Hey guys, so, I'm going to try to build a Desktop. I have no experience at this whatsoever, and honestly I'm not even sure I've ever even looked inside one before.

It shall be an adventure.

I'm running all of this by a few friends of mine as well as posting here to get their input, but you all seem to be very computer savvy so I figured why not post here?

I'm also posting on HardForum for advice and discussion, but since no one over there knows me I'm not sure how well that will go.

I have a lot of work to do also to actually finalize parts selection. As you'll see in a second I'm in the very early stages of figuring things out.

Processor -- This is the part I'm having the most trouble with. I can get a brand-spanking-new i7-2600 for $300 on Newegg, which is only $20 more than the i7-870 someone had suggested, so that seems like a great deal. But it might be overkill and I might find myself wanting a new computer before it maxes out, so I don't know what to do. There are some QuadCore Xeon's available on Newegg for prices in the $200 range (as is the new i5-2500 which scores crazy high on the performance charts), but despite reading and looking I am still at a loss. Hopefully someone can convince me of something! Hyperthreading is a "future proof" option that it seems wise to invest in at least given that I don't know what kinds of software I might want run in a few years.

Motherboard -- (1) How much would you spend on one and (2) how many of all these slots do I want to have to make sure I have room to expand and add things later? I am concerned about getting one that is too small and wanting to add something to the computer and not being able to do so. As for which one I get, well, I need to pick a processor first. The two primary form factors seem to be ATX and MicroATX, but I'm not sure why you buy a smaller one for a Desktop that was fewer ports? At least most seem to have 2x USB 3.0 ports. Any particular brands you like/hate?

Graphics Card -- Leaning towards the Radeon 5700 for $130. If I want to spend a bit more I could get a Radeon 6850 or a Geforce GTX 460 for around $200. I'm just not sure -- I do want to play games other than WoW (like Dragon Age and Starcraft II) and have room for future games, but this if this is a part I'll upgrade in 2 years will I even notice a big difference then? I don't think any Chemistry Software I'll be running while doing a Postdoc will require anything worse than these games do, and if it does by some chance I can always upgrade.

Power Supply -- Found lots of these. Assuming I want "room to grow" for later upgrades, how much should I get? I was looking at these two 650W ones for now. The Antec is cheaper but I have read better reviews about the slightly most expensive Corsair.

Case -- I found several at around $50 that the good people of the interwebs seem to be strongly advocating (Antecs and Cooler Masters mostly) but I haven't looked into this too seriously yet. I want something with plenty of room inside and good airflow though, I've had too many issues in the past with overheating to want to worry about it with a Desktop. Is there anything I need to know about picking a case other than to make sure my chosen motherboard size can fit inside it? I don't need to check for extra holes or anything do I? And it seems like half the things have "room" for fans but don't come fully loaded with them?

RAM -- Someone explained Dual vs. Tri-Channel RAM to me and said that Tri-Channel probably wasn't worth it yet given the extra motherboard costs, is that about right? Any particular brand of memory you'd recommend like Corsair? It looks like I can get 2x4GB for around $100 and 2x2GB is half that, so either way I should be good on cost so long as I have extra slots on the Motherboard for more I guess. But if I get 2x4GB maybe extra slots aren't really needed because I won't need more than 8GB even in a few years? What about speed -- I know that faster (1600) is likely to be superior to the slower (1333 or 1066) speed, but for optimal performance are you supposed to match this speed to something? The Front Side Bus or the MoBo or ?

Hard Drive -- I want to get something with good performance, obviously, and that will work with the 6GB/s SATA thingy that all the motherboards are bragging about having. That is, unless I'm wrong about that connection being related to Hard Drives, but I think it is. I also want room to add a SSD in a year or two if I decide I want one (or get one for Christmas). Do I need to check something on the MoBo or elsewhere to make sure that's a valid option? Anyway, haven't worried about this too much yet either, but I'll probably stick with a brand I recognize like Western Digital or Seagate unless given another suggestion. What about 7200 rpm vs. 10k rpm? Anything else I should know?

Optical Drive -- There's plenty of them around for fairly cheap. DVD-burners are available at $25 a pop or so, and not that much more if you want it to play Blue-Ray, so it's not a major cost. However if I want to add a second optical drive later (for copying discs directly or something) is there anything I need to know to make sure I'm future proof? Also what about specs on these things, is speed or brand very important?

Operating System -- eBay is selling what appear to be valid, unopened copies of Windows 7 64bit Ultimate for under $100 so I'm going to try to pick one of those up once this I know for sure I'm going to try this.

Other -- Am I missing anything I might want or need but don't know about like a Network Card, Sound Card, Thermal Paste, Fans, etc? I'm very new to this still and despite all my reading I'm still feeling out of my depth.

Monitor -- I have one that I am using at the moment and am expecting another a gift, so this is not relevant to cost, but if I want to connect the computer to a TV later to use that as a monitor that would be a nice option to have. I just don't know what port I need for that to make sure I have one. Speaking of -- a lot of these graphics cards say that they can show resolution at 2500x1600 or something, is there a way to get an LCD/LED monitor rated at 1920x1080 to show that?

TOTAL: $750-$1000+ (not including the OS, which is within my range. I'd prefer to keep it to $900 though, as that's about what I won in November)


Any commentary is very welcome. Thanks much!

 

@DvorakQ -- Thanks man. I've done a bit of looking at Tom's Hardware but haven't posted yet. Once I have things a little more nailed down I'll definitely do that.

The gaming build looks good, but I do have one question. That one, as well as most of the other gaming builds I've seen, tends to focus primarily on the GPU (spending approx $300) as opposed to the CPU.

My plans were to spend $300 on the processor in order to make sure I was future proof and simply upgrade a cheaper ($150-200) graphics card as needed.

I.e. I'm building not for the now, but for the future.

Is that a valid thought process or am I missing something? Everyone else I see seems to be doing something more like your build says to do. But if I'm really going overkill on the processor I could probably be convinced to tone it down and just build again in 3 years instead of hoping to get a processor that'll last me for 5.

Besides -- I doubt I'll be overly picky about my games. I've never gamed on anything but a laptop of some kind, usually on Low-Fair settings, and find that WoW runs "just fine" by my standards on netbooks.

@Finicky -- Good information! I'll incorporate it into my building process.

I've never used Linux (Ubuntu) outside of when it was running a computer for a NMR I was using. I'll read up on Live Boot CDs for formatting. Got any good links about that?

Wrist Strap now added to my list of things to buy. They're cheap and the peace of mind will be worth it.

@Taure -- Modular, got it. I checked that out on Wikipedia and it does appear to make things a hell of a lot more convenient.

Thanks for the other info as well. I was considering going ahead and getting an SSD anyway if my budget doesn't get stretched too far. If I wait and add one later I'd have to re-install Windows on it and that'd be a pain I expect.

@Viewtiful -- Thanks! Awesome guide. Very awesome.

As for as builds being for gaming, well, that's fine. Right now I'm operating on the assumption that any programs I might need to run in the future will run on a computer capable of mid-high end gaming. The only change I'm keeping in mind is that if I need to run CPU intensive programs (as opposed to GPU intensive) I want to have a nice, future-proof CPU in addition to a nice GPU, just to be safe.

Tentative Build -- Parts based on comments from DLP, 2 buddies of mine, and another forum.

Processor: Up in the air here. Supposedly the Price/Performance for the i7-2600k is vastly superior to everything else, so that's my "expensive" option.

What's the best sub-$250 option out there right now? There are a plethora of i5-processors hovering around the $200 range, including the newer ones, as well as older i7-processors. That doesn't even touch on last generation Xeon chips, which I understand are generally solid despite their age.

I can look at benchmarks here, but that doesn't tell me much about future-proofing or other aspects.

Motherboard: Assuming an i7-2600k processor, I checked out P67 and H67 motherboards and tentatively added an ASUS P8P67 to my list. It appears to have lots of ports.

If I get a more reasonably priced processor I'll pick a different Mobo, but I do think I want to stick with ATX instead of going smaller.

Graphics Card: 5770 vs. 6850 vs. GTX 460 -- Leaning strongly towards the 6850.

However I do see that the Geforce 560 is supposed to be coming out soon, as someone said, so even if it's not in my price range it might force something else to drop in price.

Not sure which brand to get -- guess I should read reviews and find one with good fans/warranty that's preferably somewhat quiet.

I'd like to get something even nicer, but I expect that anything will be impressive given my past gaming standards. To date I have never gamed on anything but a Laptop, and while my laptop is nice (Thinkpad FTW) I've always kept settings at Low-Fair for optimal performance.

Power Supply: Corsair 650TX at present. However it isn't modular. I changed from the Antec 650W because I was told that the Corsair is better because it has more amperage on the +12V rail, making it higher quality.

Corsair does offer the same PSU in Modular form for a bit more money (Looks like about $30 more) -- think it's worth it?

Case: For now leaning towards the Haf 912 unless I hear other cases recommended. I'm not set on this one by any means, but it has good reviews from what I've seen so far.

Memory: Tentatively 2x4GB Ripjaws but I might go up to 1600 instead of 1333 if this build doesn't get too expensive.

I think the FSB or whatever of the processor is 1333, so unless I overclock it's going to cap out there anyway, right?

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 looks like a brilliant recommendation. Definitely getting one.

I'm strongly considering going ahead and getting an SSD for this build instead of adding one later. Apparently if you want to run your OS off of the SSD it can be a pain to re-install/transfer it from one Hard Drive to another. How big is Windows 7 these days? I'm guessing I'd want a 64GB drive, if not more, so I have room for other programs as well.

Any suggestions? Tentatively looking at a Crucial 64GB. Adding an extra $120+ for this may or may not happen though, depending on my final build -- this is purely in the land of "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if..." My Mobo did have a 6Gb/s slot though, so I picked one that could take advantage of it.

Thanks again guys! Am I missing anything obvious here?

 

I don't think they're that heavy now, honestly, at least not bad enough to justify the i7-2600k. But I am hoping to use this for 5 years, and 5 years from now I think the processor might be able to still run things that other current ones would struggle with.

I haven't got much of an ePeen for gaming rigs. I've literally never done gaming on a desktop, well, apart from playing Warcraft II in Junior High. I'm used to <60fps and Low Settings, so anything that will play High now and Medium later will probably amaze me.

You're the second to tell me this, so I'm probably gonna go with it. Apparently Intel and Crucial are gonna have a new wave of nicer ones coming out in a few months at reasonable cost.

Stupid Question Incoming: If I buy an SSD later, how much trouble is it to get your OS and programs transferred over to it? I mean, you can't just copy & paste Windows.

I don't really need 8GB. But it's $90 instead of $50, and someone told me (perhaps incorrectly?) that 2 sticks are better than 4 for making sure things stay efficient. So my thoughts were to go with 2x4GB instead of 2x2GB now and 2 more later.

If my budget starts hurting though I'll probably cut costs somewhere like this where an easy upgrade path is available later.

Thanks DvorakQ! Love the input.

Good to have confirmation from someone who is familiar with the brand, thanks.

Also good to know about the Crossfire option with the 6850. I think the new Mobo I selected since my first post has the option. However it would probably be 1.5-2 years before I feel the need for a GPU upgrade, and would they still be available then?

Thanks Viewtiful.

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Slightly Separate Subject: Monitor isn't included in the cost here because it's a gift, but I've been trying to pick something that I will be happy with.

I'd prefer greater than 1920x1080p like this Asus, but that one is rather large and the con is that it's a TN panel (which are supposedly ugly in comparison to VP and IPS). The Dell U2311 is an IPS monitor and supposedly beautiful, but since it's IPS instead of TN the response time is slow which might have adverse effects on gaming. I personally prefer the look of LED to CCFL. All the nice monitors I'd really like are outside the range of "gift giving" and I wouldn't want to spend that much on one anyway (Eizo comes to mind as a good brand, as does Benq).

So I'm left at a loss as to the best sub-$300 monitor out there. None of them combine all the goodies into one package, and I can't decide if a non-TN panel would show noticable ghosting in games. I like the Asus, but without seeing it in person I'm hesitant to purchase.

If no comments on Monitors no worries -- I have one I can use until I decide, but I am on a 2-month-ish time limit on giving it back to who I'm borrowing from.

 

I was basing my "future-proofing" talk on a friend who did the following...

Intel Core 2 Quad 9650, 3.0ghz
4gb DDR2 memory
Intel G33 Mobo
128mb Radeon 9600

He's upgraded the graphics card twice since 2006 (to a 256Mb and more more recently to a 1Gb) and says that that is the only thing he's changed on his machine since he built it.

The processor has apparently not yet come close to maxing out, plays WoW/SC2 on high settings, plays newer games at decent settings, and generally keeps up and is expected to continue keeping up for another year at least.

Whether or not it's blown out of the water by an $850 machine at present is kind of moot to me -- because it's still doing just fine 4+ years later and there isn't a need to upgrade. I was hoping to more or less do the same thing.

However everyone but that guys tells me that it's not possible to future-proof a machine because it will get dated too easily, so I have to consider the fact that it might be true.

But then everyone who says that also says that you can't game on a netbook (and you can in my opinion -- I've done it).

I just don't know. Maybe I should back down, pick up the i5-2500 processor for significantly cheaper, and plan on building again in 3 years. I wish I could decide, hah.

Thanks yet again for input -- it's appreciated. I don't mean to sound argumentative and apologize if I do.

 

Your chem programs likely are single-process programs, definitely look to an i5/i7 for improvement there. The i3/5/7's dynamically overclock a single core if it's being used more than the others (to a shared thermal limit) to improve performance for single-process applications.

As to the person who looks down on hyperthreading, maybe in P4s, but HT in the i5/7's really whoops up in any high-thread scenario especially in I/O bound applications. Obviously, something that's completely compute bound (values in registers, no IO) HT won't do a whole lot, but fortunately for us the CPU is generally bored waiting for I/O to complete and thrives with a good implementation of HT.

I went for an i7 and haven't looked back yet. I'd get it if it isn't too much more expensive, you future proof that much longer. If it's a lot more, just get the i5-2500.

If you want to switch to a SSD later...you can, it'll require some work, but it's doable. The easiest way is to just keep your documents and what not on a different drive and reinstall Windows.