Good Computer Build?

Started by Aqua, January 19, 2013, 10:02:14 am

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Aqua

Uh... purposes would be...
Gaming and heavy art stuff - Photoshop, Maya, etc.

Think a SSD is necessary or something?
(Don't really know what I'm doing :D)

Want to order soon, since some deals expire... soon D:




PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($299.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:  ASRock X79 Extreme6 ATX  LGA2011 Motherboard  ($228.49 @ Newegg)
Memory:  Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card:  XFX Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card  ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case:  Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:  SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($84.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive:  Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer  ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Other: TP-LINK TL-WN722N Wireless N150 High Gain USB Adapter, 150Mbps, w/4 dBi High Gain Detachable Antenna, IEEE 802.11b/g/n, WEP, WPA/WPA2 ($17.93)
Total: $1091.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-19 09:59 EST-0500)

G_G

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Radeon graphics cards. I've just always have had better results with nVidia, then again, I've never had an upscale Radeon card either. If money is not an issue, I recommend getting this card here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130782

Also, while an SSD isn't required, it's nice to have. I have a 128GB SSD from samsung right now. My boot time on average is usually 15 seconds booting into Windows 7. If you decide to get an SSD, what I recommend is getting at least a 64GB SSD to install all of your programs to. Then I'd install games to another drive. Also, Windows 7 likes to take up at least double your RAM worth of memory on your hard drive. If you have 16GB of RAM, it'll take up 16GB of hard drive space for sleep mode, and another 24GB due to page file size setting. So when you first install Windows 7 with a large amount of RAM, you'll notice that a lot of space is being taken up. I should know, I had 32GB of RAM and so much space was taken. D:

Here's the one I have.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147192

Honestly, I really enjoy the SSD for the boot times and quick disk access. It's pretty nice. But since they're so small, you just gotta follow some tips to salvage as much space as possible. e.g. Disable Sleep Mode (if you never use it), Change Page File Size, Move Windows temp folder to another drive, install games (and steam) to another hard drive (honestly, this is just depending on how many games you play and install, but you said a build for gaming)

As for everything else, it looks pretty good. It's a pretty nice build Aqua. :3

Blizzard

January 19, 2013, 10:39:27 am #2 Last Edit: January 19, 2013, 10:40:53 am by Blizzard
1. SSDs are really only necessary if you need low boot times or if you work a lot with file copying. If you're not a programmer, you don't really need it. But as G_G said, it's nice to have.

2. What G_G said about page file and hybernation file is true, but you can disable both of them and free up that space. If you have 16 GB of RAM, you will hardly need more than maybe a 2 GB pagefile just for being on the safe side. You can get rid of the hybernation file completely, it's not worth it.

3. 128 GB SSDs are cheap nowadays, I recommend you get that one instead of a 64 GB. Maybe you can get even larger drives for a reasonable price.

4. Stay away from Seagate and Maxtor, their drives are worth crap. I've had problems yesterday with my laptop and when I did a surface check on my system partition (which is 50 GB on my 500 GB HDD), it had 9 read errors! After only 2.5 years of usage! I shudder to find out what the other 450 GB looks like. :(
A co-worker of mine also said that Seagate (and Maxtor which was bought by Seagate) HDDs are crap. Best you get a Western Digital, those have never failed me so far at least.

5. Really not sure about the GFX card since I had both good and bad experiences with both ATI and nVidia, but those were low-end or mid-end cards as I never used high-end cards. Have you thought about using 2 weaker cards for SLI/Crossfire? You might get better performance that way.
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Aqua

Don't really understand all the stuff about SSD, so I don't think I'll get one now.
Would probably mess it up too fast :P
And don't really "need low boot times or work a lot with file copying"

Do you have a Western Digital one to suggest?

G_G



G_G

Yeah, it even says under your link good for daily computer use. Wish I would have seen that. xP But yeah, that should work, this builds going to be pretty sweet. :3

Aqua

Watch me connect two wires together and have the whole thing blow up :D

Maybe I'll post pics of it when it's done...
Maybe... >.>''

Blizzard

Yeah, go for the 6 Gbps ones, those work with newer technology and will last "longer" if you decide to upgrade your motherboard, etc. (similarly to DDR3 RAM being newer technology than DDR2).
Check out Daygames and our games:

King of Booze 2      King of Booze: Never Ever
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Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

Ryex

eeeh I wouldn't get that card if I were you. a whopping 18% of the new egg reviews are 1 egg talking about rather terrible performance and driver crashes + manufacturing defects.

ATI cards can be good and if you find the right one a great bargain for price/ performance ratio but topically Nvidia cars perform better even at close to the same specs and are generically considered to be more stable I would recommend you get the EVGA GTX 570 HD with 2.5 GB DDR5 like I have as it's a beast but it's discontinued now.

SSD's are nice for having a really fast boot. a really good drive for things like rendering videos to (not storing them move them off to a storage drive after you render) as the write speed is really good and anything else where file system IO can be a significant bottleneck other than that they aren't really necessary. ass for HDD decently don't go with seagate. WD is good though. never let me down. I did have to RMA one WD drive when I was building my computer. but it was refurbished and the replacement one has been working flawlessly

I have that EXACT same case (except mine is the USB 3 version so the front ports are usb 3) it's awesome. the airflow is superb. it's a bit tight on the back side for wire routing and it's a bottom mounted psu so you will want to be sure your power supply cables are a good length.

CAREFUL that CPU does NOT include a heat sink fan there are also some complaints in the reviews about no post problems that are related to the MB needing BIOS updates, something you can't do with out a working CPU

AS for that MB It too look scetchy. multiple reports of bad USB ports and other wonky thing wrong with the board, people RMAing multiple time (as in more than 3) and getting bad boards everything, when I see this kind of thing I leave and get another brand)


Let be honest here your spending 1,000 on a good computer you want that computer to work when you put it together and keep working great for several years. My suggestion is to look at the reviews for each part your considering and make sure your getting a quality product. > 10% is the 1 egg category is a big warning sign especially if there are less than 100 reviews so far. stick to parts that have good reputations, read a few reviews form each egg level and see what people are saying.  even if you buy a few parts that aren't on sale that extra 200 bucks will be WELL worth not having to deal with RMAing a part and trying to put together a computer that doesn't work. besides this is your first build yes? go easy on your self and make sure you enjoy the experience. look for the highest rated products in your price range.
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Blizzard

Oh right, I wanted to mention that you should definitely get a motherboard with USB 3 if you can. USB 3 is going to be mainstream very soon and this would allow you to have it up-to-date with current technology for quite a while longer.
Check out Daygames and our games:

King of Booze 2      King of Booze: Never Ever
Drinking Game for Android      Never have I ever for Android
Drinking Game for iOS      Never have I ever for iOS


Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.