New Builder - Questions

[Deleted]

I've not found any reports which hints of Haswell's CPU performance being any major leap over Ivy Bridge. It's iGPU performance and power efficiency per clock cycle has caused a bit of a stir for the laptop/HTPC market. Assuming there is a higher demand for Windows 8 in Q3 of this year the laptop market might see less of a negative slump compared to 2012, especially if Haswell delivers in terms of efficicency and iGPU performance.

It's a long way away, but you could tide yourself over with an affordable CPU, motherboard, GPU and RAM now, invest heavily in the other parts - water cooling, case, etc - and then prepare for the high-end Ivy Bridge E and AMD's/Nvidia's single/dual GPU king.

In any case, its one of those times yet again where 'the next best thing' isn't just hear say but might actually be worth waiting/saving up for.

[vesseblah]

I've not found any reports which hints of Haswell's CPU performance being any major leap over Ivy Bridge.

In any case, its one of those times yet again where 'the next best thing' isn't just hear say but might actually be worth waiting/saving up for.

It's not about straightforward performance gain, but future compatibility. Haswells will use new socket and motherboard you buy today is dead end when it comes to upgrading. That's why it would be good idea to wait 4 months to get a board which is at the beginning of it's lifecycle, not at the end.

[Deleted]

It's not about straightforward performance gain, but future compatibility. Haswells will use new socket and motherboard you buy today is dead end when it comes to upgrading. That's why it would be good idea to wait 4 months to get a board which is at the beginning of it's lifecycle, not at the end.

I'd agree. If the OP doesn't needed his PC in the next 4-6 months, now would be a good time to wait.

[anyaka21]

ok, I just built a comp for the 1st time, so here's my 2cp's of advice

1) watch some videos. NewEgg has 3 videos out and are excellent in terms of basic building advice. 1st one is to help pick out parts, 2nd is for building, 3rd is software installation. Definitiely watch these before you start putting pieces together. Edit: you can youtube these.

2) MoBo screws. These are there for a reason. If you don't use them, you will fry your motherboard.

3) Case. Before you decide on a case, find out if there are any size restrictions on where the case is going to go. Next, figure out what you want to put into the computer and get a case that is designed for that kind of build. I.E. a lot of mid tower cases will struggle putting in an h100i because of the fans, especially if you want might want to do a push/pull with 4 fans. Ideally a full ATX tower case. Especially for a 1st time builder because it will give you all the room you need to do what you want.

4) Don't restrict yourself on the ssd size. A lot of people say go with a 128gb ssd, but that can be restricting. OS, 2MMO's and 1 FPS and that's pretty much all a 128ssd will handle. I went 256gb and am extremely happy I did.

5) PCPartpicker.com. It will not only help you pick parts, but at the top you can also click on the computer builds section. Here you can look at pictures of what people have put together. It will help you decide what to get, but it will also help you see what the final build will look like based on products you chose.

6) Power supply. Don't skimp on a cheap power supply, min would be an 80+ bronze. And without a doubt get a modular power supply. What this does is allows you to only plug in the power ports you will need instead of having every kind of wire attached and have you figure it out. It's the gravy on a good power supply.

7) you mentioned complexity. You'll want to go decently complex. There reason. You don't want to waste you money. The last thing you want to do is build a cheap system for $800 to $1k and then feel like you should have spent the extra $500. Spend the extra $500 or a few extra bucks so that you make sure that you can.. Or at least make sure that the system you build will be ready for that extra $500 when you are ready to spend it.

[FancyTheWarrior]

Thanks for the advice, i will defiantly look into those videos.

As for the talk about new parts, so i guess i will wait for to pick up the new things since i was recently pushed back in my deployment. But since i am going to wait would it be wrong to pick up a few things like the case,power supple things like that. Right now there are some trends with them being pretty cheap and am willing to grab them now while i can save a few bucks.

Thanks Fancy,