So I've been looking to buy a computer for a while now and now that I have an income I feel like the time is right to ask for you advice. My first choice would be to make one because that would give me the best quality for the price. My budget isn't set in stone but I was thinking of spending around $1400 in this case.

While I have upgraded my computer on a couple of occasions, this would be my first time actually making a compete computer on my own. So if this turns out to be too difficult or something, option number two would be to get this comp (or something like it) on credit instead.

If you guys can help me out that would be great, keep in mind that I'm looking for a computer that will be able to run anything for a while, since I don't plan on gettin another one anytime soon. So don't cut any corners.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 13 2012, 5:15 am by Wing Zero.

Don't get alienware; far too overpriced for what you get. Ex or rockz will find you a nice build and we'll all help you put it together if needed. First, do you need mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, any extra stuff? Or just the tower and inners?

Do you plan on doing a lot of gaming? What uses do you want it for in particular?

I have a 21? Inch monitor with some built-in speakers that will do for now, mouse and keyboard I can find on my own.

Your budget allows for the best of the best. No need to start cutting corners here.
Personally I'd invest like $100 into a decent sound system rather than use your weak existing speakers. Maybe you're different, but for me it's part of gaming and music experience to have good quality sound. Built-in speakers always lack in the bass department and thats where you feel the music. I'm not even talking about subwoofers which make your cups dance. I'm talking decent bass vs. no bass. Huge difference in experience for me.
Also 5.1 can make a huge difference when listening to the right tunes.
If you're unexperienced in the sound department just go to any HiFi shop and ask for a demonstration. You'll be impressed.

What I meant when I said "for now" was that I wanted to get the tower first. The monitor is just sitting there unused so I might as well make use of it.

That said, I will take your advice and look at a couple of sound systems when I'm free.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 4 2012, 1:00 pm by Wing Zero.

Right, lets get down to business:
Budget is around 1400$ right?
What games will you be playing?
What's your gaming resolution? 1080p?
Gaming only? Any encoding work I should know about?
How long does this build have to last you for you to be satisfied?

If you've done basic upgrades you can handle a build. I'll do my best to keep it easy for you.

Instead of spending $1400 on the computer, it's likely wiser to spend $1000 on the computer and $400 getting decent peripherals, since $1000 should easily get you a system with SSD, i5-2500K, and a 2GB Radeon 6950.

Pretty much what I have written up so far. Waiting on Zero to answer questions.

Yes, my current budget is $1400 but a couple hundred more or less isn't really a big deal.

If it can run future games at max settings on 1080p with no problems, I will be very happy.

A gaming only build should be good enough for anything I try to do on it.

I would like for it to last at least 4 years if at all possible.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I would like it to be relatively quiet. My current desktop randomly turns on even when its idling and it sounds like a vacuum cleaner.

Alrighty here we go:
DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151236
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161372
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231461
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138319
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074
Case fans: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835124023 x3
CPU Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106139
SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167050
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146061

Total based on tax and shipping to my zip: $1,072.22

Notes:
You can double the ram for 16GB if you feel you want it. Ram is cheap.
CPU heatsink is optional to be quieter than stock. Case fans I selected will replace the stock fan in the case to keep it quiet. GPU will probably be loudest fan in the system but that's normal.
There's no HDD in this build. That's because HDD prices are really high right now due to just about every major HDD manufac's factory getting flooded. I need to hunt around for a cheap 1TB for storage for you.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 5 2012, 8:45 pm by Excalibur.

Shouldn't you go with this cooler instead and throw in a higher wattage PSU (~850W, preferably 80+ gold certified) so that he can crossfire in the future without replacing the PSU if he needs a performance boost? I assume that's what you had in mind considering you went out of your way to get a SLI-ready P67 mobo that's more expensive than this Z68 one. If he has no intention of crossfiring another 6950 with this card, then getting the Z68 mobo is a better idea as the SSD caching feature allows him to turn a significantly cheaper 64GB Crucial M4 into a cache for the HDD and save some money with little performance loss once all the frequently used data is moved over to the SSD. Also saves the hassle of using steam mover or manually shifting the finished games off the SSD onto the hard drive.

EDIT> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844 <--- Figures that the cheapest drives on a per-GB basis are Seagate drives. Not sure if I like this option.

Western Digital is the manufacturer with its factories flooded. Seagate's factories are mostly fine, but their suppliers are supposedly under stress from the flood, causing production issues as well. (Note that Seagate purchased Samsung's HDD division back in April, so now the only significant manufacturer remaining besides WD/Seagate is Hitachi.)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 5 2012, 8:43 pm by Aristocrat.

We want quiet on the cooler. I'm not looking to give him OC headroom because he probably isn't going to OC. However I believe the cooler I selected has some OC room anyway. I'm familiar with the 212, but I wanted something quieter.
Crossfire is almost never a good idea. The PSU I selected is a cheap and easy way for him to get power out of a reliable unit.
Didn't look in Z68 since they're usually more expensive. SSD caching in the reviews I've seen isn't all that great. But for less money, why not.
The SSD is big because I don't believe in OS drives that are under 100GB in real world usage.
Seagate is a load of crap. Highest failure rates of any major manufac right now.

Changed out the mobo, I stand firm on just about everything else at this point.

Edit: Also from what I hear the 212 is hard to mount. Wing said he wanted to keep this easy. ;o

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 5 2012, 10:19 pm by Excalibur.

If you want quiet, an i5-2405S (which is a 65W CPU with a lower base frequency but a turbo ceiling that's only 0.1 GHz lower) can be passively cooled with said Hyper 212 if you remove the fans. With that jet engine of a GPU, though, it probably won't matter much to get a passively cooled chip.

SSD caching has a "break-in" period of one or two iterations of using said data; once the data is moved over, the performance is on par with/identical to a discrete SSD.


Green and orange lines denote a HDD/SSD cache combo using Intel's "Smart Response Technology" to perform SSD caching, under two different modes.

Hitachi has worse failure rates, although that's not saying much. Cheap Western Digital drives are nonexistent, and there is that 90% chance that he gets a Seagate drive which doesn't fail for its operational life.

EDIT> Just a question: What are some of the implications that Seagate's purchase of Samsung's HDD division has? Will this result in patents and manufacture technology being cannibalized into their own fabs, or is this used merely to merge their factories and suppliers? Are Samsung drives no longer manufactured, or will they be rebranded as Seagate drives and sold? Can't seem to find answers to these questions with Google.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 5 2012, 8:58 pm by Aristocrat.

I'm not clear on whats happening with Samsung. All I know is if you can snag an F3 for a good price, jump on it quick.

Thanks for the build! I do have a question about the CPU though. I figured since I'm going all out I might as well get the i7 instead of the i5, is there any specific reason you put the i5 instead?

Also, since I might not keep it in the same place is there an internal WiFi reciever I can buy?

No reason to pay more for a CPU. Its a quad core. If you want more out of it, you overclock it. i5 and i7 are just lineup designations.

For USB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045
For internal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704059

I use that exact same USB adapter and I love it. If you have to have internal though, there you go.

Thank you for the advice, I will probably order the parts tomorrow morning so if you have any last minute changes try to catch me before then.

I expect you guys to help me out if I cant figure out how to put it together

Don't worry its what we're here for.

Everything should be set.

To elaborate on this, i7 has hyper-threading, which does precisely jack shit for gaming but can help with video encode and other tasks that benefit from being able to schedule two tasks on one physical CPU (The absolute theoretical maximum improvement is 100% if the two threads on the same physical CPU has one use only the integer unit and one use only the floating point unit. Realistically, the improvement is anywhere from 0 to 20%, heavily slanted towards the low end. The average would be something around 2-5% or so by my estimate. HT isn't something I'd pay extra for.)

Also, an i7-2600K has a very slightly higher base frequency than the i5-2500k. This makes no difference when you overclock, and is totally not worth the extra hundred or so dollars.

By the way, the i5-2400 is not really overclock-able (You can change the turbo boost bins, but that's hardly any improvement). If you want to eventually overclock, get an i5-2500k for minimal additional cost because it has an unlocked multiplier, but you might want to get that hyper-212 cooler instead of the Thermaltake one as OC increases heat emitted proportional to the square of voltage. Overclocking sandy bridge chips is a very, very simple task, but voltage should not be set above 1.4V if you want the CPU to last you 4 years.

(Also note that K-versions of intel processors lack VT-d. Not like that makes any sort of difference whatsoever.)

I really think he's fine with stock at any rate.