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Help Mura build a computer from scratch... plz?

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08.04.2012 6:44am

Thread Creator (Edited on 08.04.2012 at 7:20am)

Murasame
HALE YEAH

So my old computer shart itself. Not entirely sure if it's permanent or not, but I'll deal with that on Monday.

So I'm sitting on my super old computer from 2005. It is officially older than my cousin. But it's doing the job I need it to do, namely connect to the internet. However, my old computer shitting and farting itself to death is going to be a catalyst for me to actually build a new rig, one that it better designed for entertainment purposes. The problem is, I don't entirely know where to get started.

There are some great tutorials out there, like the one on lifehack, but it doesn't beat getting some actual first hand experience on building a new computer. For example: what the fuck is with inputs and outputs these days? Is HDMI input a thing now? Does that happen with computers? Is there some sort of new audio rig that I should be aiming for?

I'll update this tread periodically if I just have to do this with tutorials, but would be nice to get some know-how up in this thread. Y'all.

EDIT: As far as I can tell, I can at the very least repurpose my optical drive, and possibly one of my hard drives (that is, if it is okay) but for the most part, from scratch. Entirely.

At the moment, I'm looking at this Processor because it looks like it might be some bang for my buck. That is about as far as I've gotten. Still think I want a dedicated graphics card in there somewhere. Possibly a dedicated sound card, too.

0

08.05.2012 12:20am

Arckanghel
Pirate.

If you don't intend to game and internet and movies is the maine focus, onboard graphics are definitely up tot he task these days. If you plan to game though, dedicated graphics are still where it's at. Your processor choice is probably a good one and will be long-lived. What all do you plan to do with the machine?

0

08.06.2012 1:12am

Thread Creator

Murasame
HALE YEAH

I'd love to throw some gaming into the mix -- upper tier first person stuff is a hell of a lot better on PC than it is on console, though I tend to game rather infrequently, online. Having it all in one convenient place, however, would work out perfectly for me, in the long run.

What I do now is mostly video files, music and internet, but that was because my current (possibly ex) rig was dualcore and had issues with everything gaming related because it was trying to do one process, both at the same time, but neither very well. As a result I had to configure games to run in a certain way, sometimes whilst the games were running, in order for them to work. For a basic benchmark: I could run The Witcher well enough to work on upper-middle level graphics, but it was always pretty choppy no matter what I did. Choppy seems (seemed) to be the defining characteristic of that particular setup.

As far as I can tell, a dedicated videocard would still be a good idea. I mean, it's unlikely that this would be an issue, but my current (possibly ex) rig still had a few issues running anything that was 1080 video. It might just be the container, because my old (possibly temporarily current) computer basically provided me with a couple of stills before I could shut the whole thing down.

So it could go either way, but a graphics card would still be nice.

0

08.06.2012 2:12am

Indiana Jerico
Sinfully Delicious v2
Administrator

I currently have an nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti. I assembled this rig more than a year ago and I still have to meet a game that I installed that it can't process on the highest settings. I think this is cheaper now than it was a year ago what with the new ones that are out so if you'd like a go at a card that's cheap but still capable of churning out, say, Battlefield 3 at the Ultra settings, you might want to look into it.

===

"Plans? What plans? I'm making this up as I go!"

d e v i a t i o n �?� i m a g i n a t i o n

0

08.06.2012 7:28am

Arckanghel
Pirate.

In that case I would start at the price range.

0

08.06.2012 9:30am

Thread Creator

Murasame
HALE YEAH

With graphics card I guess I'm planning to spend around the same as I would on the CPU, and I probably wouldn't want to stray too far from that, but then, I'm not exactly sure what the price ranges are fro GPUs. Nor am I entirely certain what the price ranges are for any of the parts I need.

I have a repair guy coming tomorrow, and because I'm paying a lot, I have been told to utilise the fuck out of him. Which is something I will be doing on the computer build information.

0

08.06.2012 5:50pm

Revrick
Mind your P's and Q's

I built a new rig from scratch a few months back only reusing my power supply, and the cost for everything was about 700 (including some unessicary shit). Newegg comes around with some pretty good combo deals if you keep your eye out/dig around. (I got one for my i5-2400 and an intel mobo for the price listed on the i5 you linked). The big thing to remember is you don't need a 200+ dollar GPU. I went with a GeForce GT 430 for 65bucks (on sale) and the thing has been performing beautifully.

For a high-end, cheaper PC you should be looking to spend a few hundred on the processor and mobo, maybe a hundred tops on a GPU, around a hundred for a power supply, then about a hundred on HDD/RAM/DVD depending on what you can recycle from old machines. Maybe 50 bucks on a new case? Then assuming your monitor is still functional you'll have a fancy new PC at around $600.

I love being elbow deep inside a computer so if you need some help or advice I might be of assistance. Although I can be something of a Dr. Frankenstein when it comes to less valuable rigs.

And for the love of god make sure your mobo has all the proper pins and connectors for what you buy AND your power supply has enough wires (or enough of a certain pinned wire) to connect to everything.

0

08.07.2012 5:59am

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

There are some damned good deals in midrange GPUs, from $100~$150. Even top-of-the-line GPUs of the previous generation come in at the same price. And topping $200 for a GPU is ridiculous and only worth bragging rights.

On your power supply, read some reviews and buy a good one. A bad PSU can kill your computer stone dead when it decides to go goodby cruel world, and a cheap one will off itself that much quicker. Corsair, Thermaltake, Antec, and Cooler Master are the big names (although I still have a soft spot for PC Power and Cooling - rock solid, but pricey.) You won't need as much wattage as you think - add up the max wattage of the GPU and CPU, double it, and buy appropriately. Should give you plenty of headroom for expansion as well.

There are so many options in the motherboard market that even I get confused. The Asus P8H77-V, however, has been getting solid reviews and is pretty feature-complete. If you're looking for a smaller board, the Asus P8Z77-I is an absolutely fantastic little Mini-ITX board that should fit in just damn near anything. ASRock, MSI, Gigabyte, and hell, even Intel are other big-name players in the motherboard market, and build exceptional boards, but I'm biased towards Asus.

Max your ram. Do it. Ram is cheap, and lots of ram makes for better performance. Kingston, Corsair, and Crucial are the big name players. G.Skill is a newer brand, but it's got good reviews.

Unless you're doing professional audio work (or are a complete audio sperg), don't bother buying offboard audio. Motherboard audio is fantastic these days, and all the Creative competitors are using the same chipset as the motherboard makers. Creative is shit, don't touch it, their drivers suck and break things.

Buy an external USB drive, as big of one as you can afford, and backup all of your files. Then unplug it and store it somewhere safe. Plug it in and run your backup utility every Friday afternoon. Otherwise keep it unplugged and in a safe place. There's nothing worse than losing all your files to a dead hard drive or bad virus. DO IT. NOW.

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08.07.2012 7:33am

Thread Creator

Murasame
HALE YEAH

RE: External - irony time! I bought an external to back up my hard drive. I knocked my glass of water against the hard drive before I had a chance to back anything up.

YAY

0

08.07.2012 9:17am

Arckanghel
Pirate.

Asus P8Z77-I, I actually just built 5 systems for a business to use as POS machines using this board. Solid little board and made for some great small systems to fit in the space as needed. Been about 3 months since they were installed and running and not a hitch. I definitely agre with SoCo there on the video card as well, you can do fine in the $100-$150 range, no need to spend $200 for what you appear to be wanting. RAM is cheap. And definitely pony up for the PSU.

0

08.08.2012 12:13am

Thread Creator

Murasame
HALE YEAH

Gotta say, Arck, that motherboard looks pretty nice, especially with the HDMI connection, and the wifi shiz, but memory wise (if, say, I wanted to expand a little on RAM) it's a little lacking.

And on the P8H77-V: I have never seen a DisplayPort connection before. New video connections are always iffy. But the presence of the S/PDIF is pretty damn great, because it means that the computer could act as a universal connection, audio wise, for any TV / monitor set up, if I ever decide to do such a thing. A DVI and a VGA connection makes it compatible with everything. And if I'm getting a graphics card, there's plenty of room for expansion, too, so the video connections might not be such a huge issue. The audio stuff, however, is great on its own. I think we might have a winner.

Is it sad that I really want that wifi Go! stuff on the P8H77-V? I think it might be.

The repair guy didn't do too much except recommend me a place to buy my stuff for cheap, and tell me my hard drive isn't wrecked. But then a talk with a friend suggested perhaps I don't want to go with the cheap guys because they don't do warranty apparently, and also because "you know those Chinese guys, Mura. Terrible about warranties."

EDIT: Seriously, the S/PDIF connector in addition to everything inside the machine just makes me want to set up some awesome gaming and computing room.

0

08.09.2012 12:20am

Arckanghel
Pirate.

I take that back, it was th eP8H67-M Pro I built the systems with. Either way, ASUS builds what I would say are the most solid boards out there. I wouldn't personally be worried about being limited to 16GB of RAM. If the life of the system is going to be around 5 years, you'll still have plenty of performance to look forward to. Along with the rest of the features you have there, I think that one trade-off is totally worth it. Even though it comes in the form of two slots, meaning you would have to replace the RAM. But as SoCo said originally, fact is, RAM is cheap, really the least of the worries on building a system in the expense or replacement department.

0

08.10.2012 2:33pm

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

If it were reasonable for me to pick up 16gb of DDR2-800, you betcher ass I'd do it in a heartbeat. It'd be cheap, but no one makes 4gb modules of it these days.

Also, I noted you said that the P8H77-V had Wifi Go! As a matter of fact, it does not - but the P8H77-V Premium does. And in short, the P8H77-V is $150 or so, the P8H77-V Premium is $500. Do the math, save your bucks, and stick a plain everyday wifi-N card in there.

0

09.18.2012 9:06am

LB
Necromancer of Winning

scratch you say? here is some copper and some bricks. my computer transmits wirelessly. via my solar panels and my fireplace. the battery is frickin huge. secrets i have mwa ha ha ha. free for some info.

0

10.22.2012 11:17pm

Thread Creator (Edited on 10.23.2012 at 10:57am)

Murasame
HALE YEAH

So I finally have enough time and enough cash to actually start this project. Life has been hell on my current computer, wasting my time with relatively simple tasks, like opening a new tab, or scrolling, or simply playing music, so frankly, anything is better than this. It's been a while since I've asked for advice, but I think I might need it again. Slight changes to original ideas have been made.

I am looking at this processor. ;(Same price as previous one)
This MoBo.
A 60GB SSD.
2 of these.
That comes to a little under $500, according to my trusty parts list. I was planning on spending under $1000. Looks like I'm well on target for that. Could even stand getting a new monitor. :P

As of yet I am not sure about a GPU, a case and power supply, and I definitely need some kind of optical drive, what with the heavy use I get from CDs and such. Also to install an OS? Any suggestions would be great. I still feel completely stupid when it comes to this stuff, but I think I got the compatability alright.

EDIT: Another look suggest incompatibility between the LX and the Ram, so I'm gonna have to look again. Ripjaws is apparently fairly good, though, so hopefully sticking with that.

EDIT 2: the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H mobo does not have these compatibility issues, and even better, has better audio setup. It's only about $25 more expenisve, too.

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