Hardware advice

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KryanAshford

KryanAshford

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With my rebate I plan to start building my own gaming pc. I've found a monitor(22 in), a hard drive(WD Red 3 TB), a proccessor (i5), a graphic card (8800 gts) I'm still looking for a few more piece. If any one has any advice or past experience I would love to hear it. My usual field is software over hardware. I'm going to use this as a way to learn more about this end of computers. If anyone wants the links to the parts I'm thinking of getting I wouldn't mind posting them.
 
DarkBabyMagicain said:
a graphic card (8800 gts)
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Are you sure you mean 8800 GTS? Got a link for that? Cuz if so that's a really old 2006 model, which is definitely not going to be what you want.

What types of games will you be playing? And what kind of a budget do you have (or reckon you will have)? Might be able to give some good recommendations with that info.
 
Actually, here's a good tip for planning a computer build, which I forgot to mention in that previous reply. Head over to PCPartPicker.com and put in the stuff you've decided on so far. The site also does compatibility checks on a lot of things so you can make sure your parts will all work fine with each other. Used this site when building my comp a few months back, super useful site.

If you pick the parts out on that, you can then save it as a list and if you paste the public link to the list here we can give it a full look-over.
 
Thank you the advice I'll check out that site tonight
 
Your budget is $2000+ and you're thinking of throwing a 750 ti in your new rig? I totally endorse solid budget cards like that (I'm using a 660 myself) but my regular budget for new builds is usually half what you quoted. If you have the room, max out the value and throw a GTX 970 in there - if you really are on a tighter budget, or just realize that you don't need to waste power and money, then definitely go with the 750 TI - I doubt any mainstream MMO's will tax that for a few years.

Any higher spec 4th generation desktop i5 will be great, and for your MMO's I expect that getting as much RAM as possible would be ideal - I don't think these games tend to be computationally demanding, just memory intensive.

Hooray for new builds! I want one now.
 
That's a lower end vid card and processor for that budget.

Still a good processor and vid card, but if you are actually spending $2000 I'd love to see what makes up the rest of the system :)
 
With a budget of 2 - 2.5k ... you should be able to have a really nice Gaming PC. I say you might as well go for pretty much the top of the line, at least for the graphics card for sure, since that is the most important part for any gaming rig.

Now as for RAM. Here is some advice. If you are going to be using your computer for only gaming and daily tasks like web browsing and such, 8GB is really the max you need. If you are going to be doing some basic video editing or photoshop, then I recommend 16GB. If you are going to be doing advanced video editing, photoshop, game art, ect. it's can't hurt to get 32GB. I am giving you this advice because there are many people who get 32GB of ram simply for a gaming pc, and let me tell you. It's unnecessary and pointless.

I would also suggest you get an SSD and install your OS on it and any games you play a lot. This will increase load times drastically on your computer.

As for the cpu ... The i5 will do fine, though if you can afford the extra bit, an i7 is even better. Although, between the 2 you are not likely to see that huge of an increase in performance when it comes to gaming. You might see a 5 - 10 fps increase in same games. While some games you may not see any performance improvement at all. Basically, if you think those extra frames are worth the extra cost, then I say go for it.

Last but not least ... many people tend to over do it on the power supply. Unless you are going to do SLI with 2 - 3 cards, a 600 -750 watt power supply is plenty, and even then you still may not use it all.

Anyway, hope this helps a little.
 
brabbit1987 said:
I would also suggest you get an SSD and install your OS on it and any games you play a lot. This will increase load times drastically on your computer.
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Man I am good at forgetting things today... I blame the fact it's nearly 4AM. :p
Yes, an SSD is a VERY worthwhile upgrade, they're not nearly as expensive now as they used to be too so definitely consider this.

brabbit1987 said:
Last but not least ... many people tend to over do it on the power supply. Unless you are going to do SLI with 2 - 3 cards, a 600 -750 watt power supply is plenty, and even then you still may not use it all.
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Personally I think having extra power to spare is a good idea, because it leaves you open to future component upgrades/additions without the hassle of having to get a new PSU if one ends up being needed. I know I sure as heck wanted to put a new GPU in my last machine but wasn't able to cuz I'd have needed to upgrade the PSU too as I already had it near limit. At the time, the additional PSU cost would've put me over budget for that.
 
with a 2k budget.
A 250gb SSD(or what ever the size around that is. )
Get 2 1tb/2tb HDDs(one for backup...)
Get 16gb of ram(1600Mhz or better.)(people were saying 4gb was enough 5 years ago... :I when I first built, I'm at 10atm with an upgrade to 32 on the way.)
Get an i5k unlocked processor, 4core.
A Atx mobo, with 2 Pci-Ex 16 slots at full bandwith
A 1000watt Modular power supply,
A Ips 23" monitor
A decent GPU (290x or a 970)

Basic guideline, Go have fun spend more where you want and stuff but that'd be a decent Gaming/work computer with upgrade options.

Send me a msg and I'll pull up a parts list of a decent build config when I'm a little more sober.
 
that's an enclosure not an SSD.
 
Oh okay, what part is that then? I'm not too sure
 
Programmatic said:
Man I am good at forgetting things today... I blame the fact it's nearly 4AM. :p
Yes, an SSD is a VERY worthwhile upgrade, they're not nearly as expensive now as they used to be too so definitely consider this.



Personally I think having extra power to spare is a good idea, because it leaves you open to future component upgrades/additions without the hassle of having to get a new PSU if one ends up being needed. I know I sure as heck wanted to put a new GPU in my last machine but wasn't able to cuz I'd have needed to upgrade the PSU too as I already had it near limit. At the time, the additional PSU cost would've put me over budget for that.
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In most cases you will never need to upgrade your PSU no matter what you add, unless you want to add in another GPU on top of the one you already have, and even then you still may not have to as it will depend on the GPU. However, if you are planning on doing SLI or Crossfire, you are better off doing it right away, as GPUs tend to require pretty much the same card to work in SLI. The other issue is the longer you wait, the more likely you are to get a better performance increase from a single newer card then pairing up.

600 - 750 watt is plenty. Here is a calculator if you want to see for yourself. It also helps to get an exact number.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I would say you should always go about 50% above what you need. So if you need 500w, then 750w would be best.

Edit: Keeping in mind, the reason you may have needed to upgrade you PSU in the past is maybe it was much lower wattage than what I am listing. If it was a 350 -400w power supply you very well could run into trouble trying to upgrade your gpu.

Also liquid cooling can be another reason to need higher wattage as the pumps do tend to require a lot of power.

DarkBabyMagicain said:
Oh okay, what part is that then? I'm not too sure
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Here is a bunch of SSD on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/SSDs/Category/ID-119?Tpk=ssd
 
I agree with what Hobbes said, with that kind of budget you can spend way more on a graphics card (I also have a 660 TI in a cheaper built). Also, don't cheap out on the PSU. It may seem like a good place to cut back, but a bad PSU can fry your system. It would be like getting a sports car and putting regular fuel in it.

Also, here is a really good website I have found really helpful. For a 2k-2.5k budget, you could get two GPUs.
 
I think I pieces some special together here.

AMD FX-9370 4.4GHz 8-Core Processor

ASRock 990FX Extreme9 ATX AM3+ Motherboard

AMD RG2133 Gamer Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory

Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Toshiba Product Series:MG03ACA 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Antec High Current Gamer 900W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply


My bad I forgot to add the vid card to the list

MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card


This is what I picked out so far. With the minor other pieces, and the os the cost is 400 below budget.
 
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DarkBabyMagicain said:
Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Toshiba Product Series:MG03ACA 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
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Why the additional 1TB drive? Also I'd avoid "enterprise" drives. Performance wise they are usually identical to consumer versions. The only difference is slightly better QA and usually a better warranty. Unless you're fitting out a data centre, really not worth the money imo.
 
Good point I'll get rid of that 1TB for something smaller.
 
I also advocate an SSD as a boot drive. I have a 128GB Sandisk and 240GB PNY in my two rigs. Also good stuff from Samsung and ADATA that friends have bought. I think the best deals are going to be between the 256GB and 512GB class drives. Above that and prices are still a bit steep but falling fast. Below 256GB class is crowded based on my experience. Paired with a cheap WD Red should be a winning combo. Don't forget the SSD adapter bracket.
 
Samsung Evo 850
 
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