My first ever PC building project! :D

[Teddanator]

Ello! It's nice to meet you all I was brought to this fourm by a fellow co-worker at my jon who seems to frequent this place quite a bit. So yes, just as the topic title states, I am building my first custom PC, as I'm sure you all would be a millionaire by now for every quarter you'd get from hearing someone say that. One reason I'm doing this is especially after having been plagued by nightmarish experiences of overheating in the past, but that's mostly due to my overreliance on laptops. Ahem, getting off topic though. This is also something I've wanted to do since I've been a kid, so yes, perhaps I am pulling a Michael Jackson here and trying to live a part of childhood, though I guess it's at least better than the themepark idea... >.> Err, anyways, I have a budget of 2k. And I want to build a PC that will at least utilize the full potential of SecondLife. At least that is, because I'm also trying to build one that I won't have to replace or upgrade for a long time, especially for more advanced games. Here are the specs I've come up with so far due to the help of my fellow co-worker and another fourm:

 

Note: Each listing not only comes with a name, but a link to the product itself. Enjoy =]

 

GIGABYTE GV-N670OC-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423

 

Thermaltake CLW0211 Bigwater 760 Plus Dual Bay Drives Water Cooling Core i7 Compliant: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106183

 

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164

 

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0, Black Interior and Four Fans-1x 230mm front RED LED fan, 1x 140mm rear fan, 1x 230mm top fan, and 1x 230mm side fan: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

 

COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171048

 

Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model PVI38G213C1K: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220707

 

Seagate Barracuda Green ST1500DL003 1.5TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148725

 

AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103960

 

ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131735

 

The following are links to the combo deals off new egg related to some of these products above:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1067317

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1080486

 

I am afraid I have a few questions though that have me a bit concerned, though these are only known concerns as far as my knowledge goes, but I'm hoping people here can at least lend me assistance on finding the answers I seek.

 

1.) Is it possible for the motherboard listed to support Windows 8 in the future?

 

2.) With all the products and the space of the chassis, would I conserve an effective and noticeable amount of room in the PC by using water cooling technology?

 

3.) My most important one, which is...will the Intel RAM memory listed above work with the motherboard and the rest of the system?

[Teddanator]

Opps! Forgot to mention. I priced all of this at $1,456.92 so far

[Mo2teye]

I see you went with AMD CPU, no fanboyism from my part but suggest a change. I will give u a list of items that i think you should change :

 

Case : get the 932's bigger brother for just a 20$ difference. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225

 

CPU : if u wanna overclock : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

if u wont overclock : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233

 

Motherboard : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131854

 

ram : all ram is fine it doesnt matter but i had my experience with these and i recommend them. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

 

 

And to answer yr second question, watercooling isnt a NEED but it brings a huge benefit if you will be overclocking that CPU. If not then not worth it in my honest opinion

 

and i dont wanna sound stupid but what is that ? " Thermaltake CLW0211 Bigwater 760 Plus Dual Bay Drives Water Cooling Core i7 Compliant "

Edited October 25, 2012 by Mo2teye

[VaporX]

I would not use the Bigwater, it has mixed results at best. I would instead look at their Water 2.0 Lineup. The extreme model is pretty close in price to the Bigwater and will give better results and the Pro model is less expensive and should also do better in cooling.

[Tjj226_Angel]

I would not use the Bigwater, it has mixed results at best. I would instead look at their Water 2.0 Lineup. The extreme model is pretty close in price to the Bigwater and will give better results and the Pro model is less expensive and should also do better in cooling.

 

I would actually one up that and say that the xspc rasa 720 kit would probably be the best bet. If not, the OP could always wait for the cooler master eisberg (or what ever they want to call it).

 

To be honest, considering the choice of case, and considering that the OP is probably not going to get past 4.8ghz with even a very expensive loop, it would probably be smarter to go with the phanteks cooler and some samsung low profile ram and clock the cpu to 4.7ghz rather than having to worry about water cooling at all.

 

Then the only thing I would change (like Mo2teye pointed out) would be the CPU and mobo out to a i5 3570K and a gigabyte z77 Ud3H. After that it really couldn't get much better other than fiddling with price differences from various resellers.

[Fogel]

• 
   
  
• Like the SSD
  
• Like the graphics card
  

 

• 
   
  
• Case is kind of a personal choice so no comment there
  
• You don't need 2133 RAM as 1600 is plenty fast and you won't notice the difference between the two
  
• I would go with a Corsair PSU as my first choice, but I have to admit the bundle combo you picked is pretty good so you can keep that bundle if it works for you
  

 

• 
   
  
• Not a fan of AMD this generation (I would go AMD if there was a good reason to, but there really isn't) so I would go with a 3570K like Mot2eye linked
  
• You really don't need a 200+ motherboard. I would aim for $180 motherboard if you plan on overclocking or around $125-$150 if not. The $200+ boards are for the extreme overclockers or people achieving a specific look with their build. My first choice is ASUS, then Gigabyte, then I would try AsRock.
  
• Like ComputerEd said, dump the Big Water
  

 

Question 1:

Yes, whatever platform you pick will be supported by Windows 8. Though right now it does not look like there is any compelling reason to go to Win8. I plan on skipping Win8 and sticking with W7 myself.

 

Question 2:

I don't recommend water cooling for a first build. Building a PC is actually pretty simple since parts pretty much just go 1-way, but even then it is pretty daunting just building your first PC and unless you have someone you can constantly ping while you are building it. And it is usually small questions, like, "should I really be applying this much pressure putting this heatsink on?", "how much thermal paste do I apply?", etc...

 

Water cooling looks cool and does awesome job of keeping components cool while keeping the look clean and the clutter down but it is pretty expensive, takes some maintanance and is usually done by people who are going for extreme overclocks. Granted some do it to keep the noise down so there are other reasons than just overclocking but even on a PC enthusiast website here it is a small minority with water cooled rigs. Water cooled rigs do look sweet though and offer a lot of room for customization. Though you will pay a pretty penny for it.

 

Question 3:

It should be fine but I would like to go back to the front of my post and ask you if there is any compelling reason you want to go with AMD instead of Intel? Usually people pick AMD to save a few bucks. You aren't saving any bucks in this build because that motherboard is just crazy expensive. You are just saving a few on the CPU. I'll take a $175 motherboard and a $220 Intel CPU all day over that AMD combo you are considering ...and that is assuming there is no Intel combo, which there almost always is.

[Teddanator]

Morning y'all

 

Yes, it's Sunday and I've spent the morning shopping for computer parts instead of going to church like a good ole fashioned American citizen...feels great! Whooooo!

 

Ahem, anyways,after looking through the very helpful comments here (Btw, very awesome replies here guys! Thanks I appreciate it a lot), I went with the ASUS intel motherboard and processor instead, along with the bigger brother of the 932, which I have to say is an outstanding chassis, as well as the suggested CORSAIR Vengeance ram. Unfortunately, my price was raised even higher, but that's only because me getting the bigger chassis resulted in me having to drop the bundle combo that included the smaller version of the bigger chassis suggested to me.

 

So after totaling that, my cost went to $1,517.93. Ouch. This is without the bigwater product btw. So, at first I was going to just stick with the first tower I decided on, but then I saw too many bad reviews for the power supply in the bundle for my liking, so I decided to get a different power supply instead that was suggested for the ASUS geforce gtx 670 card, though I know that would ruin the bundle I had as well, but finally I just decided that I could actually get a lot more for not too much of an increase from my last cost." And besides, like others have said in the past and on this forum, AMD doesn't offer as near as a good deal for its performance like it did in the past. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is my newly modified list of specs for what I'm wishing to build. Please review and tell me what you think, good or bad. And again, thank you all so much for your help and honest opinion. I appreciate it very much (Also, added a dvd burner into the mix, so the cost now will be around $1,617.91. )

 

One more note: Just as last time, list of products also have a link by them to direct where I'm buying them from.

 

ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

 

COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225

 

Seagate Barracuda Green ST1500DL003 1.5TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148725

 

ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637

 

CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

 

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

 

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164

 

Bundle for Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K and

ASUS Maximus V FORMULA LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

Fusion Thermo,SupremeFXIV,ROG Connect,Quad SLI/CFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1066876

 

I don't think I'll go with the water cooling. Especially since I don't need to overclock at the moment. However, I went with the overclocking motherboard because in the future there's a good possibility I may need more speed at times, and that way all I have to do is use the overclocking option already included with the motherboard. Though I do hope the cost of water cooling will be even lower by then. So guys, please tell me what you think and if you have any further ideas to add. All of you have gave me the best ones so far to be honest. Have a good weekend everyone

[Fogel]

If you want to trim some money off that build I would start with the motherboard and power supply. My $180 motherboard provides the same performance of a $230 motherboard, of that generation. What you buy in terms of overclocking is the ability to push a golden chip (a cpu that can be OC'd high on low voltage) to a higher degree ...so instead of a 5.1Ghz OC you might get a 5.3Ghz OC. There is really no perceivable advantage to such an overclock as we are past the GHz race. Pretty much all CPU advantages are going to come from core architecture. This is why I think both Intel and AMD are ok with us OCing their chips. You would think OCing a 3.8GHz chip to 5.3GHz would net you a nice jump in performance but you are more like looking at a few FPS increase. So an increase from 5.1Ghz to 5.3 is really pretty insignificant. That is why most people who reach a 5.0+ OC will still run at say 4.8GHz on a 24/7 use. Reaching 5.3 is really for bragging rights. So if spending $280 on a motheboard nets you that bragging right happiness I won't say you are wrong, but you aren't even going to start off OCing so I feel I need to say something as that is $100 that could either be saved or used elsewhere for better value.

 

If you really want to purchase something that will give you the ability to OC later if you so choose, I would go with an aftermarket cooler because OCing on a stock cooler is most definitely not recommended. Some popular choices:

 

• 
   
  
• Noctua NH-D14 - Great fan, performance on par with the H80/H100. Quietest fans you will find. Bad sides are, its ugly, its big and heavy and may not work with some RAM kits. The Corsair Vengeance kit you selected might need to be replaced with a low profile kit.
  
• Corsair H100 - Because it is the same price as the H80 right now. Great cooling, great clean look, easy to install but the stock fans are louder than the NH-D14.
  
• COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO - Probably the best performance to price ratio you will find. Won't cool as well as the NH-D14 or H80/H100 but it is more than acceptable for a modest overclock. Has the same downsides as the NH-D14, tho nowhere near as ugly.
  

 

If you want the ability to have 2 video cards in the future then stick with the 750W, but you could easily get by on 650W.

 

• 
   
  
• Corsair HX 650
  

 

The motherboard I think would fit your needs very well, though there are plenty of great options in this price range:

 

• 
   
  
• ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
  

Edited October 29, 2012 by Fogel