Planning first-time build, seeking advice

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Davis Goertzen

New Member
Hello all,

I’m planning to build a new computer, I’ve been trying to do some research, and I need your input now. I’m not a hardcore gamer by any stretch; Microsoft FS 2004 and Cabela’s Trophy Bucks is the extent of my “recent” games library. But, I do want something fairly powerful, and with better graphics capabilities than my laptop has; particularly for stuff like video editing and things like that, my laptop seems to show its weak side somewhat.

Anyhow, I’ve been going on Newegg and looking at stuff, and have made up a list of components. If you guys would be kind enough to critique it I would be grateful.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=6#scrollFullInfo

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=4#scrollFullInfo

RAM: 3 sticks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=4#scrollFullInfo

Graphics card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131373

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#scrollFullInfo

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

I have a couple IDE DVD-burners around (that’s one reason I went with the Gigabyte motherboard, instead of Asus), and a decent little 17” LCD monitor, and a keyboard and mouse already.

Oh, and you probably already guessed, but the reason I’m looking at an SSD and a HDD is to load the OS on the SSD for speed’s sake, and use the HDD as a data drive. I don’t know enough about RAID and all that to even be really interested, to be quite honest.

So, tell me what you think: is there something I should get better stuff? Am I way overkill on some things?

Anyway, I’ll stop my rambling here and await your response. Thanks in advance.

Davis Goertzen
 
Looks good,
case - CM 690 II Excellent case for the money
Get 3x2GB of RAM, 12 is overkill.
HDD - Spinpoint F3 - same performance, better price
GPU - 6870 good choice, one you picked is out of stock

The whole rig is pretty solid, but it's overkill for what you're doing. I'd suggest
i5-760 - Excellent CPU, will cope with gaming and video editing just as well as i7
GA-P55A-UD3- Well featured board from good company
G.Skill DDR3 1600
XFX Black Edition 850W
Gives loads of breathing room, and very high quality unit
The above will be much cheaper than the i7 build; keep the money, or use it on a second HD6870.

The build will power through literally anything you throw at it.
 
Hi there,

Been thinking over your response. What I think I hear you saying is that the proposed rig I laid out is fine, just overkill, right? Well, that was partly intentional; when I build something, I want to build it fast enough that I don’t feel the need to immediately upgrade in 2 or 3 years.

I can see your point on the case and the PSU, those would probably be more cost-effective options. Just got a couple questions/thoughts:

Could you explain why 12 GB of RAM is overkill? You can probably guess that I chose three sticks in order to get triple channel. But my laptop is 3 GB RAM currently.

Umm, your HDD is actually not quite the same performance as mine; specifically, yours has 32 MB Cache, and mine has 64 MB Cache.

I was well aware that the video card I chose was currently out of stock; I figured as soon as it becomes available again, I’d grab it.

i5-760 vs i7-950—okay, I can see the performance is similar, but there are a couple things to note. One, the i5-760 is 4-core, 4-thread, whereas the i7-950 is 4-core, 8-thread; how much of a difference would this make? Also the i5-760 does not appear to support virtualization, which is a bit of a boner because I was thinking of running a virtual machine on here for some XP material. Most important, perhaps, is the fact that the i5-760 uses the LGA 1156 socket and the i7-950 uses the LGA 1366 socket, which is still in use by the top end Intel processors, so the i7-950 allows me a way to upgrade the processor in a while if I want to, when they get cheaper.

Anyway, thanks for your response.

Davis
 
Davis Goertzen said:
Hi there,

Been thinking over your response. What I think I hear you saying is that the proposed rig I laid out is fine, just overkill, right? Well, that was partly intentional; when I build something, I want to build it fast enough that I don’t feel the need to immediately upgrade in 2 or 3 years.

I can see your point on the case and the PSU, those would probably be more cost-effective options. Just got a couple questions/thoughts:

Could you explain why 12 GB of RAM is overkill? You can probably guess that I chose three sticks in order to get triple channel. But my laptop is 3 GB RAM currently.

Umm, your HDD is actually not quite the same performance as mine; specifically, yours has 32 MB Cache, and mine has 64 MB Cache.

I was well aware that the video card I chose was currently out of stock; I figured as soon as it becomes available again, I’d grab it.

i5-760 vs i7-950—okay, I can see the performance is similar, but there are a couple things to note. One, the i5-760 is 4-core, 4-thread, whereas the i7-950 is 4-core, 8-thread; how much of a difference would this make? Also the i5-760 does not appear to support virtualization, which is a bit of a boner because I was thinking of running a virtual machine on here for some XP material. Most important, perhaps, is the fact that the i5-760 uses the LGA 1156 socket and the i7-950 uses the LGA 1366 socket, which is still in use by the top end Intel processors, so the i7-950 allows me a way to upgrade the processor in a while if I want to, when they get cheaper.

Anyway, thanks for your response.
Davis
Click to expand...

Phew, you've done your homework. More so than I have, even :o

HDDs - The SpinPoint is virtually the same speed in the Real world as the Caviar Black. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036333795

12GB of RAM is overkill because no consumer applications currently address that much RAM, and by the time they do we'll be near DDR4

For running a virtual machine, the 950 will come in handy, and HyperThreading, while being detrimental to overclocking, will certainly help in some games and applications.

I see your point about upgradeability. However, you won't see much difference in what you do between a 950 and a 980X. I don't know a game that takes advantage of 6 cores. It may be worth it waiting for Sandy Bridge, skt LGA1155, to come early next year.
 
fastdude said:
Phew, you've done your homework. More so than I have, even :o

HDDs - The SpinPoint is virtually the same speed in the Real world as the Caviar Black. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036333795

12GB of RAM is overkill because no consumer applications currently address that much RAM, and by the time they do we'll be near DDR4

For running a virtual machine, the 950 will come in handy, and HyperThreading, while being detrimental to overclocking, will certainly help in some games and applications.

I see your point about upgradeability. However, you won't see much difference in what you do between a 950 and a 980X. I don't know a game that takes advantage of 6 cores. It may be worth it waiting for Sandy Bridge, skt LGA1155, to come early next year.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I do try to do my research. I was wrong about one thing, though; the i5-760 does support virtualization, so that becomes a moot point.

About the upgrading, yes you're right about the small difference between the 950 and 980X; OTOH, if I get the 760, I can upgrade to an 875K, if I choose, which has an unlocked multiplier. So, all that to say, the i5-760 looks like the better option.

Having figured out that, I'd like a board with eSATA and Firewire, so I picked out a different motherboard than what you suggested. In addition, if I'm going to have 4 RAM slots, I want to put 2x4GB of RAM in, so as to be better than what I have now, and leave room for upgrade. So, here's a look at my revised build:

$205 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067&cm_re=i5-760-_-19-115-067-_-Product

$150 Mobo:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131620

$100 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

$240 Graphics card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131373

$130 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=xfx_power_supply-_-17-207-003-_-Product

$80 Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...119216&cm_re=CM_690_II-_-11-119-216-_-Product

$275 SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348

$70 HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...e=Samsung_Spinpoint_F3-_-22-152-185-_-Product

Total of $1250; previous build was $1660.

What do you think?
 
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