Building a computer

So you all know how big of a noob I am at computers, so I thought to myself. Let's get better. I've also had enough of my crappy computer. So I decided to build one.

Uh-oh

So me being the noob that I am used the almighty google, which in turn led me to these video tutorials.



These seem legitimate and the guy seems to know more then me. Unless of course he's just saying a bunch of abbreviations to confuse me.

I then went looking for parts to make my own build. These are what I came up with. I thought Pat and Seren, being Mr. and Mrs. Computer, (you can decide who's who amoungst yourselves) can me with choosing parts, seeing if they're compatible and just helping in general. I'm not going to be using it more overclocking or anything like that, just gaming.

Motherboard:
I'm leaning between the GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP4 TH LGA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128558
or ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

Processor:
Intel Core i5 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146093

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119

Processor Fan:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Optical Drive:
Just a regular $20 CD/DVD drive

Memory:
Not sure about this one any other suggestions? I'm getting the low profile so the fan can fit. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186

Storage:
A 128GB SSD for the OS and programs and a 2TB mechanical drive for actual storage.

Video Card:
Not really sure here, I'm thinking about the Radeon HD 7850 2 GB. I need the most help here, I'm not to sure about what to choose, I don't want to spend more then 200 on this.

Operating System:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

marksoccer wrote:

So me being the noob that I am used the almighty google, which in turn led me to these video tutorials.
These seem legitimate and the guy seems to know more then me. Unless of course he's just saying a bunch of abbreviations to confuse me.

Newegg is the place where i buy all my hardware from, they are great
So yeah those videos are probably fine
I havent watched them but they are from newegg's channel so i doubt they would be wrong, it is from 2011 though so it might be a bit out dated with some of the things he said, but the basic idea of how to put it together will be the same

marksoccer wrote:

Motherboard:
I'm leaning between the GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP4 TH LGA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128558
or ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

Either of those are fine, both have features the other doesnt
Personally i would go with the gigabyte one, mainly for the extra pcie3.0 slot and ive had a gigabyte board in the past that was reliable
Also thunderbolt may be useful in the future

marksoccer wrote:

Processor:
Intel Core i5 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

That is the best choice for that kind of price range
Only thing better would be the i7 which would be an extra $80-$100

marksoccer wrote:

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146093

Most cases of the same size will have the same features, some might have more places for fans, but the only real difference is the aesthetic
So get whatever design looks the best to you
I personally like that case, the design is nice and it has an easy way to open it

marksoccer wrote:

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119

That will run the stuff you are currently putting in it, but if you ever upgrade in the future (and you probably will want to 5 years or so from now) you might need to get a bigger power supply, and the power supply is kindve a pain to upgrade
So i would just get a 700 watt or 800 watt one now
But that one will be fine for everything you need right now

marksoccer wrote:

Processor Fan:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

My current cooling system is made by coolermaster (its liquid cooling, not a fan), its over 5 years old and hasnt had any problems (except when i neglect to refill it which is my own fault), so that fan should last you for a long time
But the cpu should come with a fan so you dont really need to buy one since your not going to be overclocking
Also make sure you use this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007 as your thermal compound

marksoccer wrote:

Optical Drive:
Just a regular $20 CD/DVD drive

Yeah, whatever is fine, optical drives are starting to go the way of the floppy drive now anyway so theres no reason to get a great one

marksoccer wrote:

Memory:
Not sure about this one any other suggestions? I'm getting the low profile so the fan can fit. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186

The difference between low profile and non-low profile is so small that it shouldnt make a difference with fitting the fan, especially since you wont even have to put that ram right up against the fan (there will be 2 empty spaces in the ram slots after you put in your ram)
The only time it would matter is if you were getting bulky ram that has giant heatsyncs which you dont need unless you plan to overclock it

As for the ram itself, the one you linked to is good, ddr3 1600 is what you should be using (and you are so thats fine)
And 8gb is good, i would personally go with 16gb but you can always add more later (remember youll have 2 empty slots that you can add more ram to in the future without having to get rid of the 8gb your getting now, so lets say in 5 years time you can add 2x12gb sticks (24gb of ram) and have 32gb total, which seems like a ton now but in 5 years it will be standard)

Cas latency and the timings arent really important, just know that lower is better and 9 is average/standard for ddr3
Just stick with 9, the additional performance from low latency ram isnt worth the extra money

marksoccer wrote:

Storage:
A 128GB SSD for the OS and programs and a 2TB mechanical drive for actual storage.

You mustve done a bunch of research because you know way more then you did before
But yeah thats a good idea
Any 128gb SSD drive between $100 and $120 should be good
Also you can put games you play the most on the SSD drive for really really really fast loading times

marksoccer wrote:

Video Card:
Not really sure here, I'm thinking about the Radeon HD 7850 2 GB. I need the most help here, I'm not to sure about what to choose, I don't want to spend more then 200 on this.

Here is a simple chart that makes deciding easier: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
The chart is updated every couple of days
The higher up on that list the card is the better the card performs
So the 7850 is 19th, but it is the cheapest 1 in the top 20 so its the best value
Personally i would go with the gtx480 but it was discontinued so you cant get it on newegg

As for ATI or Nvidia
I used ATI for 6 years and ive been using nvidia for 5 years
I think nvidia cards are better, you get better physx support and drivers that have better features
SLI works better in general than crossfire does (though i dont think that matters to you)
And more games work better with nvidia drivers

Since the 480 was discontinued just get the 7850
The extra money for the 570 or the 660Ti is too much unless your willing to spend around $250



Im impressed that you did so much research and seem to know what you are doing
Everything you picked is really good
I guess after using your friends laptop you realized the benefits of having a fast computer lol

Pat1487 wrote:

the power supply is kindve a pain to upgrade

How so, as long as it's modular I wouldn't think so, you just switch out the wiring, but then again I haven't even tried yet.

Pat1487 wrote:

Only thing better would be the i7 which would be an extra $80-$100

From what I read the main difference is the i7 has hypertheading, not really sure what that is, and that gaming doesn't really use it so i5 is the better choice if your on a budget.

Pat1487 wrote:

My current cooling system is made by coolermaster (its liquid cooling, not a fan), its over 5 years old and hasnt had any problems (except when i neglect to refill it which is my own fault), so that fan should last you for a long time
But the cpu should come with a fan so you dont really need to buy one since your not going to be overclocking

Yea I'm not going to use liquid cooling or heatsinks, at least not yet. I also didn't really want to use the stock fan. The fan I'm going to get comes with the thermal paste, is the one you linked like a special one or will the other one work. Now the real question, do you spread or do you put a ball and let the fan spread it? In the video he spread it and made sure there were so air bubbles but he said each person swears by a different method.

Pat1487 wrote:

As for ATI or Nvidia
I used ATI for 6 years and ive been using nvidia for 5 years
I think nvidia cards are better, you get better physx support and drivers that have better features
SLI works better in general than crossfire does (though i dont think that matters to you)
And more games work better with nvidia drivers

Yea I wanted a Nvidia for that reason, while I'm not going to do SLI now, I might want to later. Would I be able to use the same video card or would I need to get 2 new ones?

Yea I'm probably going to look for the GeForce GTX 480

Now for the random questions, will I need to buy any wires or will everything I get come with the wires I need?

use pcpartpicker.com
compares prices from various websites
i'd get the 3570k for a cpu also bit better than the 2500k and it's the same price on newegg
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/CrhP

Yea i might not buy it from newegg I was just looking at parts

marksoccer wrote:

How so, as long as it's modular I wouldn't think so, you just switch out the wiring, but then again I haven't even tried yet.

I guess if you buy another modular power supply to upgrade it with it wouldnt be a problem
I actually havent used a modular power supply so i didnt think of that

marksoccer wrote:

From what I read the main difference is the i7 has hypertheading, not really sure what that is, and that gaming doesn't really use it so i5 is the better choice if your on a budget.

The main difference is L3 cache, the i5 has 6mb and the i7 has 8mb
Now i know that seems like a tiny insignificant difference but it results in about a 33% speed increase
Compare the cpu you linked to to the i7 3770K: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
The i5 is at 7139 with the i7 at 9609

Also hyperthreading is more or less useless
It halves the processors speed to create double the number of cores
So a 3ghz quad core would become a 1.5ghz octa core
Unless the program uses all 8 cores at the same time it will be slower then the 3ghz quad core

marksoccer wrote:

Yea I'm not going to use liquid cooling or heatsinks, at least not yet. I also didn't really want to use the stock fan.

The fan your getting has a heatsync, they all do, fans need it
And you dont really need liquid cooling unless you intend to overclock, since you said your not overclocking the stock fan would work fine
The coolermaster one probably will last longer though

marksoccer wrote:

The fan I'm going to get comes with the thermal paste, is the one you linked like a special one or will the other one work.

The 1 i linked to is the best, it is ridiculous the difference it makes from just using that thermal paste
If your not overclocking then any thermal paste will do, i didnt know the fan came with it

marksoccer wrote:

Now the real question, do you spread or do you put a ball and let the fan spread it? In the video he spread it and made sure there were so air bubbles but he said each person swears by a different method.

Yeah you can get into arguments with people over how to apply thermal paste
I dont spread it, i let it spread when i connect the fan/pump
If i spread it i might think its too thin or too thick where as if it spreads on its own i know it will be nice and even exactly where it needs to be, air bubbles in it have never been a problem

marksoccer wrote:

Yea I wanted a Nvidia for that reason, while I'm not going to do SLI now, I might want to later. Would I be able to use the same video card or would I need to get 2 new ones?

SLI needs 2 of the same card to work, so if you want to use the old one you need to buy the same one
I also forgot to mention that you can use old cards as dedicated physx processors
So if you upgrade to a new card in 5 years or so you can still use the old one which will take load of the main cpu and will improve performance by a lot in games that use physx

I also dont recommend SLI i used to use it and it wasnt that great, you would think that you would get double the performance but you dont, not really worth the money

marksoccer wrote:

Now for the random questions, will I need to buy any wires or will everything I get come with the wires I need?

You shouldnt need to buy wires

hlw_rocer wrote:

I'd get the 3570k for a cpu also bit better than the 2500k and it's the same price on newegg

Lol i was not paying attention, i thought he did link to the 3570k, the stats are almost identical
But yeah the 3570k is better than the 2500k
You can get it here to for the same price as the 2500k: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
With free shipping

hlw_rocer wrote:

use pcpartpicker.com
compares prices from various websites

I use newegg because they are really fair with the shipping costs
And even without rush ordering/shipping it usually only takes 3-5 days for the stuff to come
That's probably because i live pretty close to them though
Usually they do have the lowest price, in fact they do with the i5 3570k, its tied with amazon but amazon is the one that gets listed on that site for some reason

Woops yea I linked the wrong one

Funny that you make post like this TODAY, coz i just went to see my tech guy to ask how much would it cost to build a comp with the latest i7 and the latest graphic card from this month, but he said it would cost around 1800, so i said fuck dat.

It would be more then that, you don't need the latest, and if your good at shopping around for deals, which is what I'm doing now, it shouldn't cost more then a grand

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

Funny that you make post like this TODAY, coz i just went to see my tech guy to ask how much would it cost to build a comp with the latest i7 and the latest graphic card from this month, but he said it would cost around 1800, so i said fuck dat.

bacon i heard about your PURPLE screen
LOL!

??

marksoccer wrote:

It would be more then that, you don't need the latest, and if your good at shopping around for deals, which is what I'm doing now, it shouldn't cost more then a grand

If you are as conservative as possible you can get an i7, 680, 16gb drr3 1600, 2tb hdd, 128gb sdd, power supply, mobo and case for around $1800 which isnt the best you can get but it is pretty much top of the line for a home personal computer

You could get a Xeon cpu and pay $1000-$4000 for just the cpu alone and like 4 680's running in quad SLI for $2000 on video cards and super crazy 64gb ddr3 2666 for another $2000 and 3 1tb SDD drives for $4500
The total would end up around $15000 with the cost of the mobo, power supply, cooling, sound card and case
But no one would spend that much on a computer unless they were ridiculously rich or if it was for a big business

hlw_rocer wrote:

bacon i heard about your PURPLE screen
LOL!

marksoccer wrote:

??

The only purple screen i know of is when your graphics card is so badly broken that blue appears purple so that when you get a bsod it appears as a psod

K so I got everything, including a new monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers. I was going to post a link for everything but I though a picture would be better.

At the end everything cost me 1600.

Ya, my graphics card got fried, so my screen had purple dots everywhere and all the colors were distorted and pale. I guess it's expected though, ive had the same comp for around 7-8 years. I didnt even buy a new comp after that, i just bought a crappy second hand graphics card. IM GOING FOR 10 YEAR OLD COMP!!!!
My comp guy told me my hard drive could crash any day now. Let's see how long i can last!

marksoccer wrote:

K so I got everything, including a new monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers.

Wow that was quick, when did you order everything

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

Ya, my graphics card got fried, so my screen had purple dots everywhere and all the colors were distorted and pale. I guess it's expected though, ive had the same comp for around 7-8 years. I didnt even buy a new comp after that, i just bought a crappy second hand graphics card. IM GOING FOR 10 YEAR OLD COMP!!!!
My comp guy told me my hard drive could crash any day now. Let's see how long i can last!

Most harddrives fail at 6 years, 8 years is pretty much the limit (unless they are set up in certain RAID configurations, which i doubt you have)
You should backup important files somewhere because it really could fail at any moment
They are relatively cheap to replace though, you can get a 1tb hdd for $70: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152379
Although thats a pretty slow hdd by todays standards its probably the same speed as the one you have now though (5200 rpm), you could spend a little more for a 7200 rpm one
And even though that one has a faster transfer speed (SATA 3 6gbit/s) since you will connect it to your older motherboard it will run at SATA 2 or SATA speeds, whichever your mobo supports (i cant remember if we had SATA2 7 years ago, im pretty sure we didnt)

I didn't order them online, I got them in store from a place called Canada Computers. It wa pretty cheap. Bacon, I got a 2TB mechanical drive for 100, it was WD green, not blue or black. Do you need it for speed or does that not matter?

Oh, i was going to say
You would have had to order them before making this thread since it came so fast


And hows the new computer
We should play path of exile

nice! thats almost the exact same computer as i have haha

You guys are talking to me as if i have any knowledge of computers. That's one of the reasons i havent bought a new computer in all these years.

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

You guys are talking to me as if i have any knowledge of computers. That's one of the reasons i havent bought a new computer in all these years.

Use old computer to research new computer cave man

Haven't had time to build it yet, and I need a new desk cause mine is way to small. I'm probably going to build it sometime between Thursday - Saturday. All of next week I have reading week, so I'm good to play anything, how does Sunday night WC or SC now?

You should play path of exile or tribes ascend
Theres a patch for tribes ascend coming out on friday so im probably going to start playing it again (everyone can expect a long and rambling post on the changes in the tribes ascend thread and im sure you are all looking forward to another 1 of those)
Now that you have a computer that can actually run modern games you should play them
Theres nothing holding you back from playing anything you want anymore

But i can play wc3/sc2 on sunday if you really want to

Sure I'll try them both out.

K so I'm in love, I'm doing all the updates now

marksoccer wrote:

K so I'm in love, I'm doing all the updates now

Stahp your valentines is not a computer. This isn't sad at all.