New guy posting new gaming pc

[bbeberle]

You could ask 10 people, and 9 would give from their experieince of very few parts, the other will show evidence that the parts they suggested are much better than the parts someone else found to be good, and most others in the range.

1 part at a time:

CPU

the 950 is more expensive, but is a better CPU. What you said about it is actually what should be said about the 1100T. The extra core makes it better at multi-tasking (in theory). That means, unless you are playing 2 games, editing videos, watching 2 movies and having sex with 4 girls at once, you don't need the extra 2 cores, you will get the same performance from a 955 which, if you look, is a hell of a lot cheaper, but is also outperformed by the 950 as well.

Also, going with the 950 will give you triple channel memory, which will improve the performance even further because of greater bandwidth.

To show what I mean:

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/amd_phenom_ii_x6_1100t_be_review/7

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...review-vs-intel-core-i7-950-introduction.html

CPU cooler

You pay $110 for the H70, or $60 for the V6. Performance is either similar, or better from the V6, with a few circumstances where the H70 beats the V6, almost always during the system being idle and at stock clocks. Again, to show what I mean:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1352/6/

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/V6GT/5.html

Memory

Although you may not need 8GB of memory because no program uses that much, it is faster than 4GB, even though the 4GB you posted is higher frequency. The reason, usually, is because of how the system works.

Memory is a hell of a lot faster than a conventional hard drive, and it is also directly accessible by the CPU, where as the hard drive is not. This means data in memory will be much faster than data on the hard drive. When memory reaches capacity, or begins to get full, the system will do what is called paging, where it moves data that has not been used for a long time (in computer time) into a reserved section of secondary storage (ie your hard drive). This takes time to move data to and from memory, and to read it off the much slower hard drive.

With more memory, more data can be held before the system feels the need for paging data. Paging will still occur, but not the same extent, so even though individually, each stick of memory is slower, in reality, having 8GB of slower memory rather than 4GB of faster memory is advantageous.

Motherboard

To compare the Asus and the Gigabyte board (you can change the Gigabyte for ASRock, the same is true for both):

CPU - same CPU support, Athlon II, Phenom II, Sempron

Memory - 16GB total, Asus up to 2000MHz, Gigabyte up to 1866MHz.

I am going to make a point of saying, if you put 1866MHz in either, or 2000MHz in the Asus, you can only use 2 of the 4 slots. You can't use 4 sticks of 2000MHz memory, so by getting "faster" memory, you can only have 8GB of memory maximum, NOT 16

Expansion slots - Gigabyte is better. Same PCIe x16 - 4 slots, 2 @x16, 1@x4, 1@x8 on both

but, the gigabyte has 2 x PCIe x1 + 1 PCI,
the Asus has 2 PCI.

SATA slots - Gigabyte better, it has 1 extra SATA 3 port

Sound - Both ~the same, as per usual, onboard is ok but not going to be as good as a dedicated sound card

I/O ports - Gigabyte better.

2 USB 3.0 on each
7 USB 2.0 on Asus, 6USB 2.0 on Gigabyte
1 eSATA on Asus, 2 eSATA/USB on Gigabyte
1 Firewire on Asus, 2 Firewire on Gigabyte

Same form factor, same onboard USB, same onboard firewire, same warranty, but Gigabyte is cheaper.

What should be said about warranty though is generally, from experience and other's experience, Gigabyte warranty service is much better than Asus. You pay extra for Asus because of the marketing bull, not because you are getting a better board.

With all due respect, if you take your friend's advice, you will have a good system, if you take the advice of those of us on here, you will get the better system, and the best for your money.

Your friend may have built a computer, that doesn't mean that he knows about current technology and how the parts stack up against each other, and in the army, they don't spend all of their time building systems. Part time I build systems, and although it is more of a hobby that I earn a little on the side for, I do more building in that time than your army friend would. A lot of the regulars on here will look through threads such as yours on a daily basis, so we know what we are talking about.

I come on here to help and to discuss computers because they are my main hobby and I love to work with them, not for recognition or anything else, and I've put this much time in to try and show you that the system you put together has a lot of wasted parts, and a lot of you buying into marketing crap because higher numbers, higher prices and fancy names must equal better, when it really does not

I am sure your points are very valid and correct but so is my good friends. Both CPU's are damn good....either way I would have gone I would have had great performance. The 950 is more expensive but how much better is it? Leaps and bounds? No, so I am perfectly fine with the cheaper AMD, which is still an amazing CPU.

The cooler, so I spent an extra 40 bucks, I think it would be fun to try something I've never tried before. I didn't even know about the H70 until a few good friends told me about it. It may cool the same in some situations and better in others but why do I have to go with a traditional cooling unit. I like the H70, it'll work very well. And I dont mind paying a little extra...it's only money you know...

as for the memory, I'll never need 16, nor will I need 8. So why even bring that up? The chances of my ram maxing out in capacity is low considering WIn7 doesn't use anything over 3 gigs anyways. Well...I'm sure some 64bit programs do, I'm quite sure Autocad does or can. I'm fine with the 4 gigs.

For the motherboard, I won't even fight with you on that haha. You know FAR more than I do, that obvious. Part of this whole experience for me anyways is learning. The giga might be better in your eyes but I am not convinced. Not on that part.

As for my good friend who helped me build this. He isn't in the army haha. He is a Marine, it is quite different. I get it hard to convey emotion over the internet but I found what you said rather elitist and off putting. You tell me my parts are wrong and he has no idea of current technology yet you've told me this is only a part-time hobby thing for you. Where as my good friend has spent countless hours with todays current and advanced technology in his day job, in the field and at home. Assumptions are never a good thing.

I am very glad I came here to see yalls opinions and even though I didn't act on yalls opinions...that doesn't mean my new build will be better or worse than the ones yalls told me about. Well...not by huge margins anyways. At the end of the day, I am not concerned about the money I spent nor have I considering returning a part for one yall recommended I get. So I am pretty damn excited about getting this rig running, shit I am more excited about this rig than I am about Christmas haha. Plus I get to use my old rig as a learning tool. I'ma tear it down and build it back up, I need to learn the ins and outs of building a computer. Thanks Asstii