Building a PC.

Direwolf

Have seen a few of you guys taking about building your own system. Can you point me towards some good resources on starting your first build? Best sites for what to do and sites for best pricing on the components would be really appreciated.

phobicsquirrel

What do you want it for?

phobicsquirrel

Oh and the price range you want? Also do you have a monitor already?

Direwolf

mostly media server, but want to be decently gameable.

phobicsquirrel

Price range?

Well for me I use a 2 tb hard drive for media to stream to my theater pc. Works really well and holds a crap load of stuff. Setting up a network for media is easy, you can google a tutorial on that.



First you need to plan on how much you want to pay.

2nd you need to know what you want, intel or amd.

AMD will allow for a better price as their chips are cheaper and usually you can get more bang for your buck.

Next you'll want to consider what type of case you want. I like the full atx towers because they are easy to work with, and can hold a lot of stuff though they are big.

Next you need to decide how much you want to spend on components. Like how much money out of your budget for hard drives, ram, motherboard, chip, graphics card.

I could actually get you a computer built or at least give you an idea if you like? via links to the components that is.

djbeenie

Here is what I just built, it is a killer machine for the money. Overclocked at 4.9Ghz. I like Intel, they have the bleeding edge right now over AMD.

AOC FC-2000 PCI Slot Case Cooler $7.99
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz $324.99
ASUS P8P67 WS REVOLUTION LGA 1155 Intel P67 $245.99
The CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) - maint free water cooling $93.24
Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-128M2S 2.5" 128GB SATA III $204.99
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $89.99
CORSAIR Professional Series HX1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V $220
Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Case with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (RC-932-KKN5-GP) $132

Total Price:
1319.19

Optional

Graphic Card for gaming:
ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit x 2 $400
OR a little cheaper and will give you still a banging computer for games, but you will need two.

EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti FPB 1024 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Graphics Card, 01G-P3-1556-KR x 2 $259

Storage
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB $150

djbeenie

Pics:

Direwolf

djbeenie:

Pics:

That's a clean looking machine and about in the price range I want. I don't mind spending a couple months buying everything up and then building the machine.

phobicsquirrel

Well you would want to buy most everything all at once so that YOU can build it and then see if anything is not working.

phobicsquirrel

djbeenie:

Pics:

That looks like my case!

djbeenie

Thanks man! You can put 3 video cards on that motherboard and SLI them. With those cards I mentioned all have cuda GPU's. Each Cuda GPU is 10x to 128x faster than the internal core processor if its using a program that utilizes the GPU.

phobicsquirrel

djbeenie:

Here is what I just built, it is a killer machine for the money. Overclocked at 4.9Ghz. I like Intel, they have the bleeding edge right now over AMD.

AOC FC-2000 PCI Slot Case Cooler $7.99
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz $324.99
ASUS P8P67 WS REVOLUTION LGA 1155 Intel P67 $245.99
The CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) - maint free water cooling $93.24
Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-128M2S 2.5" 128GB SATA III $204.99
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $89.99
CORSAIR Professional Series HX1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V $220
Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Case with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (RC-932-KKN5-GP) $132

Total Price:
1319.19

Optional

Graphic Card for gaming:
ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit x 2 $400
OR a little cheaper and will give you still a banging computer for games, but you will need two.

EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti FPB 1024 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Graphics Card, 01G-P3-1556-KR x 2 $259

Storage
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB $150

That's a nice set up. I almost got that sandy bridge ;-)

djbeenie

phobicsquirrel:

Well you would want to buy most everything all at once so that YOU can build it and then see if anything is not working.

I agree, its best to get everything at once. It's a money hit, but stuff gets outdated quickly and you want to make sure everything works in your rig. If there is a problem you can return them. Warranty's are very short with parts.

phobicsquirrel

Are you going to overclock that sandy? I hear they are really good at it. I got an i7 960 that I overclocked to 4.4 which I'm happy with.

Direwolf

i can buy at once.. same principle lol just save up.

djbeenie

phobicsquirrel:

Are you going to overclock that sandy? I hear they are really good at it. I got an i7 960 that I overclocked to 4.4 which I'm happy with.

Yup its overclocked at 4.9Ghz.

Knoxca1

I've built two computers now and have bought a vast majority of the components from newegg. They seem to have competitive prices and an easy RMA process. I've only had to send one thing back and was surprised at how easy it was. Their shipping is extremely fast as well.

camgfs

Wish I could get the U.S. prices, but I'd get beaten up on shipping and duties! I added a few things to my "off-the-shelf" computer, but getting something ready-built is/was better price over all the shipping/duties I would have to pay this far north. There is no real local shop that will carry all the parts needed for a real build.
What I ended up with is a huge tower that holds Intel i7 2600 second generation quad core 3.4GHz and with hyper-threading shows as 8 cores, 16 gigs ram, Nvidea 560TI vid card, 4 terrabytes of HD with hot swappable bays and a RAID controller, 1 gig ethernet card, dual boot with Win7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2.
I went with this monster because of my schooling. We build networks using Hyper V virtualization software and learn the Server software, SQL, Exchange and other junk. It's nice to have a machine at home to practice on, and if I mess up a virtual machine, just blow it away and start over! Cool way to play with technology with only 1 'real' computer.

djbeenie

camgfs:

Wish I could get the U.S. prices, but I'd get beaten up on shipping and duties! I added a few things to my "off-the-shelf" computer, but getting something ready-built is/was better price over all the shipping/duties I would have to pay this far north. There is no real local shop that will carry all the parts needed for a real build.
What I ended up with is a huge tower that holds Intel i7 2600 second generation quad core 3.4GHz and with hyper-threading shows as 8 cores, 16 gigs ram, Nvidea 560TI vid card, 4 terrabytes of HD with hot swappable bays and a RAID controller, 1 gig ethernet card, dual boot with Win7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2.
I went with this monster because of my schooling. We build networks using Hyper V virtualization software and learn the Server software, SQL, Exchange and other junk. It's nice to have a machine at home to practice on, and if I mess up a virtual machine, just blow it away and start over! Cool way to play with technology with only 1 'real' computer.

VMWare I can't stand hyper-v. no offense lol Just by experience dealing with some of our customers that use it in their environment is a nightmare. But hyper-v is free.

Krieg

djbeenie:

camgfs:

Wish I could get the U.S. prices, but I'd get beaten up on shipping and duties! I added a few things to my "off-the-shelf" computer, but getting something ready-built is/was better price over all the shipping/duties I would have to pay this far north. There is no real local shop that will carry all the parts needed for a real build.
What I ended up with is a huge tower that holds Intel i7 2600 second generation quad core 3.4GHz and with hyper-threading shows as 8 cores, 16 gigs ram, Nvidea 560TI vid card, 4 terrabytes of HD with hot swappable bays and a RAID controller, 1 gig ethernet card, dual boot with Win7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2.
I went with this monster because of my schooling. We build networks using Hyper V virtualization software and learn the Server software, SQL, Exchange and other junk. It's nice to have a machine at home to practice on, and if I mess up a virtual machine, just blow it away and start over! Cool way to play with technology with only 1 'real' computer.

Its free, cuz no one wants to pay for that *** cuz its garbage.

camgfs

Krieg:

djbeenie:

camgfs:

Wish I could get the U.S. prices, but I'd get beaten up on shipping and duties! I added a few things to my "off-the-shelf" computer, but getting something ready-built is/was better price over all the shipping/duties I would have to pay this far north. There is no real local shop that will carry all the parts needed for a real build.
What I ended up with is a huge tower that holds Intel i7 2600 second generation quad core 3.4GHz and with hyper-threading shows as 8 cores, 16 gigs ram, Nvidea 560TI vid card, 4 terrabytes of HD with hot swappable bays and a RAID controller, 1 gig ethernet card, dual boot with Win7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2.
I went with this monster because of my schooling. We build networks using Hyper V virtualization software and learn the Server software, SQL, Exchange and other junk. It's nice to have a machine at home to practice on, and if I mess up a virtual machine, just blow it away and start over! Cool way to play with technology with only 1 'real' computer.

Its free, cuz no one wants to pay for that *** cuz its garbage.

I don't meant to deffend HyperV, but it is what my college uses, so I have to get used to it. From what they explain, it does have some benefits. It uses the actual hardware on your computer, so you do get better graphics and sound, if you actually need them. I agree that there are better products out there, but it comes with Server 2008 R2, which I get for free from the college. It's nice to play around with and is more than reliable enough for what we do with it.

djbeenie

camgfs:

Krieg:

djbeenie:

camgfs:

Wish I could get the U.S. prices, but I'd get beaten up on shipping and duties! I added a few things to my "off-the-shelf" computer, but getting something ready-built is/was better price over all the shipping/duties I would have to pay this far north. There is no real local shop that will carry all the parts needed for a real build.
What I ended up with is a huge tower that holds Intel i7 2600 second generation quad core 3.4GHz and with hyper-threading shows as 8 cores, 16 gigs ram, Nvidea 560TI vid card, 4 terrabytes of HD with hot swappable bays and a RAID controller, 1 gig ethernet card, dual boot with Win7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2.
I went with this monster because of my schooling. We build networks using Hyper V virtualization software and learn the Server software, SQL, Exchange and other junk. It's nice to have a machine at home to practice on, and if I mess up a virtual machine, just blow it away and start over! Cool way to play with technology with only 1 'real' computer.

Its free, cuz no one wants to pay for that *** cuz its garbage.

I don't meant to deffend HyperV, but it is what my college uses, so I have to get used to it. From what they explain, it does have some benefits. It uses the actual hardware on your computer, so you do get better graphics and sound, if you actually need them. I agree that there are better products out there, but it comes with Server 2008 R2, which I get for free from the college. It's nice to play around with and is more than reliable enough for what we do with it.

Once you go VMWare you wont go back. lol

Teege

djbeenie:

camgfs:

Krieg:

djbeenie:

camgfs:

Wish I could get the U.S. prices, but I'd get beaten up on shipping and duties! I added a few things to my "off-the-shelf" computer, but getting something ready-built is/was better price over all the shipping/duties I would have to pay this far north. There is no real local shop that will carry all the parts needed for a real build.
What I ended up with is a huge tower that holds Intel i7 2600 second generation quad core 3.4GHz and with hyper-threading shows as 8 cores, 16 gigs ram, Nvidea 560TI vid card, 4 terrabytes of HD with hot swappable bays and a RAID controller, 1 gig ethernet card, dual boot with Win7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2.
I went with this monster because of my schooling. We build networks using Hyper V virtualization software and learn the Server software, SQL, Exchange and other junk. It's nice to have a machine at home to practice on, and if I mess up a virtual machine, just blow it away and start over! Cool way to play with technology with only 1 'real' computer.

Its free, cuz no one wants to pay for that *** cuz its garbage.

I don't meant to deffend HyperV, but it is what my college uses, so I have to get used to it. From what they explain, it does have some benefits. It uses the actual hardware on your computer, so you do get better graphics and sound, if you actually need them. I agree that there are better products out there, but it comes with Server 2008 R2, which I get for free from the college. It's nice to play around with and is more than reliable enough for what we do with it.

Once you go VMWare you wont go back. lol

Unless your a Msoft platform user TFS for example has built in HyperV stuff but will not without a lot of magic hax work with VMWare in the same fashion.

djbeenie

Teege:

djbeenie:

camgfs:

Krieg:

djbeenie:

camgfs:

Wish I could get the U.S. prices, but I'd get beaten up on shipping and duties! I added a few things to my "off-the-shelf" computer, but getting something ready-built is/was better price over all the shipping/duties I would have to pay this far north. There is no real local shop that will carry all the parts needed for a real build.
What I ended up with is a huge tower that holds Intel i7 2600 second generation quad core 3.4GHz and with hyper-threading shows as 8 cores, 16 gigs ram, Nvidea 560TI vid card, 4 terrabytes of HD with hot swappable bays and a RAID controller, 1 gig ethernet card, dual boot with Win7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2.
I went with this monster because of my schooling. We build networks using Hyper V virtualization software and learn the Server software, SQL, Exchange and other junk. It's nice to have a machine at home to practice on, and if I mess up a virtual machine, just blow it away and start over! Cool way to play with technology with only 1 'real' computer.

Its free, cuz no one wants to pay for that *** cuz its garbage.

I don't meant to deffend HyperV, but it is what my college uses, so I have to get used to it. From what they explain, it does have some benefits. It uses the actual hardware on your computer, so you do get better graphics and sound, if you actually need them. I agree that there are better products out there, but it comes with Server 2008 R2, which I get for free from the college. It's nice to play around with and is more than reliable enough for what we do with it.

Once you go VMWare you wont go back. lol

Unless your a Msoft platform user TFS for example has built in HyperV stuff but will not without a lot of magic hax work with VMWare in the same fashion.

I don't understand your comment. You don't have to hax Microsoft to work with VMWare. There is VMWare Workstation for Windows machines or VMWare Fusion for Mac. I think you are thinking about VMWare ESXi. Those are like operating systems you install on supported servers and acts like a host for other virtual machines. VMWare workstation is just like HyperV that runs on Windows Workstations.