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Need advice on building a gaming PC ~ $1,500 - $2,000

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Anonymous

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next 3 weeks.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, watching movies, general use and storage, surfing the net.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: At the moment thinking of buying and building through a local computer shop.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Perth, Australia

PARTS PREFERENCES: No preference just looking for best combo/price/performance. Will be using Windowns 7 Pro 64mb

OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No / maybe in the future.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080, 1920x1200 - may get new monitor

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Generally upgrading new computer to play FPS games (bad company2 etc) or Napolean: Total War. Not looking for a super high performance computer build rather something to last for a few years and availability to upgrade.
Need your advice to ensure parts are compatible work well together.

-----------------------------------

LISTING OF PARTS LOOKING TO HAVE IN BUILD:

CPU - Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor

MoBo - GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard w/ USB 3.0 & SATA 6 Gb/s
or
ASUS P7P55D-E LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

GPU - SAPPHIRE 100282-3SR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity

HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Memory - GeIL Black Dragon 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10660) Desktop Memory

For some reason local computer shop only stocks Geil products. Is it a reliable brand?

PSU - Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3

Case - COOLER MASTER CM690 II Advanced Black Steel body / Plastic + Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Optical Drive - ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Thanks in advance for all your help and tips.
Alvin

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Welcome to the forums!
Yes, GeIL is a reliable brand.
Buy the Gigabyte board, looks better for overclocking.
You should buy an aftermarket CPU cooler if you are overclocking. You really cannot overclock on a stock CPU cooler.
You should not jump straight into buying your parts and attempting to build your PC.
Buy some crapbox PC,($100 or less), take it apart and attempt to reassemble it. You will learn a lot about how to build a PC and ensure you do not screw anything up when you spend all that money for your parts. Be careful of static electricity while building.
Good luck!

I disagree about not jumping right in. You shouldn't feel like you need to play around with the parts. Just do your research, read a lot of building guides, watch some videos and read general articles. When you get all of your parts, follow a guide that you liked and go slowly. There really is no wrong way to put the components together...

Go Asus MOBO. If you xfire in the future, the GA mobo will require disabling USB 3/SATA 6. It limits your slot 1 PCIe bandwidth to x8 right off the bat.

Better RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Better HD
Spinpoint F3 or 7200.12 500 GB. 1 TB F3 $70 atm.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

PSU wise a 750TX corsair is perfectly fine and $30 cheaper.

Read stickies before you build.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274745-31-step-step-g...

Also, like Mad said, connecting parts is pretty idiot proof. Just read instructions and guides beforehand, don't try to force things and you'll be fine.
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When I built my first computer I had done no research, I just had the parts and played around. You would be surprised how easy it is. The most complicated part is fitting the case wires to the board :) 

I found the scariest thing installing the cpu since it says everywhere DO NOT TOUCH THE PINS!!!! but that ended up being easy and so was all the rest I had read one thread with instructions and it was so self-explanitory I just stopped reading and built a system :p 
Anonymous

banthracis said:
Go Asus MOBO. If you xfire in the future, the GA mobo will require disabling USB 3/SATA 6. It limits your slot 1 PCIe bandwidth to x8 right off the bat.

Better RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Better HD
Spinpoint F3 or 7200.12 500 GB. 1 TB F3 $70 atm.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

PSU wise a 750TX corsair is perfectly fine and $30 cheaper.

Read stickies before you build.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274745-31-step-step-g...

Also, like Mad said, connecting parts is pretty idiot proof. Just read instructions and guides beforehand, don't try to force things and you'll be fine.



Thanks Banthracis,

If I choose to not go crossfire is there much difference between the two boards?

Cheers
Alvin
Anonymous

Thanks everyone for your tips.
Might take apart my old computer and upgrade some parts and play around with that for my mum and sis to use.
Currently I have a problem with my computer I have now. Everytime I play a dvd in the optical drive it doesnt read it or doesnt seem to register at all on the computer. Does that mean the optical drive is stuffed or something wrong with the comp. When I put a dvd in, it will start to spin the dvd but then after 20 secs it completely stops.

Any tips on upgrading systems? I've read a couple of articles on it. Is there 'dont do's' that I should think about when upgrading parts?

Quote:
Thanks Banthracis,

If I choose to not go crossfire is there much difference between the two boards?

Cheers
Alvin


Mad basically answered the question. However, just be aware that the ga board is x8 with only 1 gpu and sata 3/usb 3 enabled. Not an issue with the 5850 or 5870, but if you ever plug in a 5970 or other dual gpu card, you may suffer a significant performance loss.
Anonymous

banthracis said:
Mad basically answered the question. However, just be aware that the ga board is x8 with only 1 gpu and sata 3/usb 3 enabled. Not an issue with the 5850 or 5870, but if you ever plug in a 5970 or other dual gpu card, you may suffer a significant performance loss.


Thanks Mad and Banthracis,

So ideally what mobo would be a long term option for me? Crossfire is probably too hardcore for me although I guess in 2 to 3 years it will prob be the "in" thing.

Of Gigabyte UD4P or ASUS P7P55D - E, would you recommend the ASUS over the GA? For arguments sake Im guessing Crossfire would be an option in 2 to 3 years time.

Thanks,
Alvin

Asus definitely. The Gigabyte would disable USB 3/SATA III if you Crossfire. That makes it less future proof.

Let's say in 3-4 years, you decide to add another GPU and have added some new HDDs that use SATA III. If you got the Gigabyte board, the second card would force the new HDDs to run at slower speeds. Considering that HDDs are the main bottleneck in computers (NOT to FPS), it would make the computer seem as slow as it was before the upgrade. The Asus board would allow everything to run at full speed.
Anonymous

MadAdmiral said:
Asus definitely. The Gigabyte would disable USB 3/SATA III if you Crossfire. That makes it less future proof.

Let's say in 3-4 years, you decide to add another GPU and have added some new HDDs that use SATA III. If you got the Gigabyte board, the second card would force the new HDDs to run at slower speeds. Considering that HDDs are the main bottleneck in computers (NOT to FPS), it would make the computer seem as slow as it was before the upgrade. The Asus board would allow everything to run at full speed.


Awesome thanks for the advice. Planning to go to the computer store tomorrow and see if I can get cheap prices for the parts I got.

Thanks all for your help. ill keep you updated.

On a side note I waited for a confirmation email to come so I could register as a member but it never came and now im anonmyous. is that a common problem?
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