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

If there's anyone who's got enough time to try and help me through this on AIM (or any other IM service) send me a PM.

And what are the best ways to get legit cheap copies of Windows?
 
Thanks for the help and suggestions towards my build! The system has been doing great for a few days now. Still doing some software tweaking. I am currently having an issue with the sound.

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L mobo w/onboard Realtek ALC883 integrated audio. I am having trouble getting it to play surround with my 5.1 Logitech G51 speakahs.

I've updated the drivers from Gigabyte, didn't work. I've updated the drivers from Realtek, no luck. Part of my confusion is just with Vista also. In the task bar shouldn't I have an 'Audio Manager' icon? I am only seeing volume atm.

Configure speakers isn't even displaying options for 2-Speaker, 5.1,7.1 etc.

Edit: Part of my problem is that the Realtek HD Audio Manager has simply disappeared from the task bar. It was there before I installed SP2.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just a note on that build, there is a combo deal combining Processor, Mobo, RAM and HDD. That will instantly shave off $30 from that price.
 
[quote name='Porygon']darthbudge has been helping me out over AIM put together a PC at about a $500 price range. This is supposed to be a little over $500 after rebates.

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=11519352

Let us know what you guys think.[/QUOTE]

Looks good. I think you will be able to unlock the 4th core on the phenom II with that motherboard.

One thing I owuld change though is the HDD. I would go 500gb 7200rpm. But since it's part of a combo deal I wouldmaybe buy a second HDD like a 160gb 7200rpm and use that as your main drive and 1tb drive as a secondary storage drive.

1tb at 5400rpm seems a little iffy for gaming. Themoney you save by downgrading to 500gb or less (but upgrading to 7200rpm) may match the savings of the ocmbo deal.
 
So rpm is how fast it can write things to the HDD, right? I understand how that's better, but I'm curious of instances where it would be better for gaming. Other than when a game is being mostly streamed off the internet and it needs to temporarily save textures and stuff.
 
cool, yeah right now i have a geforce 7600 i'll get a 9600 or 9800 later on down the line. and yeah im using my old case. so it all looks good right? should i place my order now so i can get the show on the road.

EDIT:
crap i just realized my case only fits a Micro mother board, so the one on my list wont fit its to big, i need to find a micro motherboard. should i still stick with Gigabyte boards?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
yeah, you look good. two things though, id suggest (and others would might say otherwise) that you get a different PSU, i mean you arent running a top of the line system, so why overspend on the PSU. something like this is $40 cheaper, has 585W and is well reviewed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339012

if youre getting a 9800, go for the 9800GTX+ (im using this card and love it, 150+ fps in tf2 at 1920x1080) it performs as well as the 250 & 260 and is cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339


edit response: gigabyte is a solid brand, if you can find a good board for a good price that will fit made by them id go for it.
 
thanks i'll get that PSU instead. i dont know which board to get maybe this one

Gigabyte
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128393

or this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121355

leaning toward the gigabyte except i dont think it would let me eventually upgrade to a Gefore 9800. to be honest i dont need a 9800 because i play mostly older games on my PC or games that arent that spec heavy. i had Gears of War running very well on my 7600.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121355
 
Last edited by a moderator:
you can use that board with a 9800. it has a pci-e 16x slot and that's all that matters for one card. and it would work fine with the ram and CPU you picked.
 
[quote name='darthbudge']Ok, I tweaked my AMD build for Porgyon. Adding a 500GB 7200 RPM HDD and some cheaper (and better IMO) RAM.

Another, motherboard option would be:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392

I think that one would be better, but it is $15 more expensive.[/QUOTE]


Nice. Looks great for the price. I would stick with the 790 mobo because I'm 99% sure that on the 790 you can utilize the 4th core of the phenom x3 720.

@Porygon regarding HDD speeds. Games have to access their data off the HDD whil playing, so , the faster the HDD the faster the load times. This is also why it's not a bad idea to defrag after every game install. To make sure the games file aren't broken up all over the place.
 
Alright, thanks for the help guys. We've bought the parts, If any problems arise I'll be sure to post it here.

We're planning on going with the Windows 7 RC1 for the PC, knowing that it will expire sometime next year. Let me know if that's not a good idea for any other reason than that.
 
Honestly, building a computer is easier than building a tower with Legos. There's barely like 10% chance of messing up since most if it is A->A, B-> B, and A doesn't even resemble B.
 
maybe i can get a little help here, i have everything all hooked up now and i keep getting the Intel BIOS screen (press F2 for bios and F10 for boot menu) i messed around in both those modes and i noticed it doesnt recognize my hard drives for one. also what do i do from here, i just keep getting that screen, i tried putting in the disc that came with the motherboard and said to boot from disc but i still get that same screen, what do i do??

EDIT- huge brain fart on my side, i forgot to hook the power cords to the hard drives!! well now im trying to boot from my old HDD and its telling me i need to Activate Windows. seriously? i have to call microsoft and do that?? it acts like i dont have internet hooked up when i clicked the internet option
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Usually when you have a new build, you should install Windows (any version) from the ground up, rather than using your existing Windows partition. Driver issue and system stability become huge problems even when you think you got the existing Windows hard drive to boot in the new build. If you have Windows Vista, you might have to call MS to authorize the new activation (yes, pain in the butt). If you have Windows XP I'm not sure if that is required, unless they've changed it since the last time I messed with XP.

If you somehow got your old Windows partition to boot in your new build, maybe try to install the drivers on the CD that came with the motherboard. Don't be frightened if you see blue screen of death, because I warned you ahead of time :) If you're lucky enough to get it working without having to reformat, then, congrats!
 
huge update.....im typing this to you on my new build!!! so thats good. i did the whole windows activation and i used the mother board cd to install all the drivers. heres a few concerns

1) boots up insanely slow, i mean it crawls for the first few minutes but then its pretty fast and normal speed, anything i can do about that?

2) it doesnt recognize my 320GB slave HDD. when i look in my bios it clearly shows it as the slave and even in my device manager. but its no where to be seen once i click on my computer. besides that everything seems fine right now.

NEW EDIT- alright i had to format the new HDD and now its all gravy!! im pretty happy to have my pc up and running again. thanks everyone who helped me pick out parts etc.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well after paying a friend a visit and having some time to play Wow on his desktop. I finally realized desktops aren't that bad at all.

Despite the fact that I thought they we're too big and took up space.

So I say to myself, "Self return that i7 Laptop and get a desktop!"

Being the douche bag that myself is. I agreed.

So here is the build I'm currently working on...

Case: SilverStone/Raven Full tower case with window.
CPU: Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz
Drive 1: Lite-On IHOS 104 4X Blu-Ray Player
Drive 2: LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive
Card Reader: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
CPU Cooler: Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System
HDDs: 2x Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10,000RPM 16MB Cache
Mobo: Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset
RAM: 12GB (2GBx6) PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory (Corsair Dominator)
Network: Intel Pro Gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower 1,200 Watts Power Supply
GPU: 2x SLi EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX295 1.7GB 16X PCIe Video Card

Thoughts?
 
Get the EVGA X58 Classified motherboard instead of the P6T. You won't regret the change. And get some faster memory, maybe the Corsair Dominator 1866 DDR3. Oh and I would ditch the single fan radiator system and get some dual fan radiator, reservoir, pump, and water blocks from Swiftech or other regarded companies. The Raven case isn't very good for water cooling setup, on the other hand, so I think the Corsair Obsidian 800D is a much better choice if you decide to go with a real water cooling route.
 
[quote name='Porygon']Okay it seems that this wishlist
https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=11519352
With everything except this motherboard in place of the one on the wishlist
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392
Has incompatible RAM. Would the RAM be the only thing that needs to be changed, or would there be more problems?[/QUOTE]

Correct. You need to replace the memory with some dual channel DDR3, such as this. Everythign else will be compatible.
 
[quote name='xcopy']Well after paying a friend a visit and having some time to play Wow on his desktop. I finally realized desktops aren't that bad at all.

Despite the fact that I thought they we're too big and took up space.

So I say to myself, "Self return that i7 Laptop and get a desktop!"

Being the douche bag that myself is. I agreed.

So here is the build I'm currently working on...

Case: SilverStone/Raven Full tower case with window.
CPU: Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz
Drive 1: Lite-On IHOS 104 4X Blu-Ray Player
Drive 2: LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive
Card Reader: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
CPU Cooler: Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System
HDDs: 2x Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10,000RPM 16MB Cache
Mobo: Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset
RAM: 12GB (2GBx6) PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory (Corsair Dominator)
Network: Intel Pro Gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower 1,200 Watts Power Supply
GPU: 2x SLi EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX295 1.7GB 16X PCIe Video Card

Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

I would hold off on buying 2 GTX295s when DX11 cards are right round the corner. The specs for the GTX300 were just announced and the Radeon 5000 series as well. I would hold on a couple more weeks :)
 
[quote name='SOSTrooper']Get the EVGA X58 Classified motherboard instead of the P6T. You won't regret the change. And get some faster memory, maybe the Corsair Dominator 1866 DDR3. Oh and I would ditch the single fan radiator system and get some dual fan radiator, reservoir, pump, and water blocks from Swiftech or other regarded companies. The Raven case isn't very good for water cooling setup, on the other hand, so I think the Corsair Obsidian 800D is a much better choice if you decide to go with a real water cooling route.[/QUOTE]

Updated to RAM from Cosair Dominator 1333 to 1600. Mobo and WC set-up is ok.

That WC set up now will be good for the next 4-5 years, and no maintenance needed for it.

[quote name='HowStern']I would hold off on buying 2 GTX295s when DX11 cards are right round the corner. The specs for the GTX300 were just announced and the Radeon 5000 series as well. I would hold on a couple more weeks :)[/QUOTE]

True, but I'll probably be gaining only about 10%/15%+/- performance with either new cards SLi/Crossfire versus the 2x Dual SLI Nvidia 295's.

So the 2x 295's will do for now. :)
 
I've heard they may be coming out as early as september/october though and the DX11 features look awesome. :)
 
Trying to build an affordable, quiet, and overclockable PC next week. We'll see if I can somehow afford to pay for this as well as my tuition. Opinions on the parts?

AMD Phenom II X4 940
Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W
XFX Radeon HD 4890
Xigmatek HDT-S1283
LG GH22NP20 Black DVD+RW
Scythe Kaze Maru 140MM x 3
Antec P183 picking up locally for $120.

The parts from the webstore come to $800 CAD. Pricematched down to $715. Theres also $62 in MIR but I don't count on those. Still need a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
 
[quote name='Jest']Trying to build an affordable, quiet, and overclockable PC next week. We'll see if I can somehow afford to pay for this as well as my tuition. Opinions on the parts?

AMD Phenom II X4 940
Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W
XFX Radeon HD 4890
Xigmatek HDT-S1283
LG GH22NP20 Black DVD+RW
Scythe Kaze Maru 140MM x 3
Antec P183 picking up locally for $120.

The parts from the webstore come to $800 CAD. Pricematched down to $715. Theres also $62 in MIR but I don't count on those. Still need a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.[/QUOTE]


I'm guessing you already got the hard drive(s) lying around to be used in your new build. But you won't be able to use the 140MM fans in the P183. The way the case is designed, they won't fit any bigger fans due to restriction in the space. The 2 case fans in front of the case for intake are strictly 120mm only (they're bracketed), the rear exhaust fan only has enough width for a 120mm, the top exhaust fan is held by 2 'notches' that a normal 120mm will have, but will not be able to lock onto the Scythe 140mm fans in place. You can still use the 140mm on the Xigmatek tho in a push-pull configuration. Other than that, build looks good.

*Edit* Actually I take it back, you won't be able to use the 140mm on the Xigmatek heatsink either. The clips aren't long enough to secure the 140mm in place. I'd say get some normal 120mm fans instead, like the Scythe variations.
 
The description of the fans says they will fit mounting holes for a 120mm but I guess if theres brackets in the P183 then it won't matter. Look rad though.
32329_l.jpg
 
[quote name='Jest']The description of the fans says they will fit mounting holes for a 120mm but I guess if theres brackets in the P183 then it won't matter. Look rad though.
[/QUOTE]

Fitting mounting holes doesn't mean it'll fit into any case. I have the P180, which is the older version of the P183, and none of the case fan design has changed. So I'm 100% sure the 140mm won't fit into any of the P183 fan slots. It is a good fan tho, I like the 70CFM at 28dBA, I would kill to get some of them in my system too.
 
[quote name='XxFuRy2Xx']What would be the best way to build a quiet system? Is choosing the right case important?[/QUOTE]

Choosing the right case is important, but choosing good case fans is much more important. The bulk of the noise generated by a computer mostly come from fans: case fans, CPU fan, and especially video card fans. You need to find a good balance between noise and airflow. It's difficult to have both 'silent' and 'cool' at the same time, there will always be some noise. Scythe and Noctua both make pretty quiet case fans without compromising on airflow. This site sells a lot of peripherals and accessories to help you quiet your computer up, including soundproof foams.
 
Well, I don't need it to be super stealth silent. I just don't want it to keep me awake at night.

What would be the way to determine whether or not a fan will fit in my case/cpu/video card? Kind of a n00b question, but I'll probably be building a computer of my own soon.
 
Any suggestions for decent free anti-virus/spyware/etc programs? I've used AVG free for years and it seems to do the job for me, but I'm curious if there's anything else out there that may be better.
 
[quote name='SOSTrooper']Get the EVGA X58 Classified motherboard instead of the P6T. You won't regret the change. And get some faster memory, maybe the Corsair Dominator 1866 DDR3. Oh and I would ditch the single fan radiator system and get some dual fan radiator, reservoir, pump, and water blocks from Swiftech or other regarded companies. The Raven case isn't very good for water cooling setup, on the other hand, so I think the Corsair Obsidian 800D is a much better choice if you decide to go with a real water cooling route.[/QUOTE]

Thanks man, I changed my specs. Thanks for your help.

Re-did it. New better specs.

CASE: NZXT Khaos Black Full Tower Case
CPU: Intel Core i7-920
CD: Black Pioneer 5X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo Drive
CD2: Black Sony 20X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight
HDD: 80 GB Intel X25-M
MOBO: EVGA X58 SLI Classfied Intel X58 Chipset
MEMORY: Corsair Dominator 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1800MHz
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 x64
POWER SUPPLY: Thermaltake ToughPower 1,200 Watts
SOUND CARD: Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series
GPUs: QUAD SLI EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX295 1.7GB 16X PCIe

Should be done by this week or early next.
__________________
 
Ugh. the motherboard for my brothers computer (which I'm putting together) just died. and its like 3 days out of Newegg RMA.
 
I'm looking at building a cheap, but upgradeable gaming computer. I was wondering if there is a big difference between DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066. My budget is very tight, so I was looking at some DDR2-800 to save a little. I was looking at spending more for a good motherboard like the GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P. I really only need the motherboard, some RAM, and a good cooler. I've picked up a CPU and video card from garage sales and craigslist.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top