New to Computer Building want input

W

webwierdo

New Member
So I have a decent knowledge of computers. I've added new ram and hard drives but nothing really more complicated than that. I am in desperate need of a new computer. I would use my computer for watching movies, surfing the web. I don't plan on any sort of heavy video editing or rendering. I will be playing games and would like it to look great but don't care about maxing out all settings. Still on the higher end of average though. I don't really want to completely build a computer so my plan right now is to get a decent computer pre-built and upgrade a few components. Here is what I'm looking at right now.

Computer

Upgrades

Rough Total: $1300

Now I don't have knowledge of the markets as far as good pricing so my questions are.

1. Will this meet my needs?
2. Could I get relatively same performance for cheaper elsewhere or if I built it from scratch?
3. At that price could I get better components building it from scratch, keep in mind a monitor and Blu-ray is included(not attached to blu-ray though)?
4. Are there any issues I should be aware of with the parts I want to upgrade? For example not having the right slots or connections or not enough of them.
5. Any other advice in general?
 
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I would not. Even the 4850 is only so so and the PSU is not the best. Read through some of the posts for a few days. Where are you located?
 
I'm in US Arizona.

There is another post around here called "$1000 computer build". I'm reading through that. How does that compare to the system I'm looking at? I would want a bigger monitor and more ram but my budget is a little bigger. Also I have no idea what to look for when it comes to motherboards or cases.
 
yeah, i'd say $1300 is a pretty good budget for your needs (will probably exceed your needs), however if you build it from scratch, you will get much better performance:money ratio. (if you do your research and look around). Do you need just a blu-ray player? or do you need a writer/burner? you can get a blu-ray (player), dvd (player/burner), and cd (player) combo drive from newegg for $100 (by LG). Starting with a good motherboard would be a plus. it will (obviously) determine the quality of the other parts.

MSI has one pretty cheap with a lot of nice features- it accepts most of the DDR3 speeds for price/performance variation. :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130257

Nice amount of memory for the money-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227346

good luck!
 
I'm not really attached to the Blu-ray player. Realistically I'm fine with a Dual layer DVD burner. What are the important features to a motherboard and case. I don't know much about either. I know I want something upgradeable for future use. I also know I don't want a case with lights and such. But again I don't know much beyond that.
 
I feel like we would get a long you just because you don't like led fans on your case!

It is easy to go overboard on this stuff. Even though you want to jump in take a week to read the forums and search the web for input.

My thoughts are based on local microcenter prices:

i5-750 $180
ASUS P7P55D-E $160
4 gig $100
Corsair TX650 $99
5770 $175
CM 590 $56
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0282871
Trust me this is your case. You will have to change the front fan for $10
Opical drive $40
Windows 7 $100
WD B 1TB HDD $100
Card reader $15
Total $1026. plus tax = $1126 for local at 10% (I know it a little lower)

Forgot, plus HP 1250 TV tuner $60

You can get a BR dvd drive for under $100 at Frys right now instead of a $20-40 DVD drive. If you were local I would have talked to you about selling my second comp that is about 1 month old since I just love to build computers at the moment, I want to build another. Maybe when nvidia comes out with new cards...

Also, I normally recomend the ATI 5850 since it is a big step up from the 5770 and cost about $310. However, the 5770 sounds like it would be good for you. But, if you like higher performance the 5850 GPU is fantastic!

You can go to the i7 1366 chip, MOBO, and ram for about $100-150 more. Based on MC prices. Forget the future, all of this stuff will be old.
 
Ok here is my build for you

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz

Motherboard:
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

Hard Drive:
HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 (0F10311) 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5

PSU:
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready

RAM:
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory

Video Card: :)
XFX HD-585A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) XXX Edition 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported

CD Drive:
SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo Drive - Bulk SATA Model SH-B083L/BSBP LightScribe Support

Monitor:
Hanns·G HW-191APB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor

Windows 7 64 bit

-$1,319.90 shipped to Milwaukee area with 60$ MIR

Thats what i would get no TV tuner though. Let me know if you would want anything changed

Edit: forgot the case :/ you can use his above or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147135&Tpk=wind knight for ~$60 shipped and buy 3 fans for about $5 a peice
 
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I am thankful for all of your help but I'm more curious about why you make those decisions as oppose too the decision itself. For example on of you said to go with Intel i5 and another said Phenom II x4. What is the reasoning behind these decisions?
 
Even though the i5 is rated at a much lower Freq but it is newer tech and is considered faster in actual application. Every review I have seen to date show this. However, the diff is small and not likely to be noticable in the real world. It just seems like a better idea to buy the new tech than something that is on its way out.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/819/12
 
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Yes, get the i5-750. it really is the much better CPU. it has 2 MB more Level 3 cache, and with intel's turbo boost i think you can get clock speed above 3 GHz. The i5 also takes 30W LESS power, so it will run cooler also. spend the extra $30 for the i5.
 
What are the important points for deciding on a case and motherboard. I know enough to check if they are compatible but other than that. How is one better than the other. What features do some have that others don't?
 
It's mostly about how well the air can move through the case. which you can somewhat help by moving cables out of the way and such. i'd say the next important point would be what the case is made out of (metal is better than plastic obviously) and how many fans you can mount. u'd usually want a 120mm or larger on the back.
 
Well i went with the phenom just cause i could save a little more money there and also the motherboards seem considerably cheaper as well.

Ahh i was going on newegg and the i5-750 is 200 so your saving $90 there.

With motherboard you just have to match it with all the parts you need. Such as correct memory speed the CPU socket number and type of PCI slots you want so on.
 
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ah, yes. for the motherboard, if you use the i5, you'll need DDR3, which is the fastest available memory right now. look for how many memory slots it has, the speed of the memory it accepts (in this case which speed of DDR3). SATA connections (for hard drives). and how many PCI slots it has and what kind they are (PCI, PCI x4, PCI x16). those are the things you look for. for the i5...........

this is the motherboard i'd go with-good number of PCI slots, USB 3.0 support, SATA connections and most of the DDR3 speeds for performance/price variation-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425
 
I see what you mean i went with my build since it is easier to upgrade in the future with the second PCI 2.0 Express slot to get another video card and link em plus one more ram slot on top of the 6 gb if you will ever need more :)
 
The MOBO I am using is fine for everything but CF and cost about $100 if you want to save some cash. It has lots of PCI-E and SATA ports. The only thing it does not have is a fire wire input but I think this is old tech also. The only reason I would not buy it again is because it is shorter (not micro), just left to right in the case. However this also provides some benefits. I still say get an ASUS P7P99T-E, or whatever number I posted before.

USB3 and the SATA 6GBPS are out but who knows how long until we use them. By the time things get faster we will probably only keep our case and PSU anyways.
 
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