1. #1

    Building/Buying a PC: Question.

    I'm going to be building a PC here soon with a 1000$ budget on black friday/Cyber monday. Being that I've never built a PC before I'm not quite sure what parts I should be purchasing in terms of 'possible sale' and what would be a good deal. The PC I'll be building is for gaming, and will (hopefully) be put together using advise from a number of different sources (here specifically being one.)

    NOw I've heard a few different tips on building a PC I wanted to see about getting confirmed. The first (and biggest) is that one of my friends told me that given my budget I could get both an SDD and HDD drive, and use the SDD as a cache drive for the HDD. Now... I honestly know very little about what that means, but he'd set it up. I was informed the SDD would last a lot longer when used in the manner + it'd put the SSD processing power in programs I use most often vs those I do not.

    The second question is, what usually goes on sale this time of year? What type of deals should I look out for? This PC will be made entirely from scratch: so the case, power supply, cords, ect will all need to be purchased. If anyone has experience purchasing computer parts at this time of year... offer me some tips! I really don't want to get gipped or find out I could have gotten a much better PC for less.

    Third: Should I hold off on the SDD (Is it SSD or SDD?) till later on, and just work with the HDD for now?

    Fourth: Is a quad-core necessary? I've heard alot of mixed reviews about a quad-core processor and to how the extra two cores beyond a dual are not used. Is this true? Or is it more of a 'good luck finding a non-quad core'?





    If there is anything else I need to know, please lemme know! I did check out the sample builds thread, but given the fact the deals would make most of those cheaper than actuality (and doesn't answer the SSD questions) I wanted to ask for a more in depth answer.



    PS Edit: I'm a computer derp, I can use them, but I do not even know each separate part. I do have a couple people who build computers for a living, but they're normally busy so they won't be able to help me shop for parts. I do have all equipment needed to build a PC (Anti static mat, the big case of screwdrivers/screws/other tools, anti-static wrist band, ect.)
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  2. #2
    I am Murloc! Cyanotical's Avatar
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    what i would do is price out a computer that normally costs $1000, and then modify it for what you see on b-friday

    for example, if you budget $120 for a 128GB SSD, and you see a 180GB or 256GB SSD for that same price, then upgrade, but we cant really tell you with certainty what you will be able to get on b-friday

    SSD Caching is available on certain chipsets, Z68, Z77, and X79, it has no effect on SSD lifetime, it allows you to use a 60Gb or less SSD to cache your HDD, so your frequent programs load and run with SSD speed, but you have a high capacity single logical volume

    while a quad core is not 100% necessary in terms of technical use, i would say it is, and a dual core should only be considered for facebook/office machines or for low budget builds

    also, everything goes on sale this time of year, and because of that, everything sells out too, the best deals are going to be walk in deals at microcenter and frys, and teh hourly shell shockers on newegg

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Cyanotical View Post
    what i would do is price out a computer that normally costs $1000, and then modify it for what you see on b-friday

    for example, if you budget $120 for a 128GB SSD, and you see a 180GB or 256GB SSD for that same price, then upgrade, but we cant really tell you with certainty what you will be able to get on b-friday

    SSD Caching is available on certain chipsets, Z68, Z77, and X79, it has no effect on SSD lifetime, it allows you to use a 60Gb or less SSD to cache your HDD, so your frequent programs load and run with SSD speed, but you have a high capacity single logical volume

    while a quad core is not 100% necessary in terms of technical use, i would say it is, and a dual core should only be considered for facebook/office machines or for low budget builds

    also, everything goes on sale this time of year, and because of that, everything sells out too, the best deals are going to be walk in deals at microcenter and frys, and teh hourly shell shockers on newegg
    Alrighty, I'll be doing all of my purchases online because in my area... black friday is a little scary. On the Marest Sample builds, is the 1050$ PC still up to date with todays information?

    Also, I do want to advise when 'upgrading' one part to another, I don't recognize the measurements so I do not know if what I'd be getting would be necessarily a better part. I can recognize the harddrive sizes because I know Byte/Megabyte/Gigabyte/Terabyte conversions, but for purposes of a Motherboard, Power supply, ect. I don't know what measurement I should be using to know what I'd be buying.

    When looking at each respective part, what 'stat' should I be looking at? I'll also review the reviews before buying a part of course.
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  4. #4
    I am Murloc! Cyanotical's Avatar
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    it will run wow and most games very well, i would look for a better GPU as a b-friday deal, if you can get a gtx-670 or HD 7950 for that price then you will be golden

    also, dont forget your OS, W8 is good and more advanced, but W7 is long term stable and has better compatibility, either will run you $100 for an OEM license
    if you already have a 7 license you can buy a w8 upgrade for $40 and from what im told you can clean install it like an OEM copy

    ---------- Post added 2012-11-16 at 04:53 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Antermosiph View Post
    When looking at each respective part, what 'stat' should I be looking at? I'll also review the reviews before buying a part of course.
    each part has it's own stats, this is not something that's easily said in a few sentences, but for a quick rule of thumb: bigger numbers = better (this is not always true)

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Cyanotical View Post
    it will run wow and most games very well, i would look for a better GPU as a b-friday deal, if you can get a gtx-670 or HD 7950 for that price then you will be golden

    also, dont forget your OS, W8 is good and more advanced, but W7 is long term stable and has better compatibility, either will run you $100 for an OEM license
    if you already have a 7 license you can buy a w8 upgrade for $40 and from what im told you can clean install it like an OEM copy

    I'm currently using XP, was planning on getting 7 on the following week when I get paid again (since it'll take time for all the parts to be mailed to me anyways). I'm going to be using it for games like Skyrim, Starcraft 2, WoW, the new Total War games, as well as streaming League of Legends, and digital artwork.

    I'll write down all the parts and forward them to a few people I know to keep a sharp eye out for deals.

    ---------- Post added 2012-11-17 at 12:14 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Cyanotical View Post


    ---------- Post added 2012-11-16 at 04:53 PM ----------



    each part has it's own stats, this is not something that's easily said in a few sentences, but for a quick rule of thumb: bigger numbers = better (this is not always true)

    One last question, for purposes of the computer should I get more than 8 gigs of RAM? I'm going to be playing high -performance games AND streaming them. On my poor 'ol computer right now turning on the streaming software while trying to stream Age of Empires 2 causes it to almost overload, and it isn't the worst computer-wise (I can still play some games at mid graphics smoothly).
    Ones brain cannot co-pilot if ones mouth is on auto-pilot.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Antermosiph View Post
    One last question, for purposes of the computer should I get more than 8 gigs of RAM? I'm going to be playing high -performance games AND streaming them. On my poor 'ol computer right now turning on the streaming software while trying to stream Age of Empires 2 causes it to almost overload, and it isn't the worst computer-wise (I can still play some games at mid graphics smoothly).
    There aren't many reasons to get more than 8GB of RAM. To my knowledge, Windows Disk Error Check will utilize all of your RAM and CheatEngine pointer scan will utilize all of your RAM.

    The most foolproof method of determining which part is better than the other is to use benchmarks. Anandtech benches are the best: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2 along with TechPowerUp's Catalyst 12.11 benches for current generation cards: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...ormance/1.html

    For budget/casual user parts like integrated graphics and such, Passmark benchmarks are the only ones with a comprehensive list: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php . Take Passmark benchmarks with a grain of salt because they're not as reliable.

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