Its Time.

Human_Warrior

New Member
Building my first PC.

Its time for me to build my 1st rig and break away from the constraints of basic store bought desktops. I know you guys get this alot but i like to think you all enjoy helping out Newbies such as myself :P

Ill be building it over the time of about 2-3 months, buying parts over time as i get the money. Ive done some basic research into parts im considering and ill post those for help with compatability issues and suggestions for possibly equal to better results for less money. But first heres a list of things it wil be used for:

Gaming (not incredibly high demanding games like Crysis, more like WoW, BC2, And Rift)

I guess id call it ADD related multitasking for me haha i usually keep up Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Firefox, WoW, And iTunes.

Video editing, Nothing high def just some fraps videos for wow and rift commentaries i do sometimes

At some point id like to start mapping out beats for a friend of mine in Reason.

Now the main focus at the moment is the gaming aspect of the PC. What im asking help build is an exeptional gaming PC for the moment that should be easily upgradeable in the future, Kind of like a rubber band ball, it starts off awesome you have a good sized bag of bands but then your out. so you have to keep trying to make it bigger and better to fit your rubber band ball needs ;)

Now here are a list of parts ive done a small amount of research on:

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131646
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103872
Case: http://www.xoxide.com/nzxt-crafted-phantom-white.html
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231419

Now i do know this isnt a full rig But as far as video cards, power supplies, and hard drives go im in the dark. I dont know too much about the above but im slowly learning haha

When suggesting or linking a product Please let me know if you have good hands on experience or if your linking post a review link instead of a Newegg link it would help me tremendously. this is mostly because id like to learn about the computer im building, not just ask you guys for a premade, set it up, then ask you for the troubleshootng problems that i should be learning about anyway. ;)

Well i hope you guys can help me out. sry if it may seem a bit stretched for one of those stereotypical "Build my computer!!!" posts. haha :D


*Ps. my Budget is at about 700 dollars at the moment, not including my monitor and keyboard i need to purchase. If youd like to suggest a good CHEAP monitor (dont care if is a bulky old one, or even just a 15 inch LCD), and a good keyboard for not TOO cheap, (pref. Mechanical).
 
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MB = Crossfires @ x16/x4 instead of x8/x8 or x16/x16.
CPU = Go x4 for the tasks you describe.
Case = Nice case, but my thought is about the core components. Right now the case has most of the dough.
RAM = I can't say whether 2000 will benifit over 1600.

*Ps. Is that budget your 2-3 month goal? Or the amount available right now?
My fear would be buyers remorse in 2-3 months.

For consideration. 840 or 955 + mb.
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X4 840 Propus 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDX840WFGMBOX
 
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With the motherboard comment ill be honest im not so sure what that means haha.

CPU wise i was looking at that one because a lot of people said the 4th core was easily unlocked and could save me money.

Any suggestions on a good case with good upgradeability as well as good cooling since at the moment i cant support a water cooled system with my income.

700 dollars is the end goal, its not available at the moment. i only work for my grandfather so i earn close to 80 dollars a week doing yard work.

I was going to build it piece by piece as i got the money. Not as one big package of parts on one delivery.
 
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OK, Crossfire is the ability to run more than 1 gpu at a time. It's meant for future upgradability because either A) a person started out without as much graphical hp as they needed, or B) because they want to be able to just add a second card in the future when games etc demand more power,,and by then the 2nd card costs less than replacing a single card with a bigger more expensive one. Some just use a set up with one card and just upgrade the card when necessary, and then sell the old one or keep it for backup - if the mb doesn't have an igp that will just run the monitor and such.

Don't buy a cpu thinking it will unlock, just buy the number of cores needed. Unlocking is hit and miss. Not that I needed to, but I had an x3 like your linked that wouldn't unlock, and some that have my current chip that did unlock for me, wouldnt for them. So just plan on your chip having it's stated cores. The only time it's pluasable is if someone needs only 2 or 3 cores, and they get a chip that unlocks to 3 or 4. Then it just becomes a bonus.

The way parts deals vary, and since tech gets cheaper the longer you wait, I'd recommend just saving the $ till you're ready to get at least most of the parts.
 
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OK, Crossfire is the ability to run more than 1 gpu at a time. It's meant for future upgradability because either A) a person started out without as much graphical hp as they needed, or B) because they want to be able to just add a second card in the future when games etc demand more power,,and by then the 2nd card costs less than replacing a single card with a bigger more expensive one. Some just use a set up with one card and just upgrade the card when necessary, and then sell the old one or keep it for backup - if the mb doesn't have an igp that will just run the monitor and such.

Don't buy a cpu thinking it will unlock, just buy the number of cores needed. Unlocking is hit and miss. Not that I needed to, but I had an x3 like your linked that wouldn't unlock, and some that have my current chip that did unlock for me, wouldnt for them. So just plan on your chip having it's stated cores. The only time it's pluasable is if someone needs only 2 or 3 cores, and they get a chip that unlocks to 3 or 4. Then it just becomes a bonus.

The way parts deals vary, and since tech gets cheaper the longer you wait, I'd recommend just saving the $ till you're ready to get at least most of the parts.

Mkay that actually sounds smarter, im just very bad at saving money haha ^_^

Thanks for the combo recommendation in your last post. Ill definitely consider that because both items have really good reviews around the web. Ill probably go with the more expensive CPU you listed if i end up getting it, a 30 dollar difference wont break me right? haha

Also i need some tips on what kind of graphics cards i should be looking for, and also what kind of hard drive. Should i be using multiple hard drives?

i would like my graphics card to be the most expensive peice of hardware kind of haha (unless thats bad, very new to hardware)
 
How much were you thinking about spending on a GPU? I would probably stick to GTX 560, 6870 or 6950 if you can find the funds for those cards. If not you would still get good performance out of the GTX 460 and 6850.

Just looking at your budget of $700. Does that need to include monitor, OS, mouse, keyboard?
 
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How much were you thinking about spending on a GPU? I would probably stick to GTX 560, 6870 or 6950 if you can find the funds for those cards. If not you would still get good performance out of the GTX 460 and 6850.

Just looking at your budget of $700. Does that need to include monitor, OS, mouse, keyboard?

GPU wise im not too certain how the performance correlates with price (obviously it gets better but i mean specifics like FPS on benchmark games), But i would assume a good one for what i plan on doing would be around 150 - 200

And the 700 dollar budget is what i set aside for my tower alone. i would definitely like some suggestions on a good CHEAP monitor i mean like CHEAP lol i dont mind if its small or an old CRT thats compatible, Also id like some suggestions on a good mechanical keyboard, preferably in the lower price range but not too cheap. and as far as my mouse goes i have a razer Naga i love more than anything i own :D
 
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127518
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127566

If you can spare an extra $15 you can get a 6870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161349


For hard drives I would go with either a WD Caviar Black or the Samsung Spinpoint F3/F4.

EDIT: I'm sure that you can see that I am a fan of MSI. You can switch the manufacturers if you like.

Of the hard drives i looked at This one looked the best for my price range. it has stellar reviews and seems to be great for so cheap, heck its so affordable i may buy 2 haha ^_^

And Video card wise i was thinking This. After you gave me suggestions i looked up reviews on them and similar products and came up with that. I switched to ASUS just because ive had hands on experience with their products and have always loved what i found. MSI may be an awesome company i just havent really got to check them out or use their products.

So i have most of my parts in order now ill take some time to price it and ill post the specs up after, for compatability issues and suggestions for better side by side performance with certain products etc.
 
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