Building first rig

[Thendash]

I've never built a computer before, but my current one is starting to fall behind when it comes to gaming and I figured I'd enjoy the experience of building my new rig myself. I'm looking for something powerfull that I can game on as well as being upgradable/futureproof(hahaha... right), this is what I have so far(all prices are in CAD found on NCIX):
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 - $149.99
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 - $227.99
Mobo: MSI P55-GD55 - $129.99
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz 2x2GB
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB - $189.99
PSU: Seasonic X650 Gold - $199.99
HDD: Western Digital WD10EARS Caviar Green 1TB 64mb - $71.42
Total: ~$1110(There's some combo deals in there so this list won't add up)
Anything glaringly wrong with this build or any alterations to make it better or cheaper?
Any reccomendations are welcome, thanks.

[defaultusername]

The one thing I think looks somewhat disproportionate is the HDD. A Caviar Green is great for storage, less so for use as a system drive. I suggest you consider getting a SSD. They're pricey, but you will not regret getting one.
On another note, with that motherboard + PSU combo I assume you intend to get another video card in the future? If so, you might want to get a GTX460 instead. It's about $10-20 more expensive, performs similar to or slightly better than the HD5770, but 2xGTX460 are vastly superior to 2xHD5770.

[Kromix]

what CPU cooler are you using?

heatsink/fan

very nice
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.a ... =1960#Tab1

[Emu*]

what CPU cooler are you using?

heatsink/fan

very nice
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.a ... =1960#Tab1

Nah, read this then decide.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Heatsinks

There's also a sale of review and test items going on:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... hp?t=47169
He's in Vancouver, so it might be a good cheap option.

I thoroughly recommend the Fractal R2 case, I've got a Mail/LAMP/Tomcat/everything server inside one at work.

[Thendash]

I'm not going to get an SSD, to get one that is of any size that's really usefull to me is going to be more expensive then the rest of my computer combined. As for the caviar green, I'll probably switch it out with a caviar black instead.
I'm not sure if I will get anouther card in the future but I'd like to leave my options open, I'm not sure if I really need to get two cards at this time since I think this setup will probably be able to run most things thrown at it nowadays. I'll definitely look into the GTX460 on your recomendation.
I honetly didn't even think about a cpu cooler, I'll read those links and see what I think, thanks.

[PhoenixEnigma]

I'm not going to get an SSD, to get one that is of any size that's really usefull to me is going to be more expensive then the rest of my computer combined.

All you need is a 32 or maybe 64GB SSD for your OS and maybe some more commonly-launched apps - in my case, email client, browser and media player pretty much cover it. I'm going to second the notion that you will not regret getting an SSD. At all. Use the Caviar Green for everything else. This shouldn't cost more than $80-$130. After taking in to account the difference you'd pay moving to the Caviar Black, it's closer to an extra $50-$100 for much snappier day-to-day performance. I'd consider it very much worth the cost, or even cutting costs with some other components, for that. Move to, say, and Antec 600 or even 900 case, and you're pretty close to breaking even.

[Thendash]

About the fractal r2 case, I'm not really a fan of doors. Seems to me opening and closing that door everytime I want to change cd's could get very annoying.
Phoenic Enigma, the caviar black 1TB is only $16 more then the caviar green 1TB and the antec 900 is about the same price as the HAF 932. I could cut about $50 by going with the antec 600 but from what I've seen, a 32gb SSD will cost me about $75 and a 64gb will cost about $150-175. I think I need to do some more research on SSD's to see if they're really worth the cost for me since I've never even seen one in action let alone use one myself.

[Emu*]

I go months without even using a CD. Optical drive death occurs more through bearings drying out than worn out lasers or motors... The R2's power button, audio and USB ports are on the top too, which is great for putting the case under the desk for an additional noise barrier.

If I wasn't on the east side of the wrong ocean, I'd consider getting my PSU, maybe the processor from SPCR, they had an Intel QX9xxx in that list, which would be quite tasty.

[Thendash]

Well I looked up some stuff on SSD's and I'm sold. They look amazing! So my updated build is:
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 - $149.99
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 - $227.99
Mobo: MSI P55-GD55 - $129.99
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz 2x2GB - $101.99
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB - $189.99
PSU: Seasonic X650 Gold - $199.99
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 500gb 32mb - $63.33
SSD: Kingston V2 64gb - $104.99
OS: Windows 7 Home Prem 64bit - $110.93
Total: $1248.50
Now I guess I'm going to shop around a bit at other sites and see if I can find some good deals.

[The Hedgehog]

That's a pretty sweet setup (thumbs up on the PSU), and I only have one major issue with your build: you're paying 190$ for a GPU that's going to become quite outdated soon, when for 60$ CAD more you could get the NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB. In fact, by getting a cheaper (and cheaper definitely does not mean worse) case, like say the Cooler Master 690 II Advanced at 100$ CAD or maybe even the original one at 70$ your overall price won't have to change, and might even be cheaper.

You're right about future-proofing though, so long as its within bounds of reason. That's why I suggest you think about getting a SLI/CrossFire compatible mobo. It just might save you a nice sum of cash a couple of years down the road, when your PC starts feeling a bit behind. There a few decent bundles on NCIX that could shave a bit off the price, like this one - Core i5-750 + Gigabyte P55A-UD4P for 400$ CAD, 40$ more than your current figure.

Also, what did you downgrade your HDD for? It's only 10$ more for a 1TB, and if you're anything like me that space is going to fill up suprisingly fast with all the music, videos and games you'll most likely be 'backing up' soon.

[Thendash]

I had actually thought about getting that mobo before I made this thread, but it only has 1 pcie x16 slot or 2 pcie x8. If you have only one card pluged in then it acts as a x16 while if you have two in then it's x8, and if I want to crossfire/sli then I'm going to need 2 x16 slots right?
I do like the looks of that graphics card but it's out of stock, if they get stock in by the time I order then I think I might go for it. I'm also looking at the,
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro mobo for $194.27.

[The Hedgehog]

Nope, all you need is 2 at 8x. From what I've read, the difference between a PCIe slot at 8x and one at 16x caps at roughly a 7-8% overall performance gain (say, 53.5 FPS instead of 50), and it stays that way with SLI/CrossFire. That's why NVIDIA support mobo's with 2 lanes at 8x as officialy SLI-compliant (ATI even acknowledges mobo's with 16x + 4x as CrossFire compliant, though I don't recommend using them). There's a list over at the NVIDIA & ATI sites showing all supported mobo's if you're interested.

There's a great roundup of bang-for-your-buck mobo's over at Tom's Hardware here, though unless you're looking to OC your setup, the differences seem rather negligible.

[Endless Mike]

Wow, I hadn't realized SSDs had gotten so cheap. I went and ordered one for my machine (along with an external drive for backups since it was cheap and I've needed one, anyway).

[Emu*]

It's almost always more cost-effective to go for single-slot solutions.

[roflwaffle]

Anything glaringly wrong with this build or any alterations to make it better or cheaper?
Any reccomendations are welcome, thanks.

Back in my younger days I would toss hundred at rigs, but now that I'm older and wis.. er, cheaper I build only what's needed and save my money for another rig a few years down the road after this one is obsolete.

It's a shame you're in Canada too. Around here (southern california) I could assemble something w/ 4bg of ram ($80), 1tb of disk ($60), a 9800 GTX+ ($50), and an AMD X4 635 ($90, plus another $50 for a case/430 EarthWatts PSU) for about a third of what you're paying. It wouldn't be quite as fast, but you would have enough to built the same'ish (relatively speaking) rig every three years or so and sell the old one for about 12 years given what you're investing now. That said, if you have the money and like to splurge I can't really blame you, it's just that in retrospect I should have invested in something a bit more cost effective and upgraded more frequently and think it may be a good idea for other people to consider it too.

[Thendash]

NCIX has informed me that all my parts have been shipped, I expect them to arrive within the next two days and when they do I will begin putting it all together. I'll make sure to take some photos to show all of you what your recommendations created. I figure, for everyone's help, I owe you all a little more then just my thanks. Stay tuned.
EDIT: They have all arrived and I am posting this from my new computer, I'll run some tests on it tonight and post photos tomorrow. Thanks again for all the help.

[Thendash]

My final parts list ended up as:
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II
CPU: Intel Core i5 750
Mobo: MSI P55A-UD4P
RAM: OCZ 2x4gb DDR3-1333
GPU: MSi Geforce GTX 460 Fermi Cyclone 1gb
PSU: Seasonic X750 Gold
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1tb
SSD: Kingston V2 64gb
OS: Windows 7 Home Prem 64bit

All of it arrived with 2 days of placing the order which was great. All these photos were taken with my iphone so forgive me for the quality.

Here's all the stuff, minus the ram, harddrives and windows. I was in the process of moving into a new house, so while waiting for the moving truck I decided to start assembly only to find I had forgotten the aforementioned parts at my old house, d'oh!

It all went together rather smoothly although I did have a minor issue with the computer not booting after I had finished putting it together. Turns out you have to occupy the ram slots in a specific order otherwise it won't boot.


I'm really happy with the case, it's big enough to make installing parts easy and to leave enough space for plenty of cables. I also really like the external sata dock on the top, that made it easy for me to pull the hdd out of my old computer and connect it to the new one to copy over data. Plus there's a button on the front to turn off the fan led which is an added bonus since I like to leave my computer on through the night sometimes but I don't think I would have appreciated the fan lighting up my room. It's also worth noting that all there is a dust filter behind the mesh on the top and front, so that will hopefully keep the dust levels inside my computer at a minimum.



So far I am really happy with the performance of the computer. I can run every game I own on the highest graphics settings, which is a huge improvement over my old computer. It also looks really cool! Thanks again for everyone's help.

[Kromix]

I really like that PSU in the bottom, it shifts the weight down and makes a more stable tower. but beware of dust creeping from that bottom grill into the PSU. filtered it right?

[Thendash]

Yes the bottom mesh is filtered as well so that's not much of a concern. I forgot to mention something about the psu, it came in a black velvet bag. I thought that was pretty fancy for a psu.

One "problem" I've ran into so far is that my dvd drive randomly spins up for about a second every once in a while even when there's no disk in it. It's not that big of a deal since it just makes a small click sound and flashes the light but odd none the less.

[modularblues]

I built my first rig (started getting parts in late September 2010 and set up in early October 2010)

Case - Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
PSU - SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold ((SS-650KM Active PFC F3)) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91
Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD
CPU - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz
RAM - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
Graphics - PowerColor AX4650 1GBK3-H Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready
HD1 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3750528AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (deactivated)
HD2 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Optical - ASUS Black 24X DVD+/-R DVD+RW DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA
Monitor - ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor

I'm generally happy with the setup, except once every two weeks or so I have to open the case and push the mobo against the case to make sure the Ethernet cable connects properly to the mobo socket. Simply unplugging and replugging the cable doesn't work! Probably because no matter how I tried, I could only put in 2 out of 6 screws for the mobo...