amateur pc builder could use general advice 700$ purchase

TylerMullins · Jul 11, 2013

hello, this is my first post and i'm not very computer savvy so go easy on me please! i plan on buying approximately 700$ worth of hardware to upgrade my desktop. the uses i need it for would be for moderate gaming (league of legends is not demanding i believe) and multimedia design (photo / video editing) for school. i'm also concerned about watching things in HD and being able to stream my gameplay in HD effortlessly (im aware this is dependent on upload speed of my isp.)

would appreciate any advice on things like compatible or if i should downgrade or upgrade any purchases from my list

the parts which i'm keeping from current desktop (unless you guys suggest otherwise) :

Rosewill Wind Knight Gaming ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147135

ASUS M4A79XTD EVO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131402

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018

parts which i plan on purchasing:

Western Digital WD Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236345

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

Radeon HD 7790
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202029

Microsoft Windows 7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

ASUS VS229H-P Black 21.5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236205

BitFenix Spectre
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835345006

HDMI® cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882021128

would love to hear any comments or advice please, thank you for your time!

ingtar33 · Jul 11, 2013

get yourself a cpu cooler; otherwise, it looks good.

TylerMullins · Jul 11, 2013

ingtar33 :

thank you for the response, can you recommend one for me please?

ingtar33 · Jul 11, 2013

TylerMullins :

sure, on the cheap end the Hyper Evo 212 will give you mid to lower high end cooling performance for like $30, a great deal, and almost impossible to beat on a price/performance table.

the highest end air cooler would be the Noctua NH-14, that's a $60-$80 monster, which is good enough to play with the best AIO water coolers, it's also wisper quiet.

As for an AIO water cooler, the h80i and h100i are probably the best... oh sure, there might be others that outperform them (barely) but nothing beats corsair's warranties and customer service**, so it's impossible to advise any other option in an AIO water cooler system. The h80i should be enough for the 965be.

**for transparency sake, i do own a h100, and have worked with corsair's customer service. I'll be a fan for life, as it was the best customer service i've worked with in almost 20 years. i thought customer service like that died out a generation ago.

TylerMullins · Jul 11, 2013

ingtar33 :

TylerMullins :

sure, on the cheap end the Hyper Evo 212 will give you mid to lower high end cooling performance for like $30, a great deal, and almost impossible to beat on a price/performance table.

the highest end air cooler would be the Noctua NH-14, that's a $60-$80 monster, which is good enough to play with the best AIO water coolers, it's also wisper quiet.

As for an AIO water cooler, the h80i and h100i are probably the best... oh sure, there might be others that outperform them (barely) but nothing beats corsair's warranties and customer service**, so it's impossible to advise any other option in an AIO water cooler system. The h80i should be enough for the 965be.

**for transparency sake, i do own a h100, and have worked with corsair's customer service. I'll be a fan for life, as it was the best customer service i've worked with in almost 20 years. i thought customer service like that died out a generation ago.

thank you very much for the insight, i suppose i will get the hyper evo as im trying to save $, are there any other advice or comments you have sir? anything at all would be appreciated

ingtar33 · Jul 11, 2013

TylerMullins :

Well, the hyper evo can utilize 2 fans in a push/pull... so you might want to look into getting a 2nd fan if you're planning on some serious overclocking. i'd also look into figuring out a way to get something resembling airflow over your mb... that mb is like mine, which means it will offer a more stable overclock if you can get a breeze onto the nb/vrm heatsinks.

Generally you don't need to kill yourself with a phii x4 965be overclock... the sweet spot for that chip is at 3.8ghz, and most of them can do that without much effort. They really have some pretty diminishing returns over that point on their overclocks.

I would spend my time working on getting that NB up as high as i could, and the ram timings as tight as i can... you might be able to save some cash on the ram. While a phii can work with 1600 speed ram, it needs it's NB clocked up to 3200 to take full advantage of that. In my experience it's rare you can get a phii's nb up over 2600-2800 stable; which means ddr 1333 is sorta ideal for the PhII; your choice but PhII are sorta touchy with their ram. So you'll probably have to play with it eventually to get it as stable as you can

(the Lord knows my computer is a freaking blue screen mess at stock settings... not sure why but it hates my ram at stock settings, i have to play with the ram and nb to even stabilize it with zero overclock; that said once i figured out how to stabilize this pc, at both stock and overclocked, this has been the most dependable and uncrashable system i've ever owned or even had the pleasure of playing on)

TylerMullins · Jul 11, 2013

ingtar33 :

TylerMullins :

Well, the hyper evo can utilize 2 fans in a push/pull... so you might want to look into getting a 2nd fan if you're planning on some serious overclocking. i'd also look into figuring out a way to get something resembling airflow over your mb... that mb is like mine, which means it will offer a more stable overclock if you can get a breeze onto the nb/vrm heatsinks.

Generally you don't need to kill yourself with a phii x4 965be overclock... the sweet spot for that chip is at 3.8ghz, and most of them can do that without much effort. They really have some pretty diminishing returns over that point on their overclocks.

I would spend my time working on getting that NB up as high as i could, and the ram timings as tight as i can... you might be able to save some cash on the ram. While a phii can work with 1600 speed ram, it needs it's NB clocked up to 3200 to take full advantage of that. In my experience it's rare you can get a phii's nb up over 2600-2800 stable; which means ddr 1333 is sorta ideal for the PhII; your choice but PhII are sorta touchy with their ram. So you'll probably have to play with it eventually to get it as stable as you can

(the Lord knows my computer is a freaking blue screen mess at stock settings... not sure why but it hates my ram at stock settings, i have to play with the ram and nb to even stabilize it with zero overclock; that said once i figured out how to stabilize this pc, at both stock and overclocked, this has been the most dependable and uncrashable system i've ever owned or even had the pleasure of playing on)

ah, well i dont plan on pushing the computer very hard. i've never over clocked before so i guess this time i would do it lightly? im not sure. and wow i never knew that about the ram! i suppose i'll trim to 1333 then. please feel free to leave more advice if you dont mind

ingtar33 · Jul 11, 2013

TylerMullins :

you don't HAVE to trim it back. Some phii will get up to 3200 on their nb... your mb is pretty good so you'd have a better shot then i do. I just was tossing the idea out there in case you need to save cash somewhere.

setting that aside, there is no harm in a little overclocking. as i said, most phii x4 965be should get to 3.8ghz without too much effort. Many can do it on their stock voltage (or close to it anyway)... mine can get to 3.7 on stock voltage, and requires only a little bump in voltage to get it stable at 3.8

TylerMullins · Jul 11, 2013

ingtar33 :

TylerMullins :

you don't HAVE to trim it back. Some phii will get up to 3200 on their nb... your mb is pretty good so you'd have a better shot then i do. I just was tossing the idea out there in case you need to save cash somewhere.

setting that aside, there is no harm in a little overclocking. as i said, most phii x4 965be should get to 3.8ghz without too much effort. Many can do it on their stock voltage (or close to it anyway)... mine can get to 3.7 on stock voltage, and requires only a little bump in voltage to get it stable at 3.8

alright thanks for everything =)

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