Homebuilt PC

[Circuit]

I am planning on building my own computer, but am not sure who to go to for all the stuff. This is what I'm looking for.

A computer which I can sit at, with a good sound card, so I don't have to sit with headphones on for good sound. A lot of memory roughly a Terrabyte is wanted I guess. Possibly two. I wan't to put around four movies and six series' on it so, yeah. A nice Widescreen monitor so screen quality wont be an issue. The case I shall build myself. OS, Windows 7 Home Premium.

If I've missed anything important, please say. I'm just asking because I'm not sure what places would best to get each different part. Thanks for all advice given.

 

[Purple Materia]

What would you want to accomplish? Would you be playing high-end games? Just watching movies? You'd need a good monitor and video card if you plan on watching movies in HD, but you can always get a low-end card that'll support HD if money is tight.

 

[Hovo]

You wanna know where to buy the parts? Check out Newegg.

 

[twocows]

Sound cards don't affect sound quality. They're mostly for specific things, like multiple audio output or output to specific devices. If you want good sound quality without using headphones, get good speakers.

When you say "memory," people generally assume you are referring to RAM, which is related to how many things the computer can do at a given time. You have confused the term with "disk space," which is how much data can be saved (such as movies or music).

This is a good site to use when it's actually working, otherwise just use Newegg. An H55 motherboard, an Intel i3 or i5 processor, a Spinpoint F3 terabyte hard disk drive or two, and 3 or 4GB of DDR3 RAM should be sufficient for your needs.

 

[donavannj]

Also, to add to what twocows said: get yourself a USB external hard drive that's at least as big in capacity as your system's hard drive is. Use a backup program to copy your data/back up your entire system on it.

 

[Archer]

Sound cards don't affect sound quality. They're mostly for specific things, like multiple audio output or output to specific devices. If you want good sound quality without using headphones, get good speakers.

I know a lot of people that would kill you for saying that. The sound card DOES affect quality, by a lot, it's just that the bottleneck is usually the speakers or headphones. I still don't think you need a sound card unless you're playing high fidelity music, though. As for speakers, you need to consider a few things - budget, free space and simplicity. Budget obviously defines what you can actually afford to get yourself, desk space lets you get bigger speakers if you want that, otherwise you can go with a 2.1 system (with a sub). If you have the right room setup and don't mind some extra cables, 5.1 can be great for movies and games. Logitech's 2.1 and 5.1 systems are great value for money.

This is a good site to use when it's actually working, otherwise just use Newegg. An H55 motherboard, an Intel i3 or i5 processor, a Spinpoint F3 terabyte hard disk drive or two, and 3 or 4GB of DDR3 RAM should be sufficient for your needs.

For movie uses, yeah, you'll be fine with the Clarkdale GPU, but you must get the dual-core i5-600 series. The i3s aren't as gutsy and don't have quite as good of a GPU, from memory. And the i5-760s (the quads) don't have the on-chip graphics. Keep in mind you won't be playing any recent games in the Intel graphics, though. They still cope fine with HD playback of movies. F3s are the best performing HDDs for the money, but the Warranty is shorter than most, so weigh it up into your choice. Just get a 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1333 kit. There's little point screwing around with 3GB, as you lose the dual-channel performance and it's just messy.

 

[twocows]

I know a lot of people that would kill you for saying that. The sound card DOES affect quality, by a lot, it's just that the bottleneck is usually the speakers or headphones.

Nonsense, onboard sound these days is nearly identical to sound card output. Audiophiles are not a reliable source of information; many of them fail blind listening tests but still insist they can tell the difference between high bitrate lossy and lossless. As long as you're listening to well encoded music with good headphones or speakers, the sound card is usually irrelevant.

 

[Circuit]

For movie uses, yeah, you'll be fine with the Clarkdale GPU, but you must get the dual-core i5-600 series. The i3s aren't as gutsy and don't have quite as good of a GPU, from memory. And the i5-760s (the quads) don't have the on-chip graphics. Keep in mind you won't be playing any recent games in the Intel graphics, though. They still cope fine with HD playback of movies.

What graphics card would be good for playing recent games on? I would like to be able to play some games on it too.

 

[twocows]

What graphics card would be good for playing recent games on? I would like to be able to play some games on it too.

If you want to play recent games (as in, within the past year or two), you'll need to invest a bit more money. Go with a P55 motherboard instead of an H55 motherboard and consider investing in an Intel i5-760 processor.

 

[Circuit]

Thanks. This is what I have so far;

Motherboard: EVGA P55 LE 123-LF-E653-KR LGA1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard $149.99
CPU: Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760 $199.99
Memory: Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 System Specific Memory Model KTH-X3B/4G $166.99
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DS 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Audio Card $49.99
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N470D5-13I-B GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support $299.99
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive x2 $149.98
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Speakers: Logitech Z506 75 watts RMS 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers $99.99
Case: Homebuilt
Monitor: ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers $219.99

Total: $1336.91
So what do you think? Are there better values for money, or are there better systems I should probably get? Thanks for any advice again.

 

[Archer]

Nonsense, onboard sound these days is nearly identical to sound card output. Audiophiles are not a reliable source of information; many of them fail blind listening tests but still insist they can tell the difference between high bitrate lossy and lossless. As long as you're listening to well encoded music with good headphones or speakers, the sound card is usually irrelevant.

To be fair, I did say that the speakers and headphones are the bottleneck and still said that sound card wasn't worth it for the OP. I personally use onboard sound, so I was just getting at the fact that X-Fi sound cards DO become a bottleneck when you have .flac encoded music and $300 headphones. At this point, the headphones actually need a gutsier card to drive the bigger drivers, anyway. But yeah, that's more of a physical trait. In the right situation, they do make a difference, but it's pretty specific. It's still important to ensure that you have a decent on-board sound card, such as the HD Realtek ones.

Thanks. This is what I have so far;

Motherboard: EVGA P55 LE 123-LF-E653-KR LGA1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard $149.99 - Fine
CPU: Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760 $199.99 - Fine
Memory: Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 System Specific Memory Model KTH-X3B/4G $166.99 - Fine (what I have, actually)
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DS 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Audio Card $49.99 - Waste of time
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N470D5-13I-B GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support $299.99 - Very nice, but hungry
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive x2 $149.98 - Fine, just consider the short warranty
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - Make sure it's 64-bit
Speakers: Logitech Z506 75 watts RMS 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers $99.99 - Fine
Case: Homebuilt - Uh...??
Monitor: ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers $219.99 Save yourself some money and get a screen with integrated speakers? Asus, Dell, BenQ screens are all fine.

Total: $1336.91
So what do you think? Are there better values for money, or are there better systems I should probably get? Thanks for any advice again.

Okay, a few things. Firstly, despite my arguing with twocows, he's perfectly right that you don't need a sound card. That board will be fine.

I really don't know about the case, so just run that by us. Also, with that graphics card, you're going to want to ensure that you get a decent (Corsair, Antec, Silverstone, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Enermax) 650W Power supply.

 

[donavannj]

I really don't know about the case, so just run that by us. Also, with that graphics card, you're going to want to ensure that you get a decent (Corsair, Antec, Silverstone, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Enermax) 650W Power supply.

I'd personally go for a 750W power supply just to be on the safe side. I also have had poor experiences with Cooler Master PSUs, but maybe it's just me.

 

[Purple Materia]

Are Fatal1ty PSU's worth it?

 

[Archer]

I'd personally go for a 750W power supply just to be on the safe side. I also have had poor experiences with Cooler Master PSUs, but maybe it's just me.

650W is fine, providing it's a decent brand. And Cooler Master's own PSUs are fine. The ones they send out in low-end cases are generic rebrands and they're crap.

Are Fatal1ty PSU's worth it?

They're just rebrands, usually. Which reminds, me OCZ are a good brand, as well. Not too expensive, either.

 

[hitech]

It is batter to google for some batter article about costume build PC.

 

[donavannj]

It is batter to google for some batter article about costume build PC.

Not when there's 5 or 6 people who have considerable experience working with computer hardware who regularly visit this board.

 

[Archer]

It is better to google for some better articles about custom built PCs.

I think we're good enough to help at the moment. What's your point?

 

[Circuit]

Thanks everyone. This is what I have changed;

Motherboard: EVGA P55 LE 123-LF-E653-KR LGA1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard $149.99
CPU: Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760 $199.99
Memory: Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 System Specific Memory Model KTH-X3B/4G $166.99
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N470D5-13I-B GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support $299.99
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive x2 $149.98
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Speakers: Logitech Z506 75 watts RMS 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers $99.99
Case: Homebuilt
Monitor: ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers $189.99

Total: $1256.92
What I mean by Homebuilt, is that I will build it myself, from scraps and stuff from home, and make it unique to me. W7 will be 64 bit, don't worry about that.
However, what do you mean when you say that my video card is hungry?
Thanks for all advice given.

 

[Mr. X]

He means that the video card will require substancal amounts of power. I don't follow Nivida hardware but i beleive a 700W psu will provide enough power.

I'd help out but since im a AMD/ATI fanboy the only thing i'd say is switch to a AMD motherboard and get a AMD Hexacore processor and get a Radeon 5xx0 series video card.

 

[Archer]

Thanks everyone. This is what I have changed;

Motherboard: EVGA P55 LE 123-LF-E653-KR LGA1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard $149.99
CPU: Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760 $199.99
Memory: Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 System Specific Memory Model KTH-X3B/4G $166.99
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N470D5-13I-B GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support $299.99
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive x2 $149.98
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Speakers: Logitech Z506 75 watts RMS 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers $99.99
Case: Homebuilt
Monitor: ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers $189.99

Total: $1256.92
What I mean by Homebuilt, is that I will build it myself, from scraps and stuff from home, and make it unique to me. W7 will be 64 bit, don't worry about that.
However, what do you mean when you say that my video card is hungry?
Thanks for all advice given.

You still don't have a Power Supply. That's sort of important.

He means that the video card will require substantial amounts of power. I don't follow Nivida hardware but i beleive a 700W psu will provide enough power.

I'd help out but since im a AMD/ATI fanboy the only thing i'd say is switch to a AMD motherboard and get a AMD Hexacore processor and get a Radeon 5xx0 series video card.

I am too, but I also think it's important to let the buyer choose the brands that they want to. You could probably save a little bit of money by going with a similarly specced 785GT board/Phenom X4 970 CPU/5850 setup, but the OP's system is just fine in that regard, as the cheaper system would be slightly slower. Fermi's basically caught up with the 5000 series, now that prices have dropped.

As for the Graphics card, it should be fine with a good 650W.