Buying a new computer, need help!

S

Slorafossen

New Member
Hello, guys and girls.

So I'm going to buy a new computer now, or maybe in May. I'm not that good at hardware anymore, so I thought I'd ask here for some help.


This is what I ended up with. I'm wondering if the following are up-to-date and ready for gaming. I'm mostly going to play Oblivion (2006) and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010). Oh and if there are any parts that are kinda bad compared to the others, please let me know.

Cabinet: Antec Nine Hundred Two Midi Tower

Power: Chieftec Super Series 650W PSU ATX 12V V2.3, 80 Plus, Modular, 1x 6pin+1x 6+2pin PCIe, 6x SATA, 140mm fan

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3, P55, Socket-1156 4xDDR3, ATX, GbLAN, USB3.0, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16

Processor: Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-860 Quad Core, 2.80Ghz, Socket 1156, 8MB, 95W, Boxed w/fan

RAM: Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KIT, CL9, Kit w/two matched DDR3 2GB, 240pin

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0, "TOXIC Edition", 2xDVI-I, HDMI, DisplayPort, 765MHz,Full-Retail

HD: Samsung SpinPoint F2 1TB SATA2 32MB 32MB, 5400RPM

DVD: Lite-On DVD+RW burner IHAS124-19 SuperAllWrite, 24x8x16DVD+RW, SATA, Black

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

Thanks a lot in advance.
- Espen, Norway
 
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everything looks great but I would get a corsair tx650 instead. I have never heard of chieftec and you cant beat corsair! Also why not get 2 more gigs of ram so you can run in triple channel. It will be a huge difference in performance
 
jarlmaster47 said:
everything looks great but I would get a corsair tx650 instead. I have never heard of chieftec and you cant beat corsair! Also why not get 2 more gigs of ram so you can run in triple channel. It will be a huge difference in performance
Click to expand...

That LGA 1156 motherboard doesn't support triple channel ;)
As stated above, Chieftec...no way. They are a budget brand of budget brands :D Also, a 5400 RPM HDD? Get a slightly smaller one, like 750 GB but 7200 RPM. You will want the faster drive for gaming.
 
Ok, so the PC I mentioned first is not an option anymore, as I am not able to choose any hardware I want for that computer (the company had restrictions and were going to build it themselves before sending it). I guess I'm going to go crazy and buy each part individually and build it myself, even though I've never done that.

From this discussion alone, I've taken these notes:

RAM: Minimum 6GB, Corsair preferred
HD: 1TB (personal choice), and 7200 RPM
I don't really know anything at all about GPUs, but if I end up with Radeon, it should be 5850 or higher.
PSU: Not Chieftec (because it's cheap??)

EDIT: Found this

Fractal Design Define R2 Black Pearl, Vifter: 1x 200mm Front, 1x 120mm Bak, Lydabsorberende,, ATX, mATX, mITX. 15 dBA
Chieftec Super Series 650W PSU ATX 12V V2.3, 80 Plus, Modular, 1x 6pin+1x 6+2pin PCIe, 6x SATA, 140mm Fam
Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-930, Quad Core, 2.8Ghz, Socket 1366, 8MB, 130W, Boxed w/fan
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, X58 Socket-1366, DDR3, ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 6GB CL9Kit w/3x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL9-9-9-24, for Core i7
XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0, "BLACK", 2xDVI-I, HDMI, DisplayPort, 765MHz
Hitachi Deskstar™ 7K1000.C 1TB 7200RPM, 3,5", 32MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s
USB2 Multi Card Reader 3.5" Black for CF I/II,SM,MMC/SD/microSD,MS,xD (bulk)
Antistatic Armchain 180cm
Black DVD±RW burner

The only con is that the PSU is Chieftec. Is it really that bad? Should I ditch it just because of it (I can't modify the hardware on this one)?
 
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HDD - don't get Hitachi. I believe by the time of MAY, there should be more SATA III HDD, worth to get one as your mobo support it.

PSU - What other brand they do apart from Chieftec?

RAM - DDR3 1600 is just slight expensive than DDR3 1333. Check the price to see if it worth upgrade.

Video card - the next card above 5850 is 5870. But I don't see it worth the extra.
nvidia fermi card is out soon, I wonder if this change the price of 5850 in coming 2 month.
 
You still planning on going with the Antec case?

PSU is a key part of your system, if it goes, it can take other parts with it, so might be worth it to go with a decent-good brand, not a brand like chieftec. Might want to look at Thermaltake, or corsaire.

Stick with the 5850, the difference in performance/cost isn't worth the upgrade in my opinion.

For Case, you might want to also look at HAF 922, Lots of airflow and solid case (but i'm biased on that part).

DDR3 1600 compared to 1300 you will see a difference especially for the slight price increase, in my opinion completely worth it.

for your HDD, might want to look at Western Digital or Seagate Barracudda
 
that other pc u picked at slora is great except for the psu. Just buy a corsair tx650 and put it in that build when u buy it. Believe me Chieftec is horrible and a PSU is NOT something u skimp on or go krappy on. the i7 930 is a MUCH better cpu then the 860 so good choice.
 
I won't be buying any of the PCs above, because they all have a misfit part. I'll be buying all the hardware individually and I'll build the computer myself. I won't do this until May and there might be new hardware out by then, so I'll wait in patience while trying to learn more about hardware.

By the way, I just made a PC just for practice. This is what I ended up with. Looks good to me, is it? The price is 10200 NOK (1 728.6348 USD), which is pretty cheap in Norway. This looks like something I might end up buying.

GPU: Sapphire HD5850 1GB
Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
Harddrive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1000GB SATA2, 7200 RPM, 32MB cache
Cabinet: Cooler Master Dominator (I just took this because I don't really care what my cabinet looks like and it looks big enough to live in)
CPU: Intel Core i7 Quad 860 2,8GHz s1156, 2400MHz
RAM: Corsair Core i7 6GB Kit 3x2GB, 1600MHz
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TXEU 750W

Is there anything here that doesn't fit the mobo? And will the PSU be able to handle it?
 
The CPU is not campatible with the motherboard. I'd suggest buying an MSI P55 GD80 and I would also advice you to use Dual Channel RAM with the motherboard. Here's a good kit. The PSU is plenty, BTW. Hell, a 550w would be able to power that rig. Otherwise, looks good :good:
 
Fatal1tyXx said:
The CPU is not campatible with the motherboard. I'd suggest buying an MSI P55 GD80 and I would also advice you to use Dual Channel RAM with the motherboard. Here's a good kit. The PSU is plenty, BTW. Hell, a 550w would be able to power that rig. Otherwise, looks good :good:
Click to expand...

Good catch on the CPU and MOBO, that would be a PITA. Yes that PSU is more than enough.
 
Intel Core i7 Quad 860 <- Fits the mobo
Gigabyte P55M-UD2 <- Fits the CPU
NZXT Lexa Redline Edition <- Said that it had a good cooling-system
Western Digital Caviar Black Dualcore 1TB <- 7200 RPM
Corsair Power Supply 750W TX <- Not Chieftec : )
Sapphire HD5850 1GB <- Second best GPU I could find
Samsung SH-S223L/RSMN <- The cheapest I could find
Corsair Core i7 6GB Kit 3x2GB <- Triple channel (better than dual channel, right?)

This looks pretty good to me. If I'm right, the mobo fits the CPU and the RAM is triple-channel and 1600MHz. The HD is 7200 RPM, like dgrevillius told me to go for yesterday. He also said that the LGA1156 mobo I chose earlier didn't support triple-channel. Does this one?
 
idk. I don't see why lgs1156 wouldn't support triple channel, which is a new architecture, but lga1366, which is a little older, would. Anyway corsair is the bomb and even if it doesn't run in triple channel its still epic
 
no. ddr3 is the speed and latency of the ram. ddr3 is the fastest ram available now. triple channel means running a multiple of 3gb in ur build so 3 gigs 6gigs 9 gigs 12 gigs etc. You have to put them in the special colored slots and they run in their fastest channel. Someone said that lga1156 does not support triple channel which I think is wrong. go ahead and get that ram and see if u can run it in triple channel
 
jarlmaster47 said:
no. ddr3 is the speed and latency of the ram. ddr3 is the fastest ram available now. triple channel means running a multiple of 3gb in ur build so 3 gigs 6gigs 9 gigs 12 gigs etc. You have to put them in the special colored slots and they run in their fastest channel. Someone said that lga1156 does not support triple channel which I think is wrong. go ahead and get that ram and see if u can run it in triple channel
Click to expand...

Thanks, that helped a lot.
 
Ok, so now I've come up with these part. This set is what I actually might buy, so if you see anything here that looks odd, please tell me.

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD5850
HD: Westen Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA2
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TXEU 750W
Cabinet: NZXT Guardian 921
RAM: Corsair Core i7 6GB Kit 3x2GB

I'm missing the mobo, as I am still trying to figure out what makes a mobo "good" except for fitting with the processor. I will pick the processor after I've found a mobo (LGA1366 preferred).
 
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