New build parts list - review appreciated

W

WhiteTree

New Member
Ok, time for a new (first) build. Would prefer a quiet computer. Also, dust is a major issue here. May buy a copy of Windows later, but will try Ubuntu for now.

I'm trying to decide on some parts. I would prefer not to spend too much. I'd rather not pay more for one part when I wouldn't notice a difference over a cheaper part. Currently, if I choose the cheaper components here, it adds up to about $800 + $30 Shipping (including monitor).

Thanks for any help and suggestions. :)

Usage:
  • Old games at max settings - AoE3 (2005), BFME2 (2006), etc
  • New games that are not too demanding (Minecraft)
  • 3D modelling, rendering, and 2D image work (only occasionally, nothing too extreme)
  • Compiling code
  • Virtual machines
  • Multitasking

Case
LIAN LI PC-A05NA Silver Aluminum ATX Mini Tower ($89.99 - Free Shipping)
LIAN LI PC-A05NB Black Aluminum ATX Mini Tower Computer Case ($89.99 - $9.99 Shipping)
LIAN LI PC-A04A Silver Aluminum MicroATX Mini Tower ($109.99 - $16.41 Shipping)
LIAN LI PC-A04B Black Aluminum MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case ($109.99 - $16.41 Shipping)

PSU
SeaSonic S12II 380B 380W ATX12V v2.3 ($53.99 - $9.20 Shipping)
SeaSonic S12II 430B 430W ATX12V V2.3 ($69.99 - $10.18 Shipping)
Other power supplies in this range (SeaSonic seems to be pretty good)

RAM
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ($39.99 - Free Shipping)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ($46.99 - Free Shipping)

MOBO
ASRock H67M (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX ($99.99 - $7.56 Shipping)
MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX ($99.99 - $7.56 Shipping)
Other Motherboards with USB 3.0 (prefer no H61, and don't really need P67)

CPU
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) ($189.99 - Free Shipping)
Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) ($209.99 - Free Shipping)

GPU
SAPPHIRE 100287L Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 ($72.99 - $1.99 Shipping)
Other 5670s

DVD
ASUS Black DVD ($18.99 - $6.98 Shipping)

HDD
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 3.5" ($39.99 - $1.99 Shipping)
Other hard drives in this range (Will probably get an SSD later, so don't really see any reason for Black drives,
but feel free to try to convince me that they are worth it)

Monitor
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Acer V243HAJbd Black 24" 2ms(GTG) 300 cd/m2 ACM 80000:1(1000:1) ($179.99 - $8.99 Shipping)

ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1)
Built in Speakers ($179.99 [$169.99 after mail-in rebate card] - $8.99 Shipping)
(prefer no integrated speakers)

Other matte monitors (at least I think those listed are matte) - Also, prefer no integrated speakers
 
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This is a better power supply for about the same price:

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650 Watt Continuous Power Power Supply - $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=antec_power_supply-_-17-371-015-_-Product

This hard disk drive has fast read and write speeds:

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320 gigabyte 7200 RPM 16 megabytes Cache Serial ATA Hard Drive - $50.30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...e=samsung_f4_spinpoint-_-22-152-244-_-Product

Any reason you are looking at Micro ATX motherboards over ATX?
 
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Well, I don't have any particular need for ATX, and one of the two cases listed only supports Micro ATX. So if I get an ATX, then I would have to go with the first case listed. The first case is significantly less expensive though, (and the silver version of it has free shipping), so that might not be a bad thing.

I would prefer quality over wattage, but if the Antec is considered good enough, I might go for it. (Perhaps there is a cheaper Antec with lower wattage that is still good quality? The 5670 is not a demanding card - needs a PSU of about 400W I think.)

320GB is a lot smaller than 500GB, but it is probably still big enough. Also, it's $10 more. Would the performance benefit be noticeable in real world usage?
 
I think the Samsung Spinpoint F4 hard drive is a good buy. I own one myself and can attest its fast read speeds. Since the biggest bottleneck in a computer is a hard drive I would get a fast one. If you feel you need more storage space than 320 gigabytes I would buy two of them.

Here is another good model of power supply I would look at:

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-430D Green 430 Watt Continuous power Power Supply - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=antec_power_supply-_-17-371-034-_-Product
 
I just did a test on my Samsung Spinpoint F4 hard drive and the program said it had about a 147 megabyte per second read speed.
 
Would the Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200 RPM 16MB be perceivably slower than those speeds?
The second ram I listed has better timings, but is a bit more expensive.
The 2500 is a little bit faster than the 2400, but does it really matter?

These are the kinds of things I'd like to know. What's really worth spending the extra money on, and what won't make a noticeable difference.
 
Likely, from what I have read, the Western Digital Caviar Blue hard drive would have read speeds of around 100 megabytes per second.

I would take a look at this RAM. It is faster and not much more expensive:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4 gigabytes (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop RAM - $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427

Go with the Intel Core i5 2400 Processor. The other Core i5 is clocked a little higher, but not worth the price difference.

Edit: I was reading through the reviews on the MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) Motherboard. Apparently some people are complaining about problems with the motherboard. The ASRock H67M (B3) Motherboard may be a better buy.
 
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For the motherboards, I just picked two that had some decent reviews, USB 3, and were around $90-100. I'd rather not spend more than that on the motherboard, but I wasn't really thrilled with either of those. (I suppose I could get a P67 and overclock the 2400 to run at 2500 speeds (since they give 0.4 GHz of room I think), but considering the difference is only 20$, it wouldn't make much sense to get a more expensive motherboard just to do that.)

Hmm, 100 and 147 megabytes per second are indeed significantly different.

I've heard the ram speed isn't all that important in real world use, but I could be wrong. From what I've seen, this is 1333, but should perform similarly to the 1600 because it has better timings. 1333 should be easier to set up since Sandy Bridge doesn't "officially" support 1600.
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM

Would that faster ram (or the one with better timings) or the better hard drive actually make the computer faster, or would it really only be seen in benchmarks?
 
Just a couple indifferent thoughts for you 2, then I'll get out of your way.

Consider modular for either case, esp A05. One is full mod and higher end, but costs more. The other is good too and altho not full mod, the price is very good for it's qaulity range. And with either you'll be able to leave out the PCIe cable(s) you won't be using.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007657%20600029977%20600014020&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&CompareItemList=58%7C17-256-065%5E17-256-065-TS%2C17-341-016%5E17-341-016-S01%23

If you want C8, and like said 1600 is faster and has headroom for your oc.
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-4GBXM

Free ship.
LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support

$10 off on the 2400 till 4/4, get 3rd party cooler/paste.

Thanks,
Have a nice day.
 
Fairly sure about these: (although I'd like to see more about the A05FN...)
LIAN LI PC-A05NA Silver Aluminum ATX Mini Tower ($89.99 - Free Shipping)
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) ($189.99 - Free Shipping)

These all seem adequate:
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ($39.99 - Free Shipping)
ASRock H67M (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX ($94.99 - $4.99 Shipping)
SAPPHIRE 100287L Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 ($72.99 - $1.99 Shipping)
ASUS Black DVD ($19.99 - $6.98 Shipping)

Probably will get an SSD before too long, so this probably be good enough, (but I might still get the Samsung spinpoint)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 3.5" ($39.99 - $1.99 Shipping)

PSU choices (not sure how much I need, might even be able to get by with the 380W, but a little extra room could be handy)
SeaSonic S12II 380B 380W ATX12V v2.3 ($59.99 - $9.20 Shipping)
SeaSonic S12II 430B 430W ATX12V V2.3 ($72.99 - $10.18 Shipping)
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 ($74.99 - $9.65 Shipping)

[edit]
Hmm, it's an H61, but otherwise seems good:
ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX ($79.99 - $6.98 Shipping)

[edit2]
This ram seems nice, but I'd probably wouldn't notice any performance increase...
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (timing: 8-8-8-24) ($46.99 - Free Shipping)
 
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I would get these following parts that you are still deciding on:

ASRock H67M (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX motherboard

SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333

That other motherboard you were looking at doesn't look like it has the chipset fix on it.
 
I would generally assume that newegg isn't selling anything pre-B3. From the comments, "Though not mentioned on newegg, it does have the B3 stepping." I have noticed newegg occasionally mislabels things. (I've seen them list hyper threading and turbo boost on processors that don't have them, and the mATX case I listed earlier was called ITX for awhile.) The H61 does lack a few features, but I don't know that I would need them. It is significantly cheaper though.

As for the SeaSonic S12II 520W and the 430W - they are so close in price. Just wanted to make sure the 520W isn't worse in any way. $2-3 more for about 90 additional watts isn't too bad at all. In fact, it's probably worth it even if I don't really need it. (It's easy to evaluate processors that are close in price. I don't know much about PSUs.)

RAM: about $7 for slightly better timings. That's not much, but then I can also get the next processor (2500) for only $20 more... $20 more can also get the modular version of the 520W PSU... and so on :(
 
SeaSonic makes great power supplies. The SeaSonic 520 Watt Power Supply you were looking at has 6 Serial ATA Power Connectors, a PCI-Express 6-Pin connector, a PCI-Express 6+2-Pin connector and a 5 year warranty covering parts and labor. I think it is an excellent buy.

I wouldn't bother with the Core i5 2500 processor. It almost has the exact same processing power as the Core i5 2400 processor.
 
Ok, here's what I've got so far. I think I'm going to buy it this weekend.

LIAN LI PC-A05NA Silver Aluminum ATX Mini Tower ($89.99 - Free Shipping)
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 ($74.99 - $9.65 Shipping)
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) ($189.99 - Free Shipping)
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ($39.99 - Free Shipping)
GIGABYTE GA-H61M-USB3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 USB 3.0 Micro ATX ($89.99 - $6.98 Shipping)
SAPPHIRE 100287L Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 ($72.99 - $1.99 Shipping)
ASUS Black DVD ($19.99 - $6.98 Shipping)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 3.5" ($39.99 - $1.99 Shipping)
 
That looks like a decent system to me. The only thing missing is the Windows installation disk but I do believe you stated that you were going to use Linux Ubuntu instead. I would recommend Ubuntu 32-bit Version 10.04.

Edit: The only thing I do not like is that Gigabyte motherboard only has 4 Serial ATA ports and no Parallel ATA ports. My Micro ATX GIGABYTE GA-M78SM-S2H motherboard has 6 Serial ATA ports and one Parallel ATA port.
 
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