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Looking to put together a newer ULTIMATE PC

Coke

By Coke,
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Coke Newbie

Coke

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The PC I am running, I myself assembled waayyy back in 2003. It's getting tired, and outdated.

 

I am looking to build a completely fresh PC, with the latest and most bad arse components but I am really out of the "know".

 

Can some of you list everything I should buy? I wanna be able to run Windows 7, in its entirety, without making my PC even flinch a muscle. Please be specific, including model numbers, etc.

 

Thanks!

 

Justin

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AlexNYC Newbie

AlexNYC

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I use to build my own pc myself. Did a few and constantly upgraded those pc to keep up with the newer stuff.

 

Now, the pricing on computer has gone down drastically, and all pc's are usually now made where you could upgrade them easily. As long as you don't get a special casing for it. If is a regular tower you should be okay with future upgrades. My suggestions, safe yourself time and some cash and just get it complete. Make sure it has multiply connections on your video card for additional monitor or tv's (such as dvi and HDMi connections). In case you want to hook up your tv. But that just me. good luck.

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Komeuppance Newbie

Komeuppance

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Haha... how much do you want to spend??

 

Intel Core i7 processor should be your starting point. And then from the software you're going to run on it can determine what hardware would best suit you.

 

Just win7, email internet browsing?? Or will you do some gaming?? Or are you going for bragging rights??

 

-Robert

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Coke Newbie

Coke

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Haha... how much do you want to spend??

 

Intel Core i7 processor should be your starting point. And then from the software you're going to run on it can determine what hardware would best suit you.

 

Just win7, email internet browsing?? Or will you do some gaming?? Or are you going for bragging rights??

 

-Robert

 

I don't do any gaming on my computer really, but I do watch DVD's from time to time, and I expect my video card to shine. I do ALOT of internet/email. I also expect the computer to be able to run multiple programs without freezing/crashing/slowing down to a crawl. I want my computer to power thru just about anything.

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Minagera Newbie

Minagera

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Go buy a nice laptop then. Honestly the hardware has reached a point, again, that it is faster than most any software can utilize. Since you aren't gaming, a nice i5 core would be well suited for you, whether it is dual or quad core.

 

It sounds to me Justin, that you just need a nice stable OS. Windows 7 has come a long way, and is quite reliable. However for the more experienced user, you could run Ubuntu.

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UlrichWolf Newbie

UlrichWolf

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Here's what I would do, if it was me.....

 

Raidmax Smilodon - The official case of Tim - 69.99

 

Thermaltake 600W PSU - 69.99

 

MSI Mainboard - AM3 - Good board here - 99.99

 

AMD 3.2 GHz Thuban Black Edition SIX CORE - Yes, six core. - 295.99

 

G-Skill DDR 1333 RAM - 8 GB - Another Timbo-approved part. 177.98

 

MSI nVidia 9800GT 1GB - 119.99

 

Samsung 2TB SATA HDD - 129.99

 

Lite-On DVD Burner with Lightscribe - 25.99

 

Windows 7 Home Premium - 99.99

 

That brings us to 1089.90, and at present there are 75 worth of mail in rebates on this stuff.

 

So, taking that is consideration, we can call it 1014.90 plus shipping.

 

I know, it seems spendy, but I don't think you can get more well-rounded power for less.

 

Tim

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MikeMeyerhoff Newbie

MikeMeyerhoff

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Newegg combo (motherboard, processor, 4gb ram, SSD hard drive, and regular harddrive, case. $720

 

I wouldn't build a system anymore without a solid state hdd for the operating system to sit on. Greatly speeds up the overall system.

 

If you arn't gaming, a separate video card is pretty much a waste IMO.

 

Upgrades I'd add to that system is possibly another 4gb of ram ($80) and a Blu-Ray/DVD/CD drive ($90)

 

Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers reuse or replace.

 

Windows 7 of course $100

Edited by MikeMeyerhoff
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Psykore Newbie

Psykore

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I'd recommend the i5 750. You can jump to an i7, but it really won't be worth your $$. If you really want to, the i7 930 is a powerhouse, but you are adding a 100 bucks for performance that you really will never see in any practical usage.

 

If you want my honest recommendation, get a quad core phenomII with a 5770 and a nice SSD. You will never wait for any program to load and it will run any consumer-grade application with no problem.

 

If you want to go overboard/ not with AMD go with a i5-750 with a 5770 and a nice SSD. It's really not overboard; just a bit more $$ that isn't wasted money. It will be a faster rig with some shiny bits (like usb 3.0 support) that make the system justifiably more expensive.

 

If you want bragging rights build the i7.

 

I have significantly more money then when I first started building my computers and I spend a lot less on my builds. My advice is going to be: pick your platform (based on whatever, mostly usage requirements) and get the best value processor, get a good brand mobo and memory, and spend around 150-200 on the video card. I recently gave a buddy my $400 video card that I bought a couple of years ago because it is worth nothing now. You will be better off spending the same amount of money and upgrading a few times over the life of the computer.

 

I can spec something out for you tomorrow at work (probably; may get busy) if you are a bit more specific on what platform you want to roll with :)

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Psykore Newbie

Psykore

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Tim's system is pretty baller. A bit more power than I would recommend (or use personally; so I may be skewed a bit) but I like the AMD platform a lot.

 

However, I really recommend going all out and getting an ATI video card when you are rolling with an AMD system (ok, I recommend them with every system, but especially with AMD systems). The 5770 rocks for ~$150. The 9800GT was a solid card, but it is ancient.

Edited by Psykore
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UlrichWolf Newbie

UlrichWolf

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Tim's system is pretty baller. A bit more power than I would recommend (or use personally; so I may be skewed a bit) but I like the AMD platform a lot.

 

However, I really recommend going all out and getting an ATI video card when you are rolling with an AMD system (ok, I recommend them with every system, but especially with AMD systems). The 5770 rocks for ~$150. The 9800GT was a solid card, but it is ancient.

 

It's been my experience (your mileage may vary) that ATI cards do not seem to get along well with AMD machines. I've built several that were pretty rocky, never exactly unstable, but I have always had better luck with nVidia.

 

Part of it, I have never personally cared for ATI's drivers, they seem to be something on the flaky side.

 

I personally run an AMD setup with MSI main and MSI nVidia cards, and NEVER had a freeze. Not too long ago, I was rendering something in Vegas, and chatting with 4 or 5 folks on Yahoo, and playing a video all at once, and had nary an issue.

 

An SSD drive could be a very nice addition, but I haven't had much experience with them yet, and advocating it, plus another dedicated drive is something I would want to feel out before I recommended it.

 

Tim

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Psykore Newbie

Psykore

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It depends on the chipset. ATI cards play very nicely with AMD chipsets; they call it the dragon platform: http://game.amd.com/us-en/landings/dragon.aspx

 

ATI's newer drivers are a huge improvement over the older versions (anything pre Cata 8 was pretty much crap); and unlike nVidia you can choose to install their utility software or go driver only, which I personally think is a huge plus. That is not to say that nVidia doesn't make a good card, but I definitely wouldn't go with a 4 year old design in a new machine if I am building something that I want to be top of the line.

 

I personally run a SSD every day and have built several machines that use them. I believe it is the single most noticeable upgrade you can put in your machine. Running a second drive for larger media files is a very good idea if you can understand having multiple drives. It is pretty rare to see a non-gamer that needs anything over 100-200 GB of storage, but they are definitely out there, so that is a consideration when deciding which type of HDD to run.

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Komeuppance Newbie

Komeuppance

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Yes, a stable SSD for your OS. And a separate standard SATA hard drive for your data.

 

Intel Core i5-750 $195

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

 

Gigabyte Motherboard w/ SATA3 and USB3.0 $140

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412

 

Corsair 4gb RAM (2x2GB) DDR3 $104

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145263

 

Thermaltake 600w PS $70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153114

 

Crucial Solid State Drive (SSD) 64GB SATA3 (355MB/S read, 75MB/S write) $145

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148358

 

WD 500GB SATA3 Black 32MB Cache 5 year warranty $70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320

 

Samsung SATA DVD burner $20

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151192

 

NVIDIA 250GTS (1GB for high resolution smoothness) $134

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127495&cm_re=gts250-_-14-127-495-_-Product

 

Winblows 7 $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116752

 

Cases average about $30 depends on how fancy you want.

 

Total: $1008 before rebates and shipping

 

Separate video cards are much better performing than onboard video, and for the price it's definitely worth it. The card Tim and I recommended are actually the same GPU chip, just the 250GTS is a less power hungry and cooler running design.

 

-Robert

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MikeMeyerhoff Newbie

MikeMeyerhoff

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Separate video cards are much better performing than onboard video, and for the price it's definitely worth it.

 

 

 

Thats not 100% true. For games yes, but for desktop apps and video the faster ATI/AMD motherboards score higher. The reason being is that the video is on the chipset has better throughput to the rest of the system than a addin video card can have going through the PCIe bus.

 

My windows experience desktop video score has gone down when I added a video card to my 780g system.

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Tipsysmile Newbie

Tipsysmile

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well that system tim posted is pretty good, but I would get rid of the X6, and just get a X4 CPU. Save almost $200 We just barely started using 4 cores in everyday tasks. So 6 cores is pointless.

 

I game and do alot of decoding, and web developing, but I barely ever see anything over 2% usage on my 4th core. Battlefield Bad company 2, which is 1 of the newest game to start using multi core, wont even use the 4th core.

 

 

And every AMD system I have built Has always had an ATI card in it, and vice versa with Intel and nvidia. It basically depends on the chipset of the motherboard. But Ati is AMD now, so they got their s*** together.

 

 

just my 2 cents

Edited by Tipsysmile
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strang3majik Newbie

strang3majik

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yeah, AMD owns ATI, and Intel owns nVidia...and, I myself am an nVidia/Intel man...but, both are good.

 

But, my honest opinion, build the best system you can, that way it will last you the longest without having to touch it.

 

If you build the absolute top of the line system today, tomorrow it will have been beat, so, its best to do the best you can, that way you can still have a nice system after a few years. Because, if you build a decent system, then, tomorrow, its already considered even slower...and, basically, its just going to be considered slow way sooner. Basically, what you skimp on now can make you need to build a computer sooner than you wanted to down the road.

 

heck...I built a system not too long ago with a pentium 4 overclocked to 4GHz...when I built it, it wasn't the best, but it was fast...now, my $500 laptop gets the same Windows rating. Now, its better at gaming, but, things like running multiple programs, my laptop does much better.

Edited by strang3majik
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Skullzaflare Newbie

Skullzaflare

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yeah, AMD owns ATI, and Intel owns nVidia...and, I myself am an nVidia/Intel man...but, both are good.

 

But, my honest opinion, build the best system you can, that way it will last you the longest without having to touch it.

 

If you build the absolute top of the line system today, tomorrow it will have been beat, so, its best to do the best you can, that way you can still have a nice system after a few years. Because, if you build a decent system, then, tomorrow, its already considered even slower...and, basically, its just going to be considered slow way sooner. Basically, what you skimp on now can make you need to build a computer sooner than you wanted to down the road.

 

heck...I built a system not too long ago with a pentium 4 overclocked to 4GHz...when I built it, it wasn't the best, but it was fast...now, my $500 laptop gets the same Windows rating. Now, its better at gaming, but, things like running multiple programs, my laptop does much better.

NOO, intel does NOT own nvidia, thus nvidia sueing intel last year

also, a $300 laptop now a day will smoke a 4ghz p4. hell my old 5ghz celeron was slow.

 

for what you want, since you do not game, you can build a good computer for far less than 1000

why do you need a near top end video card for desktop use? you dont unless you game or photoshop

 

desktop wise, again, you wont see anything over a bigger dual or low end quad.

Intel is better at performance than AMD. AMD has a certain snappiness but is definitely a budget chip.

 

4gb ram is more than you will ever need unless you are photoshopping, gaming, video editing, etc

 

PSU, you could get by with a good 500w, but id say go with a OCZ 600w

 

harddrives are on the cheap. dont both with SSD unless your gaming, or need very fast response time.

in real world applications such as a basic desktop you will never see the true benefit of a ssd

you can get a WD Green 2tb for $90 now, i have a 1tb as my main and a 2tb for data.

 

Case would be more of a preference.

motherboards, try to stay with name brands, mainly for quality and warranty. namely, eVga/gigabyte/asus

 

i do recommend a bluray drive since the prices have dropped alot

 

i also recommend getting a upgraded heatsink, since most people dont clean out their dust boxes (what they turn into) the bigger dust pile will cool better than the small one.

 

if you have any questions, feel free to pm me. computers is one of my main fields over everything else

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