Building a Computer

[tooltiperror]

Yeah, so I think this is like the ... third time I've posted a thread like this? I've revised a target build once again

Here's what I have so far, I'd like critique.

Please give reasons for changes. I'm aiming for the ability to play SC2 without lag at a reasonable level (high I guess).

• Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
• COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN3 CM690 II Basic Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
• ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
• Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
• GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full

I'm not sure about compatibility. I know my motherboard and CPU are compatible (both are Intel, that should be enough, right?) Anyone who can guide me on how to check myself next time is a saint.

I chose ASUS because it's for cool people?

I'm planning on Windows 7, just because it's worth it.

Is overclocking something I should be interested in? I don't know much about it other than that it's cool to OC gameboys now and that it involves "cheating" with your CPU to run games faster than you should be able to.

I chose 1 TB hard drive because that will last me a long time at the rate I go.

Cooling I'm lost at. Do I need to purchase anything else other than what I've got?

I also have no idea about how to go about picking out a disc drive/burner, or if I have to or whatever. I'm going to try to include a floppy drive because I can.

 

[Ghan]

Don't get Windows 7 Ultimate unless you absolutely need some kind of feature that the other versions don't have. It's not worth the extra $150.
Do get this RAM instead of what you have:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

That's double what you have there and RAM is incredibly cheap these days. Starcraft 2 will like the extra room.

As for cooling, you don't NEED to get anything more, but you can if you want to overclock. Overclocking a K-series chip is easy to do because it has an unlocked multiplier, so you may want to get a nicer cooler in order to do that.

 

[tooltiperror]

>Don't get Windows 7 Ultimate unless you absolutely need some kind of feature that the other versions don't have. It's not worth the extra $150.
Will do. Excellent advice, Ghan

>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311
Am I really going to need the extra 4 GB? How much longer can I expect it to last?

>As for cooling, you don't NEED to get anything more, but you can if you want to overclock. Overclocking a K-series chip is easy to do because it has an unlocked multiplier, so you may want to get a nicer cooler in order to do that.
I think I'm just going to stay away from OCing for awhile, thanks.

Does everything else look fine? Someone told me all you really have to look for in terms of compatibility is CPU/MOBO/HDD, want to know if that's good advice or not.

 

[Slapshot136]

Does everything else look fine? Someone told me all you really have to look for in terms of compatibility is CPU/MOBO/HDD, want to know if that's good advice or not.

the cpu/mobo/ram are all compatible, the HDD is also compatible but that is usually a non-issue these days

the only problem I see is that your buying a "green" drive and expecting to use it as a boot/program drive.. those are meant for storage, not primary use

 

[tooltiperror]

How would this be instead?

 

[Sevion]

The only thing I see about this is the aforementioned things.

I'd recommend a Spinpoint F4 over WD. If you get a WD, get a Black. They're better than Greens and Blues for boot/main drives.

The subtotal with a CD/DVD Burner and Windows 7 Professional and a Spinpoint F4 2TB is $994.92

I recommend this build:

Antec 900
Spinpoint F4 2TB
G.SKILL Ripjaw 4GB DDR3 1600
GIGABYTE GA-H67A LGA 1155
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
ASUS GTX 460
Antec TruePower 750W Continuous Power

I chose the 750W because it was a combo deal.

That's a powerful build that can run most modern games at full or close to full settings.

Subtotal: $929.92

I don't know why you didn't just ask me last night when we were on MSN >_>

 

[tooltiperror]

Updated and at $1068.93.

 

[Sevion]

Once again, get a Spinpoint F4 or a Caviar Black instead of a Blue...

8GB is overkill. You don't need it. 4GB is plenty. 6GB is what I have and is more than enough for anything I ever do.

The PSU is fine, but you should look at combo deals.

2500K is a fine.

Mobo is compatible.

The RAM you have is slower than the RAM I suggested. Get the 1600 RAM instead. If you still want 8GB for God knows what, then just get 2x 1600 RAM.

Why are you getting the "Full" version... You only need the OEM version...

 

[Ghan]

Given that RAM is so cheap right now, if you want a full article on the subject, take a look here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778.html

Or if you don't want to read the whole thing, here is the conclusion page:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778-9.html

My original reasoning here is that if you are going to be saving a good bit by not getting Windows 7 Ultimate, RAM is a good place to invest some of that extra budget.

 

[Sevion]

I agree that if you have the money to get the RAM, it's a good place to invest; however, when you don't need it and are never going to use it to its full extent, there's no point in getting it

Truthfully, even I, who is on the computer almost 24/7, have no use for more than 6GB of RAM right now.

If he really thinks he'll need it, it's a better deal to get 2x the sticks I recommended. It's ~$20 more, but faster.

A plus is that the motherboard he picked out supports it and is dual channel with 4 slots.

 

[Ghan]

I disagree that there is no use for that RAM. For example, on my computer running Windows 7, I use about 2.8 GB of RAM constantly with nothing open but Trillian and a web browser. Simply starting Starcraft 2 bumps that up to 3.4 GB before I even start a game. 4 GB is pretty standard these days for a lower end machine, but gaming rigs will want more.
I have 12 GB in my machine and I'm glad I do - I can run virtual machines for doing Linux testing and I can also turn off my paging file completely with no issues. I'm not saying you should go that far, but 6 - 8 GB is where I would want to be in building a gaming machine.

 

[Sevion]

Really? 2.8? I get about 3.0 GB while running Steam, Chrome, SC2 (in the menu), chat programs, a bunch of utilities for assorted accessories (Headset, Mouse, Keyboard, Wheel, and Desktop Icon manager), Ultramon for my dual screens, and the language bar.

What are you running in the background?

Anyhow, I would still stand by my original opinion that 4GB is fine. 6GB is good, and any more than that for a gaming rig would, IMHO, be a waste of money.

 

[Slapshot136]

ram use is proportional to how much you have.. having more ram = more stuff cached = better, even if you don't directly use it

I would say 8 gb is good, considering that you can get that much for cheap (~$50)

 

[Icyculyr]

Looks pretty sweet! When I build my rig I'm planning on using a 120GB X25-M G2 as my boot drive and a 500GB F3 or WD RE4 for storage, and 16GB RAM

 

[tommerbob]

ram use is proportional to how much you have.. having more ram = more stuff cached = better, even if you don't directly use it

I would say 8 gb is good, considering that you can get that much for cheap (~$50)

Agreed. I'm running at 4gb right now. Although I can run things fine, once I boot up SC2 and/or other more modern games, it can start to slow down at higher settings. I recommend a minimum of 6. I'm not a tech guru though, so this is just from personal experience.

 

[Sevion]

Looks pretty sweet! When I build my rig I'm planning on using a 120GB X25-M G2 as my boot drive and a 500GB F3 or WD RE4 for storage, and 16GB RAM

I would swap out the 500GB F3 for a 2TB F4. From the sounds of it, you're going to be doing a lot of RAM intense stuff like rendering. If not, I don't think you need 16 GB RAM.

 

[Slapshot136]

*just noticed the floppy drive part, sorry to burst your bubble but the newer motherboards don't support floppy anymore (you would need a USB adapter) - actually they don't support the IDE ribbon at all, so all of those IDE cd/dvd burners, hard drives, and floppies are pretty much unusable on them

 

[Sevion]

Adding on to what Slapshot has to say, you will never, ever, ever [del]be out massed[/del] use a Floppy Drive.

 

[azareus]

Unless you for unknown reasons have an irresistible urge to install Microsoft Word 95. Or somehow (why would you do this) have important data on them.

 

[Icyculyr]

I would swap out the 500GB F3 for a 2TB F4. From the sounds of it, you're going to be doing a lot of RAM intense stuff like rendering. If not, I don't think you need 16 GB RAM.

Ah thanks, haha, actually no. I'll just be gaming. According to benchmarks I've read with how much RAM you need to turn off your page file when gaming, 8GB isn't enough (12 I use right now). Seeing that I can only use dual channel RAM, it's 8GB or 16GB.

In terms of the 2TB F4... what's so good about it? I want something that is low capacity (faster access times) as well as cool. I'll only ever need 500GB.