New Build Advice

sp0oK

Solid State Member
Messages
12
First of all, hi. First post on these forums. Googled around to find a pretty active computer forum and this one seemed pretty good. Anyway:

Building a new computer (first time building one since me and my Mom built a new one about 9 years ago ahhaha). Could somebody plz look over my parts list and let me know if I'm making any mistakes or missing anything?

SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223C $29.99

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $59.95

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5 $74.99

HIS H577F1GDG Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI
Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card $174.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80
PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply $99.99

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 $90.99

ASUS P7P55D LE LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard $129.99

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
Model BX80605I5750 $199.99

Subtotal: $860.88
Shipping: $24.01
Grand Total: $884.89

It's meant to be a high-mid-range gaming PC. The plan is to dual-boot Windows 7 (for gaming) and Ubuntu 9.10 (for everything else). Might even hackintosh it, since I'm most familiar with Mac and Linux and I have Snow Leopard for one of my laptops anyway. I've used Mac and Linux a lot in the past few years, haven't been on Windows since XP, but its like riding bike right? :) Oh and all 64 bit, since I'll probably double the RAM eventually.

My list looks short, and I can't seem to shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something. Obviously a monitor and peripherals, but those will be recycled from one of my older PC's until I save a little more money. Only other thing I'm worried about is the GPU. Its got great reviews and whatnot, but I've heard ATi drivers are somewhat less than stellar. My main selling points are DX11, price, and Display Port in that order.

My main goal here is to build a stable and relatively powerful PC that I can upgrade and continue to use over the next five years or so. Eventually I'd like to throw in a second GPU, liquid cooling, another 4gigs RAM, smallish raptor HDD, and maybe one of those Killer network cards since they're pretty cheap and I've heard good things about them.

Thoughts?
 
With being intel based, and considering all the software companies are going pro intel and nvidia. I would suggest and Nvidia card. Also on the 640GB HDD, Make sure you create an OS partition no larger than 250GBs. OS partitions over 250GBs can sometimes become unstable. create a partition with the remaining space for data. Other than that the system should rock.
 
Ok thanks. I'll do some research on nVidia cards and see if I can't find one that will work for me. Do you know off the top of your head if they've announced a DX11 card yet? I won't be ordering the parts until a little before Christmas, so if they have something decent coming out in late December I'd be super pumped.

As for the HDD thing, thanks for the heads up, I was unaware of that. Is the partition pretty simple to set up while installing Windows to a blank drive? Its been a long while since I did anything other than general stuff with Windows, and haven't touched it at all since XP. I may just go with a small Raptor HDD anyway.

Ugh, actually I think I'll just stick with the 5770 after poking around newegg. Couldn't find a lot of details on Nvidia's entry into DX11, and I can't imagine it will be as affordable based on the prices of their current cards (am I wrong about this?). The only Nvidia cards I saw in my price range were GTX 260s that didn't seem as good. :s
 
dont listen to him, he doesnt know anything and blabbers about nonsense. i have a 300GB partition on my hard drive and its working fine. why would they sell 2 TB hard drives if you couldnt use it all in one partition? there wont be any difference if you buy an NVIDIA graphics card or an ATI graphics card. NVIDIA is known as a higher end company because they had better graphics cards than ATI for a while but thats gone now. dont go for the killer cards, they raise your FPS by 3-5 and slow down regular use
 
i have an ati 5870 and it kicks nvidia ass and works fine with all my software and windows 7. an intel proc is a good idea though , though they can be a tad on the pricey side.
 
Yeah, I'm definitely dead-set on the i5. Seems like a no-brainer right now. I just can't believe that ATi card is only 175$. Comes with a HIS tool-kit and Dirt 2 for free, too. Like I said, the only nvidia card in that range is the GTX260, which is a somewhat older card, am I right? Idk, this is the first time in years that I've looked at vid cards at all, and Nvidia just seems really really overpriced to me. Seems like you're paying extra for the more popular name. Count me out.
 
What card manufacturers are you looking at? If you're looking at a BFG Nvidia, yeah overpriced, but PNY makes great nvidia cards. so I would check again before claiming nvidia is too overpriced lol. I dont know anything? LOL its funny almost every post I post in, i'm right on target... Gotta love those internet warriors, just gotta fight some how lol. Benchmarks show nvidia cards out perform ati. Also with most software and game manufacturers going pro nvidia yeah obviously they know something lol. And what was your response to the combat flight simulator not working properly with the catalyst drivers. This is something you can ask microsoft about.. Oh thats right most people like you try to stay away from the truth :D.

Also they sell 1tb hdds, but still dont recomend putting windows XP on partitions larger than 250gbs. I'm sure this has changed somewhat.. But thats like saying "why would they make something they know is going to fail" oh but thats right dont they do that all the time? I guess you never heard of the Cadillac Catera
 
It's meant to be a high-mid-range gaming PC. The plan is to dual-boot Windows 7 (for gaming) and Ubuntu 9.10 (for everything else). Might even hackintosh it, since I'm most familiar with Mac and Linux and I have Snow Leopard for one of my laptops anyway. I've used Mac and Linux a lot in the past few years, haven't been on Windows since XP, but its like riding bike right? Oh and all 64 bit, since I'll probably double the RAM eventually.
I've tried dual boot before. But I just found myself using only one OS, for you it will probably be W7 as it will have all your apps on it. If you're gonna do that, don't dedicate much space to Ubuntu IMO.
My list looks short, and I can't seem to shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something. Obviously a monitor and peripherals, but those will be recycled from one of my older PC's until I save a little more money. Only other thing I'm worried about is the GPU. Its got great reviews and whatnot, but I've heard ATi drivers are somewhat less than stellar. My main selling points are DX11, price, and Display Port in that order.
ATi drivers are great. They release and official non-beta driver every month without fail. Nvidia beta test on consumers so you often have to wait up to 4 months for a MS approved driver.

CPU: Core i5 750
Motherboard: (3xPCI-E so Crossfire support) ASROCK P55 Extreme
RAM: Corsair 2x2GB DDR3 1600
GPU: Sapphire HD 5770
PSU: Corsair TX650
HDD: WD 500GB
Disk drive: LG DVD burner
Case: CM RC-690

Total: $860 w/o rebates

With being intel based, and considering all the software companies are going pro intel and nvidia.
Processors have no software attachment.
ATi is kicking Nvidia's arse so bad right now. HD 5970 was released yesterday just in case you didn't know :p
Benchmarks show nvidia cards out perform ati.
The Radeon HD 5970: Completing AMD's Takeover of the High End GPU Market
I dont know anything? LOL its funny almost every post I post in, i'm right on target.
You forgot the little "IMO" on the end of that :D
 
I've tried dual boot before. But I just found myself using only one OS, for you it will probably be W7 as it will have all your apps on it. If you're gonna do that, don't dedicate much space to Ubuntu IMO.
I agree. Dual booting was great in the day where computers were ridiculously expensive and you couldn't possibly have two computers running two different OS's. These days though - good for experimentation perhaps, but I've never really used it for much else. I'm running linux on this box because it does all I need and I prefer working on it to windows. For the few apps I need to use that only run in windows, I've got the laptop handy that does that. And if I didn't, I'd probably just be running windows for everything out of convenience!

(There are exceptions of course such as if you don't want to install cygwin but need *nix only stuff such as Kroc which was the last thing I was using of that kind - but for most people that doesn't apply!)

I dont know anything? LOL its funny almost every post I post in, i'm right on target.
Also on the 640GB HDD, Make sure you create an OS partition no larger than 250GBs. OS partitions over 250GBs can sometimes become unstable.
...You definitely aren't right on target there. Utter tosh. Next time you think about posting rubbish, please check it against known sources and, where applicable, acknowledge them.
 
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