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Need help building new rig.
I haven't built a new PC in a long time and looking for build advice.
My budget is $1000 maybe $1500 tops. Would like it closer to 1k though.
I do not need a case. I still have a good sized one that I can use until I upgrade it later. I just need the guts: cpu, mobo, power supply, ram, gpu and from the sounds of it I should get an SSD. I don't need OS. I can build it myself.
I've always been partial to ASUS but am willing to hear other companies others have had good experiences with.
CPU: From the sounds of it I should go with Intel i5 4690 would like to hear opinions on this based on budget
RAM: not sure what is good anymore. Sounds like 16g is what I want.
SSD: I'd really like something close to 500g since I tend to play a few mmos at a time as well as single player games
GPU: This is probably the part I'm pretty flexible on and willing to upgrade it in the future. A decent one to run games on the top end of graphic settings (for example GTA V) would be nice though if the price is right .
I don't plan on overclocking but may consider it on down the road
Also, is TigerDirect still decent? I've bought parts from them that were decently priced. I see people quote NewEgg a lot on here for hardware prices. I unfortunately have a NewEgg store in my state so I'd have to pay taxes which is why I ask (but I could ship to a friend across state lines if I had to haha).
Any advice from you guys would be greatly appreciated! I'm ready to roll on something asap
Comments
Exactly what case is that that you want to reuse?
Why don't you need an OS license?
Do you intend to overclock, or at least want the option to do so in the future?
I have decent Coolermaster Centurion case. It's 4 years or so old but it still looks new and the fans work great. It's plain but it works for now unless you think I should upgrade for better airflow. It's not small form factor and is pretty normal size I suppose with plenty of space. 17"H x 19L x 8W. I think the fan in the back and side are 120mm.
I have a spare key for Win 7 that should tide me over until 10 comes out.
I would like to overclock in the future.
Exactly which case is it? A Google search for "cooler master centurion" returns four different cases as the top four results--all of which look toward the low end of what would work for a gaming rig.
If you salvage the case from the old computer, then what happens to the rest of the old computer? A four year old gaming rig that was decent when you bought it is still worth something today--and surely a lot more than the case would be worth.
Why do you have a spare Windows 7 key lying around? You can't legally reuse the key from a previous computer, with fairly rare exceptions.
Is there some reason why you need 16 GB of memory? Even 4 GB is enough for most purposes today, through you really should get at least 8 GB to make sure it will be enough for some years to come. You can justify 16 GB if you wanted to spend $1500, but trying to squeeze that into a $1000 budget will mean giving up something else.
Were you planning on getting both an SSD and a hard drive, or just the SSD?
I think the case is a Coolermaster Centurion 534. The old rig is actually older than the case so it's pretty obsolete for gaming (I built it to play Battlefield 2). I've been gaming on a laptop for the last 4 years (big mistake) and ready to have something with a bit more power. If you think I should upgrade my case I can do so. This PC will just be used for gaming.
If 8gb is ok to start with I will so so. I just want to keep a few dimm slots open to add more in the future.
I bought a copy of windows 7 a while back but have yet to use it.
Don't tell the wife but if it's a little closer to $1500 but it's ok with me :P I just want to be set for a couple of years.
I'll just be getting an SSD. I have a 500 gb 7200 rpm HD that I can put in for storage.
Thanks for your help Quizzical!
I would go ahead and get a new case. One with USB 3.0 ports in it is a big plus.
And you can get a decent case for around $50 + / - a few dollars.
Plus you can keep the old rig intact and maybe use it as a 2nd PC, give it to a family member, or sell it. I actually took one of my old PCs and put it in an HTCP case, slapped in several HDDs and use it for media on my TV.
With the budget you have no reason to reuse a 4+ year old case. Might as well build a proper rig. if you were on a strict low budget then I might reuse it.
You can build something very nice for around $1200 that should last for years without needing to upgrade anything. IMO that would be the target budget. Plus wife wont freak out hopefully
Get 8GB RAM. No need for 16gb unless you have unusual needs, and gaming would not qualify.
Simple job dude ebay :
i7 4790
gtx 680 or 780 ( used)
8gb ram
800 w poer suply cheap ass dvd rom and hard disc
some intel motherboard and your done.
All this around 500 pounds will run 5 mmos at the same time
whats so hard about building a pc.. all this comments where booring and bullshit
So your advice is to buy used parts off ebay, some random motherboard and an I7? hmmmm..........
yeah... the rest of the world may actually want to build something quality. But you keep at it with the used ebay hardware...
Personally I do not think the i7's are worth it. I would go with the higher end I 5. Unless you get all the rest of your pieces and find your under budget . Then get the I 7
650 @75% Power Supply or greater
Asus, MSI, or Gigabyte MB (Going to need to decide if you want to spend the money on SLI or Crossfire compatible.) I do not think its worth it.
If you get a board with 4 RAM slots (and you should) you can start with 2x4 and add 2 more for 16 later.
Right now I think Nvidia is the way to go. www.tomshardware.com go to their comparison charts and more or less pick any card in the $250 to $300 range
SSDs are great but $$ www.dealnews.com can get you some decent deals if your patient.
As someone else mentioned a new case with USB 3.0 is the way to go. That extra transfer speed for the win.
Meh.. sorry don't have the time to go pull actual prices on specific products. Hope it helps at all.
thinking of going with
CPU: Intel i5 4690k
Mobo: ASUS Maximus VII HERO
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8gb C13-5708 PC12800 DDR3 1600MHz
GPU: MSI GTX 970
SSD: Crucial MX100 Series 512gb
PSU: Corsair CS Series CS750M 750 Watt (if I want to add a 2nd GPU in the future)
Case: Probably the Rosewill THOR V2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147053&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=PPSSBGDRYLXVJN-_-11-147-053-_-Product
A few changes I would personally make would be the following.
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130779 (or at least something much cheaper than the Maximus series. I doubt you need any of the extra "bells & whistles" that you're paying a hefty premium for.)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150696 (same price as the GTX 970 you're looking at, but a much faster card. Also, I own a GTX 970, and I totally would have sprung for a 290x if the cost was similar at the time I bought mine.)
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147185 (Much cheaper than the one you linked, but just as functional. There are literally dozens to choose from that would be cheaper, and not total junk.)
Generally, if you're going to go with a SLI or Crossfire setup, do it now. It doesn't make any sense to spring for a second video card in a year or two, when a new generation of videocards at that point in time would probably be a faster solution. Also, unless you have the need to run an eyefinity setup, or you want to push a 4k monitor, there is no real, current, reason to use more than one video card.
I would have to second going with a cheaper motherboard. No use in paying a premium for something you will never use all of.
The mobo the poster above me linked. The MSI one will allow you to OC if you so choose in the future without making you pay a high price today for something you "might" do in the future.
The case will be a matter of personal choice. I choose functionality over looks personally but some people dont mind springing for a super cool looking expensive case. I just would not cut back on other hardware to get one.
Not sure why you wouldn't try and keep your old PC and make a brand new one. If I were going to build a new PC, no way I'd do anything but a Full tower. I do not like cramped quarters and better heat distribution. With Windows 10 coming out soon along with more hardware, not sure if building right now is the ticket. Do you want Bluetooth or crazy sound on your mobo? After market sound?
What games do you plan on playing? If it is Star Citizen, you're build will not cut the mustard. I.E. you won't be all that happy with it in the long run. If not, you're in the zone but I'd go 16GB (2x 8) of fairly fast ram and go with an 850 pro for your SSD. i7 is not necessary if you get a solid i5. Also consider mobo socket size for CPU. Newer mobo's will have a newer socket config that newer CPUs are being formatted for. If I build a PC, I usualy stay with it for 6 years so upgrading ability is required.
First PC Game: Pool of Radiance July 10th, 1990. First MMO: Everquest April 23, 1999
Don't goto Ebay, TigerDirect or Amazon.
You want http://www.newegg.com/
My 3 yr old system, built in 2012 for under $1400 runs the same way it did when it was built, the only difference is that my SSD and HD are getting full.
"My Fantasy is having two men at once...
One Cooking and One Cleaning!"
---------------------------
"A good man can make you feel sexy,
strong and able to take on the whole world...
oh sorry...that's wine...wine does that..."
Sounds good but you should consider buying an effective CPU cooler since potentially you can easily have your 4690K run at or even above 4.5 GHz. Just set the turbo multipliers above 42 in BIOS (42-46 usually works fine with decent cooling) and run some stability tests.
I would recommend a Deepcool Neptwin. It has tricky mounting mechanics but if you follow the instructions you shouldn't have problems mounting it. I found flagship BeQuiet and Noctua air coolers slightly better and somewhat quieter but they are way more expensive than the Neptwin. Also check if your case has the required dimensions for a cooler that big and you have to be careful with the assembly since usually these coolers block anything above your RAM slots so it is advised to put your pair of RAM modules into slots where they still can operate as dual channel while the cooler doesn't collide into them. Install your RAM modules before you mount the CPU cooler.
I wouldn't recommend going for cheap and noisy water coolers instead of great and fairly quiet air coolers.
I'm having great results with a Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 motherboard that can oveclock my 4690K to a stable 4.6 GHz with a Neptwin without throttling at all so that mobo should be more than enough for you too. That particular PC has been tested stable during hundreds of hours of live streaming and running games that usually result high CPU loads.
Check out some Fractal Design cases too. Massive build, easy assembly, plenty of room and support for tidy cable management, great air flow, decent quality case fans and dust filters are features of most models.
All right, here you go:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117372
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130772
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226680
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104516
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150696
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17D-001H-00002
Do note the promo code on the optical drive and the video card.
The CPU cooler isn't appropriate to a ridiculous overclock of the sort that will inevitably damage a processor, but it would be fine if you want something more modest like 4.2 GHz.
The SSD is likely a different sticker on Mushkin's old Chronos drives. It's definitely a SandForce controller, though.
Flagship motherboards are a waste of money unless you're doing something ridiculous like liquid nitrogen overclocking, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to overclock on the cheapest Z97 motherboard you can find. The motherboard I linked is a happy medium there: not too expensive, but will overclock pretty well so long as you don't go nuts with it.
750 W is overkill on a power supply, really, but when it's good quality for $80, why not?
I'd run the memory at 1866 MHz and 1.5 V rather than the rated specs of 2133 MHz and 1.6 V. The stock voltage of DDR3 is 1.5 V, so running it at 1.6 V is overvolting it, and effectively overclocking it for the sake of extra performance that doesn't matter.
The CPU is the same price basically everywhere, so if you want to buy it somewhere else instead of New Egg, have at it.
Including shipping, before $50 in rebates, and before tax, that comes to $1111. Add a 7% sales tax and you're still at $1189. It's over $1000, but far below $1500.
It's not just which parts you get, but which prices you find on them. If you can find that motherboard for $100, then sure, get it. But $200 for a consumer motherboard is a waste of money unless you have very unusual needs.
If you run a Haswell CPU at 4.6 GHz all the time, it's not a question of whether you'll damage it, but how badly and how soon. Now, damaging a CPU by overclocking doesn't necessarily mean the part is dead; the typical result is that it still works, but can't clock as high as before. But don't get the idea that that sort of heavy overclocking comes for free.
My recommendation on overclocking is, don't do it until you decide you need more CPU performance for whatever reason. Go ahead and overclock it when you get it just to see what it can reach if you like, but then revert it at stock speeds until you come across a situation where stock speeds aren't fast enough. There's no point in putting extra wear and tear on the system when the performance doesn't matter.
You gain very little perfromance from the OC, it is not worth the price tag of the CPU itself and motherboard, especially the one you picked.
Just get i5-4590 and H97 motherboard, saving + $90 right there.
SLI isn't really good path. There are lots of issues and it does not work half the time you use it, you will be better off to sell your card and buy a new one.
4690K's are late models among Haswell CPU's with properly applied thermal compound under the lid so that you don't have to delid them to have them overclocked at voltage settings and temperatures corresponding to factory specifications. Keeping core voltages low and operating at normal temperatures won't damage the CPU. Also it is recommended to apply overclocked multiplier settings to turbo multipliers only so that the CPU has an idle 1.6 GHz clock rate that further decreases power consumption as well. It's overvoltage and overheating that you have to avoid during overclocking and you'll be fine with this particular Haswell model.
The factory default normal clock rate of 4690K's is 3.5 GHz and the default turbo clock rate is at 3.9 GHz for even non-K 4690's so running them at 4.6 GHz is not a huge overclocking achievement at all and usually you don't have to set any overvoltage values to have them run stable under 80 degrees Celsius. I know that early Haswell CPU's had high temperatures but this series does not. Of course I need the extra 1.1 GHz and that's why I bought a 4690K.
Going from 3.9 to 4,6Ghz does not make it 1.1GHz overclock, unless you say that you are running yours at 5GHz, but then you are very lucky since most chips do not go that far.
If you run a Haswell CPU at 4.6 GHz all the time, it's not a question of whether you'll damage it, but how badly and how soon. Now, damaging a CPU by overclocking doesn't necessarily mean the part is dead; the typical result is that it still works, but can't clock as high as before. But don't get the idea that that sort of heavy overclocking comes for free. My recommendation on overclocking is, don't do it until you decide you need more CPU performance for whatever reason. Go ahead and overclock it when you get it just to see what it can reach if you like, but then revert it at stock speeds until you come across a situation where stock speeds aren't fast enough. There's no point in putting extra wear and tear on the system when the performance doesn't matter.
4690K's are late models among Haswell CPU's with properly applied thermal compound under the lid so that you don't have to delid them to have them overclocked at voltage settings and temperatures corresponding to factory specifications. Keeping core voltages low and operating at normal temperatures won't damage the CPU. Also it is recommended to apply overclocked multiplier settings to turbo multipliers only so that the CPU has an idle 1.6 GHz clock rate that further decreases power consumption as well. It's overvoltage and overheating that you have to avoid during overclocking and you'll be fine with this particular Haswell model.
The factory default normal clock rate of 4690K's is 3.5 GHz and the default turbo clock rate is at 3.9 GHz for even non-K 4690's so running them at 4.6 GHz is not a huge overclocking achievement at all and usually you don't have to set any overvoltage values to have them run stable under 80 degrees Celsius. I know that early Haswell CPU's had high temperatures but this series does not. Of course I need the extra 1.1 GHz and that's why I bought a 4690K.
I think your a bit mislead
What Quiz posted is right. You are sort of correct - overvoltage and overheating will negatively affect your CPU. However, TDP (heat generation) is directly proportional to clock speed, and squarely proportional to voltage. So just raising clock speed alone will affect your heat generation - you don't have to bump up the voltage to accomplish that.
And keeping the "chip" (bearing in mind that the internals of the chip can be at drastically different temperatures, and we are just able to measure the rough average at where ever the thermcouple happens to be located at) at or under 80C doesn't mean you've magically solved the problem, or that Intel solved it just by using a different thermal compound under the lid. It does help, certainly, but your still generating more heat than you would have if you were at stock clocks, and more heat = more rapid degredation.
Now, that degredation may mean that instead of working for 25 years, your chip only works for 15 years. Or your overclock only lasts for 3 years until you have to bump it down.
But don't think that just because your temp is under 100C and you didn't touch voltage that your totally immune to harming your chip. You aren't.
If you can hit 4.6 GHz at the stock voltage, then you're probably safe--but got an extremely lucky die. For the overwhelming majority of Core i5-4690Ks, the amount of voltage it will take to hit 4.6 GHz on air or water cooling is enough that it's not a question of whether you damage the CPU, but how soon and how badly.
It's not just a question of temperatures. High enough currents will cause electromigration even at room temperature. Or far below room temperature.