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The RPGamer Computer Rebuild/Building Help thread. ^^
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Speaking of which, it's looking like I'm going to be building one with my cousin sometime in the next few months here. He threw a parts list at me when he first brought it up with an AMD cpu in it which made me finally stop being lazy and read the articles Flamethrower's been posting. I think we're going to stick with that since he's not really interested in games like Civ 5, which seems to be the big weak spot, and it does seem to be friendlier on the budget. I still need to dig around on the couple of different mobos he's proposed and figure out how to get him off the water nonsense since we aren't gonna overclock him but the plan is starting to come together.
I hope you can talk him out of watercooling, and not just because he don't need it. I mean, far as I can tell, it's for really high end machines and for serious overclockers (since you can get more cooling with that for a ton less noise). Just make sure you research and have some good arguments ready against it; If your cousin is anything like 'Cat, it may take a few carrots and a lot of arguing to get him to see he don't need it. ^^ (stubborn is as stubborn does!)
Besides, I don't b/c I don't go that high end/don't overclock plus I know 'Cat isn't familiar with it, which would make it trickier to put together. He's already grumpy after work, why add to it?
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I want a mATX PC. I have an ATX PC now and don't use all the space it offers (or even close).
Will be buying these soon.
Case: Temjin TJ08-E $100
PSU: Rosewill Capstone-550 $75
Board: ASRock Z87M Pro4 $105
CPU: Intel i5-4570 $200
CPU Fan: Stock $0
RAM: 2x8GB 1600MHz CL9 - $130
GPU: Asus R9280X-DC2T-3GD5 $360
Sound: Onboard $0
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB $325
Storage1: 3TB HDD (already have)
Storage2: 1TB HDD (from old PC)
Optical: ASUS BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS (Blu-ray writer) $47 AC AR
OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit $100
Total $1477
I modeled it on this AnandTech guide.
Bad idea to skimp on the CPU cooler?
Went with the Asus GPU because it has a better cooler than cheaper cards (less noise). This would be the most expensive computer part I've ever bought.
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I'm not overclocking - my build has the non-K 4570.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ypPU
I'll call 'Cat and tell him to tell you more if you want since he's the real tech in the house; I'm just the apprentice so I can learn how to fix my own machine.
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I'm thinking a stock fan is a good choice for you. No overclocking anyways and the aftermarket coolers are quite a bit larger, you're probably better off just saving the space in a small form case.
I'm still keeping up on stuff but not as obsessively as when I was getting ready to build. I guess things shook out cool with those R9's? If I'm remembering right those are the ones where the cards sent to the press to test were outperforming the stuff in stores. I assume sites have gotten a hold of them through other channels now and they're looking acceptable regardless?
Other than that, which probably isn't an issue, it all looks good to me.
My VAPS Entry,
1) AMD's design was horrible (bad cooler design; bad cooling algorithm)
2) AMD partner designs were better (and cost more, and perform better)
The Asus R9280X-DC2T-3GD5 is a modification of the AMD 280X board. It's overclocked, has a different cooler, and a different algorithm for how hard the fans should work to cool the card under high load. As a result, it's $50 more than AMD's board, draws more power, and has much lower noise.
I remember a recent cheating story for mobile processors. Manufacturers were configuring their phone GPUs (or GPU parts of the phone processors) to behave differently (different clock speed) in benchmark situations vs all other situations.
--Neutral Planet President
You can find awesome fractal art at my website: http://goateeguy.deviantart.com
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/ars-technica-system-guide-november-2013/
From that guide, I wouldn't get the mouse or keyboard (you probably already have those). Also from that guide, the suggested GPU is a little anemic. I'd splurge for an R9 270 (if you like AMD, $50 more) or a GTX 650 Ti Boost (if you like Nvidia, $40 more).
I would just delete the SSD from that part list (re-use the part from your current PC, if you have one) to make your budget. You can always add one later if you come into some money.
--Neutral Planet President
You can find awesome fractal art at my website: http://goateeguy.deviantart.com
I've gotten some Corsair Vengeance RAM from Best Buy (I bought the offending ram chips + my mb instruction book to Best Buy with me) and hopefully that solved that, otherwise I'm staring down another reformat. (Have had to do that once which solved the crashes for a little while but not forever) ..But that happens. I hope the MB isn't bad or I'm going to be furious.
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--Neutral Planet President
You can find awesome fractal art at my website: http://goateeguy.deviantart.com
Not local people, it might be cheaper to get the parts from Newegg and ship to them than you ship them (shipping costs more than you think...I should know since I've sold stuff on Etsy...I swear that the post office likes to charge a arm and a leg) and pay for labor/shipping back. But yeah, make sure you compare costs. It might be better to DIY the PC or just have ye old mom and pop computer repair shop do the work. ^^ I haven't investigated the possibility too heavily (tho I've been telling friends; if you need a pc built, contact 'Cat to see if he can and to negotiate labor costs, and have Newegg ship the parts to him b/c simply speaking, 'CAT NEEDS $$!) but it might be workable. Again, if it's not Shadowcat, make sure you compare prices pretty aggressively on any online service and make sure it isn't some fly by night that'll take your money and run. (I know 'Cat'd be honest but you never know..) I figure there's some online compy shops that'd do the same thing as the local ones but again, CHECK FOR FEEDBACK and costs. Remember shipping is pretty expensive.
Oh and a tip. Be very careful going for operating system. If you want Windows 7, I don't know if MS is actually selling that anymore. So you have to be careful of pirated versions. ^^
Oh and one more thing; if you wanna do the fixit shop route, DO NOT CHECK AT BEST BUY. They do not do this. Only places like Computer Renaissance and mom and pop computer shops will do this.
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Finally decided that my old video card was too old, so I upgraded it. It's now a Geforce GTX 1060. Also I'm now running windows 10 (got it for free when MS was doing that.)
Will have to consider carefully about any future updates; I am thinking about going for the HDD next; maybe get a 2-4 tera as soon as I can find a good sale? Tho of course, upgrades after more important things.
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28 years of gaming and still going strong
and now a mostly annoyed Father with first son. And now a father again to a second son :D
Winner of the 2015-2016 Fantasy gaming Pool
Luckily newer Nividia cards actually don't use much more powah than the older ones, so that helps. Now, once things get better I'll worry about my hdd.
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