Gradual build: what next?

Russ88765

Russ88765

Active Member
My situation: I have a cheap emachines el1331g-01w that I got on sale a year or so prior from walmart, and a hard drive is failing. I don't know how long the other parts will hold out and i've wanted a more capable pc for awhile, so I thought I would take this oppurtunity to build my first pc. After doing some research I purchased my first two parts, a HAF 932 case and a Asus crosshair iv formula mobo(I intend it to be a high end AMD system).

What component should I get next, is there any certain order to go in if you can't buy all at once(i'm doing a gradual build for quality)? I was thinking maybe psu or the hd. Also, when they get here should I transfer my current pc into the new case or wait and install each new part as it comes seperately, and get my current pc fixed? Current pc appears to have integrated graphics and sound from mobo, if that helps any. Thanks.
 
Never buy hardware part by part. Buy it in one hit. It is simply because the industry move so fast that once it released, the value will start decreasing quite fast.
 
There isnt really an order as unless you have the main bits it isnt going to function anyway.

You have the case and MB now so see if you can get a CPU and RAM bundle you might save yourself a fare few $$$

I recently purchased a MB CPU combo (i5 2.6 and a gigabyte P55M-UD4) I then went for 4Gb ram (its only for work nothing fancy or gaming) and a cheap case. I managed to pick up a 1Tb drive for £50 (ended up with 2 using one to back up to the other)

With the new board either wait now then fit the CPU and ram while its on the desk as you can test it with out it being in a case as that board has all the cool power switches etc onboard so no need of a case to test.

Or stick the board in the case and wait for the ram and cpu to arrive.

Its going to be personal pref as to whether you get the Ram, CPU or disk next you need them all for it to work so which ever order you want to get them just get them. Then buy Windows 7 OEM system builder edition and your sorted.

Your current pc - how do you know the drive is going?? is it clicking??? a new drive is quite cheap and I doubt the rest of the machine is going to blow up given that its only 1 year old!

Catherine
 
daisymtc said:
Never buy hardware part by part. Buy it in one hit. It is simply because the industry move so fast that once it released, the value will start decreasing quite fast.
Click to expand...

if he's not got the money though he cant! It cost me over £700 for my machine luckily it went on a credit card then I paid if off the month after.

Wait for combo deals they are usually out each week in a decent shop. Here I use www.scan.co.uk they do combos all the time!
 
daisymtc said:
Never buy hardware part by part. Buy it in one hit. It is simply because the industry move so fast that once it released, the value will start decreasing quite fast.
Click to expand...

That actually sounds pretty good. My total costs for this build would decrease drastically if each item ended up outdated and priced to move by the time I got my hands on it.

bodtree said:
There isnt really an order as unless you have the main bits it isnt going to function anyway.

You have the case and MB now so see if you can get a CPU and RAM bundle you might save yourself a fare few $$$

I recently purchased a MB CPU combo (i5 2.6 and a gigabyte P55M-UD4) I then went for 4Gb ram (its only for work nothing fancy or gaming) and a cheap case. I managed to pick up a 1Tb drive for £50 (ended up with 2 using one to back up to the other)

With the new board either wait now then fit the CPU and ram while its on the desk as you can test it with out it being in a case as that board has all the cool power switches etc onboard so no need of a case to test.

Or stick the board in the case and wait for the ram and cpu to arrive.

Its going to be personal pref as to whether you get the Ram, CPU or disk next you need them all for it to work so which ever order you want to get them just get them. Then buy Windows 7 OEM system builder edition and your sorted.

Your current pc - how do you know the drive is going?? is it clicking??? a new drive is quite cheap and I doubt the rest of the machine is going to blow up given that its only 1 year old!

Catherine
Click to expand...

Do I also need to buy seperate compound for the CPU or do they come with all the wires and things needed to connect to mobo? When i'm changing or installing parts, do I need rubber gloves or something that doesn't conduct electricity?

I believe my drive is failing because most of the time I can't get past the disk boot screen, and I see many error messages there that say and indicate disk boot failure. The screen freezes after 2 minutes of a successful boot up, which takes an hour minimum.
 
Depending on if you buy a retail boxed cpu or an oem. OEM you will need thermal paste stuff and a fan - retail its good to go with fan an all you seat it (take your time) and then install the fan connecting the plug to the cpu fan header on the board.

You are supposed to earth yourself with straps but tbh I have never bothered. Just dont walk round shuffling before you touch the computer! I normall hold the metal case for a second before putting my hands in there. Never personally had an issue.


An hour - my god! i couldnt be bothered with that mate. Get a cheap new drive for it and reinstall or save a little and then get the new bits for the new machine.

This one here I am using now is the i5, its ace - just wish I had bought a case with a side panel so I could see the MB as its soooooo nice in blue :o)

Good luck mate,
 
Not sure what OEM or earthing means(I tried looking up earthing but saw no methods for it listed), but I don't think there's any shuffling around just carpet and plastic tile. The CPU I was planning to use says it includes the heatsink/fan but does not mention any compound. Is it not designed to be cooled using compound?

PS - I know most games aren't using full 6 core tech right now, but I do tend to multitask.
 
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OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer.

Rather than the Phenom II 1090T I would look at the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban Six-Core Processor. It is less expensive and has almost the same processing power.

Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban (2.8 gigahertz) Six-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103851

You don't have to buy thermal paste for the above processor because it comes pre-applied on the heatsink, but I would buy some anyway. Using your own thermal paste seems to work better if you give the correct application.

Also, if you plan on putting a new hard drive into your old machine you are going to need a Windows installation disk.
 
Hmm that's good news I guess that one could work too, although I did have a few concerns:

-Would it be tougher to overclock it to 4ghz if the clock starts at 2.8?
-Is it better to have an unlocked multiplier like the black edition has? I noticed the other two x6 cpu's did not have that feature(i'm not sure if my board has this feature/supports it, or if it can unlock cores).
 
Russ88765 said:
-Would it be tougher to overclock it to 4ghz if the clock starts at 2.8?
Click to expand...

It will be a bit easier but it is is kinda the same either way. The 1090T and the 1055T have the same fsb. They both start at 200. The only difference in clock speed is the multiplier. The 1055T it should be x14, the 1075T should be at x15 and the 1090T should be at x16 So in order to get the 1055T up to 4GHz you need to raise the fsb from 200 to 286. The 1075T would need to to be raised from 200 to 267. The 1090T would need to be raised from 200 to 250. Note* that is ruling out the unlocked multiplier.


Russ88765 said:
-Is it better to have an unlocked multiplier like the black edition has? I noticed the other two x6 cpu's did not have that feature(i'm not sure if my board has this feature/supports it, or if it can unlock cores).
Click to expand...

Black edition processors make it a lot easier to overclock but you will get better performance out of an overclock that mainly raises the fsb. That is because you are also raising the performance of your ram and PCIx slots.

The hex cores have no cores to unlock. So you do not need to worry about that feature. :)

If you were already thinking about getting the 1075T then I'd say that the extra $20 is worth it for the unlocked multiplier. The extra $60 is a lot for that feature but it might be worth it to you.
 
I think i'll go with the 1090t, but wait until I see a deal. If I get the psu first, can I use it to test parts as they arrive?
 
Save your money until you can afford all the parts then buy them all together and test them. The only parts I can think of you would be able to individually test is a hard drive and power supply.
 
I would if I could, but it would take too long. I can afford nice stuff one by one though. If I have the psu, case, and mobo can I test the other parts?
 
You need at least the processor, motherboard, power supply, case, RAM, DVD drive and a working hard drive with an operating system installation disk to thoroughly test things. If the motherboard doesn't have onboard video you are also then going to also need a video card.
 
I figured as long as I had the psu I could power up and test whatever is connected to it via mobo. First build though, so I don't fully know how it all works yet. I'm just kinda playing this pc building thing by ear.
 
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It was a good read/tutorial yes. The problem i'm having is I don't think there will be combo deals on the specific parts I have in mind(pioneer bd-205, seagate barracuda xt 2tb, phenom ii x6 1090t, corsair ax1200, g skill flare 8gb 2000 ddr3). Rough idea, still thinking it over, but it looks like i'll have plenty of time to as the project continues on. I hear tons of bad reviews about WD and Seagate, but could be packaging errors.
 
Western Digital, Seagate 12th generation or later, or Samsung Spinpoint hard drives are all better quality drives. Just make sure you get a 7200 RPM hard drive. Lower RPM hard drives have slower load times.

Edit: Also, 8 gigabytes of RAM is excessive. I wouldn't buy more than 4 gigabytes of DDR3 16000 RAM.
 
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