The 'Build Me A PC' Thread

[Cheddar]

About to order a new laptop.  Would I be better served with a 5,400 RPM hard drive with 32G SSD accelarator or a classic 7,200 RPM without?

[Lantyssa]

Without having used an accelerator before, I'd go with the 7,200.  You certainly can't go wrong with it.  [My personal choice since I can't unequivocally say which is better or why.]

Probably it matters what kinds of files and programs you tend to use it most for.  Paging Dr. Trippy.

[Chimpy]

You would probably be best served by getting the cheapest hard drive you can get and then immediately replacing it with a full SSD as prices are pretty much floating around the $.80-$1 a GB range right now.

[Furiously]

You would probably be best served by getting the cheapest hard drive you can get and then immediately replacing it with a full SSD as prices are pretty much floating around the $.80-$1 a GB range right now.

What he said. A full SSD will give you better battery life as well.

[Furiously]

Well.. I just spent a bit more than 400 bucks to get a pixel perfect one.. Hopefully it all works out.

Delivered today and holy cow. The screen is purdy. The stand is a bit wobly. But the screen and price makes up for everything.

[Father mike]

Does anyone know if case layouts have changed in the past 5-7 years?  I have an old first-gen Antec Sonata case that I was going to strip and re-use. 

There's 11 3/8 inches between the back and the HD enclosure and a GeForce 670 is 11 inches long, so that wil (barely) fit.  My main worry is that the layout of mounting screws on motherboards or power supplies has drifted just enough to mess me up.

Anyone know any reason I shouldn't use the old case?

[Chimpy]

As long as it is ATX you should be ok as far as mounting holes go.

[MisterNoisy]

Does anyone know if case layouts have changed in the past 5-7 years?  I have an old first-gen Antec Sonata case that I was going to strip and re-use.  

There's 11 3/8 inches between the back and the HD enclosure and a GeForce 670 is 11 inches long, so that wil (barely) fit.  My main worry is that the layout of mounting screws on motherboards or power supplies has drifted just enough to mess me up.

Anyone know any reason I shouldn't use the old case?

You should be fine, though not all 670s are 11" long.  This Galaxy model is 10", this MSI is 10.5", and the ASUS DirectCuII models are both 10.7".  The Gigabyte model is 11" long, but has the cables coming out of the top, so you shouldn't have issues with it.  If you're not buying one of those shorter cards, get one that has the PCI-E power cables come out of the 'top' of the card (facing the case left-side door) and not the 'back' (facing the front of the chassis).

[Father mike]

You should be fine, though not all 670s are 11" long.  This Galaxy model is 10", this MSI is 10.5", and the ASUS DirectCuII models are both 10.7".  The Gigabyte model is 11" long, but has the cables coming out of the top, so you shouldn't have issues with it.  If you're not buying one of those shorter cards, get one that has the PCI-E power cables come out of the 'top' of the card (facing the case left-side door) and not the 'back' (facing the front of the chassis).

Thanks for that (and Chimpy, too).  I was looking at the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 670 (the one you listed) and NewEgg's spec sheet lists it as 11" x 5.4" x 1.7", but you make and excellet point about the top vs. back power connects.  Looks like theyre on the top (from the product images), so it should be okay.   Now I just have to wait for the thing to come back in stock!

I didn't know if ATX had been upgraded to ATX-alpha, or ATX hi-performance, or some other silly-but-slightly-different spec that would come back to bite me.  Glad to know that ATX is still ATX.

Now I just have to decide if I want to spend the extra money on a new DVD drive just to get a case-matching black faceplate!

[MisterNoisy]

Now I just have to decide if I want to spend the extra money on a new DVD drive just to get a case-matching black faceplate!

It's pretty easy to pull the bezel off most DVD drives - just pop it off, get a can of flat black spray paint, mask off the LED with a bit of tape and an X-acto knife and go to town.

[Mrbloodworth]

I built a pretty sweet PC recently. 

Ivy Bridge i5-3570k
GTX 480
8 GB RAM
256 GB SSD
1 TB HDD
NZXT H2 case
MSI Z77A-GD65 LGA 1155


I have to say, having a good mobo that has a slick UEFI and one touch overclocking is pretty nice for an inveterate newb like myself.

Total?

[Sky]

The MSI OC for Dummies button is good even for folks who have been overclocking for a long time. Unless you're really into the tweaking part. I just did as much as I had to in order to get the results I wanted, so hitting a button and getting a 4GHz cpu is okeedoke for me.

[Mrbloodworth]

Opinions on this rig:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229337

[Trippy]

Hard to say without knowing what the motherboard is. Value doesn't look that good either. Total of individual parts without the MB comes out to ~$800 - $850.

[Mrbloodworth]

It says its a "ASROCK H61M-HVS".

I'm looking to break out of the pen count I have now, and obviously run Planetside 2 with the fancy. I'm just about 5 years of not paying attention to all the naming conventions, so im stabbing in the dark here. That makes it hard for me to piece it together. Obviously I need a whole new rig. In my mind, I wan't an i5, with that GTX 560 Ti you guys recommended. That should break me out of my current MB limitation, and allow room to upgrade while not being bleeding edge. In Theory.

As always, appreciate the help Trippy.

[Trippy]

What's your budget and what parts from your existing system would you want to reuse?

[MisterNoisy]

It says its a "ASROCK H61M-HVS".

I'm looking to break out of the pen count I have now, and obviously run Planetside 2 with the fancy. I'm just about 5 years of not paying attention to all the naming conventions, so im stabbing in the dark here. That makes it hard for me to piece it together. Obviously I need a whole new rig. In my mind, I wan't an i5, with that GTX 560 Ti you guys recommended. That should break me out of my current MB limitation, and allow room to upgrade while not being bleeding edge. In Theory.

As always, appreciate the help Trippy.

H61 is an odd choice with a 3570K (and typical of 'faux-custom' builder boneheadedness)  since you generally can't do a lot of overclocking with H61.  If it were me and I was trying to keep it under a grand, the basics would be set in stone:

Motherboard:  ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - $125 or Biostar TZ77XE3 - $130
CPU:  Core i5 3570K - $230 or Core i5 2500K - $220
RAM:  Any of a number of 8GB Corsair/G.Skill DDR3 1600+/CL9- kits - $40-60
HDD:  1TB 7200 RPM of your choice - $100 or so
PSU:  Any of a number of 650-750W offerings from Corsair, NZXT, XFX, etc. - $80-120
Case:  A good one will run you $60-100 or more - the Cooler Master HAF 912 is about as cheap as I'd go
Optical Drive:  Who cares who makes it, they're all around $20 unless you need Blu-Ray
OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (OEM) - $80-100

Optional, but I wouldn't build a PC without one any more:
SSD:  Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 128GB - $100-120 depending on if there's a sale on
CPU Cooler:  Cooler Master Hyper 212/212 EVO - $30 or so

Total:  $755-1110

At that point, you can just find a video card that fits into your budget, with the 560ti and Radeon 7850 at the low end ($220 or so) all the way up to the GTX670 at $400

[Mrbloodworth]

What's your budget and what parts from your existing system would you want to reuse?

I'm talking with the little lady, and we are comfortable with about 900-1200 each. ( I need two, one hopefully with a pink case! )

The best parts of mine, that are likely transferable is my Corsair TX650 power-supply, but with newer card requirements I'm not sure. I suppose I can use the existing cases, if the motherboards fit. Our ram is possibly transferable, but I believe its DDR2. That may need an upgrade as well, by virtue of a newer motherboard.

TBH, I would not mind a completely new rig, and keep thees as secondary stations, if I can find room for such things. I'm liking what MisterNoisy posted as a guide, really appreciate that. Did you source all that on Newegg MisterNoisy?

I figure as long as I can get to middle of the road, I can slowly upgrade as time goes on, I just need that baseline. IE: Start with that GTX 560 Ti , and upgrade it later as prices change and such.

[MisterNoisy]

I'm talking with the little lady, and we are comfortable with about 900-1200 each. ( I need two, one hopefully with a pink case! )

The best parts of mine, that are likely transferable is my Corsair TX650 power-supply, but with newer card requirements I'm not sure. I suppose I can use the existing cases, if the motherboards fit. Our ram is possibly transferable, but I believe its DDR2. That may need an upgrade as well, by virtue of a newer motherboard.

TBH, I would not mind a completely new rig, and keep thees as secondary stations, if I can find room for such things. I'm liking what MisterNoisy posted as a guide, really appreciate that. Did you source all that on Newegg MisterNoisy?

I figure as long as I can get to middle of the road, I can slowly upgrade as time goes on, I just need that baseline. IE: Start with that GTX 560 Ti , and upgrade it later as prices change and such.

The PSU and case can be carried over, though depending on how old the case is, you may want to buy a new one anyway - lots of small developments (cable management in particular) and some not-so-small ones (USB 3.0 front panel ports) make it worthwhile in my opinion to just get a new chassis.  As far as the RAM goes, even assuming you're using DDR3, RAM's so cheap that you may as well just grab one of those 8GB kits along with everything else.  Besides, you can set up the older ones as HTPCs or file/game servers.

All the prices are from Newegg, and I forgot to mention an aftermarket CPU cooler (since edited in) as a highly recommended optional accessory.  If you're not subbed to Newegg's weekly emails, they usually have some good deals on one or more parts in them (particularly SSDs and cases), and check for combos - almost every Socket 1155 motherboard has a combo deal for one or more Sandy/Ivy Intel processors that's usually good for $10-20 back - on my last build, so many parts had combos that I ended up playing 'combo deal Tetris' trying to get the most money back on the parts I was ordering and ultimately saved $90 just using the combo discounts.

[Chimpy]

Make sure to check Amazon, especially if you have Prime as they usually meet or beat Newegg's eBlast deals within 8-12 hours of the newegg email going out.

[01101010]

If you are fortunate enough, definitely check out a Microcenter brick and mortar. I grabbed an in-store deal on an i5 2500k for $160 a year ago or so. At that time I think the going price on them at NewEgg was $210. Microcenter online matched it, but the in store deal (yes, mail in rebate as well, but ...) was way too good to pass up.

[Sky]

Make sure to check Amazon, especially if you have Prime as they usually meet or beat Newegg's eBlast deals within 8-12 hours of the newegg email going out.

Amazon has really been muscling it lately, for sure. But the egg also skips tax, which the Amazon does still collect, in NYS. Free shipping on the egg for most stuff, but it's slow...and I'm a Prime member so I'm spoiled by 2-day free shipping.

All that said...you're welcome! 

[Chimpy]

Amazon doesn't collect tax in Illinois. I do have to pay tax for online purchases when I file my state taxes now though but that covers newegg as well.

[Mrbloodworth]

I keep seeing "ASRock" everywhere, are they any good?

[Trippy]

They are a budget brand, originally spun off from ASUS to compete at the lower end/OEM segment of the market.

[Mrbloodworth]

So, Stick to ASUS.   Checking out MB/CPU combos on newegg. Thinking the "replace the guts" upgrade may be best at this time.

The PSU and case can be carried over, though depending on how old the case is, you may want to buy a new one anyway - lots of small developments (cable management in particular) and some not-so-small ones (USB 3.0 front panel ports) make it worthwhile in my opinion to just get a new chassis.

I am noticing this. The PSU on the bottom and cable routs behind the MB and such are nice.


Thanks for the help guys/gals/otherwise. Really helpful. Also, sky, that's just the thing right there. 

[Chimpy]

The reviews I have read almost always say that ASRock boards are high quality, many times better than ASUS.

[Goreschach]

These days 'high end' motherboard is mostly just marketing codeword for 'a bunch of features that you're never going to use anyway'.

Considering that in the past decade or so a good half of the original functionality of the motherboard has been integrated into the cpu package, the motherboard manufacturers need some way to keep their price points up.

[Trippy]

The reviews I have read almost always say that ASRock boards are high quality, many times better than ASUS.

Many times better? What does that even mean?

[Salamok]

After 10 years of exclusively buying ASUS they have pretty much lost my business entirely.  Last 2 ASUS motherboards I have had were crap, then I bought a "factory refurbed" ASUS router that was missing the power adaptor.  The last 3 non ASUS motherboards (MSI, Gigabyte, Intel) I have purchased have all been better than the last 2 ASUS motherboards I have purchased.

[Chimpy]

The reviews I have read almost always say that ASRock boards are high quality, many times better than ASUS.

Many times better? What does that even mean?O

The reviews (actual comparative reviews, not newegg buyer comments) say they are, in many cases, better quality. Sorry typing on a phone I miss punctuation at times.

[Trippy]

And in many cases they say that they are not.

[MisterNoisy]

ASRock isn't 'better' than ASUS, imo - generally, ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte boards are the creme de la creme of what's out there in any given segment, with nicer BIOS features, better overall construction and generally have bells and whistles that you don't get with the mid-tier vendors like ASRock and BioStar.

I listed the ASRock and BioStar in my earlier post because both companies are making a serious play at the budget conscious gamer and have released boards that are stupidly well-priced for what you're getting (SLI-capable/licensed Z77 full-ATX motherboard) - they fall right smack into the 'everything you need and nothing you don't' category.  I'm happily using an ASRock (chosen largely for aesthetic concerns and a nice UEFI) in my primary rig with no issues and have done builds with BioStars and ASRocks before with no problems.

[Numtini]

I've used Asrock boards for about half the builds I've done. I find they tend to toss in something extra and still come in at a low price. The first one I got was when we were in the conversion from AGP to PCIe and they had a board that would accept both, which let me get another year out of my (at the time) high end AGP card. The one I just built, I wanted to go cheap and their version of the H61 board tossed in 6gb Sata and USB3 for a lower price than most of the plain jane H61s. I've never had a problem with any of them on features or failure.

[Chimpy]

Newegg has the ASRock Z77 Extreme on sale for $115 today for those looking (Bloodworth?).