To build or to buy?

W

walleyecrazy

New Member
I am in the market for a new desktop. I have never done my own build but have always thought about doing one. I mainly use my desktop for photo/video editing and for streaming music to my home theater setups. I'm looking for big storage due to the photos and videos and HDMI out for my monitor. Other than that I haven't really kept up with the hard ware side of computers for about 5 years so I don't really even know what the latest and greatest is. Would I be better off doing a build, or would I be better off just taking something off the shelf?
 
you will be better off building, no matter what you plan to do with the computer.

What is your budget, and do you have a preference for AMD or Intel, or likewise Nvidia or AMD? And preferences on brands for hardware? Do you need windows, or are you using something else, like Linux?
 
Budget in the 7-800 range probably. I plan on using windows. As far as the processor I seem to have better luck with intel. Beyond that I don't really have any preferences brand wise.
 
The RAM could go a little cheaper if your getting that board. I would be willing to bet the OC capibilities are not good enough to merit buying DDR3 1600 RAM. You would get better performance from DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 with Cas Latency of 7 instead of 8. If you want to overclock your system get a better board. The only reason one should get anything over 1066 is if your going to OC; all systems are going to read your RAM at 1333 speeds UNLESS you change your CPU Freq or you change your multiplier. That is why you see so many people write reviews my RAM isn't at advertised speeds. Its because your supposed to OC your CPU with that RAM.
Just a suggestion here is what I would buy if NOT interested in OC.
GSKILL DDR1066
I do NOT suggest overclocking your computer.
IF you want to OC change CPU to $230 Intel Core i5-2500K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Any motherboard capable of rendering good OC will set you over a budget but just to give the idea further thought.
$170 ASUS P8Z68-V http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

AFTER reviewing Johnies MoBO choice I would suggest it even for mild OCing.
 
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are you a complete imbecile gary?

1. CAS latency 8 @ 1600MHz is actually less than CAS 7 @ 1066.
2. You can do more with photo editing with a Faster ram.
3. He is on a budget and said nothing about overclocking. The 2300 will be fine for him. It's still a lot more efficient than a AMD at the same GHz.
4. DDR3-1600 is just dollars (most of the time not even $10) more than DDR3-1333. The faster the RAM the better the performance. The only reason to use DDR3-1066 is if it is the only supported RAM for your board.
 
1600 is faster than 1066, so therefore the statement stands. and 1866 would perform better than 1600, but its not worth the price.
 
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