Building 1st PC and need advice

[Bigb3232]

I am going to attempt to build my own PC, so I was looking for some advice. It will be mainly be used for gaming and just browsing the net. I am the very early stages, but these are the parts ive been looking at:

Processor: Intel core i7 950 3.06ghz

Motherboard: Asus psx58d

Hard drive: western digital caviar black 2TB

Ram: corsair dominator 6 6gb (2x 3gb) 12800 1600mhz

Power supply: corsair 750w

Video card: Evga geforce 1280mb gtx470

Solid state drive: Kingston 64gb

OS: Windows 7

Dvd drive: Lite-on light scribe 24x SATA DVD+/rw drive

These are the items vie been looking at, but I was wondering if their could be any issues here or some better parts I could choose. Any help would be appreciated.

[Deneb]

How much money are you looking to spend on the system? The CPU is a good one but it is a Bloomfield-based CPU so you’re going to need a more expensive motherboard to run it. If you go with the Lynnfield I7 CPU you can get a less expensive motherboard.

Intel Core i7 Quad-core I7-860 2.8GHz Processor - BX80605I7860 $295.09

http://www.buy.com/prod/intel-core-i7-860-lynnfield-2-8-ghz-8mb-l3-95w-lga-1156-quad-core/q/sellerid/17080032/loc/111/212123607.html

You can’t get this CPU from Newegg anymore because they sold out.

I think the sweet spot right now and hard drive size is 1 TB. I’m not a fan of solid-state drives at this time. They’re really not all that much faster and it adds complexity to a system.

You shouldn’t have to spend more then around $1200 to build a nice complete box. With a parts you’ve posted you are going to be looking more at around $1600. Considering that the Sandy Bridge CPUs will be out soon and the die shrink to Ivy Bridge should be available by this time next year it doesn’t make sense to spend more on a new system.

Were I would splurge would be on the computer case and PSU. A basic burner is about $22. These parts you can reuse and perhaps a video card. I would try to go as cheap as possible on the motherboard and RAM and find a midpriced CPU.

[RickyTick]

Intel Core i7 Quad-core I7-860 2.8GHz Processor - BX80605I7860 $295.09

http://www.buy.com/prod/intel-core-i7-860-lynnfield-2-8-ghz-8mb-l3-95w-lga-1156-quad-core/q/sellerid/17080032/loc/111/212123607.html

You can’t get this CPU from Newegg anymore because they sold out.

Newegg has replaced the 860 with the 870, and it is currently $280 with free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115213



I think the sweet spot right now and hard drive size is 1 TB. I’m not a fan of solid-state drives at this time. They’re really not all that much faster and it adds complexity to a system.

I agree. Dollar per gb is still fairly high on the SSD, A nice WD Caviar Black 1TB should be all you need.



Were I would splurge would be on the computer case and PSU. A basic burner is about $22. These parts you can reuse and perhaps a video card. I would try to go as cheap as possible on the motherboard and RAM and find a midpriced CPU.

That's right. A nice case and psu can last you through several builds. Most people go way overkill on a psu, but the difference in price between say a 500 watt and a 750 watt is usually not more than about $30. So why not go for the 750 for a little reassurance.
I don't know that I would go "as cheap as possible" on the motherboard and ram. There's a lot to be said for a high quality motherboard. I would be looking for something with USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s. Something like this would be good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412

[Bigb3232]

How much money are you looking to spend on the system? The CPU is a good one but it is a Bloomfield-based CPU so you’re going to need a more expensive motherboard to run it. If you go with the Lynnfield I7 CPU you can get a less expensive motherboard.

Intel Core i7 Quad-core I7-860 2.8GHz Processor - BX80605I7860 $295.09

http://www.buy.com/prod/intel-core-i7-860-lynnfield-2-8-ghz-8mb-l3-95w-lga-1156-quad-core/q/sellerid/17080032/loc/111/212123607.html

You can’t get this CPU from Newegg anymore because they sold out.

I think the sweet spot right now and hard drive size is 1 TB. I’m not a fan of solid-state drives at this time. They’re really not all that much faster and it adds complexity to a system.

You shouldn’t have to spend more then around $1200 to build a nice complete box. With a parts you’ve posted you are going to be looking more at around $1600. Considering that the Sandy Bridge CPUs will be out soon and the die shrink to Ivy Bridge should be available by this time next year it doesn’t make sense to spend more on a new system.

Were I would splurge would be on the computer case and PSU. A basic burner is about $22. These parts you can reuse and perhaps a video card. I would try to go as cheap as possible on the motherboard and RAM and find a midpriced CPU.

this the m/b i purchased:

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-P6X58D-Premium-1366-Motherboard/dp/B002WSHXQ2/ref=sr_1_13?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1291823284&sr=1-13

so the 17-950 bloomfield will not work on this board?

i also had my eye on this video card:

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclocked-PCI-Express-Graphics-012-P3-1472-AR/dp/B003EEMFUC/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2047RT2X46C8U&colid=2ANKHON3DOY18

im trying to stay around the $1200 mark and ive gotten some good deals/rebates this past week.

[RickyTick]

Oh, and the GTX570 is very tempting right now. AMD is expected to release the Cayman series any day now. It may worth the wait just to see what they have and see if it has any effect on Nvidia prices.

[RickyTick]

this the m/b i purchased:

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-P6X58D-Premium-1366-Motherboard/dp/B002WSHXQ2/ref=sr_1_13?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1291823284&sr=1-13

so the 17-950 bloomfield will not work on this board?

i also had my eye on this video card:

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclocked-PCI-Express-Graphics-012-P3-1472-AR/dp/B003EEMFUC/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2047RT2X46C8U&colid=2ANKHON3DOY18

im trying to stay around the $1200 mark and ive gotten some good deals/rebates this past week.

Well, if that's the motherboard you want and have already purchased it, then yes you should definitely go with the i7-950, and then choose a 6gb kit of triple channel ram.

See my post above about the video card.

[Deneb]

Good observation on the CPU. I got the 2.8 gigahertz version for almost exactly the same price. Darn!

As far as motherboard prices go I agree it’s important to get a quality board. What I mean is is not necessary to spend $225 or something like that when you get an adequate board for under $150. The one you linked to is very similar to the one I got for my latest build which I list below. However the reviews on the one you listed I don’t believe are as good.

GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $119.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425

“I would be looking for something with USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s.”


SATA 6 Gbit/s is actually called SATA 3 or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment 3. It’s the third revision of the standard that replaced those god-awful 40 pin cables we used to use. What we currently use is SATA 2 which moves data at 3 GB per second or 3000 MB per second.

The only time the hard drive can communicate with the motherboard at these speeds is when data is being moved in an out of the cache RAM in the hard drive. The largest amount of cache RAM available in a hard drive right now is 64 MB. So at 3000 MB a second the transfer would take 0.0213 seconds at SATA 2 speed. So the difference in time between SATA 2 and SATA 3 is 0.01066 seconds. In order to take full of vantage of either SATA 2 or SATA 3 the buffer memory in the hard drive would have to be volatile memory of at least DDR-2 800 speed with some sort of battery backup. If the buffer is non-volatile flash memory I believe it wouldn’t be fast enough to utilize either standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_drive

Memory speed in MB / sec:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM