Building a PC?

[njlauren]

What CPU would you choose?

I was considering this one...

Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K

It's like $560 but has great reviews.

I'm definitely getting an SSD and a large HDD. So, I'm already looking at 1.5K all of that. That's not including the video card, case, cooling, disk drive, etc.

That would probably do, though the latest generation of the I7 I have in my dell is a 3.4ghz/3.9ghz turbo boost. I suspect that one would do fine. Don't overlook AMD chips, they have some fast ones as well.

Make sure the motherboard supports a fast bus speed and has the pci express slots (I believe that is what they call it) so you can put a kick ass video card on there (and for all I know, they may have dedicated graphics slots now), you want a video board with as much memory as possible.

 

[Christopher2012]

That would probably do, though the latest generation of the I7 I have in my dell is a 3.4ghz/3.9ghz turbo boost. I suspect that one would do fine. Don't overlook AMD chips, they have some fast ones as well.

Make sure the motherboard supports a fast bus speed and has the pci express slots (I believe that is what they call it) so you can put a kick ass video card on there (and for all I know, they may have dedicated graphics slots now), you want a video board with as much memory as possible.

Hmmm.... Is yours the one that costs over $1,000?

What the hell? I'm so confused! Why does the one I linked you to cost $560 when there are CPUs with 3.4/3.8 that costs $300??????

For this one, I don't want to do AMD. I just want to stick to Intel. I've heard iffy things about AMD.

 

[silverwhisper]

chris, if you wanna swim in the deep end of the pool, you probably would do well to articulate those "iffy" things about AMD chips.

ed

 

[Christopher2012]

chris, if you wanna swim in the deep end of the pool, you probably would do well to articulate those "iffy" things about AMD chips.

ed

Silver, I never said that I'm anymore knowledgable. I'm just saying that I'm the one who's spending the money. So I can spend it however I'd like.

I'm "swimming in the deep end of the pool" in terms of money, not knowledge. So since I've heard iffy things about AMD, I choose to go Intel. And it's not like I'm necessarily getting a bad deal ***EVEN IF*** AMD has some great CPUs.

But if you want specifics, it's my understanding that AMD tries to beat Intel with value pricing and not better specs. Since I have NO IDEA anything about computers, it would be a great idea for me to just stick with Intel. I mean, it makes it easier for me anyway. It's hard enough trying to figure out the differences between the different Intel processors. When I start comparing Intel to AMD, then I'm REALLY fucked.

So yeah, since I'm swimming in the deep end of the money pool, I'm going to try to go with my gut instinct on this one and stay with Intel.

 

[silverwhisper]

you misunderstand. you opened this thread saying you wanna build your own box. that's absolutely swimming in the deep end.

my broader point here though is that if you aren't the kind of person who thinks it's a good idea to learn what the real comparison & points of differentiation are between AMD vs intel, you are embarking on a course of action with a low probability of success.

ed

 

[Christopher2012]

you misunderstand. you opened this thread saying you wanna build your own box. that's absolutely swimming in the deep end.

my broader point here though is that if you aren't the kind of person who thinks it's a good idea to learn what the real comparison & points of differentiation are between AMD vs intel, you are embarking on a course of action with a low probability of success.

ed

Well let's be fair here.... Building a PC is not a terribly difficult task. It's a great idea for someone who knows NOTHING about computers. I'd hardly call that "swimming in the deep end."

It's very difficult to research and understand these different components, at least for me. The more and more I look into it, the more I want to buy THE BEST without spending an insane amount of money.

I've read about these different parts and have a general understanding of how they work. However, whenever I go to purchase a piece of hardware, it's TOTALLY different because I'm seeing a million different items with things I've never heard of (i.e. Sandy Bridge, Hyper Threading, size differences of CPUs, power usage, etc.). It's very very difficult for me to compare and find the BEST product for ME.

A great example is that CPU that I posted. It seemed perfect. It's a 6-core I7 that runs at incredibly fast speeds. And it's $560. But then njlauren pops ups and throws a product on the table that runs faster (and may cost half the price).

Welp, I feel like I'm entering a whole new world. It's very difficult to pull the trigger on one piece when I can hardly understand all these potential marketing gimmicks.

I want a powerhouse computer. But at the same time, I don't want to have to get a 4-year degree to do it.

 

[Christopher2012]

Actually, in terms of understanding specs, buying a computer whole would be harder than building one. You'd have to read and understand the specs of everything at once and then decide if it's worth the price you pay for it whole.

I certainly don't want to get bent over by some company when I could buy the parts separate at half the cost.

 

[njlauren]

Chris-

I don't know how much the cpu in my machine is worth, since I bought a whole machine (got a good deal on it for the specs in it), I bought it from dell, and they obviously pay a different price then you would. Were they advertising the chip you were talking about as being easy to overdrive maybe, or that it could be overdriven? In theory you are right, the chip you are talking about should be less expensive, not more, there must be a reason for that...I suspect it may be the chip you were looking at has proven itself at higher clock speeds.

AMD is in the value business, they generally offer their chips as an alternative to Intel, and for the most part they aren't better per se, just cheaper, but it is a way, if money is an issue, to save money and still have performance.

 

[njlauren]

Actually, in terms of understanding specs, buying a computer whole would be harder than building one. You'd have to read and understand the specs of everything at once and then decide if it's worth the price you pay for it whole.

I certainly don't want to get bent over by some company when I could buy the parts separate at half the cost.

I don't agree with that one, machines sold as gamer machines show the components they use, in detail, so it isn't hard to understand. Keep in mind that those companies can build their machines for a lot cheaper then you can, because they buy components in bulk, your price is going to be a lot more. Put it this way, the Dell I bought, I could not build it myself for less then I bought it for, it would have cost me a couple of hundred bucks more...put it this way, the cpu alone at my price would be 400 bucks, and the whole thing was less then 800......

 

[Christopher2012]

Chris-

I don't know how much the cpu in my machine is worth, since I bought a whole machine (got a good deal on it for the specs in it), I bought it from dell, and they obviously pay a different price then you would. Were they advertising the chip you were talking about as being easy to overdrive maybe, or that it could be overdriven? In theory you are right, the chip you are talking about should be less expensive, not more, there must be a reason for that...I suspect it may be the chip you were looking at has proven itself at higher clock speeds.

AMD is in the value business, they generally offer their chips as an alternative to Intel, and for the most part they aren't better per se, just cheaper, but it is a way, if money is an issue, to save money and still have performance.

I think it's because it's 6 cores. Is yours a quad core?

 

[njlauren]

That explains it, mine is quad core. To be honest, not sure if a 6 core is going to be all that much faster then a quad core for what you want it for (I could be wrong on that). You probably should go to some of the gamer sites to see what they have to say. I also would look at already made gamer machines to see what they use in their boxes.

 

[Christopher2012]

Here's my machine.

Processor: INTEL CORE I7 - 3930K
Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 PRO
Ram: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 2x8GB DDR3 2400MHZ
Graphics: 2GB EVGA GTX 680
Psu: 1200W Silent Pro Modular PSU Coolermaster
Disk: Samsung 840 Series Pro 512GB

 

[Christopher2012]

So, here's the end product (not assembled yet):

Intel Quad Core i7 3770K 3.5Ghz (3.9Ghz)
ASUS Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard
16 Gigs DDR3 (2 x 8 Gig)
GeForce GTX 680 4GB
256 Gig SSD
1 TB HDD

 

[njlauren]

Ae you going to try and overclock it or build it as you have it? I recommend getting extra cooling fans for whatever case you buy, the 4 gig graphics card probably has its own fan, but I recommend thinking about getting an additional cooling fan to circulate the cooling air better, plus I recommend getting a big a case as possible that the MB works with, slimline cases IME stop air circulation from happening.

 

[Christopher2012]

Ae you going to try and overclock it or build it as you have it? I recommend getting extra cooling fans for whatever case you buy, the 4 gig graphics card probably has its own fan, but I recommend thinking about getting an additional cooling fan to circulate the cooling air better, plus I recommend getting a big a case as possible that the MB works with, slimline cases IME stop air circulation from happening.

I mean, I think 3.5 is good enough speed for now. I might overclock it when the system becomes more outdated. I'll probably overclock the GPU for a little while to see how Crysis 1 looks, though.

The case I bought has fans and vents all around it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003S68Q0Y/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

However, I never actually checked the compatibility with the motherboard and this case. Is it possible that my motherboard won't work with the case????

 

[Weird Harold]

I mean, I think 3.5 is good enough speed for now. I might overclock it when the system becomes more outdated. I'll probably overclock the GPU for a little while to see how Crysis 1 looks, though.

I think you'd be better off either over-clocking right from the start, or not at all.

My experience with over-clocking is decades old, but what experience I do have suggests that electronics "burn-in" under their original operating conditions and tend to go belly up when those operating conditions are changed. That's not an absolute result, but I'd say that the odds are 50-50 that changing the clock speed -- especially after running the system until it's "outdated" -- will crash the system permanently.

 

[Christopher2012]

I think you'd be better off either over-clocking right from the start, or not at all.

My experience with over-clocking is decades old, but what experience I do have suggests that electronics "burn-in" under their original operating conditions and tend to go belly up when those operating conditions are changed. That's not an absolute result, but I'd say that the odds are 50-50 that changing the clock speed -- especially after running the system until it's "outdated" -- will crash the system permanently.

Okay, thanks for the heads up. So, I think I might run it at 3.9 then... The manufacturer lists its turbo speed at 3.9 so I'm assuming that's safe...

 

[just for fun]

Okay, thanks for the heads up. So, I think I might run it at 3.9 then... The manufacturer lists its turbo speed at 3.9 so I'm assuming that's safe...

Do yourself a favor and buy an aftermarket cooler some good paste and crank that bad boy up. I don't know how good that chip is for overclocking, some are better than others for that task but after you get the automatic overclock set go into bios increase the multiplier and ...I forgot the name of the second function but just google it. Those 2 settings alone will increase your speed in addition to the automatic Overclock. The good news is you can save your configurations in bios so if you get stable settings you can save them. There's also a few things in bios like speed step that you can shut off for more juice.

Download Prime 95 or Intel burn test to stress test and use the Ausus AI to monitor your speed and temps.. Also make sure you install the latest motherboard drivers and bios.

 

[Christopher2012]

Do yourself a favor and buy an aftermarket cooler some good paste and crank that bad boy up. I don't know how good that chip is for overclocking, some are better than others for that task but after you get the automatic overclock set go into bios increase the multiplier and ...I forgot the name of the second function but just google it. Those 2 settings alone will increase your speed in addition to the automatic Overclock. The good news is you can save your configurations in bios so if you get stable settings you can save them. There's also a few things in bios like speed step that you can shut off for more juice.

Download Prime 95 or Intel burn test to stress test and use the Ausus AI to monitor your speed and temps.. Also make sure you install the latest motherboard drivers and bios.

Well, it turns out that my motherboard is really not the best in terms of spacing. I have barely enough space to fit my aftermarket fan, and the fan itself is actually facing the wrong direction. There's nothing I can do about it. So, instead over clocking manually, I set the motherboard to auto-OC. So, it will get it to 3.9 but that's it.

But WOW, the PC is amazing. After installing all the drivers and finishing up some small tweaks, Crysis looks amazing! I'm currently downloading Skyrim, Amnesia, and several free-to-play games that a friend suggested.

And with the SSD card, loading times are pretty much instantaneous compared to anything I've ever experienced.

Glad that I decided to build this thing. Now let's just hope none of the parts fail on me.