Building a gaming PC

[CheddarTrek]

On tablet so sorry for short post. Strongly suggest asking in General Hardware subforum on Hardforum for second opinion. DLP is awesome toothough and helped me with mine.

[Sacro]

What KaiDASH said. Though if you find a good deal for 16GB, there's no reason not to take it.

[Cosmo4]

Originally Posted by Sacro

What KaiDASH said. Though if you find a good deal for 16GB, there's no reason not to take it.

Unless you can find a better deal for 8gb. Most games don't use more than 2gb of ram and Windows plus a few open windows doesn't use that much. You are basically paying for the convenience to never close what you open. I am using 4gb of ram right now. Only recently upgraded from 2gb because Skyrim with mods finally maxed my ram out.

As for mechanical keyboards. I suppose if you do a lot of typing or simply prefer them, then spending the money makes sense. However, I have used a $20 logitech basic keyboard for 6 years. Seems to work just fine.

Personally I'd put whatever money you could save into a nice display and a good set of speakers/headphones. What is the point of having a beast PC if you display it on a garbage TN panel and listen to it on $10 headphones?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-CROSSOVE...t_12726wt_1396

Korean IPS panels are all the rage right now for people trying to get an IPS panel on the cheap.

[Anya]

I bought this http://www.cplonline.com.au/online-s...ategory_id=267 a few months ago.... and it works really really really well.

[OneSimpleIdea]

Originally Posted by Anya

I bought this http://www.cplonline.com.au/online-s...ategory_id=267 a few months ago.... and it works really really really well.

That actually looks really good, especially considering it comes pre-built (I'm guessing). Will probably get something like it once Windows 8 is released. Thanks for the link!

[Eidolonic]

Well.

Actually.

I'm in the process of putting together a build myself at the moment, so I looked up those exact components.

It costs 1530 to build it yourself, vs. 1841 to buy it premade - and that's with some pretty suboptimal parts selected.

CPU is top end, probably slightly more than you need, especially if used for just gaming.

No cooler is kind of bleh, if you're paying for that core, you'd want to overclock, and it would get far too warm without one, I think.

The graphics card is pretty mediocre, especially considering it is billed as a 'gaming rig'.

The motherboard is expensive, when the z77 suits the purpose just as well, for a fair chunk less.

I'd probably get a slightly better power supply, but I'm paranoid after my last rig had a faulty one that fried damn near everything when it failed.

And if you can get a Windows key from a friend, you can save an easy $100 there.

I'd suggest something like this? It's similar to what I'm contemplating purchasing, and will perform better than the pre-packaged rig for significantly less:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dtTE

1840 vs. 1340* with a much better graphics card. I dunno, maybe the convenience is worth 500 dollars and slightly worse GPU to you, but yeah.

*Noting that this is without Windows, operating under the assumption that you have a copy. Tack 100 on if you need to purchase it to install on a rig you build.

And sorry for hijacking your thread, Ellisande - what did you end up getting? Like I said, I'm in the process of tossing a build together, myself.

[Innomine]

No probs, I had the same thoughts as you on the above PC. Everything is good, except the graphics card.

I've only made a few changes, getting a slightly different PSU, same price, just better according to the forum that Cheddar linked me. I've also decided to say fuck it to the optical drive, and use a usb flash drive instead. It's cheaper and has a lot more utility.

Ended up going for the Filco Majestouch2 tenkeyless version, keyboard wise.

Other than that, it's all the same.

Edit: This is my thread on Hardforum. Should cover all the changes I've made.

The only thing i'm not sure about right now, is would a CPU cooler fit into my case? THat was an issue brought up to me by a friend who hates small cases. So I just want to know if he'd be able to say "I told you so" just in case. :P

Gonna head down to the warehouse on thursday and pick all the parts up then.

Edit 2: Oh, and what kind of screwdrivers will I need for this? Would a normal phillips do the trick?

[Anya]

Iirc they gave me something that over clocks because they didn't have what they listed there in stock...

I just nodded and agreed, having no idea about that sort of stuff.

I do have my invoice around here somewhere, when I find it I'll put it up.

---------- Post automerged at 10:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 PM ----------

[kaleironfist]

Originally Posted by Ellisande

The only thing i'm not sure about right now, is would a CPU cooler fit into my case? THat was an issue brought up to me by a friend who hates small cases. So I just want to know if he'd be able to say "I told you so" just in case. :P

Edit 2: Oh, and what kind of screwdrivers will I need for this? Would a normal phillips do the trick?

If you're sticking with the Corsair Carbide 300R, you can fit pretty much any tower heatsink and it'll be fine (some caveats, but you're not going for big heatsinks or side panel case fans, so not an issue). Yes to normal phillips screwdrivers.

[Deplore]

Originally Posted by Ellisande

The only thing i'm not sure about right now, is would a CPU cooler fit into my case? THat was an issue brought up to me by a friend who hates small cases. So I just want to know if he'd be able to say "I told you so" just in case. :P

Gonna head down to the warehouse on thursday and pick all the parts up then.

Edit 2: Oh, and what kind of screwdrivers will I need for this? Would a normal phillips do the trick?

Honestly, I'd be more worried about the CPU cooler clearing the ram than fitting into your case.

Any half decent aftermarket case that can fit a 120mm fan in front or back can fit in a CPU cooler, no problem. What you do want to know is your ram height. If your ram have tall heatsinks (like this) it probably won't fit under the cooler -- especially if you use gigantic coolers (like Noctua 14 or whatever the hell they call it nowadays) -- especially if you want to attach two fans for push-pull configuration.

You want to buy low profile rams, like this -- only then you'll be assured that it'll clear the cooler.

And yes, a standard phillips screw driver will do. You won't be needing exotic tools unless you're IT (but then, you'd be a poor IT if you don't have torx, butterfly and other proprietary screwdrivers on hand).