building my own computer, need help/advice

[reed1285]

whats up, been a long time since ive posted on here. so im fixing to embark on this adventure of building my own gaming computer. key word gaming. i want this thing to handle anything i throw at it. im particular to microsoft flight simulator x, which im sure some of you know is a very demanding game to run on the high settings. i tried running it on my brand new 1000 dollar laptop and the frames per second were still too low for my liking.

now to all you guys who have done this, im sure there are some of you on here that have done this, what are your recommendations on graphics cards, cpu's, etc? ive heard the new i7's are pretty good, but are pricey. ive got about 800 to a grand to spend on it, so any help or advice you guys can give me would be awesome, thanks.

[Agamemnon]

$800-$1000 isnt much for a gaming computer.

Save up some and try again.

[blingbling]

Bro quick question,
Have you tried say.... a computer gaming forum?
That is all bro thanks
http://i756.photobucket.com/albums/xx205/Jcreedon4/INTERWEBZ.png

[Om1kron]

$800-$1000 isnt much for a gaming computer.

Save up some and try again.

i put my new box together with this budget. i7 870. 8gigs of ram. 80gig ssd. hd5770. p7p55e mobo and a few other items.

[cured13]

consider this -->Maximum PC | How to Build a Kick-Ass Gaming Rig for Under $700 (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_build_kick-ass_gaming_rig_under_700)

[reed1285]

i have been looking into it for awhile and have found depending on where you order your parts from, you can build a very capable gaming pc in that budget range........bro.

also thanks to the guy who added the link

every time i ask for opinions of PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE THIS OR THAT i always get dudes in here who have never done or tried the subject at hand coming in the thread putting their two cents in

[Slims]

Put together a great setup almost 2 years ago for $1100. The thing still doesn't miss a beat when put next to new tech, unless I'm trying to run something like Crysis 2 on retarded settings.
Throw me a PM and ill put something together.

[cured13]

don't worry about "dudes", there is a lots of them here,
just be patient - good people will help you

Cheers

[BOROSUN]

building a budget gaming comp. you have to play the waiting game.


but, right now 2600k + p67 + hd6950 ... done!

best bang 4 your buck.


*oh you can lower to a 2500k pretty much the same unless you do a lot of video stuff.

[Agamemnon]

i have been looking into it for awhile and have found depending on where you order your parts from, you can build a very capable gaming pc in that budget range........bro.

So if you've been looking into it for awhile, then you should know what you want correct?

Are you asking for a specific parts list, or parts to stay away from?

I'm unclear on what exactly you're asking of us?

[HyperTek]

[H]ard|Forum - Powered by vBulletin (http://hardforum.com/)

Check out the hot deals section and the classifieds. You can save some cheddar. Especially on the hot deals section sometimes hot video cards go on sale.
Ive bought used CPUs and overclocked/lapped them to get extra performance out of them.. btw overclocking i would not recommend to a newbie unless you understand it. Used stuff is still pretty good because some people just sell items because they want the latest and greatest. Once you get into system tweaking/tuning, used stuff is good.

Another forum i visit Overclockers Forums - The Performance Computing Community (http://www.overclockers.com/forums/)
for the cyber deals section.. They also got a good classifieds section but you need a high post count to access it. People here sell their stuff pretty cheap on this forum .

I need to look into upgrading my system myself.. get ready for battlefield 3

Make sure you look into getting a sound card too. I never liked onboard sound, it sucks. You get more audio performance out of a sound card, and it can increase frame rate since all the sound processing is done on it.

My aging system e6700 overclocked to 3.7 , 4gb ram, 8800gt 512mb volt modded/overclocked and all watercooled.. its old but still handles the games i play decently. Tho im thinking about going to a quad core chip and newer video card to give this motherboard/system its last horrah before a major update.

[Om1kron]

[H]ard|Forum - Powered by vBulletin (http://hardforum.com/)

Check out the hot deals section and the classifieds. You can save some cheddar. Especially on the hot deals section sometimes hot video cards go on sale.
Ive bought used CPUs and overclocked/lapped them to get extra performance out of them.. btw overclocking i would not recommend to a newbie unless you understand it. Used stuff is still pretty good because some people just sell items because they want the latest and greatest. Once you get into system tweaking/tuning, used stuff is good.

I think overclocking is stupid, and people don't understand the strain it puts on hardware. You want the computer to be fast and reliable not good enough to do a few 6 second runs down the strip and then let go.

Make sure you look into getting a sound card too. I never liked onboard sound, it sucks. You get more audio performance out of a sound card, and it can increase frame rate since all the sound processing is done on it.

Most all onboard sound now is comparible to something creative or turtle beach makes. The new xfi card from sound blaster is cool but it requires almost 350mb of space just for the software for it. Super bloatware, I have an old xfi fatality card and without high end speakers or headphones it just causes more problems than it does providing high quality audio.

A set of decent gaming headphones and an audio amp is like 250 dollars, just need a decent pci card to run it.

I may upgrade to a high end ati card as the drivers for nvidia stuff is still sketch. (Sorry Jay Pizzo)

As for the guy who asked if he was into computers why is he asking for help?

When you build a PC and you think you've future proofed it for about 5 years the last thing you do is read forums or hardware reviews to buy the next best thing, this is why you upgraded in the first place to get a few more years out of your machine. Technology advances so rapidly that all of the things you knew how to match up before don't really go together anymore.

my last pc was a dual core athalon x2, with an ati x1900xt, 4 gigs of ddr2 pc3200, and two digital raptors in raid 0 as my c drive.

With SSD and graphics cards having almost 2 gigs of available memory it's hard to know if you need to buy top of the line, or if you can dial it back a bit and still build a pc with paying for midline parts.

My computer is hardly top of the line, but scores a 7.1 in the windows hardware experience, the only bottleneck is data writing. My last computer could barely run windows 7 much less score any higher than a 3.5 on those same tests.

At 1/4th of the cost it was to build the last machine in 2005.

[BOROSUN]

overclocking is not bad. ei like the 2500k can be overclock 4.8ghz on air is like strretch your dollar. beating that $1k cpu i7 975 extreme quad.

aslong it get gets the proper power & the cpu temp is normal or lower than normal. overclocking doesn't hurt it or cut its life span. cpu life span is pretty long.

[Tantwoforty]

i spent like 750ish on mine about 2 years ago.. still not a game i cant max out sept maybe crysis 2

2.5ghz core 2 duo overclocked to 3.75
4 gigs of ddr3
single GTX260
gigabyte mobo
650w psu
antec 900

and a few parts i had laying around..

runs great, overclocking is great if you do it right.

[HyperTek]

I think overclocking is stupid, and people don't understand the strain it puts on hardware. You want the computer to be fast and reliable not good enough to do a few 6 second runs down the strip and then let go.



Most all onboard sound now is comparible to something creative or turtle beach makes. The new xfi card from sound blaster is cool but it requires almost 350mb of space just for the software for it. Super bloatware, I have an old xfi fatality card and without high end speakers or headphones it just causes more problems than it does providing high quality audio.

A set of decent gaming headphones and an audio amp is like 250 dollars, just need a decent pci card to run it.

I may upgrade to a high end ati card as the drivers for nvidia stuff is still sketch. (Sorry Jay Pizzo)

As for the guy who asked if he was into computers why is he asking for help?

When you build a PC and you think you've future proofed it for about 5 years the last thing you do is read forums or hardware reviews to buy the next best thing, this is why you upgraded in the first place to get a few more years out of your machine. Technology advances so rapidly that all of the things you knew how to match up before don't really go together anymore.

my last pc was a dual core athalon x2, with an ati x1900xt, 4 gigs of ddr2 pc3200, and two digital raptors in raid 0 as my c drive.

With SSD and graphics cards having almost 2 gigs of available memory it's hard to know if you need to buy top of the line, or if you can dial it back a bit and still build a pc with paying for midline parts.

My computer is hardly top of the line, but scores a 7.1 in the windows hardware experience, the only bottleneck is data writing. My last computer could barely run windows 7 much less score any higher than a 3.5 on those same tests.

At 1/4th of the cost it was to build the last machine in 2005.

Overclocking is great.. it is not stupid, its equivalent to turning up the boost in your car. It has risks but when done right, can help system performance alot.. It was about buying budget hardware, and squeezing the most performance out of it to compete with higher end equipment etc. Turn up fsb or multiplyer, increase voltage if necessary, watch temps, compensate for extra heat. Add a good thermal paste something with silver in it.

Regarding the x-fi, run modded non-creative drivers. PAX Download - PCI X-Fi Series (http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-download-pci-x-fi-series/)

Back in the day, i would always get into finding the best drivers and setups and then doing benchmark test.. now I dont care.

I got the same pc case since 2001.. just upgrade the components every few years.. I went watercooled on my video card and cpu. But building your own system is great.. while you have friends who buy new PCs when ever they get silly software problems, you can diagnose your problems and always keep the system running solid and smooth, while your home girl keeps wasting her money buying new macbooks.

[Tantwoforty]

I got the same pc case since 2001.. just upgrade the components every few years.. I went watercooled on my video card and cpu. But building your own system is great.. while you have friends who buy new PCs when ever they get silly software problems, you can diagnose your problems and always keep the system running solid and smooth, while your home girl keeps wasting her money buying new macbooks.


this is the truth.

[Mikey213]

I don't know about you guys but all I did was get a refurbished for 200$ swapped out the ram, 1tb hd, case and a 1gig video card for another 200$ for my strictly starcraft/youjizz mancave computer. ahahaha

[Mikey McFly]

I don't know about you guys but all I did was get a refurbished for 200$ swapped out the ram, 1tb hd, case and a 1gig video card for another 200$ for my strictly starcraft/youjizz mancave computer. ahahaha

Yea, seriously. I built mine for about 400 and I can play Crysis maxed out. It also helps that I'm running Ubuntu instead of any Windows or Mac OS thats running like a hundred other things in the background for no resaon.

[reed1285]

I have a creative blaster xfi surround 5.1 i use on my current pc that I will swap over to my new setup, so I'm not worried about sound. As far as what I was asking was recommendations on parts like video cards, cpu's, motherboards etc...the two main video cards manufacturers are nvidia and ati correct? Which one do u guys prefer and why? Also I read last night while doing some research that the high end processors like the i7 extremes are "unstable" and are prone to overheating and crashing, you guys ever heard anything like that before?

[Gnnr]

Ars System Guide: March 2011 Edition (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/guides/2011/03/ars-system-guide-march-2011-edition.ars)

[BOROSUN]

For me it's either the 560ti or the 6950.

Personally I would get the 6950 2gb . Why?... Multiple monitor surround gaming, Ati does it better and cheaper.

Forget extremes , it's all about sandy!

[HyperTek]

I been an nvidia fan since I got my riva tnt2 over 12 years ago or so lol. Always been Intel and Nvidia for me, tho some people its different, AMD and ATI etc. I never tried SLI or crossfire (when you have 2 video cards) because I never had the money to buy 2 of the same video cards. I don't think it is necessary just for a few more framerates at the cost of a few more hundred bucks imo.

Brand name power units make a big difference too, cheap brand power units are known to not last long.

I like gigabyte hard drives, easy bios flashing and setups. I currently have a DFI board though but yeah I like gigabyte boards I wouldn't think twice about them. Had them prior to my old DFI board.

[BOROSUN]

i keep forgeting ati is dead now. its just amd.

i have 5850 on cf and i play lords of the ring online (dx11 on everything high). when i walking into a heavy populated towns it drops from 30 to 15fps and its soooo annoying to look at. i'm usually running 70-60fps away from those area. but, main reason i cf is so i can using 3 monitors. these games are so demanding my 5850cf struggles with high resolutions.

[heavenboundkevin]

have you built a computer before? its super simple, nothing too difficult. i did it when i was 15 without any help, super fun. good luck. computer technology advances so much every year it seems.

[reed1285]

have you built a computer before? its super simple, nothing too difficult. i did it when i was 15 without any help, super fun. good luck. computer technology advances so much every year it seems.

no this will be my first computer. i hope it goes ok, it can seem kind of overwhelming when looking at all the thousands of different products out there

[Herro]

A 2500K + P67 board + 560ti based build is very popular these days (one of the best performance/price combos). These builds typically fall between your 800-1k budget, and they last a good 5 years.

If you can wait until the end of this month, AMD's Bulldozer CPU line is coming out so you can compare the performance of that too, but its been delayed many times (a la GT5).

Anyways here's a few things I've learned from building rigs over the years (some of these relate to more recent tech):

- Corsair and Seasonic power supplies are very good (Corsair rebadges Seasonics). Here's a slightly more specific list of which PSU to look for, and which to avoid. EggXpert - Eggxpert Tiered Power Supply List (http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx)

- Avoid Thermaltake, Raidmax or any other plasticky cases. They're no fun to work with (installing parts/maintaining your computer). When you choose a case, try relating it to the perfect engine bay. Besides being roomy, it should have solid construction, good cable mgmt, and high airflow. Crappy generic cases make you feel like you're working on a Z32, so dont be afraid to spend a little more. There are exceptions though, some inexpensive cases like the Rosewill Challenger, HAF 912 and the NZXT Gamma are amazing (around 50 bucks, the Gamma is 35). Make sure your motherboard form factor fits btw.

*Also, note that Antec cases aren't that great these days because of how little features they offer the price point they are at.

- Avoid MSI motherboards. They are known to use the worst quality components in the industry for the power delivery system to the CPU. A quick search reveals many stories of exploding capacitors, fire, etc...this is not my inner fanboy speaking. Asus and Gigabyte are trusted manufacturers for mobos.

- For RAM, get 4GB for gaming oriented build, or 8GB for media stuff. But DDR3 price is falling so low, it wouldnt hurt to get more.

- For main system drives, get Western Digital Caviar Black or Samsung F3. If you can, get an SSD instead, they are THE best improvements available for a computer but they cost way too much at the moment. Wait until they reach close to $1/GB.

- ATi (or now called AMD) drivers gave me nothing but trouble, so be careful with them. The HD7000 series cards are just around the corner, so if you want an AMD card wait for those. Otherwise, the nvidia 560ti is not bad at all.

There's probably a few more tips that I've forgot to add, but hopefully its enough to get you in the right direction. Since you are from the US, look for combo deals on Newegg to bring the cost down. Here's my own build finished in mid June:

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/589/47474639.jpg

[BOROSUN]

fuck that's a clean cable management and huge case

i have the legendary nxzt gamma case its pretty cramp cable managment with a non-modular psu. i got 10 fans running so stays pretty cool.

im probably gonna do a buldozer build if it comes out, unless i spend my monees on car parts.

[reed1285]

A 2500K + P67 board + 560ti based build is very popular these days (one of the best performance/price combos). These builds typically fall between your 800-1k budget, and they last a good 5 years.

If you can wait until the end of this month, AMD's Bulldozer CPU line is coming out so you can compare the performance of that too, but its been delayed many times (a la GT5).

Anyways here's a few things I've learned from building rigs over the years (some of these relate to more recent tech):

- Corsair and Seasonic power supplies are very good (Corsair rebadges Seasonics). Here's a slightly more specific list of which PSU to look for, and which to avoid. EggXpert - Eggxpert Tiered Power Supply List (http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx)

- Avoid Thermaltake, Raidmax or any other plasticky cases. They're no fun to work with (installing parts/maintaining your computer). When you choose a case, try relating it to the perfect engine bay. Besides being roomy, it should have solid construction, good cable mgmt, and high airflow. Crappy generic cases make you feel like you're working on a Z32, so dont be afraid to spend a little more. There are exceptions though, some inexpensive cases like the Rosewill Challenger, HAF 912 and the NZXT Gamma are amazing (around 50 bucks, the Gamma is 35). Make sure your motherboard form factor fits btw.

*Also, note that Antec cases aren't that great these days because of how little features they offer the price point they are at.

- Avoid MSI motherboards. They are known to use the worst quality components in the industry for the power delivery system to the CPU. A quick search reveals many stories of exploding capacitors, fire, etc...this is not my inner fanboy speaking. Asus and Gigabyte are trusted manufacturers for mobos.

- For RAM, get 4GB for gaming oriented build, or 8GB for media stuff. But DDR3 price is falling so low, it wouldnt hurt to get more.

- For main system drives, get Western Digital Caviar Black or Samsung F3. If you can, get an SSD instead, they are THE best improvements available for a computer but they cost way too much at the moment. Wait until they reach close to $1/GB.

- ATi (or now called AMD) drivers gave me nothing but trouble, so be careful with them. The HD7000 series cards are just around the corner, so if you want an AMD card wait for those. Otherwise, the nvidia 560ti is not bad at all.

There's probably a few more tips that I've forgot to add, but hopefully its enough to get you in the right direction. Since you are from the US, look for combo deals on Newegg to bring the cost down. Here's my own build finished in mid June:

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/589/47474639.jpg

thanks for the great info!

[BOROSUN]

about that amd drivers its just based on opinions.
e.g. i've had no amd driver issue since my hd4870. you'll find plenty of nvidia driver problems too its not just exclusive to amd.

[fly824]

yo i just built a fairly beast of a gaming comp at a rediculous price between geting some deals and combos from newegg, and i had a very small selection of stuff from my comp graveyard. if you need help with w/e shoot me a pm

[stinky_180]

Build Your Own AMD/Intel Computer Thread III (Updated 7.13.11) - Slickdeals.net (http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=553826)

has the best deals when its updated (every couple of weeks)

[HyperTek]

get a sound card, either option here will do
Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI Express Sound Card $50 shipped - Creative Outlet Store - [H]ard|Forum (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1613358)

You can listen to someone who believes onboard audio is fine, or take it from someone who believes in sound cards to free up the duty of the motherboard/cpu.

Sound cards can last for a few years , i find myself keep the sound card while the rest of the system gets upgraded over the years. usually keeping them longer than motherboard/cpus. It is almost like a 1 time investment.

[scuba_steve91]

Couldn't find an exact thread on building pc's so I'll just post here.

Haven't bought a computer since 2005, and I'm trying to build a gaming PC since BF3 and Skyrim are coming out soon. Want to run those games on maximum settings. My budget is around 1k for the computer alone, any suggestions/recommendations on which brands to buy for motherboards, cpu, gpu, hard drives, etc?

[BOROSUN]

p67 mobo asus p8p67
i5 2500k
8gb 1600 ddr3 corsair/gskill/patriot/kingston
1000w psu cooler master
2x 6950 2gb powercolor

done. that should be around 1031.94

[scuba_steve91]

been making a list of what I wanted on newegg

Hard drive - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 119.99

Video card - ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video ... 349.99

Power supply - COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M700 RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular 119.99

RAM - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 99.99

Mobo - ASUS Rampage III Formula LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 275.99

CPU - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K 314.99

Heatsink - COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 compatible 44.99


probably going over budget there.

[BOROSUN]

you dont really need a 2600k for a gaming system.

i dont really like coolermaster. i just picked it because it was the cheapest decent 1000w. corsair and antec are better choices if you want to spend a little bit more.

also that mobo is wrong sandy 2600k are lga 1155 sockets

[scuba_steve91]

ahhh thanks for the help\tips. I just thought the more expensive the better. 2500k is sufficient you say? i'm completely new to building computers.

Changed the above setup to i5 2500k sandy bridge and asus p8p67, cut the cost down quite a bit. also switched the cooler master power supply out for a corsair one.

grand total with a 199.99 cooler master case and a 16.99 sony dvd-rom drive comes out to sub-total of $1,299.91, but grand total of $1,432.66.

There goes my savings...=[

[1on1]

^If you can, purchase a 120gb SSD from Corsair or OCZ and run 500gb or 1tb hard drive for space.

Install windows, bf3, and whatever high performance programs on the ssd and install the useless programs on the 2nd hdd. You'll love the performance with a ssd.

I am currently running 2x Corsair Force Series 2 250gb, and the load time is amazing.

[scuba_steve91]

^If you can, purchase a 120gb SSD from Corsair or OCZ and run 500gb or 1tb hard drive for space.

Install windows, bf3, and whatever high performance programs on the ssd and install the useless programs on the 2nd hdd. You'll love the performance with a ssd.

I am currently running 2x Corsair Force Series 2 250gb, and the load time is amazing.

Thanks, I went for the Corsair Force Series 3 120gb 179.99 =X.

The current setup:

Case - Cooler Master HAF X Blue Edition - 199.99
Mobo - ASUS P8P67 Dexule LGA 1155 P67 - 214.99
CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core - 219.99
Heat Sink -COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 compatible - 44.99
VGU - ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII TOP/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP - 249.99
Memory - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - 99.99
HD - Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F120GB3A-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - 179.99
Power Supply - CORSAIR Professional Series HX650 (CMPSU-650HX) 650W - 132.99

Grand Total: $1,495.92