Setup of the Month Questions! - First Time Build

[vMoPPy]

Hello there!

I'm looking to build my first ever desktop here very soon, and I plan to order the parts tonight! I want to stick to the latest Setup of the Month found HERE to help me with parts!
I am confident that I can build the PC, however, I had a few questions about the quality of the parts!

- First of all, I would like to have a PC that can run almost everything on High/Ultra settings, so would it be better to go with the Unicorn build rather than the Narwhal build for this? Or is the narwhal capable of doing this itself? I plan to buy the unicorn unless the cheaper build allows for this.

- What would you recommend for a graphics card, the Gigabyte 7970 or the GIGABYTE GTX 670?

- Would I be able to use the Cooler Master HAF 912 from the Narwhal build, or should I stick to the Cooler Master HAF X?
Would picking either THIS, THIS, or THIS case be an option?

Thank you in advance if you help! Any form of input is much appreciated!

[Skarsguard]

If your talking about the 7970ghz edition you can't go wrong with either of them between it and the 670.

Out of the 3 cases that you linked I would go with the Nzxt.

[BicycleMafioso]

Narwhal is fine

Gigabyte HD7970.

I would not recommend either, but all cases would fit and work together.

[Skarsguard]

For a case what do you think about this one http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbid...=computer+case

or this

http://www.amazon.com/BitFenix-Shino...tfenix+shinobi

[n0cturnal]

For the case I would suggest http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=750...n&promoid=1302 for $80 it is a really good case.

[Skarsguard]

For the case I would suggest http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=750...n&promoid=1302 for $80 it is a really good case.

I don't know if it's the site and the case but that is blinding my eyes lol. It's a good case thou just a bad picture of it with the background of the website.

[anyaka21]

You can for the most part, mix and match a lot of the stuff. As a basic notion, if you are just going to game, then the i5-3570k is a processor, however if you are going to stream, do extra rendering, etc... then you'd probably want to spend the extra and go with the i7.

Case is mainly about 2 things, eye candy and space constraints. For a 1st time builder I'd consider going with a full tower case because you just have more room to work with and that will make things easier. Nothing at all wrong with mid tower cases, just less room. If you are set on a mid tower, consider the Fractal Design R4, it's a great case that looks nice and is extremely quiet and in the price range you are looking for.

GPU is going to be mainly about pref between Radeon and nVidia. Personally, I like nVidia, but that's just me.

Power Supply: the main thing to look for is 80+ bronze certified and up. They are just better quality. Add that IMO on any power supply you purchase make sure it's modular. You only have to plug in what you need as opposed to non-modular that has that mess of tons of wires that you'll have to find spots for even though you aren't using them.

In terms of HDD's and SSD's. The basic thought is that get a large capacity data drive like the Cavair Black or Blue, 1tb and up depending on how much you think you'll need to store on them. If you keep a lot of movies, shows, etc.. you might go bigger. With the SSD, one of the main things to consider is how big do you need to go. It really depends on how many programs you use on a regular basis. If you mainly stick to 1 or 2 games, then 128gb is a good size. However, if they are mmo's, those tend to take up a lot of room, and you have to plan on having room for future expansions. And even with other games you have to plan on DLC as well. Thus, IMO, a 256gb type is good. Look for 500+ read/write and SataIII

As far as MoBo's go. Again, it's going to be preference, however, IMO, the top 3 manufacturers are ASUS, AsRock, and Gigabyte (though not necessarily in that order, again, it's about preference). Personally, I have the AsRock extreme6 and love it.

In terms of 1st time builders. Make you do your due diligence and watch a few videos on building a comp. The NewEgg ones are very good. But just do a youtube search about computer building and you'll find quite a few and they'll all help you out immensely.

[stellvia]

I would steer clear of the Corsair Carbide ones. They tend to be pretty cheaply built. The HAF912 is a decent case. I also have a Fractal Design case -- The Arc Mini. They are really well designed quality cases. The Narwhal setup is all 95% of people need. Even then, you could probably get away with something like the Radeon 7870. XFX has some rebates going atm that you can get one for $205-220 or so and it performs very closely to the 660ti in benchmarks.

Don't get a full tower case. You're gonna spend at most a few hours building the system. And if you ever want to take it to a friend's place for gaming or something, a full tower is stupidly hard to transport.

Also: Buy some extra case fans. Most cases tend to come with maybe 2-3 fans, but spots for up to 7.

[Deleted]

I would steer clear of the Corsair Carbide ones. They tend to be pretty cheaply built.

Cheaply eh? Were you hired by the competition? Besides that joke I agree with most of what you said. Although you really don't need 7 fans to get decent cooling. 500R (just one example) default fan setup is more than enough for any average build.

[stellvia]

I was talking about the Carbide options around the $50 mark that use molded plastic.

[Deleted]

I was talking about the Carbide options around the $50 mark that use molded plastic.

You should have mentioned that then. There is ONE Corsair case around that price point (after MIR), the Corsair 200R which is aimed at the lower budget builders/market.

The quality of fractal cases are also good as you mention but they're also $80-100+. I would claim the 912 is the least well constructed of the bunch, besides having good airflow which I hope would be the case (no pun intended) when it actually has "air flow" in it's name.

[vMoPPy]

Thanks for the help guys! I'll be sure to take everything into consideration!

[Deleted]

Yeah, Fractal Design R4, Corsair 400R, Corsair 500R (I used this one check my signature), NZXT Source 220 or Elite 210 are the ones I'd suggest looking at.

[Skarsguard]

Yeah, Fractal Design R4, Corsair 400R, Corsair 500R (I used this one check my signature), NZXT Source 220 or Elite 210 are the ones I'd suggest looking at.

Notarget never giving bitfenix any cred have you gotten to try out one yet in a build?

[Deleted]

Notarget never giving bitfenix any cred have you gotten to try out one yet in a build?

They have decent case options but in the US they're limited to 1-2 vendors most the time and I feel like there are better or similar options around the same price point with other brands. Like no front USB 3.0 on the Shinobi and some of their other budget case options. I realize it might not be a big deal to some but if I can find similar priced options with it then why not? You know.

[Skarsguard]

They have decent case options but in the US they're limited to 1-2 vendors most the time and I feel like there are better or similar options around the same price point with other brands. Like no front USB 3.0 on the Shinobi and some of their other budget case options. I realize it might not be a big deal to some but if I can find similar priced options with it then why not? You know.

It has 2 2.0 and 2 3.0usb ports on the top of the case but it's close enough to be on the front. When I first bought my case they didn't have many options where you could get them even newegg didn't carry it (I had to get it from Canada) but now more venders are carrying them. As far as build quality they are solid and even built better then the Carbide series from Corsair I have built with both. Take the 300R it has 2 3.0 usb ports and 2 audio jacks where the Shinobi has 2 3.0 and 2 2.0 and two audio jacks on the front top.They both have 3 5.25 external drive bays but the 300R has 4 3.5 internal drives where the bitfenix has 8 the only thing that the 300R has over the Shinobi is it can have up to 7 fans but really who uses 7 fans. Right now the Shinobi is 7 $ cheaper then the 300R as well.

[Deleted]

Note that i didn't mention the 300R in my case recommendations, so the $7 comparison is moot?

The Shinobi you linked has no front USB 3.0

Another review

Unfortunately there's no USB 3.0 ports to be found yet four high-speed USB 2.0 ports need to make up for that.

Bitfenix is fine, I've never told people not to buy them but for me there are better/similar options that I'd recommend and have worked with.

300R has 4 3.5 internal drives where the bitfenix has 8

I really don't think that is a concern to most budget builders, they're probably not buying the case to setup a server. I still only see 1 or 2 vendors for most their products Then again, I never recommended the 300R in the list I mentioned so yeah.

[Skarsguard]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FQo3nAodj0kAfA

That most be an older model because the new ones have usb 3.0's on the top now look at the pictures on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811345011 if you look at the pics of the white bitfenix shinobi you can see the 2 blue usb 3.0 ports on it as well.

http://www.electronics.balticmart.eu...rp_image_5.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FQo3nAodj0kAfA is the one I was thinking about now not the windowed that's what the problem is I see now.

[Deleted]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FQo3nAodj0kAfA

That most be an older model because the new ones have usb 3.0's on the top now look at the pictures on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811345011 if you look at the pics of the white bitfenix shinobi you can see the 2 blue usb 3.0 ports on it as well.

http://www.electronics.balticmart.eu...rp_image_5.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FQo3nAodj0kAfA is the one I was thinking about now not the windowed that's what the problem is I see now.

I based my comments on what you linked earlier and that was the Shinobi windowed (different model) with no USB 3.0, I can't know you meant something else. good to see them getting that added though, which honestly you should be expecting from newer cases at $65+.

My recommendations will probably stay the same though because in the lower range around $50 NZXT 220, 210 Elite and Antec One still seem like better options (to me) and if I was going to pay more then 400R/500R or something from Fractal would probably be my choice.