So New Computer

[Lily.Petal]

Just went through and started working on a new computer I want to set up for my upcoming birthday, and I am asking for some criticism/advice for what I am going for. See what might be better/cheaper in comparison

Case: CM HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $180

Motherboard: ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - $123

Video Card: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP w/ Eyefinity - $240

Power Supply: CM Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - $140

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor - $130

SSD: OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $105

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory - $52

HardDrive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $45

DvD Burner: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - $20

Fan/HeatSink: CM Hyper 212 + "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler - $25

Total: ~$1,060

edit: sorry for the long links, wasn't quite to sure how to make them smaller and still be understood what the item was.

[Nibelheim]

I usually don't do PC threads, but I'll put a few quarters in

For cases, well, and this is purely personal preference, I always go with Lian Li / Silverstone. Unless you're sticking it under the desk, your case is a very prominent object in a room, so you may as well make it look sexy and classy It's your baby, the machine at the center of your life and your room! If you take a look through the $100+ range of Lian Li cases on NewEgg, you may find something you like.

For power supplies, you can never skimp on quality here. I'd probably go with something from the Corsair series. A HX650 should do nicely, or for even better quality and more efficiency, an AX650.

For an SSD, I'd recommend going larger than 60gb. A full Win7 installation will eventually get up to 20gb+, combine that with 25gb+ for WoW, and you haven't got much room left for other apps/games. An 80gb will be more comfortable, and shouldn't be too much more expensive.

As for AMD CPU/Motherboard, any particular reason for choosing AMD?


Ack, it's tough giving tidbit advice, there's so many factors to consider when building a beautiful PC and you can't get into them all in a little forum thread . The entire thing is a creation, a living entity, that needs to symbiotically work with you and your environment!

[Lily.Petal]

Hm, I'll look through more cases, there are so many shiny ones!
Ah, a friend recommended the Power Supply, I'm not to good with what's good for them or not.

As for AMD vs Intel, AMD is a lot cheaper than intel at about the same performance, though intel might beat AMD by a small margarin, and they are getting better and better. Quality and Price wise, I believe AMD just to be better.

And I love your view on building a computer <3 I've been wanting to make one for a long time and I finally have the chance to (and get away from my mac!)

Originally Posted by Nibelheim I usually don't do PC threads, but I'll put a few quarters in For cases, well, and this is purely personal preference, I always go with Lian Li / Silverstone. Unless you're sticking it under the desk, your case is a very prominent object in a room, so you may as well make it look sexy and classy It's your baby, the machine at the center of your life and your room! If you take a look through the $100+ range of Lian Li cases on NewEgg, you may find something you like. For power supplies, you can never skimp on quality here. I'd probably go with something from the Corsair series. A HX650 should do nicely, or for even better quality and more efficiency, an AX650. For an SSD, I'd recommend going larger than 60gb. A full Win7 installation will eventually get up to 20gb+, combine that with 25gb+ for WoW, and you haven't got much room left for other apps/games. An 80gb will be more comfortable, and shouldn't be too much more expensive. As for AMD CPU/Motherboard, any particular reason for choosing AMD? Ack, it's tough giving tidbit advice, there's so many factors to consider when building a beautiful PC and you can't get into them all in a little forum thread . The entire thing is a creation, a living entity, that needs to symbiotically work with you and your environment!

[Torhal]

For roughly double the price listed for that 500MB drive, you can get a 2TB hard drive...

[Lily.Petal]

Have any suggestions about what hard drive I should get then by chance? 2TB sounds a little to much for me o.o

Originally Posted by Torhal For roughly double the price listed for that 500MB drive, you can get a 2TB hard drive...

[Nibelheim]

Originally Posted by Torhal For roughly double the price listed for that 500MB drive, you can get a 2TB hard drive...

2TB is a pretty sweet spot atm. Depends how much space you need, as well. However, with larger media formats coming out all the time, you can never have too much space

[Nibelheim]

Originally Posted by Lily.Petal Have any suggestions about what hard drive I should get then by chance? 2TB sounds a little to much for me o.o

Depends on it's use. If you're only going to use it for storage and media, then a WD Green 2TB should do the trick.

[Lily.Petal]

Pretty much going for a Gaming as of right meow. I'll have to relook at hard drives and see what's really good, I'm not going top of the line or anything.

[Nibelheim]

Originally Posted by Lily.Petal Pretty much going for a Gaming as of right meow. I'll have to relook at hard drives and see what's really good, I'm not going top of the line or anything.

Well, I meant use of the HDD If you put all your software and games on the SSD, and simply use the HDD for storage and media, then it can be the slowest, quietest HDD around

[Aftermathhqt]

Originally Posted by Lily.Petal Just went through and started working on a new computer I want to set up for my upcoming birthday, and I am asking for some criticism/advice for what I am going for. See what might be better/cheaper in comparison Case: CM HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $180 Motherboard: ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - $123 Video Card: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP w/ Eyefinity - $240 Power Supply: CM Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - $140 Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor - $130 SSD: OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $105 Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory - $52 HardDrive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $45 DvD Burner: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - $20 Fan/HeatSink: CM Hyper 212 + "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler - $25 Total: ~$1,060 edit: sorry for the long links, wasn't quite to sure how to make them smaller and still be understood what the item was.

Damn, your sure you gonna buy that expensive chase?

Try this one :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJt61BHymBc

[Zagrei]

Along with the other suggestions already posted, you can browse through the wish list I've been updating over the months, while I save up :P It should be able to handle pretty much any game on the market at max settings, and then some.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=15933305

[ALZA]

AMD in not in the best form at the moment - Intel CPUs are more powerful and more power-efficient. If you're not going to overclock the PC, Sandy Bridge Intel Core i5-2400 4-core CPU would be a wise choice.
You need a motherboard based on Intel P67 or Z68 chipset for Sandy Bridge CPU. Gigabyte has a plenty of those, just find one that has all needed sockets and controllers you need (USB3.0 / eSata etc). ASUS motherboars are unstable because of EFI BIOS, although bugs are getting fixed with BIOS updates.

I'd advice CoolerMaster CM-690 II as a case because cooling capabilities of HAF X are definitely not required for this setup. HAF X, nevertheless, is on of the best cases in terms of high airflow, so it can't be a bad choice. =)
Fractal Design Define R3 is another nice case, especially for building silent PC.

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 or Crucial M4 suits the best nowadays.

HDD: WD5000AAKX or WD10EALS. Perfectly balanced: speedy and silent. Green series will work also, but it has noticeably higher read/write latency.

AcBel is OEM manufacturer of CM Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US, not the best, but not the worst manufacturers also. Corsair AX / HX series is nice and reasonably priced solution based on Channel Well (CWT) or Seasonic platform. And ofc you can not go wrong buying Antec or Enermax PSU if quality is in the first place.

[Necrophgst]

I'd go with the Corsair AX850 for a PSU but they're fairly expensive and ultimately there's nothing wrong with your PSU. I just love the fact the AX series are all 100% modular and you're not stuck with tons of extra cables you don't need. I use the AX1200 in a 3-Way SLI rig and love it. Also the AX series of PSU's are pretty much the absolute top of the line PSU's you can buy and come with a 7 yr warranty and that's really great.

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Profes...8322700&sr=8-1

I strongly disagree with Lian Li cases as mentioned above, I personally find them ugly and over priced. I think the HAF X looks great and has all the things you REALLY want for a case (Excellent cable routing, high amounts of air flow with low noise, and good looks). It includes a great hot swap bay (x2 actually) you can tuck your SSD and HD into and keep thing nice and tidy. The only thing Lian Li has going for it is it's lighter than your HAF X. At the end of the day air flow is king and so is neatness (which helps with air flow) and for that the HAF X is simply amazing (Yes I own one, and I also have a DF-85 and have also owned Lian Li in the past when they were the 'in' thing 10 years ago).

For a HDD I highly recommend the 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA 3.0 HD. This is especially true if your motherboard supports SATA 3 (if it doesn't you might be able to find a less expensive equally speedy drive). On my setup the 2TB does ~174MB/s read and ~70mb/s write (sequential). http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...8322925&sr=8-2

Lastly, I would avoid OCZ SSD's like the PLAGUE. Do not under any circumstances use an OCZ SSD so many people have had so many problems with them. I just think you're taking a big chance by using one. I highly recommend the Crucial M4 64GB SSD. They're SUPREMELY reliable and plenty fast enough. If you're using a 64GB SSD I would set it aside as strictly a boot drive and install ONLY the apps that starts with Windows (or whatever you use). I use a 128GB RealSSD C300 drive and Windows boots to desktop (Including P.O.S.T.) in ~15 seconds.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-64-2-5...8323113&sr=1-1

I don't know anything about AMD CPU's or AMD/ATi videocards. I would say if you're after long term performance you probably want to look at something more like the ASUS P8P67 Pro and an i5-2500k or an i7-2600k. The difference between the i5 and the i7 is hyper threading, and the K means it's unlocked and can be overclocked. Unless you're an AMD fan which is completely understandable you'd want the Phenom. But in all the tests I've seen Intel beats the pants off AMD (at least right now). There's no reason you can't use a Radeon video card with an Intel setup either. The ASUS Mobo supports CrossFire and Nvidia SLI. Intel is of course more expensive than AMD but I think the cost difference is worth it (personally).

Be careful with the the direct heat pipe contact coolers they can potentially have all sorts of problems (they are incompatible with some TIM's). If you're going with Air cooling you might like the Cooler Master V8 cooler (about $20 more then the one you have posted) or for $10 more than that you can go with a Corsair H50 water cooler unit and get a pair of Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850RPM fans and set them up push/pull. It will perform a little better than the V8 (I couldn't say by how much). Even if you get the V8 you will benefit from a pair of those Scythe fans.

If TIM for your heat sink is at all important I recommend either IC Diamond 24 (expensive at $19/tube) or Arctic Silver MX-4 (MX-2 is cheaper and very good too).

Hope this helps

[Necrophgst]

Originally Posted by Nibelheim Well, I meant use of the HDD If you put all your software and games on the SSD, and simply use the HDD for storage and media, then it can be the slowest, quietest HDD around

That SSD would fill up way to fast to stick anything but boot stuff on it. 60GB SSD after 4 months would hover about 60-70% used. Best to not use your Windows drive if it's an SSD for games (especially a tiny one like that). Besides with SATA 3.0 174-175mb/s sequential read (especially if you defrag periodically) is plenty fast.

[Necrophgst]

Originally Posted by ALZA ASUS motherboars are unstable because of EFI BIOS, although bugs are getting fixed with BIOS updates.

I have no problems with my ASUS Mobo

Originally Posted by ALZA I'd advice CoolerMaster CM-690 II as a case because cooling capabilities of HAF X are definitely not required for this setup. HAF X, nevertheless, is on of the best cases in terms of high airflow, so it can't be a bad choice. =)

It's cable routing is worth it air flow is amazing but the cable routing is hot.

Originally Posted by ALZA SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 or Crucial M4 suits the best nowadays.

Crucial M4 all the way, too man problems with OCZ's SSD's

Originally Posted by ALZA HDD: WD5000AAKX or WD10EALS. Perfectly balanced: speedy and silent. Green series will work also, but it has noticeably higher read/write latency.

The WD2002FAEX is the best I think (at least if you have a SATA3 capable motherboard). Green drives are just far to slow and while they do save power you can setup Windows 7 to spin the drive down after an hour or two of inactivity to save power and be green that way and still have lots of performance.

Originally Posted by ALZA AcBel is OEM manufacturer of CM Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US, not the best, but not the worst manufacturers also. Corsair AX / HX series is nice and reasonably priced solution based on Channel Well (CWT) or Seasonic platform. And ofc you can not go wrong buying Antec or Enermax PSU if quality is in the first place.

EnerMAX MaxRevo (or Platimax) or Corsair's AX series are my top two choices for PSU's. I finally almost agree with you! I don't fancy the Antec PSU's too many cables to contend with. If Antec has a truly modular PSU (and I don't know about it) then I'd for sure agree with your PSU choices, since Antec's PSU's are rock solid. Just too many cables on them.

[ALZA]

Originally Posted by Necrophgst On my setup the 2TB does ~174MB/s read and ~70mb/s write (sequential)

Is this really important if OS, applications and games are held on SSD? ~150Mb or ~174Mb is not a big difference when speaking about watching videos, listening to music etc. WD Caviar Black HDDs produce noticeable noize, Blue ones are almost silent. Modern PCs with appropriate coolers produce so low noize that it hardly hearable at 0.5m - the proof is right near myself atm, I hear only a breath of air on the edge of hearing threshold. Will my PC be better if I hear my HDD every time I make any file changes? Ofc no.

Originally Posted by Necrophgst Be careful with the the direct heat pipe contact coolers they can potentially have all sorts of problems (they are incompatible with some TIM's). If you're going with Air cooling you might like the Cooler Master V8 cooler (about $20 more then the one you have posted) or for $10 more than that you can go with a Corsair H50 water cooler unit and get a pair of Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850RPM fans and set them up push/pull. It will perform a little better than the V8 (I couldn't say by how much). Even if you get the V8 you will benefit from a pair of those Scythe fans.

You can't find better cooler than Thermalright Macho HR-02 for its price. It comes with amazing Thermalright TR-TY140 fan.

Originally Posted by Necrophgst I have no problems with my ASUS Mobo

If that's "Sandy Bridge gen" mobo - just try to boot your PC with USB HDD connected, or try to boot from multiboot external device. I tested like 10 ASUS models in total about half a year ago and none of it succeeded to continue booting after logo / post screen, or at least to do it without setting up some weird stuff in settings. Connectiang more SATA HDDs to boot from can be a pain too. As deployment of Windows images is a part of my job, I really hate EFI-based motherboards. XD
Please don't consider me beeing an ASUS-hater - I have Maximus III Formula myself. It's not only ASUS suffering from EFI troubles, MSI and others also. Gigabyte as a mobo manufacturer seems like a favourive for me at the moment, having excellent range of its products.

Originally Posted by Necrophgst It's cable routing is worth it air flow is amazing but the cable routing is hot.

2 pictures explain everything:
http://www.overclockers.ru/images/la...anaged_big.jpg
http://www.overclockers.ru/images/la...system_big.jpg

Having no troubles with cable routing on my rather old PC. Enermax Modu82+ with it thick cables fits perfectly in my 1st gen CM690.

Originally Posted by Necrophgst Crucial M4 all the way, too man problems with OCZ's SSD's

Can't disagree with that.

[Talyrius]

There's always a lot of misinformation and brand bias in these types of threads. I would love to help, but it never ends well.

[Necrophgst]

Originally Posted by ALZA Is this really important if OS, applications and games are held on SSD? ~150Mb or ~174Mb is not a big difference when speaking about watching videos, listening to music etc. WD Caviar Black HDDs produce noticeable noize, Blue ones are almost silent. Modern PCs with appropriate coolers produce so low noize that it hardly hearable at 0.5m - the proof is right near myself atm, I hear only a breath of air on the edge of hearing threshold. Will my PC be better if I hear my HDD every time I make any file changes? Ofc no.

I honestly don't find the Black to be all that loud. The blue is quieter but it's also smaller. I suppose it really comes down to size requirements.

With respect to Apps & OS etc on SSD.. If you put say, a 12-15gb game on a 60GB SSD and another 2-3GB of music and/or videos (lets just say). Then yes it matters a lot. If you run out of room on the SSD Windows (any version) will complain a great deal (including crashing, etc etc). It's more a matter of keeping such a small SSD free of stuff that *really* doesn't *need* to be there. You don't really need WoW and your MP3's on the drive, waiting a few seconds for your games to load is inconsequential. Now if you have a 240GB or 512GB SSD go ahead and put your games and so forth on it space isn't as big an issue.

But.. If you put your OS, Swap file (which by the way is generally recommended for the sake of speed), all your boot applications (Virus software, and drivers, etc etc) you're going to be pushing a fresh install close to 30-34gb (+/- a little bit). You can free up room if you have a large amount of memory by either turning swap off, or shrinking the swap down to 1gb (for example) that will free up 7GB on the OP's original post (since Windows creates a swap file the same size as the memory available). You can of course choose to put your swap on a traditional drive as well but MS still recommends (as do most every source I've found [i think]) 1gb C:\ swap drive.

Originally Posted by ALZA You can't find better cooler than Thermalright Macho HR-02 for its price. It comes with amazing Thermalright TR-TY140 fan.

Never used one, and don't really know too much about the fan either. However the Scythe Gentle Typhoons have decent amount of static pressure and CFM (110ish FM) while being reasonably quiet. The higher static pressure is excellent for pushing air through fins (or radiators). Personally in my water cooler I use Sanyo Denki San Ace 120mm fans. But they run about $30/ea but have AMAZING static pressure which makes a world of difference.

Originally Posted by ALZA If that's "Sandy Bridge gen" mobo - just try to boot your PC with USB HDD connected, or try to boot from multiboot external device. I tested like 10 ASUS models in total about half a year ago and none of it succeeded to continue booting after logo / post screen, or at least to do it without setting up some weird stuff in settings. Connectiang more SATA HDDs to boot from can be a pain too. As deployment of Windows images is a part of my job, I really hate EFI-based motherboards. XD Please don't consider me beeing an ASUS-hater - I have Maximus III Formula myself. It's not only ASUS suffering from EFI troubles, MSI and others also. Gigabyte as a mobo manufacturer seems like a favourive for me at the moment, having excellent range of its products.

I didn't read into you having anything against ASUS. I've not experienced any problems booting from USB drives (either HD or Flash/Jump drives). In fact I use a USB Flash based Unix setup on this machine reasonably often. Admittedly it's fussy but it boots like a champ from USB.

Originally Posted by ALZA 2 pictures explain everything: http://www.overclockers.ru/images/la...anaged_big.jpg http://www.overclockers.ru/images/la...system_big.jpg Having no troubles with cable routing on my rather old PC. Enermax Modu82+ with it thick cables fits perfectly in my 1st gen CM690.

Nice wiring job, but doing that is beyond a lot of peoples patience. The HAF X makes cable routing a snap, and makes a lot of sense to go with it for that reason. It's a nice "future proof" case. If the OP ever adds another videocard or two or whatever, the air flow will be there. Plenty of room to grow and excellent cable routing. It's on the expensive side but it's as nice as some others that are $100+ more expensive.

Originally Posted by ALZA Can't disagree with that.

The Crucial M4 (or even the slightly older RealSSD C300's) are rock solid, well supported and very hassle free (plus they have a lot less negative feedback globally then OCZ. I'm not anti-OCZ but if you're going to put your SSD as your boot drive you want it to work the first time, every time and for a long time. I just haven't seen that from OCZ's. I would say with a great deal of confidence that the Crucial M4/RealSSD compare very well with the Intel SSD's in terms of reliability. Crucial coming out slightly ahead for speed and price.

[p3lim]

Get a bigger harddrive, 2TB ones are quite cheap these days aswell.

I myself bought two 2TB disks and filled them up quite fast :/

[ALZA]

Originally Posted by Necrophgst I honestly don't find the Black to be all that loud.

Tested WD5002AALX and WD1002FAEX a couple of days ago and it seems that you're right. =) The drives make annoying sound if mounted into metal old-style drive cage (like in most InWin cases). But "good" cases with vibration-isolation reduce noise level greatly.

Originally Posted by Necrophgst The Crucial M4 (or even the slightly older RealSSD C300's) are rock solid

Got my working HDD broken yesterday. External HDDs lack endurance a lot, everyday carrying and heavy usage make it break very, very fast. So I decided to replace it with something less fragile and bought the Crucial M4 SSD. It's lightning fast, even though I got 64Gb model. It's almost twice as fast as my old X25-M. Expected lifetime for M4 is 72Tb Host Writes. So you're damn right - M4 drives are great!

Originally Posted by Necrophgst But.. If you put your OS, Swap file (which by the way is generally recommended for the sake of speed), all your boot applications (Virus software, and drivers, etc etc) you're going to be pushing a fresh install close to 30-34gb (+/- a little bit)

<Trolling> <mode="on">
Reinstalled my Win7 HomePremium x64. All updates + essential software + drivers.


</Trolling>
inb4, shearing Windows image can cause some funny bugs and is not recommended.


P.S. Moving to ru-RU realms was a huge mistake. I need more practice in English, srsly XD