first build in a long, long time

[Learux]

I agree get a 2500k you are good to go.

[Jefferson]

oooohhh, this thread is getting gooood!~

Seems like there is a consensus on the Radeon 6950 video card. This crossfire thing is all greek to me...running two cards instead of one? Are the new games really that demanding?
I've gotta admit I've been very pleased with AMD processors and Asus Motherboards. The quad-core/8 core thing is going to take me a little time to digest. 8 core seems wise for 'on down the road'....but then again, it seems like some new tech. could drop the bomb on the whole multi-core thing over night.
(Did someone say something about Microcenter being cheaper than Newegg? ...or was this a one time sale on CPUs? There's one down the road about 40 miles if that's true.)
Oh yeah, I'm going to finally break down and upgrade to Windows 7 from XP. I never really had an excuse to before. But tell me the advantages of 64 bit pro. over 32 bit home versions. I always figured that was a security thing for encryption. Are there other reasons that make it worth forking out the extra bucks?
By the way, you guys are being great! If I could just instigate a Motherboard/video card squabble or two there's no limit to what I could learn!...lol

[James]

Heh,

Well we can do our best to start a squabble.

Motherboards:
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Most agree that onboard sound is more than good enough these days. Chipsets from both camps offer SATA3 (6Gbps). AMD chipsets have native USB3.0, while current gen (P67/H67/Z68) Intel chipsets require a 3rd party USB 3.0 controller. Which most quality boards have, but it's something to consider.

Intel GbE NIC's are still considered by many (including me) to be the gold standard, however, even with Intel Chipset boards, only the higher end models actually have Intel NIC's, most go with "good enough" Realteks. Pretty much every AMD board is Realtek, with the occasional outcast going with a Marvel PHYS chip.

Windows 7:
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64-bit is really the only sensible option in my opinion. But as you can probably tell by my signature, I'm biased. With most chipsets and memory controllers easily able to handle 8-32GB of RAM, using an OS limited to 4GB seems just completely backwards to me. Drive support is equal these days, with only ancient EOL equipment not having updated 64-bit drivers available.

Pro vs. Home Premium. There is only one standout feature that I recently discovered that makes Pro my (now confirmed choice): Network backups. I've always preferred it, but figured that Home Premium was good enough, until I got back home for the holidays. My dad has a secondary laptop he wanted backed up to the large hdd in his computer, no problem right? Wrong. Home premium does not support network backups. Professional does. If you have a NAS or any kind of networked storage, that feature alone makes Professional worth the extra $30 in my opinion.

Finally, Windows 7 is very different from XP. I found it fairly easy to get used to. Once you do, you'll find several very nice features, not the least of which is increased stability (in my opinion). With Windows 7, Microsoft finally delivered on the design promise of being able to completely swap the innards of a computer and all it will require is 1 extra reboot and then your system is back. No reinstall needed anymore. I also (again personal opinion) believe that with Win7, microsoft has finally gotten sleep right. My computer is no longer rebooted unless major hardware changes or Windows updates happen.


MicroCenter:
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And to re-confirm: Microcenter has much better deals on Intel i5-2500K and i7-2600K CPU's than Newegg. Right now (and usually about every other week) they are also offering deals where you get $50 off a motherboard when you purchase one of those CPU's. While their motherboard prices are slightly inflated, when you knock off $50, the price of the mobo is still below Newegg.


A final note: More than anything else, picking up an SSD (especially with Windows 7 and TRIM support) will allow you to truly experience computing at a new level. Some people claim it isn't that big of a difference. I argue that being able to login to my system and within seconds have all of my main programs up and running is something truly noteworthy. Or even more so, resuming from sleep is a few seconds, not pushing a minute or so. So definitely worth it in my opinion.

[Jefferson]

Good stuff! (I'm getting pumped..lol) There are several models of the ASUS P8Z68. Is there one in particular that I would want to consider more strongly than the rest?
I was trying to talk myself into bopping down to Microcenter and just doing a clean kill in one shot. --make'm price match or something.
The SSD thing really has my attention, too. I might hold off for a bit since I just finally upgraded to SATA. ..let them get cheaper and bigger. Dunno yet.

[James]

Good stuff! (I'm getting pumped..lol) There are several models of the ASUS P8Z68. Is there one in particular that I would want to consider more strongly than the rest?
I was trying to talk myself into bopping down to Microcenter and just doing a clean kill in one shot. --make'm price match or something.
The SSD thing really has my attention, too. I might hold off for a bit since I just finally upgraded to SATA. ..let them get cheaper and bigger. Dunno yet.

My main requirement for the motherboard is that it needs to have an Intel NIC onboard. That isn't a rule I force on others, it's just my personal quirk. So for me, I believe the lowest end one that meets that is the Asus P8Z68-V/Gen 3. I could be wrong though.

[Jefferson]

On the 6950 video card, is two gigs vs. one going to make a difference? Tom's Hardware said the 1 gig. was the sweetspot for technobabble reasons that went right over my head.
Also, there are so many manufacturers. Which one makes the better quality card?

[Sapling]

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
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$739 for a pretty dang beastly system.

This thread is very interesting to me too as I'm in a similar situation. I'm curious though, what is the difference in these 2 mobos? The one you recommended here almost identical but the other is $50 more and has 10x the reviews on Newegg, so just trying to figure out what the functional difference is that people would prefer it? Or is the price drop recent?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131792 - $165 after coupon

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131730 - $210


Also someone mentioned $50 off at MC when purchasing a CPU bundled with a mobo? How do you find that deal? I live about 20 miles away so I'd def be picking up the CPU there.

[Sapling]

One more question.. not to spam..

Do I still need to purchase separate thermal paste and a non-stock CPU fan? I don't plan to overclock, but last time I built a comp this was recommended anyway as the stock cooling was a little sketchy.

I'm considering this right now:

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/M...px?ID=25822148

I just purchased a new 700watt PSU after my last one popped, and my graphics card is only about 6 mos old (460GTX) so I'm not planning to upgrade that yet. I am leaning toward also getting an SSD since the loadtimes in games are driving me a bit nuts lately (the actual reason I'm upgrading.. sitting here looking at forums while the damn game loads )


(Sorry for the mini threadjack... )

[Timman_24]

Intel's stock cooler for the 2500k is a joke. I was hitting 70C stock at load, which is too high for me personally. A simple 20-30 dollar cooler will bring that down to around 50-55C, which a higher end cooler will bring that further down to around 45C. I don't know what you want to spend, but I would suggestion either a Arctic Cooler at the low end or a Corsair H60 at the higher end.

If you are going with an SSD, please please please get an Intel drive. I had two OCZ drives fail before going back to HDDs. I've heard the Corsair drives aren't the most reliable either. The only drives I've heard consistently good thing about are from Intel.

Also, we can't see your wishlist unless you make it public.

Good call on waiting for a graphics card. AMD is putting out the reason of their line at the end of Jan/beginning of Feb.

[James]

This thread is very interesting to me too as I'm in a similar situation. I'm curious though, what is the difference in these 2 mobos? The one you recommended here almost identical but the other is $50 more and has 10x the reviews on Newegg, so just trying to figure out what the functional difference is that people would prefer it? Or is the price drop recent?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131792 - $165 after coupon

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131730 - $210


Also someone mentioned $50 off at MC when purchasing a CPU bundled with a mobo? How do you find that deal? I live about 20 miles away so I'd def be picking up the CPU there.

The more expensive link is to an older version of the of the higher end model of the board. The one that I linked to is the GEN3 board, which means nothing more than it has PCIe3.0 slots instead of PCIe2.0 slots. Nothing is really taking advantage of the bandwidth now, so it's more of a future proofing step to purchase a board that has them now. Since both boards have all the features I (personally) think are needed in a motherboard, including Intel onboard NIC, everything else is personal preference past that point. (To be fair, spending the extra to get up to the level where the motherboard has an Intel NIC instead of Realtek is personal preference too.)

That being said, there is a GEN3 version of the P8Z68-V Pro board.

As for Microcenter, either look it up on their website, or call your local store. That bundle deal isn't every week, it usually ends up being every other week or so.

[kujoe2002]

Blasphemy!

QTFT! I have 8GB and will be upgrading to 16 soon. The only reason I don't get server mobo's which allow for more then 32GB of RAM is because I dont want to try the 2011 chipsets until there is more information and they are cheaper. All the 1155 chipsets only max out at 32GB RAM.

Every time you ask about building a new computer, there a few things to list:

> What is the MAXIUMUM amount of money you will spend (including shipping)
> What will the computer be PRIMARILY used for?
> What other functions will the computer be used for?

Thing about what operating system to get, Do you think you will use more then 16GB of RAM? If so, then you MUST upgrade to Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate. Windows 7 Home Premium can ONLY see 16GB of RAM MAX (according to my buddy who works for M$ and he said there is no tweak either). If not, then Home Premium is fine.

That will help you determine what mobo you will get. It makes no sense on spending money on mobo's that allow for over 16GB of RAM if you aren't going to get win 7 pro or ultimate.

I'm personally an intel guy all the way. Getting the 2500K's a good CPU. Regardless of what CPU you get, I'm a fan of getting an aftermarket cooler.