The Ultimate 'Build-A-PC' Thread. Complete With Pricings & Recommendations (06/06/10)

Hey Jbaz, that 500w corsair PSU you reccomended, will ti work for slight overclocking? my gpu says it needs a 500w psu. will that conflict with any OC i do?
 
What's the consensus on this build?

My goal is to have something somewhat future proof, something that might last me 5+ years. I wouldn't mind getting the price down slightly, but I also don't want to skimp on a quality build. $1,000 is my top limit.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r3zg
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r3zg/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r3zg/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($40.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($95.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB Video Card ($319.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.44 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1070.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-05 13:00 EST-0500)
 
620W is on the weak side for that build.

Also, I'd go with either a cheaper 660 Ti (2GB) or a 670. The 660 Ti can't do much more with 3 GB of memory.
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']Hey Jbaz, that 500w corsair PSU you reccomended, will ti work for slight overclocking? my gpu says it needs a 500w psu. will that conflict with any OC i do?[/QUOTE]
The tdp wattage usage of your graphics card sips power at 130w. As long as the 12v rail(s) have enough amps and its a quality PSU (as the Corsair is), you should have no problems running your 7850 on a 500w PSU. At stock speeds, you system would barely hit 300w on load.

As for overclocking, I wouldn't push it too much. The 965 BE is a 125w cpu so I'd be hesitant in doing anything crazy. Taking the cpu from 3.4 to 4.0 shouldn't be too big of an issue, but the cpu wattage can jump by an addition 100 watts. With your 130w GPU and everything else in the system, you'd still be around 400-430w on load which wouldn't be any issue with a quality 500w PSU.

[quote name='Hockey37']What's the consensus on this build?

My goal is to have something somewhat future proof, something that might last me 5+ years. I wouldn't mind getting the price down slightly, but I also don't want to skimp on a quality build. $1,000 is my top limit.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r3zg
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r3zg/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r3zg/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($40.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($95.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB Video Card ($319.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.44 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1070.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-05 13:00 EST-0500)[/QUOTE]
[quote name='elessar123']620W is on the weak side for that build.

Also, I'd go with either a cheaper 660 Ti (2GB) or a 670. The 660 Ti can't do much more with 3 GB of memory.[/QUOTE]
1. 620 watts from a top tier branded PSU like from SeaSonic is not "weak" for the build listed above, its actually an underrated PSU. 77w cpu + 150w gpu isn't really stressing the system very much. You could easily power the whole system with a simple 400w power supply from a quality brand if you wanted to at stock speeds. Even if OP wants a little head room for overclocks, the 77w cpu would only bloat by 100w from 3.4 to 5.0 Ghz... Provided you have proper cooling. This means even a quality 500w PSU would still be enough for this system with extreme OC on the CPU and a stock GTX 660 ti.

2. I would also agree with the assessment that the 3GB version of the 660 ti doesn't add value to your build. Go cheaper here, save your $50 or better yet, cross over the pond and look at AMD offerings for good mid level gaming cards for better value.


As for the build list, here's what I'd tweak:
PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($129.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($269.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($48.49 @ Newegg, 10% off CorsairDec12, $16 off combo w/ PSU)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg, $16 off Combo w/ Case)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)

Corsair CX750 PSU & Corsair 300R case: -$16.00 @ newegg

Total: $1011.38
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-05 16:17 EST-0500)​

I really didn't change too much, mostly just slight upgrades or downgrades to net you better value overall.

First thing I did was upgrade the 2TB seagate to the 3TB version for only $35 more. Better price per GB and it also helps the fact that its the single fastest mechanical 7200 drive on the market as well as being the most affordable and cheapest 3TB drive on the market. It was on sale for $90 on newegg during BF. Cheap, quality and fast... you can have all three.

Next, I doubled your RAM from 8GB to 16GB using 2x8GB pair for not too much more of your 8GB set. You said you wanted "future proof", since DDR3 ram is this cheap, might as well stock up. Plus its only using your two out of four slots, you still have the ability to stick 16GB more down the road. Just a note, this same 16GB set was on sale for $50 last week and was $40 during BF.

Like I said above, dropping from the 3GB to 2GB 660ti is going to save you $50 here and you won't loose much abilities right now. 3GB buffer only helps if you run at 2560x1600 resolutions and even then, most games right now won't even use 2GB at that resolution. Even if it's not going to "future proof" you better for newer games five years down the road. Hell, within that time, you probably could extend the shelf life of this PC by just upgrading the 660 ti to a more modern $100 video card in 2017...

I'd also take a gander at the AMD HD 7870 2GB ($220), it's slightly slower than the 660ti by about 5% in most games (20% at its most severe), but a better value (price/performance) overall. The 7950 3GB is about $275 that's a direct competitor of the 660ti with it being on par or faster in most games.

On the nvidia side, I would have looked for a sale price of the 500 series cards if you wanted to budget down for the $160 GTX 560 ti 448 1GB or a $190 GTX 570 1.25GB; either of those cards are close to the 7870, but you do only get half the VRAM. Not an issue in most modern games at 1080p with all the eye candy enabled, but it would limit you for the "around the corner" next gen game engines that are designed to have 2-3GB buffers coming out in 2013/14. Although, if you were willing to spend $320 for the 660ti 3GB, I would have jumped another $30 for the 670 2GB for the performance bump of about 15-30% in most games across the board.

I swapped out the CM HAF 922 case for the Combo Deal of the Corsair 300R + Corsair CX 750 builder PSU. The 300R case is the entry level budget gaming case of the Corsair series, but its a nice case that has a simple design with good features and cooling abilities. I wouldn't say its on par with the more expensive 922 case, but its pretty damn close and with the combo discount, rebates and 10% off coupon code, Its a steal for $50.

As for the PSU, I went with the cheaper and more powerful Corsair 750 builder series. I have built PC's with most of the CX lines with no issues and have enjoyed their value and price points over the competition's higher priced units. It's not fancy with modular support or higher 80+ certs, but for a value centric product that's priced just right, you'd be a fool to not grab it. Even at $65 without the combo discount, its's still a better value over the more expensive 620w SeaSonic.
 
Couple more questions:

What are the thoughts here on 660ti vs. 7950 (I think those are roughly comparable, if not you can correct me on that as well)? For right now I'll be running on a single 1080p monitor, and I plan to use an i5-3570k. There is a slight chance I go dual monitors in the future, not nothing planned right now. No matter what card, I'm thinking 2GB vram would be just fine for a few years. Thoughts on this?

Also, any keyboard recommendations? I'm looking for something sub $50-ish but not crap quality either.
 
Neither card will disappoint. I've been a Nvidia guy, but I recently built a PC for my buddy that had the 7950. I want that card, like right now.

Sapphire 7950 3GB

vs.

660ti 3GB


Keyboards are a tough choice right now. Everyone wants a mechanical keyboard, which means you are gonna have to spend $70 for a decent one.
 
Crisis 3 will be the benchmark for these new cards. CryEngine 3......omfg. I'm about to sell my desktop to my cousin, and build a new one next year when the Intel retail edge does a new holiday deal and I can get a new chip cheap.
 
[quote name='Trace17']Couple more questions:

What are the thoughts here on 660ti vs. 7950 (I think those are roughly comparable, if not you can correct me on that as well)? For right now I'll be running on a single 1080p monitor, and I plan to use an i5-3570k. There is a slight chance I go dual monitors in the future, not nothing planned right now. No matter what card, I'm thinking 2GB vram would be just fine for a few years. Thoughts on this?

Also, any keyboard recommendations? I'm looking for something sub $50-ish but not crap quality either.[/QUOTE]
From my post above. Buried with lots of other info.
I'd also take a gander at the AMD HD 7870 2GB ($220), it's slightly slower than the 660ti by about 5% in most games (20% at its most severe), but a better value (price/performance) overall. The 7950 3GB is about $275 that's a direct competitor of the 660ti with it being on par or faster in most games.
Click to expand...
If you aren't married towards nvidia, the 7950 is a great contender over the 660 ti. Personally, I'm more of an nvidia fanboy but I have rocked a number of AMD 5000 and 6000 series gpu's in the past and love their value and price points.

For today's games, I wouldn't even make the price jump to the 7950 honestly and would save the 50-70 bucks and go with the cheaper 7870 2GB if you are playing at 1080p resolutions that's capped at 60fps with most LCD's. This comes from a guy who spent 1k on SLI gpu's last year and ends up routinely donating the spares at lan parties for the less fortunate gamers who still run with G92 chips.



As for keyboards, it really depends on what you are looking for in features, how you type and if you are looking for an actual mechanical board. I'd highly recommend reading the Overclock.net keyboard guide.

I recently went with the Corsair K60 mechanical keyboard this past summer when it went on sale for $52 on newegg. I love it to death. Its uses a pretty beefy and thick one piece aluminium sheet that I swear could be used as a blunt weapon to beat other gamers to death, literally... It's very solid, can take a lot of abuse and its nicely finished with some pretty cool and simple features that most $50+ boards have now (windows key lock, media center controls, volume controls). I particularly went for this board for the Cherry MX Red switches for gaming purposes, but as a typist keyboard, I routinely miss type due the fact that it requires the least amount of force to actuate, has no tactile feel when actuated and no audible feedback that you get with other types of switches.

There are better mechanical keyboards on the market, but at the $50 price point, it was an easy sell considering most mechanical keyboards that are worth a damn start around $100 and up at the time. Even now, the K60 is hovering around $90.


If I had to buy right now for your price range, I'd probably stick towards an entry level mechanical keyboard instead of some junk silicone dome board that floods the market. The Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid for $52 @ newegg would probably work well. The down side is that it's a compact keyboard, so you loose your number pad (plus for gaming, bad for typing). Also, it uses different types of switches, the Cherry MX Blue's, which is more of a typist key switch that adds both a tactile knock feeling and a loud audible click sound when you actuate it; similar to the old IBM keyboards from the 80's.

There is also the Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Pro for $55 @ newegg that adds a lot more value to the mix. It uses Cherry MX Brown switches, which is between the "faster" Red's and the more tactile feeling of the Blue's, to give you a great compromise between gaming and normal typing. It's also not as loud as the Blue's, which is a plus. After playing with other mechanical keyboards after buying mine, I personally enjoy the Browns the best for general typing over the Red's. Also to note, its a full sized keyboard with a number keypad, includes extra function keys, and is partially backlit with a red LED on strategic keys for gaming.

The downside with both keyboards is that the plastic finish doesn't really give you the feeling that you paid $50 for it over some generic free OEM keyboard that you'd get from Dell. That could be an upside though as you know the company spent most of the cost on function and value instead of something that looked pretty, but sucked balls...
 
Aw, you went and got me all excited. I've wanted a not-balls-out-expensive Cherry Brown keyboard for a while, but that one's still $90 in Canada.
 
Yeah, you chaps up there get terrible deals on anything PC related plus shipping is not free. I'd probably wait for a deal and see what NCIX offers for mech keyboard sales for Christmas and New Years.
 
The Corsair K60 is great except for the fact that not all of the keys are mechanical. The design is freaking beautiful, just wish they would have finished up the job and made the whole thing mechanical.
 
[quote name='j-cart']The Corsair K60 is great except for the fact that not all of the keys are mechanical. The design is freaking beautiful, just wish they would have finished up the job and made the whole thing mechanical.[/QUOTE]
It doesn't bother me that much that the Function keys aren't mechanical since I barely use them when playing video games.

If I paid the larger price for the K90, then I would have expected all the keys to be mechanical, but no way was I willing to jump from $52 to $130 for what is essentially an MMO keypad glued onto the left side and some LED's. It would have been such a better product if they kept the single aluminium piece design or the very least have a product between the K60 and K90 that only adds LED backlight to the K60. That's the one feature I wished I had on this board. I also wish Corsair gave us a choice to have different switches in these chassis.
 
@JBaz So if I wanted to OC by 5-10% like you mentioned, would that 500w corsair PSU that you previously reccomended be a good buy? or do you have another reccomendation for slight OC.
 
You shouldn't have an issue with bumping from 3.4 to 3.7 or even to 4.0 on a 500w PSU. If you want something to ease your mind, then you can spend a bit more for greater power overhead to something in the 600-700w range, but I'd say you would be ok.

A good idea would be to pick up a kill-a-watt power meter to see what you are pulling from the wall then guesstimate how much wattage the PSU is actually converting to clean DC wattage with the level of efficiency your PSU can achieve.

The only thing I see right now that's remotely "decent" in terms of value/price is another Corsair CX builder series PSU, the CX600 V2 for $52. While it's a good power supply if you need it now, its average normal day price is around 52-54 bucks shipped, plus it would double the price of the CX500 just for 100 more watts, specially considering the CX750 is on sale for $65. If you wait, you could probably pick up some 600-700w Cooler Master, OCZ, XFX, Thermaltake or Antec PSU for about 30-$50 routinely.


Just as a note, even when stressing your computer with a modern game, I've rarely seen anything that stresses both the CPU and GPU at 100% on all cores at the same time. Which means that you'll have less power consumption when playing a video game compared to doing some intense computational algorithm that figures out when exactly the fiscal cliff of the US debt will fall to the Yoctosecond or even to the Planck unit all while giving relevance to the time dilation due to a variety of gravitation spacial distortions from all local and foreign bodies of forces in the universe along with some weighted differences of dark matter mass, Higgs boson and the probability of when or if the protein folding mystery for Alzheimer's has been solved before the end of this calculations only to come back with the answer from you PC that "it doesn't matter, time is relative" or "42"...
 
Thanks for the suggestions JBaz. After doing some further research last night, and based on some of the things that you suggested that was confirmed by my research, I think I have my final build.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rbDc
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rbDc/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rbDc/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($269.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1038.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-06 09:57 EST-0500)

I was even able to throw a BR writer in so that I can rip some of my BR discs to transfer to my tablet for traveling, and still stay close to my budget.

I like the case suggestion. I like the much simpler look of the 300R, I just but the 922 in my original build because it was a quality case. There are sooooo many freaking choices out there, makes my head hurt trying to sift through them all. But the 300R has front USB 3.0, dust guards, and seems to have adequate cooling out of the box. And a good brand name PSU with a high wattage in a combo deal, as you said, is a no brainer.

I've seen a lot of builds with an SSD. I'm still not totally sold on this idea. They are just so damned expensive per GB, even after the recent pricing drops. But everyone seems to say it's a night and day difference to run your OS off of it. Still debating.
 
Get a SSD. They are about .50/GB. You will notice a difference. Trust me! If your building a gaming rig get at least a 120gb.
 
[quote name='Mako1215']Get a SSD. They are about .50/GB. You will notice a difference. Trust me! If your building a gaming rig get at least a 120gb.[/QUOTE]

More than likely, this will be my next upgrade.
 
[quote name='j-cart']Neither card will disappoint. I've been a Nvidia guy, but I recently built a PC for my buddy that had the 7950. I want that card, like right now.

Sapphire 7950 3GB

vs.

660ti 3GB


Keyboards are a tough choice right now. Everyone wants a mechanical keyboard, which means you are gonna have to spend $70 for a decent one.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='JBaz']From my post above. Buried with lots of other info.

If you aren't married towards nvidia, the 7950 is a great contender over the 660 ti. Personally, I'm more of an nvidia fanboy but I have rocked a number of AMD 5000 and 6000 series gpu's in the past and love their value and price points.

For today's games, I wouldn't even make the price jump to the 7950 honestly and would save the 50-70 bucks and go with the cheaper 7870 2GB if you are playing at 1080p resolutions that's capped at 60fps with most LCD's. This comes from a guy who spent 1k on SLI gpu's last year and ends up routinely donating the spares at lan parties for the less fortunate gamers who still run with G92 chips.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info! I still can't decide which card I want, kinda starting to lean 7950 but not sure. But I'm hoping to order it tomorrow so...we'll see I guess ha.

Good keyboard info too JBaz, that CM Quickfire Pro seems solid, bit more than I wanted to spend up front, but I'm considering it.
 
[quote name='Sinfulfate']On the topic of SSDs, any recommendations? I did some research and Im leaning towards the Samsung 830 128gb.[/QUOTE]

Of the cheaper SSD drives, they're probably the best.

*Don't mean they're cheap; just they're still in the
 
[quote name='Hockey37']Thanks for the suggestions JBaz. After doing some further research last night, and based on some of the things that you suggested that was confirmed by my research, I think I have my final build.

I've seen a lot of builds with an SSD. I'm still not totally sold on this idea. They are just so damned expensive per GB, even after the recent pricing drops. But everyone seems to say it's a night and day difference to run your OS off of it. Still debating.[/QUOTE]
No problems. Happy to help. Any reason why you have a 2nd optical drive? Even though its a $15 dvd drive, just seems like you just knock that off the list.

And since we bring up Blu-ray, just make sure whatever monitor or tv you have has HDCP otherwise you won't be able to watch some blu-ray's on your monitor. Everything pretty much now days are HDCP compliant, but I've seen some of the cheap Korean 1440p (not all) monitors that's been super popular lately that omit it.



As for SSD's, they are still a luxury item to want, but do not need. Personally, it really hasn't improved my computing experience of where I say its a must need item to die for. Nice? You bet! But even for a $1000 budget build, I'd rather put that $70-100 into a better gpu if you really want to focus more on gaming than needing your photoshop or OS to shave off a few seconds on load.

For game loads, you really have to be super ADHD to not bare the extra few seconds of load times from a normal hdd, but even then, in multiplayer games for new rounds, you still have to wait till everyone else loads in so in any way you put it, you still have to wait the same amount of time to kill that 13 year old kid from Tennessee who sounds like a tard when screaming and hot mics.

I really only use my SSD as a scratch disk for HD video editing (which is a HUGE plus, almost a necessity for my needs). With gobs of RAM, I keep my adobe programs open 24/7 even when gaming, plus I never turn off my system so boot times is non-essential for me. Plus the Seagate Barracuda 3TB is the fastest mechanical 7200 HDD that hits 180 MB/sec reads and 160 writes; in some cases, its faster than some modern SSD's in in-compressible reads and writes (Achilles heel for SSD's, specially randoms; some bog down to 30 MB/sec writes).
[quote name='Sinfulfate']On the topic of SSDs, any recommendations? I did some research and Im leaning towards the Samsung 830 128gb.[/QUOTE]
Samsung 830's would be a prime recommendation, specially if I was looking to spend on a good brand that's speedy and decently priced now. It's almost a no brainer over everything else at the $60-80 price point, the 830 was on sale for $70 just a few days ago and almost everything in the 120GB size can be found on sale for the same.


My only advice with SSD's, if you can wait... wait. They are only going to get cheaper per GB monthly. A modern SATA III 512 GB SSD was $1000 just 9 months ago, now you can easily find them on sale for $300. At that rate, it's not far fetched to see a 512 GB SSD be priced exactly the same as a normal 500 GB HDD in the next few years.
 
I'm hoping when I do a new build next year that the prices of 250GB + drives have dropped. I just use it as a gaming rig. Not a everyday rig.

I think I'm going to go for a 680sli build with triple monitors.
 
By the time you probably build a new PC in a year, 680's would be outclassed by the next nvidia flagship, the 685's; what the 680's were suppose to be. If you expect to drop $1000 on a pair of GPU's, a $150 SSD drive wouldn't scratch your budget that much. If you spend this kind of money, why wouldn't you use a powerful gaming rig as an everyday rig? Would be a huge waste of money to not use it everday...

And btw, triple monitors is hugely overrated. I've done both on AMD xfire and Nvidia SLI; neither have good solutions to deal with the huge amount of distortions on the peripheral monitors. It becomes easily apparent when you go off the y axis. Reason being, all the software is doing is forcing the perspective of a normal view and stretching over a larger image view without correcting for distortions. It's just basically turning everything into a panoramic wide angle shot.

Ends up being a huge distraction and causing you to die more. Save your money and just invest in a nice 1440/1600p display.
 
I save where I can so I can drop big money on my gpus. It won't be a year exactly. Sometime in 2013.

I'm still planning everything out, but I've got more important things to worry about currently.
 
I'd say, do your research when you build. Makes no sense to window shop when that window will constantly change and move. I'll bet by the time you build, Intel's new Haswell cpu's using the newer LGA 1150 sockets will be out (March-June), plus new NAND's from Intel or Samsung for SSD's would most likely happen as well.
 
I'm looking to upgrade my Radeon HD 6850 1GB, because it's starting to show its age. I'd prefer an NVidia card, mainly because I'm jealous of all the Phys-X stuff, but if there's a Radeon that will give me more bang-for-the-buck and I'm told the Phys-X stuff isn't worth it then I'd consider going that route too. Any suggestions? I'd like to keep it under $300, but will I see a significant jump with a card in that price range?
 
[quote name='argyle']I'm looking to upgrade my Radeon HD 6850 1GB, because it's starting to show its age. I'd prefer an NVidia card, mainly because I'm jealous of all the Phys-X stuff, but if there's a Radeon that will give me more bang-for-the-buck and I'm told the Phys-X stuff isn't worth it then I'd consider going that route too. Any suggestions? I'd like to keep it under $300, but will I see a significant jump with a card in that price range?[/QUOTE]
I'd look at these three cards around your price range.

GTX 660 Ti ($270)
AMD HD 7950 ($270)
GTX 670 ($320)

The HD 7950 is a great value card that is on par or slight faster (marginally) than the GTX 670 for $50+ less and gives you an extra 1GB of VRAM. If you want to stick with nvidia, then the GTX 660 Ti is a good choice, although you do pay the premium to be on nvidia in this price range. I really haven't seen any sales on the mid/top tier 600 series cards, so I doubt you'll find anything that's actually a slick deal anytime soon. My hopes for the 660 Ti to be closer to the $200-220 range for BF was asking too much.

Either three cards are going to be 2-3x faster than your current budget HD 6850 card. You will not be disappointed.


Honestly, I have Nvidia and physix is just useless debris and trash post processing; sometimes it's annoying and I turn it off. Overly hyped and not enough games that actually use it correctly, even though its like 6 years old now. Developers don't want to develop rich features that requires phsyix for the main gameplay, which would alienate AMD customers.

It really sucks because the latest iteration of the Physix engine can do sooo much cool stuff, like hair effects in real time. Right now, physix is really only good for animators and CGI stuff; not to mention science/math processing.
 
Hey all. I was hoping my first post after all the advice everyone gave me would be from my newly built computer, but it seems that I've hit a snag.

I'm almost done with everything, however the z68 ftw motherboard has become a problem. I tried to connect the PSU to the 24-pin connector, but someone thought it was a good idea to have it facing out of the side of the motherboard. The 5.25' cage in the HAF 912 directly gets in the way and I'm unable to connect the PSU.

I'm trying to find a work around that doesn't involve me taking everything apart and ordering new parts, especially since the motherboard in non-refundable. The only ideas I can think of would be to unscrew the cage (don't even think I have a screwdriver that matches the round screws), connect the PSU and see if the wires can bend enough to allow the cage to be reinserted (which sounds a bit dangerous and seems extremely unlikely), or manually cut a part of the cage off to allow enough space to allow the connection.

Would anyone have any ideas that I may have overlooked?
 
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[quote name='argyle']Thank you! Is any manufacturer better than another w/ the AMD HD 7950 cards?[/QUOTE]
They all have their own niches. Luckily for you, Galaxy and Zotac brands don't make AMD cards. I'd look for something with an aftermarket cooler as stock, but just go with whatever is the cheapest. XFX is as close as EVGA brand on the AMD side.


[quote name='Prota']Hey all. I was hoping my first post after all the advice everyone gave me would be from my newly built computer, but it seems that I've hit a snag.

I'm almost done with everything, however the z68 ftw motherboard has become a problem. I tried to connect the PSU to the 24-pin connector, but someone thought it was a good idea to have it facing out of the side of the motherboard. The 5.25' cage in the HAF 912 directly gets in the way and I'm unable to connect the PSU.

I'm trying to find a work around that doesn't involve me taking everything apart and ordering new parts, especially since the motherboard in non-refundable. The only ideas I can think of would be to unscrew the cage (don't even think I have a screwdriver that matches the round screws), connect the PSU and see if the wires can bend enough to allow the cage to be reinserted (which sounds a bit dangerous and seems extremely unlikely), or manually cut a part of the cage off to allow enough space to allow the connection.

Would anyone have any ideas that I may have overlooked?[/QUOTE]
1. The Z68 FTW z68 board is an EATX motherboard, so its quite longer than a normal ATX board. It would have been advisable when you were shopping to find a better suited case since most of the time, people who use a $300 MSRP motherboard wouldn't have fitted it in a $40 compact mid-tower case.

2. The 24 pin connector is oriented 90 degrees on a number of high end motherboards so that geeks like me would value the idea of connecting the power lead and then immediately hide it using one of the cutouts behind the motherboard tray. It's much more impressive looking than having it stick out like a sore thumb when you spend the time and effort in efficient and beautiful cable routing in a nicer case with a window.

3. The 5.25 cage isn't in feet, but in inches. :)p) Anyhow, its riveted, not screwed on. SOL with your first idea.


Honestly, the best thing is to cut out the drive bay a bit to allow for the 24 pin power connector. Shouldn't be too difficult and won't effect the function of the drive bay. Throw up a photo so we can see how much space you are dealing with.

Another idea is (if you have enough space) is to buy a 24 pin extender and mod the connector to make it as thin as possible and route the wires to the side as best as you can. But I doubt you have any room to even have the connector connected in with the lip of the drive cage being so close.



[quote name='chibilaharl']curious, best deal on a 500w min PSU, that will fit with my rig. only one caveat, it needs to be for sale on amazon.[/QUOTE]
Why does it need to only be from Amazon? The only thing that's remotely an OK price is the Rosewill 630w green 80+ PSU for $50 shipped. Pretty much everything on Amazon went back up to normal prices. Maybe see what sales will happen next week or two if you can wait.
 
[quote name='JBaz']Why does it need to only be from Amazon? The only thing that's remotely an OK price is the Rosewill 630w green 80+ PSU for $50 shipped. Pretty much everything on Amazon went back up to normal prices. Maybe see what sales will happen next week or two if you can wait.[/QUOTE]

How is that Rosewill? I never noticed it until now. It's also $50 at newegg with promo code. Before I saw that I was looking at this XFX 550w, but it's $5 more (before rebate).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Or should I spring the extra dough for a Corsair 750w? I'll be using an i5-3570k and a 660ti gpu.
 
[quote name='Trace17']How is that Rosewill? I never noticed it until now. It's also $50 at newegg with promo code. Before I saw that I was looking at this XFX 550w, but it's $5 more (before rebate).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Or should I spring the extra dough for a Corsair 750w? I'll be using an i5-3570k and a 660ti gpu.[/QUOTE]
Honestly, I had bad experiences with Rosewill PSU's resulting in multiple failures before 6 months of normal use on low loads. After that, its hard to recommend them, even for "cheap" budget boxes. But it's been a few years and their reliability has gotten better. It's still hard to recommend them over a ton of other brands with better track record or use better parts like Antec, SeaSonic, Corsair, Etc... that can be had for the same price.

I was only giving chibilaharl a link to what he wanted from Amazon only compared to all of the other expensive choices right now.


For you, I'd still recommend going for that Corsair CX750 for $65 AR @ newegg. Its definitely a good deal, specially considering its usually $90-100 normal price and can easily handle the hot box torture tests of 50C and still be 80% efficient. I would highly doubt the cheapo Rosewill could do that at full load. Overkill for your needs? yeah, but when 500-600w quality PSU's are running about $50-60 right now, the extra $15 gives you a lot more value.
 
Anyone have recommendations for a UPS? I had a power flicker yesterday and since I spent quite a bit on my PC, I'd like to prevent it being damaged from one in the future. I don't need something heavy duty.
 
This may or may not be the right thread but I didn't want to get yelled at for making a thread about it.

Anyway, my when I got back to my PC yesterday it was turned off (I always leave it on) and it would not turn on. I'm assuming the power supply died out since it is getting pretty old (about 4 years). If it matters I was using a Fatal1ty 550w.

I'm thinking about building a PC when I can afford it, which will not be for a while (probably in the 8-12 month range). So I was wondering should I just buy a cheap generic power supply, buy another 550w or should I just invest and buy a powerful 700+w that I could use if I decided to build a PC soon?

Also at this point I'm running on pretty old hardware (again about 4 years old). The only thing I have upgraded in there is my video card which is now getting pretty old (ATI Radeon HD 5700, not sure whether 5750 or 5770). Is it time to just start over or should I just upgrade individual parts?

Any advice helps, I'm pretty much clueless right now and I'd rather get my pc back up and running sooner then later.
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']@jbaz, i did some game flipping which resulted in 160$ of amazon gift cards, that is why i needs to be amazon.[/QUOTE]
Just buy your PSU on sale on whatever site. Amazon offers a lot of other stuff than just electronics. For example, I buy dry food and games all the time. Its foolish to waste 1/3 of your gift cards for a crappy PSU when you could find a better one for a cheaper price on newegg.


[quote name='icedrake523']Anyone have recommendations for a UPS? I had a power flicker yesterday and since I spent quite a bit on my PC, I'd like to prevent it being damaged from one in the future. I don't need something heavy duty.[/QUOTE]
Don't need a UPS to protect a PC from over voltage damage, just get a proper power stripe with surge protection/suppression; higher the Joules, the better. I use an assortment of APC surge protectors for years with no issues; including a lightning strike that hit within 5ft of my house that still jumped the circuit on lesser quality surge protectors. You can find them sometimes on sale for like $5-10 on newegg, tigerdirect and other places.

If you want UPS, be prepared to dish out a lot of money; backup battery and inverter are pricey. Expect anything from $60+ for a simple 250 watt UPS system. Again, APC is a widely recommended here.

I use an older commercial grade APC 1200w UPS in a 2U chassis that I picked up for $50 without batteries from a local auction/liquidation. Batteries cost about $100 to replace with shipping from a refurbish place online, but the unit new would have ran me about $1100. You can try you luck on ebay, but a lot of vendors charge a lot for shipping, even with out batteries.


[quote name='jab1235']This may or may not be the right thread but I didn't want to get yelled at for making a thread about it.

Anyway, my when I got back to my PC yesterday it was turned off (I always leave it on) and it would not turn on. I'm assuming the power supply died out since it is getting pretty old (about 4 years). If it matters I was using a Fatal1ty 550w.

I'm thinking about building a PC when I can afford it, which will not be for a while (probably in the 8-12 month range). So I was wondering should I just buy a cheap generic power supply, buy another 550w or should I just invest and buy a powerful 700+w that I could use if I decided to build a PC soon?

Also at this point I'm running on pretty old hardware (again about 4 years old). The only thing I have upgraded in there is my video card which is now getting pretty old (ATI Radeon HD 5700, not sure whether 5750 or 5770). Is it time to just start over or should I just upgrade individual parts?

Any advice helps, I'm pretty much clueless right now and I'd rather get my pc back up and running sooner then later.[/QUOTE]
I would trouble shoot first, before jumping the gun and start replacing parts.

Do you have access to another PSU to see if yours actually did die? A PC not turning on can easily be any number of issues wrong with the PC. Bad motherboard, some power connector became loose or even as simple as the power connector to the PSU was completely crap and died (oxidation, couldn't support proper voltage or wattage load). Also, a PSU being only 4 years old doesn't mean its too old to not work. I still got some 1980's IBM AT PSU's that work flawlessly.

And a 5750 is still faster than most people's graphics card.
 
[quote name='JBaz']Just buy your PSU on sale on whatever site. Amazon offers a lot of other stuff than just electronics. For example, I buy dry food and games all the time. Its foolish to waste 1/3 of your gift cards for a crappy PSU when you could find a better one for a cheaper price on newegg.



Don't need a UPS to protect a PC from over voltage damage, just get a proper power stripe with surge protection/suppression; higher the Joules, the better. I use an assortment of APC surge protectors for years with no issues; including a lightning strike that hit within 5ft of my house that still jumped the circuit on lesser quality surge protectors. You can find them sometimes on sale for like $5-10 on newegg, tigerdirect and other places.

If you want UPS, be prepared to dish out a lot of money; backup battery and inverter are pricey. Expect anything from $60+ for a simple 250 watt UPS system. Again, APC is a widely recommended here.

I use an older commercial grade APC 1200w UPS in a 2U chassis that I picked up for $50 without batteries from a local auction/liquidation. Batteries cost about $100 to replace with shipping from a refurbish place online, but the unit new would have ran me about $1100. You can try you luck on ebay, but a lot of vendors charge a lot for shipping, even with out batteries.



I would trouble shoot first, before jumping the gun and start replacing parts.

Do you have access to another PSU to see if yours actually did die? A PC not turning on can easily be any number of issues wrong with the PC. Bad motherboard, some power connector became loose or even as simple as the power connector to the PSU was completely crap and died (oxidation, couldn't support proper voltage or wattage load). Also, a PSU being only 4 years old doesn't mean its too old to not work. I still got some 1980's IBM AT PSU's that work flawlessly.

And a 5750 is still faster than most people's graphics card.[/QUOTE]
I do not have another PSU to test this with unfortunatly (No one in my household has a PC, just a laptop). I may be able to find use a PSU from an old 2000's PC if that would help? I checked inside and none of the plugs came loose but that doesn't mean they didn't die. Unfortunately I don't have any other cords to test this out with (it is modular so I guess checking the cords would be possible). I also used two different hard cables to plug the psu into the wall and neither worked so I know that's not the issue.

Also I know it being 4 years old doesn't mean its not too old to work haha, just me asking if it's time to replace a 4 year old computer. I've been having issues running games at my current setup and even games that I assume I would be able to run at at least high I've had to turn down (Metro 2033 and Deus Ex Human Revolution being an example). I know those game are newer but I've been having framerate issues if I tried to pump them up higher then medium settings. This may be me not knowing what these options means. So is it time for me to plunge into a new computer all together (I wouldn't start building probably for another few months).

Also, I'm considering getting a nice air of headphones to use for gaming. I heard getting a nongaming set of headphones would be better then a gaming branded headset. However, when I try and use regular ear buds in any port besides the one in the back I get a lot of interference. Would I have issues if I used a amplifier and higher end headphones through the back port, or through USB? I'd rather know this know before I make the plunge and realize I can't use them :/

Sorry for unloading all my issues on here but I'm an idiot when it comes to the actual hardware of computers and I don't really know where else to ask this stuff haha.
 
It depends on if the 2000 PSU is a 20 or 24 pin and if its not a Dell. Regardless, you can easily get an adapter to turn a 20 into a 24 or vice versa. As long as it provides enough power to the pc on boot.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the PSU went, those OCZ 550 Fatality's (as much as all Fatality branded items are) were junk even though OCZ is a pretty decent brand for PSU. It was one of their few models that they cheap'd out because they had to pay the geek for the use of his name and went with subpar components.

As far as the pc upgrade/new build question. Depends on what pc specs you have now. You could easily just add in a new, more powerful gpu to get cracking. Those 5750's won't really provide the amount of power that modern games will need for high or better settings. Even on medium, I'm surprised the 5750 would run metro 2033. Its just one of the few games that really stress a gpu.

Headphones... that's another whole topic. My advice that comes from my clan... Don't get USB. As far as gaming goes, most of my friends use ROCCAT Kave 5.1 surround headset. It's not the best, but for the price range, its the best value. It doesn't go heavy on bass like most gaming headphones do, but the mic has some connectivity issues and its not super nice like a proper audiophile headphones, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better 6 driver gaming headphone/set for about $100. Everyone of my friends who has this has been infinitely harder to sneak up behind and knife in game because of the surround sound ability. Probably my next purchase on amazon.
 
@Jbaz, ok my situation changed a bit, was able to convert some gc to cash, so where is the best PSU for my rig. I plan to eventually OC up a bit.
 
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Just grab the Corsair CX750 builder series 80+ bronze for $65 AR @ newegg. Otherwise, wait around for a sale on a better quality 650w unit around the sub $50 price point. Should be easy to find once Christmas sales start hitting.
 
So I have been tasked with building a pc for my brother as a Christmas present, my requirements are it needs to be under $600 and it needs to be good enough to stream league of legends. here is what I am thinking so far

Hard Drive-SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $89 (new egg)

Video card-EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti Free Performance Boost Video Card - 1GB $180 (tiger)

Processor-AMD A10-Series AD580KWOHJBOX Quad-Core A10-5800K Black Edition APU - 4MB L2 Cache, 3.8GHz $120 (Tiger)

Case-Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower Case $40 (tiger)

PSU-Thermaltake W0382RU Modular Power Supply - 750 Watt $89 (tiger)

memory-Kingston HyperX Red KHX16C9B1RK2/8X 8GB Memory Module Kit - 1600MHz, $35 (tiger)

OS-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32BIT Operating System Software $99

As for the mobo I already have this thanks to sick deals.
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ Motherboard - ATX, Socket AM3+, AMD 970 Chipset, AMD FX, 2133MHz DDR3

I would appreciate your input thanks in advance.
 
[quote name='joshb123']So I have been tasked with building a pc for my brother as a Christmas present, my requirements are it needs to be under $600 and it needs to be good enough to stream league of legends. here is what I am thinking so far

Hard Drive-SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $89 (new egg)

Video card-EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti Free Performance Boost Video Card - 1GB $180 (tiger)

Processor-AMD A10-Series AD580KWOHJBOX Quad-Core A10-5800K Black Edition APU - 4MB L2 Cache, 3.8GHz $120 (Tiger)

Case-Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower Case $40 (tiger)

PSU-Thermaltake W0382RU Modular Power Supply - 750 Watt $89 (tiger)

memory-Kingston HyperX Red KHX16C9B1RK2/8X 8GB Memory Module Kit - 1600MHz, $35 (tiger)

OS-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32BIT Operating System Software $99

As for the mobo I already have this thanks to sick deals.
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ Motherboard - ATX, Socket AM3+, AMD 970 Chipset, AMD FX, 2133MHz DDR3

I would appreciate your input thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]
First of all, your math is no good. What you have is already $652; over budget. Not only that but you have made a few mistakes in part selection.

1. Can't fit an FM2 cpu into an AM3+ socket.​
2. Waste of money to buy the new A-10 APU (CPU + GPU) when you budget in a dedicated graphics card. It uses a 7660 gpu, which is about the same as a 6670 card. Peanuts compared to a GTX 560 ti, but it can hold its own compared to $60-80 cards it was meant to replace.​
3. Don't bother with the GTX 560 ti unless its $40+ cheaper.​
4. Don't need to spend $$$ on a 750w PSU for a budget single GPU rig like this. A proper 400w would be more than enough these days.​
5. You want 64 bit OS, not 32. You'd just waste 4GB of your 8GB allotment of ram if you did.​
6. Get a normal mechanical HDD. SSD's shouldn't find their way into a budget rig like this unless your brother has some spare HDD or doesn't mind the idea of only having 2-3 games installed at any given point in time. For a new build, I'll assume you are starting from scratch with no parts scraping.​

Here's an idea to start looking around for.
PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($89.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston XMP Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($19.99 @ CompUSA)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($46.99 @ Newegg, 20% off XFXP20)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)

Total: $586.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-10 12:16 EST-0500)​
What you get is a pretty decent quad core that has way more overclock potential than the A series FMx cores to pair with your AM3+ motherboard. You could throw in an FX chip, but honestly, they suck and the similar priced FX 4x00 cpu's are about the same price of $90 that are actually slower, produce more heat and really will give you buyer's remorse. Unless you find them for uber cheap, best stick to the tried and true x4 black edition's. I even budgeted for the CM 212+ cpu cooler so you'll have OC abilities in a budget box.

Stuck the same memory sticks that you had from tiger direct; decent price of $20 even though its 1.65v modules. Nothing to worry about. Cheap is cheap and its still 8GB of ram.

I replaced the SSD with a 2TB 7200 HDD. Its still plenty fast for the average user and it gives your brother loads more space to stash games and porn on... I mean family photos and work documents... :lol: Unless you already have a donor HDD to throw into the box from another system. 120GB SSD is hard to duke out with these days; not only that, but you can find better and faster SSD's for cheaper than $90. Samsung 830/840 120GB were going for $70-80 just last week.

While the 560 ti is a great video card, it's also a generation behind the latest and hard to place it's value with the newer kids on the block. From Nvidia, you have the cheap GTX 650 ti ($110 @ the cheapest) and the GTX 660 ($180 @ the cheapest). On AMD side, you have lots more options such as the 6870 ($120 @ cheapest) or the 7850 ($150 @ cheapest). I threw in the AMD 7850 because its $170 right now, its faster than the GTX 560 ti and it has 2GB instead of 1GB of VRAM. Its plenty fast for a budget box like this.

Cases is a whole other talking point. If you care to gander, I made a huge post about 4 pages before about Budget cases from $40-130 to get a sense of what is out on the product landscape that's not completely and utter shit box. The NZXT source case are nice quality for the price and you can find them on sale constantly for $40 shipped. Not only that, but the CM HAF 912 is always around the same price point almost bi-monthly that's a super budget gaming case with lots of air flow. Pick and choose what you want. Just don't settle for a crappy case when you could have gotten a decent case for the same price. The problem is not knowing what is out there and at what price points to accurately gauge the value of any item.

Power Supply? That's another huge talking point. Right now, you missed a lot of sales from a week or two ago that was meant for thanksgiving holidays. We are in limbo till Christmas sales pick up in a week or two again and sadly there's barely any PSU sales that's worth mentioning, besides the Corsair CX750 builder series for $65. You really don't need much power here, you are talking about maybe 300-330w of power at full CPU/GPU load.

I picked the XFX 550w 80+ bronze since its a good brand and a great unit. I normally don't look at XFX PSU mainly because they rarely go on sale and that their MSRP is crazy high for being low wattage and the fact that you can snag better quality units for the same or cheaper price. For $46, its not too bad if you need to buy now, but you could easily get away with a Corsair CX430 v2 power supply that tends to go under $20 all the time (was $17 AR two weeks ago). If you don't plan on overclocking and/or adding in a 2nd graphics card, then you really don't need a beefy 750w power supply that you picked. If you can wait, I'd say wait for better deals. SeaSonic G series 550w gold rated psu was $55 during thanksgiving weekend.

Finally, add the price of a 64 bit OS and a cheapo DVD burner and your set.
 
[quote name='JBaz']Honestly, the best thing is to cut out the drive bay a bit to allow for the 24 pin power connector. Shouldn't be too difficult and won't effect the function of the drive bay. Throw up a photo so we can see how much space you are dealing with.

Another idea is (if you have enough space) is to buy a 24 pin extender and mod the connector to make it as thin as possible and route the wires to the side as best as you can. But I doubt you have any room to even have the connector connected in with the lip of the drive cage being so close.[/QUOTE]


cam00067.jpg


This is the amount of space I have for the power connector. I don't think I have any other choice but to cut out some of the drive bay. If that's the case, what tool(s) would you recommend for the job? I have today and tomorrow off of work, so I'd like to take advantage of the time.
 
Probably the best idea is just to use a simple dremel with a metal cutting disk. Nice, clean knockout cut. Just use a marker to figure out how much you need to cut out. And just stating the obvious... take the motherboard out before you start cutting... :p
 
[quote name='JBaz']Probably the best idea is just to use a simple dremel with a metal cutting disk. Nice, clean knockout cut. Just use a marker to figure out how much you need to cut out. And just stating the obvious... take the motherboard out before you start cutting... :p[/QUOTE]

Yeah, can't very well leave that in there. ^__^ Also, dremels don't seem to be very cheap... TT_TT
 
[quote name='JBaz']First of all, your math is no good. What you have is already $652; over budget. Not only that but you have made a few mistakes in part selection.
1. Can't fit an FM2 cpu into an AM3+ socket.​
2. Waste of money to buy the new A-10 APU (CPU + GPU) when you budget in a dedicated graphics card. It uses a 7660 gpu, which is about the same as a 6670 card. Peanuts compared to a GTX 560 ti, but it can hold its own compared to $60-80 cards it was meant to replace.​
3. Don't bother with the GTX 560 ti unless its $40+ cheaper.​
4. Don't need to spend $$$ on a 750w PSU for a budget single GPU rig like this. A proper 400w would be more than enough these days.​
5. You want 64 bit OS, not 32. You'd just waste 4GB of your 8GB allotment of ram if you did.​
6. Get a normal mechanical HDD. SSD's shouldn't find their way into a budget rig like this unless your brother has some spare HDD or doesn't mind the idea of only having 2-3 games installed at any given point in time. For a new build, I'll assume you are starting from scratch with no parts scraping.​
Here's an idea to start looking around for.
PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($89.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston XMP Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($19.99 @ CompUSA)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($46.99 @ Newegg, 20% off XFXP20)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)

Total: $586.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-10 12:16 EST-0500)​
What you get is a pretty decent quad core that has way more overclock potential than the A series FMx cores to pair with your AM3+ motherboard. You could throw in an FX chip, but honestly, they suck and the similar priced FX 4x00 cpu's are about the same price of $90 that are actually slower, produce more heat and really will give you buyer's remorse. Unless you find them for uber cheap, best stick to the tried and true x4 black edition's. I even budgeted for the CM 212+ cpu cooler so you'll have OC abilities in a budget box.

Stuck the same memory sticks that you had from tiger direct; decent price of $20 even though its 1.65v modules. Nothing to worry about. Cheap is cheap and its still 8GB of ram.

I replaced the SSD with a 2TB 7200 HDD. Its still plenty fast for the average user and it gives your brother loads more space to stash games and porn on... I mean family photos and work documents... :lol: Unless you already have a donor HDD to throw into the box from another system. 120GB SSD is hard to duke out with these days; not only that, but you can find better and faster SSD's for cheaper than $90. Samsung 830/840 120GB were going for $70-80 just last week.

While the 560 ti is a great video card, it's also a generation behind the latest and hard to place it's value with the newer kids on the block. From Nvidia, you have the cheap GTX 650 ti ($110 @ the cheapest) and the GTX 660 ($180 @ the cheapest). On AMD side, you have lots more options such as the 6870 ($120 @ cheapest) or the 7850 ($150 @ cheapest). I threw in the AMD 7850 because its $170 right now, its faster than the GTX 560 ti and it has 2GB instead of 1GB of VRAM. Its plenty fast for a budget box like this.

Cases is a whole other talking point. If you care to gander, I made a huge post about 4 pages before about Budget cases from $40-130 to get a sense of what is out on the product landscape that's not completely and utter shit box. The NZXT source case are nice quality for the price and you can find them on sale constantly for $40 shipped. Not only that, but the CM HAF 912 is always around the same price point almost bi-monthly that's a super budget gaming case with lots of air flow. Pick and choose what you want. Just don't settle for a crappy case when you could have gotten a decent case for the same price. The problem is not knowing what is out there and at what price points to accurately gauge the value of any item.

Power Supply? That's another huge talking point. Right now, you missed a lot of sales from a week or two ago that was meant for thanksgiving holidays. We are in limbo till Christmas sales pick up in a week or two again and sadly there's barely any PSU sales that's worth mentioning, besides the Corsair CX750 builder series for $65. You really don't need much power here, you are talking about maybe 300-330w of power at full CPU/GPU load.

I picked the XFX 550w 80+ bronze since its a good brand and a great unit. I normally don't look at XFX PSU mainly because they rarely go on sale and that their MSRP is crazy high for being low wattage and the fact that you can snag better quality units for the same or cheaper price. For $46, its not too bad if you need to buy now, but you could easily get away with a Corsair CX430 v2 power supply that tends to go under $20 all the time (was $17 AR two weeks ago). If you don't plan on overclocking and/or adding in a 2nd graphics card, then you really don't need a beefy 750w power supply that you picked. If you can wait, I'd say wait for better deals. SeaSonic G series 550w gold rated psu was $55 during thanksgiving weekend.

Finally, add the price of a 64 bit OS and a cheapo DVD burner and your set.[/QUOTE]
Wow that is a lot to take in thanks, Well I should start with that I did not include the $75 of rebates in my price and that I realized as soon as I posted that the apu is junk and did not fit the am3. I was going to donate my old 500 gb hard drive and disc drive so he could have his os and some games on the ssd and still have space for whatever.As for power supply I just bought him a new 550w for his old computer do you think that would work? if so that frees up a little money. I was Thinking a better cpu and a worse gpu. As for the case I really like the haf 912 you linked me.

Gpu I was thinking of Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition
and cpu FX-8150 Processor
Also how important is a cpu cooler?
Thanks again
 
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