My First Build

[Rarazuh]

Hey guys, I'm custom building my first PC and I wanted to throw you guys a list of parts I'm getting before I actually purchase and start to build. Any constructive criticism or opinions of which parts I should get/not get/swap would be appreciated. I have a modertly tight budget, and I'm not looking to spend more than 1,500-1,600 USD. Assuming I want to keep all of these parts, I'll update my progress when I order and build the machine.

Current parts I plan to order:

Motherboard:

Asus M4A88TD-V EVO USB3 Motherboard - AMD 880GX, Socket AM3, ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, RAID, SATA 6.0GB/s

CPU:

AMD Phenom II 1100T Black Edition Six Core Processor - 3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB

CPU Cooler:

Noctua 6 Dual Heatpipe with 140mm/120mm Dual SSO Bearing Fans CPU Cooler NH-D14

RAM:

Patriot PV7312G1600ELK Viper II 12288MB PC12800 DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Upgrade - 12GB, 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24, 3x4096MB

PSU:

Ultra X4 850-Watt Modular Power Supply - 135mm Fan, ATX, Lifetime Warranty w/ Registration, 80+ Silver, NVIDIA SLI & ATI Crossfire Certifications, Vibration Dampener Included

Graphics:

XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 Video Card - 2GB, DDR5, PCI-Express 2.1 (x16), HDMI, Dual DVI, 2x Mini DisplayPort, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, CrossFireX Ready

Primary Hard Drive:

Intel X25M 120 GB Solid State Drive with Internal SATA and Power Cables MLC Flash Technology, 2.5-Inch Form Factor SSDSA2MH120G2K5

Secondary Hard Drive:

Seagate ST31000524AS Barracuda Hard Drive - 1TB, SATA 6Gbps, 7200 RPM, 32MB

Case:

Cooler Master HAF 922M ATX Black Mid-Tower Case - 5 External 5.25" Drive Bays, 5 Internal 3.5" Drive Bays, 2 200mm Fans, 1 120mm Fan

I'm planning on using it for some possibly CPU intensive tasks and hope to get an overclock of around 4.0ghz with the NH-D14. I also want to try some high end gaming as well. I think it's a pretty decent build for the price and I'm welcome to any comments.

Thanks,

Rarazuh

 

[ruthless_villain]

Hey guys, I'm custom building my first PC and I wanted to throw you guys a list of parts I'm getting before I actually purchase and start to build. Any constructive criticism or opinions of which parts I should get/not get/swap would be appreciated. I have a modertly tight budget, and I'm not looking to spend more than 1,500-1,600 USD. Assuming I want to keep all of these parts, I'll update my progress when I order and build the machine.

Current parts I plan to order:

Motherboard:

Asus M4A88TD-V EVO USB3 Motherboard - AMD 880GX, Socket AM3, ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, RAID, SATA 6.0GB/s

CPU:

AMD Phenom II 1100T Black Edition Six Core Processor - 3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB

CPU Cooler:

Noctua 6 Dual Heatpipe with 140mm/120mm Dual SSO Bearing Fans CPU Cooler NH-D14

RAM:

Patriot PV7312G1600ELK Viper II 12288MB PC12800 DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Upgrade - 12GB, 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24, 3x4096MB

PSU:

Ultra X4 850-Watt Modular Power Supply - 135mm Fan, ATX, Lifetime Warranty w/ Registration, 80+ Silver, NVIDIA SLI & ATI Crossfire Certifications, Vibration Dampener Included

Graphics:

XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 Video Card - 2GB, DDR5, PCI-Express 2.1 (x16), HDMI, Dual DVI, 2x Mini DisplayPort, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, CrossFireX Ready

Primary Hard Drive:

Intel X25M 120 GB Solid State Drive with Internal SATA and Power Cables MLC Flash Technology, 2.5-Inch Form Factor SSDSA2MH120G2K5

Secondary Hard Drive:

Seagate ST31000524AS Barracuda Hard Drive - 1TB, SATA 6Gbps, 7200 RPM, 32MB

Case:

Cooler Master HAF 922M ATX Black Mid-Tower Case - 5 External 5.25" Drive Bays, 5 Internal 3.5" Drive Bays, 2 200mm Fans, 1 120mm Fan

I'm planning on using it for some possibly CPU intensive tasks and hope to get an overclock of around 4.0ghz with the NH-D14. I also want to try some high end gaming as well. I think it's a pretty decent build for the price and I'm welcome to any comments.

Thanks,

Rarazuh

Okee, no patriot ram get some mushkin instead, ridgeback preferably. ooh just noticed amd doesnt take triple chanel ram

if you went sandy-bridge it would be better and the same price

i have no idea who ultra are, so get a corsair hx750w power supply.

haf 922? naaa... get the cooler master 690ii advanced or the nzxt phantom etc haf 922 is dated

maybe if you can stretch a gtx 570 instead of a 6950?

 

[Grizzly]

Get a trusted, well known brand PSU like NZXT or Corsair.

Also have you thought about getting some smaller memory but higher performance sticks?

Of course that depends mainly what those CPU intensive tasks are, and if they would also require more RAM.

 

[Rarazuh]

Get a trusted, well known brand PSU like NZXT or Corsair.

Also have you thought about getting some smaller memory but higher performance sticks?

Of course that depends mainly what those CPU intensive tasks are, and if they would also require more RAM.

I was looking at some Corsair PSU's but they don't have the amount of 6 pin connectors I need if I want to Crossfire in the future. Ultra's come with a lifetime warranty and seem to have good professional reviews and sales. Thanks for the input though, I'll look into that but I still don't think Ultra is bad brand from my reading.

 

[Rarazuh]

Okee, no patriot ram get some mushkin instead, ridgeback preferably. ooh just noticed amd doesnt take triple chanel ram

if you went sandy-bridge it would be better and the same price

i have no idea who ultra are, so get a corsair hx750w power supply.

haf 922? naaa... get the cooler master 690ii advanced or the nzxt phantom etc haf 922 is dated

maybe if you can stretch a gtx 570 instead of a 6950?

1.AMD really doesn't take triple channel ram? Are you postitive?

Looked up munshin ridgeback and it's alot more expensive than I had hoped. how is their regular RAM or something like this?: (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=41013&CatId=4534)

2. sandy-bridge?

3. I'll look into the case as long as it's the correct size dimensions. nh-d14 is pretty big. I think it will fit but the 690ii isn't as wide as i really wanted. the 922 may be a bit aged but it seems to be pretty great form what i've seen.

edit: how's this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

few bucks cheaper too

4. not willing to spend an extra $120 for the minor increase.

Thanks for the input, appreciate it.

 

[Grizzly]

Have one of those power supplies myself, perfectly good and should be able to handle your cross-fired 6950s and 1100.

Also Sandy-bridge is Intel's latest socket (1155) obviously being Intel it's going to cost more for theoretically less in terms of gaming performance, however I'd rather get intel for CPU intensive tasks like you mentioned.

Something else I didn't mention is look at some of the Nvidia cards. Currently they make the better cards, perhaps a 560 or 570 would suit you best.

 

[Rarazuh]

Have one of those power supplies myself, perfectly good and should be able to handle your cross-fired 6950s and 1100.

Also Sandy-bridge is Intel's latest socket (1155) obviously being Intel it's going to cost more for theoretically less in terms of gaming performance, however I'd rather get intel for CPU intensive tasks like you mentioned.

Something else I didn't mention is look at some of the Nvidia cards. Currently they make the better cards, perhaps a 560 or 570 would suit you best.

Yeah, I agree you're right in saying Intel is better, but they're a lot more expensive when the 6950 and the overclocked 1100t will suit my needs for a nice price tag.

Also, do you know if AMD boards/cpus handle triple channel RAM?

 

[Grizzly]

Yeah, I agree you're right in saying Intel is better, but they're a lot more expensive when the 6950 and the overclocked 1100t will suit my needs for a nice price tag.

Also, do you know if AMD boards/cpus handle triple channel RAM?

Most triple channel RAM boards would have 3 to 6 slots, looking at all of the AMD boards they only have 4 slots for RAM and in the specs for the ones I've read it says Dual supported not triple.

In short, no I don't think they support triple channel.

 

[Rarazuh]

Most triple channel RAM boards would have 3 to 6 slots, looking at all of the AMD boards they only have 4 slots for RAM and in the specs for the ones I've read it says Dual supported not triple.

In short, no I don't think they support triple channel.

Alright.

Any other thoughts on the power supply? I realize Corsair is a trusted brand but the Ultra one is virtually the same price when it also comes with a lifetime warranty wheras Corsair doesn't have a warranty from what I can see. It has good reviews as well: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4558892&Sku=U12-40503

 

[JezEngland]

hi. mm that ULTRA looks very good. Definatly a good idea and very well presented, excellent accesories. You should make sure the Ampage is enough for dual cards.

You could get a good Intel Sandy Bridge chip and a cheap motherboard, start like that then get a high performance motherboard later. The Intel chips are excellent overclockers. Just I don't know how P67/1156/Sandy Bridge motherboards overclock as I think the Base Clock is very limited for overclocking.?.

AMD Phenom is getting old and with new software being optimised by Intel's Sandy Bridge and newer architectures I think Phenom is soon gona be old stuff. Future proofing is more critical for the poorer among us.

 

[Pat123]

I'd get a i5 2500K and a mid range p67 motherboard. That should cost you anymore that the AMD set-up you have spec'd. I'd also take out the SSD or swap it for a smaller one and get yourself a GTX570 or 560 perhaps? You can upgrade to the SSD at a later date. Also 12GB of RAM is a bit of a waste to be honest, most games don't fully utilize 4 never mind 12GB, perhaps save some money here and go for 4-8gb?

I'd also be, as others have, sceptical about that PSU, if the corsair is the same price get that, im pretty sure it has a 5 year warranty.

 

[Rarazuh]

I'd get a i5 2500K and a mid range p67 motherboard. That should cost you anymore that the AMD set-up you have spec'd. I'd also take out the SSD or swap it for a smaller one and get yourself a GTX570 or 560 perhaps? You can upgrade to the SSD at a later date. Also 12GB of RAM is a bit of a waste to be honest, most games don't fully utilize 4 never mind 12GB, perhaps save some money here and go for 4-8gb?

I'd also be, as others have, sceptical about that PSU, if the corsair is the same price get that, im pretty sure it has a 5 year warranty.

You think this setup(overlocked) would out-prefrom the AMD Setup even though the i5 is only a quad core?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7073161&CatId=6988

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7303310&CatId=6978

Also, according to http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html the 560 and the 6950 are both the same price with the 6950 being the better of the two. I really don't want to spend $100 more for a 570 card that's not even a whole lot better. I could crossfire two 6850's for the same price with better performance, but I guess it's not as upgradable looking to the future.

With the ram I'll probably need 12gb for what I'm using it for and I'm still looking for decent RAM with a decent price.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

If your building a gaming PC then before you go for the 1100T please take at this http://www.tomshardw...ew-32155-4.html

Where I live the 1100T and 2500K are about the same price but the 2500K is much better when it comes to games, but this can still be a more expensive option when you factor in the motherboard cost. That said, if your do a lot of video rendering than the 1100T may be better for you. If you really do want to go AMD thought you should check out Toms review of the 1100T before purchasing it as in that review he explains why you might be better with one of the other AMD CPU's. TBH you'd probably be better off with the 955 if its just a gaming rig.

I may be mistaken but is that SSD you've choose a SATA 2? I think it is but not sure. You really want to look for a SATA 3 drive as these are much faster. Have a look at the Crucial C300 or better (but much more expensive) OCZ Vertex 3.

I also think the 6950 is a good card for the money.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: When it comes to gaming its less about cores and more about speed from what I believe.

 

[Grizzly]

You think this setup(overlocked) would out-prefrom the AMD Setup even though the i5 is only a quad core?

http://www.tigerdire...3161&CatId=6988

http://www.tigerdire...3310&CatId=6978

Also, according to http://www.videocard...h_end_gpus.html the 560 and the 6950 are both the same price with the 6950 being the better of the two. I really don't want to spend $100 more for a 570 card that's not even a whole lot better. I could crossfire two 6850's for the same price with better performance, but I guess it's not as upgradable looking to the future.

With the ram I'll probably need 12gb for what I'm using it for and I'm still looking for decent RAM with a decent price.

For CPU intensive tasks yes the newer i5 would be better than an 1100T, you also have room for upgradeability in the future to get a 2600k which is even better for said tasks.

Didn't realise the 6950 had come down in price so much, I'd recommend getting a non reference one nonetheless.

For RAM you could get some Dominators and remove those heat fins to fit under the D14.

 

[Firat]

For CPU intensive tasks yes the newer i5 would be better than an 1100T, you also have room for upgradeability in the future to get a 2600k which is even better for said tasks.

Didn't realise the 6950 had come down in price so much, I'd recommend getting a non reference one nonetheless.

For RAM you could get some Dominators and remove those heat fins to fit under the D14.

+1 but for ram pick up mushkin ridgeback which will fit under the D14 effortlessly

i heard remiving the fin = avoid in warranty

 

[Rarazuh]

+1 but for ram pick up mushkin ridgeback which will fit under the D14 effortlessly

i heard remiving the fin = avoid in warranty

The muskin ridgeback ram is really nice but I was planning on getting 12 gigs. I could go mushkin and get 8gb for the same price as 12gb of some not as great RAM. Any input on if it's better to get 8 gigs of the muskins rather than 12gb of your standard desktop/gaming ram?

How's something like this for $150.00: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226100 ? Not ridgeback but seems to still be a pretty decent product from mushkin. Also triple channel so could only use it with Intel.

 

[Rarazuh]

If your building a gaming PC then before you go for the 1100T please take at this http://www.tomshardw...ew-32155-4.html

Where I live the 1100T and 2500K are about the same price but the 2500K is much better when it comes to games, but this can still be a more expensive option when you factor in the motherboard cost. That said, if your do a lot of video rendering than the 1100T may be better for you. If you really do want to go AMD thought you should check out Toms review of the 1100T before purchasing it as in that review he explains why you might be better with one of the other AMD CPU's. TBH you'd probably be better off with the 955 if its just a gaming rig.

I may be mistaken but is that SSD you've choose a SATA 2? I think it is but not sure. You really want to look for a SATA 3 drive as these are much faster. Have a look at the Crucial C300 or better (but much more expensive) OCZ Vertex 3.

I also think the 6950 is a good card for the money.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: When it comes to gaming its less about cores and more about speed from what I believe.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. I'm really looking more into the 2500K and probably heading towards that way now. It should be around the same price within like $5.

For SSD's it looks like the Crucial's are better and even cheaper in the 120gb range. If looking at something similar to the OCZ Vertex 3, how would this compare(http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Perfo...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1302525933&sr=1-14)?

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

I must admit I've not really read on the Corsair SSD's so you should probably have a look around the web and see what reviews you can find on them. Being corsair though I'd expect them to be pritty good. Are you going to be using windows 7 though cus thats what you really need to be running because of TRIM which keeps the SSD running like new and thats only supported in Windows 7, well, and Linux

.

Also Windows 7 takes about 30GB when installed so you need to bare in mind that that only leaves you 30GB for games and apps. Pesonaly I find thats fin cus I just install the games I'm playing at the time onto the SSD and then when I get bored of them or something I move them onto a standard HDD but some people find this tedious and would rather go for a 120GB so you can store more games on there.

If your bothered about money just remember that SSD's don't make alot of diffrence to gameplay in a lot of games and mostly only speed up the loading process so if needs be drop the SSD to buy a good P67 motherboard for that 2500K. You can always add a SSD later.

Mind me asking why you would like 12GB of RAM? Most people think 8GB is overkill for gaming rigs and say that you only really need 4GB of RAM.

 

[Rarazuh]

I must admit I've not really read on the Corsair SSD's so you should probably have a look around the web and see what reviews you can find on them. Being corsair though I'd expect them to be pritty good. Are you going to be using windows 7 though cus thats what you really need to be running because of TRIM which keeps the SSD running like new and thats only supported in Windows 7, well, and Linux

.

Also Windows 7 takes about 30GB when installed so you need to bare in mind that that only leaves you 30GB for games and apps. Pesonaly I find thats fin cus I just install the games I'm playing at the time onto the SSD and then when I get bored of them or something I move them onto a standard HDD but some people find this tedious and would rather go for a 120GB so you can store more games on there.

If your bothered about money just remember that SSD's don't make alot of diffrence to gameplay in a lot of games and mostly only speed up the loading process so if needs be drop the SSD to buy a good P67 motherboard for that 2500K. You can always add a SSD later and I might consider Raid 0, however I'm not too sure how much better that is with SSDs.

Mind me asking why you would like 12GB of RAM? Most people think 8GB is overkill for gaming rigs and say that you only really need 4GB of RAM.

Yeah, I'm going to be using windows 7 and yeah I'd probably plan on putting the OS and some smaller apps then transfer the games back and forth.

As for motherboards, what would you suggest? How about something like this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7303310&CatId=6978) or (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7343083&CatId=6978)? Seems decent for a decent price. I'm not too sure what to look for in boards aside from the parts that fit them. However, I'm not sure if there boards support Triple Channel RAM as they don't mention they support either dual or triple. Would these MB's also be compatible with the triple channel RAM? (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226100)

As for the RAM, I may not need exactly all 12 but I'd rather go that way because I plan on possibly running some ram-intensive java programs.

What I was just thinking is possibly shave $100 off the SSD and got with the Crucial Sata III 64GB SSD and then upgrade to the i7-2600K which is $100 more than the 2500K. Seems reasonable to be as long as I keep a reasonably price motherboard.

Also, looking at the specs on the Corsair SSD(http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Perfo...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1302534602&sr=1-1) it seems to have better read/write speeds however it's 40 bucks more for the 64gb version.

 

[Grizzly]

The muskin ridgeback ram is really nice but I was planning on getting 12 gigs. I could go mushkin and get 8gb for the same price as 12gb of some not as great RAM. Any input on if it's better to get 8 gigs of the muskins rather than 12gb of your standard desktop/gaming ram?

How's something like this for $150.00: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820226100 ? Not ridgeback but seems to still be a pretty decent product from mushkin. Also triple channel so could only use it with Intel.

Ridgeback is the name of the heatsink, what you're looking for is redline, blackline or radioactive.

That RAM you've picked is blackline, therefore, in my opinion, good choice.