First legitimate desktop build ever

[dadarkchild]

Hi Folks,

please don't laugh at my ignorance as this is my first build in 12 years.

I'm looking to build a desktop rig to be connected to my 52" Sony Bravia (just one display). I intend to use it for web-surfing and gaming. I've purchased a Patriot Viper Xtreme Enhanced Latency 16GB (4 x 4GB) Memory Kit and Cooler Master HAF-X 942 Chassis, Black. I Intend to go after some of the best games out there, and would like to build a rig that willl be relevant with minimal upgrades for 4 to 5 years.

I know that the case comes highly recommended, but is the Ram decent? I could still return the RAM and purchase another kit if necessary.

I've been considering an Ivy Bridge 3770k, SB 2600k, 3820, and FX 8150 Black edition. I realize that the 8150 gets destroyed by the Intel processors in benchmarks, but for my purposes would I even notice the difference?

Is it worth it to crossfire/SLI a pair of cards, or again would I notice the difference in having 1 card or 2?

I'll invest in water cooling for the CPU, but will I need additional fans? for the case? I really don't plan on OC'ing unless I'm going to notice the difference.

Lastly, 2011 vs 1155. for my purposes, is it worth it to go after 2011 and the extra costs that come along with it?I'm excited about getting back into this, but don't want to waste money when I won't notice a difference in performance for my intended use. All of my gaming has been on PS3 and Xbox 360 for the last few years.

Please provide component recommendations, as I basically consider myself to be an empty book.

I'm currently using a dell studio 17" with dual core pentium, windows 7 ultimate, and 4 gigs of ram. it does not satisfy me in the least.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Look in the builders guide.
That will satisfy your needs

8gb is fine for gaming
AIO water coolers are not nessicary.
One card is good for now, but you.may want to cf/sli in the future

 

[lakedude]

it does not satisfy me in the least.

Well we want you to be satisfied!

Please answer sticky questions: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=80121

Did you say you were going to use the 52" single headed as your sole display? What resolution?

What games?

Did you see mfenn's build?: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841

Do you live by a Micro Center?

Any reason not to look at the 2500 or the 3570?

Why the "k" if you are not going to OC?

If you go Ivy it is worth it to get an aftermarket cooler like the CM Hyper 212 plus.

 

[riversend]

OP, definitely answer the questions in the sticky. From your intitial build thoughts it is apparent that you have a pretty nice budget to work with, but most of the folks here are going to give you recommendations that are bang for the buck for need and not necessarily just telling you how to blow your full budget. With that said,

I know that the case comes highly recommended, but is the Ram decent? I could still return the RAM and purchase another kit if necessary.

RAM is overkill unless you got it really cheap. All you should need is something that is 2x4GB in the $45 price range.

I've been considering an Ivy Bridge 3770k, SB 2600k, 3820, and FX 8150 Black edition. I realize that the 8150 gets destroyed by the Intel processors in benchmarks, but for my purposes would I even notice the difference?

Notice, maybe not today, but if you want some longevity, stick with the Intel processors. Although, for your purposes even the 3770k and 2600k are overkill.

Is it worth it to crossfire/SLI a pair of cards, or again would I notice the difference in having 1 card or 2?

No, not at your resolution of 1920x1080.

Lastly, 2011 vs 1155. for my purposes, is it worth it to go after 2011 and the extra costs that come along with it?

Stick with 1155. Lots of great processors in the i5 range right now.

I'm excited about getting back into this, but don't want to waste money when I won't notice a difference in performance for my intended use.

It is great time to build, and are in the right place to get some bang for the buck.

from lakedude:
Did you see mfenn's build?: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841

:thumbsup:

 

[piasabird]

It is hard to get a good image of game on a TV sometimes. HDMI is often limited to 1080p. If you use game mode it may be a lot worse. If you alrady have a HDTV or a friend has maybe try it out first with a TV and see if you like it.

If you dont have a TV yet make sure the TV has enough plugs on the back for what you want to hook up to it like Game Consoles, Cable, etc. Some TV's are cutting back on the number of jacks, like 4 HDMI, 1 composite, one RCA, 2 USB etc. Then maybe you might want wireless and Ethernet also.

You may instead put wireless on the HTPC computer. I dont really know how good wireless is on an HTPC. However, you may want to use a wireless keyboard or remote control.

 

[dadarkchild]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming, general multi-tasking....video and music conversion, watching lots of high res video, photoshop, microsoft Office apps to include Visio.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread.
Probably somewhere around $2k US

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
US

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
not a fanboy of anything current.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
currently have case and 16 gb of patriot ram
*

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
not initially, but eventually, probably so.

8. What resolution will you be using?
1080p, one display initially. May upgrade to 3 later on If I think it's worth it.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
within the next month
*

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
nope, I have everything that I need already. Windows 7 ultimate, etc. I need a system that will really impress me today and leave me with leeway to drive performance in the future. While I don't intend on running more than 1 graphics card right now, I'll probably end up crissfiring or SLI in the future. So I'm not looking to build a system that will satisfy my needs today. I'm looking for one that can grow with me as a re-budding enthusiast. The more I learn about the architecture of boards and processors today, the more I am frozen by analysis paralysis. I need to make some key decisions but my knowledge of benefits isn't up to speed. i don't want to be influenced by the fanboy fanaticism that is found in so many tech forums, so i'm really relying on this forum as Anandtech forums are highly recommended.

Thanks!

 

[dadarkchild]

Well we want you to be satisfied!

Please answer sticky questions: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=80121

Did you say you were going to use the 52" single headed as your sole display? What resolution?

What games?

Did you see mfenn's build?: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841

Do you live by a Micro Center?

Any reason not to look at the 2500 or the 3570?

Why the "k" if you are not going to OC?

If you go Ivy it is worth it to get an aftermarket cooler like the CM Hyper 212 plus.

I don't plan on overclocking initially, but i will in time. i saw mfenn's build and it looks cool, but I'd like to build a system that 4 years from now will still be able to handle whatever is thrown at it, and i don't know that mfenn's system will fulfill my hopes for a system. This may be impossible but i'd like to find an 1155 mobo with a pci3.0 x16 and 2x8. No, I don't know of any Micro Centers here. I live in Austin, Texas

 

[mfenn]

I don't plan on overclocking initially, but i will in time. i saw mfenn's build and it looks cool, but I'd like to build a system that 4 years from now will still be able to handle whatever is thrown at it, and i don't know that mfenn's system will fulfill my hopes for a system. This may be impossible but i'd like to find an 1155 mobo with a pci3.0 x16 and 2x8. No, I don't know of any Micro Centers here. I live in Austin, Texas

Here's the critical thing to understand about gaming PCs: It is impossible to build a PC today that will be able to max out the games of 4 years from now.

With that in mind, the only way sane way IMHO to build a PC for the long-term is to get something that gives you a reasonable base which you can upgrade in the future. The build that I've laid out in the stickied thread allows you to do that.

To quote Ken g6, "The best way to future-proof is to save money and spend it on future products."

 

[lakedude]

The reason for the MC question is cause they have some great deals on CPUs, especially the "k" parts. There evidently a couple Texas locations

Texas
• Houston/West Loop
• Dallas Metroplex/Richardson

4 years is a long time in computer land. That will most likely be a couple tick/tock cycles from Intel and it is a safe bet that in 4 years your system will be very dated, no matter how much money you throw at it now. Moore's law is still going strong. Same thing goes for video.

Since you might OC and since MC has discounts a "k" part would be a good choice.

Unfortunately the AMD CPUs are really only worth considering if you already have an existing AMD platform and if you run heavily threaded tasks that can make use of all those cores.

1155 CPUs destroy faildozer in lightly threaded apps and they also use quite a bit less power.

Since your budget is 2k you can afford to splurge on one of the HT CPUs like the i7-3770k.

Your 52 inch is presumably 1080p which isn't that high of a res these days so any single mid range video card will push pixels just fine but if you want to "future proof" your rig you can blow a little more money and get a higher end card. Just be aware that much better stuff will be available in 4 years.

Personally I think the best future insurance would be to build a decent rig now for about $1200 and put the other $800 in a bank account to buy whatever improvements become available in 4 years.

At your res the HD-7850 is just right but if you want a better card look at 7950, 7970, 660ti, or 670.

Excellent GPU choosing link (pay attention to the resolutions they mention, notice all the cards mentioned above are overkill @ 1080p) (they seem to be missing the 660 but that should show up next month):

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html


.

 

[lakedude]

Rats dang ole mfenn beat by one minute. Notice the advice is similar.

"The best way to future-proof is to save money and spend it on future products."

yep

You want to hit the sweet spot. There is often a point of diminishing returns for your dollar spent.

I've got a i7-3770/ HD-7850 running a 1920 by 1200 monitor and I love it. The new 22/28nm process stuff uses less power yet runs fast as ever. The system draws around 165 Watts in game (only 135 Watts playing FC2 in DX10??). It is just smooth as can be!

 

[riversend]

Given the possibility of going multi monitor in the future, I would save some cash for a possible monitor and video card upgrade down the road.

That makes mfenn's mid-range build with a couple of tweaks pretty attractive since it leaves overhead to add the additional monitor and video card later if you so desire (or if you have the discretionary income then maybe you have future additional budget).

So here's a shot, using Newgg as a baseline for pricing (as stated, Microcenter often has some great deals as well):

i5 3570K $220 Ar (or go to 3770k for $320 AR which ends today, otherwise $339)
ASRock Z77 Pro3 change out to a Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 for $115, supports Crossfire or SLI)
XFX 7950 3GB $290 AR
Samsung 830 128GB $100
Samsung F3 1TB $70
Lite-ON DVD Burner $17
Silencer Mk III 600W $57 AR AP
Total: $869-969

This leaves about $1000 for monitors and an additional video card if you decided to go multi-monitor. You could certainly swap out the 7950 for an Nvidia 670Gtx as well (generally run around $400 per card) if you wanted, but I have not played with either one and the 7950 is good bang for the buck for only a single monitor. If multi-GPU, someone else will have to give a better recommendation. I have not really kept up at all in that department.

 

[dadarkchild]

Thanks for all of the advice. I just finished ordering the components, and should build by the end of next week.

I went with:

i7 3770k
ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE LGA1155 Motherboard
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card with Backplate
Corsair Force Series GT 240GB SATA 3 6Gbps Solid State Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk
Corsair Hydro Series H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CWCH80)
Pioneer BDR-2207 Internal Blu-ray Writer, Black
Patriot Viper Xtreme Enhanced Latency 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Corsair Enthusiast TXM V2 Series 850W High Performance Modular Power Supply
Cooler Master Hafx 942 case

I was going to go with the I5 but on the spur of the moment at purchase time, I picked the i7 3770k. Also after reading lots of reviews that complained about driver issues with ATI cards, I elected to go with Nvidia. I figured the 850W power supply would give me some growing room if I want to try SLI'ing the 670 later on. I think the performance should be pretty good, and I don't plan to go crazy overclocking it. I picked that board b/c a friend toldme that it's really easy to overclock with.

I'm really looking forward to this build, and just to be sure I get it right, I purchased an old barebones gaming pc to practice on ($50 at Goodwill computers). Can anyone recommend a good step-by-step build video on youtuve or anywhere else?

I grow more excited with each passing day waiting for these components to arrive.

 

[lehtv]

The CPU, RAM, motherboard, graphics card, hard disk, PSU and case are all unnecessarily expensive. The SSD is suboptimal.

For gaming, 3570K and 8GB RAM would've been fine. For 1080p, 2GB VRAM would've been fine. A less expensive motherboard would have been easily good enough, like Z77X-UD3H or Z77 Extreme4. A $50 air cooler would've been sufficient for overclocking, and a 650-750W PSU would've been enough for SLI although you're very unlikely to ever need SLI for 1080p. Current components produce so little heat that HAF 932 is overkill. Corsair Force GT isn't that good, you should've bought a non Sandforce drive like Samsung 830.

It would've been much better to spend about $1200-1400 and then gradually upgrade the PC as needed. Nevertheless, enjoy.

 

[dadarkchild]

The CPU, RAM, motherboard, graphics card, hard disk, PSU and case are all unnecessarily expensive. The SSD is suboptimal.

For gaming, 3570K and 8GB RAM would've been fine. For 1080p, 2GB VRAM would've been fine. A less expensive motherboard would have been easily good enough, like Z77X-UD3H or Z77 Extreme4. A $50 air cooler would've been sufficient for overclocking, and a 650-750W PSU would've been enough for SLI although you're very unlikely to ever need SLI for 1080p. Current components produce so little heat that HAF 932 is overkill. Corsair Force GT isn't that good, you should've bought a non Sandforce drive like Samsung 830.

It would've been much better to spend about $1200-1400 and then gradually upgrade the PC as needed. Nevertheless, enjoy.

Other than the processor I got really great deals thanks to employee discounts. Sorry if the build isn't to your liking, but for me it's just fine. Most people that i've talked to advised me to get a water cooler if I'm going to try to overclock the cpu. I'll look at the Samsung 830, but if the performance differences aren't significant I'm probably going to stick with the ssd that I have.

 

[riversend]

If you are getting employee discounts then that certainly factors into your build, and what you have will serve your purposes. But for best bang for the buck performance, not knowing what the nature of your discounts are, you could have done better.

I've used AMD/ATI and nVidia cards over the years and for the average user both sets of drivers are about as reliable as the other. When driver issues do occur, roll back to an older version and then wait til the newer version gets out any bugs. Both companies are way to dependent on driver implementation to let any real driver issues happen IMHO.

Have fun with the build, I can understand why you are looking forward to it!

 

[mfenn]

Other than the processor I got really great deals thanks to employee discounts.

If you don't disclose your pricing, we have to assume that you're paying normal retail. Based on that assumption, the parts you have picked out are very bad values.

Most people that i've talked to advised me to get a water cooler if I'm going to try to overclock the cpu.

"Most people" don't know jack about CPU coolers. An H80 is no different from a $50 air cooler. All the liquid does is move heat to a radiator that is (a) positioned about 6" away from where a heatsink would be (b) has less mass and surface area than a good heatsink.

 

[lehtv]

Other than the processor I got really great deals thanks to employee discounts.

Do the discounts only apply to overkill components?

 

[rickon66]

4GB video card useless for 1080.

 

[Termie]

Hey, don't piss on the guy's parade. He ordered the stuff, he's happy. It's just slightly overkill, particularly the GTX670 4GB, but if he doesn't want to upgrade for a while, it's a good setup.

I personally think investing in a CPU with HT is a wise move for a bit more future-proofing. In some applications, HT makes a big difference, so if the $100 price difference doesn't limit you in other ways, it's worth it.

The water cooler - yeah, probably a waste of money, but again, if he wants to fool around with it, more power to him.

The OP is a new forum member - why scare him away if there's a chance this forum can help him put together his system?

 

[soulcougher73]

Fool and his money...

 

[lakedude]

Hey, don't piss on the guy's parade. He ordered the stuff, he's happy. It's just slightly overkill, particularly the GTX670 4GB, but if he doesn't want to upgrade for a while, it's a good setup.

I personally think investing in a CPU with HT is a wise move for a bit more future-proofing. In some applications, HT makes a big difference, so if the $100 price difference doesn't limit you in other ways, it's worth it.

The water cooler - yeah, probably a waste of money, but again, if he wants to fool around with it, more power to him.

The OP is a new forum member - why scare him away if there's a chance this forum can help him put together his system?

^This

Once the money is spent you all might as well can it.

Nothing you can do now. Also it is nice to have an overkill system if you can afford it. Maybe the system will find use doing something none of you anticipated. The HT parts are totally worth it for certain BOINC projects for example. That monster video card can be put to good use running Folding or BOINC projects as well.

Congrats on the new system dadarkchild! It looks awesome!

 

[lehtv]

Once the money is spent you all might as well can it.

While I agree there's no need to scare anyone away, I'm also opposed to patting someone on the back for making poor decisions. "Canning it" once the money is spent is a lost opportunity for education.

 

[mfenn]

While I agree there's no need to scare anyone away, I'm also opposed to patting someone on the back for making poor decisions. "Canning it" once the money is spent is a lost opportunity for education.

:thumbsup: My thoughts exactly. If you don't let somebody know they've made a bad choice, how will they ever learn?

 

[dadarkchild]

Whatever. My system is built and i LOVE IT. I paid a little over $1100 for the components, and I think I got an excellent deal for the money. I built a system with flexibility and expansion in mind. If you think a lower spec'd system is better, good for you. I like seeing that my system runs at 26 degrees all the time. The water cooler does that. Not a few weak fans. I like that the 2 displays that i'm using right now both look great. I like that I can look at adding a 3rd wihout needing to purchase anything else. Bottom line, It's my system, and even if I built it just to play friggin Solitaire, it suits me. The rest of you can take your hate and ah heck off.

 

[riversend]

Hi Folks,

... but for my purposes would I even notice the difference?

Is it worth it to crossfire/SLI a pair of cards, or again would I notice the difference in having 1 card or 2?


Lastly, 2011 vs 1155. for my purposes, is it worth it to go after 2011 and the extra costs that come along with it?I'm excited about getting back into this, but don't want to waste money when I won't notice a difference in performance for my intended use...
Please provide component recommendations, as I basically consider myself to be an empty book.

Glad that you are happy with your rig, wish I could go to a multi-monitor setup.

The issue folks have is based on your initial responses quoted above. You asked for value recommendations, and did not mention that you had employee discounts available. That is what the recommendations were based on. The fact that you discounted many of them and went your own way is fine, but don't expect folks to be happy about the time they devoted when representation was not necessarily accurate.

Now, we all just need to game for a while and relax...