Help picking parts

[Chebu]

Hey all, just like every one else here, I'm building a new PC and need help picking parts for it.

I do not have the money to buy all of it at once so I don't really have a set budget that the whole thing must meet, instead I guess I will post how much I am willing to spend on each part. this PC will be used primarily for gaming and I don't intend to have it multi-task. I really don't care about it being able to run World of Warcraft and CoD4 while burning DVDs and scanning for viruses :p.
This is mostly an upgrade for me to be able to run GTA4 on atleast medium settings among other games like CoD4 and Stalker.

I have no real experience building PC so please bear with me, I may even miss a few parts.

Heres what I got so far:

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036
hope this can handle what I need.

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150325
I would really rater stick with Nvidia since I had nothing but great experience with them and the one ATI I had died on me in 2 weeks :mad: Besides this comes with CoD4 which I don't have so thats nice

Motherboard: Don't know anything about them so open to suggestions. Budget for this would be no more than $200

Ram: Also don't know much about this. All I know is i want something like 3gigs of good ram. No real budget limit for this since ram is pretty cheap.

Audio Card: Don't know about this, budget is around $100 doesn't have to be too pimped out, I don't have a surround sound system nor do I plan on getting one and I'm not an audiophile. As long as it gives me sound that doesn't sound like tetris I'm good.

CD/DVD Drives: Don't need em, got it covered

Hard Drives: Again got all I need

Case: I hear the video card I want is quite big so I need a case to fit it in. And with enough power supply included. I'm not willing to drop extra cash for some fancy box with neon and LCD displays on it, just a basic case. I'm focusing my money on performance not looks. Budget would be around $120.

Well that about covers all I know, please tell me if I missed anything. Keyboard, mouse, monitor, and speakers are all getting scavenged from my current PC.
Thanks in advance for your help. :)

Edit: BTW should I get Windows XP SP3 or vista? I hear vista is getting its old problems worked out and I'm afraid that soon games may stop supporting XP but that's what I'm familiar with so still considering it.

[Wandrille]

one suggestion, buy a decent power supply
try to stay away from case psu combos as the psus seem to be really weak and unreliable in this case
in addition, for your psu make sure to get something with a decent amount of watts such as over 600W even higher
as for a motherboard, there are many good ones out there and it comes down to really what features do you need but something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188024
is decent and will provide

[Chebu]

Found a case and power supply as wandrille suggested. Check the list, I'll update there when I find something new.

Ok forget that, seems I can't edit. But here is the case and power supply separate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121018

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159094

Let me know what you tink, Im still looking for some more opinions on the mobo though.

[saphalline]

Cases start here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021)! You say you want performance and not looks? You need AIRFLOW!! Without it, your system may overheat. Gaming rigs are their own breed. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by looking at the likes of HP and Dell cases. Most cases on the market (even today!) will cook your components.

Likewise, PSU's start here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004)! Oh sure, the one you picked out would be fine, too. But do you want to trust your rig to a 3-4 egg PSU? Or a 5 egg PSU? Protect your investment. Pair a high quality PSU with a decent UPS unit.

You say you have plenty of hard drives, but are they SATA? If not, kiss them goodbye! Modern chipsets support just two PATA devices, and I'm guessing your optical drive is one of them. Just a warning.

For the sound card in a gaming rig, you're either getting an X-Fi or you're sticking with onboard audio. It starts with the XtremeGamer (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006), but consider this one carefully. Dedicated sound cards are a luxury, but a decent set of speakers is a necessity! Adding an X-Fi should come last in the grand scheme of things.

With that CPU, you're giving up on Core i7, right? In which case you'll want a mobo that uses Intel's P45 chipset, right? The CPU & chipset will represent the core of your system. So unless you're thinking of dropping $1500+ USD, you'll have to give up on Core i7 for now.

The vid card you picked out may be handy since it comes with your game of choice, but a GTX 260 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370) is a far better value in that price range. If you're sticking with NVidia, anyway.

I do not have the money to buy all of it at onceThis is a deal-breaker, I'm afraid. If you don't have the money to spend right now, then all of this planning and price-checking goes right out the window! These recommendations and prices are really only valid for a week or two at most. It should be considered a day-by-day scenario to keep from making an expensive mistake.

For instance, the GeForce 9800 GTX used to be $250. When the 9800 GTX+ was released at $200, the prices on the 9800 GTX dropped $80 in a day! :eek: You wanna play that game over a longer time period? I would seriously advise you to gather up all the money at once, then come back here and see how things have changed. If it takes you more than a month, I guarantee you we'll be talking about different components!

[Chebu]

Hey all I'm finally back. As saphalline suggested I was saving up so I could buy the whole thing at once. Wasn't sure it was worth it to start a new thread on basically the same subject so here we go.

Now my budget is $1500 give or take a bit. I do plan on taking advantage of all the rebates that come with the parts so you guys can keep that in mind if suggesting something for my budget. As before this covers just the PC. Monitor and other stuff will either be my existing stuff or I will buy new ones later.

Heres what I have got so far with some of your guy's help:

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
there are alot of combo deals that include this CPU and I was wondering if this one is worth it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.152834
Looks like a good video card and $25 off the whole thing.

Video Card: If the above combo is not good then as before I would prefer Nvidia over ATI

Motherboard: Still open to suggestions but maybe one of the mobo + CPU combos that come with the CPU may be worth it, $100 off

RAM: I think with my budget I may pull off 4 gigs if not then 3 will suffice for now

CD/DVD drives: I decided that I will build this new system using sata drives simply because they need less wiring and less wiring is always good. I got a CD/DVD burner and that's all I need. I have no real use for multiple drives.

Hard Drive: This should do
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262
250G is plenty for me

Power: I don't know much as far as this goes so for now I'm going with saphalline's suggestion
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004
But im still open on this one

Case: Again, simple and efficient is what I'm looking for
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Windows: Never thought I would says this but I'm gona go with Vista Home Premium.
As far as I read up on the topic I think i would be better off with 32-bit over 64 since some programs may not be compatible with 64.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485
Also what do they mean by "for System Builders?"

What do you guys think so far? I'm still way under budget here even if I include the video card from the combo so i got plenty to put down on a mobo and ram and perhaps have a bit left over for a slightly better video card.

[nummayomnom]

This board looks good from what I can tell (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182165)

This GPU runs really cool. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121288) And free WOW trial :D

This PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005) has really good reviews, and the more watts the better. Free 4 gig flash drive too ;)

6 gigs (http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingItem.aspx?ItemList=N82E16820227365&MainItemList=N82E16820227365) of RAM.

This DVD drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106228) should be good.

You're still under budget, and it will be a very powerful computer. Should last a while. I say go with 64 bit, most programs are compatible with it now. And it will be able to handle all of the ram, which is a must for gaming ;) Maybe bump up the hard drive if you want. But you can always do that later
System builders is just the full version rather than upgrade (I think)
So saphalline and everyone, correct me if I'm wrong on anything. I'm still a noob, and I'm trying to learn :)
So now it's around 1300 after shipping and rebates. But I wouldn't want to really rely on rebates too much. I've had trouble with newegg, but I've managed to get them to give it to me. It's just sort of a pain

[nummayomnom]

And don't trust me. Wait until you get advice from the others

[astoroth88]

For your motherboard the x58 looks good, i was going to suggest the EVGA counterpart to that but it actually supports less max RAM capacity.

Not to sound like an advertisement for windows but they do have the Windows 7 Beta you can download and get a serial key for free from their site, I'm running it now and it's great. Vista is fine I suppose, I just personally don't care for it too much other than DX10.

Video card- IMO go with the GeForce 9800 GTX+
PSU - the one suggested would be great for your needs

If you go thru with the intel i7 set up, let us know how it is! I want to get one but it's just not in my budget at the time (bills kill me)

[DAVIDWEBB]

Cases start here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021)! You say you want performance and not looks? You need AIRFLOW!! Without it, your system may overheat. Gaming rigs are their own breed. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by looking at the likes of HP and Dell cases. Most cases on the market (even today!) will cook your components.



I agree. I just got an Antec 900 case and its a major improvement to the dell case I had. Will fit cards around 10.5 inches which is the size of the 260 I'm currently waiting for. Alot of good features also.

Directron.com has this case for $89 I believe and depending on where you live you may only have to pay shipping with that.

[Chebu]

Thanks for all your help guys, I think I finally got the whole thing all figured out.

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
It also comes as a combo combined with the x58 motherboard you guys suggested with $55 off the whole deal so I'm going for that

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182165

Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121282
+ free Far Cry 2 :D

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365

Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

Power:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Windows:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

With all this plus shipping I still had a bit of cash left, but not enough to really upgrade anything I picked so I decided to add a new keyboard and speakers to the whole lot.

Keyboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126012
Don't need nothing fancy with a bunch of hotkeys. My current DELL keyboard got no hotkeys to speak of and I'm doing fine with it. I'm really not picky with these things.

Speakers:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121014
These are one of the best rated 2.1 setups on newegg so I think they will do nicely. Now I can finally give my parents back the speakers I commandeered from their PC :p

Final cost: $1,467.16 + $46.12 shipping = $1,513.28 before any rebates I can manage to get out of this, the money from which I will put toward a new monitor.

And that's about it. A few final questions:
Does the PSU have enough juice for this rig? And do I need an audio card to run a 2.1 speaker system or will they work from the onboard audio? Although I can always use the audio card in my current PC, it's old but it works.

[Chebu]

Also how can I tell if my RAM will work with the mobo I picked?

[astoroth88]

usually it will list it under Specifications tab on the boards page. This one says DDR3 1333, but generally it supports ALOT more than the one Newegg lists, they aren't very good at giving "specifics" under the specifications tab lol

Here is a link to your motherboards support page from the manufacturer. (http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/X58/X8SAX.cfm)

This is where you can find the full CPU and RAM support list.

[rond36]

I would not suggest buying that Supermicro motherboard!!!

Supermicro motherboards are somewhat proprietary and work best when installed in a Supermicro chassis and powered by an Ablecom (Supermicro) PSU and purchased as a package. This board is very picky about memory so be sure to look at the memory QVL before choosing memory for that board.

The only 2GB DDR3 1600 memory on the list is Qimonda/ Infineon AXH860UD20-16H

That is a workstation motherboard with (2) 64bit 133MHz PCI-X slots.

PCI-X is not compatible with PCI-E, and PCI-E cards can't be installed in PCI-X slots

PCI-X is supposed to be backward compatible with PCI but PCI-X slots are very picky about what PCI cards work and any card that is not completely PCI 2.2 compliant will not work in a PCI-X slot. If you do find a card that works it will only work at 32bit and will bring the whole PCI-X bus down to 33MHz.

I suggest buying one of the other Intel X58 boards on this page (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280+1070545356&Configurator=&Subcategory=280&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=) except the Asus P6T6 WS Revolution (you don't need (6) PCI-E X16 slots or SAS RAID) or the Open Box: MSI X58 Platinum (never buy an open box motherboard, all you get is the board and nothing else!)

The ASUS P6T Deluxe (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131346) would be a good choice. There is a combo for that CPU with this board too!

BTW; astoroth88 How do you like Win 7 beta? I have it downloaded but haven't installed it yet. I was using Vista 9 months before its RTM so I may as well do the same with Win 7. I kind of feel like a lab rat! :D

[Chebu]

Damn looks like you got here a bit too late rond, I just put the order down for it a few hours ago.

I did decide to go with this memory instead if that helps
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145220

Card was already charged so I can't change anything now.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see, maybe newegg will be willing to take it back and replace it with the P6T

[Chebu]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I guess the motherboard thing is what I get for rushing. Bit I have 3 choices now, Either leave it as is and hopefully the corsair RAM will work, send back the mobo and CPU combo for refund and get a different one (will be wasting alot of money with that) or send back the RAM and get a set thats compatible.
What are your guy's thoughts?

Looking at the manufacturer page astoroth88 gave me it looks like the corsair ram should be supported but the feedback on newegg says that it was tried and didnt work

[alfroogy]

I don't know much about server boards or how well a pci-e card will run in a pci-x slot but I do know that Quimonda make rock solid ram and most manufacturers Corsair for one have their ram manufactured in the same factory. So sending back the ram would probably be cheaper though for the sake of saving yourself other potential compatibility headaches it would probably be better to get another mobo... if you get another x58 one you don't have to send back the cpu as well.

Having said that my advice is to try it and if it doesn't work you can always send it back as long as you have the original packaging. and receipts.

[Chebu]

I spoke to the people at newegg and they said that any combos have to be returned as a whole, meaning both mobo and CPU which I wouldn't mind except for that 15% restocking fee for a $500 combo will be steep.
Later i also noticed that the mobo has a no refund policy only exchange for the same item. But I will call them again when i get it and see if I can work something out with them. Maybe if I never open them they may be more willing to refund it.
And yes that was my main problem with just replacing the ram since the compatibility thing may come back and bite me again later, plus the ram is non-refundable too.

Worst comes to worst I may have to buy another mobo and just deal with the fact that I threw away $300 for nothing. Live and learn

[saphalline]

Pay the restocking fee and return the combo. Mobo's classified as "server" can work for gaming systems, but there are a lot of caveats to consider. You will never get a "slap it in and go" experience with your new system if you keep that mobo. (For one thing, it has PCI-X slots, which are not native to the X58 chipset!) Just return it, pay the restocking as your "live and learn" lesson, and get a regular enthusiast class mobo.

An no, DO NOT OPEN THE BOXES!! If you crack the seal, the restocking fee jumps from 15% to 100%. ;)

And other than the fact that you bought a way too small HDD, the rest of the build looks fine.

or how well a pci-e card will run in a pci-x slotIt won't. PCIe and PCI-X are not compatible at all. One has an 'e', the other has a '-X'. As is usual in the world of computers and electronics, if the two terms do not match exactly, then they probably do not work interchangeably.

[Chebu]

Yep the boxes will stay sealed until I work something out.
The HDD will be fine for me. I have so far been getting along with a .......... 40GB HDD and it was perfectly fine for me. Although most would consider this small for a gaming PC, I tend to uninstall my games once I'm done with them and I never really play more than 2 or 3 games at a time. I think 250GB will last me a long while.

[alfroogy]

Thanks for clearing that up Saph I thought I may have read somewhere that pci-x is backwards compatible to pci-e But it seems I misread, it's actually only backwards compatible to pci.

[Chebu]

Ok well I talked to the guys at new egg and not only did they let me send it for refund but they didnt even charge me the 15% :D
newegg is awesome

[saphalline]

Sweet! :cool: I guess the less than stellar economy really brings out the best in consumption-based customer service. :p

[mjc]

Actually, I've always had good or better service from Newegg...in general, it seems that Newegg's customer service reps actually have a little bit of power to make decisions, are real people talking to you as an individual, not some mind-numbed zombie stuck with a 'one size fits all' script and they genuinely care about what your problem is and try to the best of their ability to solve it...in other words CUSTOMER service. It seems, to me at least, that they still understand who is actually writing their paychecks...

[saphalline]

I was trying to be facetious! But now you killed that joke...

;)

[mjc]

Sorry...:p

[Chebu]

Again thank you all for the help.
The old mobo and CPU are on their way back to new egg and the new parts will be here tomorrow. :D
And just in time with all the cool new games coming out soon :p