Approximate Purchase Date: 1-4 weeks from now
Budget Range: $4-600
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing the internet, videos
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: Brand new system
Do you need to buy OS: Will be buying OEM Windows 7 Home
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.ca, but just discovered NCIX.com and am now comparison shopping
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
Parts Preferences: None
Overclocking: Probably not
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: dual 1920x1080
Additional Comments: Hi everyone. I'm considering building a new system and I have my components selected. I built my first system back in 2005 but I haven't done anything since then. So I wouldn't mind have my list double-checked for compatibility issues. Also, I like see-through cases with LED lights
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
One of the main things prompting this new purchase is I want a machine that is capable of playing Guild Wars 2 (and possibly Skyrim or similar games). The system reqs for GW2 can be found here: http://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1119/session/L3RpbWUvMTM0NDgxMjA5My9zaWQvKmpqZ1J4M2w%3D
Note that I would prefer to be able to play this game on more than just minimum settings.
Here are the components I have been thinking of buying. I think you will see I'm trying to strike a balance between decent gaming performance and being savvy on the budget:
Case and PSU:
Rosewill TU-155 II 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 500W Power Supply
Motherboard:
MSI H61M-P31 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
CPU:
Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G620
RAM:
Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G
GPU:
HIS H675FS1G Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
HDD:
Seagate Barracuda ST3750525AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Some other thoughts:
I was considering splurging and getting a different CPU as the G620 (according to manufacturer's website) only supports DDR3-1066 RAM. This other one supports DDR3-1333:
Intel Pentium G860 Sandy Bridge 3.0GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G860
Is it worth it?
On the Newegg feedback for my motherboard I read a lot of people talking about the poor placement of the SATA ports. Specifically, SATA 1 and 2 are directly behind the PCI-express port and that a particular long video card could present a problem. However when I look at a picture of the board, all SATA ports are below and behind where I would install the video card. The video card I'm buying is almost as long as the motherboard is front to back (6.69" vs. 6.81", respectively). Further, the card only comes out 4.4" and my case has almost double the width. So shouldn't my SATA cables be able to fit around the video card?
Another commenter suggested going with a B75 chipset to still stay within a budget but get some more expansion room on my board. So I found this one:
MSI B75MA-E33 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
As far as I can tell the SATA ports are still in the same place relative to the PCIe slots. My question is do I really need the extra USB 3.0 ports and the extra PCI slot this board offers compared to the one I have selected above? Like I said most of what I'll be doing is playing Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim on this.
Now for some more "noob" type questions:
I seem to remember that two devices can go on one SATA port, is that correct? So I could hook a DVD Burner and HDD on the same SATA connector, one as master the other as slave, correct?
Also I noticed the rear ports of either motherboard doesn't exactly match up with the rear I/O panel provided with my selected case. Do motherboards usually come with a I/O panel that I can install on the case to match up precisely with its ports?
Thank you all for your time. I know this is rather long but I want to make sure I do this right. For my American readers, in Canada, online ordering isn't as great. Shipping is more. We ALWAYS have to pay taxes. So doing a RMA would be much more costly if I end up buying the wrong part.
Budget Range: $4-600
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing the internet, videos
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: Brand new system
Do you need to buy OS: Will be buying OEM Windows 7 Home
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.ca, but just discovered NCIX.com and am now comparison shopping
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
Parts Preferences: None
Overclocking: Probably not
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: dual 1920x1080
Additional Comments: Hi everyone. I'm considering building a new system and I have my components selected. I built my first system back in 2005 but I haven't done anything since then. So I wouldn't mind have my list double-checked for compatibility issues. Also, I like see-through cases with LED lights
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
One of the main things prompting this new purchase is I want a machine that is capable of playing Guild Wars 2 (and possibly Skyrim or similar games). The system reqs for GW2 can be found here: http://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1119/session/L3RpbWUvMTM0NDgxMjA5My9zaWQvKmpqZ1J4M2w%3D
Note that I would prefer to be able to play this game on more than just minimum settings.
Here are the components I have been thinking of buying. I think you will see I'm trying to strike a balance between decent gaming performance and being savvy on the budget:
Case and PSU:
Rosewill TU-155 II 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 500W Power Supply
Motherboard:
MSI H61M-P31 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
CPU:
Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G620
RAM:
Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G
GPU:
HIS H675FS1G Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
HDD:
Seagate Barracuda ST3750525AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Some other thoughts:
I was considering splurging and getting a different CPU as the G620 (according to manufacturer's website) only supports DDR3-1066 RAM. This other one supports DDR3-1333:
Intel Pentium G860 Sandy Bridge 3.0GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G860
Is it worth it?
On the Newegg feedback for my motherboard I read a lot of people talking about the poor placement of the SATA ports. Specifically, SATA 1 and 2 are directly behind the PCI-express port and that a particular long video card could present a problem. However when I look at a picture of the board, all SATA ports are below and behind where I would install the video card. The video card I'm buying is almost as long as the motherboard is front to back (6.69" vs. 6.81", respectively). Further, the card only comes out 4.4" and my case has almost double the width. So shouldn't my SATA cables be able to fit around the video card?
Another commenter suggested going with a B75 chipset to still stay within a budget but get some more expansion room on my board. So I found this one:
MSI B75MA-E33 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
As far as I can tell the SATA ports are still in the same place relative to the PCIe slots. My question is do I really need the extra USB 3.0 ports and the extra PCI slot this board offers compared to the one I have selected above? Like I said most of what I'll be doing is playing Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim on this.
Now for some more "noob" type questions:
I seem to remember that two devices can go on one SATA port, is that correct? So I could hook a DVD Burner and HDD on the same SATA connector, one as master the other as slave, correct?
Also I noticed the rear ports of either motherboard doesn't exactly match up with the rear I/O panel provided with my selected case. Do motherboards usually come with a I/O panel that I can install on the case to match up precisely with its ports?
Thank you all for your time. I know this is rather long but I want to make sure I do this right. For my American readers, in Canada, online ordering isn't as great. Shipping is more. We ALWAYS have to pay taxes. So doing a RMA would be much more costly if I end up buying the wrong part.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram