32 replies to this topic

[Volume]

Preface: Hi everyone! I see a fair amount of users looking for new PCs in topics here, and I figured that some guidelines could help us assist others on their purchases. This guide is based upon forum rules used on another hardware forum I frequently visit. I edited it, cleaned it up a bit, and this is the current draft. If you approve of it, or would like any changes to be made, please post any and all feedback!


Things to keep in mind when creating a topic:


1: In your initial post, try to be confident in what type of computer you want (e.g., entry-level, mid-range, enthusiast). If possible, try to not change major details like that halfway through the thread.
2: We will do our best to find the best value for your budget, but we cannot always put together the best parts with the cheapest price. Please understand that we may make sacrifices due to budget constraints.
3. While we don't know everything, most of us have years of experience. Please feel free to ask questions, as they help us accommodate your needs, and we love the feedback!
4. We are here to help you and many of us do enjoy it, however, if you are simply looking for troubleshooting or general software help, this might not be the best place.
5. Please include your estimated time of purchase so we can choose products that are on sale. Also, please note that if a purchase is not made soon after posting, the offer may have expired or the sale may have ended. Unfortunately, this may cause a time-sensitive build to run over budget.


Guidelines:


Desktop / HTPC / Shuttle / Servers


Topic Title: (e.g., "Need Desktop PC built")

Thread Body:

• Budget:
  
• Primary use (e.g., Gaming, Video Editing, CAD/3D Modelling):
  
• More specific use (what games, what programs):
  
• Planned time until purchase:
  
• Do you need an Operating System?:
  
• Do you have any specific preferred components?:
  
• Do you need a sound or wireless card?:
  
• Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?:
  
• Do you need a monitor? mouse? keyboard?:
  
• Zip code/location? (Shipping costs):

Laptop / Netbooks / Tablets / Phones


Topic Title: (e.g., "Need Laptop for less than $600")

Thread Body:

• Budget:
  
• Primary use (e.g., Gaming, Video Editing, CAD/3D Modelling):
  
• More specific use (what games, what programs):
  
• Planned time until purchase:
  
• Do you have any specific preferred components?:
  
• Do you need a bigger monitor? mouse? full keyboard?:
  
• Zip code/location? (Shipping costs):

Additional information that may help us assist you:


What are your preferences in case style? (e.g., lights, flashy, dull, color)
Are you planning to use multiple monitors?
Are you looking for upgrade-ability?
Do you have any preferred brands?
Can you reuse any components from an older build?
Is there anything else you think we should know?

[T0RC4ED]

Volume,

Great Idea for a topic. As a fellow PC/Network Tech/Modder/Enthusiast and Overclocker the format and suggestions you posted would make it alot easier to help people build their dream machine. Obviously sometimes major changes will happen on a build, but like you suggested, that should be the exception, not the norm.

Edited by T0RC4ED, 12 January 2012 - 05:20 AM.

[Catamount]

This is a great topic; it's good to outline what people need to provide to get help get good help


I would add that it's also important to supply certain information when asking for upgrades, which a lot of tech-related posts do.

People tend to exclude the following three things:

-Budget

-Proper power supply information: most pre-built PCs have junk PSUs, and most PSUs on the market are junk, so among built and bought PCs alike, junk PSUs are the rule, rather than the exception. It's vital to know what you have before we can make recommendations, and we need the exact model, not just a claimed wattage

-What your case it like. Roughly how big is it (slim? mid-tower? full-tower?)? What are the size and number of fans? Are there additional fan slots?


I've seen a lot of tragic results from upgrades to relatively beefy GPUs (as most upgrades are GPU upgrades), either with PSUs that couldn't handle it, cases that couldn't dissipate the additional heat put off by some of these cards, or both.

Edited by Catamount, 12 January 2012 - 12:00 PM.

[MuffinTop]

Thanks Volume for posting this thread, some of us that are less inclined to PC building need this.

[Morashtak]

Let's make the first one a bit complicated then;

The next computer will be used for primarily for gaming as this laptop has Home/Student and Photoshop already installed. It's an XPS1730 with an 8700M SLI setup and after looking thru ebay there's no way in hell I'm paying $us600+ for a graphics card (it's a custom thing made just for this model).

Can spend $us500 a month for the next.. 4 months until beta/release(?). Thinking more than that (6 - 7 months, surprise me devs!) but would like to get in on the beta testing. And for that would only need one graphics card. The second card will be the last major part to be bought.

Have: cable internet, 10mb pipe (1.5m/sec d/l avg). Mouse and joystick.

No monitor, no keyboard. No HD to swap over. Will need an OS. No Home/Student required. Have a basement to keep it cool (and out of sight of the wife). Heat/noise not an issue. Single monitor is fine. Second monitor can be a birthday gift to myself later in the fall. No fancy lights or anything like that needed or wanted.

Will entertain any combo of cpu/gpu but will keep in mind drivers are always getting updated and the fastest gpu now may not be so in a few more months. Will need the pricey bits to be ordered/delivered here in Canada as Customs wants a big bite for the taxman (add 13% for sales tax).

What to buy first? What to buy later as prices come down?

Key points;
Tower (full is fine if needed for ventilation, etc).
40fps with full map, 12v12
Ultra settings preferred but not required (want vs need)
Expandability. Second GPU and sound card (if the board can handle) will be added later.
SSD for primary drive.
Would rather overbuild than wish I had gone the one extra step.

Will edit this as the advice rolls in.

Edited by Morashtak, 13 January 2012 - 07:37 PM.

[Vulpesveritas]

So.... SSD boot drive, basic hard drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and tower. Under 2k total?
Monitor: ASUS VS series 23.6" LED 1080p http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824236174 $185
Keyboard: Microsoft Sidewinder http://www.newegg.co...N82E16823109191 $50
Mouse: Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826146021 $30
OS: Win 7 home premium OEM http://www.newegg.co...N82E16832116986 $100
Case: Zalman Z9 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811235027 $70
Motherboard: AsRock 990FX extreme4 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157266 $160
CPU: AMD FX-8120 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103961 $210
GPU: Radeon HD 7970 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814121485 $550
PSU: Rosewill Capstone 750watt; http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817182073 $120
CPU heatsink: Noctura nh-u12p http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835608014 $73
TIM: GELID GC-extreme http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835426020 $13
ODD: sony http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827118040 $22
SSD: 60GB Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820226246 $130
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136769 $100
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) 1600mhz DDR-3 AMD Entertainment Edition: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103002 $42
+3 SATA III cables: $12 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16812119378

Pre-shipping Subtotal: $1787.91

Figure this would be your best value for $2000 on CryENGINE 3. Also gives you a bit of wiggle room if you want a larger SSD and/or win7 professional, or a larger/higher quality case, etc.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 13 January 2012 - 09:14 PM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Vulp has given you a great system there, however for the price don't ignore the I5 2500k chip instead of the AMD chip, which you wont see full use out of until games developers catch up and improve the coding for 8 core cpu's

[Oderint dum Metuant]

CPU Upgrade Options

Core I7 2600k 3.4ghz -
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115070

http://www.scan.co.u...ache-95w-retail

Core I7 2600 3.4ghz -
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115071

http://www.scan.co.u...ache-95w-retail

Core i5 2500k 3.3ghz -
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115072

http://www.scan.co.u...ache-95w-retail

Core I7 960 3.2ghz -
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115224

http://www.scan.co.u...4x-ratio-retail

Core i7 950 3.07ghz -
http://www.newegg.co...11&Tpk=I7%20950


AMD FX 8150 -
http://www.newegg.co...0&Tpk=fx%208150

http://www.scan.co.u...-5200mt-s-125w-

AMD FX 8120 -
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103961

http://www.scan.co.u...-5200mt-s-95w-r

AMD FX 6100 -
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103962

http://www.scan.co.u...-5200mt-s-95w-r

AMD FX 4100 -
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103996

http://www.scan.co.u...3200mhz-95w-ret

GPU Upgrade Option

There are many brands of GPU each different from the next price also differs, i suggest people do their own research on particular makes and how they perform. I am only going to list GPU's as best per price point (Low > High)

Please Note this is not the be all end all of graphics card lists, however they are currently the best for their price point.

Sub $100

Radeon HD 5670
Radeon HD 6670

[$100 - $180

Radeon HD 5750/6750
Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 6850

$180-$300

Radeon HD 6870
Radeon HD 6950
GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Geforce GTX 569 TI (448 Core)
Radeon HD 6950 2GB

$300+

GeForce GTX 570
Radeon HD 6970
Radeon HD 7970


This can obviously be expanded to include fastest HDD/SSDs as well as Motherboards and i might do at some stage.
But im pretty sure these will be the most asked questions to appear.

Edited by DV^McKenna, 15 January 2012 - 01:57 AM.

[Vulpesveritas]

Actually a Radeon HD 7970 is a better deal than a GTX580, $50 more and always performing 30-80% faster.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Vulpesveritas, on 14 January 2012 - 01:02 PM, said:

Actually a Radeon HD 7970 is a better deal than a GTX580, $50 more and always performing 30-80% faster.

Good shout knew i was missing something.
anything else?

[Vulpesveritas]

you had a typo. The FX-8550 doesn't come out till 2015. We're on the 81xx series of 8 cores right now (Piledriver 8 core will be 82xx series by what I've heard.)

And I'd get rid of the 580 completely there. the 570 kinda makes sense, but the gtx 580 gets pwnd by 7970 for the cost, overall performance, power consumption, and well... just about anything besides PhysX.

[Catamount]

Vulpesveritas, on 14 January 2012 - 08:26 PM, said:

And I'd get rid of the 580 completely there. the 570 kinda makes sense, but the gtx 580 gets pwnd by 7970 for the cost, overall performance, power consumption, and well... just about anything besides PhysX.

I tend to agree here.

McKenna, you have a few cards missing from your lineup (like the Geforce 550ti), but they're such bad options, that it's not worth including them in the first place, which means you've actually made a list that's a pretty good lineup of the good cards out there.


I'd remove the 580, remove the 560 NON-TI, add the 560TI Core448 (there's two 560TIs now) and 7970, and then just include a caveat that you're listing useful cards that present actual useful options instead of every card on the market. I mean, you don't have to, of course, but it's probably what I'd do.

Edited by Catamount, 14 January 2012 - 09:24 PM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Done.. i think!

I think you should include your post on Ram from the other thread and maybe get a mod to make a sticky of the useful posts

Edited by DV^McKenna, 15 January 2012 - 02:04 AM.

[Catamount]

It is amazing how many people build gaming machines and then include enough RAM to hold half the contents of my entire hard drive


In any case, that's a nice list of all the realistic upgrade options at the moment (you forgot the 6770 though! It's got great rebates a lot). I think you included what you should, and excluded what you should.



Also, I agree it'd be nice to create some kind of sticky of a few basic points on building

[Vulpesveritas]

Well I'll toss in some RAM eh? Quick value.


E2 series APU. Athalon II: 4GB
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103003
(or below)
Celeron/Pentium: 4GB
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231394
(or below if you plan to upgrade to a better CPU perhaps?)
A4, A6, A8 APU: (non-unlocked), Phenom II, FX: 8GB gaming, 4GB standard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103002
(or below)
i3, i5, i7: 8GB gaming, 4GB standard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231428
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233186
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820226219
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820104255
(or below if you really are obsessed.)
A6, A8 unlocked: 8GB
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231447 (for the simple reason Llano loves high speed RAM.)

[Volume]

Is bumping allowed on this forum?

[Vulpesveritas]

I don't see why you'd want to bump. lol. but it's better to necro than make a new thread.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

If only there was a report this thread for sticky button!

[Gremlich Johns]

Jeeez, you dorks should just get a basic NP8180 Sager laptop. eliminate the confision.

Edited by Gremlich Johns, 29 January 2012 - 10:35 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Gremlich Johns, on 28 January 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

Jeeez, you dorks should jusy get a basic NP8180 Sager laptop. eliminate the confision.

Craptops are not gaming machines no matter which company dresses them to pretend to be.