Need advice for my very first build!

[Black Mage]

Hey! First time on the forums and first time building a gaming pc, or any computer for that matter. First thing's first, what I'm looking for. I want a fairly high-end pc, but not overdoing it. Initially I thought I would stay under $1000, but it turns out part prices can stack up fast. Now that I'm starting to understand how pcs work, I'm willing to go to $1500, no higher. The prices listed here are from newegg, but mostly buy.com.

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Quad-Core 3.3GHz $220

Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V PRO $210

GPU : Geforce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II $245

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4 GB) 1600MHz $57

PSU: NZXT Hale90-750-M 750W $140

Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H80 $90

Case: NZXT Phantom $140

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB $220

Optical Drive: Asus 24X Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS $20

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium $80

Monitor: Asus VH238H Black 23" Full HD $174

 

Now I have a few questions.

 

1. Will 750W be enough, or shall I go for 850W? I've settled on getting a Hale90 because it fits well into the NZXT Phantom, or so I heard. I'd go with a Corsair PSU as an alternative. (This question will apply for the next build, just in case)

 

2. From the many websites I've gone through to find a cheap, quality hard drive, it seems impossible at the moment. From the news I've read, the prices are due to flooding in Thailand right? Despite the high price, I'm willing to go for a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB. Although any fairly cheap, but good alternatives suggestions would be appreciated. Answered!

 

3. I'm going to admit, I don't care too much about sound. However, I don't know the difference between having a sound card and integrated sound. I like listening to some background music though, so if getting a sound card equals higher quality sound, I'm in. Answered!

 

4. Cooling. I've heard good things about Corsair h80, and things about Hyper 212+. Although what would be best, considering the case I'm getting, NZXT Phantom, is a high-tower case? I've looked up h80 vs h100, and the majority say h100. I just want to confirm if a) h100 will fit, and b) which is better? Answered!

 

5. An SSD, sounds like it might be worth it. However, due to hard drive prices losing sanity, I'm uncertain about it. I don't want to waste money if it doesn't make a difference. So, shall I get one? I'm thinking getting a Vertex 3 OCZ. Answered!

 

6. Finally, is the monitor I have here good, or shall I go for something higher end? I don't really care about size, although smaller than 23" is going to be a pain to my eyes. (This question will apply for the next build, just in case)

 

Any other suggestions, questions, and help are appreciated.

 

Edit: After much help and effort, I've changed some parts of my prototype build. Here it is!

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Quad-Core 3.3GHz $220

Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V PRO $210

GPU : Radeon HD 6950 Twin Frozr II $245

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4 GB) 1600MHz $57

PSU: NZXT Hale90-750-M 750W $140

Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H80 $90

+ Noctua NH-D14(?) $80

Case: NZXT Phantom $140

Solid State Drive: OCZ Vertex 3 120gb $190

Optical Drive: Asus 24X Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS $20

Monitor: Asus VH238H Black 23" Full HD $174

 

And with a new build, there are more questions to be answered. (The previous 1. and 6. questions also apply for this)

 

1. With every good PC there needs to be a decent keyboard and mouse. Suggestions on what I could get? Or shall I stick with old spares that lurks in my basement?

 

2. I realized I didn't need a 1TB of memory, so I took that out all together and replaced it with an SSD. Although I'm a bit worried about the chance of a BSOD happening with my Vertex 3. Should I get the Mushkin Chronos (suggested by Angel), go for a Corsair Force GT, or just stick with Vertex? If I do go for Vertex, should i get the MAX ISOP? (Note: I may be able to get my hands on a fairly small memory HDD, but an HDD nonetheless)

 

3. Alright, taking a good suggestion of adding in a Noctua fan, although is it worth it? Should I just put in air cooling instead of hydro cooling (H80)?

 

4. Twin Frozr II or Twin Frozr III? Or alternative?

 

5. How much of a difference would a change in MHz be for my RAM? Should I go higher?

 

6. I'm already at the peak of my price($1500, not including mouse + keyboard), anything that I should downgrade, or ways to save besides eBay or such websites like that?

 

Again, any other help is appreciated.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Black Mage

[Stonerboy779]

Hey! First time on the forums and first time building a gaming pc, or any computer for that matter. First thing's first, what I'm looking for. I want a fairly high-end pc, but not overdoing it. Initially I thought I would stay under $1000, but it turns out part prices can stack up fast. Now that I'm starting to understand how pcs work, I'm willing to go to $1500, no higher. The prices listed here are from newegg, but mostly buy.com.

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Quad-Core 3.3GHz $220

Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V PRO $210

GPU: Geforce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II $245

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4 GB) 1600MHz $57

PSU: NZXT Hale90-750-M 750W $140

Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H80 $90

Case: NZXT Phantom $140

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB $220

Optical Drive: Asus 24X Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS $20

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium $80

Monitor: Asus VH238H Black 23" Full HD $174

Solid build but where are you buying from?

 

Now I have a few questions.

 

1. Will 750W be enough, or shall I go for 850W? I've settled on getting a Hale90 because it fits well into the NZXT Phantom, or so I heard. I'd go with a Corsair PSU as an alternative.

For a single 560 ti 650watt would be enough for sli 560ti 750 would be fine.

2. From the many websites I've gone through to find a cheap, quality hard drive, it seems impossible at the moment. From the news I've read, the prices are due to flooding in Thailand right? Despite the high price, I'm willing to go for a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB. Although any fairly cheap, but good alternatives suggestions would be appreciated.

Yes atm buying an expensive drive is not good if you can buy a HDD from best buy they have some 1tb drives in $70 region use one of them to hold you over till you get another drive.

3. I'm going to admit, I don't care too much about sound. However, I don't know the difference between having a sound card and integrated sound. I like listening to some background music though, so if getting a sound card equals higher quality sound, I'm in.

Use the onboard and if there is anything you find that really turns you off about it then consider a sound card. May i ask what speakers you are using?

4. Cooling. I've heard good things about Corsair h80, and things about Hyper 212+. Although what would be best, considering the case I'm getting, NZXT Phantom, is a high-tower case? I've looked up h80 vs h100, and the majority say h100. I just want to confirm if a) h100 will fit, and b) which is better?

You could get away with a h100 but using a h80 in the rear exhaust would be better so you can keep better airflow through the case by not restricting the top exhaust. The h80 should provide great cooling and more than sufficent overclocks.

5. An SSD, sounds like it might be worth it. However, due to hard drive prices losing sanity, I'm uncertain about it. I don't want to waste money if it doesn't make a difference. So, shall I get one? I'm thinking getting a Vertex 3 OCZ.

You could get a 64GB drive and use intel SRT to cache your HDD to improve the HDD performance. But if you want an independent drive for OS and some games then 120GB is the size i would recommend. The OCZ vertex 3 is a good drive.

6. Finally, is the monitor I have here good, or shall I go for something higher end? I don't really care about size, although smaller than 23" is going to be a pain to my eyes.

The monitor is good but you could get a 24" acer monitor of the same quality at or below that price.

Any other suggestions, questions, and help are appreciated.

Have a look at the z68 chipset and the feautures it offers and also consider some amd offerings for GPU

[90sgamer]

I'm with Stonerboy on considering some AMD GPUs. You can get a Radeon HD 6950 for around the same cost of the 560 Ti, and it has more muscle. I love my HD 5870, which is certainly a bit slower, however nothing I've tried can slow it down yet @ 1080p (Apart from Crysis w/ 8x AA )

[VaporX]

Unless you need to larger hD space then an SSD is actually a great buy, the key is can you break the horader mentality when it comes to computers.

 

The sound card is the one item I would consider removing. Unless you are very serious about your music quality, I mean picky to the extreme serious AND have a really high end set of speakers like Klipsch then you will have a hard time really getting any differenced in your experience with a sound card. Based onw your own comments about sound I would say that you should save the money or put it somewhere else in the build.

[Tjj226_Angel]

The h100 does not fit well in the phantom case. The H80 is your best bet for water cooling, and the noctua NH-D14 would be nice for air. Personally, if you do go with the H80, I would change the fans out asap. Get some cougar high flow fans in there and freeze the CPU. Make sure you mount that as an intake, otherwise you won't see goo temperatures.

 

Go to best buy like stoner said and get the HDD.....NOW!!! HURRY!!!!!!! Otherwise you will be stuck paying 5 to 6 times more for a hard drive. With the SSD's I would also do what stoner suggested, but I would get this one http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=62873&vpn=MKNSSDCR120GB&manufacture=Mushkin%20Enhanced&promoid=1368 instead of the vertex 3. It is on sale and it is a little bit better than the vertex. It performs about the same as a vertex 3 max iops, and it is 10 bucks cheaper (sale ends soon) so how can you go wrong? You should also buy a 64gb SSD to cache your hard drive for drastically better performance (nothing new there).

 

The sound card is really useless these days. You get great audio from your motherboard, and unless you have the ears of a bat, you are not going to notice that big of a difference.

 

For the monitor, I would keep my eye on something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001474 . Yeah it is super expensive, but with all the black friday sales that are going to be geared towards TVs and monitors you might get lucky and score a really nice monitor in your rice range. Also check out ebay. They have a lot of great deals for monitors in brand new condition.

 

The AMD 6950 is a great choice because through some black magic you can turn it into a 6970. It provides a much bigger bang for the buck.

 

As for the motherboard, I would just spend the extra 60 bucks that you are sure to save if you you can get to best buy in time and go with the Deluxe edition of the motherboard. It usually offers better tools for overclocking, and you usually get your 60 bucks back in a much higher quality board.

[Black Mage]

Alright, I'm taking everyone's advice here. I think I might go with a XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 instead of the 560 Ti I have right now. I'll take out the sound card because from what has been said, there isn't much difference between intergrated sound anyway. Also, from all the positive comments about getting an SSD, I'm not so uncertain about getting one. It's just the price that I might wait on. I'll try to see if I can get to best buy when I can.

[Tjj226_Angel]

Alright, I'm taking everyone's advice here. I think I might go with a XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 instead of the 560 Ti I have right now. I'll take out the sound card because from what has been said, there isn't much difference between intergrated sound anyway. Also, from all the positive comments about getting an SSD, I'm not so uncertain about getting one. It's just the price that I might wait on. I'll try to see if I can get to best buy when I can.

 

For the video card, I would go with the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127588 instead. For 40 bucks more (20 after rebate) you get more memory on the card, and a better company supporting the card. XFX is one of those "to cheap to trust" companies.

 

As for the SSD, you should at least get a 60gb ssd to cache your HDD. You can always add in a 120GB later when prices go down and they work out the firmware issues. However, I guarantee you and every one else reading this post, SSD's make your life soooo much better. When you are on a computer with an HDD it is like trying to breath in water, HDD in raid 0 is like breathing polluted Los Angeles air, and an SSD is like having air injected into your lungs so you never have to take the energy to breath. It is just that good. Combining the HDD and the SSD is like breathing underwater, but you have a scuba tank. It isn't as good as a stand alone SSD, but its better than breathing the Los Angeles air .

 

The sound card is a huge waste, so great choice.

 

Remember too, a lot of this stuff will probably be on sale soon. So don't buy just yet unless you can score an HDD cheap. In that case buy 12 and sell the rest for profit, and use the money to buy an SSD

[Sooth Slayer]

The h100 does not fit well in the phantom case. The H80 is your best bet for water cooling, and the noctua NH-D14 would be nice for air. Personally, if you do go with the H80, I would change the fans out asap. Get some cougar high flow fans in there and freeze the CPU. Make sure you mount that as an intake, otherwise you won't see goo temperatures.

+1. Personally, I'd try to push you away from the H80. You can find better cooling performance with less noise for the same price, or less, with a high-end heat sink. Most mid- and full-ATX towers will accommodate a quality heatsink. There's a good review of the Hydro coolers over at Anandtech.

 

The AMD 6950 is a great choice because through some black magic you can turn it into a 6970. It provides a much bigger bang for the buck.

Be careful about this. Most, if not all 6950 currently on the market cannot be unlocked to the 6970. Not that the 6950 is a bad choice, just don't let the potential to unlock be the deciding factor without doing your research first.

 

I absolutely love ASUS monitors. I bought two of them for my Dad when they first started coming out b/c of their competitive price, and was very impressed. I've since purchased one for myself, and after hearing me talk about how much I liked it, one of my friends picked one up for himself. He's since purchased one for his brother, and talked another of his friends into picking one up. In short, they are very good products. I used to like Acer, but I feel like they let their reputation go to their head. Honestly, though, pretty much any big-name manufacturer will have a quality product. My advice (if you take ASUS out of the equation) is look for the deals, and get the best price you can (for a product you like, of course).

 

Also, if you aren't aware, Tom's Hardware has a regular feature where they break down the best GPU's for the price. They actually just released the Nov. 2011 edition yesterday.

 

EDIT: Also, depending on your gaming res., the more memory on board, the higher graphics settings you can use. I'd say 1GB is a min, 1.5 GB is plenty, and 2GB is probably more than you need (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Edited November 11, 2011 by Sooth Slayer

[Tjj226_Angel]

+1. Personally, I'd try to push you away from the H80. You can find better cooling performance with less noise for the same price, or less, with a high-end heat sink. Most mid- and full-ATX towers will accommodate a quality heatsink. There's a good review of the Hydro coolers over at Anandtech.

 

 

Be careful about this. Most, if not all 6950 currently on the market cannot be unlocked to the 6970. Not that the 6950 is a bad choice, just don't let the potential to unlock be the deciding factor without doing your research first.

 

I absolutely love ASUS monitors. I bought two of them for my Dad when they first started coming out b/c of their competitive price, and was very impressed. I've since purchased one for myself, and after hearing me talk about how much I liked it, one of my friends picked one up for himself. He's since purchased one for his brother, and talked another of his friends into picking one up. In short, they are very good products. I used to like Acer, but I feel like they let their reputation go to their head. Honestly, though, pretty much any big-name manufacturer will have a quality product. My advice (if you take ASUS out of the equation) is look for the deals, and get the best price you can (for a product you like, of course).

 

Also, if you aren't aware, Tom's Hardware has a regular feature where they break down the best GPU's for the price. They actually just released the Nov. 2011 edition yesterday.

 

EDIT: Also, depending on your gaming res., the more memory on board, the higher graphics settings you can use. I'd say 1GB is a min, 1.5 GB is plenty, and 2GB is probably more than you need (not that there's anything wrong with that).

 

+ infinity

 

I would also like to add, samsung is great for monitors. I have a samsung monitor and I absolutley love it. I only wish there was a company that would make I mac quality screens for the consumer. Three of those things with a discrete bezel and 3D surround would be great for gaming.

[Black Mage]

Since I already sliced the sound card out of the equation, I think I'll go with Angel's suggestion of a MSI Twin Frozr II Radeon 6950 HD 2GB. If I can unlock it to 6970, cool, but I'm not banking on it. I don't really need super shiny graphics on max XXXXxXXXX resolution. Although I'll finally be able to play at 60 fps without worrying about too much dropping for most (if not all) games.

 

Also, what's the difference between a 64gb and 120gb SSD? I only started working on this list a month ago, and only now am I seriously working on it. I'm taking advice from friends, critics, magazines, reviews, and forums just to stay unbiased about my opinion. Like they say, knowing is half the battle.

 

Second, what are good brands to look out for when I grab a SSD or HDD?

[Bizzlenitch]

I can verify that this MSI 6950 can indeed have its shaders unlocked (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127575). This is slightly different than the one linked by a previous poster, as it's the Twin Frozr III, but I'd be surprised if there was much difference between the Frozr II and Frozr III other than the cooler. Don't hold me to that though. A lot of folks just flash the BIOS on their 6950s to a 6970 BIOS, which works in some instances, however I think you'd be better served in merely unlocking the extra shaders while leaving everything else the same (clock speeds, memory speeds, etc.). Once unlocked you can then easily manually overclock the card via Afterburner (or other programs). When I did mine there was an excellent guide I found that made it really easy and if you follow the instructions you can also back up your current BIOS before editing it just in case your card doesn't play nice. If you do go this route and decide on a 6950 then I'll dig up that link for you as it was quite helpful and netted me some extra shaders on an already nice card.

 

As far as the difference between the two SSDs, the 64GB indicates its storage capacity (64 gigabytes of data) as opposed to the 120GB (120 gigabytes of data). Just indicates storage capacity, all other things being equal, of course.

 

 

@Angel: Interested you should bring up Samsung monitors as I just upgraded from my old 19" to a 23" inch Samsung. Although that almost didn't happen. After purchasing TWO 24" Samsung's at a local retailer, and returning BOTH for obvious dead pixels, I finally found a 23" at the same resolution at another retailer that didn't have any dead pixels. It was frustrating making that many back-to-back trips to unpack, hook up, and then have to return the hardware. Obviously these things happen on occasion with monitors but to get two in a row with dead pixels... I almost vowed not to waste my time on Samsung products again (and this coming from someone who owns and LOVES his Samsung 46" 120hz flatscreen). Guess I was just unlucky. That said, now that I have one that works I do indeed love it, although the old Acer 19" I upgraded from served me well.

[Sooth Slayer]

Yep, you got it! Read a little, read a lot, and then read some more. On that note, check this article from TechReport for info on SSD's. See Angel? Thanks to you, I learned something that could help others on the site!