New Build $1300

[tg2708]

BenQ XL2411T is not available in the US. Asus VG248QE is essentially the same thing.

wow but i still ordered it and I don't know what to do now. Is it an import?

 

[Jaydip]

wow but i still ordered which I dont't know what to do know. Is it import?

Check about the warranty, if the service center is in USA you will be fine.

 

[lehtv]

I don't see an XL2411T on newegg. Where did you buy it from? Link? Sure you didn't get the XL2420T which is an older monitor with a 120hz panel instead of 144hz? You'd be better off with the VG248QE than XL2420T.

 

[tg2708]

I don't see an XL2411T on newegg. Where did you buy it from? Link? Sure you didn't get the XL2420T which is an older monitor with a 120hz panel instead of 144hz? You'd be better off with the VG248QE than XL2420T.

I guess you are right smh. But isnt it still a better monitor or elaborate on why its worst? You know what you are writing about so I take what you say very carefully but the ben q striked me as something that looked better etc. I was really considering the asus that you recommended but when you mentioned the ben q i quickly switch to it not knowing it was the older model. tried to cancel it but its too late so the only option is to send it back which the hassle is to much.

 

[lehtv]

As I said, the XL2420T has an older panel that is limited to 120hz. Asus VG248QE is 144hz. Asus is considerably less expensive, currently $240 AP, versus $330 for the BenQ. There's not much else different between them... it is both better and cheaper. The hassle of sending the BenQ back is worth $90

 

[tg2708]

As I said, the XL2420T has an older panel that is limited to 120hz. Asus VG248QE is 144hz. Asus is considerably less expensive, currently $240 AP, versus $330 for the BenQ. There's not much else different between them... it is both better and cheaper. The hassle of sending the BenQ back is worth $90

Fair enough but that deal ends the day after I get the rest of the parts. So even if I had refused it, the processing time would have gone beyond the sale date. I tried to cancel order though. Funny thing is everything is shipping from New Jersey. I used my aunts card and first time builder itch has gotten the best of me.

But lets forget about that screw up. . Hope you can stick around to answer any questions I might have with regards to setting it up. Will I need screwdrivers and what not? Also do I need thermal paste for the cpu?

 

[tg2708]

Cupu+mobo - i5-4670k with asrock extreme 4
Case - Corsair Carbide 300r
PSU - Seasonic 750AM
Operating System - Windows 8 (just went with what was latest while 7 was still a high consideration).
Hdd + ssd - 120gb samsung evo + 1 terabyte WD
Graphics Card -Radeon 7970
Monitor - Benq monitor XL2420T (this was up in the air as I knew the asus lehtv recommended as well as what I saw myself was a good recommendation).


How future proof is this setup?

 

[lehtv]

You will need one phillips head screwdriver, not sure of the exact size. If you have some lying around you'll probably find one that fits close enough to go ahead with the installation.

The CPU will come with thermal paste.

How future proof the setup is depends on what you do with it. If you want to play new games on high/very high settings at smooth framerates, you'll need to upgrade the GPU about once a year or a year and a half, and the CPU with every other GPU upgrade. Upgrading the CPU in 3 years will require a new socket and at that time we'll probably be in DDR4 era so new RAM will be needed as well. You may need to increase the amount of RAM before that, it's impossible to say without a crystal ball.

The case and PSU should last 5+ years, while it's hard to say if the drives will become sluggish or even obsolete before then. If you take a 5 year old hard disk, it'd be pretty slow by today's standards and you would probably have upgraded it, but on the other hand, you could easily use a slow drive as media storage.

 

[tg2708]

You will need one phillips head screwdriver, not sure of the exact size. If you have some lying around you'll probably find one that fits close enough to go ahead with the installation.

The CPU will come with thermal paste.

How future proof the setup is depends on what you do with it. If you want to play new games on high/very high settings at smooth framerates, you'll need to upgrade the GPU about once a year or a year and a half, and the CPU with every other GPU upgrade. Upgrading the CPU in 3 years will require a new socket and at that time we'll probably be in DDR4 era so new RAM will be needed as well. You may need to increase the amount of RAM before that, it's impossible to say without a crystal ball.

The case and PSU should last 5+ years, while it's hard to say if the drives will become sluggish or even obsolete before then. If you take a 5 year old hard disk, it'd be pretty slow by today's standards and you would probably have upgraded it, but on the other hand, you could easily use a slow drive as media storage.

Ok thanks for that. But now I'm curious as to how I will get sound from it, do I need a sound card? Will be ordering the i30 today though. Also any choice of good keyboard? Also apart from the core components which I already have what else would I need further down the line?

 

[mfenn]

Ok thanks for that. But now I'm curious as to how I will get sound from it, do I need a sound card? Will be ordering the i30 today though. Also any choice of good keyboard? Also apart from the core components which I already have what else would I need further down the line?

The motherboard has a sound card integrated into it. This Rosewill Cherry MX Brown is a good keyboard if you have the budget. Otherwise, any $20 one will be fine.

 

[tg2708]

Anyone has any idea how well the i30 arctic cooler fits on the asrock extreme4 mobo? I've read it blocks the ram dimms. Wondering if I should just save up and get the noctua dh14.

 

[mfenn]

You should be fine as long as you don't use DIMMs with massive heatspreaders. The D14 will certainly block anything that the i30 would block (and more).

 

[tg2708]

quick questions experts why is the i5+ recommended over the fx 8350?

 

[lehtv]

A current generation i5 has nearly double the performance per core. Although FX-8350 has eight cores instead of four (or modules, whatever), it is vastly inferior in gaming performance because the vast majority of games utilize only up to four CPU threads. That means that in most games, the extra cores of the FX will be sitting by doing nothing. In games where the extra threads matter, they won't be taken perfectly advantage of - multithreadedness in games can be very situational, i.e. dependent on what kind of processing needs to be done.

In addition to that, the FX lacks integrated graphics (good for backup), and its power consumption is a lot higher than that of the i5 which definitely should be factored in when weighing the value for money of each processor.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Also, although the FX bills itself as "8 COREZ!!!" in reality, it has 8 cores that can work independently only in integer workloads. Pairs of cores share float resources, so in heavily threaded float workloads, it effectively transforms into a quad-core with ~half the performance per core of an i5. Intel i5s maintain full performance across all workloads.

 

[tg2708]

Ok thanks lehtv and essence. A friend of mine was saying it was better (8350) because of its eight cores, but I said all the experts or majority of them are recommending the i5 so I'd rather get that instead. He mentioned something about more future proof when games start making use of the extra cores.

 

[lehtv]

Games may start using more cores more frequently, but that still wouldn't make the FX faster. If you compare full utilization of eight FX cores with full utilization of four i5 cores, you get about the same performance. In reality, heavily multithreaded games, even in the future, will not be able to use all the threads to full effect all the time. And it's more than likely that most games will still be using use four or fewer threads by the time the i5 is obsolete (5 years, give or take); this is because the more CPU threads you're coding a game engine for, the more difficult and time consuming it is. Game devs will much rather take the easy path and program for few threads.

 

[Mtt]

For the keyboard I recommend http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823109191

Edited: the polling rate is incorrect. But I think only USB keyboard can have 'media keys' and other extra keys. I found media keys very convinent. I often listen to music while playing games. and when I want to skip tracks or stop playing, I can press a key without having to tab out. And that keyboard has almost all keys anti ghosting.

 

[tg2708]

Parts are coming tomorrow but the i30 cooler should arrive the next day from amazon because the price from newegg went up. Should I start setting up tomorrow or wait for the cooler to arrive?

Can't wait to start playing some of the newer games above 40 fps on high settings. Also after seen the graphic fidelity of pc games I could never go or settle for a console right now, even with the exclusives. I will not have to settle with aging parts if I don't want to. Wanted to get the ps4 but the pc I think was a much better decision even though it has cost me the price of both next gen. consoles.

 

[tg2708]

For the keyboard I recommend http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823109191

Edited: the polling rate is incorrect. But I think only USB keyboard can have 'media keys' and other extra keys. I found media keys very convinent. I often listen to music while playing games. and when I want to skip tracks or stop playing, I can press a key without having to tab out. And that keyboard has almost all keys anti ghosting.

Yea saw that one but after mfeen showed me the rosewill mechanical keyboard, I want something similar .

 

[lehtv]

You can install the CPU and RAM onto the motherboard, then put everything into the case, attach cables and wires and route them, etc. Then just install the cooler and boot. The case has a large cutout in the motherboard tray, making it easy to install the cooler

Alternatively you can do a testbed build on the antistatic bag the motherboard came in, using Intel's stock cooler. That way you find out if any component is DOA, which can save a lot of time if you found that out only after installing everything into the case. Particularly regarding the motherboard and PSU

As for the keyboard: CM Storm Quickfire Pro $80 (brown switches) or CM Storm Trigger backlit with wrist rest $94 (red switches).

There's also the new QuickFire TK, three switch types / backlight colors available

 

[tg2708]

You can install the CPU and RAM onto the motherboard, then put everything into the case, attach cables and wires and route them, etc. Then just install the cooler and boot.

Alternatively you can do a testbed build on the antistatic bag the motherboard came in, using Intel's stock cooler. That way you find out if any component is DOA, which can save a lot of time if you found that out only after installing everything into the case. Particularly regarding the motherboard and PSU

DOA parts are what i'm afraid of, moreso when it comes to the cpu and mobo because it was my aunt that brought me to the microcenter and she is leaving so I will not be able to exchange it. Lets hope the mobo and cpu is good though .fingerscrossed. Will keep you all updated if I run into any problems though.

 

[lehtv]

the CPU is extremely unlikely to be DOA, but with motherboards and other components it can happen more often. I have no exact figures, I'd guess around 0.5-2% chance per component is fair

 

[Mtt]

If you have decided to go with mechanical keyboard, read this http://www.overclock.net/t/491752/mechanical-keyboard-guide

And decide which switch type to go with. The switch type preference is very personal I dont think its good idea to just go with whatever others tell you.

 

[tg2708]

Any recommendations on good speakers? Want something decent. Thanks.