Finally going to start building

GreySteelFox

In Runtime
Messages
330
I'm still rocking my 9 year old Dell 8250 and I'm finally going to start buying parts and building my own setup. I've been out of the game for a couple years (before PCI Express 2.0) and I would like to know everyones opinions about the parts I'm am interested in.

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148211

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130514

CPU Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150082

Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395

I'm going to reuse my 430 watt Antec PSU, my Audigy 2 ZS sound card, and my CD/DVD drive from the old Dell. My main use for this will be work related with a few games on the side. I've always wanted to play Crysis but my old computer would never be able to handle it. All opinions ans suggestions are welcome.
 
My only worry is your psu, it might work with 430 watts, but if it does it certainly would be maxing it out and putting a lot of strain on it. Online it says minimum 450 watt psu required, and I feel its dangerous being so close to the minimum(or slightly under in this case). Otherwise everything else looks good.

Edit: Just noticed that the memory you chose is out of stock until 11/02, I would suggest just waiting a few days till it comes back into stock, crucial ballistix is excellent ram and the timings are great.

You will also want to make sure that the motherboard can put out 2.0 volts for your ram. I had a problem a couple years ago with a computer where the motherboard could only do 1.95 volts, forcing me to run 6-6-6-16 timings instead of 4-4-4-12. The ram will still work, it just won't be working at is full capabilities.
 
The minimum you would want for sli'ing two gtx 250's is a DECENT 600 watt power. What I mean by decent is a more expensive 600 watt power supply will perform a lot better than a cheapo one. In the end it comes down to the +12 volt rails and the amps it can put out. I belive with 2x gtx 250's you are going to want a power supply with 2x +12 volts rails running at 30+ amps. You also need to ask yourself if you will be adding more stuff later on, like more fans/had drives/optical drives, etc(although those in itself don't take up much power).

If you are planning on SLI I would recommend a psu such as...

and of these three: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...113142557&Description=corsair&name=601 - 700W

or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371021

or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015
^that one looks like it would be perfect for your build, has everything you need, great price, and its environmentally conscious


Now, as someone who knows computers, I am obligated to ask these questions....

What size and resolution monitor will you be running? A larger/higher resolution monitor will require a beefier graphics card. A smaller/low resolution monitor and you might be going overkill for graphics.

Hearing that you are going to upgrade to 2x GTS 250's, I want you to reconsider your choice. SLI is the most beneficial when you have two high end cards. It is not a good idea to SLI two medium end graphics cards as you will get much better performance if you just buy one higher end graphics card. In your case it might be okay if all you can afford at the moment is one GTS 250, and will upgrade to another a year or so down the road, but if you can spend a little extra money now I would just get a single higher end card. Two middle end cards in SLI will cost just as much, or sometimes more, as one high end card, but the higher end card will give you better performance. Here are my suggestions if you budget allows for it...

EVGA GTX 260: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434

XFX GTX 260: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150398

link to all GTX 260s: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...048 106792634 1067940781&name=GeForce GTX 260

I highly recommend getting one of the power supplies I mentioned above and getting one of the above GTX 260's. There are a lot of great choices for those cards on newegg with different types of heatsinks, it all comes down to preference. I recommend getting an open box deal as the cards work perfectly(may just come in a different box) and you could save yourself about $50. Just don't buy an "overclocked" versions of the card, as they are just charging you $15-$20 more for something that you can do yourself.

Hope this helps.
 
That really does help a lot, thanks. I've been out of the game for so long that I didn't know that the 250 GTS was the mid range card. I'll definitely be going with the 260 now. As for the monitor, I'll probably go with a 19 or 20 inch screen, and might buy a couple more down the road.

What about cooling? Will the CPU fan, and the stock case fan be enough?
 
That really does help a lot, thanks. I've been out of the game for so long that I didn't know that the 250 GTS was the mid range card. I'll definitely be going with the 260 now. As for the monitor, I'll probably go with a 19 or 20 inch screen, and might buy a couple more down the road.

What about cooling? Will the CPU fan, and the stock case fan be enough?

Not only was it a mid-range card, it is also an outdated card.


1 high-end card will always outperform 2 lower cards in SLI/Crossfire.

SLI/Crossfire doesn't get you double the performance of 1 of the cards, its only useful if you have top-end cards and need/want more power, or if you bought a high-end card that is now outdated, and instead of buying a new card you can buy a 2nd and crossfire to extend the usefulness of your system without replacing parts.
 
I would also look at a better CPU and Mobo. I would go with either a triple or quad core processor as well and the 775 socket is a little behind compared to whats out now.

The AMD Phenom II 720 BE is a great CPU for the price and also has the ability to unlock the 4th core in them as well. Some of them really do have a bad 4th core but since it is a black edition CPU it will be nice to over clock with and still is at least a triple core.

You can also use better RAM and motherboards which will leave room for upgrading in the future since it is an AM3 socket which is the newest socket available from AMD.

If you are really set on getting intel you might want to have a look at the I5's or I7's since they use the newer intel sockets. Don't get me wrong that is a good CPU you picked but there is newer technology out there for around the same price and in some cases even cheaper.

The New ATI 5770 cards are roughly 160 bucks and offer direct x 11 capability (although not used much yet) still is newer technology than the GTX 260 and is roughly the same performance. But as before its all dependent on if you really want Nvidia or you don't have a preference either way. I am just giving you a few other options to look at here.
 
IHateDells, what is your budget? I'll throw together links for parts that I think would suit you well.
 
If you're on a budget you should seriously consider an AMD build. Much better price vs performance.

For gaming, the difference is negligible, for video/photo editing and encoding, Intel comes out on top, but not enough to warrant breaking your budget.
 
Back
Top Bottom