Man, is choosing computer parts overwhelming nowadays!

[destrekor]

I presume you are talking about 24 socket compatible mobos from asus, all they do is try to hit low mid high and ultra high price points and intel spec 3 different chipset feature layouts. You can safely ignore 2/3 of them once you decide which CPU you will be going for and if you are planning on overclocking the CPU.

Yep - find out which CPU you want, which generation of chipsets are best for that particular CPU generation (likely, which launched with them), and find out which boards from each mobo manufacturer fit those criteria.

You'll narrow it down to perhaps six from most manufacturers, less if you get critical of included features and capabilities. OC, high-stability, as many ports as possible? One or two Asus boards, depending on how well you narrowed down chipset of choice. If you don't narrow down in that way, you'll have a low, mid, high price board for maybe one or two chipsets.

Depending on features, also don't neglect to look into ASRock. A spin-off of Asus, they've made a name for themselves recently with some good boards.

 

[mizzou]

given the fact that there no longer is a "generation" of computer parts, just incremental upgrades...it IS confusing and hard to figure out which part is best bang for the buck, etc.

Tomshardware is an excellent resource for a spreadsheet of price/performance per month.

 

[lxskllr]

Yep, full system OCing when using Core2 parts was a convoluted and patience-testing affair. I OC'd my Core2Duo 6420 and that took quite some time to dial in correctly.

I didn't think it was that bad. Get consensus on max safe voltage, and take a touch off. Get the average overclock people are getting, and use that as the initial target. Good? Start bumping up the speed.When you start getting to the fast side of average, stress test. Boost it until failure, then take a bit off.

 

[destrekor]

I didn't think it was that bad. Get consensus on max safe voltage, and take a touch off. Get the average overclock people are getting, and use that as the initial target. Good? Start bumping up the speed.When you start getting to the fast side of average, stress test. Boost it until failure, then take a bit off.

It wasn't super terrible, not at all. It was awhile ago, maybe I am remembering it wrong.
And probably wasn't that much more or less involved than my i7 2600k system. That too did involve some time to dial in correctly.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I didn't think it was that bad. Get consensus on max safe voltage, and take a touch off. Get the average overclock people are getting, and use that as the initial target. Good? Start bumping up the speed.When you start getting to the fast side of average, stress test. Boost it until failure, then take a bit off.

Kids today are such whiners. Remember the old days of using a lead pencil to connect the microscopic L1 bridges on T-Bird and Duron CPUs before you could even think about overclocking them?

 

[Ns1]

Kids today are such whiners. Remember the old days of using a lead pencil to connect the microscopic L1 bridges on T-Bird and Duron CPUs before you could even think about overclocking them?

wow, you totally just brought back memories.

 

[destrekor]

Kids today are such whiners. Remember the old days of using a lead pencil to connect the microscopic L1 bridges on T-Bird and Duron CPUs before you could even think about overclocking them?

I would have never done that.

Most likely.

Then again, after warranty period, I probably would have caved.

 

[lxskllr]

I would have never done that.

Most likely.

Then again, after warranty period, I probably would have caved.

I always say that, but I have a hard time leaving things alone. That's free performance sitting there doing nothing :^D

You hardly need the free performance anymore. Stock equipment is fine for just about everything, but when you can... You might as well get something out of the effort you put in to building. There certainly isn't any money savings there anymore.

 

[HeXen]

Kids today are such whiners. Remember the old days of using a lead pencil to connect the microscopic L1 bridges on T-Bird and Duron CPUs before you could even think about overclocking them?

My motherboard has Jumpers or something like that for doing it the oldschool way without having to resort to pencils. So that method is still out there for you die hards. The problem I see is that these types of mobo's are in the high end range meaning you should also be getting other high end gear as well where you don't need to even use that old feature but glad to see some out there still enjoy hardware, I lost interest a few years back.
I would be the guy to just watch and chuckle as I play BF4 at 60fps at stock settings anyway but ya know.()

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Overclocking has gotten a lot more complicated. Well I haven't had a chance to play with the unlocked K chips, but with FSB overclocking, there are a host of new parameters such as VTT+ settings. Also I find RAM settings to be particularly tricky as there's a small window in which everything works. Have it too slow, and it won't boot either.

Overclocking has become a snap with the past few generations of processors. The top motherboard manufacturers include utilities that automatically overclock for you, and they actually work reasonably well. I was messing around with various overclocking settings on my rig last year, I ran the included Asus AI suite for a lark, and it set basically the same speeds I had done manually, all from a program that runs with a single click within Windows. It was a piece of cake and it's been rock solid stable. Anyone who can put parts together in a box and get them to turn on can overclock these days.

 

[Fern]

I haven't owned/built an actual desktop in over a decade. I had a series of junky laptops for basic stuff and some consoles for gaming the entire time.
Now I'm going to attempt to get back into PC gaming and build myself a machine again and the selection is unbelievable! Like just for motherboards, ASUS makes over 2 dozen variations of the same motherboard?! Why?! And then there's 8 other manufacturers doing the same thing!
I really want to re-learn it all again, but holy cow its about 10x the industry it was 12 years ago.

Has anyone else just got back into PCs and realized how ridiculous the selection is?

I just put together a few systems. It had been a number of years. The last one was a Athlon 2500 (Barton IIRC) system I had OC'd. (The chip was an unlocked mobile one IIRC).

Anyhoo, it's not any more difficult now than it was. The slots are a bit different PCIe versus AGP for the gfx card etc. The PSU connectors are different (PCIe and SATA, not so many old 5v 4 pin molex connectors used). No more IDE, the HDD etc will be SATA

Like everyone says: (1) Pick your CPU, (2) Pick some ram to match it, (3) Pick a mobo that goes with the CPU+ram.

Also make sure the PSU has the correct main power connector for the mobo.

Slap it all together and it should automatically set the BIOS and run fine. Maybe after it's booted pick up a free performance app and run to make sure it's giving you good performance.

Don't sweat it, just do it.

Good Luck.

Fern

 

[spacejamz]

Kids today are such whiners. Remember the old days of using a lead pencil to connect the microscopic L1 bridges on T-Bird and Duron CPUs before you could even think about overclocking them?

Still have my manual...LOL

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find the hardest part now is all the incompatibility issues. Before as long as it would fit everything was compatible with each other. Now motherboards only work with a specific list of ram, cpus etc... so trying to find 3 of these items that all work together, from the same retailer, with the options you want, can prove to be a challenge.

I find you really have to research each part now too, some parts just don't play nice at all. For example I was fighting tons of issues with my PC build from a year ago. Turns out it was the video card. When I googled the problem everyone who had it had the same generation of video card as me. Swapped it out for a completely different one and the problems went away.

 

[gorcorps]

Why are you starting with the motherboard? That should be something that narrows itself down based on what processor and video card you pick.

 

[gorcorps]

I find the hardest part now is all the incompatibility issues. Before as long as it would fit everything was compatible with each other. Now motherboards only work with a specific list of ram, cpus etc... so trying to find 3 of these items that all work together, from the same retailer, with the options you want, can prove to be a challenge.

I find you really have to research each part now too, some parts just don't play nice at all. For example I was fighting tons of issues with my PC build from a year ago. Turns out it was the video card. When I googled the problem everyone who had it had the same generation of video card as me. Swapped it out for a completely different one and the problems went away.

What kind of crap do you buy that only works with ram from a list? You just made that up, didn't you?

 

[dennilfloss]

This should help. Pages 1-2 are budget box, 3-4 hot rod, 5-6 God box.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/ars-technica-system-guide-july-2013/3/

 

[Turbonium]

Overwhelming, or overwhelmingly fun? Seriously, just choosing your parts is half the fun of building.

 

[destrekor]

What kind of crap do you buy that only works with ram from a list? You just made that up, didn't you?

Asus motherboards (at least them, I think Asrock as well, can't speak for others) have "compatibility lists" of approved memory.

Memory not on the approved list (Asus gets specific: brand, memory [including package, like 2x4GB], speed, timings, voltage, etc) CAN work just fine. I actually think I have some non-approved memory in my main rig. It may be approved, not sure... if it's not, a RAM configuration very close from the same manufacturer was on the list. CL8 as opposed to CL9 or something, iirc.

More than anything, I think it's an escape route for them, an escape from the terrible system modders/overclockers who go way too far and literally cause fires. "You're memory wasn't on the approved list? Sorry, no warranty support for you and your melted computer."

Why are you starting with the motherboard? That should be something that narrows itself down based on what processor and video card you pick.

Video card doesn't really apply much anymore. It used to, with either specific expansion slot design/version, but for the most part the main deciders have sort of vanished. You have Nvidia chipsets that only supported Nvidia SLI and not Crossfire, and you had similar things from AMD after ATi was bought.

I do believe all of that is largely out of play these days, as the GPUs themselves are independent and no longer rely on anything from the motherboard except the basic stuff, like the ability to even house two x16 cards (even if only in x8+x8 mode).


Now, if you're talking Tri-SLI - things can get a little hairy there, and to do a top-of-the-line, recent-spec system, you probably only have a few parts that will even allow that. It's not "these are the parts you will use, no customization", but it's far, far less than what most system builders can use.

 

[JimmiG]

I haven't owned/built an actual desktop in over a decade. I had a series of junky laptops for basic stuff and some consoles for gaming the entire time.
Now I'm going to attempt to get back into PC gaming and build myself a machine again and the selection is unbelievable! Like just for motherboards, ASUS makes over 2 dozen variations of the same motherboard?! Why?! And then there's 8 other manufacturers doing the same thing!
I really want to re-learn it all again, but holy cow its about 10x the industry it was 12 years ago.

Has anyone else just got back into PCs and realized how ridiculous the selection is?

I agree. People are saying that the DIY desktop market is dying and it's all about smartphones and tablets, but the selection of motherboards, video cards, coolers, RAM, cases etc. is much larger now than ever before. It's really only CPUs that have become really boring over the past 5 or so years, due to the lack of competition.

 

[QueBert]

OP just research, I blindly jumped a few weeks ago to buy an iTX case I found for sale before it had been technically releases. It took a slim slot load drive. I dropped $180 on the case and $110 on a Blu Ray drive only to find out when I game holy hell this thing's PSU fan is LOOOOOUD. Had I did more research I could have saved myself some $$$. Today my new uber huge case arrived in the mail. Oh, and I bought a heatsink that might be too big for the new case. My issues with building PC's seems to be I'm always trying to put parts together that nobody else has so I never can find info on if shit a will fit with shit b etc.

Learn from my mistakes, research everything before you buy. One bit of advice, stay away from "enthusiast" ram. I bought Crucial Ballistix Elite because I loved how it looks, not even thinking about how the ginormously tall heat spreaders will severely limit what heat sinks I can use. Same applies to "enthusiast" heat sinks. Last heat sink I bought the back plate didn't fit on my MB because it had a weird diode on the back that was in the way.

Did I mention to do your research? lol

 

[Maximilian]

Meh... mobo selection is a bit confusing i suppose. I find out what i need from a mobo by looking at pics of it and of the outputs rather than try to navigate the manufacturers marketing riddled website.

Reviews as well if its for the gaming rig.

 

[destrekor]

OP just research, I blindly jumped a few weeks ago to buy an iTX case I found for sale before it had been technically releases. It took a slim slot load drive. I dropped $180 on the case and $110 on a Blu Ray drive only to find out when I game holy hell this thing's PSU fan is LOOOOOUD. Had I did more research I could have saved myself some $$$. Today my new uber huge case arrived in the mail. Oh, and I bought a heatsink that might be too big for the new case. My issues with building PC's seems to be I'm always trying to put parts together that nobody else has so I never can find info on if shit a will fit with shit b etc.

Learn from my mistakes, research everything before you buy. One bit of advice, stay away from "enthusiast" ram. I bought Crucial Ballistix Elite because I loved how it looks, not even thinking about how the ginormously tall heat spreaders will severely limit what heat sinks I can use. Same applies to "enthusiast" heat sinks. Last heat sink I bought the back plate didn't fit on my MB because it had a weird diode on the back that was in the way.

Did I mention to do your research? lol

My tip for part shopping: always, ALWAYS use google terms like "hsf heatsink ram clearance" and whatnot. Always look up clearance issues between parts that go nearby.
For your case, look up GPU length compatibility (usually an HDD cage limits length at some point. For RAM, look up how tall of RAM (with heatsinks/heat spreaders) you can have before it conflicts with an aftermarket heatsink fan unit. You can use that to guide purchase of HSF, or to guide purchase of RAM.
For almost every part, the clearance numbers can be found either by looking at the manufacturing info, or by searching for forum posts about said parts.

 

[gorcorps]

Video card doesn't really apply much anymore. It used to, with either specific expansion slot design/version, but for the most part the main deciders have sort of vanished. You have Nvidia chipsets that only supported Nvidia SLI and not Crossfire, and you had similar things from AMD after ATi was bought.

I do believe all of that is largely out of play these days, as the GPUs themselves are independent and no longer rely on anything from the motherboard except the basic stuff, like the ability to even house two x16 cards (even if only in x8+x8 mode).


Now, if you're talking Tri-SLI - things can get a little hairy there, and to do a top-of-the-line, recent-spec system, you probably only have a few parts that will even allow that. It's not "these are the parts you will use, no customization", but it's far, far less than what most system builders can use.

That's good to know. When I built my current PC ~3 years back there was still SLI vs Crossfire boards, or least that's what the model description indicated. Not that I ever made use of such a thing as I'm still on a single card.

 

[Bird222]

Kids today are such whiners. Remember the old days of using a lead pencil to connect the microscopic L1 bridges on T-Bird and Duron CPUs before you could even think about overclocking them?

Remember when you had to worry about irq conflicts with isa cards?

 

[natto fire]

What kind of crap do you buy that only works with ram from a list? You just made that up, didn't you?

Making stuff up and then posting it is his MO. He also uses ridiculous hypothetical scenarios.

OP: I haven't built from the ground up in a long time, because I got a really good deal on a pre-built back in 2010 and have just been upgrading parts here and there (only the CPU remains from the original). I definitely noticed the motherboard stock you are talking about.