building a new pc and need advice

[Jezza]

Ok so im wanting to buy a new pc for under $1900 and i already have a screen and speakers

Now im not a expert but this is the list and prices i have come up with and need to know if this is ok or if i can get some better things or brands for the same price (or cheaper)

Case: Thermaltake V9 ($99 at MSY) or NZXT Tempest($153.32 at Adelaide Online Computers)

Motherboard: MSI 890FXA-GD70 ATX 890FX AM3 DDR3 ($263.65 at ITSdirect)

CPU: AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T 3.2GHZ ($353 at All Needs Computer)

Videocard: Radeon ATI HIS HD5850 ($339 at MSY) or i have been thinking 2x Radeon ATI HIS HD5770($342 at MSY)

RAM: Kingston 2*2GB DDR3 1333MHz ($124 at MSY)

PSU: Thermaltake EVO Blue Gaming 750w ($170 at MSY)

Windows 7 64bit ($155 at All Needs Computer)

Hard Drive: Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 7200rpm HDD ($109.77 at Megabuy)

CD/DVD: SATA ASUS DVD writer ($32 at MSY)

Keyboard: Razer Lycosa ($94 at MSY)

Mouse: Razer Salmosa ($38 at MSY)

Network: Netgear WG-111 ($29 at MSY)

Total = $1805.42 (wtih Thermaltake V9 case) or $1859.74 (with NZXT Tempest)

so could anything here be better for the same price or have i got a good system for the price?

[dijm8]

looks like a good setup ther m8, only thing i would suggest is goodluck finding a HIS 5850 took me weeks to find 1 in adelaide and that was about 2 months ago now, and im going to look for another 1 soon if not ill go buy myself a 5970

umm, now i would also suggest a 750w PSU if only ur going crossfire if only 1 card then no u dont need it, and i would probably get this Corsair TX-750 Power Supply [CMPSU-750TXAU] - $159.00 : PC Case Gear instead of thermaltake aswell or even Corsair HX-650 Power Supply [CMPSU-650HX] - $149.00 : PC Case Gear this if you going just a single GPU

i hope that is 2x2GB kingston aswell ???

[50LTRv8]

Dude, get a 930

[nathanVY]

throw all your PC ideas in the bin and BUY A MAC.
you may laugh but you will never look back.

$1999 will get you a 21 inch imac with the following specs (trust me, the screens on imacs are so amazing)

# 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
# 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
# 1TB Serial ATA Drive
# ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB
# 8x double-layer SuperDrive

Yes you can customize them if you buy them direct from apple - even if you play games you should get a mac and run bootcamp.

[SMURFTEC.]

Hey Mate, everything looks good, but can I ask why you've gone with a AMD set up?

My local computer shop sells i7 930's cheaper than that processor, but you probly looked at the benchmarks etc so maybe that AMD processor is better. In my experience the Xseries motherboards are way better, you get the performance of a LanParty board but with the ease of use and tweakability of a gigbyte/asus etc.

Have a think about it buddy.

[50LTRv8]

throw all your PC ideas in the bin and BUY A MAC.
you may laugh but you will never look back.

$1999 will get you a 21 inch imac with the following specs (trust me, the screens on imacs are so amazing)

# 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
# 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
# 1TB Serial ATA Drive
# ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB
# 8x double-layer SuperDrive

Yes you can customize them if you buy them direct from apple - even if you play games you should get a mac and run bootcamp.

You do realize that Core 2 Duos are old school right? and that 2k could get you a much faster windows system running windows 7, which is on par with OSX anyways.

[Stressball]

You do realize that Core 2 Duos are old school right? and that 2k could get you a much faster windows system running windows 7, which is on par with OSX anyways.

Particularly if you build it yourself Macs are uber bad value compared to a PC built by yourself.

[nathanVY]

lol @ windows 7 being on par with os x. Windows has tried to be something different to OS X for the last 5 or so versions, but in windows 7 they've gone "crap OS X actually works, ALL THE TIME and ours doesn't - let's copy them"

I don't really follow computer technology anymore (don't need to, got a macbook pro and a 24" imac, they both run photoshop, premiere CS5 flawlessly, even plays assassins creed 2 when it's running windows.)

Sometime ago the ONLY reason you wouldn't buy mac is because they werent as well supported when it comes to games, now bootcamp runs windows 7 perfectly and more and more games keep getting released for os x. For every ugly windows up there is a beautiful mac app that works 5x better and looks 100x better.

PC Technology has always been ahead, it's so useless though until the software catches up with it, I mean windows STILL hasn't gone true 100% 64-bit. Yes you can have 32gb of ram and billions of gigahertz and the most powerful graphics card, but you will simply never use it (unless you LAN a lot)

Another point is you cannot get the quality even close to the iMac screen on the market. They just win in that area. the end.
Macs have all the bits you wish you had on a PC.


edit: FYI, heres the top model iMac which uses the i5

# 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
# 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
# 1TB Serial ATA Drive
# ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
# 8x double-layer SuperDrive

$2600 - with a TWENTY SEVEN INCH SCREEN.
it doesn't get better than that lol.

[nathanVY]

Particularly if you build it yourself Macs are uber bad value compared to a PC built by yourself.

Yeah I built all my PCs myself. Every 12 months.
If you're lucky nothing will break, you will have to reformat every 6 months if you want windows to run something close to okay.
Sooo much stuffing around.

I bought macs, freed up SOOO MUCH of my time.
Then I got into cars to use up my time

edit: jezza, if you do decide to make the wrong choice and buy PC - go with good brands don't waste your money on the cheap crap.

Asus - possibly the best for mainboards. (just read the top of the thread, MSI are quite good too)
Western digital - don't even think about seagate. WD hands down
ATI or nVidia when it comes to graphics, doesn't really make a difference - again get an Asus branded graphics card especially if you have an asus mainboard try and keep the brands the same.

Power Supply - I would say thermal take but from experience they suck. (one of theirs BLEW up on me 9months old), go antec.

[Stressball]

So, Apple fanboi, eh Ah well, at least the advice about... No wait, scratch that. Most of it was rubbish If your windows PCs don't last more than 6 months without a format, then you're doing something to them. They fail because people don't know how to use them, and break it. I don't have any issues at all, nor do the vast majority of PC-literate users that I know. The people who complain and turn to Mac are the ones who were never quite bright enough to learn how to use Windows, that's all.

Let's see how much equivalent hardware is from only one online estore, without shopping around...:
- CPU is not sold there, they only sell higher models. Next model up iss much te same, i5 Quad Core 3.2Ghz - $235
- 4GB (2 x 2gb) DDRIII 1333Mhz - $119
- 1TB SATA HDD, 7200rpm - $82
- GFX card not sold there, so next up, Radeon HD 5830, 1GB - $282
- 24x Dual layer DVDRW - $29
- 27" LCD monitor - $439
- Midrange motherboard - $170
- Keyboard + mouse - ~$100
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit - $208

Total price of $1664, for a PC that matches and exceeds the specs of your previously mentioned Mac. Add the cost of parts to 1Hr of your own time at $0.00/Hr, and you have a sufficiently powerful, more heavily supported computer, with a little under $1000 to spare. All that extra money you've saved buying parts yourself could go toward a better monitor, for example.

Of course, that won't matter to you. The fact that I don't need to format every 6 months to keep my pc running doesn't change the fact that you, evidently, do.

[nathanVY]

Oh don't get me wrong, I abused my PCs to no end - I do the same to my macs but they seem to be able to handle it.
The millisecond lag pisses me off haha.

/rant

[petesmith]

I would be going Intel i series all the way... had nothing but disappointment with AMD, core i7 is pretty damn impressive!!

[50LTRv8]

Yeah I built all my PCs myself. Every 12 months.
If you're lucky nothing will break, you will have to reformat every 6 months if you want windows to run something close to okay.
Sooo much stuffing around.

I bought macs, freed up SOOO MUCH of my time.
Then I got into cars to use up my time

edit: jezza, if you do decide to make the wrong choice and buy PC - go with good brands don't waste your money on the cheap crap.

Asus - possibly the best for mainboards. (just read the top of the thread, MSI are quite good too)
Western digital - don't even think about seagate. WD hands down
ATI or nVidia when it comes to graphics, doesn't really make a difference - again get an Asus branded graphics card especially if you have an asus mainboard try and keep the brands the same.

Power Supply - I would say thermal take but from experience they suck. (one of theirs BLEW up on me 9months old), go antec.

Your a windows killer

My XP machine (yes I still use it) 1 year no issues

Wife's machine 2.5 years still going strong ( and she uses CS4 without issue)

2 Sons machines (I can't even remember when I last formatted them)

The biggest issue with Windows was 3rd party drivers, hence them needing to be signed now, these bad drivers caused the majority of the crashes, which Mac does have an advantage in that the drivers being proprietary.

You also show your lack of knowledge with your hardware choices.

Gigabyte is far superior to ASUS for not much more money.

[nathanVY]

mmm absolutely!

XP was actually good by SP3, trouble was it was outdated by then.
Keep in mind i've used PCs for 6 years and macs for 1.

haha, gigabyte.
They have actually stepped up their game now, and right now I don't know the first thing about PC hardware you are correct.
Gigabyte used to be a pretty rubbishy brand a few years back, theyre not too bad these days from what I hear.

I would still go asus or msi (they are average though just expensive). I know asus have a 2 year warranty on their boards.

[mcin7]

Before even working out your parts work out your needs.
If you aren't touching games get a Mac.

I would go for a Gigabyte motherboard with SATA3 and USB3.
Also why not the AMD 1055T? Obviously because you're not getting an I7 because you're on a budget.

Built 2 AMD 1055T 6-Core CPU systems over the last 2 weeks, they run excellent for the money.
1055T with 1333MHz Ram and a 5770 it can run Battlefield Bad Company 2 at 1920x1080p, max graphic settings and AA/AF on full with no jumpiness what so ever.

PS: I don't know why your total price is so high.
Built a similar computer last week with a cheaper Gigabyte motherboard and an Asus 5770, 23" screen for $1250 with labor excluding windows.
Everything was purchased at MSY except the CPU (PCCG).

From my experiences I choose Gigabyte motherboards over Asus.

[Jezza]

ok i have been doing some more looking around and pricing and i think this may be the final list.

i want to use the pc for gaming so a mac wouldnt work for me and im keeping with the 750w psu because i may be going crossfire eventually

Case: Lancool PC-K62($145 at MSY)

Motherboard: MSI 890FXA-GD70 ATX 890FX AM3 DDR3 ($263.65 at ITSdirect)

CPU: AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T 3.2GHZ ($353 at All Needs Computer)

Videocard: ATI Radeon HIS 5770 ($171 at MSY)

RAM: Kingston 2*2GB DDR3 1333MHz ($124 at MSY)

PSU: Thermaltake EVO Blue Gaming 750w ($170 at MSY)

Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB ($84 at Megabuy)

CD/DVD: SATA ASUS DVD writer ($32 at MSY)

Keyboard: Razer Lycosa ($94 at MSY)

Mouse: Razer Salmosa ($38 at MSY)

Network: Netgear WG-111 ($29 at MSY)

Windows 7 64bit ($155 at All Needs Computer)

Total = $1658.65

[vk.jonno]

no.
get a mac.
you wont regret it.

[Stressball]

no.
get a mac.
you wont regret it.

Unless he intends to use it, in which case he will

[RippleEphex]

no.
get a mac.
you wont regret it.

lol for gaming? i think he would

[Verynice]

yeah dont get a mac jeremy...

[Jezza]

i would never buy a mac, pc all the way

[dijm8]

omg f**k off with the mac's ay ther crap and you know it....

now to pc talk, m8 plz get a different psu if your going to crossfire

Edit: also i would say, get 2 HDD's 1 for the OS and 1 for your files, games etc otherwise give it 6 months and it'll be slow as shit... only need about 300gb or less for the OS plus apps etc 7 only uses 40gb and ur apps maybe another 20gb which is a shit load of apps anyway

[Jezza]

omg f**k off with the mac's ay ther crap and you know it....

now to pc talk, m8 plz get a different psu if your going to crossfire

Edit: also i would say, get 2 HDD's 1 for the OS and 1 for your files, games etc otherwise give it 6 months and it'll be slow as shit... only need about 300gb or less for the OS plus apps etc 7 only uses 40gb and ur apps maybe another 20gb which is a shit load of apps anyway

so what PSU would you recommend then?

[dijm8]

as i said above in the 2nd post, corsair HX 750w or even go with the seasonic's their awesome quailty

ive got the corsair HX650 and is awesome, will be cross firing soon aswell but 650 should handle very well

heres the list from pccg PSU PCCG

[Jezza]

what about the corsair tx750