Jax's PC Build... circa 2013...

[Jä×]

Laptop's GPU bit the dust tonight.. was giving my mate issues with BSODs and then finally it went to default driver and the screen is covered in dots... yey! Swapping ports with the card did nothing!

Anyway... desktop build time I guess... can buy a bit every month.


So far... thoughts? This is about as.. minimal as I'm willing to go.

[ËQINÖX]

Looks good to me tho if i was you  i would ditch the intel i5 and mobo for the simple reason they are overpriced for what they are and what they give and instead go for a far cheaper but better performing AMD CPU and  mobo.

your CPU
 
Core i5-3350P
Operating Frequency   3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo not that you would acualy notice this small amount)
L1 128 KB (code) / 128 KB (data)
L2 Cache  1MB
L3 Cache  6MB
Multi-Core  Quad-Core
Price:  $189.99
..........................................
AMD Option 1 Cheaper

AMD FX-8120
Operating Frequency  3.1GHz   (3.4/4.0 Turbo)
L1 256 KB (code) / 128 KB (data)
L2 Cache 8MB
L3 Cache 8MB
Multi-Core  Eight-Core
Price: $159.99
.......................................
AMD Option 2 same price as the i5

AMD FX-8150
Operating Frequency  3.6GHz (3.9/4.2 Turbo)
L1 256 KB (code) / 128 KB (data)
L2 Cache 8MB
L3 Cache 8MB
Multi-Core  Eight-Core
Price: $189.99

Sure the AMDs use more power but if your building a gaming rig a few extra watts here or there are not of any real concern and with the  right  heatsink / fan it can also be silent and  cool.  Ultimatly the choice is  yours  but if it was me i would  opt for the AMD.

Regarding the Hard drive its great for mass storage but not great for performance and if there is one part that will slow down a comp its the hard drive and even with a powerfull comp you will notice the  hard drive bottle neck when you are starting the comp loading programs / games / loading game levels in the past this wouldent be a problem as the game level would load on a loading screen then you would play it and then next would load and so on but more and more games are loading the levels as you play creating seamless gameplay but needing large amounts of data to be  read from the drive and this will cause lag in the game as it has to slow down and wait for the hard drive to catch up.  I personaly  got around this buy useing a SSD as my main boot drive that has windows all my  programs and games and then i have a standard hard drive for storing all my music / films / pictures and so on.  Thise way you pull the max performace from you new PC and you still have large storage capacity and as for reliability if they are set  up corectly  and maintained  properly  they can last along time mine is around 3 years old now and still going strong and the price of them have  come way down to the point you can get a OCZ 240gig one for around $190 or a OCZ 120gig for around $145

[Jä×]

My main reason for Intel is the cooler chips, AMD still runs hotter than Intel and the selection of motherboards are not as good. Honestly the difference in price is marginal... 20-30 dollars and a few ghz to which I'll never see fully utilized under any load I do.

[ËQINÖX]

My main reason for Intel is the cooler chips, AMD still runs hotter than Intel and the selection of motherboards are not as good. Honestly the difference in price is marginal... 20-30 dollars and a few ghz to which I'll never see fully utilized under any load I do.

The AMD runs hotter is realy just a myth because if you use a good quality heatsink they it will run super cool and quiet my curent phenom 2 black edition 125w quad core runs at a cool 12c/53F in idle and around 22c/71F under load and at the time it was out people would say you could fry an egg on it but they were using the basic stock cooler and if your building a gaming comp then the cooler is one of the things you want to and should upgrade as all stock coolers offer very basic bad cooling.  As for the ghz sure you might not need it now but your building a comp to last and there is no telling how demanding games will get and having an extra 1ghz in your poket to pull out when you need it will help and will prolong the usable life of your pc but its not just the core speed its the number of cores and with more games being programed to use these cores the more will be better and again the AMD have better cache memory it all adds up to a massive performance advantage even if you dont use it all now it will be there when you do need it.

[Jä×]

I get what you're saying on the cooler, and as currently I don't have one on that list.

Like I said I'll never fully utilize it... I simply don't need the power since I play the same games and do the same things... my current laptop uses an E8400 3ghz C2D and I've used that happily for nearly 5 years now... For what I do I've seen no real speed difference between my E8400 and a i7 build I did for a customer.

Will look into tweaking my build with an AMD setup, granted I find a good mobo...

[Jä×]

660 dollars versus 750, so saving roughly 100 bucks going AMD.

[Macheez]

Hey Jä×,

Check out www.MicroCenter.com for some comparable prices and you might find a better deal.
The motherboard you chose is only $89.99 after a $10 mail-in rebate.  Hyperlink

Whenever I help a client I always find out first the budget and then the needs.  I hope you take a look at this store.  I live about 15-20 minutes away from one of their massive retail stores.  So far, all my experiences with them have been exceptional.  I consider them a definite competitor to NewEgg.com and TigerDirect.com.  There is even a TigerDirect retail store nearby but I find MicroCenter offers so much more.  I used to buy a lot from TigerDirect but the deals and service from MicroCenter make me look at them before I go check out their competitors.

I just purchased for $599 + Tax the following for a client that doesn't game but does heavy business stuff: Hyperlink

Hope you find a great price for your needs and wants! (no matter where you get it)
Mac-n-Cheez

[Jä×]

Final list.



If you're wondering where the GPU(s) is...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102752
My friend sent me two of these for nothing, going to be going ATI this time around it seems...

[Jä×]

These came in today!


512meg 256bit GDDR4 ATI cards... crossfire time.

Just waiting on money to get the rest... can't wait to get back on halo.

Ended up ordering a different case... since the one I wanted sold out.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
Going with this one, 2 120mm fans and a top 140mm fan... plenty.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460
RAM

Motherboard, CPU, PSU left...

[Jä×]

Ended up making more changes... since apparently Newegg gave me a 2000 dollar credit line.... :l
SO SPLURGED

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
MOB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153143
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106150
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136771
Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009408
Keyboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823334012


Should have everything assembled and running by the end of next week.

[Jä×]

Case, RAM and GPUs in... waiting on the rest.

[Jä×]

Installing Windows 7 64 now... monitor did not come in today so having to use my 32" Tv... hopefully the monitor comes in tomorrow and I can get back on the fields!

Pictures to come.

[McSkittles]

3870's? I thought my 3940 was sitting in a time machine But as long as you don't plan on doing much in the way of current games you should be in the clear. Other than that good choices, minus the AMD processor

[Jä×]

Plays Mass Effect 3 at 40fps on max settings... can't really complain.

[McSkittles]

As long as it does what you need it to, can't really complain at the price of free. And a correction, I have the 4870 sitting in my machine