Need help completing my first budget build - $500

[mfenn]

Oh I see. Just because I prefer brand name A bersus B means I'm "behind the times". LMAO. It's not because I said something like Oh I dunno... I like USB 1.0 versus 3.0. Good point man! I'll be sure to agree with every brand name YOU like and then I'll be with da times. What a neat idea!

Just because you've had horrible experience with Seagate doesn't mean that all seagates are bad. This is similar to your line of argument that not all Samsung drives are bad - but the facts speak for themselves when it comes to track record for each of the 3 manufacturers discussed here.

The problem for you is that the data agrees with gorcorps. Newer Samsungs are better than Seagates and about the same as WD.

 

[mfenn]

Hey,
A) Where are you getting those promo codes from?

Either email or the green text below/above the product name.

B) I'm sorry, I don't know what store this is from

Newegg

C) Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I'm still racking my brain and can't figure out which to get. I know that I definitely want a simple GPU on the mobo but that's all I know at this point. Now I'm wondering if there's any graphics processing that will still be working even with my video card and that might add power to it? Or is the mobo graphics completely off if a card is plugged in?

The IGP in no way adds to the power of the discrete GPU. It isn't "off" and you can plug a monitor in to use as a secondary display. The real question is why do you want an IGP? Sure, it would be nice to have, but let's face it, you have $500 to spend. In your case, the IGP makes the difference between getting something that meets your needs or having to compromise on performance.

Regarding your post above, a GPU dying is nowhere near the same as a hard drive crash. A dead GPU doesn't affect your data at all, it just makes you wait a bit until you get a replacement. Given your budget, the chance that you might have to spend $30 on short notice isn't worth compromising the rest of the build.

D) How does this mobo differ from this one? http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3892#ov other than price?

Mostly just price. But seriously, the P version has an HDMI port and the other one doesn't.

 

[tinpanalley]

Why? Because it makes me feel better and more at ease about possible problems happening, but you're right. What are the chances that I'm going to have a faulty video card.
Ok, well then that just takes me back to square one. Now I have to look again at all the non IGP mobos you guys have mentioned to see which one I like best for the i5-2400. I guess the one that has firewire if IGP doesn't matter. Really, I've lost complete track of which one was good for which reason. Totally lost. Can I get everyone's last opinion of which non-IGP mobo is their choice?

Also, something else I don't get. When I first posted, everybody was telling me how I was crazy to get 16GB of RAM (I only wanted to buy 6GB) and now all the combos have 16GB of RAM. How did it become affordable all of a sudden? Bit confused about that.

 

[mvbighead]

You should probably be looking at this combo (or the board with a different combo with this board such as the RAM Combo Dominion suggested):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...&SID=u00000687

Add the F3 Samsung 1TB disk, the i5-2400 (if you don't select the above combo), 8GB DDR3 Crucial RAM suggested earlier, and the HAF912 case you want, and you're sitting pretty under $500.

The thing is, most suggest the simplest of RAM for I5 builds because the higher speed stuff really makes little difference. Granted, the build Dominion suggest includes the 1600 speed RAM, but he also cut out the case you were looking for.

To me, you should be able to look through the thread and find exactly what you need with the information provided. There are several combos ranging from MB/CPU to MB/RAM. Should you go MB/RAM, you can pick up the i5 2400 CPU for 185 after promo code listed at the top of the page:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-074-_-Product

8GB of DDR3 memory is an easy fix:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-347-_-Product
Crucial for $57
-or-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-424-_-Product
GSkill with 4GB flash drive included for $60

I would be inclined to go with the GSkill RAM, as that sits more often at $60, so should you decide to up yourself to 16GB, it'll be an easier task to find that memory for $60 than the Crucial, IMO.

As for the IGP, like most of us have been telling you, skip it. It's unnecessary.

EDIT: As for 16GB becoming affordable, well, 8GB is only $60. A little wiggle here or there on some of your parts, and you may be able to fit it in. However, $500 is just a little too tight. At this point, the Z68 platform and i5 CPU fit with 8GB of RAM, and there isn't much better you can do in your price point. 8GB should be plenty, but should you feel the need to up to 16gb, you can do it later. There is no sense cutting out a major core component (such as dropping from the i5 to the i3) just to fit 16GB of RAM in, though.

 

[tinpanalley]

Ok.. thank you for that summation, that actually helps a lot.

For RAM, what about Kingston or Corsair? Are they not good? Are the ones you're mentioning solid prosumer brands or something that Ijust haven't seen before or are they lower priced no-name brands?

Also, a guy on another site recommended AMD to me as well and he said, "you said you wanted it mainly for video editing so the more real cores and memory the better and i thought going amd would give you the best of both". Any idea what he means by, "real cores"?

Finally, I know my budget is tiny, but you wouldn't say that any of these options is "bad" right? Let me clarify... within certain limits, are these options you have put together decent for my budget but at the same time just basically only a half decent computer for my needs or am I getting a good computer regardless of my budget? I'll tell you this much, the one with the hard drive that just crashed was an emachines ET1161-03. So, it'll definitely be an improvement over that.

 

[Puppies04]

Also, a guy on another site recommended AMD to me as well and he said, "you said you wanted it mainly for video editing so the more real cores and memory the better and i thought going amd would give you the best of both". Any idea what he means by, "real cores"?

AMD do hex (6) core processors in the same ballpark price range as the intels you are looking at each core does not perform as fast as a SB core though so it's swings and roundabouts with intel having way more pro's than con's.

As for my 2 cents on the 16gb ram point.... fit 8gb and take a look at your ram usage i highly doubt you are going be struggling for extra memory with the workload you describe.

 

[tinpanalley]

fit 8gb and take a look at your ram usage i highly doubt you are going be struggling for extra memory with the workload you describe.

Hey... oh, I totally agree. 8 is fine with the option to upgrade later. That's always been my thought as well. I just got confused because as I said, at first everybody was saying, "What? 16GB? You'll need half your budget just for that!" And then suddenly everyone was saying "get this combo with 16GB" so I got confused.

At this point, with mvbighead's awesome summation post of the components discussed in this thread, I think I want to focus on balancing the money so that I stay with the 8GB of RAM, the i5-2400, whichever of the above mobos (just gotta look at them again) and an addon firewire if necessary which I already have. The only thing really remaining is the fact that I SO do NOT need 1TB as my main C drive. I was only occupying 150 of the 320 I had now. By the way, it was a Seagate, not that I wanna start that again.

 

[mvbighead]

Hey... oh, I totally agree. 8 is fine with the option to upgrade later. That's always been my thought as well. I just got confused because as I said, at first everybody was saying, "What? 16GB? You'll need half your budget just for that!" And then suddenly everyone was saying "get this combo with 16GB" so I got confused.

At this point, with mvbighead's awesome summation post of the components discussed in this thread, I think I want to focus on balancing the money so that I stay with the 8GB of RAM, the i5-2400, whichever of the above mobos (just gotta look at them again) and an addon firewire if necessary which I already have. The only thing really remaining is the fact that I SO do NOT need 1TB as my main C drive. I was only occupying 150 of the 320 I had now. By the way, it was a Seagate, not that I wanna start that again.

As far as the C drive business goes, you may not "need" 1TB, but at the price point, it is really, really stupid to buy anything else. A 500gb runs about $50, a 1TB runs about $60. You can always partition if you feel the need.

Further, the 1TB drives in many cases have larger platters, more memory (cache), and tend to perform better than their smaller counterparts. Given your budget, SSD is out of question, but a good spindle disk like the F3 or WD Black will be a big improvement over your old disk.

Actually, scratch that, the 1TB is $50 today with the promo code listed on this page:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=samsung%20f3

Buy it now.

 

[tinpanalley]

Ok...
I'm thinking of doing the Z68X-UD3.
But...don't kill me...I want 6 SATA ports. For HDDs and optical drives and eventually an SSD one day. Don't know if that means I should focus on 3 or 6 GB/s. but I'd be happier with 6 ports.

 

[mvbighead]

For your budget, you simply aren't going to get it. There is not a board with firewire AND 6+ ports for under $150.

If I am you, this is what I would do:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119233 - Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185 - Harddrive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074 - i5 2400s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.689166 - MB + 16GB Combo

After promo codes and shipping you are looking at 502.94

That's all 16GB, 6 SATA ports, and you reusing your firewire card.

Personally, I would rather have my disks run straight from the MB and not off of an add-on card unless we're talking about a serious disk controller. Sometime, they can simply be too much hassle... not the case with a firewire card.

This will be my last suggestion, as it seems every suggestion prior needs X or Y or Z, and some of which seem to be made up along the way.

Hopefully you can make a decision with the information provided.

 

[tinpanalley]

Personally, I would rather have my disks run straight from the MB and not off of an add-on card unless we're talking about a serious disk controller. Sometime, they can simply be too much hassle... not the case with a firewire card.

Ok, good, so you understand my need to have enough SATA ports. And trust me, if I wasn't clear before, I should reiterate now... for the benefit of a better mobo with my other needs, I'm totally ok with not having a firewire port and using my PCI card instead.

What you guys wouldn't know is that when I work on an editing project, that project gets its own HDD for the most part with all assets on the same drive including project files. Sometimes, (and lately more often with the price of internal HDDs lately) I'll have to put 2 projects on one HDD but that's the most. It's just the way I organize myself. So, that's why I can't be fussing around with enclosures and USB cables all the time. It's getting old and dangerous as quality shock resistant enclosures get pricey.

What I didn't know was that 1TB HDDs are actually better quality than lesser sizes. Still don't really get why but that's another thread.

I'm gonna go backwards through all your great options to find the mobos without firewire and see if any of them had 6 SATAs.

 

[mvbighead]

Ok, good, so you understand my need to have enough SATA ports. And trust me, if I wasn't clear before, I should reiterate now... for the benefit of a better mobo with my other needs, I'm totally ok with not having a firewire port and using my PCI card instead.

What you guys wouldn't know is that when I work on an editing project, that project gets its own HDD for the most part with all assets on the same drive including project files. Sometimes, (and lately more often with the price of internal HDDs lately) I'll have to put 2 projects on one HDD but that's the most. It's just the way I organize myself. So, that's why I can't be fussing around with enclosures and USB cables all the time. It's getting old and dangerous as quality shock resistant enclosures get pricey.

What I didn't know was that 1TB HDDs are actually better quality than lesser sizes. Still don't really get why but that's another thread.

I'm gonna go backwards through all your great options to find the mobos without firewire and see if any of them had 6 SATAs.

Look no further than the board above.

As for drive quality, I don't mean to say that 1TB are of better quality. Just that they often have larger/denser platters, which usually translates to faster performance.

 

[LuluTheMonk]

6 core 1090t vs i5 2400 While for your purposes, the encode sections are the most relevant, you will see that in nearly all other benchmarks, the 2400 is faster and consumes less power.

 

[mfenn]

If I am you, this is what I would do:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119233 - Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185 - Harddrive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074 - i5 2400s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.689166 - MB + 16GB Combo

After promo codes and shipping you are looking at 502.94

That's all 16GB, 6 SATA ports, and you reusing your firewire card.

/thread IMHO. This is really an excellent suggestion.

OP, mvbighead did a really good job at squeezing every last drop of value out of your $500 + pocket change. You can drive yourself crazy trying to evaluate every possible board, or you can trust the experts in this thread.

 

[tinpanalley]

You can drive yourself crazy trying to evaluate every possible board

Oh, mvbighead rocks, man, no question. But you can appreciate a dude having only ever modified consumer towers for 15 years to upgrade them having a little fear about pulling the trigger on his first fully self-made system, right? :$

 

[tinpanalley]

I'm obviously showing my ignorance here, but how do 6 ports fit in those 3 little plastic parts on the mobo? I've been looking for pictures of this online. On my current piece-o-crap, they're just orange and open.

 

[Blue Shift]

I'm obviously showing my ignorance here, but how do 6 ports fit in those 3 little plastic parts on the mobo? I've been looking for pictures of this online. On my current piece-o-crap, they're just orange and open.

Each one has 2 ports stacked vertically, opening towards the front of your case. That's the typical setup, and can reduce wire clutter in addition to allowing for extra-long video cards.

 

[tinpanalley]

Very cool about the SATA ports. Had no clue.

Ok, guys. I'm getting everything in mvbighead's post. Did anyone see my question about RAM brands? So are Corsair and Kingston just not good? Or am I getting this RAM cause it's cheaper? If those brands are better I'd rather get 8GB of one of them. I don't know, a few months ago I was told to buy one of those two brands. Just curious.

BUT!... I gotta wait til Monday. I'm going out of town tomorrow and there's no point in ordering until Monday cause I get back on Tuesday. I live in New York so it should arrive shortly but I don't wanna order now and have the stuff arrive when I'm not here. The box for that case is probably huge and not New York apartment building-friendly. The only thing I hadn't thought of was shipping charges. If I can get all that stuff on Amazon I can save the shipping cause I have Prime. I'll see if they're all on Amazon.

So the promo codes are where? Sorry, I didn't catch that.

 

[mvbighead]

Very cool about the SATA ports. Had no clue.

Ok, guys. I'm getting everything in mvbighead's post. Did anyone see my question about RAM brands? So are Corsair and Kingston just not good? Or am I getting this RAM cause it's cheaper? If those brands are better I'd rather get 8GB of one of them. I don't know, a few months ago I was told to buy one of those two brands. Just curious.

BUT!... I gotta wait til Monday. I'm going out of town tomorrow and there's no point in ordering until Monday cause I get back on Tuesday. I live in New York so it should arrive shortly but I don't wanna order now and have the stuff arrive when I'm not here. The box for that case is probably huge and not New York apartment building-friendly. The only thing I hadn't thought of was shipping charges. If I can get all that stuff on Amazon I can save the shipping cause I have Prime. I'll see if they're all on Amazon.

So the promo codes are where? Sorry, I didn't catch that.

Corsair, Kingston, GSkill, Crucial, and another couple of brands are all good. To be honest, I've even seen pretty good feedback on Wintec AmpX RAM, of which I own a set. The recommendations you are getting are based on reliability, name brand, and price. You should be more than satisfied with all of those brands.

As for Amazon, well, now you're just being silly. I'll give you one clean, simple example:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...5+2400&x=0&y=0

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074

Amazon is 190 with free shipping, Newegg is 185 with free shipping (must add promo code).

The only thing you should have any interest in is the end cost of an item. In most cases, it'll either be a wash or favor Newegg (from past experience). There are items from time to time that favor Amazon, but for the most part, Newegg is where it's at.

Also, if it's me, I am ordering now. There is no guarantee on any of those promo codes. Also, when I order from newegg, the standard shipping usually takes a few days. So an order on Friday typically arrives Wednesday/Thursday.

Anyhoo, best of luck op.

 

[mvbighead]

Oh, and FYI, you will not find a $200 MB and 16GB of RAM combo on Amazon. If it were me, I would definitely order that bit now before they cancel the deal.

 

[tinpanalley]

Ok, cool. I had no idea that the deals were for such a short time. Good advice.

And I'm sorry to be a pain in your ass but where do I get the promo codes? I still don't understand that. I'm out of town but I can purchase this stuff tonight.

 

[mvbighead]

Are you going to the URLs provided?

Here's the one for the processor:
$10 off with promo code EMCKCJH26, ends 7/18

Just look at each page. Each one mentioned in these threads is right on the front of each page provided. Often times, you get promo codes from newegg via email, but everything mentioned here has been available to everyone that visits their site (not just their email subscriber list).

 

[tinpanalley]

Ok, I looked again. My total comes to $539.29. Maybe I was too late. There is only a $10 promo for the CPU.

 

[mvbighead]

Ok, I looked again. My total comes to $539.29. Maybe I was too late. There is only a $10 promo for the CPU.

Too late is right. That was a hell of deal. You're probably looking at a different combo now.

Pretty sure the mem/mb combo you missed out on an extra $20 off.

The harddrive went up to $65 from $50.

That seems to be about it.

 

[tinpanalley]

...crap...
I guess I'll have to examine this weekend's deals then. I'll look later to find the best price. The current one's not bad but I'll see if I can get it cheaper.