The official "help me buy a new PC" thread

[Surgeon.]

Not sure if it helps, but this was my build from a couple months back. Been pretty happy with it.

Would probably be close to $1000 by now.

Intel Core i7 2600
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
G.Skill RipjawsX 2x4GB 1600
Seagate 3.5” Barracuda 1TB
ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II 1280MB
CoolerMaster HAF 922
Antec TruePower TP-750Watt
LG DVD burner
Coolermaster Universal Hyper 212+
OEM 64 bit Win 7 Home Premium

[Slippery]

Classic Surgeon being incredibly unhelpful.

Wait for Damo to see the thread and post a reply. ^_^

You know saying his name summons him!

So here's what I'm thinking now...

i5 2500k
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 Intel Mainboard
Gigabyte nVidia GTX570 OC 1GB
G.SKILL DDR3 8GB (2 X 4GB) PC-10666/1333 F3-10600C
Corsair HX-650
Samsung Spinpoint 1TB
Still contemplating SSD
23” Dell UltraSharp U2312HM monitor with LED
Cooler Master RC-692
LG DVD Burner (GH24NS70)
Microsoft Windows 7 Premium, Service Pack 1, 64-bit
Logitech Optical Gaming Mouse G400

Comes out at around $1500 with me supplying my own keyboard and headphones.

[Vindik8or]

I think you get more bang for your buck with a GTX 560TI than a GTX 570. However I've got a 570 and it's pretty decent.

[Vindik8or]

Oh and SSDs are great. Just stick your OS install on it and you're looking at sub-30 second startups.

[Pai Mel]

Use some of the parts from your current rig for your new rig. eg. power supply, monitor, mouse, hard drive, dvd drive, keyboard, case. Even your Windows license if it is not OEM.

Use money saved towards a SSD.

[Slippery]

Sister is probably going to snap up the old one so she can play TF2 and do assignments.

[Slippery]

Ok so it looks more like this now...


i5 2500k
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Mainboard
Gigabyte nVidia GTX570 OC 1GB
Having issues with stock of ram but ideally something like: G.SKILL DDR3 8GB (2 X 4GB) PC-10666/1333 F3-10600C
Antec TruePower New Series 650W
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
OCZ Agility 3 Series 60GB 2.5" SSD Sata 6Gbs
Philips 244EL2SB 24" BLACK LED
Cooler Master Centurion 5 II
LG DVD Burner (GH24NS70)
Microsoft Windows 7 Premium, Service Pack 1, 64-bit
Logitech Optical Gaming Mouse G400

Any thoughts before I order?

[Vindik8or]

It looks pretty spiffy, but as I said before you can probably shave a few bucks going for a GTX560Ti and a few more bucks if you get a 3Gbit/s SSD rather than 6Gbit/s.

[dimorphic]

Why the **** are Alienware laptops +$700 more when you buy from Dell Australia!?

M14x = $1190 USD
M14x = $1899 AUD

>_>

[dimorphic]

So I placed a bid on this (http://www.ebay.com/itm/120847163479?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1426.l2649#ht_1487wt_1398). Keeping in mind I'm looking for a cheap portable gaming unit that can run most things on medium. From the research I've done with over clocking the GPU I should be able to pull medium out of most games.

I still play mostly on console, but for games like SWTOR, Diablo 3, etc I feel this will be worthwhile.

And it is quite cheap.

[Vindik8or]

Enjoy your crotchburner

[nintendo]

What do people think of this? Comes in at $1083 without Win7 an parts warranty, with 3yr warranty and Win7 Ultimate 64bit it comes to $1380.

Intel Core i5 2500 Processor LGA1155 3.3GHz CPU
Gigabyte GA-Z68M-D2H-B3 LGA1155 Z68 DDR3/1333
Kingston 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 HyperX
Seagate SATA3 1TB 7200RPM 64mb Cache
Asus GTX560 1G TOP DCII 2DI GDDR5
LG H24NS70 SATA 24X+- Super Multi DVDR Black
Antec Sonata IV - USB3.0 Piano Black Mid Tower Case with 620W PSU

Not sure about the PSU/case combo.

Its for my parents so Im only going for something average/slightly above. They won't be doing much, maybe playing the occasional game like BF3, but cutting edge performance isn't really needed for them and by my guess this config should be able to handle BF3 fairly well.

[Vindik8or]

I haven't checked it out in detail, but it strikes me as overpriced.

[nintendo]

Actually comes up at $961.50 if Im just grabbing the parts, which seems alright to me, but it has been awhile since Ive bought anything other than a laptop. I was using their build your own machine calculator and didnt realise it included assembly into the price.

Antec Sonata IV + 620W PSU - $186
Intel Core i5 2500 3.3GHz - $214
Gigabyte GA Z68M - $109.50
Kingston 8GB - $56
Seagate 1TB 64mb cache - $140
Asus GTX560 DCII - $236
LG burner - $20

Add in $185 for Win7 Ult as well.

[dinopoke]

Hey, I'm helping a friend build a PC without mouse and keyboard for under $1000. I'm not up to date with current tech but after some quick research, here is what I've come up with.

i5-2500K 3.3Ghz $219.00
Powercolor 1GB 6870 $169.00
AsRock Z-68-Pro3 Gen. 3 $117.00
Kingston KVR 4GB SINGLE DDR3 1333 x 2 $42.00
WD 3.5" Green 1TB $102.00
Antec Neo Eco 520C $67.00
Samsung SATA 22x Black DVD RW $19.00
Antec One-Hundred Tower Case $68.00
TP-LINK TL-WN350GD PCI $12.00
BenQ GL2240 21.5 $119.00

TOTAL: $934.00

He's a casual gamer who wants to play games like Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and Football Manager 2012. He also wants to use it for uni, videos and web surfing. He needs a wireless card as well but I'm not familiar with good models so I chose one of the cheapest. He's more concerned with spending as little as possible so it's better to choose items with bang for buck rather than try to max out the one grand limit.

One thing I'm not sure about is with the graphics card. The 560ti might be a better alternative but MSY (we're going to purchase from there) doesn't seem to stock it. Any other advice would be much appreciated as well.

[Ad-Rock]

That's fairly similar to mine. I'm running a Sapphire 5850 with a Phenom X4 Black Edition 3.4 GHz, though. It goes pretty well, but I do get some frame rate issues in D3 and SC2 when there are massive battles on screen with the graphics are turned right up.

[Rambo]

Actually comes up at $961.50 if Im just grabbing the parts, which seems alright to me, but it has been awhile since Ive bought anything other than a laptop. I was using their build your own machine calculator and didnt realise it included assembly into the price.

Antec Sonata IV + 620W PSU - $186
Intel Core i5 2500 3.3GHz - $214
Gigabyte GA Z68M - $109.50
Kingston 8GB - $56
Seagate 1TB 64mb cache - $140
Asus GTX560 DCII - $236
LG burner - $20

Add in $185 for Win7 Ult as well.

Nintendo, you realize you need a minimum 700w (preferably 750w) PSU to run a GTX 560?

[Italian Stallion]

One thing I'm not sure about is with the graphics card. The 560ti might be a better alternative but MSY (we're going to purchase from there) doesn't seem to stock it. Any other advice would be much appreciated as well.
The regular GTX560 is marginally better than the 6870 anyway, and I've personally had less issues with nvidia than amd gpus, so I'd go that way myself. Plus, physx.

Don't buy a 'green' HDD for a system drive.. they're made for storage, and as such, using it as an OS drive everything really suffers. A WD Black is a better choice, albeit more expensive. I don't think the Seagate 1TB is 'green' though.

Also, bit of a personal preference thing really.. but I don't like Kingston. They're the only RAM manufacturer I've ever had problems with. G.Skill or Patriot is my usual choice.

Everything else seems good.

Nintendo, you realize you need a minimum 700w (preferably 750w) PSU to run a GTX 560?
700w PSU for a GTX560? Pretty sure it'd run on a 450-500W PSU pretty comfortably..

[Ad-Rock]

Nintendo, you realize you need a minimum 700w (preferably 750w) PSU to run a GTX 560?

Yeah that can't be right...

[nintendo]

Huh? Main reason I was going for the DCII is because of its lower power consumption and cooler run temp.

In the end I decided against getting Ult7 and got Premium, saving $100 and going for a GTX570 instead.

Also decided against going for the smaller motherboard after I actually saw it. I had thought it might make installation and management easier, but not really.

[TrinityJayOne]

Someone help me find the cheapest possible computer (netbook/laptop/desktop, this isn't important) that meets the below criteria-

-Can handle java
-Has a USB port
-Has a mouse or can be fitted with a mouse
-If a netbook/laptop, preferably has the option to output video to a TV/monitor

GO!

[Arcadia Of The Sky]

Someone help me find the cheapest possible computer (netbook/laptop/desktop, this isn't important) that meets the below criteria-

-Can handle java
-Has a USB port
-Has a mouse or can be fitted with a mouse
-If a netbook/laptop, preferably has the option to output video to a TV/monitor

GO!

Anything made in the last 10 years

[Arcadia Of The Sky]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Macbook Air.

[Dunkurtin]

Finally upgrading PC after MoBo overheated.

Got a GTX570
Intel i5 2500k
8GB DDR3 1600

[sgtbash12]

hey guys
i'm trying to assemble a new rig for intense gaming (like an addict) and i'm really new to this whole custom pc thing.
i've decided on the parts i'm getting and i think they're compatible but i really need some feedback since I dunno if it's perfect or if i'm just wasting space/cash.
I'm trying to keep the price range between $2000-$3000.
Custom pc build:
CPU - Intel i7 Quad core 3770K (3.5ghz) - $385
Mobo - Gigabyte G1 Sniper M3 z77 - $219
Memory - G.Skill 16gb (4x4gb) ddr3 kit (2133mhz) - $185
HD - Sandisk 120GB extreme SSD 2.5" - $129
HD#2 - WD Caviar green 3TB hard drive - $195
Video card - nVidia Geforce GTX 680 - $600-$700
Sound card - Asus Xonar Essence STX - $205
Optical drive - LG blu ray combo - $65
PSU - OCZ zx series 80+ gold modular 1000W - $219
Cooler - Noctua NH-U12P-SE2 All-In-One CPU Cooler - $79
Case - Antec Nine Hundred Two v3 Black - $139
Total: $2600 (max)
I only have one video card since it's so expensive but i dunno if i should crossfire two GTX670's instead of having one gtx680 cos they cost about the same (give or take $100-$200).

p.s. I don't wanna overclock anything cos i don't want to spend on more fans. Also i'm not a fan of liquid cooling cos i'm a lazy ass.
the $2000-$3000 bracket doesn't include the monitor.

plz give me some feedback and advice thanks

[sgtbash12]

also some manufacturer suggestions/warnings should be nice

[Silverwolf]

1000w PSU is overkill, 750W would be more than enough, modular is good though.

i7 3770K is also overkill for gaming, you can save money by getting the 3570K and see no performance difference. Also if you don't want to overclock, you could get the non K version (K only means you can overclock them) and save more.

A single graphics card solution is better than dual cards in SLI/crossfire in most cases. Two cards consume a lot more power, generate a lot more heat, and the performance bonus is unreliable across games.

Not a fan of Antec cases personally, but it's fine if its suits you, case choice is mostly aesthetic.

The rest is solid though.

[Vindik8or]

It's better to get a single card to start with and use SLI/Crossfire as an upgrade path when the time comes.