Setting up my rig

J

JAW91

New Member
Right now I have
Nvidia 9500GT graphics card (1GB)
Intel i7 processor
4 Super Talent 2gb RAM Cards
Herolchi 450W PSU
Western Digital Hard drive.
All inside some $35 case I bought a long time ago lol

BUT I have 0 case fans. I have a spot for 3, one in the front, one in the back, and one on the side. I want to go with a black and green theme kind of thing. My case is black and silver but mostly black. I was thinking for my PSU I want to get http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=39310 since right now I think I only have a 450W, I was going to get because it is on special right now, but I want to get you guys thoughts and opinions on it first before I do anything. I was thinking for fans to get the Aerocool fans or ThermalTake or maybe even Bit Fenix depending on which was better quality. I'm pretty new to any kind of case modifying or anything like that but it looks pretty self explanatory to me, the grill's are already there for the fans. I also need to get 1 more 2g Super Talent ram card since one of mine just went.

I play APB on this computer, not sure if you guys are familiar with it but it requires pretty much everything I have now.
 
If I were to upgrade anything in that rig I would leave the ram as it is. 8gb ip plenty. I would get a better video card, with that a better psu. For the fans I would go for something really quiet like enermax/cooler master. i have cooler master fans and they're amazing, very quiet. It's hard for me to recommend a gpu cause I don't know your budget, so if you are willing to share that we could help you out more.
 
Well I'm just kind of putting together a list right now so when I have the money I can buy everything or buy everything one at a time. The reason I want to get 1 more stick of ram is because one of mine went bad so now I have 6gb instead of 8gb. I'm going to go look at the fans you recommended now.
 
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I'd maybe consider just selling your working RAM and buying 2x4GB sticks to replace it. Just to make things easier if you ever wanted to go to 16GB in the future.

What exact i7 do you have? Some of the older higher-end i7s had triple-channel configurations, but most of the newer and lower-end ones have dual-channel configurations.

I would definitely replace the 9500 GT with something a lot more powerful. At this point in time, almost anything even in the low-mid range market is an upgrade from an 9500 GT. I don't know how much money you have, but I'd probably go and get something along the lines of maybe 7870 or an R9 270X or a GTX 760 if you have the money to spend.

You should also get a new power supply too. The Corsair CX 600M would be good. 600 watts and semi-modular and it's affordable.
 
Its the DP55WB

I think I will save and get the GTX 760, I want to stick with Nvidia since I have liked the 9500GT so far and it has treated me well. I also would definitely like to look into getting 4GB ram sticks, when I had this computer built they didn't have that out yet.
 
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So, you have a P55 board, which means your i7 is an i7 8xx something if memory serves me correctly.

In that case, 2x4GB would probably be ideal since the i7s on LGA 1156 had dual-channel memory configurations. So, look at selling your 3x2GB, unless you want to buy another 2GB stick, but it can be a pain filling up all of your RAM bays. I'd only get another 2GB stick if you are determined you're going to stay with 8GB.

You can run mismatched sticks, but generally it's best practice to run sticks of the same speed and type, so there's another reason to look into going 2x4GB instead.

And the 760 is a good card. It's a hell of a lot better than a 9500 GT. That 9500 is seriously bottlenecking your i7 in gaming at the moment.
 
spirit said:
So, you have a P55 board, which means your i7 is an i7 8xx something if memory serves me correctly.

In that case, 2x4GB would probably be ideal since the i7s on LGA 1156 had dual-channel memory configurations. So, look at selling your 3x2GB, unless you want to buy another 2GB stick, but it can be a pain filling up all of your RAM bays. I'd only get another 2GB stick if you are determined you're going to stay with 8GB.

You can run mismatched sticks, but generally it's best practice to run sticks of the same speed and type, so there's another reason to look into going 2x4GB instead.

And the 760 is a good card. It's a hell of a lot better than a 9500 GT. That 9500 is seriously bottlenecking your i7 in gaming at the moment.
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The last comment hurt, I wish I would have known that before I even bought it. I don't want to run miss-matched sticks, I know Super Talent is a good brand but do they make the 4GB sticks? Do you have a preference on brand? I would much rather have 16GB then 8GB by the way, the only reason I only have 8GB is because I didn't think they had 4GB cards out when my computer was made yet.

Also, inside it says its an E64798-205.
 
Also, I know you said the Corsair would be a good one to get but what about the XFX 650W XXX Edition? The reason I'm asking is because I found one at a store near me for 50% off.
 
JAW91 said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231440

So this would be good, right? I was thinking about just getting 2 sticks at a time. Also, to be honest... I don't like that that stick went bad with my computer being built so recently. Plus I saw that the GSkill was a lifetime warranty. :good:
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Yeah that should be fine. It's a bit of a shame that your board is limited to 1333MHz memory but hey, not a lot you can do about that.

JAW91 said:
Also, I know you said the Corsair would be a good one to get but what about the XFX 650W XXX Edition? The reason I'm asking is because I found one at a store near me for 50% off.
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Any power supply from Corsair, OCZ, Seasonic, XFX, Silverstone or Antec is usually a good buy. These are the brands to stick to.
 
spirit said:
Yeah that should be fine. It's a bit of a shame that your board is limited to 1333MHz memory but hey, not a lot you can do about that.
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Sorry to sound ignorant, but I'm very new to this and am trying to learn as I go and you seem to know a lot about this. Why is that so bad that it is limited to 1333MHz?


spirit said:
Any power supply from Corsair, OCZ, Seasonic, XFX, Silverstone or Antec is usually a good buy. These are the brands to stick to.
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Good to know, I'll keep my search limited to those brands. I like the Corsair though, mostly because I like the colors they go with lol. Since I'm trying to stick with black and green, if I have the option to go with a 750W instead of a 600W should I do it? I'm guessing the more power the better, right?
 
JAW91 said:
Sorry to sound ignorant, but I'm very new to this and am trying to learn as I go and you seem to know a lot about this. Why is that so bad that it is limited to 1333MHz?




Good to know, I'll keep my search limited to those brands. I like the Corsair though, mostly because I like the colors they go with lol. Since I'm trying to stick with black and green, if I have the option to go with a 750W instead of a 600W should I do it? I'm guessing the more power the better, right?
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That 1333MHz is a measurement of speed for your RAM. The faster your RAM, the less time your CPU will be waiting around for data from the RAM. You'll get better performance with faster RAM. It won't be a night and day difference, but it is obviously better for it to be faster.

750W vs a 600W is more complicated than just wattage. As long as both are from reliable brands and of equal quality then obviously might as well get the 750 if they're the same price. That's rare to happen though unless there's a sale on the 750. It's complicated on how to understand what makes a good power supply so we generally just tell people what to get based on brand/model. I don't understand power supplies very well myself. I know Okedokey knows it really well and could do a good job of explaining what makes a good unit.
 
1333MHz is quite slow for RAM these days. These days, for high-end systems at at least, 1600MHz is about the minimum and since 1866MHz is getting cheaper, that's what I tend to recommend. Sticks which are beyond 2000MHz are also beginning to get more affordable. Though, I don't think you'll see too much difference between 1333MHz and 1600, so I wouldn't lose sleep over it. ;)

600W vs 750W? Only buy the 750W if you need it unless it's only a tiny bit more expensive than the 600W. 600W is more than adequate for a single mid-range or even high-end graphics card these days since graphics cards are quite power efficient now.
 
Denther said:
That 1333MHz is a measurement of speed for your RAM. The faster your RAM, the less time your CPU will be waiting around for data from the RAM. You'll get better performance with faster RAM. It won't be a night and day difference, but it is obviously better for it to be faster.
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Well I don't feel so bad about it then, after all. I am using it primarily for APB. Which almost runs fine with the system I have right now lol.

Denther said:
750W vs a 600W is more complicated than just wattage. As long as both are from reliable brands and of equal quality then obviously might as well get the 750 if they're the same price. That's rare to happen though unless there's a sale on the 750. It's complicated on how to understand what makes a good power supply so we generally just tell people what to get based on brand/model. I don't understand power supplies very well myself. I know Okedokey knows it really well and could do a good job of explaining what makes a good unit.
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Both are Corsair, but the reason I asked is because it would only be $10 more for the 750W.
 
spirit said:
1333MHz is quite slow for RAM these days. These days, for high-end systems at at least, 1600MHz is about the minimum and since 1866MHz is getting cheaper, that's what I tend to recommend. Sticks which are beyond 2000MHz are also beginning to get more affordable. Though, I don't think you'll see too much difference between 1333MHz and 1600, so I wouldn't lose sleep over it. ;)
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That's a relief though, I'm planning now on getting 32GB of RAM now instead of just the 16GB. But I'm going to get it 2 sticks at a time. Would I need the 750W PSU for going with 32GB of ram or would that not make a difference?
 
Just get the 600w unless you think you'll ever do Crossfire or SLI or use a crazy high end card.

Also 32GB of RAM is basically nuts unless you want either a RAM disk or are doing something like Virtual Machines. I game a decent amount on my machine (see specs in below in my sig) and frequently have a decent amount of stuff open. I have 12GB of RAM and have never seen my usage go above 6GB with a demanding game open as well as several tabs of Chrome, Steam, Skype, FRAPS, Origin, and a few other programs open as well. 16GB is plenty for now and honestly 8GB is still probably good enough. 32GB is just a flat waste of money.
 
Yeah lol I'll probably just run the 2x8GB cards for now then unless they come out with like a Forza virtual game or something crazy like that. Doubt I will end up ever doing it though since that would pretty much require a whole different type of set-up. I have 6GB of ram right now and I'm not sure if its my connection or the ram or what but I can feel it being slow during APB game play. Never did that when I had 8GB though, I also had a different internet connection too though so I'm not sure if maybe that's it.
 
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