Building a DIY Computer

Hey guys i know this might not be the most accurate place to ask this question (what with hardwarezone and sgforums blah blah) but this forum is actually the one i like the most! (awwww)

anyway i'm going to get myself a new computer this holiday season as a treat after my exams and i'm pretty darn excited. hopefully anyone with experience doing this could help me out as this is my first ever DIY PC.

alright so my budget first of all is under $2000. main use for this computer is to play games at relatively high resolutions (tired of playing with every setting at low) and watching HD movies. games i'm thinking of is Crysis, Modern Warfare 2, GTA IV, Mass Effect 2, etc. i'm planning to run XP on it as i've heard vista and 7 is a memory hogger.

well here's my options so far;

AMD Athlon Phenom X4 955 + GA M790FXTA-UD5 $541
or
Core i5 750 + MSI P55 GD65 $546
(not sure abt intel vs. amd)


Team Elite DDR3-1333 2x2gb $172
or
Team Xtreem Dark 3x2GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz CL8 $255
(do i need 6GB of RAM?)

Western Digital Carvier Black 1TB $149
LG DVD Writer $35
Seasonic M12ii 620w $135
(extra power supply required?)
Sapphire Radeon 5850 $419
CoolerMaster V8 $85
CoolerMaster HAF 932 $239
Samsung P2350 23" Wide $308
Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard $79

I got these prices from some of the sim lim square stock lists and it comes up to a grand total of about $2010 which is a little over budget. any ways to save? or is it money well spent?

thanks guys any opinions would be much appreciated.

hi,
if you are going to use XP, just get the 4gig ram. in fact in XP, maximum is only 3 gig of ram. dun waste your money on 6 gig. hope this can help you. I have totally stop using Windows for quite a while, but i dun play games anymore so it doesnt matter anymore.
The additional power supply is only required if you want to put a few hard disk inside. Else one hard disk is generally okay for a normal power supply. Buy what you need, dun be fooled into getting all the latest technology. with your budget, you should be able to get a very decent gaming rig. the coolermaster casing looks good, but do you really need that? i highly doubt so. just remember to get hdmi cable to ur monitor as well. will look better for the games.

Anyway this is just my point of view.
terence

get windows 7 if you wanna play games, for RAM, just get triple channel of 2gb to get 6gb. setup wise go to hardwarezone forums and follow the stickied post, you cant go wrong with adrian's recommendations.

Casing don't splurge unless you are an overclocker, the Coolermaster ones can be get from 60-120 price range, those are already very decent. for LCD, i recommend Dell's 24" model, i think it goes for 309 thereabouts, has hdmi, dvi and d-sub inputs. mobo, go with asus...nice and stable and reliable, go for the most basic that supports your needs.

You can probably run everything (except crysis) on a Radeon 5770. Perhaps you can consider that if you want to shave a few bucks off your budget.

And HAF 932 is a full tower (and its huge). thats too much case for your parts, imho. Take a look at the CM690 from Cooler Master. Lots of additional fan mounting spots.

Brand name memory is good for overclocking, but non-overclockers will not benefit from any additional stability.

hey guys thanks so much for your feedback. everything has been duly noted! i'm starting to get a better picture on what my rig's gonna be like.

firstly, i checked out on the chassis and whipped out the measuring tape to get an idea of the size and it's gigantic! i'll probably have to climb over it to get to my bed from where i'm putting it. haha so yeah that will be downsized to the CM690 (thanks elysium).

i think i'll run windows 7 on it. didn't realise about the cap on the RAM (thanks vcrpex). so this means i'd stick with getting 6GB of RAM. the only thing i'm not sure about;

• would it be better getting 4GB of RAM at a higher RAM speed (say 1600mHz) compared to 6GB at lower speed (1333mHz)?

• does higher RAM speed have a marked improvement on performance?

• also, should i really drop the extra power supply? the configs i've seen have included it.

and i found adrian's stickied post and it's so updated it's amazing. lol (thanks eiji) and i'll stick with samsung for the monitor lah. i'm using a dell now and it's so problematic i've lost my faith in the brand.

and i kinda want a badass gfx card in my rig so the 5850 is def a keeper.

so here's what i've got so far;

AMD Athlon Phenom X4 955 + GA M790FXTA-UD5......$541

Team Xtreem DDR3-1600MHz LV GB (2X2GB)............$179
or
Team Xtreem Dark 3x2GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz CL8.......$255

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 32MB.....................$152
LG DVD Writer..........................................................$35
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850.........................................$419
CoolerMaster V8.......................................................$85
CM CM690 RC-690K Pure (Black Edition).....................$129
Samsung P2350 23" Wide..........................................$308
Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard..............................$79

Grand Total: $1927

not bad, right on budget! any other changes? what about issues on compatibility and stability? i've heard of many of my friend's rigs being super glitchy.

and once again thanks so much for answering my endless questions! i really really appreciate all the help and patience!

I've been a strong supporter of AMD for some time but I'm really quite impressed with Intel's Core i5 and i7 chips.

As for the gfx, I think the 5850 is a good buy. I assume you'll be playing FPS games where a good gfx is required

If your target is stability, I will recommend the intel chips as well and if not into overclocking, the slower rams will be fine.

mika wrote:

If your target is stability, I will recommend the intel chips as well and if not into overclocking, the slower rams will be fine.

I agree. If you're going for stability, go for the Intel chips. I think AMD chips are more for overclocking which you can couple with faster RAM.

Then again... it's been a while since I've been a PC user so my opinions are from a years back.

$2k budget ???? MMmmmm........can get a Miura irons set leh...mmmmmm... if play computer games, then golf time will be 'potong'... mmmmmm......... golf open air activity, healthy......pc games indoor...mmm not too healthy.....mmmmm....

F O R E............

titu

1. would it be better getting 4GB of RAM at a higher RAM speed (say 1600mHz) compared to 6GB at lower speed (1333mHz)?

2. does higher RAM speed have a marked improvement on performance?

3. also, should i really drop the extra power supply? the configs i've seen have included it.

been a while since i play with DIY.
q1: not sure if the raster speed thing is still looked at, check that. e.g. 2-2-2 is much faster than 2-3-3 for example, by 2 clock speeds. that means the 2-3-3 is 33% slower.
use more ram for apps that require more head room, like autocad.. games i'm not sure.

q2: see q1.

q3: not versed in this area.
good luck

haha there has to be balance. play too much golf kena from sun and wife/gf, play too much computer games no social life. so day play golf, night play games! hahaha

and regarding the intel vs amd stability thing, my friend also has told me that the amd chips do tend to run a little hotter than the intel ones. so that could prove to be a stability problem later on, but that's only if proper cooling and power supply is not provided. so if i get the PSU and the HSF, the amd should be able to perform nicely. that and at the same price range i'd have to downgrade to an intel i5 750 if i do go the intel route.

and i checked out the amd website and it says the phenom x4 955 processor supports 1333mhz RAM. so i guess i'll just stick with 6GB of 1333mhz RAM. alright the picture's getting a little clearer now! haha

AMD Athlon Phenom X4 955 + GA M790FXTA-UD5.......$541
Team Elite DDR3-1333MHz 6GB Kit (3X2GB)...............$282
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 32MB......................$252
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850.........................................$419
Seasonic M12ii 620w.................................................$235
CoolerMaster V8.......................................................$85
CM CM690 RC-690K Pure (Black Edition).....................$229
Samsung P2350 23" Wide..........................................$308
Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard..............................$79

Total: $2030

urgg. hahaha hmm i have an it solutions guy, maybe he can get me a discount.. thanks for all the help guys i really really appreciate it! if anyone has any opinions about the config above please let me know! i am quite noob so my opinions do not have much knowlege backing it. hahaha

No need overclock anymore, lah!

Get a hi-end graphics card and all the processing will be off-loaded to it rather than the CPU.

Get at least 3MB of memory and a serial hard disk drive.

I used to build PCs and sell them as a hobby (CompTIA A+ and Networking+ certified).

I argued one time with the President of Intel at a conference in San Jose, USA about the flexibility of the Pentium CPU socket pins.

Now I just buy anything cheap.

Remember when 512MB of RAM or a 1GB hard disk drive was considered fast?

Always update drivers from the original CD/DVD versions, as they are old and some are even beta versions shipped with the components.

CK

lol i thought my pentium 4 3ghz computer (current one) was fast when i got it! i could play so many games like starcraft, c&c, CS 1.6 all no problem. it's just recently my gfx card fried and anyway i was playing games at their lowest settings i decided to up the ante and get a decent gaming rig.

and no overclocking for me! i don't know how and i can't handle the adverse consequences! hahaha and do you mean always update drivers from the CD/DVD that they are sold in? from online can?

i only remember buy 1mb of ram for 184, and i had to buy 4 sticks of 1mb ram.


good ole days......

haha the 486 and pentium days. a lot of us from that era? i used to build PCs and sell them as a hobby as well during my army and uni days when i see this topic, a little nostalgic.

Iron fist. Yes go online and download the most recent stable versions.

Mika: I spent much time and $$ playing with computers until I switched to golf.

Might switch to postage stamp collecting or playing amateur chess unless my golf scores start getting better.

dunno if anyone wants to know but after conducting an inordinate amount of research (when i should've been studying for exams), i've decided on this config for my gaming rig.

PhenomII X4 925 +Gigabyte 890GX..............$407
Kingston KVR DDR3 1333mHz (2x2GB)..........$250
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 32MB.........$252
Seasonic S12 620W......................................$215
PowerColor HD 5870....................................$519
NZXT M59-001 Steel MID-Tower...................$209
Samsung P2350 23" Wide............................$308

Total: $1760

wooooo can't waitttt!

Good deal! Haha.. Pls study for ur exams...

lol thanks bro! damn computer.. everything poisoning me! it's so much like golf! haha

Girll, KTV and beer can be other expensive habits!

I'm using intel core i7 processor, its really fast but its comes with a price . i bought all my parts from sim lim. As i really like gaming so my pc specs is mostly towards graphics and fast processor. what type of pc are you building towards?

wow..i would say, for a lady to know so much about computer and able to DIY a computer, that is really something rare...

golf_snowman wrote:

wow..i would say, for a lady to know so much about computer and able to DIY a computer, that is really something rare...

Haha, Well i had some help from friends with information on parts and stuff. but i didn't self- assemble the PC, staff from sim lim help me... Building a PC is really tedious.

birthstone wrote:

I'm using intel core i7 processor, its really fast but its comes with a price . i bought all my parts from sim lim. As i really like gaming so my pc specs is mostly towards graphics and fast processor. what type of pc are you building towards?

haha hello! well my pc is gonna be used mainly for gaming. got tired of playing games where my settings were the lowest.

made more changes to my config though. any comments?

PhenomII X4 925 + Gigabyte 890GX
(MOBO: GA-890GPA-UD3H)
Team Elite 1333 C9 DDR3 (2x2GB)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 32MB
Seasonic M12 620W
PowerColor HD 5870
CoolerMaster V8
CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced RC692K
(install 1x120mm fan on lower right side)
Samsung P2350 23" Wide
Logitech MX518 Mouse
Microsoft Keyborad 600

not sure whether getting the v8 would be necessary though. stock HSFs should be fine but i'm feeling kinda kiasu. dunno whether i should just hoot and get the v8. haha damn excited!! but gotta wait for my exams to finish before i get this. otherwise sure distracted!

just thinking of the games i can play! just cause 2, mw2, arkham asylum, gta4, assasins creed 2, battlefied bad company 2, mass effect 2, borderlands, call of juarez, far cry 2.. DROOOLLLL