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Help with computer build...
Roven:
any idea how much it (motherboard) cost? and you link it?
linx:
If your budget is hovering around the i3, I'd give the AMD options a lot more consideration. Phenom x3's and x4's are available for that kind of money, maybe sliightly more for x4's and AM3 boards are generally better spec'd than the 1156 boards at the same price, it would free up cash for a more powerful CPU. I wouldn't buy any board without SATA3 and USB3 these days, you may have no use for them now, but they are the way things are heading, USB2.0's limits have been holding back storage for a while and SATA2's limits are being reached now. I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but support for USB3 in 1156 boards is not perfect, likely because Intel were making a competing product. To get the full speed of USB 3.0 on my Asus 1156 board (p55) I'd have to change a setting in the BIOS which would take bandwith from my PCIE16x which would give less bandwith for my graphics card. Might not affect you as you might not need the full speed of USB 3.0 in that build's useful lifetime and other manufacturers have used different work arounds, but AM3 boards do not have this problem. If you want to go Intel (some people are quite loyal to Intel/nVidia) I'd avoid C2D's like everyone else mentioned, you end up paying more for less performance and would stick with i3's avoiding the dual core i5's completely unless you go for the quad core i5, the dual core i5's are pretty much the same as the i3's but higher clocked. There are plenty of options on most motherboards which will clock any i3 to above and beyond the dual core i5 speeds with minimal effort - hell some are even windows programs (they're useless for all but very minor OC's though).
datora:
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--- Quote from: Roven on January 08, 2011, 03:12:09 PM ---I'm planning on spending roughly about 900 US (I might throw in a little more) including monitor if possible not including: case, mouse, keyboard, power supply, sound card and storage devices.
original build cost
GPU cost about 152 US
Motherboard 132 US (I think I'll change this, I might take vuzedome's suggestion)
ddr2 rams 53.33 US (ddr3 probably)
multi dvd driver 32 US
CPU 126 US (changing this as well, i3 or i5)
total: about 500 US
--- End quote ---
First off, I'm in the U.S. and newegg.com is my first go-to option. So, it's difficult for me to understand what your local economy charges for items. I'll do the best I can ...
You've now made a decision to go with a more modern mobo & CPU. Can't quite tell if you are married to Intel, or why it might be necessary. I mentioned in my previous post which CPUs I'd look at for a budget system, and the links show competitive prices in the U.S.
If you're getting an i3 CPU, then REALLY look toward the AMD option ... the combination of CPU + mobo will get you better performance for your money. If you have enough budget to go with an i5, then you'll probably get more performance. Thing is, the Intel mobos are also more pricey.
You need to think about overclocking, too. Easier & more stable w/ AMD mobos ... and you'll also want to jump your RAM clock up, too
As far as the mobo goes, we now assume you'll look at ones that support USB 3.0/SATA III. More decisions on that: do you want one with no on-board video? If you get one with video, you might find one with strong enough video to get you by for a while & you can buy a separate graphics card later (6 or 10 months from now) and upgrade.
What video capacity do you need? What connections for your monitor (HDMI/digital/vga/etc.)?
What upgrade capacity ... as in, do you need to install PCI or PCIe cards? How many & for what? If you don't need any (beyond video expansion), you can look at microATX boards that are generally cheaper than full-sized ATX. This will also affect your case & case cooling specifications.
Memory: up your budget a bit. 2 x 2 GB DDR3 (a 4GB kit) goes for just about $80. Sometimes on specials can find it in the ~$65 range. We assume you're going to run Windows 7 64-bit, which will eat a full GB of RAM just by itself. I just did an install over Christmas where Win7 Home Premium 64-bit -- installed fairly lean -- was booting to ~880 MB RAM, and quickly jumped to 1.2 GB after installing patches and browsers and other very basic utilities (Avast! anti-virus, etc.). If you try to get by on 2GB of RAM, you're going to run out.
Don't skimp on cheap RAM. You can get DDR3 1600 w/ timing 9-9-9-24 sticks with CAS Latency 9, or you can try to get those numbers down, like CAS Latency 7 and timing 7-8-7-21 for improved performance.
Here's an excellent example ... and, look, the price is dropping fast because DDR3 1800 RAM is hitting the market in quantity:
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303
You can go with Corsair or OCZ or Kingston name brands, but GSkill Ripjaw series has a top reputation right now; all the performance and substantially lower price.
The DVD player I linked to goes for under $20 U.S. Hopefully you can find it at a good price.
As far as hard drive(s) go: if you can find an affordable SSD that is 64 GB or 80 GB capacity, use that as your main OS installation & main applications drive. It will seriously rock the performance of your system. It's pretty much worth the price because what you are trying to save on CPU/mobo can be invested into this drive and gain back a LOT of performance. A Win7 installation takes about 14 GB of space, so if you use that drive ONLY for applications that need it, a 64 GB drive is plenty large ... then invest in a 2 TB drive (a Western Digital Caviar Black or a Samsung F4 Spinpoint would be my top two choices today for secure reliability).
Here's another topic w/ discussion on hard drives & RAM:
> Technology > going for an overhaul
Especially pay attention to the read/write speeds of an SSD. You can get an SSD that is SATA II and it will be PLENTY fast, but try to get the high-capacity mechanical drives w/ SATA III (6.0 GB/sec) interface. Again, Western Digital Caviar Black edition is your friend. This one is substantial enough in performance you could use it as your system drive and not get an SSD.
If you're on budget, then the Western Digital AV-GP series in 1.5 TB or 2 TB is looking like an excellent alternative, but it's more geared toward a data back-up drive and probably not best used as your OS install drive.
As you start to make decisions, this discussion can get more focused.
Also: how much time do you have? Are you going to piece this system over the next four to ten weeks? You can generally shop around and find best deals. If you want to build by end of the week, it'll be harder on your budget.
vuzedome:
--- Quote from: Roven on January 08, 2011, 05:28:56 PM ---any idea how much it (motherboard) cost? and you link it?
--- End quote ---
The LGA1156-p55 boards will cost just about the same as a mid-tier Core i3.
Pretty much all of the ones on shelve will have USB3 and SataIII but look first before you buy.
(click to show/hide)Ease off a bit datora, with all that, you should put your skills to helping out at the playback help section.
datora:
.
--- Quote from: vuzedome on January 09, 2011, 03:18:16 AM --- (click to show/hide)Ease off a bit datora, with all that, you should put your skills to helping out at the playback help section.
--- End quote ---
;)
No worries. But, I'm probably one of the ones needs playback help ... just stumbling along & getting by for now. But, once I do learn it proper, I'll certainly be dangerous. ;D
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