Help Me Build My PC Catch-All

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We have a lot of folks upgrading and building new PCs, so this is the place for pinging the crowd to make sure you're picking good parts and asking for general advice.

Here are some great guides for different builds for various budgets.

Ars System Guide

Tech Report's Windows 7 System Guide

Is there any good guides out there for building a HTPC?

There

Tigerbill wrote:

Is there any good guides out there for building a HTPC?

There's a vaguely recent (a little over a year old now) one on Coding Horror.

OK, one last sanity check before I order parts. I've been banging my head about the case and mobo the past couple of days, but I think I have something that will work for me.

Case: Antec P183
CPU: Intel Core i5-750
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R
GPU: Sapphire 100281SR Radeon HD 5870
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W
HDD: WD Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

The components weigh in at about $1,250, which isn't too bad especially considering that a big chunk of that is the 5870 (whenever I can get my hands on one).

seems like some nice specs to me. According to corsairs website you could get away with a lot less in the power supply but that is something similar to what I recently recommened to a friend of mine.

Thanks for the link to the power supply calculator. I was looking for one that had the current gen of CPUs and GPUs in it. It does look like I could chop back to a 600W or so PSU.

Personally, I am never going to buy a case with a door on the front ever again. They annoy the crap out of me. That said, Antec has been making some great cases for the past few years. I love my Three Hundred and it's the cheapest of that series. I'm sure that case is super awesome.

I'm also a huge fan of Gigabyte since I haven't been burning through motherboards every year and a half or two years like with Asus. My only knock against the board is that while it has Crossfire, the second card only runs at 4x. With a 5870 I doubt you'll want to Crossfire anytime soon, so at $140 I give the board a thumbs up. Are you certain that RAM is compatible with it? It seems people keep running into that issue.

I'm a little surprised you'd choose to spend close to $400 on a card and get the i5. Why not go all the way and get an i7? [/enabling]

because it will give bugger all improvement to gaming :p

Looks fine to me, OG. The 750 will give you more headroom and probably more connectors, but you probably don't have to have it. I'm running an i7 with 12 gigs and a GTX 295 on a Corsair 650, and it's been fine so far.

The nice thing about the 183 is that you can fold the door flat against the side because it's double-hinged. If that's not good enough, you can take it completely off. And it's just a delightful case to work on.

Oh, OG, one thing you might check: the 183 needs extra-long power cords, because the power supply is on the bottom, and the cable-run area is behind the motherboard. So you have to route all the way across the motherboard and then back down a little with that 24-pin connector, at least if you want a super-clean run. The 650 has cables that are long enough to go directly there, but not long enough to go around. So the airspace in my case is a little more cluttered than it would be if I'd bought either extension cables or a supply with longer cords. If the 750 has longer cables, that might be a reason to switch up.

In the Ars guide they say this about SSD's.

Unlike MLC (multi-level cell) drives, SLC (single-level cell) drives like the X25-E avoid the slowdown issues that Anandtechand other sites document, and we don't need to worry about TRIM support with SLC drives.

To be fair, we do have some reservations with SSDs in the God Box, mostly due to capacity for the boot/OS drive. 128GB is a little skimpy, so you might want to think about a few more if it's in the budget for more space. Drives based on an Indilinx controller, such as the Corsair Extreme and OCZ Vertex, come in capacities up to 256GB if that much space is necessary, although we would not recommend using MLC drives such as those (or our favorite MLC-based SSD, the Intel X25-M) in RAID due to concerns about long term performance degradation.

Am I to understand that SLC is best for RAID but MLC will be ok for non-raid?

garion333 wrote:

I'm a little surprised you'd choose to spend close to $400 on a card and get the i5. Why not go all the way and get an i7? [/enabling]

Filthy enabler! Yeah, it's an extra hundred bucks or so to go to an i7 920, but it just didn't seem worth the performance increase. I'm plowing that Benjamin into a new monitor.

I wanted to go with a single GPU, so that pretty much meant spending some bucks. Besides, I'm worth it!

Malor wrote:

Oh, OG, one thing you might check: the 183 needs extra-long power cords, because the power supply is on the bottom, and the cable-run area is behind the motherboard. So you have to route all the way across the motherboard and then back down a little with that 24-pin connector, at least if you want a super-clean run. The 650 has cables that are long enough to go directly there, but not long enough to go around. So the airspace in my case is a little more cluttered than it would be if I'd bought either extension cables or a supply with longer cords. If the 750 has longer cables, that might be a reason to switch up.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll pick up some extension cables to be on the safe side.

I just upgraded to essentially the same components as you OG. I bought everything at Microcenter. I had specced it out with a radeon 4890, but that was out of stock and I just wanted instant gratification. They had just gotten in a couple of 5870's, so with some enabling done by the sales associate, I talked myself into future proofing. It's pretty sweet, i've never been on the bleeding edge in terms of graphics. But I imagine horrendously overpowered for the games I play at 1920x1080 (Acer 23" monitor). I might return the monitor for something bigger, but the HD resolution seems so convenient. What monitor are you looking into?

I ran the windows experience index thing, and the only bottle neck is the hard drive (a 7200rpm 1TB seagate Barracuda), which came in at 5.9. Everything else was 7.3 to 7.8 (out of a possible 7.9). I've been installing all my old games and pushing the sliders up to max. Such a great feeling. A big jump up from an Athlon 2100 and geforce7600 gs!

Here is my first draft which I know I will have to pair down for price.

  • Case: Recycle my old Lian Li.
  • GPU: Recycling my old Nvidia 8800 GTS till next year's Ferni.
  • PSU: Will I be able to recycle my old SILVERSTONE ST60F 600W? If not I have this CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX in my wishlist.
  • HDD: Recycling old drives till SSD becomes more affordable.
  • Casefans: Recycled
  • Mouse: Recycled Logitech MX510
  • Keyboard: Recycled old Logitech wireless

So far this weighs in at $1,154.94 with the new PSU and the i7 960. If I can get away with using my old PSU I clock in at $994.95.

I also don't know if I should stick with onboard sound, recycle my old X-Fi or buy a ASUS Xonar. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Edwin, I used a couple different PSU calculators and your 600w might not work. It's hard to tell because every damn site gives different numbers, but I'm coming up with 400w-650w, if not more because I don't know how many hard drives, dvd-rw drives, fans, etc. you actually have. It's insane what these calculators tell you. You can do it yourself here. You can also use this, this, this and this. I think you'll be fine with the 600w as the manufacturers and NewEgg are probably just trying to get you to spend money.

Artic Silver is fine.

a good 600W will be more than enough for that build. I'm running a similar one on something like a 430W, and it's fine.

Tigerbill wrote:

Is there any good guides out there for building a HTPC?

This guy is amazingly thorough, and this was updated as of September. It isn't updated yet for the awesome new 5xxx ATI cards which (supposedly) support bitstreaming of hi-def audio codecs, but the guys at SlySoft and on Doom9 are close to workarounds for that even on the 4xxx cards, but it's one of the more complicated threads I've ever read so I don't know how long it will be before it's actually practical to do so. 9-12 months, maybe.

indy wrote:

What monitor are you looking into?

Samsung T260 25.5" LCD. I love my 205BW, but the T260 goes to 11.

indy wrote:

A big jump up from an Athlon 2100 and geforce7600 gs!

Look likes I'll be enjoying things like you! My current specs are very similar to your old ones--Athlon 3200 with a 7900GT.

Edwin wrote:

All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Well if it were me I wouldn't spend $560 on the cpu and $240 on the mb. I'd go with an i5 and something closer to a $100 mb.

Hi all, coming in from the other thread (which I shouldn't have made, might have angered Certis with that one)

Looking to upgrade two computers in the next few weeks and get them to last the next 3 years with incremental upgrades. Any feedback?

Brother's PC -
Planned Specs:
CPU: Intel I5-750
Mainboard: Asus P55
RAM: OCZ 4Gb DDR3-1600
Optical: Samsung SATA x22 DVD+-RW
HDD: Recycling 1xIDE/PATA 160Gb + 1xSATA 250Gb (Note 1)
Video: Recycling XFX Nvidia 9600GT 512mb (Note 2)
PSU: Recycling Coolermaster 430w (2x 12v rails rated at 14A & 15A) (Note 2)
Monitor: Recycling Samsung 19" LCD native at 1280x1024(Note 3)
Case: Recycling Coolermaster Centurion 532 (Note 2)
OS: Windows 7 64bit

My PC -
Planned Specs:
CPU: Intel I5-750
Mainboard: Asus P55
RAM: OCZ 4Gb DDR3-1600
Optical: Samsung SATA x22 DVD+-RW
HDD: Recycling 2x SATA 250Gb (Note 1)
Video: XFX Nvidia 9800GTX 512mb (From a source selling cheap)
PSU: Recycling Coolermaster 600w (2x 12v rails rated at 18A) (Note 2)
Monitor: Samsung 19" LCD native at 1280x1024 (Note 3)
Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5 (Note 2)
OS: Windows 7 64bit

Total damage around US$1190. No Newegg.com for me.

Note 1: HDD will upgrade as and when space runs out. No plans for any SSD.
Note 2: Most worried about the PSU, especially on my brother's computer. Seems like any further upgrade to the video cards will require whole new PSU's. Might change the cases too when that happens.
Note 3: No plan for new monitors yet. Space is limited and it must be a non-widescreen LCD.

Thanks for the help.

trip1eX wrote:
Edwin wrote:

All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Well if it were me I wouldn't spend $560 on the cpu and $240 on the mb. I'd go with an i5 and something closer to a $100 mb.

I just got the i5 and it's great. Apparently, it's just as good for games as the i7. I'd save money there, and blow it on a monitor or GPU upgrade.

Does anyone use AMD procs for gaming anymore?

I've been thinking about building a PC for my wife to do some graphic design work on. She's thinking of doing some freelance work and is intimidated by the start-up costs of a good machine and software packages, so I was going to recycle parts from my current machine to try and keep costs down while she figures out if its something she wants to do (an excuse to upgrade my gaming rig, as well.)

Does anybody have any experience with PC's as a graphic design platform? I should be able to use my old 19" LCD monitor as a stopgap until I can afford to buy her a nicer, hi-res model, right?

Do the Adobe suites (Photoshop, InDesign) run just as well as on Apple's offerings? Or should I just be looking to save up for a Mac for her (what she wants)?

Mixolyde wrote:

Does anyone use AMD procs for gaming anymore?

I am, unfortunately. It was a cost decision a couple years ago and I've been living with it since.

Since I have an AM3 board and an X2 5600+ (2.8 ghz w/the 1mb cache) I've been looking at upgrading to either the 550 BE (3.1 ghz, dual-core, $100, 95w), X3 720 BE (2.8 ghz, 3 cores, $120, 95w) or the X35 955 BE (3.2 ghz, 4 cores, $176, but 125w).

If you're doing a new build, then no, nobody goes AMD right now except budget consumers, which hasn't been a part of this thread so far, mostly.

Haakon7 wrote:

Does anybody have any experience with PC's as a graphic design platform? I should be able to use my old 19" LCD monitor as a stopgap until I can afford to buy her a nicer, hi-res model, right?

Throw all the RAM you can fit into the machine. If you think it's enough, it isn't. Secondly, the Adobe suites are very well-optimized for multiple cores, so you'll see a definite advantage bumping from two cores to four.

Do the Adobe suites (Photoshop, InDesign) run just as well as on Apple's offerings? Or should I just be looking to save up for a Mac for her (what she wants)?

Yes, they work just fine on a PC; I use them on both and haven't really noticed a difference in performance...other than my PC only costing half what my mac did . The only issue is generally with files and fonts between the systems; some of them really don't translate well (even otf fonts, sometimes). This is unfortunate because most of the graphic design world is still on macs; so if she does a lot of collaboration, it might be best to stick with whatever OS platform the people she works with use.

Components ordered. The only thing that was out of stock is the 5870, which is pretty much out of stock everywhere.

I'm so glad I finally stepped up to Amazon Prime. Nothing like no tax, free shipping, and two day delivery for most things.

Bullion Cube wrote:
trip1eX wrote:
Edwin wrote:

All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Well if it were me I wouldn't spend $560 on the cpu and $240 on the mb. I'd go with an i5 and something closer to a $100 mb.

I just got the i5 and it's great. Apparently, it's just as good for games as the i7. I'd save money there, and blow it on a monitor or GPU upgrade.

My thought process is as follows. In September of 2003 I spent $1,099.05 buying almost the best processor out at the time (Intel Pentium 4 3.0C Northwood 3.0GHz Socket 478) which last me till August 2007. That's 3 years and 11 months. In August of 2007 I spent $1,216.90 for my current PC with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 that only lasted me till now. That's only 2 years and 3 months because I decided to compromise on the price and purchased a weaker processor. I know I will pay more in the end because I still have to buy a new video card down the line.

Maybe I am rationalizing it too much but I think the semi-future proofing by getting the new socket type will be worth it. I'd like to be proven wrong though.

That makes a ton of sense. Most of us are every year and a half to two year updaters. You, however, stretch it to its limit. Kudos. I don't have the patience.

Mixolyde wrote:

Does anyone use AMD procs for gaming anymore?

Yeah, I just put together an upgrade using the Phenom II 955. This made more sense before the I7/I5 came out, but I'm happy.

AMD really shines in the budget end of the spectrum, the Athlon II and Phenom II dual core units provide a HUGE bang for the buck. In Tom's Hardware Best Gaming CPU's for the money the AMD procs score quite well. They dominate the >$200 part of the chart. However, on the top end, the I5 and I7 out-perform them. It is hard to resist the lure of the top end of the spectrum.

Still, I paid $169 for my AMD proc and I'm THRILLED with the performance.

For me, I need some guidance. I'll be getting a new PC in the next couple of weeks. I have the choice of building my own and buying a pre-made rig. The thing about building my own is this, I've installed everything in a PC except for the processor/MB. And I haven't really done much hardware stuff in several years. The other thing is, looking at prices (and sales), it seems like it is almost a wash between building my own and buying a pre-made rig. For instance, I found this rig on NewEgg.com for $1,339.99 (w/o monitor):

General Spec
Brand iBUYPOWER
Model Gamer Supreme 930i
Recommended Usage Gaming
Processor Intel Core i7 860(2.8GHz)
Processor Main Features 64 bit Quad-Core Processor
Memory 8GB DDR3 1333
Hard Drive 1TB SATAII
Optical Drive 1 22X DL DVD+/-RW Drive
Graphics ATI Radeon HD5850 1GB
Audio Sound card - Integrated
Ethernet 10/100/1000Mbps
Power Supply 700W
Keyboard iBUYPOWER USB Deluxe Keyboard
Mouse iBUYPOWER USB Mouse
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Special Features NZXT Tempest Gaming Tower

Could I save that much money by building my own PC (providing I don't fry anything)?

Has anyone got an i5 system running yet? How has it been for you anecdotally? I'm particularly interested in the turbo mode, whatever it's called -- does it work as advertised?

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