Buying a custom built PC

[ffooby]

Hi, I'm buying a custom built pc from cyberpower, I guess, unless anyone else has a better site to suggest where you can mix and match components. The only other site I have found that I like as much as this one is cpusolutions.com, so I'm open to any suggestions.

Here is the build I came up with so far, with my budget being around $700-$800, but if was absolutely necessary or efficient to go up to $900, I would consider it. I'm trying to buy a computer that will last me 2-3 years. The total right now is $770, which will be around $830 once I buy windows 7 with a student discount. Does this seem worth $700? Is there anywhere that I can spend a little more if it will make it last noticeably longer? Should I switch the graphics card to a 550ti or any other one that won't bump the price up too much higher? Thanks for any answers.

Case: NZXT Tempest 210 Mid-Tower Gaming Case [-12] (Black Color)

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)

Motherboard: [CrossFireX] ASUS P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Lucid Virtu MVP, 7.1 HD Audio,
GbLAN, 2x PCIe x16 (1 Gen3, 1 Gen2), 2x PCIe x1 & 3 PCI (Extreme OC Certified)

Memory: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)

Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 7750 1GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+60] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)

Power Supply Upgrade: 500 Watts - Corsair CX500 V2 80 Plus Certified Power Supply [+24]

Hard Drive: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200 RPM HDD [-15] (Single Drive)

Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)

Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)

Internal USB Port: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

Operating System: None - FORMAT HARD DRIVE ONLY

 

[jojobonzi]

are you buying the components then installing everything yourself or looking to have someone else put it together for you? if youre a do-it-yourselfer, i would look to newegg.com.

If youre familiar with moore's law, then you know that the latest and greatest components soldnow will be replaced in 18 months with the next best thing. So in that way it's mostly dependent upon what you want the computer to accomplish and whether or not youd like to keep up with the Jonses'. With a 900.00 budget you can accomplish a lot, especially if you already have a computer that you can pull pieces from. a dvd writer, hard drive, memory, video card, wireless pci card, and maybe (and this is a big maybe) the power supply. Heck, if you have an aftermarket case and you like it, why not keep it? you just have to make sure the case power/reset connections are compatible with your mobo, or wire them yourself.

Okay, so i bought a case (antec 900), which is a really nice case, but when it came time to upgrade to bigger and better, the motherboard that i wanted to get was too big, so i had to get another case. basically, if youre looking at futureproofing at least somewhat, the single most important thing you can do is plan for expansion.

now, for the motherboard and cpu...next year im almost positive you'll be extremely upset with the i5...i had a higher end socket 775 cpu that performed better. but if you want to upgrade in 2-3 years, you migt just consider it. at this point im not going to tell you specific items you should buy, just give you some things to think about. when it comes to choosing a mobo or cpu, the first thing i try to do is write down the things i first and foremost NEED to have done, then the things id like the computer to do. after that i think of what i could possibly see myself doing with it in a few years down the line. the board you chose is more mainstream now, which is okay. It's an ivy bridge, so aside from an i7, i dont really know how much farther you could go with it... the cpu you chose is like a souped up honda...yeah it has a turbo and blah blah blah, but take that away and you still have a little 4 cylinder. like you said if youre looking at a few years or so ugrading then go for it. for futureproofing i would look to the 2011 sockets. the lowest end model at this point is slightly more expensive, but its an i7, supports quad channel memory, etc... you would have to buy an aftermarket cooling but the tradeoff is worth it in my opinion. the board you chose looks decent. It allows for upgrading to an i7 if you feel so inclined. Personally, i dont go for boards that have onboard video, because i think its a waste, especially if you are going to buy an aftermarket video card anyways.newegg.com has the 2011 boards starting at 200 on up.

Memory is more preference than anything, although i would suggest staying with 1600MHz or above. and seeing how the board can hold up to 32GB of RAM, I would suggest you look at the mobo manual to ensure you are putting the 2 sticks you chose into the correct slots. also, when you decide to gt more mem, make sure to get mem identical to what you already have. If you are curious as to why someone would even think of putting 32GB of ram in their computer, reference ram caching and ram disk. the bad thing abou memory is that it falls under moores' law as well, and the ddr4 is scheduled to come out in 2014, which means the new stuff wont work with the old, and the other way around.

Video cards are a dime a dozen...once again it depends on what you want it to do.

be careful with the power supply. for example, video cards usually require additional juice to run. make sure the power supply has the correct wiring for it. and who knows, maybe someday soon youd want to add a second card...future proofing will save you money in the long run

hard drives are a matter of preference as well. for hdds i wouldnt go under 7200 rpm's, and id stick with sata 3 for the ssd's as well. if you have some extra ram on your computer and want to see a hard drive fly, look into the ram caching that i mentioned above. especially with a quad channel 2011 setup.

your dvd drive is fine, and like i said, if you can pull a working one out of an old computer more power to you.

i honestly think you could do away with the flash reader and here's why. just about every electronic piece of eqwuipment you can buy now adays comes with a usb cord, from cell phones to ipods, to cameras. and if it has a usb you can hook it up to your computer...also printers usually come equiped with card readers.

whatever os you choose is your choice, just make sure you ALWAYS get the 64 bit versions. you can have all the ram in the world, but if you have a 32 bit windows os, all youll ever see is 3GB.

sorry about the length of this post, just wanting to pass on some kowledge. peace