Need advise on a Computer build I'm a newbie be easy!

[TreyC]

I'm trying to figure out what stuff i will be needing for this, My son likes playing WoW and I put together a very old ibm and made it work but the graphics are so terrible i just cant stand it anymore lol.. I noticed on there visuals screen that you need certian things to run the best setting and thats what im shooting for..Price is not a very big issue but cut me alittle slack. Also i want to make it look cool for my son i seen water cooling is the new big thing i think ill be going that route.. Thanks!

 

[g-unit1111]

My son likes playing WoW and I put together a very old ibm and made it work but the graphics are so terrible i just cant stand it anymore lol..

Is there a spec sheet for this system? I'd be curious to know what it runs on that will make it run WOW but have terrible graphics.

I noticed on there visuals screen that you need certian things to run the best setting and thats what im shooting for..

What OS are you running? I'm not sure what you are talking about here.

Also i want to make it look cool for my son i seen water cooling is the new big thing i think ill be going that route..

If you're new to building a system I would heavily advise against water cooling. The parts needed are expensive, very complicated to setup and there's way too many things that can go wrong when setting it up. If you're new to system building air cooling is the way to go. You might be able to get away with a closed block setup like the Corsair H80, H100, or Antec Kuhler, but I would not recommend a custom setup for a first-time system. And with computers, as with cars or your house, it's *NEVER* a good idea to buy something because it "looks the coolest". You want the best hardware you can get for your budget, and what I like to call "vanity" hardware is never a good sell.

Fill this out and I can help you pick out some good parts better: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice

 

[TreyC]

I dont know how to find the spec sheet but it really is dirt old and everything on the WoW is set as low as it goes and it still lags not due to internet. Also im the type of person who would rather read a book or article on how to do something so water cooling is not out of the question i can build dang near anything i set my mind to.. Perks of being old Also i dont know anything at all i take it OS is the operating system?

 

[g-unit1111]

I dont know how to find the spec sheet but it really is dirt old and everything on the WoW is set as low as it goes and it still lags not due to internet.

Well if you're using Windows XP hit windows + pause and it will bring up a system properties dialogue that will show you what CPU, RAM and video card. If you're using Windows 7 using the same keys will bring up the "about system" control panel that will have much more detailed information, you can post it from there.

Also im the type of person who would rather read a book or article on how to do something so water cooling is not out of the question i can build dang near anything i set my mind to.. Perks of being old

I've been building / tweaking PCs since I was 15 (I'm 31 now so I have quite a bit of experience at this... :lol: ) and I still wouldn't recommend it - it's too much time and planning for not a little payoff. Having a CPU with +-.2 GHz isn't going to make the biggest difference in the world for modern games like Skyrim, BF3, and so on. Intel's Sandy Bridge line is very efficient in its' cooling system and the big, huge coolers like what were required several years ago are becoming a thing of the past. Especially since like I said there's tons of things that could go wrong, and you don't want to take a chance on ruining your new hardware that you just spent $1500 - $3K on. You're better off by going with a good, strong air cooled system to start with. You can get a case that has mounts and everything for a custom liquid cooling setup, but I think for now you're better off sticking with a strong air cooled system or a closed block liquid setup. Here's a couple of articles from the main page of Tom's on the subject I would highly suggest reading before attempting a liquid cooled system.

Setting up air cooling pt. 1: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooling-airflow-heatsink,3053.html
Setting up air cooling pt. 2: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooling-air-pressure-heatsink,3058.html
Self contained liquid coolers - Antec Kuhler vs. Corsair H80/H100: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h2o-h80-h100-benchmark-overclocking,3084.html
Air cooling vs. liquid cooling: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/coolit-domino-cogage,2290.html

If you insist on going the liquid cooled route getting a closed block system like the Corsair H100 certainly wouldn't be a bad way to go. I'm actually planning to get one for my home system in the near future.

Also i dont know anything at all i take it OS is the operating system?

Yes.

 

[Atlantic11]

I'm trying to figure out what stuff i will be needing for this, My son likes playing WoW and I put together a very old ibm and made it work but the graphics are so terrible i just cant stand it anymore lol.. I noticed on there visuals screen that you need certian things to run the best setting and thats what im shooting for..Price is not a very big issue but cut me alittle slack. Also i want to make it look cool for my son i seen water cooling is the new big thing i think ill be going that route.. Thanks!

If price is an issue, get a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz for around $140. Get a GTX 460 for around $180. Get a $130 motherboard that fits the AMD. Get a corsair tower case, Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower $100. Ram and hard drive for $150 total. If you want, for $15-20 you can get neon lights and put that in your tower. If the corsair doesn't let you see inside, go get another one. Get the corsair H70 water cooler, or equivalent for about $70. Get a corsair PSU $60 or so. That will be more then enough for WOW to be played at max settings.

If you want something even better, get a Intel i7-2600 for $300. Plus get a nice sound card. Motherboard sound cards are okay for WOW but when the battles get heavy, mine has trouble. Hard to describe but I think it has to do with the limited amount of channels.

Anyways, for about $700-1000 you can get a good one. Oh, and don't forget the $99 Windows 7 OEM installation disc. And if your kid uses Microsoft Office for school, that is another $100.

 

[Atlantic11]

I'm trying to figure out what stuff i will be needing for this, My son likes playing WoW and I put together a very old ibm and made it work but the graphics are so terrible i just cant stand it anymore lol.. I noticed on there visuals screen that you need certian things to run the best setting and thats what im shooting for..Price is not a very big issue but cut me alittle slack. Also i want to make it look cool for my son i seen water cooling is the new big thing i think ill be going that route.. Thanks!

If price is an issue, get a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz for around $140. Get a GTX 460 for around $180. Get a $130 motherboard that fits the AMD. Get a corsair tower case, Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower $100. Ram and hard drive for $150 total. If you want, for $15-20 you can get neon lights and put that in your tower. If the corsair doesn't let you see inside, go get another one. Get the corsair H70 water cooler, or equivalent for about $70. Get a corsair PSU $60 or so. That will be more then enough for WOW to be played at max settings.

If you want something even better, get a Intel i7-2600 for $300. Plus get a nice sound card. Motherboard sound cards are okay for WOW but when the battles get heavy, mine has trouble. Hard to describe but I think it has to do with the limited amount of channels.

Anyways, for about $700-1000 you can get a good one. Oh, and don't forget the $99 Windows 7 OEM installation disc. And if your kid uses Microsoft Office for school, that is another $100.

 

[theproffessor]

"I noticed on there visuals screen that you need certian things to run the best setting and thats what im shooting for.."

did you mean the Window's Experience score?

I'd also add an SSD... evidently WOW load times a good bit better on one.

 

[TreyC]

If price is an issue, get a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz for around $140. Get a GTX 460 for around $180. Get a $130 motherboard that fits the AMD. Get a corsair tower case, Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower $100. Ram and hard drive for $150 total. If you want, for $15-20 you can get neon lights and put that in your tower. If the corsair doesn't let you see inside, go get another one. Get the corsair H70 water cooler, or equivalent for about $70. Get a corsair PSU $60 or so. That will be more then enough for WOW to be played at max settings.

If you want something even better, get a Intel i7-2600 for $300. Plus get a nice sound card. Motherboard sound cards are okay for WOW but when the battles get heavy, mine has trouble. Hard to describe but I think it has to do with the limited amount of channels.

Anyways, for about $700-1000 you can get a good one. Oh, and don't forget the $99 Windows 7 OEM installation disc. And if your kid uses Microsoft Office for school, that is another $100.
.....

Could you tell me the real difference between AMD and INTEL? It seems pretty debatable.

Also is ssd a hard drive that just loads faster?

 

[g-unit1111]

If price is an issue, get a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz for around $140. Get a GTX 460 for around $180. Get a $130 motherboard that fits the AMD. Get a corsair tower case, Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower $100. Ram and hard drive for $150 total. If you want, for $15-20 you can get neon lights and put that in your tower. If the corsair doesn't let you see inside, go get another one. Get the corsair H70 water cooler, or equivalent for about $70. Get a corsair PSU $60 or so. That will be more then enough for WOW to be played at max settings.

What's your budget? Let's start there. I can probably configure a really good setup if I had that number - then all the parts pretty much fall into place.

If you want something even better, get a Intel i7-2600 for $300. Plus get a nice sound card. Motherboard sound cards are okay for WOW but when the battles get heavy, mine has trouble. Hard to describe but I think it has to do with the limited amount of channels.

Not necessarily. Most motherboards with built in audio will natively support 5.1 and 7.1 audio channels without problems, not sure how old yours is.

Anyways, for about $700-1000 you can get a good one. Oh, and don't forget the $99 Windows 7 OEM installation disc. And if your kid uses Microsoft Office for school, that is another $100.

If you have to have Office that's one thing but you can get away with using Open Office for free and save $100.

Also is ssd a hard drive that just loads faster?

An SSD is an HD without moving parts. It's naturally faster and the load times will improve dramatically over standard mechanical HDs.

 

[TreyC]

If price is an issue, get a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz for around $140. Get a GTX 460 for around $180. Get a $130 motherboard that fits the AMD. Get a corsair tower case, Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower $100. Ram and hard drive for $150 total. If you want, for $15-20 you can get neon lights and put that in your tower. If the corsair doesn't let you see inside, go get another one. Get the corsair H70 water cooler, or equivalent for about $70. Get a corsair PSU $60 or so. That will be more then enough for WOW to be played at max settings.

What's your budget? Let's start there. I can probably configure a really good setup if I had that number - then all the parts pretty much fall into place.

If you want something even better, get a Intel i7-2600 for $300. Plus get a nice sound card. Motherboard sound cards are okay for WOW but when the battles get heavy, mine has trouble. Hard to describe but I think it has to do with the limited amount of channels.

Not necessarily. Most motherboards with built in audio will natively support 5.1 and 7.1 audio channels without problems, not sure how old yours is.

Anyways, for about $700-1000 you can get a good one. Oh, and don't forget the $99 Windows 7 OEM installation disc. And if your kid uses Microsoft Office for school, that is another $100.

If you have to have Office that's one thing but you can get away with using Open Office for free and save $100.

Also is ssd a hard drive that just loads faster?

An SSD is an HD without moving parts. It's naturally faster and the load times will improve dramatically over standard mechanical HDs.

Well after looking around last night, I never computer stuff could get so dang exspensive lol but i could do 5 grand MAYBE six if it has to be.. I Wont be going water cooled either fans are just as good like you said...Also ill be getting windows probably xp unless there is a issue with it gaming wise. One more thing it possible to have a regular hard drive like a 1Tb and have ssd to Load faster or is that what ram would do anyway? or would it be better to just have ssd?

 

[AM2A]

5-6 grand? Is that in Pesos? But seriously, you don't need to spend anywhere near that much. If it's mainly to play games like WOW, $2k us would get you a nice system. Or less, I guess the question should be how much do you want to spend.

 

[AM2A]

I was going to write a little more but had to take off. Yes, you can use a regular hard drive and an SSD, you would put the OS and certain programs on the SSD and everything else on the HDD. You could go SSD only, but you would really want to have some other form of storage for backup purposes, like an external hard drive. The September system builder marathon would probably give you a good starting point for the type of parts you're considering, here is the link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-cpu-sli-ssd,3031.html
There's a few things I would change, but again, it's a good starting point.
As far as the OS, I would recommend Windows 7 for various reasons. As long as you aren't using any expensive software that won't run on Windows 7, I can't think of any reason to go with XP.
Also, what is your monitor situation at present. Are you thinking about getting a new monitor..or 3? Given your budget, a multiple monitor setup is certainly doable.

edited: always catch typos after I post.

 

[TreyC]

I was going to write a little more but had to take off. Yes, you can use a regular hard drive and an SSD, you would put the OS and certain programs on the SSD and everything else on the HDD. You could go SSD only, but you would really want to have some other form of storage for backup purposes, like an external hard drive. The September system builder marathon would probably give you a good starting point for the type of parts you're considering, here is the link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-cpu-sli-ssd,3031.html
There's a few things I would change, but again, it's a good starting point.
As far as the OS, I would recommend Windows 7 for various reasons. As long as you aren't using any expensive software that won't run on Windows 7, I can't think of any reason to go with XP.
Also, what is your monitor situation at present. Are you thinking about getting a new monitor..or 3? Given your budget, a multiple monitor setup is certainly doable.

edited: always catch typos after I post.

Ok thanks for the answer I'll probablr go 1tb hdd and a good couple of gigs for ssd. and what windows 7 wopuld you recommmend i see various ones out there. As of right now he will be playing on a 42 in Samsung LED tv in his room.. Ok so i got the Hard Drives out the way now what about the rest.. motherboard power supply video cards and what not.. (why would you have 3 moniters?)

 

[TreyC]

Also why do people have more than one video card?? do they both run at the same time giving better fps?? And about RAM is it the more you have the faster you will load?

 

[AM2A]

^treyc: you figured it out. You're learning fast . Some people like more than one monitor to increase productivity (mostly work related), or to get a peripheral vision effect in games. As far as RAM goes, it doesn't generally have much of an impact on load times. It's basically a 'get as much as you need to run the apps you want' situation.
I would recommend 8Gb (2x4Gb), 1600Mhz, and as low of a latency as possible (without going up in cost too much as compared to regular CL9 latency).

 

[AM2A]

Here's a comparison of the different Windows 7 versions:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare?T1=tab05
You definitely want a 64 bit version.
Also, OEM versions are only good for one computer while the regular retail version can be transferred to another computer (probably not going to be an issue though, by the time you get a new computer there will be a new versions of windows you'll want).
Professional and Ultimate have Windows XP mode, so they can run a lot of apps written for XP.

edit: Here's the newegg link OS software so you can easily compare prices
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=368&name=Operating-Systems

 

[TreyC]

^treyc: you figured it out. You're learning fast . Some people like more than one monitor to increase productivity (mostly work related), or to get a peripheral vision effect in games. As far as RAM goes, it doesn't generally have much of an impact on load times. It's basically a 'get as much as you need to run the apps you want' situation.
I would recommend 8Gb (2x4Gb), 1600Mhz, and as low of a latency as possible (without going up in cost too much as compared to regular CL9 latency).

Ok you lost me. What is latency?? And doesnt the amount of RAM you get depend on the motherboard you buy? Or could.you just get as much ram as there is slots for it. I was doing some messing around on this build.your own pc site and one pf there choicrs was 64 gb (8x8Gb) im guessing thats a overkill amount.

 

[AM2A]

The motherboard has a limit on the amount of RAM you can install, per slot and in total. You don't have to fill every slot to the max, and yeah, 64Gb would be massive overkill (unless your using the computer for something serious you haven't mentioned).

 

[AM2A]

If you want some technical info about RAM latency the wikipedia articles are decent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDRAM_latency

Basically, the lower the better.
In the product specs for RAM it should list the latency, it might only say something like CL9 or CAS 9, or list it as 9-9-9-24 (numbers will vary).

 

[TreyC]

If you want some technical info about RAM latency the wikipedia articles are decent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDRAM_latency

Basically, the lower the better.
In the product specs for RAM it should list the latency, it might only say something like CL9 or CAS 9, or list it as 9-9-9-24 (numbers will vary).

Ok ill read up on that.. But why have 2 video cards cant you only plug into to one if your using a tv. Sorry about the typing im using my phone..

 

[AM2A]

You'd be plugging into one, but linking the two cards together. This is crossfire (AMD) or SLI (Nvidia).

 

[TreyC]

You'd be plugging into one, but linking the two cards together. This is crossfire (AMD) or SLI (Nvidia).

Ok I gotcha im pretty sure im going intel so SLI would be what id use correct? The problem is alot of people talk bad about Nvidias graphics cards.. Are they good or is it more peoples choice.. Also I think ill be using 2 or 3 8gb ddr3 RAM since its the latest thing, if everything.can go together anyways. Also what are some good name RAM maker

 

[AM2A]

You could do either one (CrossFire or SLI), it just depends on if it is supported by the particular motherboard you choose. For RAM, I usually go with Crucial but alot of people like Corsair and g.skill

Just remembered that Tom's did a write up on video card performance in WoW:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793.html

doesn't seem to be any Crossfire or SLI analysis, maybe someone else knows where find benchmarks for that...

For the Nvidia vs AMD thing, most of it is just people bashing the one they don't use.

 

[TreyC]

You could do either one (CrossFire or SLI), it just depends on if it is supported by the particular motherboard you choose. For RAM, I usually go with Crucial but alot of people like Corsair and g.skill

Just remembered that Tom's did a write up on video card performance in WoW:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793.html

doesn't seem to be any Crossfire or SLI analysis, maybe someone else knows where find benchmarks for that...

This might be a dumb question but do you buy SLI??? dont hate..
Also I thought motherboards can only support amd or intel.. Im leaning strongly on intel anyways just wanna know. Also I found 32gb ddr3 2400MHZ 8GB X 4 I just cNt see the latency is that a good set up though?

 

[AM2A]

No, I'm only using one card at the moment. The AMD or Intel choice is for the CPU, Nvidia isn't owned by Intel last I checked. I guess the confusing part is that AMD makes both CPUs and graphics cards (they bought a graphics card company called ATI not too long ago).