Buy or try to build for the first time

[Davidh373]

Here's the downsides:

1) RMAs.

Consider yourself lucky if you don't have to RMA. You're playing QA with 10+ different components.

Myself: RMAed multiple powersupplies:

1x Corsair HX650 - Fan started ticking after 1 day
1x Seasonic X750 - Loud coil whine on minor graphical usage (like scrolling through a website)
1x Corsair HX850 - Bzzzzzzzz coil whine

Using 1x Corsair HX850 - Perfect unit

X58 issues:

1) Ram detection (4gb instead of 6gb)
2) Cold boot issues
3) Super hot VREGs and IOH (Northbridge)

These require multiple teardowns, rebuilds, more fans etc to diagnose and address

Graphics Issues:

Grey Screens... Oh wait, it's cuz of ATI's shittiness. Nvm.

General issues:

Fan noises, noises, noises noises! Getting rid of noises.

Cooling issues:

Two Corsair watercooling units that performed radically differently. One pump was "weak".

Research!!

1) Find a Heatsink fan to FIT your motherboard EXACTLY, which fan configurations fit, and which way to put in your case.

2) Find a case that will fit large motherboards, watercooling, fan orientations, Heatsink fans, and large graphics card, and oh large PSUs.

3) Research on the Best Fans. Here, I've done it for you. Buy Servo Gentle Typhoons. Everything else is a POS. I've had them all.

Have fun! It's only worth it if you have lots of time, patience, and troubleshooting capability. Also, only worth it if you actually want the additional bit of performance you get, like you're trying to play Crysis at 2560 x1920 at max everything at 60+ FPS. PS, you still can't.

I would never ever ever build something high end for other people to make some money. That's how much it isn't worth it (my time). I might build the most basic crap box for someone as a favor, as long as I don't have to do anything except use stock components. But most likely I'd tell them F off and buy a laptop.

Way to strike unnecessary fear into the guy.

1. He's not getting X58, so all of those "Issues" are pointless.

2. I've had an Assortment of PSUs, good quality, bad quality, ect. and all have worked fine.

3. He isn't water cooling... because it's pointless...

4. He's using the stock heatsink.

5. The rest of this is compatibility issues which are either outdated due to standards being in place or don't apply to his recommended build because he is getting plenty of fans with his 300/600 case. An ATX motherboard fits an ATX case, a Micro ATX motherboard fits a Micro ATX case.

Tell me, if you run into so many issues building, why do you build? I've run into a SINGLE issue throughout my 3 builds and 3 upgrades, and that was because of my nerves. I bent the processor pins because I wasn't thinking. I forgot to pull the handle up on the socket.

 

[Davidh373]

Yep, if you want something that works, it's cheaper to get something premade. Even Newegg, Ibuypower, whatever they make.

Mine works fine... It took 1.5 hours to build... and 1 hour to install Win. 7. Just because I don't take an hour for ridiculous cable management doesn't mean it isn't going to work...

 

[Davidh373]

Oh no... my graphics card went above freezing temps! It's BROKEN lol

 

[jaydee]

Case - Antec 600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-079-_-Product

PSU - Corsair 650TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9005&Tpk=650tx

CPU - Core i5 760
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-067-_-Product

Motherboard - ASUS 1156
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-620-_-Product

RAM - GSkill 8GB (2 x 4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-311-_-Product

Graphics - GTX 470
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-320-_-Product

SSD - OCZ Agility 90GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-608-_-Product

HDD - Samsung Spinpoint 1TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-185-_-Product

Blu Ray - Samsung BD reader/ CD/DVD Writer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151199

Total: $1330.87

The i5-760 (2.8GHz 4c4t) is good but with your budget, you might as well step into an i7-870 (2.93GHz, 4c8t). Won't benefit a ton right now, but as applications and games become more threaded, the gap will widen.

BTW, OP: you didn't say if you live near a Microcenter, or when you are planning on building. If you don't need to build right away, Intels next gen CPU is coming soon and AMD's next gen CPU is coming VERY soon.

 

[MJinZ]

Oh no... my graphics card went above freezing temps! It's BROKEN lol

IT will break. You'll have to oven it to make it work again.

 

[Davidh373]

Maybe in 2 years when I get a new one... the only difference is I know that it will be out of warranty just about the time games are coming out that dominate it. You just spent that extra $200 - $1000 to save you a very rare few weeks RMA... really worth it there...

 

[Axon]

It takes me an hour just to do proper/perfect cable management.

It can take 45 minutes to toss together a machine that I can sell someone, but more like 10+ hours to build something for myself.

I'm pretty quick, but if I'm going for stellar perfection my whole build time can be about 60-80 minutes. Usually I just run everything up the backplate, tie tie tie, tuck 12v under the vid card and viola. That's about a 45 minute process.

 

[Highmodulus]

Well, I am going to go for it. Main build and ordering will probably around or after BF, as my current machine is working ok. Wanting to see the Sandy Bridge stuff, and am hoping to score some good deals. First part is ordered after a really strong deal from the egg on the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Power Supply.

Hot Deals is a dangerous forum.

I have all the normal tools, any special ones I need?

 

[mfenn]

Well, I am going to go for it. Main build and ordering will probably around or after BF, as my current machine is working ok. Wanting to see the Sandy Bridge stuff, and am hoping to score some good deals. First part is ordered after a really strong deal from the egg on the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Power Supply.

Hot Deals is a dangerous forum.

I have all the normal tools, any special ones I need?

Nope, the most you should need are #1 and #2 Phillips screwdrivers.

 

[Highmodulus]

Cool- thanks mfenn!

 

[FishAk]

Special tools you say? Why certainly, all free, of course:

Auslogics Disk Defrag
BurnAware Free
CCleaner
MagicDisc
Paragon Aligment Tool 2.0
Partition Wizard Home Edition
Ultimate Windows Tweaker
Bulk Rename Utility
Auslogics Duplicate File Finder
GetFolderSize
Everything
CPUID CPU-Z
MSIAfterburner
CPUID HWMonitor
Macrium Reflect

 

[Davidh373]

Auslogics Disk Defrag
BurnAware Free
CCleaner
MagicDisc
Paragon Aligment Tool 2.0
Partition Wizard Home Edition
Ultimate Windows Tweaker
Bulk Rename Utility
Auslogics Duplicate File Finder
GetFolderSize
Everything
CPUID CPU-Z
MSIAfterburner
CPUID HWMonitor
Macrium Reflect

Nice!

 

[crucibelle]

Here's the downsides:

1) RMAs.

Consider yourself lucky if you don't have to RMA. You're playing QA with 10+ different components.

I consider myself very lucky as I've never had to RMA anything I bought for myself. However, I did have to RMA a machine I built for a certain family member. There was something wrong with the DVD burner (I think) and the person decided to send the whole kit back to NewEgg. Just days/weeks before that, this lady had sent back a Dell, HP, and a computer built by a local shop, because of some nitpick she had with them. I should have known better.

Research!!

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Highmodulus]

Have commenced the obsessive research phase, and lined up a more experienced builder to help me when I have the parts.

 

[Arsynic]

Buy.

Building means you are the QC, the technician, and the $/hr.

And if you've ever dealt with techs from build to order PC makers like Dell, maybe this is a good thing.

But then again, all of those parts are quality kit. For all of my builds since 2004, they're still running like champs.

 

[Arsynic]

Way to strike unnecessary fear into the guy.

Tell me, if you run into so many issues building, why do you build? I've run into a SINGLE issue throughout my 3 builds and 3 upgrades, and that was because of my nerves. I bent the processor pins because I wasn't thinking. I forgot to pull the handle up on the socket.

LOL! I know your heart sank on that one! Your second biggest issue was probably keeping the sweat from dripping on the motherboard.

My .02:

Potential problems shouldn't scare anyone. It's where you learn the most--when you hit a roadblock. Even experienced builders like myself run into it. For example, on my latest build I got an H50 with a bad grommet. One screw would not screw all the way in without knocking the grommet out of the backplate. I found out that using 3 screws to fasten a heatsink works almost as good as 4!

 

[betasub]

Almost? I hope that's not the fastening to the CPU socket.

 

[mfenn]

Almost? I hope that's not the fastening to the CPU socket.

Yeah seriously. The pressure gradient that he created across the top of the CPU is likely causing one of the cores to get much warmer. (Maybe that's why he said "almost as good" :awe

 

[Highmodulus]

Huge thanks to everyone who posted. Newegg has been kicking out some nice coupon codes and discounts, and I have been able to up-spec a few parts for some of the recommendations. I have read this thread no less than 20-30 times as I have been reviewing parts and costs/benefit tradeoffs.

Here is what is coming:

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

(big discount code meant only like $20 over the lower level one)

Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor BX80605I7860

(dropping in price pretty nicely, still- a bit of a splurge, as it was $40 more than the i5). But a screamer with great reviews.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

(great deal, $25 code meant its only a couple of bucks more for the quicker RAM).

CASE ANTEC|NINE HUNDRED TWO

The case was another splurge, as it will carry over between builds. The aggressive price and discount code brought it close enough for me to click "buy".

The power supply is the previously mentioned Seasonic 650 modular

Still some stuff left obviously.

 

[Highmodulus]

Stuff I still need (no great deals yet).

Video card- waiting for Friday obviously. Interested in 68xx performance and benches. Hoping it means good deals on 5870s or 480's too.

Storage. Have not found a good deal on a big enough SSD, the new ones should be released shortly (new controller, right?). And for hard drives it seems like none of them are super reliable and are packed loose in boxes (probably related). Do you need to buy a SATA cable with a bare drive?

DVD/Blueray player.

Primary LCD. My two LCD's are 1680x1050 units. The bigger is 23" Acer that frankly doesn't look that good. The smaller sammy is fine- I would like to use it as display 2 for email/resource monitor ect while I get a better 24-26 higher res unit for primary gaming/web browsing.

Thoughts, suggestions ideas? You guys have been great so far!!

 

[betasub]

Nice selection.

Are you waiting for AMD's new graphics card release before making your video choice?
[Edit: Ha - ninja'd on this one ^ ]

 

[Highmodulus]

And there should be a Newegg game where you use combo deal discounts, price reductions and coupon codes to get the "high score." I think at this point I could at least make the playoffs.

 

[FishAk]

There isn't a big need for a large SSD. Almost all of the huge speed improvement from an SSD is realized from just a small one that holds only the OS and programs. A 60Gb Sandforce drive can be had now for about $120, and it will fit the bill comfortably. From an economic perspective, all your data should go on something like the Spinpoint 1Tb F3 mentioned earlier. They are only $55 now. The current crop of SSDs are only twice as fast as a HDD for files over about 32Kb, but for random small files like your OS uses, an SSD is about 100 times faster. It also makes sense to wait on an SSD, because the new ones launching in a few months should make current drives much less expensive.

Not many people recommend this for some reason, but considering the low price of storage, you really should buy a second HDD to back up your primary. Most people run with only one storage disk, which I think is silly. The one thing a drive is guaranteed to do is to break. A second disk set to automatically back up the first, can save a lot of heartache.

Don't worry too much about the reliability of your drive. No drive is truly reliable, and by the time long term data is available, the drive it relates to will be obsolete. The F3 has only two platters, and 4 heads, which is the sweet spot for cost/speed/reliability.

 

[betasub]

Do you need to buy a SATA cable with a bare drive?

This question comes up a lot. The answer is no, even though the OEM bare drive doesn't come with one; your boxed motherboard is the place to look for SATA cables (my ASUS P55 came with 4 IIRC).

 

[Highmodulus]

Cool thanks! A consistent theme is that the Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 runs a bit hot. Given all the tempting OC options on that board (its like OCing for Dummies!) and the general hard gaming use in its future, should I pick up a better cooler? If so what do you recommend?