Help Building My Own Computer

[Driagan]

Hello, I am planning on building my own desktop computer, however this is something I've never done before. I have read quite a bit online about it, and designed a build that I think will work, however I am not sure. I have a few questions:

Will all of these components fit together properly?

Should I get a 60GB SSD and install the OS to that, with a larger HDD for everything else, or will that not give significant improvements?

How will this computer work for gaming? Should I go for a better graphics card?

Are there any components you would recommend changing?

Here are all of the components in the computer:
■ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
■COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
■Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
■ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
■ASUS PCE-N13 PCI Express 150/300Mbps Transfer/Receive Rate Wireless Adapter
■HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
■2x CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1333C9
■AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
■COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan
■Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
■Kingwin ATS-W24 Anti-Static Wrist Strap w/ Grounding Wire
TOTAL: $683.61

(I have a 500 watt power supply and a sound card that I'm planning on salvaging from my last computer for the one I'm building, that's why there is no power supply listed)

Thank you for all the help!

 

[g-unit1111]

Hello, I am planning on building my own desktop computer, however this is something I've never done before. I have read quite a bit online about it, and designed a build that I think will work, however I am not sure. I have a few questions:

Will all of these components fit together properly?

Should I get a 60GB SSD and install the OS to that, with a larger HDD for everything else, or will that not give significant improvements?

How will this computer work for gaming? Should I go for a better graphics card?

If you're going with an X6, do not pair it with an ATI 4670, it's a very old, slow, and outdated DX9 card. You could get one to use as a replacement in case your primary fails, but a card as old as the 4670 should not be used as your main graphics card. You need at least a 6850 or better to compete in modern environments, if you cant afford that, I'd recommend getting a 6790 or a GeForce GTX 560. I'd also recommend changing out the motherboard and getting something 990FX-based so you have an upgrade path for Bulldozer CPUs. Gigabyte would work well in this area.

Although if you have a very limited budget, have you considered the quad-core AMD Llano CPUs? Those seem to work well for budget builds and home theater PCs.

And yes, the 60GB plus larger HDD is amazing. I just got a 64GB Crucial M4 from Newegg for super cheap and paired it with a Samsung Spinpoint, it's definitely the way to go. I'm thinking of getting one to go with my main system.

And as for the Arctic compound - it's pretty good, but I'd recommend using EVGA Frostbite, or Thermalright CMII.

One other thing - Asus DVD burners are HORRENDOUS. I had several fail on me, and one was spinning so loudly my co-worker commented that it sounded like a Ferrari engine. Needless to say after three or four returns to Newegg, I gave up and switched to Lite-On and haven't had any problems since. :lol:

 

[genghiskron]

assuming $700 is roughly your budget, you should probably skip the ssd if your goal is to play modern games. this build is not ready to go. im sorry, i dont have time to help you tonight but i dont think you are going in the right direction at the moment

 

[Driagan]

Thank you for your advice, g-unit1111. I have made some modifications to the setup, the new setup follows.

Will the 500-watt power supply I have from my previous computer be sufficient for this computer, or should I invest in a higher wattage power source?

I took your advice and grabbed a different DVD burner, I upgraded the graphics card, and upgraded the motherboard to a 990FX version. When I upgraded the motherboard, I went ahead and upgraded the RAM to a new type, Ripjaws X.

I'm trying to keep the build less than $1,000. However, less than that is good too! I just don't really want to exceed $1,000.

How does the build look now, is it more sufficient for modern day games (and hopefully would last me a while)? I'm pretty much going to just be using the computer for video games (StarCraft II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, etc.), typical college stuff (writing papers, browsing the web, etc.), and programming (I really want to mess around with parallel programming, however my current computer only has a single core processor, so I can't do much with that at the moment).

And, the more important question: Will it all fit together, did I do my research properly?

■LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM
■COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
■Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
■ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and ...
■ASUS PCE-N13 PCI Express 150/300Mbps Transfer/Receive Rate Wireless Adapter
■HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
■Kingwin ATS-W24 Anti-Static Wrist Strap w/ Grounding Wire
■2x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
■AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
■COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan
■EVGA M019-00-000003 Frostbite Thermal Paste - Super Cool
TOTAL: $899.97

 

[Driagan]

Best answer selected by Driagan.