Building a Computer

[Gilles]

I'm looking into building my computer. I have been shopping on TigerDirect and have got what I think is a good gaming computer for the cost. I have no idea how to build my own computer, and am curious if all the parts I chose are compatible. Also any suggestions to changing any parts are more than welcome.

Also is this thing going to be able to cool itself? I don't plan on overclocking it.

Processor: AMD Phenom X4 9600 Quad Core Processor

Motherboard: XFX nForce 750a SLI Motherboard

RAM (2 sticks): Corsair Value Select 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB Hard Drive

Graphics Card: HIS Radeon HD 4870 Video Card-512

Power Supply: Corsair TX750W 750-Watt Power Supply

How is the power supply? I had no idea how much I wanted, but I figured more than 500 less than 1000.

Sound Card: Auzentech AZT-XPCINE X-Plosion Cinema 7.1 Sound Card

DvD Drive: Sony DRU-V200S/BR DVD Rewritable Drive SATA

 

[The_wand_mirror]

1173 Euro total lol.

You're willing to pay quite a price.

Then again, i believe that video card is a fucking killer. The best of ATI?

You know, the problem is i am learning these things at school. Which parts fir with eachother, but i really have no idea if those are compatible...

Btw i believe you have a bit strange setting. You have a very good video card, but the processor is 2,3 ? Couldn't you better get a 3 ghz one, because of the powerfull video card?

 

[Dr Super Good]

As your using A nvidia motherboard, you should use a geforce graphics processor as you can then add another graphic card to it in future if you need extra power as it supports SLI (it does not support cross fire I think).

My brother's PC cost 1200£ and has nvidia 1GB 8800GT and quad core, no sound card but the motherboard one and 4GB ram with 1TB HDD space, so this is probably quite reasonable.

You will need to put extra cooling in, amd processors and ati cards are horriably prone to overheating, burning out and overall wasting a lot of energy as heat so propper cooling is required. You should basically need a good processor fan to cool the processor and a separate fan to blow air out of your box. Liquid cooling would cover all this and allow for OCing if you plan on having it but that is only if you plan on having it.

Also I would like to know what is the benifit of a sound card? I have been using the sound card that is intigrated into the motherboard for multiple PCs for 8 years and have no had any problems with it. What is the advantage of one? (this is a personal question that I am asking out of interest).

 

[FreshMobster]

All in all the current build is likely more alike a gaming rig, than simple working station. The problem may arrouse with the processor, as you should know that AMD will be taking a step towards AM3 port somwhere at 1st quarter of 2009. The Phenom processors "Deneb" and "Propus", that will be addapted to AM3 port will show up in March. After some time three core "Heka" and "Rana" and two-core "Regor" will hit the market (manufacturing process - 45 nm).
If you're going to stick with selection, then I would offer changing the current choice to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103291.
For RAM memory you could've selected 800 MHz sticks and PC6400, but most of games will run smothly even with what you have choisen.
For PSU - 600 Watt could be enough, but it's better to have something more to it than nothing. Never know what fate might struck at your ass.
Oh, and I would select sound card from Creative Labs offerings.

 

[Dr Super Good]

I personaly like intel procs and nvidia graphcis cards, they have served me well for years and I have never really had a problem that directly relates to them that is not the random defect chance that affects all computer hardware.

 

[Gilles]

I definitely get better RAM, didn't realize what I picked.

Also I will probably switch the processor, no one seems to think it's a good choice (other sites).

Wand, it can't cost that much, it's only 1200 CAN.

I'm thinking these switches:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3877291&CatId=1969

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4083499&CatId=1554

 

[Samuraid]

Processor: AMD Phenom X4 9600 Quad Core Processor

Do NOT buy a Phenom 9500 or 9600. Both of them have a defect in the Translation Lookaside Buffer that causes cache corruption. This will either lead to instability and crashes, or degraded performance when using a BIOS workaround. If you want a Phenom, get one whose model number ends in "50", as AMD fixed the TLB problem in such models.

That said, while Phenoms perform reasonably well, they generate a fair amount of heat, use a fair bit more power, and remain slightly lower performance than many of Intel's quad cores. You might consider getting an Intel Q6600 instead (easily overclockable on air to 3GHz), or one of the newer Q9300 quad cores.

Motherboard: XFX nForce 750a SLI Motherboard

Don't waste money on an SLI motherboard if you plan to run ATI Radeon video cards. Either buy nVidia cards, or get a crossfire motherboard to run multiple ATI cards, or just get a board with a single PCI-Express x16 slot and save money.

RAM (2 sticks): Corsair Value Select 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory

I've used a lot of Corsair in computer builds. It seems to work well. If you are running an AMD chip, you will get a reasonable performance benefit from using faster ram (800MHz), although with most Core 2 Intel chips, the difference in performance between 667MHz RAM and 800MHz is not especially significant for most applications.

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB Hard Drive

You can't go wrong here. I would only suggest maybe looking at Western Digital's 640GB drive as I believe it performs a little better than the seagate due to the data density of it's platter (and maybe due to higher interface bandwidth, I don't quite remember off the top)

Graphics Card: HIS Radeon HD 4870 Video Card-512

I don't know that much about the HIS brand specifically, but the Radeon 4800 series remains a strong choice.

Power Supply: Corsair TX750W 750-Watt Power Supply

Great choice. Corsair makes high-quality and stable supplies. Most people don't realize, but you really don't need a huge power supply for most computer builds. There are actually some 350W power supplies that could power your build! I would get something in the 450W to 600W range. Don't waste money on anything more unless you want to crossfire a couple of 4870 X2's.

Sound Card: Auzentech AZT-XPCINE X-Plosion Cinema 7.1 Sound Card

Unless you are an audiophile and extremely picky about your sound, just about anything should work decently well. you might even stick with the integrated audio on the motherboard and just upgrade to a discrete sound card later at your leisure.

DvD Drive: Sony DRU-V200S/BR DVD Rewritable Drive SATA

Looks good. Buy OEM if you can, simply for the money savings. I'm a fan of Samsung Toshiba drives (TSST), but I've had reasonably good experience with Sony drives too.

I guess that about does it. Have fun with your computer build.

 

[Gilles]

I was waiting for you Samuraid, thanks for replying!

Now you realize I know absolutely nothing, and from one day of research this is what I got. It's kinda random. Like I have no idea what mobo run what video cards and all that.

I'm thinking I am going to want to get a solid processor and mobo that will last me a little while, and I can upgrade the rest (like dropping the sound card like you suggested, although I do like my sound and I will have surround sound, but I can pick up a cheap card from work that will do me fine).

I was linked to these on another site:
Biostar TP45 HP Motherboard - v5.0, Intel P45, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0, SATA at TigerDirect.com

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor BX80570E8400 - 3.0GHz, 6MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Wolfdale, Dual-Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan at TigerDirect.com