Need help building a new PC

[Freeaze]

Hai (: I've had my old garbage can for a little over 4 years now, and it wasn't even very good to begin with :P Alhough I have gotten used to having to turn away from grenade explosions while playing BF: BC2 on medium setting^^
Anyway I just got my first paycheck and with some money in my savings I've decided to build myself a computer I can be proud of

This will be my 2nd PC I've ever owned. I have never built a computer before but it seems relatively simple, plus I got some friends that can help me out if I screw up badly :P Anyway I thought it would be a good idea to get several opinions what to go after.

As this is my first time building a computer I actually want to learn something at the same time. Also I don't feel so excited about just being told a bunch of stuff, which I then buy, and have no freakin' idea of what I just put in my computer (bought) P:

All this probably means that a cooling system out of the ordinary isn't a very good idea xD I got small experience in computers except the basics (:

Also, as I don't know this much, I might have expectations above my preferred budget. If I do, don't hesitate to say so and I might have to re-think this P:

Budget
Around 2500$ / 2000€. (If I used the currency site correct that would be 17.000 SEK)
Although I would like to aim for 1500$-1900$ / 1200€-1450€ (would be 10.000-12.000 SEK) and save the rest for upgrading it in a few years to keep up.

Resolution
Main screen will be 1920x1080, my secondary will be 1600x900.

Games / Settings Desired

• Movies and streams.
• Dual monitor - Alot will be going on in the background, I'll also want to be able to watch streams and movies while playing medium games (WoW, HoN) with none to small difference in the game preformence on ultra.
• Frapsing
• WoW, GW2, HoN, SC2, Diablo3, MW3, BF3, DayZ (Arma2) - on high end graphics, and then being able to play upcomming games on a reasonable graphic.

Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc)
No.

Country
Sweden.

Parts that can be reused
Harddrives and the optical drive (I think it's called that) so no need to count that in the budget (:

Do you need an OS?
No.

Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)?
No, I will be using the old ones I got now (:
Although I just thought of this, the monitor I use now is a VGA-port if that makes any difference (or maybe it's just the TVs that uses HDMI?)


Hope I got it all down, hope u folks will help me out ;D Long live mmo-champ! ;D

[Biernot]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Sample-Builds
What you want is the 1200 build with maybe slight modifications.

- CPU: don't bother with the more expensive i7-3770k. Will give you no improvement in games, and the background tasks you have running when playing will not be noticeable with the i5. (since the times of hardware acceleration, watching video/streams doesn't really bother anymore)
- Case: free choice. Just check with us before you buy, so we can make sure that it all fits. Good manufactures in general are: Corsair, NZXT, Fractal Design, CoolerMaster.
- Storage: You mentioned, that you can reuse your HDDs. But if you do not own one already, i strongly suggest to get an SSD. For around 100 $/€ you can get the high quality 128gb models (Crucial m4, Samsung 830)
- Heatsink: If you don't want to OC or don't care for least possible noise, then you can opt for a cheaper model in the 20-40 $/€ area (CoolerMaster Hyper 212, Xigmatek Gaia, Scythe Katana, etc.)
- GPU: The step from a GTX670 to a GTX680 is not worth the price.

[Freeaze]

Thanks for the quick help (:
Sorry I forgot to mention that I had already looked at his thread so I didn't miss it P:
Why I asked anyway is because I have no idea about those parts when it comes to comparing, so some help was appreciated (thanks!^^).

Also if going by that build u suggested (which looked nice) I realised after skipping the HDDs of that suggestion (I already got an SSD) I got an "extra" 200$ that I can put on the computer build preformence (:
And that is probably where I need cunning ppl to help me (:

Also I don't think a case have to be counted into a budget, as a case is a longtime investment that really doesn't get outdated^^ (Correct me if I'm wrong)
You also mentioned OC and noise, my intent is to go for silence and I might OC a little with help of friends, (I don't really wanna risk roasting my splendid new computer because of stupidity xD)

Btw, GPUs is a huge questionmark for me, I've googled some and now got a humm of what it actually is, but not more than that.
Another thing I read in some post before making mine was about MoBo's, they said that next generation CPUs (Intel?) will not fit in the current generation of motherboards? How much does that impact me? (I'm searching for the post I read this in atm)


Edit; Just wanted to say that I actually looked at the 1500$ build instead of the 1200$ one, I feel that my preferred budget actually fits this. What is the pros and con with it? As you recommended the 1200$ one instead (:

---------- Post added 2012-09-20 at 03:49 PM ----------

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Sample-Builds
...- CPU: don't bother with the more expensive i7-3770k. Will give you no improvement in games, and the background tasks you have running when playing will not be noticeable with the i5. (since the times of hardware acceleration, watching video/streams doesn't really bother anymore)...

Btw, when will that CPU make a difference? What will you have to run to notice the difference? (:

[Biernot]

Also I don't think a case have to be counted into a budget, as a case is a longtime investment that really doesn't get outdated^^ (Correct me if I'm wrong)

You are both right and wrong.
- A good case can last you for a long time. You don't need a new case, because your old one got "too slow".***
- But there are still developments going on in that sector. Like over the last 10 years, case fans went from 80mm to 92mm to 120mm and nowadays there seems to be a trend heading for 140mm. Also, a few years ago there was no need for 2,5" bays, but now with SSDs you basically have to have a place to mount them.
- The case is the part of your computer that you see for most of the time. And after a while you just want something new to look at. Also, personal tastes change over the years.

*** I think a good showcase of how long a good case can last are the cases from Chieftec (Dragon/Mesh/Aegis). From the outside they did not change much at all over the last 10 years, and on the inside they also did only small improvements. My CS601 from 2003 is still in use for my moms computer and the only gripe you could hold against it are the 80mm case fans.

You also mentioned OC and noise, my intent is to go for silence and I might OC a little with help of friends, (I don't really wanna risk roasting my splendid new computer because of stupidity xD)

If your computer has to be silent, then there are some things to keep in mind:
- the bigger the fans, the less noise they make while producing the same airflow.
- While a case with a ton of fans and open parts seems to be good for cooling, there can be several drawbacks:
a.) a lot of fans produce a lot of noise
b.) open parts are letting noise from the inside to your ears.
c.) a lot of fans in not so optimal arrangements can actually hinder the proper airflow.
- Noise dampening materials can help you reduce noise, but be aware that those materials also dampen heat conductivity. And always keep in mind: better to not produce noise in the first place then trying to reduce it later on.

If you want to go silent, then these are my recommendations:

Heatsink:
- With no OC, any mid-range heatsink (Hyper 212, Gaia, ...) can be very silent.
- If you want to do some OC, then you should have a high-end air cooler. (e.g. Noctua NH-D14, Thermalright Silver Arrow, ...)
- forget about closed-loop water coolers (Corsair H80, ...). While you might get lucky and pick a silent one, a lot of them have quite noticeable pump noises, and also the fans they come with are way louder than those of good air cooler heatsinks.

Case:
At the moment there is no equal to the Fractal Design Define R4. With a moderate price, get a case that already has noise dampening (rubber mounted hdd bays, noise dampening material on the inside), very quiet case fans, as little as possible open spots, an easy to work with interior and a superb build quality.

PSU:
You shouldn't be worried about noise here. When you have decent quality psu, it will be very silent, often near inaudible.

[B]Storage:/B]
Try to avoid 7200rpm hdds. I know, you already have your hdds, but if have the choice, then go for SSD + 5400rpm HDDs. The things you need speed for go onto the SSD, everything else (music, videos, images, etc.) onto the storage drives.

GPU:
If you are serious about noise, then this is the place where you might want to take a step back in performance to bring down heat. Graphics cards are the biggest problem when it comes to silent cooling, because the area you have to get rid of the heat is so small in comparison to the heat produced.
I know for a fact, that e.g. the "Asus GTX660ti Direct CU" is very silent (i just installed it today for a client), while still giving you a lot of performance. A GTX670 or GTX680 can be a bit noisier under load.
Besides the heat production of the GPU, the cooling system can make a big difference. Different manufacturer often use special names for specific cooling systems and you can often say from the name alone, if the card will be on the noisy side or not. Good cooling solutions are (among others):
- MSI TwinFrozr
- Asus DirectCU
- Gainward Phantom (although they slacked a little)
- Gigabyte Windforce

Btw, GPUs is a huge questionmark for me, I've googled some and now got a humm of what it actually is, but not more than that.

If you want to know what the term "GPU" means: It is short for "Graphics Processing Unit" and technically means the main chip on your graphics card. But in computer jargon, it is most often used as a synonym for graphics card. If we here in the forum say GPU, we mean graphics card. (at least most of the time)

Another thing I read in some post before making mine was about MoBo's, they said that next generation CPUs (Intel?) will not fit in the current generation of motherboards? How much does that impact me? (I'm searching for the post I read this in atm)

It shouldn't concern you much. This will more or less always be the case. Meaning, if you want to upgrade your cpu in 1-2 years, you will most likely also have to get a new motherboard. (and possibly also new ram, if they switch to DDR4 until then)

Edit; Just wanted to say that I actually looked at the 1500$ build instead of the 1200$ one, I feel that my preferred budget actually fits this. What is the pros and con with it? As you recommended the 1200$ one instead (:

The differences are:
MB: Unless you want to do some serious OC, the Sabertooth mobo won't give you much benefit over the other one. Also, i think the Sabertooth is ugly
RAM: 8GB is enough at this stage. 16GB is only necessary when you do some heavy video editing or professional grade 3D modeling. (or similar tasks)
Storage: A big chunk of the price difference is cause by the SSD (the 1200 build doesn't have one)
GPU: Not much difference here. But as you want it silent, when in doubt, chose the model with less heat production.

Btw, when will that CPU make a difference? What will you have to run to notice the difference? (:

i7-3770k <-> i5-3570k
8mb L3 cache <-> 6mb L3 cache
3.5GHz <-> 3.4GHz
Hyperthreading <-> no Hyperthreading

The thing that will make a difference in certain tasks is the hyperthreading. It will make better use of the cpu parts if you have software that can run multi-threaded. In general these are things that require massive number crunching like
- video editing/encoding
- scientific research (e.g. the folding project, Seti@home, and other things)
- physics simulations
- 3D rendering (not realtime rendering like in games)

So unless you make heavy use of at least one thing from that list, the i7 would be a $100 waste over the i5.

[Freeaze]

Wow, thanks alot I love you^^ U answered all my questions and more I learned alot xD
I'll be back when I've decided what I'll buy for the last second tweaks