First Build, Need Advice

O

ooltra

New Member
Hello everyone, I came across these forums after a quick google search, and there seems to be a good source of information. I am starting to build my first desktop PC (the previous one I had was pre-built, and over the years i made different upgrades to it)...infact, the past 2 years have been spent on a laptop for me, so I really haven't been up-to-snuff as far as being in the loop with new hardware.

First off, I live in Canada, so any prices I list will be in Canadian. I would love to avoid buying online, but am not totally opposed to it either. I am looking to be buying everything by no later then this thursday. My budget is flexible within reason....I don't want to spend $400 on a video card or anything like that, but I am not afraid to spend more money where it counts.

Second, my computer will primarily be used for working on my website, and using photoshop CS5. but, I know that when I get it built, i'm going to want to do some gaming on it - mainly FPS, hopefully I can have something that can run Battlefield 3 smoothly (but doesn't have to do it at full settings)

Today I have purchased 3 items, one of them I am already concerned about which is what spawned my search for assistance on here ;)

BOUGHT
Corsair GS700 Power Supply
ASUS DVD Burner
Western Digital Caviar Green (WD20EARS) 2000GB (2TB) SATA 3 Gb/s 64MB (OEM) (this is where I bought the HDD)

My concern is the Hard Drive. I have read some of the reviews on newegg.com for the same model with some users saying that because it's over 1TB, they expect it to fail in the future. Also seemed like a lot of people had issues with this hard drive. Can someone recommend a Hard Drive from the Canada Computers website? I would prefer it to be easy to install and set up, and I would like to have 2 hard drives, the second one being only for backups.

Should I return that hard drive and look for something else? I'm not afraid to give up HDD space or spend a bit extra if in the long run it will last longer. It's really important that worst case scenario, my backup drive has my files i need for my site, etc.

Next, these are the items that they recommended for me in the price range that I am okay with...does anyone have any suggestions or comments about the items below?

Motherboard - http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_340&item_id=037510

CPU - http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_64&item_id=030521

Video Card - http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_558&item_id=035721

Can anyone give me advice on the hard drives and the motherboard/cpu/video card combo that they showed me?

I am not to concerned about a case, RAM, and other things as it seems that they are fairly easy to sort out once you have the motherboard and CPU nailed down. Sorry for such the long first post, I appreciate any help I can get on this.
 
that's a decent line up, but if you'd tell us the budget we can put together a full list of all parts, the dvd drive is fine, the mobo is a good brand and all but i would recomend an am3+ so that you are able to get a bulldozer, the next architecture for amd cpu's, when it comes out as it will use said socket, and this is backwards compatible with these current cpu's and will allow for higher clocked ram, and the psu is actually overkill for what you want, and only neeed for sli and xfire, dual or more gpu's, but actually most people get a little more for that too, but it will be nice and you know your not being bottlenecked, and for the hdd, caviar gree is more of a buckup and storage drive, not a primary drive, but you said you wouldn't mind 2 so it'ss be fine, but looks like you know enough so we won't have to go over all the basics and all and welcome to the forum sir/mam.
 
jonnyp11 said:
that's a decent line up, but if you'd tell us the budget we can put together a full list of all parts, the dvd drive is fine, the mobo is a good brand and all but i would recomend an am3+ so that you are able to get a bulldozer, the next architecture for amd cpu's, when it comes out as it will use said socket, and this is backwards compatible with these current cpu's and will allow for higher clocked ram, and the psu is actually overkill for what you want, and only neeed for sli and xfire, dual or more gpu's, but actually most people get a little more for that too, but it will be nice and you know your not being bottlenecked, and for the hdd, caviar gree is more of a buckup and storage drive, not a primary drive, but you said you wouldn't mind 2 so it'ss be fine, but looks like you know enough so we won't have to go over all the basics and all and welcome to the forum sir/mam.
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thanks for the reply and warm welcome (and it's a sir :D) :D

I have a budget i guess of around $800, which is flexible if there is a reason to be.

i am pretty set on returning the hard-drive, i read some bad reviews about it. a friend of mine said i should look into buying a 128 GB SSD to run the boot and o/s, and then a large HDD for media files, etc. i have an external hard drive already that i guess can continue to act as my back-up drive.

is this a smart option to go? i know the SSD will be more money for less memory, but it seems like a sound idea to keep my machine running fast.

here is a list i need, and i guess for a benchmark, i would like to be able to play Battlefield 3 on it when it's released....doesn't have to be full settings, i just want it to be smooth through-out gameplay.

I need:

motherboard
cpu
RAM
video card
sound card (but i imagine the on-board motherboard sound card would suit my needs)
HDD/SSD (interested in peoples opinions on this)
case
display monitor

again, if $800 will barely get me playing battlefield 3, i can increase the budget....but only if there's a need. i don't want to spend $800 and realize that $75 was the difference between a good experience with BF3 and a poor one.

edit: just to add, i don't want to tell anyone how to help me, because any is appreciated....but seeing as i will be hoping to buy all of my stuff from this store (who have the friendliest staff and best prices in toronto), i am hoping people can find me a good set-up with whats available at canadacomputers.com

thanks!
 
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most seem to like that place, i'll be checking them v newegg which is most people's fav., they got prices, mir's, returning, and 24/7/365 deals, i'll see which is cheaper, but idk if i alread told you that, i wrote too much for my attention span to read, somehow i can write it but not read it. i'll get back to you tommarow probably, oh wait, it already is for my, for over an hour, and i b sleepy so yeah. and a 128gb ssd will be outrageous cost, i'd say 32/64 so it's under 100, which is still alot out of your budget say might not happen if you want good settings on bf3. and u r using old keyboard and mouse or do u need those too.
 
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jonnyp11 said:
most seem to like that place, i'll be checking them v newegg which is most people's fav., they got prices, mir's, returning, and 24/7/365 deals, i'll see which is cheaper, but idk if i alread told you that, i wrote too much for my attention span to read, somehow i can write it but not read it. i'll get back to you tommarow probably, oh wait, it already is for my, for over an hour, and i b sleepy so yeah.
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haha no worries....i think that i am going to pass on the SSD idea, it sounds like a nice addition, but unless opinions here say otherwise, its a luxury i can upgrade to in the future. i will go and return that other HDD though tomorrow, and find something else. is a 2TB main HDD overkill? it seems like the more memory you get, the more likely it will fail in the future, and i don't download much movies or t.v.

thanks for the help!
 
think of it this way, the mss majority of games are under 10gb, closer to 5-7gb's, 2tb's is 2000gb's, that means over like 250 games., but you also have to take out os and programs which i doubt will get past 50gb's max.
 
jonnyp11 said:
think of it this way, the mss majority of games are under 10gb, closer to 5-7gb's, 2tb's is 2000gb's, that means over like 250 games., but you also have to take out os and programs which i doubt will get past 50gb's max.
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brilliant....i'm looking at taking back the HDD i bought in my original post, and spending the extra cash on getting this:

Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" SATA3 6Gb/s 7200rpm 64MB Cache OEM

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_210_212&item_id=035599
 
Nothing wrong with the line up, however i would go core i5 2500k instead with a p67 mobo. Owns amd.
 
and the i5 is faster and all but my set up allowed you to upgrade to the bulldozer which will cost less actually and will have similar performance, but if you want later can go up to the 8-core bulldozer.
 
jonnyp11 said:
and the i5 is faster and all but my set up allowed you to upgrade to the bulldozer which will cost less actually and will have similar performance, but if you want later can go up to the 8-core bulldozer.
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interesting....i had a couple of bad experiences with intel about 8 - 4 years ago, with two cpu's dieing on a system that only saw medium usage. i'd actually like to stick with AMD for now.

i'll have to look up more about this bulldozer thing you are talking about.
 
alright, so here is the update:

Bought:
PSU: Corsair GS700
HDD: Seagate Barracuda (ST31000524AS) 7200.12 SATA3 6.0Gb/s 1000GB (1TB) 32MB Cache (OEM)
DVD: ASUS DVD drive

Planned:
Mobo: Asus M5A87 Socket AM3+ - this way i can upgrade to Bulldozer in the future
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition (125W) Six Core
Video: Asus EAH6850
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) 1600 Mhz DDR3

I'll be buying a mid-tower case likely, additional fans, a wireless adapter, and probably another HDD in the future.

thoughts on the stuff planned?
 
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looks good, what's your plan for the case, for budget the apevia (i think) vortex 3620 is nice, i've got my old computer in it right now and it looks awsome, not literally in it, rebuilt in it, nice open case, 2 120mm fans, front one is all lit up with blue led things where it spreads the light threw a tube so it is streaked to the center, look at pics on google cuz newegg doesn't show it.
 
jonnyp11 said:
looks good, what's your plan for the case, for budget the apevia (i think) vortex 3620 is nice, i've got my old computer in it right now and it looks awsome, not literally in it, rebuilt in it, nice open case, 2 120mm fans, front one is all lit up with blue led things where it spreads the light threw a tube so it is streaked to the center, look at pics on google cuz newegg doesn't show it.
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I'm going to go look at some cases tomorrow actually. All i know is i would prefer it to be a mid-tower, and not have the look and feel that it is going to morph and rape me while i sleep.
 
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