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First time building a pc need some advice

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lololitas:
But afaik I5s loose quite a lot of functionality. Now that doesn't matter that much to most people though. I know it's a matter of cost, but if you start talking costs think about costeffectivness as well. If you get an I5 now i can assure it will run great for at least 2 years, but if you get an i7 it might last more than twice that time. I'm saying that because back when I built my current rig a lot of people recommended me to go with the cheaper I5 750. It sure was enough at the time (aug 2009) but I'm currently still using my i7 920 and it still works. It was an investment that lasted and I still can't fully use it for games. if you get a future oriented MB as well you'll only need to upgrade ram and graphics over time, if you buy a solid power supply you won't need to worry about the aging either, so it's longer lasting. It's up to you wether you want to save money now or later, when you won't need to upgrade.

However do note that I'm not guaranteeing an upgrade free gamer life, especially with the new consoles touting 8core processors that might up the quality of games at teh cost of processing power.

kitamesume:

--- Quote from: Speaker Rob on September 21, 2013, 08:04:55 AM ---Let me just say I think you are overshooting on the equipment. You could save a lot of money here and still have a system that feels just as powerful. Some key things to change:


* 16GB of memory is overkill - start with 8GB first, if you find that you need more later on, the stuff is cheap so just pick you up a couple more sticks. Anything over DDR3-14900 is a waste of money. For one, it is just overclocked 1866Mhz with terrible latency at 3-5 times the price.
* Good lord that video card! Drop to the 600x series and save 50-60% on the cost for a minimal drop in performance. FYI, NVIDIA has less driver hassles than ATI, but ATI is cheaper.
* Power supplies should be the one thing you don't skimp on cost with. 750-850W single rail is the way to go. I recommend PC Power and Cooling for the 5yr warrenty on their products.
* The Samsung 840 pro SSD is quality stuff. I could go into all the specifics of the firmware controllers, but it's sufficient to say that is the best SSD on the market atm. I'm using the 120GB variety, and I found that to be enough for just my OS and drivers. It's up to you on the size, either will work great.
* As far as your motherboard goes. This is something of a research matter. Usually how I select a MB is first I list the features I want, then find a board that matches those. Then I look at reviews. I'm attempting to find out how many of these are dead on arrival (DOA), and the issues other people have had with them. After weighing my options, I look for the best priced one and cross my fingers. This should take up most of your time during the purchasing phase. Just makes sure whatever you are getting has the right socket chipset, and supports your memory type without having to be overclocked in the bios. I also recommend opting for a UEFI enabled motherboard.
* Look into the 1.5TB WD Caviar green drives. They run cooler, longer, and on less power with only a tiny drop in performance. They are also around $50-70.
* Finally, the CPU....dun dun dun. Intel i7's are nice, but way too expensive for my taste. Look into going doen to the i5 series. I cannot remember off the top of my head atm, but one the i5's can be overclocked to the same specs of an i7 for about 30% of the cost. Also, don't overlook AMD as an option too. I've had no problem with the FX6300 series and it was half the price of an i5.
--- End quote ---

factoring out freak accidents and parts dying, overspec'ing the PC parts always meant to last you a few more years, yes years.

since you're only buying once every 3~5years, or even longer, why not get what strongest you can afford(without force stretching the budget), no?


for the record 8GB of total ram is small, too small.

GTX770 is faster than GTX680 yet cheaper, so saying to drop to 600series is actually spending more, not wise.

Honemi:
Seriously, for a simple gaming system, 8GB of RAM is fine. If he (you're a guy?) needs more than that, he can buy some more. 8GB is not small or tiny unless you're doing media creation or some other memory intensive activity on your PC. For just gaming, 8GB is enough. I won't fight you about 16GB, though. Just go with 1866MHz or 1600MHz RAM. You're literally paying a $60 premium for ~5FPS (best case).

As far as i7 vs i5 goes, take a look at this bench. That is between the high performing Lynnfield Core i5 and Core i7. Look down at the games in the benchmark, the performance difference is tiny. The only thing you're losing from getting a Core i5 instead of a Core i7 is HyperThreading. Take a look at this techPowerUp page. You're only getting a ~9FPS advantage at similar clocks. For gaming, an i7 is wasteful. I'd said it before, and I'll say it again: That is $100 you could be spending on a better graphics card setup; you'll see a bigger performance increase there. Of course, with MicroCenter in the picture, if you can save money by getting an i7 or if it only costs like ~$20 more, then you should get that.



--- Quote from: lololitas on September 21, 2013, 11:04:22 AM ---I'm saying that because back when I built my current rig a lot of people recommended me to go with the cheaper I5 750. It sure was enough at the time (aug 2009) but I'm currently still using my i7 920 and it still works.

--- End quote ---

You know you're comparing a Lynnfield processor with a Gulftown processor, right? Or in other words, the comparison you're actually making is an Extreme chip versus a mainstream chip. The comparable i7 would be a i7-880(/875K). If you were doing a straight gaming setup, the i7-880 would've been smarter. Not only that, going with one of these current Extreme chips today would be straight up dumb considering that i5/i7 have better performance for video games.

You don't need Gold efficiency on your PSU, but if you really want that, you should consider the XFX 850W Pro Series. Its literally a rebadge of your current pick. Only $110 (w/ Rebate) at NCIX. Or get the Corsair HX850 which I believe is also the same PSU.

On the GPU front, if you're only planning on 1080p a 760/670 (same performance) or 7950 is fine, but if you're planning on higher resolution gaming, ditch the 4GB 770 and go with two 4GB 760/670 in SLI.

Do not get an AMD processor. The only time you should be using one of them is if you're building a HTPC or if you're building a gaming machine and you're too poor to afford an i3 or i5, custom build or prebuild. (If it is the former, get one of their budget APUs; you're looking at one of their newer Athlon II X4, but you should be actually saving up then rather than trying buy a gaming pc right now).

Also make sure you have enough money for backup. Getting a NAS solution for backup is popular these days.

Speaker Rob:

--- Quote from: kitamesume on September 21, 2013, 01:59:16 PM ---
factoring out freak accidents and parts dying, overspec'ing the PC parts always meant to last you a few more years, yes years.

since you're only buying once every 3~5years, or even longer, why not get what strongest you can afford(without force stretching the budget), no?


for the record 8GB of total ram is small, too small.

GTX770 is faster than GTX680 yet cheaper, so saying to drop to 600series is actually spending more, not wise.

--- End quote ---

Every system I've built needed to be replaced because of new technology requirements, before the actual components gave out. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. As long as you do your research and pick up good stuff (which doesn't always mean high-priced), you should be fine.

8GB of ram is plenty. The only time you would NEED 16GB is if you are doing one of the following:

* 3D model renderings
* video compiling (authoring DVD's/Blu-rays)
* video editing
* running virtual machines
* running a server (16GB minimum then, recommend 32GB or moreI'm not sure what you are doing that requires more than 8GB of ram, but for casual gaming and computer use 8GB is fine, and by casual gaming I mean playing games for fun, not to benchmark. However, since RAM is one of the cheapest components to upgrade, if you need 16GB to rest easier at night, do it.

You might be right on the video card prices though. I haven't checked them in over 6 months. Really the important thing to note, is that buying the latest and greatest is a waste of money in the computing world. You can usually drop down to the high-end model of a previous series to get better components at half the cost. Typically, I would rather have two cards in SLI/Crossfire than one $400-500 card. Two cards will out perform one at that price range and save you $100-150.

I've been building systems for 15 years, just trying to provide some tips on saving money. A lot of people get wrapped up into the hype of specs without actually understanding the real impact they have in performance vs. your wallet. If I can take a 15-30% drop in power to save enough money to buy a second monitor, or a better monitor, or another video card. Hell yeah, I'm doing it. Real world, you won't notice the drop in casual use, only when benchmarking.

Gh0st93:
Basically everything has been discussed on literally the first page, So all you would of had to do was read through the first page (Actually basically my posts) And you would see why the things that got chosen were chosen. But hey I'm a nice person and will reiterate why.

16GB Ram vs 8GB Ram = 8GB is fine for a sole gaming machine, For right now but More things not just games are using up more ram so might as well have it now with the ability to still upgrade later on. Also anyone who properly read Syko's post would see that they intend to get more into the IT side of things which will probably also involve running VMs.

i7 vs i5 = Syko lives near a microcenter so the i7 is heavily discounted so any argument on performance is completely invalid.

Graphics card :

600 series vs 700 series = Yes the 760 is a rebrand from the 600 line but Syko is buying the 770 which is new, Also it will be going into SLI so that renders the 600 series completely useless.

4GB Vram is to much!!! = No in fact it is not, all the fucking idiots running around screaming 2GB VRAM is enough (There were a lot on the internet in general I'm not speaking to people here, well unless you do that.....). Guess what, new games(BF4 but more will follow) are already recommending 3GB VRAM as ideal now can it run on 2GB sure but it could also run on 512MB so why shoot yourself in the foot now for literally an extra $50 dollars a card. Also the 770 in sli beats the titan kind of. The low VRAM will cause it to freak out and drop below a titan but bumping up to 4GB Will put you past a single titan by a very good bit pushing near 780 and subsequently the titan in SLI. Also at 4GB a card in SLI you will as much VRAM on your graphics cards that next-gen consoles have in general.



Edit : Also the Reason why I put up 2133MHz ram over 1866 is the fact that it's $3 Dollars more, So yeah....

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