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Building new PC, what are best technolgies to use?

PracticalMac said:
Looking to build a new PC for work and games.

What should I look at, what should I avoid like the plague?


AMD now ahead of Intel? (heard the AMD 6 core is tops)
Sandybridge the best chipset?
Best SSD, with minimum Random Write times.

Is CyberpowerPC a good store?
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_X79_Configurator/

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I think this is really the wrong place to ask this question. Ask at a PC building site (Toms hardware for example).

That said,

Get intel, preferably i5 for gaming (AMD horribly sucks for gaming, i7 really gives you nothing more for games, though if you are doing rendering or computation get a i7).
Sandy Bridge and Ivy bridge perform pretty similarily and cost the same, I'd get ivy bridge unless doing extreme overclocking.

For your SSD go for realiability over raw speed, you really are not going to notice the difference between 480 MB/s and 550 MB/s.

Get a better video card for gaming than a 6670. If you are doing games then I would say at least a 6870.

I would recommend building your own PC.

For me to really help you I need your budget.
 
cirus said:
I think this is really the wrong place to ask this question. Ask at a PC building site (Toms hardware for example).

That said,

Get intel, preferably i5 for gaming (AMD horribly sucks for gaming, i7 really gives you nothing more for games, though if you are doing rendering or computation get a i7).
Sandy Bridge and Ivy bridge perform pretty similarily and cost the same, I'd get ivy bridge unless doing extreme overclocking.

For your SSD go for realiability over raw speed, you really are not going to notice the difference between 480 MB/s and 550 MB/s.

Get a better video card for gaming than a 6670. If you are doing games then I would say at least a 6870.

I would recommend building your own PC.

For me to really help you I need your budget.
Click to expand...

A lot of informed smart people here, like you! :)

$1200 for the CPU. SSD can be small (64GB fine, its just a boot drive). I have HDD already.
 
imo if you want a gaming machine, I'd go with Sandy Bridge-E on the 2011 chipset, you'll get PCI-e 3.0, quad-channel ram and lots of cool stuff, and you won't be wasting money on integrated graphics you won't use.

go with at least an AMD 7870 gfx card, it might be a little bit overkill now but it'll last you longer, and you can just get a 2nd one later on once they get cheaper. But I'd also recommend not getting a reference card, get one with a custom cooler on it, Powercoler and MSI have some great custom cooled versions of their cards, they run cooler, quieter and often come with a factory overclock to boot.

I'd also recommend going with corsair ram, just 'cause I have some with an integrated heatsync and it's really nice and overclocks well

also don't skimp on case fans Noctua make very quiet fans that move a lot of air and they also make some good CPU heatsyncs that are really good value
 
CPU wise, the i5 2500K (or 2600K?) is quite popular with gamers because it overclocks easily. AMD are way behind. Ivy bridge apparently gets very hot after it is overclocked to a certain point, more so than Sandy.

PCI 3.0 is pointless as far as I am aware, current GPUs don' take full advantage of PCI 2. Thunderbolt is also pointless gaming wise.

The GTX670 offers within 10% of the performance of a 680 so maybe that is a possible GPU.

I don't know about the motherboards though, there are many but some of them can handle 3x 680 in SLI.
 
PCI-e 3.0 may not be particularly useful at the moment some gfx cards are starting to support it, and it's easier to replace a gfx card than a whole motherboard, if you go with Sandy-E and 2011 you'll be able to keep it for considerably longer while being able to take full advantage of any other parts you swap in
 
PAPO said:
PCI-e 3.0 may not be particularly useful at the moment some gfx cards are starting to support it, and it's easier to replace a gfx card than a whole motherboard, if you go with Sandy-E and 2011 you'll be able to keep it for considerably longer while being able to take full advantage of any other parts you swap in
Click to expand...

With a $1200 budget there is really no point to go i7 or LGA 2011. I don't think he is going to be doing crossfire or SLI.

PCI express x16 2.0 is the same as x8 3.0 in terms of raw data transfer. Therefore Ivy bridge and a pci express 3.0 motherboard should be fine.
 
This goes slightly over at $1228 but is definitely the best bang for your buck.

Intel i5 3570K
GeForce GTX 670 2GB
OCZ Solid 3 120GB SSD
ASRock Z77 Motherboard
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 RAM
650W 80+ Gold Modular PSU
Antec 300 Case (Great Air Flow)
Windows 7 Home OEM x64
DVD Burner

If you want Blu Ray capability it will be about $60 more to replace the DVD Burner.

Blu Ray Burner

If you are going to overclock then you will want a better heatsink

120mm Xigmatek (There are better ones but the price goes up from here)
 
cirus said:
With a $1200 budget there is really no point to go i7 or LGA 2011. I don't think he is going to be doing crossfire or SLI.

PCI express x16 2.0 is the same as x8 3.0 in terms of raw data transfer. Therefore Ivy bridge and a pci express 3.0 motherboard should be fine.
Click to expand...

why does no one consider the long term, 2011 offers features that will allow you to upgrade more easily in the future
 
Because for the average person, it's the same situation WRT either LGA 1156 or 1366 back a couple of years ago -- most people don't need the latter, and it drives up costs quite a bit.
 
PracticalMac said:
Looking to build a new PC for work and games.

What should I look at, what should I avoid like the plague?


AMD now ahead of Intel? (heard the AMD 6 core is tops)
Sandybridge the best chipset?
Best SSD, with minimum Random Write times.

Is CyberpowerPC a good store?
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_X79_Configurator/

Thanks!
Click to expand...

1) AMD are certainly not ahead of Intel. Buy a Z77 board with an IvyBridge 3570K CPU and you'll be happy. SandyBridge is gone.

2) Crucial M4 SSDs are my favourite, and have had price drops recently. Excellent drives.

3) Socket 2011 is total overkill, runs hot, which means it needs a higher investment in cooling, and is generally not worth it for gaming. Oh, it's very expensive too.
 
velocityg4 said:
This goes slightly over at $1228 but is definitely the best bang for your buck.

Intel i5 3570K
GeForce GTX 670 2GB
OCZ Solid 3 120GB SSD
ASRock Z77 Motherboard
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 RAM
650W 80+ Gold Modular PSU
Antec 300 Case (Great Air Flow)
Windows 7 Home OEM x64
DVD Burner

If you want Blu Ray capability it will be about $60 more to replace the DVD Burner.

Blu Ray Burner

If you are going to overclock then you will want a better heatsink

120mm Xigmatek (There are better ones but the price goes up from here)
Click to expand...

Excellent!! Thanks!

I am not looking for nuclear glowing bleeding edge machine, just a strong system that can last for a few years.

I appreciate everyone's input, other suggestions still welcome.

WTG MR PEOPLE!!!
 
velocityg4 said:
This goes slightly over at $1228 but is definitely the best bang for your buck.

Intel i5 3570K
GeForce GTX 670 2GB
OCZ Solid 3 120GB SSD
ASRock Z77 Motherboard
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 RAM
650W 80+ Gold Modular PSU
Antec 300 Case (Great Air Flow)
Windows 7 Home OEM x64
DVD Burner

If you want Blu Ray capability it will be about $60 more to replace the DVD Burner.

Blu Ray Burner

If you are going to overclock then you will want a better heatsink

120mm Xigmatek (There are better ones but the price goes up from here)
Click to expand...

I had the antec 300 case for my rig 2 years ago. I find cable management is pretty weak. You can take a dremmel to it and make something nice or buy a different case. Also if you are planning to use a window or something I'd paint the inside of the case. It is currently grey. The CM 690 II is a good alternative.
 
I like building PCs too, so I'll post my vision of the components. Once again, get your items at newegg.com and build it yourself. Its actually easy, all parts come with a manual step-by-step

CPU:You want any i5 Ivy Bridge. Ivy Bridge is a great improvment over Sandy Bridge in terms of Performance per Watt. i3 is not quad-core and i7 adds hyperthrading wich does nothing for games. And they are hell more expensive. I recomend getting the lowest clock, as I dont believe the clock improvment is worth the price the stores ask for.

Motherboard: H77 or Z77 chipset. The diference is that Z77 allows you to put more then 1 videocard. Wich brand? All boards are great quality, what matters is the software its bundled with. I like Asus software, wich allows you to control the speed of fans and cpu fan. I also prefer their overclocking software.

Memory: I sugest 8GB DDR3 1600mhz. This is 64-bit world, so make it more than 4GB!

videocard:I have owned nvidia and ATI, and in my opinion, nvidia cards run more silently then AMD. The GTX 600 is more powerfull, but the GTX500 series is close and 4 times cheaper. I would recomend gtx 550 or gtx560.

Any 64GB SSD is enough for boot, but the prices are down you may want to get a 120GB. Usually OCZ is the main SSD brand.

Do get a Blu-ray burner man....and then forget about optical drive forever.

Regarding fans, I believe you want them silent. My favorite brand is coolink.

Also, regarding PSU, get a Cooler Master Silent Pro. They have diferent sub-categories, but any one will serve you fine. These PSU are silent and will run for 20 years.

Regarding case, Im a fan of the design of Bitfenix cases. but any brand is fine, as long as you like it.
 
Don't mean to hijack OP's thread but I have a question for people who build their own gaming PCs.

What drives you to build your own? The reason I ask this is because for the same price of building your own desktop, you could buy a pre-assembled tower with the same/similar specs from lots of PC makers. Do you do it more for the fun of it or more for having the perfect customization i.e. choosing the exact type of RAM, HDD/SSD, video card, etc. or to save money? What other reasons?

I want to build my own (unfortunately I'm about two years out from doing it, so it's irrelevant for now) but it's hard to spend the same money/slightly more when I could buy it pre-assembled. That being said I want the feeling of building my own PC :)
 
jgc said:
Don't mean to hijack OP's thread but I have a question for people who build their own gaming PCs.

What drives you to build your own? The reason I ask this is because for the same price of building your own desktop, you could buy a pre-assembled tower with the same/similar specs from lots of PC makers. Do you do it more for the fun of it or more for having the perfect customization i.e. choosing the exact type of RAM, HDD/SSD, video card, etc. or to save money? What other reasons?

I want to build my own (unfortunately I'm about two years out from doing it, so it's irrelevant for now) but it's hard to spend the same money/slightly more when I could buy it pre-assembled. That being said I want the feeling of building my own PC :)
Click to expand...

You save a lot. Most PC manufacturers only offers low to medium end graphics, custom bios with no or little room for over clocking, sub par cooling and usually low end PSUs.

Some do however deliver this, but then you are talking about Alienware and similar brands, and the price skyrocket.

Most brands are also very expensive when you upgrade their builds with extra RAM and HD. Although there are are some that build machines for your with your chosen components and even offer OC for you, but it usually costs a bit more.

Summed up, it's cheaper, you can choose all components yourself, usually more future proof regarding upgrading. And did I mention it's a bit fun too?
 
PracticalMac said:
Looking to build a new PC for work and games.

What should I look at, what should I avoid like the plague?...
Click to expand...
First off I doubt you will be building a computer. More likey you buy one and put in inside a metal box.

What to look for when you buy the computer? Start with the software you intend to run on it. What does that software require?

When you buy the box, look for one that is quiet, silent is better. But still has decent cooling


As an example I recently assembled a computer for use as a home server and to experiment with running NTP. It would be run 24x7 so my #1 concern was how much power it used. The software (NTP and low volume web serving) is not demanding so I was able to use a low-end Atom CPU.

Same with storage. Look at that the software will need. I used an 80GB notebook type disk.

Don't buy more than you need. "enough but no more" should be the guide
 
ChrisA said:
Don't buy more than you need. "enough but no more" should be the guide
Click to expand...

that might suit an average computer user but when it comes to games, more is never enough, but then the laws of diminishing returns come in, modern games can benefit from having 4 top of the line gfx cards, but unless you have cash or are a gear slut (I am but I'm also a bit stingy :p ) it's not worth getting more than 2, and you can get by on 1 if it's a proper top of the line card (you'r looking at over $400) and it's the same with any other part of the computer, you CAN get the top of the line $1k intel CPU but the only real advantage you get is some extra onboard cache spend half the money on the step down and you still get a hex-core, and you can over-clock it I could go on forever but my point is: decide how much you are willing to spend and make the most powerful machine you can from that money and don't skimp on the mother board EVER
 
I just ordered these parts and I'm gleefully excited. My PSU is WAY over powered because I'm going to get another GTX 670 eventually and put it in SLI. I'm also planning on overclocking the cpu. With the water cooling I can easily get 4.6 ghz. The whole system is about $1700.

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501&Tpk=3770k
CPU Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231429
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139009
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148449
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139014
 
This is what I got:

Asus P8Z77-V LE Plus
i5 3570K 3.4 6MB L3
DDR3 8GB 1600 Duall BallI
EVAG GTX560 Ti 2GB DDR5 (budget going over, had to go middle)

Corsair case 400R
Antec HCG-750 750W P/S
128GB Samsung 830 series (tell me why something is better, and will change)
ASUS 12x BD writer
SIIG FW800 card


Please offer explanation why another is better.
I purchased at Fry's, so expected some limitations. OTOH, they are local and easy to return/swap.


I discovered that, PC's are EXPENSIVE! Granted their is economies of scale, but this pretty much convinces me how low end most PC's are to sell for under $600, WITH monitor!

Speaking of Monitor, any recommendations? Not top end, think upper middle.
Thanks!
 
Last edited:
PracticalMac said:
This is what I got:

Asus P8Z77-V LE Plus
i5 3570K 3.4 6MB L3
DDR3 8GB 1600 Duall BallI
EVAG GTX560 Ti 2GB DDR5 (budget going over, had to go middle)

Corsair case 400R
Antec HCG-750 750W P/S
128GB Samsung 830 series (tell me why something is better, and will change)
ASUS 12x BD writer
SIIG FW800 card


Please offer explanation why another is better.
I purchased at Fry's, so expected some limitations. OTOH, they are local and easy to return/swap.


I discovered that, PC's are EXPENSIVE! Granted their is economies of scale, but this pretty much convinces me how low end most PC's are to sell for under $600, WITH monitor!

Speaking of Monitor, any recommendations? Not top end, think upper middle.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Great choice in the 560Ti. Best card for the money at this point. 660Ti is $300, whereas the 560Ti is typically $100-150 depending on vender, clocking, etc.
 
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