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SOLVED Newbie first computer build

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yaiie

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2013
Location
Spring Hill, Florida
Hello guys,

I'm sorry if i'm posting in the wrong section (I think i'm in the right spot.)

My name's Jeremy and i'm finally ready to start my first computer. I've always thought it'd be great to build a computer but i'm scared of all the "what if's..." I don't want to mess up and ruin the computer or the parts.

I was looking into Ibuypower but after reading so many negative reviews and watching one video tutorial (on how to build a gaming pc) I decided i'm going to try!

I want to do it right... Which is why I signed up for this forum i'd love your input and hope you will share some of your knowledge!

I'm going to order piece by piece (make sure I get all of the proper equipment while trying to pay my bills :D )

For now I have the Phantom 410 gaming case and that's it.

I'm thinking Intel X79 with an asus motherboard, Asus AMD Radeon 7970 and 16gigs of 2133 ram, with an ssd drive.

My first of endless questions to you guys... What motherboard, ram and ssd would you recommend?

I want to build this PC right. It'll be for gaming! I'd like to light it up, green... A bunch of led fans and lights.

I'm not to sure about brands or quality. I've owned 3 Asus laptops and never had an issue! Loved them to death. So i'd like to stick with Asus unless you can recommend a better brand.

Also... Is it safe to work on a plastic desk? I was going to work on my build in the garage (to avoid carpet and static electricity.)
 
Buying piece by piece is typically a bad idea, technology moves so fast that buy the time you have everything to finish the build, half of it is outdated. Given that you're looking at really high end equipment but you don't even have the money to buy it...are you sure you're not in a bit over your head? $1000-1200 can easily build a solid rig that will max out any game at 1080P, vs the near $2000 rig for what you mentioned.
 
Welcome!

First things first.. Peice by piece... you can do that with say the case, ram, power supply, and SSD/HDD, but I wouldnt with mobo/GPU/CPU. The lanscape changes so fast that I wouldnt do piecemeal for the CPU/GPU/mobo.

For a gaming PC, there is no need for the X79 platform. Its way overpriced for those that do not use the Hexcore which is one of its only 'high points' over say a Z77 platform.

I would say, for your needs, grab the PSU, case, ram, SSD/HDD now, then save up for the CPU/mobo/GPU combo. As far as which SSD, OCZ Vertex 4, OCZ Vector, Samsung 840Pro, Crucial M4, or Adata SXP9000.

As far as mobo's, Asus products are fine, as are most really. I would go with what gets the job done well, than paying a premium for an Asus board, but that is just me. We are here to inform, you spend your money as you see fit. That said, Assume you are overclocking, I would grab a Asrock Z77 Extreme 4.

As far as ram, 16GB for a gaming rig is overkill really. 8GB is plenty. THere is also little point in getting 2133MHz ram over DDR3 1600Mhz as there are little to no performance gains to be had there, just a price premium.

With that 7970, are you going to CrossfireX it in the future? This matters to get you a power supply that has enough juice.

When do you think you would be able to get the last parts at once?
 
Welcome!

First things first.. Peice by piece... you can do that with say the case, ram, power supply, and SSD/HDD, but I wouldnt with mobo/GPU/CPU. The lanscape changes so fast that I wouldnt do piecemeal for the CPU/GPU/mobo.

For a gaming PC, there is no need for the X79 platform. Its way overpriced for those that do not use the Hexcore which is one of its only 'high points' over say a Z77 platform.

I would say, for your needs, grab the PSU, case, ram, SSD/HDD now, then save up for the CPU/mobo/GPU combo. As far as which SSD, OCZ Vertex 4, OCZ Vector, Samsung 840Pro, Crucial M4, or Adata SXP9000.

As far as mobo's, Asus products are fine, as are most really. I would go with what gets the job done well, than paying a premium for an Asus board, but that is just me. We are here to inform, you spend your money as you see fit. That said, Assume you are overclocking, I would grab a Asrock Z77 Extreme 4.

As far as ram, 16GB for a gaming rig is overkill really. 8GB is plenty. THere is also little point in getting 2133MHz ram over DDR3 1600Mhz as there are little to no performance gains to be had there, just a price premium.

With that 7970, are you going to CrossfireX it in the future? This matters to get you a power supply that has enough juice.

When do you think you would be able to get the last parts at once?

no overclocking*

for the 7970 no crossfire... that's the main reason I want the 7970 it's suppose to be the best single card (at least when I read the article) who knows today :D

what power supply would you recommend?
 
Hey, welcome to OCF! :beer:

When trying to recommend a build to you, there's some information that's extremely helpful for us to know. If you could answer these few short questions, we'd be happy to help!
  • What are you planning to do with this compuer? Please be as specfic as possible.
  • What is your budget?
    1. Does this include a copy of Windows?
    2. Does this include peripheals (a keyboard, monitor, mouse, speakers, etc.)?
  • Are you from the United States or a different country? Are you ordering from your own country or from across borders?
    1. Wherever you may be from, does the store that you are planning to order from have a website? It's okay if it isn't in English, we can manage.
    2. If you are from the United States, do you live nearby a Microcenter?
  • Do you have any specific requests with the build?
    1. Do you plan on overclocking? If yes, do you have a specific goal in mind?
    2. Would you prefer the build to be particularly small?
    3. Would you prefer the build to be particularly quiet?
    4. In general, do you prefer this to be a computer that you can spend money on now and let it rest, or a box built for continuous upgrading?
    5. Do you ever plan on utilizing NVIDIA's SLI or AMD's CrossfireX technologies? These features, with a compatible motherboard, allow a user to link multiple identical graphic cards together for added performance. In real world terms, this lets you buy a second identical graphics card down the line as a relatively cheap and easy way to gain a fairly large boost in performance. However, this requires buying a SLI/CFX compatible motherboard and PSU now, which may result in slightly higher initial cost.
(OPTIONAL) Have you already looked at or considered any parts (it's okay if you haven't)? If so, please list your top 1-2 choices for each category. If you've only picked out a few of the below, just list those.
  • CPU
  • Motherboard
  • RAM
  • Graphics Card
  • Power Supply
  • Case
  • Hard Drive
  • Solid State Drive (optional)
  • Mouse (if necessary)
  • Keyboard (if necessary)
  • Monitor (if necessary)
  • Speakers/Headset (if necessary)
Once again, thank you in advannce for taking the time to answer these, and I hope you enjoy your stay at OCF! :)
 
Hey, welcome to OCF! :beer:

When trying to recommend a build to you, there's some information that's extremely helpful for us to know. If you could answer these few short questions, we'd be happy to help!
  • What are you planning to do with this compuer? Please be as specfic as possible.
  • What is your budget?
    1. Does this include a copy of Windows?
    2. Does this include peripheals (a keyboard, monitor, mouse, speakers, etc.)?
  • Are you from the United States or a different country? Are you ordering from your own country or from across borders?
    1. Wherever you may be from, does the store that you are planning to order from have a website? It's okay if it isn't in English, we can manage.
    2. If you are from the United States, do you live nearby a Microcenter?
  • Do you have any specific requests with the build?
    1. Do you plan on overclocking? If yes, do you have a specific goal in mind?
    2. Would you prefer the build to be particularly small?
    3. Would you prefer the build to be particularly quiet?
    4. In general, do you prefer this to be a computer that you can spend money on now and let it rest, or a box built for continuous upgrading?
    5. Do you ever plan on utilizing NVIDIA's SLI or AMD's CrossfireX technologies? These features, with a compatible motherboard, allow a user to link multiple identical graphic cards together for added performance. In real world terms, this lets you buy a second identical graphics card down the line as a relatively cheap and easy way to gain a fairly large boost in performance. However, this requires buying a SLI/CFX compatible motherboard and PSU now, which may result in slightly higher initial cost.
(OPTIONAL) Have you already looked at or considered any parts (it's okay if you haven't)? If so, please list your top 1-2 choices for each category. If you've only picked out a few of the below, just list those.
  • CPU
  • Motherboard
  • RAM
  • Graphics Card
  • Power Supply
  • Case
  • Hard Drive
  • Solid State Drive (optional)
  • Mouse (if necessary)
  • Keyboard (if necessary)
  • Monitor (if necessary)
  • Speakers/Headset (if necessary)
Once again, thank you in advannce for taking the time to answer these, and I hope you enjoy your stay at OCF! :)

*gaming pc
*budget of 2,000 (max... less is always nice :D)
*I'd like the pc to last me a year or so... then sell and use that money toward a new build.
*mid size tower
*open to different brands... though i'm find of asus
*I'd like the amd radeon 7970
*noise doesn't bother me. i'd like to have as many fans (preferable led) going as possible.
*no desire to overclock my cpu... the graphics card comes O.C though... will that be an issue?
*parts from newegg and tigerdirect
*I live in the US
 
$1199-45 in mail in rebates. All you need to do is pick your fans. Or you can go with this motherboard if you want to stick with Asus.
 

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Np I like doing it. BTW Newegg has free 8 g of ram with select mobo's right now so if you do choose another just check out the selection with the free ram.
 
Thing is (with that promotion and your build) its a single 8GB stick, where you want to optimally be running two 4GB sticks so you can take advantage of dual channel mode.

He also mentioned he didn't want to overclock, so I see no reason to pay for an unlocked CPU and a overclockable motherboard.
 
I'll throw my two cents in....

I think what Mandrake recommended you was a solid build, but I would make a few adjustments...

  • Since your not overclocking, I would pick up a non-K cpu. You'll save $15.
  • Unless your gaming at a 1920x1200 or higher resolution, the 7970 is a little overkill for what you want to do. You could probably get away with a 7950 and save yourself $100. Maybe invest that saved cash into a bigger SSD?
 
Good morning, guys

My goal/dreammmm is to play SWTOR on max settings with smooth and constant fps! While having room to grow!

When SWTOR was coming out I went and bought an Asus G series gaming laptop with 2nd gen quad core 2.2ghz, 8gig ddr3 and a Nvidia GTX560M... From what I read and looking at the minimum system requirements I was convinced i'd be able to play at max settings... Easy... I was wrong :(

Medium would push the system... Max would lag it out like no tomorrow... I'd have to pick and choose which settings I wanted to push higher while dropping others.

I was devastated.

I don't want to make the same mistake again. Which is why I want the 7970... I'm wanting to plug the new tower into my HD 1080p tv and enjoy the experience maxed out!

The I5 with 16 gigs ddr3 (1600) and a 7970... Does that sound good? I want to put in the extra ram for piece of mind... From reading your posts the Z77 sounds like it'd be more then enough power! (And it'll save me a few bucks)
 
What exactly is dual channel?

Say I do go for 16gigs of ram is it better to get two sticks of 8 or four sticks of 4?

Will I run into any issues with an O.C gpu running on a Z77 unclocked?


That static bracelet they sell (to avoid static damage) your suppose to clip it onto an unpainted part of your pc... Isn't the whole case painted?

(thank you) have a nice day everyone!
 
Dual channel ram.

2x8GB so in case you need to go more, you can.

I dont understand the question, but you can o/c your GPU on a Z77

I have never used a static wrist band or anything. Just touch the case or something grounded before you work to make sure.
 
SWTOR, like any other game, is not RAM intensive. You don't need more than 8GB of RAM, you probably don't even need that much.

The GPU and motherboard have nothing to do with each other overclocking wise. If you want to overclock your CPU, then get a unlocked CPU and a Z77 board. If you don't want to overclock, then you can get a locked, cheaper CPU and get a B75 motherboard. Again, this does not have any effect on your GPU choice in any way.
 
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