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Building my first PC.
Hey guys, I plan on building a fairly cost-effective PC for some WoW or similar gaming.
This will be my first PC that I have actually built myself so I was wondering if all of these parts look compatible and if you have any suggestions:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 Brisbane 2.9GHz Socket AM2 65W
Motherboard: ASRock A780LM AM2+/AM2 Micro ATX AMD
Video Card: GeForce 9500 GT 1 GB GDDR2. PCI Express 2.0 x16
Hard Drive: SATA WD Caviar, 640 GB, 7200rpm
Case: NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower (does support Micro)
PSU: BFG Tech 550w ATX12v
Ram: G.SKILL 4gb (2 x 2gb). DDR2, 240 pin. 1066
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium (Guessing I should get 64 bit?)
edit: Posted early on accident.
Comments
Whats your price range, and whats your currancy..eg canadian, us..etc.
Are you prepping to just bunker down in wow or do you want something that can play some of the upcomming MMOs as well?
Are you strictly MMO or do you plan single player games?
Do you multi task?
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
If your just going to play WOW an off the shelf PC will suffice. Im not being a smart ass you might save some money just going to the store most companies are selling PC's fairly cheap now.
@Foxx,
Not exactly sure, I plan on playing games similar to WoW and probably some decent upcoming ones as well, I haven't really decided yet.
I was trying to keep it under 600 dollars or so, this one is about 550 after I add everything up.
Yes, I multitask, this will probably be my PC for college after next year, i'm majoring in Computer Science.
Well, I just bought a setup for my wife. If you know how to physically build a PC this is a great option on a budget:
www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp
Quad core with all the trimmings. Add in an OS (they have XP Home for like $89) and it is still pretty cheap. Overall setup time will be like 1 hour at most to build the system, then the standard OS setup time after that.
AMd is currently losing the cpu war, so id invest in a quad core. The q6600 is currently the best bang for your buck processor. I got mine for 120 bucks, but i bought it off another person, i think right now it sells for 277, im surprised ncix hasnt dropped the price further.
id reccomend the p5b deluxe motherboard but its discontinued now i believe, but for what you want the Gigabyte EP43-UD3L should work just fine.
you can get 4 gigs of ddr800 ram for 44 bucks. I usually stick to kingston, all that other fancy ocz, patriot, corsair etc all fancy and all but kingston has never let me down.
You can get last years behemeth video card, the 9800 for about 90 bucks these days, and that is more then enough for last gens games and should do you for next gen, aion, swtor, etc.
The CM690 is always my case of choice, so much fan options it is absolutely great. and really cheap, i got mine for 79cad, the fans however were another 56 or so, but thats cause im into that, you can do well with the 3 fans it comes with.
the power supply is fine, dont get 64bit OS, yes it allows you to use more ram, but it also costs more ram to maintain, so the benifit negates itself unless you are going above 6gigs.
Cant go wrong with black caviar , though id recommend 1tb, but then again i have space issues, thats why i have 4 of them lol.
If i knew more about your shopping habits id tell you to hunt around.
I bought all my parts except ym video card/hard drive(i wanted the warrenty) from other people. So i got some good prices, you can get this set up for fairly cheap, but second hand would probably be alot cheaper, but youd sacrafice warrenty.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
Thanks Brian, I might check into that.
I was really hoping I could actually pick out all the parts myself and build it though, that way it will be easier in the future.
Also, what does everyone think about Windows 7?
Window 7 is supposed tob e fantastic, however i dont screw with beta builds especially operating systems, What i would say is, go vista for now, especially with that video card, and when windows 7 comes out reformat.
The launch date is oct 22/09, i already have a drive ready and waiting for it myself.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
From what I've heard Windows 7 is XP Stability + Vista's Sleekness.. I've heard nothing but good things about it.
And I don't recommend buying a store shelf PC.. building your PC as a PC gamer is the only real way to go.. I built mine for about $800 and it's probably the sexiest beast ever... Gonna be playing on this for a while.
I would suggest you bump up the graphics card to at least a 9800 GT.
Also don't expect to see a full 4gb of RAM available for use with programs. Any amount of graphics RAM will be deducted from that 4gb. So a 1gb graphics card will result in you seeing 3gb or less of available RAM with a 32 bit Microsoft OS.
I thought windows 7 was pretty good. But then again I liked Vista when I beta tested it but never switched because my computer wasn't all that great then. 7 ran all my games just as well as XP did so Im waiting on till 7 launches to upgrade my OS.
Thanks for all the responses guys,
Oh, another question
Do I need DDR3 RAM to use GDDR3 graphics cards? I'm assuming yes.
No... ram on your video card has nothing to do witht he ram in your system. And ddr 3 is largely useless, and only really works with the i7.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
No, the Graphics DDR3 memory is located completely on the graphics card and is not effected by the type of RAM you have on the motherboard.
post your budget, alot of us could just help you pick the best parts if we knew how much you had to work with.
Games i'm playing right now...
"In short, I thought NGE was a very bad idea" - Raph Koster talking about NGE on his blog at raphkoster.com
Well Cerebrix, I'm trying to save for college while buying this computer at the same time. I'd really like to keep it at 600 dollars max if possible, after shipping and everything. I've been using NewEgg so far, seems pretty nice.
nah new egg has expensive shipping and shitty deals, ncix is where its at. you can also buy the gift card and get free shipping with ncix.
And ncix has sales at a ridiculous rate.
And the parts i reccomended im sure dont come up to more then 600-700 bucks. Though i still reccomend, buying form other people.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
doing some quick pricing on newegg, i came up with the following for $616 (plus shipping):
phenom 2 x3 710 black edition ($119)
gigabyte ga-ma770t-ud3p am3 mobo ($80)
4gb g.skill ddr3 1333 ram ($60)
evga geforce gts 250 ($140)
antec bp650 650w psu ($82)
wd caviar 640gb hd ($80)
antec 300 case ($55)
by all reports the x3 710 is a sweet little overclocker, and the gigabyte board should help you make the most of it on a budget. you would need to invest in a decent aftermarket heatsink/fan for your cpu, though, so tack on another $40 or so. even then, the increased performance and staying power of this build is well worth the extra +/- $150 over the build in your op.
Actually that build comes out to about $758.00 when you add in your aftermarket heatsink and and a copy of MS Vista Home Premium.
Actually that build comes out to about $758.00 when you add in your aftermarket heatsink and and a copy of MS Vista Home Premium.
But if he uses windows 7 and doesn't buy an after market heat sink it doesn't! What's he going to need an after market heat sink for? I have an X3 720 BE with Asus mobo, same HD with 4GB of corsiar ram (1600MHZ) and run Windows 7 with the stock HS fan. I see no need if he isn't overclocking to have an after market one, why would you need to OC an X£ 720 BE when playing WoW? Besides mine will OC to 3.6GHZ stable on the stock fan anyway, not that I need it!
I say go with that build, and buy an X3 720 BE, I think that was what snidebot meant but accidentaly wrote 710 BE (710 doesn't have a BE).
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Actually that build comes out to about $758.00 when you add in your aftermarket heatsink and and a copy of MS Vista Home Premium.
But if he uses windows 7 and doesn't buy an after market heat sink it doesn't! What's he going to need an after market heat sink for? I have an X3 720 BE with Asus mobo, same HD with 4GB of corsiar ram (1600MHZ) and run Windows 7 with the stock HS fan. I see no need if he isn't overclocking to have an after market one, why would you need to OC an X£ 720 BE when playing WoW? Besides mine will OC to 3.6GHZ stable on the stock fan anyway, not that I need it!
I say go with that build, and buy an X3 720 BE, I think that was what snidebot meant but accidentaly wrote 710 BE (710 doesn't have a BE).
Very true, I'm just kinda weary on using Windows 7 since this will be my first self-build PC and I don't know a whole lot about Windows 7. No idea how much it will cost when it comes out, if I will have to reformat when it expires, etc.
I agree that an aftermarket heatsink is not needed on a system that in not overclocked and is built with a retail boxed CPU that comes with it's own heatsink but the poster my reply to was indirectly suggesting overclocking of the build. With mild overclocking a stock heatsink might be enough but who is to say what mild overclocking is.
I don't recommend Windows 7 for the simple fact that it is not available now and will not be available by the time the OP starts college. It will also more than likely cost more than a version of Vista Home Premium does. The OP is building a PC on a budget and a time limit. Those two things limit his options.
I would get another Motherboard, Asrock is bad. MSI or Gigabyte are both cheap and make good stuff.
the graphics card is really crappy also, Check out this benchmark list: www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphicscharts-2009/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1920x1200,1199.html Thw card is a slower version of the 9600 cards. Get at least a 9600 but a 250 GTX is the best choice for a low budget. DDR2 memory in a GFX card is really a thing of the long gone past, not even my old 7900 card 5 years ago had that.
Also the powersupply is a bit low, youll need at least 600W today but 650w really don't hurt, particulary if you plan to upgrade the GFX card or use several harddrives. 550W will just give you problems later. Also, if you plan to run it a lot (like running 24/7 for a FTP or something), get a corsair. They only use as much power as you need and scales down very well.
Good luck
i originally put down the x3 720 black edition, but changed it to the 710 and forgot to remove "black edition". from what i've heard, the 710 overclocks pretty darn well even without the unlocked multiplier. while some people report getting good clocks with the stock hs/f, i always recommend an aftermarket cooler when doing any overclocking.
then again the 720 black edition is only $20 more expensive (i thought it was more), and may include a better stock cooler since it's geared towards enthusiasts, so that could really be a better option.
as far as the operating system is concerned, i did forget to include that. to the op: will you be attending a "major" university? if so, the cost of the operating system could be almost null; due to my university's partnership with microsoft, students and faculty get copies of windows at a huge discount, and i would imagine lots of other universities offer similar perks. it's definitely something to look into if you haven't already.
but even still, i stand by the fact that the drastic increase in performance and flexibility is well worth saving up an additional $200.
I built my PC almost a year ago. I really do not know much about PCs and I did make a few mistakes, but only compatibility issues and nothing revolving any sort of damage.
My advice if you are building it yourself: Read, then re-read, then read again the manuals. I was super extra careful because a few years ago my brother actually short-circuited my motherboard and cpu.
Also, if you are intending to keep the PC for a while (3+ years) then I would recommend making it future proof. Get vista and maybe look at a quad core cpu. Dont just get something for the bare essentials because you will end up replacing it when that shinier, better game comes out. You may just be playing WoW now, but in three years you will likely have moved on to something that requires a stronger rig.
Also, dont get the nvidia 9500. I have the 9600gt and I really wish I spent the extra money on a 9800gtx. Even the 9800gt would have been okay. 4gigs of ram is recommend for vista. Dont get any less because it will matter.
Yes, but that's not until a year from now. Still have one year of high school left =/
But yeah, I'm thinking about saving a little bit more and going with some of the options you guys presented to me. I also wasn't aware that 550w PSU wasn't enough, I figured it'd be plenty. Thanks for pointing that out though.