Hi,
It seems my laptop has given up on me. I'm planning on build my own gaming desktop for the first time. I've saved up around $1k for the case+components. Will be buying the keyboard/monitor/accessories separately, but only really need help with the tower+components for now as that seems to be the main part of building it
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Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple weeks
Budget Range: $900-1000 CAD After Rebates
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Rendering on After Effects/Cinema 4D (non-commercial, private, just-for-fun), Surfing.
Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: tigerdirect.ca, newegg.ca, canadacomputers.com
Country of Origin: Canada
Parts Preferences: (Look below)
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: [Not sure, look at question 6 below]
Monitor Resolution: Full HD native resolution 1980 x 1080 [not included in budget]
Additional Comments:
- Quiet PC. Need it to last next 2-3 years.
- Looking for at least 8 GB DDR3 RAM + a 2 GB GDDR5 dedicated graphics card
- mid-to-full sized case with good airflow
- 1 TB/750 GB HDD + maybe another smaller solid state drive partition of around 250 GB
- Going for either intel i5-2500k or i7-2600k [still deciding, will pick one depending on budget after deciding on other parts]
A few questions:
1. What's usually the warranty when you separately buy motherboards, CPUs and graphic cards?
2. What do yo think of this RAM:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7114149
3. What do you think of this tower (and also the power supply that's suggested with it)
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6269869&CatId=1510
4. How much of power supply is really needed? Some people say 600w, some say 650-700w? How do you figure it out?
5. Are unlocked CPUs worth it? I'm not sure how overclocking will work because I've never done it before. Is it all from those BIOS options from when you start your PC and press F2 or something?? I got no idea.
6. SLI vs Crossfire graphic cards? What gives better performance for the price overall? I heard SLI's are better since they have several GPUs in one or something like that. Please help me understand this Also, what graphic cards would you recommend for each type?
7. Will I need to buy additional fans or do the ones that come with the case and the CPU be enough?
8. As said above, i5-2500k or i7-2600k? Not sure how much overall other parts will cost but I hear i7 got hyper-threading and I multitask quite often so it might be worth it?
9. What motherboard/tower case/graphic card brands should I primarily be looking at?
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Any feedback/tips appreciated. Thanks.
It seems my laptop has given up on me. I'm planning on build my own gaming desktop for the first time. I've saved up around $1k for the case+components. Will be buying the keyboard/monitor/accessories separately, but only really need help with the tower+components for now as that seems to be the main part of building it
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple weeks
Budget Range: $900-1000 CAD After Rebates
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Rendering on After Effects/Cinema 4D (non-commercial, private, just-for-fun), Surfing.
Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: tigerdirect.ca, newegg.ca, canadacomputers.com
Country of Origin: Canada
Parts Preferences: (Look below)
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: [Not sure, look at question 6 below]
Monitor Resolution: Full HD native resolution 1980 x 1080 [not included in budget]
Additional Comments:
- Quiet PC. Need it to last next 2-3 years.
- Looking for at least 8 GB DDR3 RAM + a 2 GB GDDR5 dedicated graphics card
- mid-to-full sized case with good airflow
- 1 TB/750 GB HDD + maybe another smaller solid state drive partition of around 250 GB
- Going for either intel i5-2500k or i7-2600k [still deciding, will pick one depending on budget after deciding on other parts]
A few questions:
1. What's usually the warranty when you separately buy motherboards, CPUs and graphic cards?
2. What do yo think of this RAM:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7114149
3. What do you think of this tower (and also the power supply that's suggested with it)
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6269869&CatId=1510
4. How much of power supply is really needed? Some people say 600w, some say 650-700w? How do you figure it out?
5. Are unlocked CPUs worth it? I'm not sure how overclocking will work because I've never done it before. Is it all from those BIOS options from when you start your PC and press F2 or something?? I got no idea.
6. SLI vs Crossfire graphic cards? What gives better performance for the price overall? I heard SLI's are better since they have several GPUs in one or something like that. Please help me understand this Also, what graphic cards would you recommend for each type?
7. Will I need to buy additional fans or do the ones that come with the case and the CPU be enough?
8. As said above, i5-2500k or i7-2600k? Not sure how much overall other parts will cost but I hear i7 got hyper-threading and I multitask quite often so it might be worth it?
9. What motherboard/tower case/graphic card brands should I primarily be looking at?
----------------------------------------------------------
Any feedback/tips appreciated. Thanks.