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new comp build thoughts /advise needed
Building a new pc was meant to end of last year and made a post but blew a turbo up and it took all my money, anyway i have the funds again and this is where I am at.
MB: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19867
Cpu: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_1184&products_id=20138
ram: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=20970
Case: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_31&products_id=21228
Gcard: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=23198
or http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=21322
unsure if the vapor x warrents the extra $
cooler: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_23_845&products_id=18376
Psu: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_972&products_id=21503
os: Win7 or 8? same price unsure if win 8 is just as good/ better
was going to recycle my optical drive and ssd (ocz vertex 2).
edited with new mb and psu, brings my total to around $1330 inc post without cooler leaves about $70 for cooler dont really want to go over $1400 if i can help it, any ideas on which cooler i should go for?
Comments
AMD Ghz Edition is best fastest single gpu version notible difference in games not realy, dunno if for same price.
Im also fan AMD so those cards are good anyway:)
Don't forget a good PSU very importend have reliable one with enough juice for your rig.
This PSU is suggestion and on safe side 650 also posible.
All depends on 2 GPU-OC and how many harddisks(SSD(recconment vertex4 good firmware update there solid now or vector series) only way to go these days:))
http://www.corsair.com/us/power-supply-units/tx-series-power-supply-units/tx-series-tx750-80-plus-bronze-certified-750-watt-high-performance-power-supply.html
Win8 vs Win7 im all for Win7 others prolly advice win8 its what you prefer Win8 more for future and different in many ways alot programs seems not working in win8 also you always have to go back to metro for getting apps, not so desktop friendly.
Im also still not sure what they gonne do with DX12 if its also for Win7 as with DX 11 for Vista?
Advice also read some benchmark reviews for MB and cooler sites like anandtech and guru3d for good reviews.
I would get a better PSU for sure. If your dropping that kind of money on a PC then dont use a cheap power supply. Especially a cheap power supply that you are reusing.
Look at something like this
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_972&products_id=21503
Dont make the mistake of building a top end PC and putting a halfassed PSU in there all in the name of saving a little money. If you need then cut down on a few other parts. Like 8gb RAM instead of 16, a 7870 / 7950 instead of a 7970 ghz edition. Much easier to slap in another 8gb RAM later or upgrade the GPU than risk the damage of a used low end power supply.
I would personally skip the Vapor X. They are good cards but not worth the extra money. IMO
thanks for the input guys,
after reading a few reviews I am now looking at the extreme 6 Mb over the extreme 4 as i read the extreme 4 has a prob with its onboard chip cooling, unless u guys think i would be better off with an asus one or something that is around the same price. For psu prob the corsair tx 750m bronze. Budget isnt a huge issue just dont like to spend more then I need to i just dont want to need an upgrade for around 2 - 3 years, my last pc build i kept budget in mind got some cheaper parts to save money (gpu, amd over intel and a mid range mb) I was never completely happy with it.
You can get the Gold rated seasonic 650w for $10 more than a bronze rated corsair 750w. I would personally go with the Gold rated seasonic.
AsRock motherboards tend to be cheaper than competitors for a given feature set for a reason. It will probably work fine, as AsRock doesn't tend to suffer from the flaky BIOS issues of the cheap junk brands, but they do tend to offer lower build quality (e.g., the motherboard will be thinner and feel flimsier, and likely won't let the CPU overclock quite as far) than Gigabyte, Asus, or MSI. You can get it if you want, and again, it will probably work fine, but just realize what you're in for.
You really don't need 16 GB of system memory, nor do you need 1866 MHz memory. The only real reasons to get memory clocked higher than 1600 MHz is if the higher clock speed isn't any more expensive that day, if you're getting an FX-8*** and routinely going to push all eight cores hard (games won't do this), or if you need to feed integrated graphics from system memory. None of those apply to you.
The case is nice, but you could get a much cheaper case that is also nice. A lot depends on what you're willing to spend, and if you love the looks of that particular case, then have at it.
The difference between the two video cards is 50 MHz, a nicer cooler, and $60. Is it worth the price premium? I'd say no, as the cheaper one is hardly junk.
The power supply is nice, but that's an awful lot to pay for it. This is about as good, and cheaper:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_354&products_id=21240
Thanks for the input
i will swap my ram to http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=19632 and will get the corsair psu
As for the case i do like the looks of it deciding between 2 cases (based on looks) atm.
as for motherboard is this a better one http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1183&products_id=19888 ? does getting the pro vrsion warrant the extra $, I may overclock my cpu to around 4.2 ghz if it is limiting my performance on any games at stock speeds, would like the option to overclock it without risking any hardware. for the sake of saving $50 I dont want to buy a flimsy not up to par MB.
which cpu cooler would u recommend I am really lost with deciding on that.
The AsRock motherboard that you linked above is hardly bad. AsRock's "Pro" line is the ones where overclocking is dicey; their "Extreme" line can handle a decent overclock. But they seem to use lower quality power circuitry or some such, so you might get 100 MHz less on the overclock than from some other brands.
If you want to get a decent motherboard without spending a fortune, you could try this:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1183&products_id=20317
Asus makes some nice motherboards, but they seem unduly expensive this generation compared to what Gigabyte and MSI offer, and I'm not sure why.
If you're going to overclock the processor, there's a big difference between "I want to clock it at 4.2 GHz and stop" versus "I want to get every last MHz out of it". A lot of motherboards can do the former just fine. The latter will risk frying things no matter what motherboard you use.
Just to link the motherboard you're talking about for easy reference:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1183&products_id=23242
MSI's motherboard naming scheme for most of their montherboards is (chipset)(some letters)(number). The Z77 part means that it's using a Z77 chipset, just like any other motherboard that you might reasonably look at. I won't try to decipher the letters in the middle for you. The number at the end is a relative number of how high or low end the motherboard is, and a cursory check found that MSI uses 23, 33, 41, 43, 45, 53, 55, 65, and 80 on some current motherboards. A 45 on the end of the "gaming" board means that, apart from special features not normally part of their line, it's actually lower end than the -GD55 motherboard that I linked.
But the real question is what special features it offers for the "gaming" designation. For that, there are two. First, it has a better ethernet network chip that can offload work from the CPU. That won't matter to you if you're not using ethernet at all. Second, it has a USB port that is built to handle a higher polling rate, so that it's guaranteed to work with a fancy mouse or keyboard that can poll at 1 ms intervals, rather than the Windows default standard of 8 ms. That only matters to you if you have such a fancy mouse and/or keyboard, but if you do, it can take 3-4 ms off of your input latency.
Meanwhile, the -GD55 certainly has better power delivery to the CPU, which will matter if you're looking to give the CPU a large overclock (as opposed to a modest overclock). The -GD55 might have other advantages, but I didn't see them in a cursory look.
In my general experience:
All other things equal - External WiFi tends to beat Internal/Built-In WiFi.
With a USB WiFi card/dongle/whatever, you can plug it into a USB extension cord, and can physically move the device around to get the antenna to the best spot for the best signal.
Internal cards - yeah, they have an antenna that usually sticks out the back of the case, but you have to move the entire computer to really move the antenna around. That, and the card itself is stuck inside the computer case, where it's subject to all sorts of electrical interference that can degrade the signal.
That being said, my personal preference is for a WiFi bridge: an external device that connects to a WiFi network, and then repeats it over a wired ethernet port. You can connect multiple devices up to a WiFi network with a single bridge (by using a hub/switch), and none of the devices require any drivers at all or even know they are connected to a WiFi network - it's all handled by the bridge.
Bridges are a bit more expensive than a typical WiFi adapter (starting around $30 these days), but given that they are very reusable, and can be used for more than one device simultaneously, and don't require any drivers at all, I find they are well worth the added expense.
my parts arrived today all running, really appreciate all the advice made my build stronger then it would have been otherwise.
been a while since I have been able to play games on ultra and force higher aa etc, do i need to let parts run for a bit before overclocking cpu or anything? and if i just use the onboard oc switch is that fine to just use without tweaking further?
Not to push you to another site but I'd personally ask that question on the forums here
http://www.overclock.net/
I'm sure some of our regulars here will chime in with their own advice but the above site is dedicated specifically to overclocking and thus is a very good source for experts on the subject.
My advice would be, don't overclock stuff until it matters. If it runs great at stock settings, then leave it at stock settings. Only if you run into a program where you need more performance does it make sense to overclock.
If you do decide to overclock the processor, then don't just use the auto-overclock button, as that will give you a rather clumsy overclock. Rather, turn off turbo boost and increase the CPU multiplier in the BIOS yourself. You may have to also increase the CPU voltage, but try to find the minimum voltage at which a given clock speed is stable.
My advice on OC is do not do it unless you are willing to buy / replace components if you damage them. Especially if you are an overclocking noob and dont know about voltage.
I personally OC both CPU and GPU. And I am willing to replace anything that may be damaged due to me OCing.
If you want to learn about OCing then do lots of research ( OC.net is a good site) before you even try. And even then be prepared to troubleshoot problems and possibly have to replace parts. Not likely granted, but if you are not prepared to drop more cash if things get jacked up then just dont do it.
My 2cp
If you've OCed and GPU, it's remarkably similar with a CPU - it's just a matter of finding the right value to tweak in the sea of BIOS options. Pretty much, there's just one or two values you really need to adjust.
and I would leave voltage well the hell alone until you've seen what it can do without any voltage tweaks: OCing with stock voltage and you do something wrong - whoopse, reset the BIOS to default and try again - it's pretty safe and worst case is your machine just crashes. OC with a voltage tweak and do something wrong - whoops, the magic smoke all came out and everything's fried - it won't happen every time, or with slight voltage tweaks, but do not dive right in and start out playing with voltage until you get a feel for what it's going to do first.