Hardware Recommendations

[dude_56013]

Newegg.com - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case

looking at that case now. Its a cheap, top-rated, full ATX tower with supposedly good cooling, good cable routing, and it has 2.5" compatibility on all the 3.5" slots incase i get the SSD.

i can get it in a combo with the corsair 750W PSU and get $20 off for a $230 total.

They make good cases. Even better if you can save some cash on a combo.

also though, would the OS being OEM put me at a disadvantage? is SP1 currently the highest version of win7?

No. They are identical. Save the money and get OEM. We all do (unless there's someone here who is braindead that I don't know about )

Newegg.com - EVGA 012-P3-1571-KR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


which one? the EVGA one comes with a 10 year warranty, the ASUS comes with a 3 year warranty. I have enough room for either one. If i do end up getting a second one for SLI later on, i'm not sure if my mobo will fit the 2 ASUS GPUs.

i'll probably not SLI though and just buy another single card later on, what do you recommend?

Either will work. I prefer the good warranty that EVGA has. It's a pretty popular GPU brand. In terms of SLI, I'm not up on that in the current market. But both cards look to be identical so you shouldn't see a difference between the two if you SLI either.

 

[imtheproof]

http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh376/imtheproof/neweggcart1.jpg

http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh376/imtheproof/neweggcart2.jpg


what else will i need besides a DVD drive and mouse?

 

[dude_56013]

http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh376/imtheproof/neweggcart1.jpg

http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh376/imtheproof/neweggcart2.jpg

Do you really need a 25" monitor? I just want to make sure you realize how big that is, and you really pay out the nose for anything over 23.6"/24"

Here are some other options for you just to get an idea.
ASUS #1
ASUS #2
Acer #3

Also, I have always recommended ditching Arctic Silver 5 in favor of Arctic Cooling MX-2 which has no cure time. However, I see that you have no CPU HSF/Cooler in your cart. Are you planning on buying one? If not (and thus, you are using the stock Intel one), you don't need to get thermal paste at all, since the HSF that comes with the CPU will have it pre-applied. You can always see how you like the Intel one and if you want to overclock down the road, just buy one then. No need to mess with that now if you don't need to.

what else will i need besides a DVD drive and mouse?

DVD
Mouse (I've gotten 3 of these so far for my family and myself).

Just remember that you don't need W7 Pro, but it looks like you have that because of the combo deal, so as long as there's not a combo deal with normal Home Premium that you could save a few dollars on, you'll be fine there with that.

Everything else looks to be good as far as I can tell.

 

[imtheproof]

I was thinking about ditching the 25" and getting a cheaper monitor. All i want is one that has good reviews, 1080p, and 2ms response time.

still need a storage drive as well, but i'm waiting to see the final price to decide what to get.

my brother had that same mouse, except maybe a bit higher DPI, which is beginning to die on him due to massive clicking in league of legends . he just ordered a steelseries ikari last night, so im going to wait and try it out even though its a bit expensive.

 

[dude_56013]

I was thinking about ditching the 25" and getting a cheaper monitor. All i want is one that has good reviews, 1080p, and 2ms response time.

People take the time to b!tch, but not to commend. So, don't be fooled by reviewers on newegg. Most of them don't know jack about computers, let alone the actual product. You simply cannot judge based on reviews.

still need a storage drive as well, but i'm waiting to see the final price to decide what to get.

Are you planning on an SSD for sure or do you not know yet? I can recommend some storage drives and SSDs, but it's easier if you know what you're doing for sure. If you do get an SSD, then we don't have to worry about some certain things with your storage drive (such as SATAIII or cache size), but if you are not going to get an SSD then you're OS/storage drive will need to consider those things.

my brother had that same mouse, except maybe a bit higher DPI, which is beginning to die on him due to massive clicking in league of legends . he just ordered a steelseries ikari last night, so im going to wait and try it out even though its a bit expensive.

I have used mine for about 2 years now and it has not begun to fail at all. If you are looking for something that would be top notch in the gaming world, you'll need to shell out some serious cash for a Razor mouse.

 

[imtheproof]

not sure about SSD yet. I would like it, but i'm not sure if i want to go with a 64gb or a 128gb. The price is also fairly high, so i'll configure everything else and then see what i'm looking at.

probably going with the samsung bx2331 23" 1080p 2ms


and maybe a crucial m4 128GB.

 

[dude_56013]

If you're dropping the cash for a larger capacity SSD, you might want to consider just going big or not getting one. Write speeds are much higher on that drive.

 

[imtheproof]

k, i can get that one bundled with windows 7 home premium also and get $75 off. Probably doing that, since that puts the OS price down below the OEM price for win7 professional.
now i just need to redo the processor though because last one was bundled with the OS>

 

[imtheproof]

will that DVD burner come with the required cables or will i have to buy them separately (or just grab some from one of the old computers lying around my house)? i really want it to just work to install windows 7 and maybe 3 old games that i play. other than that i will probably just download all games and not use it much

might have to use it for other software if i cant download it, but i think you understand my point now (i just want it to work out of the box without any extra trouble)

Newegg.com - ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - CD / DVD Burners

prob gonna go with this one.

taking your advice on the mouse (logitech), except going with the laser version. its just about $20 more but i've heard better things about laser compared to optical, and it is the mouse my brother used to use and i loved it.

also, im probably just going to run down to microcenter to pick up the i7 2600k. i can get it for $296.79 there and save about $20 (which covers the difference between the 2 mice )

should i get one of these?

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CWCH50-1 High Performance CPU Cooler

Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink

and if so, which one?

 

[FORDSVTPARTS]

Are you stupid? Why are you posting such crap... you need to think BEFORE you post? HE IS INSTALLING 8GB OF RAM. A 32BIT OPERATING SYSTEM WOULD SEE LESS THAN FOUR. THAT IS WHY HE WANTS A 64BIT OS.

The two rigs that dude_56013 posted here: http://www.computerforums.org/hardware/new-performance-computer-major-adobe-usage-107670.html are both excellent - the first component list includes an AMD processor, so that doesnt tick your box... and at the moment, Intel does have the upper hand when it comes to performance. But that's your call.

His component list doesnt include a monitor/keyboard/mouse, or any mechanical drives (for file storage) - but you should be able to get those things and remain well within budget.

You Are A Flaming Moron You Know That Right?