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General discussion (archive)Building a computer for my brother(51 posts)(51 posts)
(51 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 02, 2014
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bork22: CPU: Is there a huge difference between an i3 and an i5? And what's an "Ivy Bridges" CPU?
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jjsimp: Ivy Bridge is last years CPU, Haswell is the new one. And yes a big difference between an i3 and an i5.
But why you asking about an intel processor when you are buying an AMD board. You will need an AMD AM3+ CPU, not an intel one.
Ivy Bridge, Haswell...they are all codenames given to different model years (generations) of chips. All manufacturers use them, AMD has Sledgehammer, Bulldozer, etc.
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bork22: Hardrive: Would probably prefer to just go with a traditional HDD. 2 Terabytes would be good. One would work too. Any suggestions for how to go about finding one? What are some good brands?
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jjsimp: Basically it boils down to Western Digital or Seagate...everyone has their favorite. Either one will be good, but they both make different models...WD has the Black, Green and Red series. Black being Fast, Green being economy/slow, and Red be Enterprise Level (not normally for the consumer)...so with them the Black drives would be ideal.
Seagate is a little harder to define the enterprise, consumer, and economy drives. But the 7200 series I believe is the current consumer drive.
In one of the saddest business deals in recent years, Seagate overpaid for and ruined Samsung's hard drive business. Only the Samsung laptop drives remain in commerce. These are worth seeking out if you need 2.5-inch drives for small form factor PCs or laptop replacement drives.

Western Digital:
Black is the high-end desktop model. It's the same as their "enterprise" drives except it does not have RAID-capable firmware. This is the only Western Digital consumer model that can be recommended.
Red is optimized for NAS (network attached storage). It is a specialized drive for personal and small business storage appliances, not for desktop or "enterprise" use.
Green is low-power, low speed (5400 rpm). It has a terrible reputation as unreliable and very slow.
Blue is the mainstream desktop model. Faster than Green, but nothing in particular to recommend it.

Seagate:
Barracuda is the mainstream desktop model. Early 1TB Barracudas were dreadful, but the problems have been corrected in more recent models. Better value than Western Digital, because Seagate no longer commands premium prices.
Hybrid is the hybrid model that uses an 8GB SSD as a cache. Because it does use the cache effectively, it is the fastest 7200 rpm consumer drive.
Post edited February 02, 2014 by cjrgreen
Posted February 03, 2014
@jjsimp and cjrgreen: Thanks very much!

I'd rather stick with the Intel processors, so I've swapped the motherboard for this instead:

[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CMWIrYC3sLwCFQHNOgodukkAkA&Item=N82E16813135359&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Intel+Motherboards-_-N82E16813135359&ef_id=Uq0U3QAABHOZfSSq:20140203165850:s]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CMWIrYC3sLwCFQHNOgodukkAkA&Item=N82E16813135359&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Intel+Motherboards-_-N82E16813135359&ef_id=Uq0U3QAABHOZfSSq:20140203165850:s[/url]

Along with the rest of what I have:

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131546

Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445

Can I get some suggestions for hardrives and CPU's that would work well with this build? What's a good price?

EDIT: Oh, and are there any compatibility issues with the motherboard? Is it a good price? Will it work well with the other parts?

EDIT 2: I'm not totally sure what the big differences are between 32 and 64 bit, but it seems that 64 runs RAM better. Is it worth going for a 64 bit system?
Post edited February 03, 2014 by bork22
Posted February 03, 2014
I'd go for a better CPU (at least quadcore i5), cheaper case and RAM. You should go for a 64 bit system for sure, otherwise only 3.25-3.75 gb of RAM will be accessible.
Posted February 03, 2014
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BlackDawn: I'd go for a better CPU (at least quadcore i5), cheaper case and RAM. You should go for a 64 bit system for sure, otherwise only 3.25-3.75 gb of RAM will be accessible.
Does this look pretty good, for a decent price, or could I do better?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116896

What about compared to this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116782
Post edited February 03, 2014 by bork22
Posted February 03, 2014
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bork22:
You can't compare those - different sockets. Motherboard you picked is LGA 1155. Well i5-3350P should be good.
Posted February 03, 2014
@BlackDawn Sounds good. I'll recheck that with my price when I have a possibility with all the parts.

So, then, does anyone have a good suggestion for a hardrive?
Posted February 04, 2014
That is an awful motherboard from an awful manufacturer. I don't know who pointed you to it, but you shouldn't listen to them.

Beyond that, you should NOT get an H61 chipset motherboard for a new computer. H61 is limited to 2 sticks of RAM and does not have PCI Express 3, SATA 3, or USB 3 support. It requires a BIOS update to work with an Ivy Bridge CPU at all. It is already obsolete.

The minimum chipset for any non-obsolete Ivy Bridge setup is the 7 series ("Panther Point"): B75 through Z77.

Here are four non-obsolete LGA 1155 (Ivy Bridge) motherboards for less than $100:

ASUS Z77-A http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131965
ASRock Z77 Pro4 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157296
ASRock Z77 Pro3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157297
MSI Z77A-G41 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130653

Mechanical hard drives under $100:

Seagate ST1000DM003 1TB conventional http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
WD Black WD1003FZEX 1TB conventional http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W019M6559
Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB conventional http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834
Seagate ST1000DX001 1TB hybrid http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178381
Post edited February 04, 2014 by cjrgreen
Posted February 04, 2014
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cjrgreen: That is an awful motherboard from an awful manufacturer. I don't know who pointed you to it, but you shouldn't listen to them.
Not only that it's an mini-ITX motherboard. Unless you are making home theater/small footprint PC you should avoid mini-ITX. Usually those types of PCs do not require a graphics card.

Look for microATX if you want a small tower. Or even a standard ATX motherboard. cjrgreen listed a few good choices for the 1155 socket, but you should look at the newer 1150 socket processors.

such as this with the[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116896] first processor you linked

I personally would go for one with two PCIx16 slots so you could run two graphics boards, but if you don't care about having that option, then you can save quite a bit of money on a motherboard such as this one.
Post edited February 04, 2014 by jjsimp
Posted February 04, 2014
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bork22: EDIT 2: I'm not totally sure what the big differences are between 32 and 64 bit, but it seems that 64 runs RAM better. Is it worth going for a 64 bit system?
The only reason to stick with 32 Bit is if you want to run WIndows XP or older operating system. If you plan to run WIndows 7 or 8 then just get the 64bit version. One of the drawbackx with 32bit is you can't use more than 4GB of memory.
Posted February 04, 2014
Just an fyi, check out this site: http://pcpartpicker.com/

That makes building a PC (and sharing your build with others) MUCH easier!

Also, definitely go with 64 bit. 32 bit is a thing of the past and limits the amount of RAM available.
Posted February 04, 2014
NOTE: I just built a mid level gaming system based on Haswell (latest) Intel CPU.

i5-4670K, 8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport, 128GB SSD, 2TB WD Black, GTX 760 by EVGA. MB= ASUS z87-A and original PSU was CORSAIR HX750 (750W)

Power was quite overkill, but wanted the head room.


ISSUE!!!!!!!!!

I had POST troubles... intermittent, random hang at the CPU and the red LED indicator would stay on... no video, no POST. Turns out, the ASUS z87-A and Corsairs 650W to 750W PSUs do not play well together. Not sure why... just the consensus of many having similar issues. ROG forums on ASUS, Tom's Hardware, etc all have folks asking about it.

Swapping PSUs (Assuming you know everything is connected properly, no bent CPU pins, etc) fixes the issue. I swapped for a Thermaltake TR2 700W... no probs since.

I know you aren't necessarily looking at these components, but wanted to share some info...
Posted February 04, 2014
Here's the build I completed last summer: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/ThePilot/saved/1SNe

The Rosewill fan didn't fit in that case, but it wasn't really needed. I would say this is still a really good build...obviously look around for deals and such (and you'll need a CPU cooler if you're going to overclock).
Posted February 04, 2014
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ameder: I had POST troubles... intermittent, random hang at the CPU and the red LED indicator would stay on... no video, no POST. Turns out, the ASUS z87-A and Corsairs 650W to 750W PSUs do not play well together. Not sure why... just the consensus of many having similar issues. ROG forums on ASUS, Tom's Hardware, etc all have folks asking about it.
Probably just a defective power supply. I have a Corsair 650 and Asus Gryphon Z87 and have had no problems whatsoever.
I did have a similar issue on another motherboard + power supply combo. It ended up being caused by the 20+4 pin connector. The extra four pins were separated from the 20 pin and they just would not stay pushed in for very long. Super glued the four pin onto the 20 pin and no problems ever again. Since, that I try to look for a power supply that it is a 24pin and not a 20+4 Pin.
Posted February 05, 2014
@A_Future_Pilot I ran what I have right now through that site, and everything looks good. However, I'm still going to give the links direct to Newegg because Partpicker didn't have the correct version for the GPU. :p But thanks!


Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131965

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131546

Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445 (still not really sure about this, FYI)

Hardrive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116782

How does this look? According to Partpicker, it should all be compatible. Does anyone think it won't be? Does it look like I'd be getting good bang for my buck? And could someone point my to a good case?
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cjrgreen: That is an awful motherboard from an awful manufacturer. I don't know who pointed you to it, but you shouldn't listen to them.
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jjsimp: Not only that it's an mini-ITX motherboard. Unless you are making home theater/small footprint PC you should avoid mini-ITX. Usually those types of PCs do not require a graphics card.

Look for microATX if you want a small tower. Or even a standard ATX motherboard. cjrgreen listed a few good choices for the 1155 socket, but you should look at the newer 1150 socket processors.

such as this with the[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116896] first processor you linked

I personally would go for one with two PCIx16 slots so you could run two graphics boards, but if you don't care about having that option, then you can save quite a bit of money on a motherboard such as this one.
I checked the board out, but the two combined is just more than I want to pay. Thanks for the tip, though!
Post edited February 05, 2014 by bork22
Posted February 05, 2014
Hey, I have a separate question about game footage recording with a Hauppauge PVR in this topic; if anyone has any advice on it as well, I would be glad to hear it!
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/hauppauge_pvr_owners_i_have_a_question
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Building a computer for my brother(51 posts)(51 posts)
(51 posts)