz with 53C) the stock cooler won't allow much overhead space to overclock, and if you just want to get the job done, I'd recommend a Zalman 9700 fan, it also has blue leds to match the case

You mislinked the card, but the ATi card, I have nothing to say about, since most high-end gfx perform relatively the same, and you won't be able to see the difference between 45fps and 47fps, but one thing I always feared with ATi was cooling, as they just look too slim, which is why I bought NVIDIA (i rather have a noisy, but cool card, than a card overheating and about to melt, but quiet)

I really do recommend getting a sound card, Sound cards are made specifically to make music, game effects, etc, the thing in the motherboard is just there to make sound, nothing else, it may be decent, but it sure won't beat a dedicated sound card; you said you won't be skipping out on anything, so find a sound card that would fit your needs
I have an Auzentech Prelude, it gives me what I need to hear

your motherboard is okay, but you may run into some problems if you ever get into overclocking, first, your board is not technically a DDR3 1333 supported, it has to be overclocked to be able to support RAM that fast
it will work for your ram, but I do suggest getting a higher end board since you look like you're trying to enter the DDR3 spectrum

which brings me to my last point, the RAM
you're buying an over-rated piece of RAM that was made just to show off the Fatality logo, they are better pieces of RAM with tighter timings
by no means is this RAM bad, i'm just saying the pricing is mainly for the name

here's some things I believe:
-the reviews on newegg are written by people who got products that didnt work (i only had to rma a board once, no problem, just wait a week)
-computers must be balanced, fast ram=fast cpu=fast gfx == fast pc ( no bottleneck )

your current build will work, but I thought you would go for more


Well I've just amounted over $1500 worth of car repairs in less than a week, so I've got to cut back somewhere.

Also the motherboard runs natively at 1333ghz, and is said to easily OC to 1600, which I may consider doing after the warranty runs dry.
The only reason I'm looking at that specific RAM is because it comes with a deal with the Q9550 motherboard.

Dark Torcher
17 Aug 2008, 01:05pm
the motherboard fsb runs at 1333/1066
but it doesnt really matter since you can just overclock it all if you have enough cooling
my motherboard is running at 1500fsb right now and my cpu has an 8x multiplier that works on a 375 clock speed giving me 3ghz total speed
anyways, on the ram issue, i found other ddr3 1333 ram with tighter timings that you could use, but you can still stick with the fatality
and i see the deal now, it may save some money
but as you just spent $1500 on car repairs, why dont you wait a couple weeks to get back up, as you appear to be patient enough( since you did wait for the new ATi cards)
you're looking to build a good computer, do not have buyer's remorse, or try to rush through things just to get a computer

and on the issue of overclocking, most of the time, overclocking does not do anythin to your parts (unless you go oc to 20ghz your cpu, thats another issue)
when you install, your mobo will automatically put everything on "fail-safe" settings, so your ram might clock at 800, stuff like that, after you've done the os install and all the drivers are installed you can either go on using the pc, or clock everythin back to the optimum settings, or overclock
for you, i'd recommend that IF that mobo clocks some parts at lower speeds then they should be, clock them back up in the bios settings
if you ever do feel like oc, it's just in the bios settings also, but this process is more like touch-and-go, etc
if you need help, i might be here, or not, depending on the time

PotshotPolka
17 Aug 2008, 02:50pm
the motherboard fsb runs at 1333/1066
but it doesnt really matter since you can just overclock it all if you have enough cooling
my motherboard is running at 1500fsb right now and my cpu has an 8x multiplier that works on a 375 clock speed giving me 3ghz total speed
anyways, on the ram issue, i found other ddr3 1333 ram with tighter timings that you could use, but you can still stick with the fatality
and i see the deal now, it may save some money
but as you just spent $1500 on car repairs, why dont you wait a couple weeks to get back up, as you appear to be patient enough( since you did wait for the new ATi cards)
you're looking to build a good computer, do not have buyer's remorse, or try to rush through things just to get a computer

and on the issue of overclocking, most of the time, overclocking does not do anythin to your parts (unless you go oc to 20ghz your cpu, thats another issue)
when you install, your mobo will automatically put everything on "fail-safe" settings, so your ram might clock at 800, stuff like that, after you've done the os install and all the drivers are installed you can either go on using the pc, or clock everythin back to the optimum settings, or overclock
for you, i'd recommend that IF that mobo clocks some parts at lower speeds then they should be, clock them back up in the bios settings
if you ever do feel like oc, it's just in the bios settings also, but this process is more like touch-and-go, etc
if you need help, i might be here, or not, depending on the time

The case comes with 3X 200mm fans, a 120mm fan and that's not including the one that comes with the PCU.
The other thing I like about the motherboard is that it is very OC friendly, and has lots of information available in the BIOS, as well as the ability to flash it over from a USB flash drive. It isn't indeed the fastest, but it can be made tighter by OCing and eventually buying another stick or two of RAM or eventually a more powerful videocard if I am ever compelled to do so in later years.

Dark Torcher
17 Aug 2008, 03:46pm
lol, you're way off on the case fans
you have 2 front 120x120x25mm fans and a top fan thats 200x200x(something)mm
most market boards let you have the ability to oc, and you chose asus, and thats a norm for oc
a good thing is that you have ATi, so if you do want to be another gfx card to crossfire it, they dont need to be matchin cards, are two crossfire-enabled cards can work together, (so it could be 4850 and 6780<-made up card)
and please dont use the stock CPU cooler, you'll regret it later if you ever try to oc
plus you do want to gain the lowest temps possible for your pc

do you mean CPU when you say PCU?

PotshotPolka
17 Aug 2008, 03:55pm
lol, you're way off on the case fans
you have 2 front 120x120x25mm fans and a top fan thats 200x200x(something)mm
most market boards let you have the ability to oc, and you chose asus, and thats a norm for oc
a good thing is that you have ATi, so if you do want to be another gfx card to crossfire it, they dont need to be matchin cards, are two crossfire-enabled cards can work together, (so it could be 4850 and 6780<-made up card)
and please dont use the stock CPU cooler, you'll regret it later if you ever try to oc
plus you do want to gain the lowest temps possible for your pc

do you mean CPU when you say PCU?


No I meant the PSU fan, wasn't thinking. For stock running is the fan that comes with the Q9550 good enough with that much ventilation?

Dark Torcher
17 Aug 2008, 06:30pm
no, since none of that moving air will do anything as your the stock heatsink is blocked by the RAM sticks
you would need a good heatsink to be able to stay cooled with just the antec case fans ( such as t.r.u.e.), and it would work better with an aftermarket heatsink/fan
you cpu should stay okay on stock settings with the stock cooler, but the ventilation won't do much for the cpu temp

PotshotPolka
17 Aug 2008, 06:40pm
no, since none of that moving air will do anything as your the stock heatsink is blocked by the RAM sticks
you would need a good heatsink to be able to stay cooled with just the antec case fans ( such as t.r.u.e.), and it would work better with an aftermarket heatsink/fan
you cpu should stay okay on stock settings with the stock cooler, but the ventilation won't do much for the cpu temp

I'm going to purchase the bulk of the components tomorrow, but I will keep the temp in mind as I probably won't have any reason to OC for a while, and I'll check the BIOS regularly to monitor the temp. (A nifty trick my old motherboard could never do.)
From what I've read the PSK3 is a good deal and does support DDR3 well. If you can fire a name off a name of a motherboard that is superior and can support all the features I've already chosen then please do, but for that price I don't think I could do much more right now, besides maybe do a crossfire system (which could possibly not fit) and buying another 4 GB of ram.

Dark Torcher
17 Aug 2008, 07:58pm
it'd be better to get speedfan and hwmonitor, which will allow you to monitor temps and control fan speeds, view system clock speeds, etc, while in your os
ten you always do a stress test with p95