New Build

[robertecollins]

Hello everyone; Even though I have just registered on Overclocking forums, I have been reading and catching up on the new technology on computers. I have been in other forums but I have come to respect the information here. I currently have a HP dv7 laptop that I want to take a sledgehammer to. I have built computers before, but a long time ago. My last build was my 386 with an AMD processor and I now have an itch to build my next computer. I welcome all comments, ideas and “hey stupid you forgot…..”. This build is for a general computer but heavy on gaming. This is what I have on my list:
Case: HAF 932
Power Supply: Corair 1200 watt
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Pro
Processor: i7-2600k
Fan: Hyper 212
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32MB
Hard Drive: Hitachi Ultastar 450GB 15,000rpm 6Gbps
External HD: Hitachi Touro 2TB 7200rpm
Video Card: Radeon HD 6990
Sound Card: Asus PCI 5.1
CD/DVD: Asus DRW 24B3ST
WIFI: Asus PCE-N10
Ethernet: Netgear 310tx
HDMI Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 (to connect to TV)
Monitor: Asus VH242H (24” is all my desk can hold)
Thank you for your time and help!!

 

[Knufire]

Hey, welcome to OCF!

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.

Once again, thank you in advance for taking the time to answer these, and I hope you enjoy your stay at OCF!

 

[Metlcub]

Do you live by a microcenter? I'd look into getting the ASRock z77 Extreem4 and i7-3770k Ivy Bridge. would be about the same price, you would not need to use a second vid card to connect to the TV, just have it Mirror whats on your monitor to the TV, the 6990 will run both, just one will be DVI (comp monitor) and HDMI (TV). if your using a desktop speakers and dont need the sound out of the HDMI, that would have ya some $$ there

also the network card is not needed, on board is fine, My pings in games are fine, so no need to get a PCI network adaptor unless you want wireless. If not, then just use the on board net work card

 

[robertecollins]

Thank you Knufire for your quick response. I hope this helps.

1. The computer is for my personal use, but mostly for gaming.
2. I have allowed a budget of $3,300
3. I already own Windows 7, MS Office, Adobe Acrobat X Pro and several other programs and games.
4. I believe that it is enough to cover everything.
5. I am in the U.S. – California
6. Most of the items will be from ebay.
7. I will be overdocking….but need to learn more about it.
8. I hope with this build that all I ever need to do is maybe upgrade
9. I would like it to be quiet…but not necessary.
10. I have not thought too much on video graphics. But as I learn more about new technology, I may up grade but if I need to get a better component….I’m open to suggestions and help.

 

[Operant]

You will be able to build an almost top of the line PC with a bit more than half that budget! Have you considered Newegg for parts? Are you near Orange County, CA I am asking because that is the only Microcenter (a retailer where you can get some great deals on CPUs and motherboards) in that area.

 

[robertecollins]

Thank you Metlcub, I plan on connecting my computer to my home surround sound system. Love your idea on hooking up to the TV. Ok...cancel the Asus PCE card.

 

[robertecollins]

I am in Riverside county. Just north of Temecula. I can go to Frys in San Diego.

 

[Knufire]

I'll just point out the major things for now, I can do a full recommendation tomorrow afternoon.

That CPU, GPU, and Motherboard is last generation equipment. You would be looking at 3xxx CPUs, Z77 motherboards, and Radeon 7xxx/GTX6xx video cards.

Your video card will do HDMI put to the monitor. Don't need a second video card.

All motherboards come with a ethernet adapter onboard.

If you have a receiver, you probably don't want a sound card. You would want to use SPDIF out or HDMI out, this transmit digital signals (raw data) to the receiver and let the receiver convert it into sound.

Super fast hard drives are a thing of the past now, even 15,000RPM disks are destroyed by the solid state drives we use a boot drives nowadays. Flash memory is just much faster and reliable.

Chips are also much more power efficient, you don't need anywhere near 1200W.

Also, technology moves much faster nowadays. Dump $3K into this machine now and three or four years from now, it's going to be a very average computer. Spending less now and upgrading regularly will make the computer last much longer. There's simply no good way to future proof for long periods of time.

 

[robertecollins]

Thanks Knufire, I'll continue researching and wait for recommendations and input from everyone here. But from the past few hours of research I have been doing, the Asus Maximus V Extreme is a Motherboard to build upon. I was looking at the i7 3820 chip, but it doesn't appear to be able to overclock very well.

 

[Knufire]

Thanks Knufire, I'll continue researching and wait for recommendations and input from everyone here. But from the past few hours of research I have been doing, the Asus Maximus V Extreme is a Motherboard to build upon. I was looking at the i7 3820 chip, but it doesn't appear to be able to overclock very well.

That board is way overkill for your needs. It's designed for subzero cooling (Dry Ice, liquid nitrogen), benchmarking, and setting world records.

Gamers also typically go with i5 CPUs instead of i7s. The major difference between them is Hyperthreading, which doesn't make a huge different in games.

Since you're in California, I would buy parts from Amazon. Most reliable online store that you don't have to pay tax on.

 

[robertecollins]

Thanks Knufire, but why are gamers using the i5 instead of the i7? I take it the OCZ is the boot drive. I see you have two fans, an air cool fan and a water cool chip fan. What is the air cooled fan for?

 

[Knufire]

The main difference between the i5 and the i7 is Intel's Hyperthreading technology. This creates an extra pipeline to each core, so you get a 4 core, 8 thread CPU. You can think of it as having 4 extra virtual cores.

The thing is that games only use 4 threads at most, many only use two. So Hyperthreading doesn't really offer much benefit.

There's no air heatsink in there. There's the Corsair H100 for the CPU, and the two GentleTyphoons are to replace the fans that come with the H100, as many complain the stock fans are rather loud.

 

[robertecollins]

Duh!!! Ok it will take me a few to get back into the game. I may change the OCZ 256MB to the 512MB and use an external HD for storage or will the internal be ok for storage in case of a crash?

 

[Knufire]

Internal is fine for storage.

 

[robertecollins]

Ok here is the list that I ordered and the grand total, I did go overboard with a couple of things....but as I said before I'm old school.

Antec Eleven Hundred Black Super Mid Tower Computer Case $96.99

Cooler Master MegaFlow 200mm Red LED Computer Case Fan (R4-LUS-07AR-GP) $14.42

Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm x 25mm Fan - 1850 RPM (D1225C12B5AP-15 $46.97

OCZ ZS Series 750W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with
Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom $89.99

ASUS Intel Z77 ATX DDR3 2400 LGA 1155 Motherboard P8Z77-V $163.79
Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K $195.00

Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CWCH100) $103.74

Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR3 1600MHz PC3 240 Pin DIMM Memory CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 $92.99

OCZ Technology 512GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD)
With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-512G $511.49

HGST Deskstar 3.5-Inch 2TB 7200RPM SATA III 6 Gbps 64 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive
(0F12115) $107.61

ASUS PCI-Express x1 Sound Card XONAR ESSENCE STX/90-YAA0C0-0UAN00Z $179.99

Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7970 OC 3GB GDDR5 DVI-I/HDMI/2x Mini-Displayport
PCI-E 3.0 Graphics Card GV-R797OC-3GD $396.91

ASUS Internal 24X SATA Optical Drive DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G (Black) $21.99

Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" IPS LED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 8 ms $199.00

Corsair Vengeance K60 Performance FPS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
(CH-9000004-NA) $75.66

Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 $60.48

Sennheiser PC 360 Headset for Pro Gaming $152.00

Order Total: $2,647.28 Includes Shipping, Handling and Tax

Thank you Knufire for all your research and help on this build!!! And if anyone needs a good build, here is the list.