Preparing to Build my First

[geexter42]

So, you all probably get this a lot.

I'm new. Planning on building my first *true* desktop, and I'm looking for some input. You see, I have a decent amount of knowledge. I know how to tell if the parts I select are compatible and stuff, but the one thing I don't know is if I'm getting the most power for the best price. Hence my coming to these forums.

So, here are the goals:

1) Building on a budget (didn't see that coming!) of 600 - 800. I'd honestly prefer to keep it close to 650/700, but you might convince me otherwise. By the way, the total price will also include the OS. I know, that puts me in a handicap, but I need to budget.
2) This will gaming computer. My plan is to be able to play (don't judge me) Lord of the Rings Online, Skyrim, and Guild Wars 2 on at least the medium settings, if not high.
3) To understand more about computer parts.
4) The build to last a few years. Looking to include a quad-core and everything necessary to make it last.

So, I hopped on newegg and started looking at parts and put together this list. Now, I just said I know which parts would work together, so hopefully I don't go embarrassing myself by posting parts that won't work.

I copy/pasted the titles newegg had for the parts incase you didn't want to follow the links.

COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-550-PCAR-E3 550W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOXr
ASUS HD7750-1GD5-V2 Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3B1K2/8GX
Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEMe
Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit (Full Version) - OEMS

So, some notes on my decisions.

I considered getting a SSD, but load times just don't really bug me (yet).
I wanted a quad-core. Figured it would last some time.
Since Windows 8 was the same price as 7, I figured "why not?"
If I recall correctly, the video card I picked can do that cross-fire thing (which, to my understanding, is having dual video cards).

Everything else seemed like a good decision. According to newegg, everything is about $680.

So, here comes my request. Would this computer work together well? Are there different parts that I should consider? This would be my first true build. Everything else I've built has been either half put together already or from a pile of scrap parts.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Conumdrum]

Not a bad list at all.

Not sure on the PSU, if it's a quality and approved PSU by us or some site like Jonnyguru.com (you should bookmark that) then your fine. We do have a PSU forum with STICKIES to make sure. Please read them.

The one thing besides the PSU is your GPU. That is pretty old tech and only 1 GB ram. One GB isn't enough these days. You need two, some games like skyrim with LOTS of graphic addons can stress even 2 GB cards. The processing power is pretty old, you do know we are at 79XX now? A 77XX is probably not going to be that good.

Gaming PC's past basic decent capable CPUs etc need a stronggggg GPU. Plan for 12 months, what will come out that you will want to play? 77XX means you won't be happy in 10 months etc.

Good luck, just thinking off the top of my head. The build experts will chime in I'm sure.

 

[bamato]

So far the only issue I could see you having is the GPU. A one gig video card may bottleneck performance a bit. Crossfiring video cards is a definite upgrade, but I've read some people have issues with micro-stutter on AMD GPUS.

-I would also choose windows 7 over 8 (that's a personal preference).

I'm no *expert though, I'm sure some of the veterans will chime in to offer some input.

Edit* Conumdrum beat me to it.

 

[Knufire]

Here you go.

 

[geexter42]

Looking back, I wonder why I didn't go with a 2GB GPU.

I'm no expert, but I might as well post this card after a quick search on newegg.

ASUS GT640-2GD3 GeForce GT 640 2GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Oddly enough, I'd save 10 dollars going with this GPU. Go figure.

And, another side note, the newegg subtotal says all this is $666. Small thing to make you chuckle.

 

[Knufire]

No no no, your primary concern should not be the amount of vRAM on the card, but the actual GPU used. If you look here, you downgraded in terms of performance.

 

[geexter42]

Looking at Knufire's post, I had one question.

What is the benefit of a six-core over a quad? I am only assuming that not many games/programs/etc take advantage of six cores. But, I can only assume that it has 4, plus 2 more, that it would be just as powerful as a quad.

 

[Knufire]

Looking at Knufire's post, I had one question.

What is the benefit of a six-core over a quad? I am only assuming that not many games/programs/etc take advantage of six cores. But, I can only assume that it has 4, plus 2 more, that it would be just as powerful as a quad.

There are a LOT of differences between the the quad you picked (which is a quad core based around the Deneb design) and the hexacore I picked (which is based around the Vishera design). All in all, they're going to perform about the same, but you can get the hexacore to a higher clock speed, so it should help.

Also, the CPU you picked was released on 09, it's old tech now. The FX-4300/6300/8300 are the lastest AMD CPUs.

 

[geexter42]

There are a LOT of differences between the the quad you picked (which is a quad core based around the Deneb design) and the hexacore I picked (which is based around the Vishera design). All in all, they're going to perform about the same, but you can get the hexacore to a higher clock speed, so it should help.

Also, the CPU you picked was released on 09, it's old tech now. The FX-4300/6300/8300 are the lastest AMD CPUs.

I obviously have a lot to learn. That, and I've been absent from the tech world for a bit. Thanks for the patience.

I can only assume that it will just take some time and dedication for me to understand which GPUs are better than others (while I can only assume higher numbers in the name are a decent indicator). Thanks for the input.

 

[Knufire]

Higher number --> Better is the easiest way to go about it. Don't mix up AMD (1000s) and NVIDIA (100s) though.

Also, when comparing video cards purely though number, you have to make sure the first digit are the same. The first digit is the "generation" of cards, so all the 400 cards were released 3ish years ago, then the 500, then the 600. Usually, you pretty much want to stick to the latest generation of cards. This is the 7000 for AMD and the 600/700 for NVIDIA. Though the 700 series only exists in the higher end outside of your budget and they never released something new to replace lower end 600 series.

 

[geexter42]

Thanks again! It will be awhile before I buy the parts, but I will definitely listen to the advice given today.