first build in a long, long time

[Jefferson]

Hi guys,
About nine years ago I learned how to put together my first comp. from hanging out here. It was a monster at the time. Asus A7n8x with with a Barton 2500 and a Radeon 9550 AGP graphics card. Those were the days....
The problem now is...I'm still using it! ..lol Kinda gave up gaming to spend more time doing other things, but recently I really got the urge to play Skyrim. ...and of course, the game looked at my config. and laughed at me.
So now I've got a lot of catch-up to do. Don't have a clue what the new technologies are though. I need to come up with something that will handle anything I want to play and where I can upgrade components to meet my needs for another decade.
My advantage is I know the brains in this forum are just the ones to pick to help me do it. My first build was a really good experience and I'm looking forward, once again, to all that great input..links to Newegg, bickering over video cards, brainstorming through problems, suggests, flames, ...yeah, this is going to be fun! So throw your best suggestions out there and let the games begin!

[richardginn]

How much can you spend???

[Jefferson]

How much to spend....haven't thought about it. The latest and the greatest is always overpriced at first so its just foolishness to overpay when the next tier down does just fine for a significant savings. I suppose I'll need a Motherboard, processor, video card, and ram...I think I can cannibalize everything else from the old comp. ....but maybe not if technology has changed too much.

[Jefferson]

First question: What CPU? Do I want to go AMD or Intel? (not overclocking)
Second: Motherboard recommendations? Is ATX still the standard? ..if not I need a new case
Best bang for the buck Video Card?
Memory: what are the ins and outs?

[James]

Recommendations for a "mid-range" but super nice build.

$225 Intel i5-2500K Amazing CPU for the money, and easily overclockable if you have the desire.

$180 Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3 ATX motherboard (Intel Z68 Chipset)

$74 2x 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 Mushkin RAM kits, for a total of 16GB of RAM.

$260 MSI HD6950 2GB video card
--------------------------------------------
$739 for a pretty dang beastly system.

Just add drives, case and PSU. Do you need 16GB of RAM? Probably not. But for $74, my argument is; why not?


Some justifications: Intel is currenly leading the performance charge, both in Instructions per clock, as well as peformance/watt. I.e. Intel CPU's are more efficient and overall "faster" at a given clock speed than AMD CPU's. This doesn't even take into consideration the hardware-accelerated AES-NI instructions, (AES encryption at around 2-4GB/s throughput), hardware transcoding for video transcoding (say converting one of your DVD's to an iphone compatible format), etc.

AMD on the other hand is currently top of the charts when it comes to performance for the money on the Video card side of things. The HD6xxx series is currently (in my opinion) far and away better than the nVidia 5xx series.

[wh666-666]

How much to spend....haven't thought about it. The latest and the greatest is always overpriced at first so its just foolishness to overpay when the next tier down does just fine for a significant savings.

I agree.

But cost as raised earlier is still a pertinent question? A target price and a max price?

I suppose I'll need a Motherboard, processor, video card, and ram...I think I can cannibalize everything else from the old comp. ....but maybe not if technology has changed too much.

Probably not. PSU requirements have changed a lot and hardware is quite different from AGP days. The only thing I can think of that you would re-use is the case, but for the sake of less than $100, I'd grab a new case at the same time.

First question: What CPU? Do I want to go AMD or Intel? (not overclocking)

Some people prefer the intel i-core series, some prefer AMD. I usually go for the best deal at the best price personally.

Second: Motherboard recommendations? Is ATX still the standard?

Yes it is. However sometimes on modern cases, the cooling and airflow may be a bit better.

Memory: what are the ins and outs?

Well your current board uses DDR memory. DDR2 was great in terms of improved speed and became the cheapest memory you could buy. DDR3 is the new standard used with most multi-core CPU's and modern motherboards.

DDR3 was quite pricey at first, but Ive seen recent price drops, making it a favourable option.





So as for skyrim, these are the minimum and recommended specs:

Minimum:
Dual-core CPU, 2.0 GHz or faster
2 GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c video card with 512 MB RAM
6 GB HDD space
Windows XP/Vista/7 [32 or 64-bit]
Internet access for Steam activation

And the recommended spec:
Quad-core CPU
4 GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c video card with 1 GB RAM - GTX 260/Radeon 4890 or higher
6 GB HDD space
Windows XP/Vista/7, internet access, etc.

So I would go for a system above the recommended spec. So how does the following sound that I suggest, too pricey or could you spend more?

You can get a quad core mobo+CPU for around the $200 mark:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.797493

However, since it seems you rarely upgrade, I fail to see the point. You might as well go with something that might be too OTT now, but will last you for a while.

This mobo+cpu is $385 and the cheapest 5+ core setup. You might not get use out of all eight cores straight away, but it certainly isnt a base for a system that is going obsolete anytime soon, so this will last you a while:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.798720

As for memory, 4 sticks of 2GB will give you 8GB, more than enough for any OS. Cheap at $9 a stick ($36 overall). If you wanted kingston ram with heat spreaders, which I dont see the need for, that would only be an extra $3 per stick. Looking around newegg, DDR3 is the cheapest memory going.

+ $18 for a DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136240

So far we are at $439 which is a reasonable figure.

As for the HDD, that is one part you can re-use from your system. Although it would be nice to have a sata HDD or even SSD, I would hold off for now. HDD prices are still extremely high! Wait a few months and you'll get a better deal.

Now all that is left to decide is the case (if you want a new one), the graphics card and the PSU (which depends on which graphics card/s you pick).

All that depends on budget ..

[Learux]

I like what James put together. I think that 8Gb of RAM is plenty. no need to spend the $40.

Amazing what $700 will get you.

[James]

I think that 8Gb of RAM is plenty. no need to spend the $40.

Blasphemy!

[richardginn]

How about a big honking New HDD for the computer??? Prices though have NOT dropped down to pre flooding levels though.

[wh666-666]

I like what James put together. I think that 8Gb of RAM is plenty. no need to spend the $40.

Amazing what $700 will get you.

No offense against james, an eight core amd blows an i5 right out of the water, and its cheaper to!

[Jefferson]

Great pointers guys! These recommendations give me a solid foundation on a place to start. After all, there's nothing like hearing from people who've "been there, done that". (Nothing beats a forum for learning the ropes...on anything). Of course money is an object for me, if I could get by on a $700 dollar build I'm all for it, but if throwing in a few hundred bucks more would keep that comp. from going obsolete a few more years, well..that would be a serious consideration.
It's a hard call though with technology leap-frogging so rapidly. Quad core vs. 8 core, etc.
(By the way, I'm kinda proud of my little antique AMD build. It did actually handle 30 minutes of Skyrim before nose-diving)
I'll set up a couple of builds, listen to ya'll fight over the virtues n' vices of video cards, processors, and such. See what shows up on the 'blowout' sales at Newegg. Tweak the choices, and then pull the trigger!
Then I'll come whining about not knowing how to flash the new bios or getting the OS to boot once the parts come in....lol
Once again, I really appreciate it

[Learux]

You are welcome, we are here to help!

[James]

No offense against james, an eight core amd blows an i5 right out of the water, and its cheaper to!

Fallacy.

Only when you can take full advantage of the 8-cores does the Bulldozer beat out an i5-2500K. But this is a rare moment in the world of a desktop PC.

Take some examples from the Anandtech Bulldozer FX-8150 review.

CPU NAME	BASECLK	TURBO	CORES	THREADS
FX-8150		3.6GHz	4.2GHz	8	8
i5-2500K	3.3GHz	3.7GHz	4	4

===============================================================
Benchmarks/Applications that the FX-8150 beats the i5-2500K in:
===============================================================
General apps:
------------------
Cinebench 11.5 Multi-threaded Test
7Zip benchmark
Par2 Multi-threaded test
AES Encryption benchmark (I forgot that Bulldozer added AES-NI support!)
x.264 2nd pass encoding v3.03
x264 2nd pass encoding v3.03 AVX enabled
Excel Monte Carlo simulation

Gaming:
------------
Rage_mt render time test
Civilization V -composite render

That's 9 tests. 9 out of 27. 1/3rd of the tests. If we compare against the Intel i7-2600K, it wins 3 out of 27. (The composite render, 7zip, and Cinebench 11.5 multithreaded test.)

i5-2500K: $225
AMD FX-8150: $270
i7-2600K: $330

These are Newegg prices. If you are near a MicroCenter you can get a bundle deal on an i5-2500K ($180) plus an Asus P8Z68V-Pro/Gen3 ($160) and save even more.

Finally, look at the power numbers:

Total System Power in Watts:
============================
CPU		IDLE	LOAD
i5-2500K	76	134
i7-2600K	78	156
FX-8150		85	229

It's really hard to justify purchasing a more expensive, less efficient CPU and platform.

[mikeysg]

Blasphemy!

Here, here! I can't believe a fellow Shark said that!

[Timman_24]

Fallacy.

Only when you can take full advantage of the 8-cores does the Bulldozer beat out an i5-2500K. But this is a rare moment in the world of a desktop PC.

I totally agree. Only very particular benchmarks take full advantage of the bulldozer. The 2500k is faster at normal tasks like wav to mp3, videogames, encrypting (winrar/zip), creating PDFs, and the 2500k scores higher in PCMark and 3DMark.

Bulldozer is a good chip, but it needs more support to really shine. MS released a windows patch that was supposed to boost speed but quickly recalled it because there were issues. If you want to take a gamble, the 8150 may gain a bit of performance over the next few months. However, I would simply get the 2500k. It is amazingly fast for the price, especially if you have a microcenter close and get get it for 180.

AMD's next iteration of Bulldozer may have something to it, but that is quite far off.