Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

[trobinson97]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I've been spending much of the last couple of weeks convincing myself to grab a gtx 670.

[cake612]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Just put together my first build a few days ago, went the cheap route and put together an AMD build with parts from microcenter since they take an extra 40 dollars off the motherboard if you buy it with a processor.

AMD FX 4100
Gigabyte 970-UD3
Gigabyte HD 7770
500GB Seagate Barracuda

It'll do for now, my new CPU cooler should be arriving today so hopefully that'll let me get a little more performance out of it. Currently overclocked to 4 Ghz from 3.6 but my apartment gets pretty warm in the summer so I've been having temp issues on stock cooling when I go much higher.

I've mostly been playing League of Legends and Civ V and it runs both of those two pretty well but Diablo 3 has been giving me problems. I get bad framerate drops but it also seems like it's lagging so I'm wondering if I'm having network issues with the always online stuff. Hoping a better overclock will cure performance issues and I still need to play around with my router a bit.

As I said this will do for now but I'm already seeing the effects of getting a cheapish graphics card so in a month or two hopefully I can afford to pick up a 7850 or a 660.

[J4son]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I've been spending much of the last couple of weeks convincing myself to grab a gtx 670.

I was the same way for a minute. But then I found a 580 on amazon for $250. From now on I'll be checking amazon warehouse deals.

[XtremeDunkz]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

noob at this stuff, can i get a few opinions on this?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A24MQGM6UVZLP0

[cubsfan203]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Do you guys think it would be worth building a PC if you don't really have any intention of gaming on it? Maybe moderate gaming at best, but I certainly wouldn't need something running the highest settings. Mostly just something that is really fast with it's main purpose being day trading.

Or should I just save my money and upgrade my RAM for like $30 and go from 1GB to 3GB? (Ram is more expensive for these older models)

[mikenoob]

noob at this stuff, can i get a few opinions on this?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A24MQGM6UVZLP0

It's capable of playing games, but overpriced for what you're getting

@cubs how do you define moderate gaming? Steam games? Skyrim? Nba2k? You can always go for an entry level card like a 7750 if you want to build a pc. Building a pc isn't just for top of the line gaming. You can construct a decent computer for about 500 with a 7750. It will be capable of running skyrim on medium or high which I believe should be good enough for your moderate gaming. If that's too much for your gaming needs just look for something at a lower tier.
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[cubsfan203]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

It's capable of playing games, but overpriced for what you're getting

@cubs how do you define moderate gaming? Steam games? Skyrim? Nba2k? You can always go for an entry level card like a 7750 if you want to build a pc. Building a pc isn't just for top of the line gaming. You can construct a decent computer for about 500 with a 7750. It will be capable of running skyrim on medium or high which I believe should be good enough for your moderate gaming. If that's too much for your gaming needs just look for something at a lower tier.
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I probably wouldn't even play a game like Skyrim on a PC. Moderate is probably a stretch, I would just want something capable of at least running a game if I had a spur of the moment have to play this game phase.

I'm not sure building one would really be an advantage over buying a retail PC. The only problem with those that I can find is you can only upgrade them so they can really only keep up with technology for so long.

[WTF]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

A lot of time retail PC's also skimp on quality parts, and use OE specific parts, which are lacking in the full fledge features. This is especially the case with Motherboards. Just keep that in mind as well. Part of the reason Retail PC's are "cheaper" sometimes, are because they've got the ability to get cheaper (in price & quality) components.

[Burns11]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Do you guys think it would be worth building a PC if you don't really have any intention of gaming on it? Maybe moderate gaming at best, but I certainly wouldn't need something running the highest settings. Mostly just something that is really fast with it's main purpose being day trading.

Or should I just save my money and upgrade my RAM for like $30 and go from 1GB to 3GB? (Ram is more expensive for these older models)

What are the specs of your current PC?

In other news I start my new build tomorrow as soon as UPS brings my case.

[cubsfan203]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

What are the specs of your current PC?

In other news I start my new build tomorrow as soon as UPS brings my case.

Here they are. Just copied them from some website but they look accurate for my model. There isn't really a whole lot of upgrade options for it. I could go as high as 4GB RAM but that's it, and I think a slightly larger hard drive would work as well from what I've read. I could just spend like $300-$400 on a retail computer and get a significant upgrade.


AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor
1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 Memory
160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
16x DVD+/-RW Burner
19" Dell E197FP LCD Monitor
NVIDIA GeForce 7300LE Graphics with 256MB TurboCache
Integrated AC'97 Audio
10/100 Ethernet
Six USB 2.0 Ports
Windows XP MCE, MS Works 8

[thedudedominick]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Not sure if this is the right spot to ask this but I will fire away.

I am planning on buying a laptop for college, no going to "build" a pc like this thread is about. I want to be able to play games on it without having to run everything on low.

My major question is what exactly should I be looking for spec wise, or do you guys have any suggestions for laptop in the 1000-1500 price range that would be good for gaming?

[WTF]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I'll let others chime in, as I'm headed out. But I would look at xoticpc.com, gentechpc.com, lpc-digital.com...

All of them specialize in the gaming pc's. You can get a downright beastly laptop from those resellers. I prefer gentechpc.com, ask for Ken. Great guy.

I'll chime back in a little later.

[DerkontheOS]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I think I saw an ASUS laptop in Best Buy with beastly specs for a little over $1000.

[DerkontheOS]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

A lot of time retail PC's also skimp on quality parts, and use OE specific parts, which are lacking in the full fledge features. This is especially the case with Motherboards. Just keep that in mind as well. Part of the reason Retail PC's are "cheaper" sometimes, are because they've got the ability to get cheaper (in price & quality) components.

Also, many times, retail pcs parts aren't compatible with other parts. For example if I buy a Dell and I want to upgrade my internals because my computer is getting out of date I can just get on Newegg and buy parts I have to buy the highly priced Dell parts that aren't nearly as good performance and sometimes quality.

That is were building your own pc saves you a bunch of money. It many only be a $100 bucks cheaper than an equivalent retail pc, sometimes a little more than said retail pc. But in four years when your computer is struggling running the latest and greatest game all you have to do is get on Newegg buy a some parts for a couple hundred bucks and continue you playing away. If you bought a retail pc you would have to buy a new one that wouldn't be nearly as good as what you would have done in the last sentence, plus it would more than likely be twice the cost of upgrading your home built pc.

Just some helpful insight for people not sure about building their own. I was in the same bout five months ago, with very little computer knowledge. I took a leap of faith and it was one of the easiest things I have ever done, with the help of the Newegg tutorial videos on Youtube, without knowing what I was doing before hand. Hell you can build a computer that can run a damn space station for a $1000.

[DerkontheOS]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Not sure if this is the right spot to ask this but I will fire away.

I am planning on buying a laptop for college, no going to "build" a pc like this thread is about. I want to be able to play games on it without having to run everything on low.

My major question is what exactly should I be looking for spec wise, or do you guys have any suggestions for laptop in the 1000-1500 price range that would be good for gaming?

You may not know the name, but they build fantastic motherboards and are very reliable from my experience with them.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+17.3%22+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/5176239.p?id=1218621250769&skuId=5176239&ref=30&lo c=KW-4072&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=5176239&extensionType= pe:g&s_kwcid=PTC!pe!asus%20laptop!e!0!g!!211166434 39

Great processor, better than the one in my home built desktop!

Good video card, even though I prefer AMD chipsets but that's just a personal thing.

^^^ Those are the two most important things for gaming.

1 TB hard drive. Which is an insane amount, I have 250 GB and not even close it filling it up.

8 GB of RAM that is upgradable to 16 GB, but 8 should do just fine.

4 USB 3.0 ports! All you need to know about them is they are very useful and faster than the standard USB ports.

17'' screen. I don't understand how people that play games on a laptop do it on smaller screens.

If I was buying a laptop for games this would be the one I buy.