Considering building a new tower, help?

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07-12-2010, 10:01 PM
Coh3n

Considering building a new tower, help?
I have now ordered all the bolded parts on this page. :)
Hello :)

So I'm thinking about building my own tower. Why, you ask? Well, my current computer works fine, I have no complaints. However, I can't play many on high graphics. Yes, I know, I could just get a new graphics card, but where's the fun in that? :rolleyes: I also think it would be cool to put it together myself.

I can spend quite a bit of money, but I would rather not. I'd like to get the cheapest tower possible, but I'd still like it to be a good computer in a few years. Basically I'd like to:
- Play whatever games I want on full graphics. I really only play COD MW2 and CS: Source every once in a while, but I'd like to be able to play the new games on high graphics.
- Not that I have a whole lot of music/movies, but I would like a lot of space for that stuff.
- Your everyday activity (internet, office, music, etc.).
For the last couple hours, I've been looking through TigerDirect for the parts I would need. Yeah, I only looked on one site. This was because it's Canadian, and I'd like to keep it that way. Here are what I thought would work nicely (the ones I've bolded are my number one choices).

Cases
- Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ($49.99)
- Cooler Master Storm Scout ATX Mid-Tower Black Case ($79.99)
Hard drives
- Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda 7200.12 Hard Drive ($74.97)
- Western Digital WD10EARS Caviar Green Hard Drive ($74.97)
- Seagate ST3500418AS Barracuda 7200.12 Hard Drive ($62.99)
CD/DVD burners
- Lite-On IHAS124-04 Internal DVD Writer ($19.97)
CPUs
- AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz ($161.90, fan included)
- AMD Phenom II X2 555 Dual Core Processor ($124.99, fan included)
- Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ($121.99, fan included)
Motherboards
- ASRock 770 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard ($94.99)
- Asus P5N-D Motherboard & Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply Bundle ($139.99, power supply included)
- ASUS P5N-D Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID ($89.99)
Memory
- http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820227582 ($91.99)
- OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory ($99.97)
Power supplies
- Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan, Lifetime Warranty ($79.99)
- XION Power Real 1000W ATX Power Supply ($124.99)
Video cards
- XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB ($169.99)
- Visiontek 900326 Radeon HD 5670 Video Card ($104.99)
Now with all of my first choices, I have no idea whether they would work well together, nor if they're even compatible. The total (including tax and shipping) is about $878.20CAD. If I could lower that without losing too much performance, that would be great. :p Oh, plus $100 or so for Windows 7 (I haven't decided whether to buy it or not). It's also possible I forgot a part(s) as I know next to nothing about computer hardware. :p

Any suggestions are appreciated. :)

Thanks,
Coh3n
07-12-2010, 10:12 PM
Frement

Case #2
HDD #2
CD/DVD burner #1
CPU #1
(For a cooler i would recommend: Zalman CNPS10X Extreme)
MB #1
Memory #1
PS #1
GFX Card #2

Those are the ones I recommend.

And those are compatible.
07-12-2010, 10:13 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frement

Case #2
HDD #2
CD/DVD burner #1
CPU #1
(For a cooler i would recommend: Zalman CNPS10X Extreme)
MB #1
Memory #1
PS #1
GFX Card #2

Those are the ones I recommend.

And those are compatible.

Haha, I knew someone was going to up the graphics card. :rolleyes: And the first CPU comes with a fan.

Thanks Frement. :)

E: Your recommendations is about $930.96CAD after taxes, but I may regret not getting the better graphics card.
07-12-2010, 10:24 PM
Capricorn

Whats your budget?
07-12-2010, 10:24 PM
Frement

I have the same CPU, and I got the Zalman CNPS10X for its cooler, its much better then the one that comes with the CPU.

I have GTX 280 as GFX card, it was around 350€ when I bought it 1 year ago.
07-12-2010, 10:26 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capricorn

Whats your budget?

I don't want to go over $1000, and even that may be too much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frement

I have the same CPU, and I got the Zalman CNPS10X for its cooler, its much better then the one that comes with the CPU.

I have GTX 280 as GFX card, it was around 350€ when I bought it 1 year ago.

If I was to buy the fan separate, I would buy the CPU that doesn't come with a fan. Is the #1 CPU that much better than the #2? Because I could get #2 with the fan that you suggest.
07-12-2010, 10:33 PM
Frement

I wouldn't get Intel ^^

But just my opinion, I prefer AMD, and I recommend that CPU because I have it and its good.

I always replace the fan that comes with CPU.
07-12-2010, 10:36 PM
Capricorn

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16811119216
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16817341016
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16835103064
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16822152185
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150462
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820227478
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813130272
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16819115215

946$ before taxes and shipping.

Edit: Second looking over some stuff. Mobo is a crossfire mobo and you may be able to goto a cheaper priced mobo and get a 5850. Not sure sure though. Which will probably put you maybe around 1030$ or so. Otherwise you should buy a second 5770 and crossfire them. Sad thing is this build falls under 1k for American's with two 5770s :(

You can replace the CPU with http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-222-_-Product and the mobo with http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-420-_-Product

If you don't want to buy 2 5770's which will bring you down a price bracket
07-12-2010, 10:48 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frement

I wouldn't get Intel ^^

But just my opinion, I prefer AMD, and I recommend that CPU because I have it and its good.

I always replace the fan that comes with CPU.

But would I run into issues if I used the fan that came with it? I would hope not at least.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capricorn

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16811119216
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16817341016
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16835103064
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16822152185
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150462
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820227478
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813130272
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16819115215

946$ before taxes and shipping.

Edit: Second looking over some stuff. Mobo is a crossfire mobo and you may be able to goto a cheaper priced mobo and get a 5850. Not sure sure though. Which will probably put you maybe around 1030$ or so. Otherwise you should buy a second 5770 and crossfire them. Sad thing is this build falls under 1k for American's with two 5770s :(

You can replace the CPU with http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-222-_-Product and the mobo with http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-420-_-Product

If you don't want to buy 2 5770's which will bring you down a price bracket

What? Are you talking about having two graphics cards?
07-12-2010, 10:52 PM
Capricorn

Yes CrossFire is ATI's solution for using two or more GPU's in parallel. Sometimes when you add in a second GPU, you only see a 30% improvement or so, but sometimes, and very rarely do you get amazing returns. The 4770's last generation was a amazing example of this, where you could buy two 100$ cards and crossfire them to get performance of a 320$ card. The 5770s scale pretty well in Crossfire.
07-12-2010, 10:53 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capricorn

Yes CrossFire is ATI's solution for using two or more GPU's in parallel. Sometimes when you add in a second GPU, you only see a 30% improvement or so, but sometimes, and very rarely do you get amazing returns. The 4770's last generation was a amazing example of this, where you could buy two 100$ cards and crossfire them to get performance of a 320$ card. The 5770s scale pretty well in Crossfire.

Lol, that sounds pretty complicated. :p I just want a card that I can play whatever game I want on full graphics.
07-12-2010, 10:54 PM
Capricorn

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coh3n

Lol, that sounds pretty complicated. :p I just want a card that I can play whatever game I want on full graphics.

Depends largely on the game and what you mean by full graphics...
07-12-2010, 10:55 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capricorn

Depends largely on the game and what you mean by full graphics...

COD MW2 for example, with all the graphics as high as they can go.
07-12-2010, 10:58 PM
Capricorn

Well considering MW2 isn't the most back breaking game then yeah you should be fine even at 2560x1600. MW2 is pretty forgiving.
07-12-2010, 10:59 PM
Frement

The build I recommended will do just fine without the new fan.
07-12-2010, 11:01 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capricorn

Well considering MW2 isn't the most back breaking game then yeah you should be fine even at 2560x1600. MW2 is pretty forgiving.

I don't really plan on playing the huge graphics demanding games (Crysis is it?), but I would like to play games that come out in a couple years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frement

The build I recommended will do just fine without the new fan.

Okay, thanks. :)

Hmm, what about this graphics card? I would assume it's in between the two I have on the first post.
07-12-2010, 11:03 PM
Frement

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coh3n

Hmm, what about this graphics card? I would assume it's in between the two I have on the first post.

Should do just fine also.
07-12-2010, 11:05 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frement

Should do just fine also.

Awesome, thank you. :D
07-12-2010, 11:15 PM
Capricorn

Actually depending on when your buying, if you go with my my suggestion with the i3 then you can buy a GTX 460 instead which completely stomps the 5770 and will fit within your budget.

Edit: Pretty confident a 5670 won't play MW2 max. Just throwing that out there. And it definitely won't play DX10 games at max.
07-12-2010, 11:20 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capricorn

Actually depending on when your buying, if you go with my my suggestion with the i3 then you can buy a GTX 460 instead which completely stomps the 5770 and will fit within your budget.

Yeah, I guess it depends on what I'd rather have, a better graphics card or better CPU.
07-12-2010, 11:22 PM
Frement

If you compare the price of Intel vs. AMD, AMD is cheaper. With 1k$ budget I suggest going for cheaper rather then more expensive.
07-12-2010, 11:23 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frement

If you compare the price of Intel vs. AMD, AMD is cheaper. With 1k$ budget I suggest going for cheaper rather then more expensive.

I think this would be a good time for me to win the lottery. :rolleyes:
07-12-2010, 11:27 PM
Capricorn

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coh3n

Yeah, I guess it depends on what I'd rather have, a better graphics card or better CPU.

No not really... You can get both. the i3 530 competes with the phenom II 950.

Quote:

If you compare the price of Intel vs. AMD, AMD is cheaper. With 1k$ budget I suggest going for cheaper rather then more expensive.

Yeah, if you compare the price of a helicopter to a car, the car is cheaper. One flys and one has wheels.
07-12-2010, 11:28 PM
Coh3n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capricorn

No not really... You can get both. the i3 530 competes with the phenom II 950.

The phenom is quad core 3.2GHz, and the i3 is 2.93 duel... I would assume the phenom is a lot better.
07-12-2010, 11:30 PM
Capricorn

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coh3n

The phenom is quad core 3.2GHz, and the i3 is 2.93 duel... I would assume the phenom is a lot better.

More cores != better

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