MrOsonice said:
1st reply! Yes! Thank you!!!
After I saw my way-too-long-is-an-understatement post and several views with no replies I figured everybody was being nice and refraining from giving me crap.
I got some sleep and a little more research under my belt now. I appreciate the links. I'm definetly going with the F3 spinpoint as a HDD, seems like the WD having twice the cache at 64 shouldn't be a deciding factor.
As for SSD for OS and then HDD, still researching. Huge gain from just one F3 HDD right?
I just barely started researching RAM qualities. I was considering G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin 1333. Seems like the Mushkin is about $35 more with differences in latency and timings. I saw high end builds with RAM that have a latency of 9, I must be missing something. Guess I'm not lucky enough for "lower is better" to be an absolute rule.
Thanks for the suggestions and links.
I think some of us have simply gotten into a habit of bombarding newcomers with products we would buy for a suitable rig. I don't like doing that, personally, but perhaps that's simply because I'm too lazy to find the links
The F3 is really only minorly faster than other HDDs, but it's consistently faster and it's pretty cheap. An SSD for your OS and some programs would still give you a noticeable speed increase.
Those high end builds were not well advised. Lower latency is
always better. CL8 is the lowest I'd get for a gaming build, CL6 still being a bit pricey, and CL7 being the sweet spot. But it's not just about latency; bus speed is also important, to a lesser degree. Generally we buy 1333Mhz or 1600MHz RAM, though people rolling in cash will shoot for 2000MHz+ for few real benefits beyond bragging rights.
MrOsonice said:
Yeah I think I will go with the i5-760 save a $100 while not giving up too much performance especially for my usage.
Cyber Monday is a website right?
For GPU I was thinking MSI Hawk hd 5770 1 gig $150 (ebay) unless that is extreme overkill. I have no plans on gaming except Starcraft 2 but wouldn't mind a little more performance/graphics while playing. If I do go with this GPU with an i5-760 would 500w like u suggest still be more than enough? I would like to future proof/techie-proof my system in case I start to OC a little and what not.
Thanks for the links and helpful input.
Cyber Monday is an actually just the Monday after Thanksgiving; it's the internet's Black Friday.
I don't recommend buying from ebay, it generally costs a lot more due to shipping and lack of combos and sale prices. For example, you can get
a Gigabyte 5770 and CL8 1600MHz RAM for $222 before two $20 MIRs.
Now if you're gonna be gaming at 1920x1080 or higher, I suggest getting a 6850 instead. If you do though, get a 650-750W PSU (which isn't necessary for one 6850, but for two, in case you wanna drop in a second one in the future). Either way, stick with the i5-760 (or if you don't mind AMD, they offer similar gaming performance with their 955, and at a slightly lower price), and you'll be set.
Congrats with the baby, but don't expect your wife to be "picking up slack"
Good luck with both.