Should I buy a Black Friday computer or build one myself?

I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
wolfeking said:
yep. Jason is very good at setting up builds.
Click to expand...

Awesome! He pretty much designed my entire build lol!

Btw, notice you're from NC so I have to say I LOVE Black Friday! Picked up the I5-3570K for $150 and the Chaser MK-1 Case for $90. Of course plus tax, so more like $260 total, but that's still saving $65 from what I was going to order from Newegg :)

I was in the (relative to me) cold at 3 AM and left the store at 7 in the morning and I was smiling all the way on the ride back home lol! :D
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
I live in NC, I am not from here. And the tax here adds 8% to the cost. When I buy things local, I go across the boarder to VA and save 3% on the tax. Does not sound like much, but it is %.30 on every $20 spent, and that adds up quick.

And yea, he is pretty much a pro at it.
 
I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
Alright last time I post this build lol I promise. I have ordered or bought in a store all items for the prices listed. If bought IN STORE, I included 7% tax as well into the price as I am still paying that much money!

Processor:
Intel I5-3570K
IN STORE
$160

Graphics Card:
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102983
$210


Motherboard:
ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837
$140


Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231489
$50


Storage:
Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200RPM 3 TB SATA 6 GB/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148736
$90


Case:
Thermaltake Chaser MK-I System Cabinet
IN STORE
$120


Power Supply:
CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139028
$70


Optical Drive:
ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...SUS-_-27135252
$75

Monitor:
Acer S211HL bd 22" Class LED Monitor - 1080p, 1920x1080, 12000000:1 Dynamic, 5ms, VGA, DVI
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6416892
$115

Generic Wireless Keyboard and Mouse:
IN STORE
$5


So including tax,

Price Before Rebates: $915

Rebates: $110

Total Build Price: $805

Total Build Price including Monitor, Keyboard and mouse: $925

:)
 
Last edited:
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
Are you getting/do you have, a aftermarket cooling solution? That will determine the answer.

In all truth, OC it. OC your graphics and RAM too. It is retarded to buy a k series CPU, a GPU in any case, and RAM, if you are not going to push it to its best performance. But you may want to stay where you are if you don't know what you are doing.
 
I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
wolfeking said:
Are you getting/do you have, a aftermarket cooling solution? That will determine the answer.

In all truth, OC it. OC your graphics and RAM too. It is retarded to buy a k series CPU, a GPU in any case, and RAM, if you are not going to push it to its best performance. But you may want to stay where you are if you don't know what you are doing.
Click to expand...

My entire build budget including monitor, keyboard and mouse was $1000. I'm at $925 right now, so I was looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099. Any good?

And the truth is I don't know what I'm doing, but I tend to think I catch on fairly well. If I can learn to build a computer on my own, I'm sure I could learn to OC properly, but as with everything I've been doing in the past few days, I will have to read a lot of threads/watch a bunch of youtube videos/and ask you guys.

I'm scared to OC it, but if it's not too hard, I would think I can manage. Would you still recommend me doing it?
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
no need to watch a bunch of videos. Your board has a program called AS Suite II (may be III on yours). Just go in there, and select auto tune. It will OC your system for you to a point that it is stable and more or less 30% faster. It ramps mine up to 4.3GHz from stock (though manual at 4.8GHz is plainly faster).

That cooler is not the best, its not even great. It is what I use, and given the chance, I would send it back and get something from Phanteks or Noctua, maybe even Artic. The fan has failed after no more than 6 months of use, and it only cooled half decent to start with. It will work, but there are better coolers out there.
 
I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
wolfeking said:
no need to watch a bunch of videos. Your board has a program called AS Suite II (may be III on yours). Just go in there, and select auto tune. It will OC your system for you to a point that it is stable and more or less 30% faster. It ramps mine up to 4.3GHz from stock (though manual at 4.8GHz is plainly faster).

That cooler is not the best, its not even great. It is what I use, and given the chance, I would send it back and get something from Phanteks or Noctua, maybe even Artic. The fan has failed after no more than 6 months of use, and it only cooled half decent to start with. It will work, but there are better coolers out there.
Click to expand...

anything from those brands, or a specific one?
 
I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
Last edited:
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Hey your build looks pretty good. If you wanted a higher-end board than the one you chose I would say the P8Z77-V PRO is the next step up, or from the Gigabyte side either the Z77X-UD3H or the Z77X-UD5H

ASUS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131819

Gigabyte http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544&Tpk=z77x-ud3h or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545

Either one will work with a 3570K flawlessly. I've used the UD5H from Gigabyte before (but with an i7 3770). Awesome boards! Update the BIOS though before you do anything major with regards to overclocking, the older BIOSes for those boards (the ones from about April/May time when those boards first came out) have problems. The newer BIOSes fix those problems.

ASUS' auto overclock thing works nicely for me on my P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 and i5 2500K. Got it to 4.3GHz and has been rock solid. I just went into the BIOS and clicked on 'Performance' and I was done. You can overclock by raising voltages and multipliers too, but I don't have time for that.

The aftermarket cooler you chose is good for the money. Your 3570K should run nice and cool with it. I use an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13, works a treat and I believe it's cheaper.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
ihaveacamaro said:
Which one is better:

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608024

or

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

They are the same price after coupons.

Both seem to have issues with "tall" RAM. I'm not sure if I have that or not?

I'm convinced Newegg is changing their links on me. They work for a while and then stop. Here is my RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231489
Click to expand...
your RAM is tall. That is an issue with every cooler out there. Even a 212+/evo has issue with tall ram. My Patriot G2 barely fits and it has one of the smallest heatsinks around.

Both coolers are the same design. One of them just comes with teh LGA2011 hardware that you do not need.

I would go with a lower end noctua though. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608016 for example.
 
I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
spirit said:
Hey your build looks pretty good. If you wanted a higher-end board than the one you chose I would say the P8Z77-V PRO is the next step up, or from the Gigabyte side either the Z77X-UD3H or the Z77X-UD5H

ASUS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131819

Gigabyte http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544&Tpk=z77x-ud3h or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545

Either one will work with a 3570K flawlessly. I've used the UD5H from Gigabyte before (but with an i7 3770). Awesome boards! Update the BIOS though before you do anything major with regards to overclocking, the older BIOSes for those boards (the ones from about April/May time when those boards first came out) have problems. The newer BIOSes fix those problems.

ASUS' auto overclock thing works nicely for me on my P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 and i5 2500K. Got it to 4.3GHz and has been rock solid. I just went into the BIOS and clicked on 'Performance' and I was done. You can overclock by raising voltages and multipliers too, but I don't have time for that.

The aftermarket cooler you chose is good for the money. Your 3570K should run nice and cool with it. I use an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13, works a treat and I believe it's cheaper.
Click to expand...

Which cooler are you talking about since I listed 3 so far since you last posted?

If one of the noctua, then unfortunately, I will have hit my budget and can't get the better motherboard. If they hyper 212 evo, then I can get the more expensive mobo...
 
I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
wolfeking said:
your RAM is tall. That is an issue with every cooler out there. Even a 212+/evo has issue with tall ram. My Patriot G2 barely fits and it has one of the smallest heatsinks around.

Both coolers are the same design. One of them just comes with teh LGA2011 hardware that you do not need.

I would go with a lower end noctua though. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608016 for example.
Click to expand...

That noctua would fit without problems?
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
The Noctua Wolfe linked to would be your best bet - or... how about something like an H50? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010 wouldn't have to worry about your RAM sticks being high with that.

One thing I will say though: I have all the bays on my board filled with high RAM DIMMs and I have a cooler installed. Admittedly the cooler is quite small and it is mounted the wrong way up, but it does clear all the RAM sticks.

If you went with that Noctua I'd get low profile RAM. Corsair Vengeance low profile would be good.

Edit: I was talking about the 212+ EVO.
 
I

ihaveacamaro

New Member
spirit said:
The Noctua Wolfe linked to would be your best bet - or... how about something like an H50? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010 wouldn't have to worry about your RAM sticks being high with that.

One thing I will say though: I have all the bays on my board filled with high RAM DIMMs and I have a cooler installed. Admittedly the cooler is quite small and it is mounted the wrong way up, but it does clear all the RAM sticks.

If you went with that Noctua I'd get low profile RAM. Corsair Vengeance low profile would be good.

Edit: I was talking about the 212+ EVO.
Click to expand...

What are the advantages of liquid cooling vs a normal fan? Is liquid cooling much less predictable since the pump can fail?

I have no bias either way, just curious
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Temperatures are generally lower with liquid cooling, and you won't have to worry about the height of your RAM DIMMs.
 
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