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Author Topic: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice  (Read 2317 times)

Offline etrips888

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Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« on: November 24, 2010, 20:42:09 »
Hey everyone
So as my college career is coming to an end and my laptop seems to be on its way out as well, I was thinking of what my next computer should be. Although a laptop was nice, I think I want to get a desktop again and I'm considering building one myself, I just don't have any clue on what it would involve. So if anyone can answer some questions I have, or has some good advice I would really appreciate it.

First thing is that I'm looking at newegg at different parts, and although I don't have every single piece, it already looks to be considerably cheaper than if I bought it from say dell or hp. Is this true or am I just being optimistic?

Is there a certain time period that would be best to snatch up parts? Like after a new model of processors come out, or say the November sales that I see being advertised at newegg?

Although I've mentioned newegg a couple of times, is there a better site to look at? Newegg is just the only one I know

When I do build my computer, I would love to be able to play games at a high level, graphics and speed wise. Unfortunately with only working part time, I'm probably only looking at around $1,200 that I can spend at the moment. Is this a realistic price range for what I'm looking for?

This is all I can think of for the moment, but if anyone can think of something that they think is important to know before going into this, I would really appreciate it.
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Offline StrokeyBlofeld

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2010, 21:48:24 »
$1200 isn't so bad if: you don't need things like keyboard/mouse/software etc. If it is for the tower alone, then you can build a pretty reasonable rig that will play most but the very latest games at a high level. I would probably wait until after christmas (January) and you should find that prices will drop a little.  There isn't really any huge shifts in computer tech at the moment that will cause prices to really drop by a noticable amount. I'll post more as questions etc come.....
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Offline Aaryn_GenD

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2010, 22:09:45 »
1200$ is very very good etrips you don't need more than that for a great rig, heck even 1000$ would do.
there are two possiblities:
buy it now (would be some sort of core i5-760, 6 gigs of ddr 3 ram, a 6950 or gtx 570 when those come out, 80-120gb ssd, etc.)

or wait till february-march or something, then you could get a new, middlegood sandy bridge with sata 6gb/s and usb 3.0 built in
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Offline Drag

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2010, 22:49:39 »
Can't help you much, but I'd suggest avoiding tip top new equipment as the extra $$$$ they cost generally depreciates pretty quick from what i've heard. Also pre emptive congrats on graduating!
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Offline StrokeyBlofeld

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2010, 23:17:28 »
Quote from: "Aaryn_GenD"
1200$ is very very good etrips you don't need more than that for a great rig, heck even 1000$ would do.
there are two possiblities:
buy it now (would be some sort of core i5-760, 6 gigs of ddr 3 ram, a 6950 or gtx 570 when those come out, 80-120gb ssd, etc.)

or wait till february-march or something, then you could get a new, middlegood sandy bridge with sata 6gb/s and usb 3.0 built in


Remember he will need a decent monitor as well. As for ssd, not needed for this build, too over-priced unless you have $2000+ for just the tower really. $$$ can be better spent elsewhere on the build.
As for a GPU, AMD wins IMO, but I wouldn't suggest the 6950 as details are still a little hazey, it's not released officialy yet, and pricing is anyones guess.
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Offline joe4holly

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2010, 23:21:27 »
I7 950  6gigs of ram or 2 x4 gig sticks  with a ATI Radeon 5830.

The NZXT Phantom case looks good.

now only if i had the money as well...
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Offline Aaryn_GenD

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2010, 23:36:13 »
ah come one strokey there are nice and cheap ssd nowadays^^ and even more so in february-march
as for a monitor, go for Asus VG236HE (without the 3d glasses)
i think 3d is pretty overrated and it cuts your frames in half, gl doing that without shelling out 2000$

holly that gpu is crap,  etrips wants something decent, not a consumer gpu for 30-50€. i think the 6950 will cost somethig like 360$
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Offline joe4holly

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2010, 23:51:32 »
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Offline Comadevil

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2010, 00:12:18 »
yes it is crap for that price. 5830 never was worth its price

And it is definitely not a card u wanna have in a $1000- PC
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Offline etrips888

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2010, 02:44:32 »
Thanks for all the input. I'll sit down and start looking through the ideas later, but I appreciate the quick feedback!
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Offline Blackadderthe4th

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #10 on: November 26, 2010, 14:54:30 »
The only advice i can give is just make sure everything is compatible and do your research. Google and read reviews on the parts you buy to make sure there are no potential problems and that your buying quality parts.

Also if your looking to save money, make sure it isn't on the grpahics card. A few extra quid on a card now will let you play games and a higher graphics rating for longer! I always regretted not getting the more expensive card when I bought my first rig.
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Offline etrips888

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2011, 21:14:50 »
So I'm getting closer to actually finalizing my build and ordering the parts.
Aaryn was nice enough to help me find some parts and give me advice on it, so I thought I would share what I have saved atm, and see what your opinions are.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245
CD/DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

As for the other parts (motherboard/CPU/CPU cooler), I'm waiting to see what the fixed sandy bridge i5 price is, and see if I want to get that one. Then the other pieces I will build around what CPU I end up getting.

So my questions to anyone willing to give some input is
a)what do you think of the parts collected so far?

b)What is your opinion on the Sandy Bridge i5? It seems like a good price and a great CPU (once they fix it). Is there something you would advice over it? Upgrade to i7?

c)Going along with b, what are people's opinions on AMD vs Intel. I have a coworker who builds her own computers and only chooses AMD, which honestly I never considered. Glancing around they seem to have great prices. Would anyone advice getting AMD over Intel?

d)Monitor and keyboard. These are a bit up in the air right now. I might be able to get a monitor from a family member, but nothing is for sure so I was looking at monitors. I found this one which seems like an awesome price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009263
But then also found this one which is more expensive, but is a bit bigger and fully HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052
I honestly don't even know if I need an HD monitor, but just the thought sounds great. Any opinions for or against these two? Any others people know of that would be a good choice to consider?
As for the keyboard, I don't see a problem with buying a cheap keyboard ~$20 for now. Any reason why I shouldn't and/or any ones that you would recommend?

Thanks!

Update: Found this CPU from AMD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849
6-core (Not sure what that means as far as performance goes, if anyone wants to enlighten me), great price, comparable stats if not better than i7 intel which are $100 more..What do you guys think?
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Offline Blackadderthe4th

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2011, 23:31:42 »
You will need full HD espeacially if you intend to hook up an xbox/PS3 to you monitor. The difference is significant, no longer wiill you be squinting to make out details in games or read fuzzy text. From a gaming point of view most titles these days are developed in full HD with lesser resolutions just being checked to make sure things work. Before I got HD I would have to turn the brightness up really high in games to see whats going on but in HD you notice things you never did before. Its true that if you don't have it you might not think it makes a difference and things are ok as they are but trust me you are missing out.
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Offline Aaryn_GenD

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2011, 23:42:37 »
intel is far superior to amd as i already stressed multiple times in msn, so i hope you'll be able to withstand the tempation and wait a bit :)
steam's hardware survey speaks volumes about this.
and no amd processor is better than an intel sandy bridge i5-2500(k) or i7-2600(k)
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Offline Comadevil

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Re: Thinking of Building A Desktop - Would like some Advice
« Reply #14 on: February 07, 2011, 23:48:25 »
Quote from: "etrips888"

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067

Case is a matter of taste. You can get cases from 30$ to 150$ which will do the job.

Quote from: "etrips888"

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245

No HDD with 5400 rpm, if WIndows should get installed on it. If it is only for data it is ok

Quote from: "etrips888"

CD/DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

The graphics card i also would choose.

Quote from: "etrips888"

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

I am not so much in RAM and power supplies right now, but looks ok


Quote from: "etrips888"

As for the other parts (motherboard/CPU/CPU cooler), I'm waiting to see what the fixed sandy bridge i5 price is, and see if I want to get that one. Then the other pieces I will build around what CPU I end up getting.

Sandy Bridge i5 is to go for right now for a Gaming PC. U can buy AMD for a Gaming PC when the new cpus get released during the next half year. The 6 core is decent but it doesn't get the performance in games as the Sandy Bridge does right now
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