I thought about building a PC and required help. But now I'm done!

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Apok

Apok

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This is something I've been thinking of for a while now, as secretly everyone has a wish to build a computer some day. :sly:
Well almost everyone.

But now I'm finally in the position where my not-so-good Lenovo PC just doesn't cut it any more.
I'd like to play the current PC games even if not on the highest settings. I'd also like to use photoshop as my current PC is having trouble using even GIMP.
I've been looking around the internet quite a bit and with every answer I discover more questions, so I decided that the simplest solution would be to ask the all-knowing GTP forum for assistance. I've already picked out some components even if I don't necessarily know exactly why I picked these components, but here goes:

- Gigabyte GZ-G2 plus
I have plenty of room for a full tower case so I decided for this as imo it looks quite nice, the fans supposedly don't make much noise and it has plenty of room for upgradeability.

- Intel Core i5 3350P 3,1Ghz
This one I'm not so sure about. There's only so much you can learn about processors in a week or so. I'm not a fast learner either.
I've decided for an Intel because it's represented in the market a lot more than AMD (at least here). This gave me some better options for motherboards.
But I'm really not sure about this one and would like some feedback on this CPU and on AMD vs Intel.

- Asus P8B75-V
Again something I'm not too sure about. I don't intend on overclocking so I opted for this cheaper MB.

-Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660OC-2GD
Opted for the GTX660 as it should be powerful enough to run pretty much anything I want even if not on highest settings.

- 2x Kingston Hyperx blu - 2GB Module - DDR3 1600MHz CL9 DIMM
A question I have here is what CL9 means as I have no clue :confused: Also is there a difference between buying two separate units and buying a kit of two.

- Gigabyte superb E620
Not sure how much power I really need. The more I read about this subject the more opinions seem to vary. This should be enough power, right?

- Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200rpm
Seems fine? There doesn't seem to be much difference between various HDD's.

I'm also going to use the DVD burner, card reader (compact flash and some other formats) and the 150GB HDD from my current PC.
A general 👍 or 👎 as well as some advice would be appreciated.


It is done!
 
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The CL9 thing is the RAM timing. CL9 means that the timings are 9-9-9-24. The lower the numbers, the faster the ram (lo0wer latency).

In terms of buying kits of 1, 2 of 4, it all depends on how many RAM slots your motherboard has. The one you've selected has 4 slots. Its generally a good idea to buy them in sets of 2s, as they can be dual channeled (the RAM sticks work together and faster)

In terms of your GPU, it should be powerful enough to run many games on high, but not all games.

Your PSU wattage seems good, but I'd buy a more reputable brand. Something like Antec, Corsair, Evga etc.

What store are you buying from?
 
I have the same graphics card and it runs Borderlands 2, Assassin's Creed 3, Crysis 1 and 2, Call of duty black ops 2 and Far Cry 3 at max settings or close to max in 1080p, (in Far Fry 3 I had to turn down the anti aliasing but it still looks amazing).
However, this is when paired with an I5 3570K and 12 gigabytes of ram, so your performance will vary. I still reccomend it though.

Also, if you can afford it, I would go for an I7 CPU, something like a 3770K or a 2600k (this one is last generation but still good) as applications like photoshop benefit from the increased number of threads (virtual cores) that the I7 has over the I5. For gaming you wouldn't notice much difference though.

Your hard drive is fine. You have a blue drive which means it is a mixture of performance and eco friendliness. The WD black drives are for raw performance, and the green drives are slower but more eco friendly. This is of course only Western Digital's naming scheme and other manufacturers like Seagate for example will be different, but yeah yours seems fine.
 
Thank you both for the responses, things are clearer already. :cheers:

I'm buying from two different Slovenian stores. I prefer this to international stores for my convenience (payment has been tricky with no real credit card in the past).
Anyway I had a look at more power supplies and between the two stores I came across the Corsair TX650. But I quickly noticed that the Corsair GS700 is the same price which is odd considering the GS700 is 14$ more expensive on their website.
Regardless I am willing to pay more for the Corsair GS700 instead of the Giagabyte I originally picked. Any thoughts on this?
Gets more power for any future upgrades I may want to perform too.

Sadly my budget doesn't allow for an i7 though.
 
Apok
Anyway I had a look at more power supplies and between the two stores I came across the Corsair TX650. But I quickly noticed that the Corsair GS700 is the same price which is odd considering the GS700 is 14$ more expensive on their website.
Regardless I am willing to pay more for the Corsair GS700 instead of the Giagabyte I originally picked. Any thoughts on this?
Gets more power for any future upgrades I may want to perform too.
Click to expand...

That power supply should do you fine and give you enough headroom to upgrade later on down the road (especially since you won't be overclocking)

Sadly my budget doesn't allow for an i7 though.
Click to expand...

An i5 is more than enough to play games at near-to-max settings at the 1920x1080 mark or even max settings if you're not a resolution freak and don't mind doing 1280x720 and does photoshop/vegas pretty darn well. I don't notice any hiccups or anything like that. Granted I have a 3570k (at stock speeds) versus a 3550P but at stock speeds, they both have roughly the same performance.
 
The timings are fine.

Do not spend extra for 9-8-9-24 ram as you wont notice it.

The numbers are in nanoseconds, can you notice the difference between 8 and 9ns?

Not unless you are doing some major encoding.
 
Grayfox
T
Do not spend extra for 9-8-9-24 ram as you wont notice it.

The numbers are in nanoseconds, can you notice the difference between 8 and 9ns?
Click to expand...

This. I have CL9 RAM and I lowered the timings in my BIOS and it only shaved off 1 second on startup.
 
I have another question purely out of curiosity. What's the difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 and what's the difference between x16, x4, x1 in relation to the PCIe slots?
 
Apok
I have another question purely out of curiosity. What's the difference between PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 and what's the difference between x16, x4, x1 in relation to the PCIe slots?
Click to expand...

PCI-E 3.0 offers more bandwidth over PCI-E 2.0, of course it's good to use the better slot, but it's not noticeable during gameplay. Most of the modern motherboards have x16 when running a single GPU card so you really don't have worry about it either. x1 slots are good for soundcards and RAID controller cards.

And I guess you could get something better than that Gigabyte case though it isn't bad (Cooler Master, NZXT, Corsair).
 
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Alright. Final question for today before I go out to celebrate the new year, but I was hoping to use my current DVD/CD reader an LG GSA-H10N. It's connected to the motherboard using an IDE cable and I'm not sure if the one I selected has a port for that. I can't see it stated on their site and would like someone to take a second look. Is there a way to connect the damn thing?
 
I don't see any IDE ports on your mobo above so maybe a IDE to SATA adapter?

The items I saw made me think it's not worth it though :lol:
 
You may aswell get a new optical drive, the reason being they are cheap and IDE cables are bulky and restrict airflow in the case, aswell as looking terrible in the case in my opinion.

EDIT: About the PCI slots. Sometimes you will see it has a 'PCI Express x16 slot-x4 mode'. Although the GPU will physically fit into the slot, you will not get decent performance because there is not enough bandwidth. You have to put the GPU into a x16 slot to get optimum performance from it. The motherboard you selected has a PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot so you're all good.

It gets slightly more confusing when talking about going multi GPU, but I don't think you're doing that, right?
 
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This came in the mail the other day
IMG_5142.jpg


The boxes contained this thing
IMG_5143.jpg


IMG_5145.jpg


These two things
IMG_5147.jpg


These three things
IMG_5148.jpg


As well as a new hard drive and optical drive.

I then masterfully did this with all of those things,

IMG_5149.jpg


and am now after installing OS and all of the drivers, etc. writing this from a new fully functioning PC. 👍

Thanks for your help everyone!
 
Good looking bit of kit right there, look forward to seeing you derping around by my side once again on a whole new platform.
 
Apok
This came in the mail the other day

I then masterfully did this with all of those things,

IMG_5149.jpg


and am now after installing OS and all of the drivers, etc. writing this from a new fully functioning PC. 👍

Thanks for your help everyone!
Click to expand...

Please work on some cable management. Other than that, nice build dude. I'm going to be building a PC next month.
 
Apok
IMG_5149.jpg


Thanks for your help everyone!
Click to expand...

Few things wrong that I can see.

1: Cable Management.
Spend some time one weekend routing the cablesthrough the side panel and you will have a neater looking PC and better airflow, which means lower temperatures

2: Crappy Stock Intel Cooler.
This is just plain wrong, get a after market air cooler or a LCLC(low cost liquid cooling) unit like corsair H60.

This will give even better cooling and reduce noise.

But looks nice.

Mine running folding at home.
folding.png
 
I did some more cable management, so it's a bit neater. There are only openings to the right side of the mobo, so there's still cables crossing the motherboard here and there. Most of the clutter connected to the hard drives and optical drive is hidden now though.

The crappy stock Intel cooler will have to stay for now.
 

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