Building-Virgin, suggestions welcome!

[Paejunho]

Hello all,

I'm Ash. I've often thought of building a computer from time to time, to have somethign that is truly unique and personalized, that I can be proud of. Well, before joinging the Navy, I never really had the funds for such an endeavor, but now, I feel it's as good a time as any to fulfill that lifelong dream. Only one problem: I don't know where to start! Sure, I'm familiar with the basics, I can take tower apart and put it back together, replace parts, etc., but building one from scratch?

I've decided to stretch out the project, buying one piece at a time so I can really enjoy the process. I've ordered my case:

http://www.xoxide.com/nzxt-crafted-phantom-black.html

But after that, I don't know where to go!

Task #1: Decide which component should be purchased first, decide the exact model, and order it!

I want this machine to be capable of gaming with the best of them, but I will also be doing a lot of music processing (Amateur musician 😛) and possibly some video editing, as well as my occasional forays into programming and video game design.

I'd love any suggestions, comments, or (constructive) criticism you all have to offer. Forums, in my experience, are one of the best learning tools available today, so I look forward to learning a ton from the community.


Thanks, everyone!

 

[Paejunho]

It's kinda weird... Amazon says that my three items will be shipping together, but they charged my bank account $200 less than they should have.... which means they didn;t charge for the motherboard.... do they sometimes split payments up?

 

[boiler1990]

Yeah, sometimes the orders are fulfilled by partners, and they're handled separately. The motherboard payment should be handled separately.

 

[Paejunho]

Ok cool. Got worried there for a second. BTW, I decided to go with an HX750 instead of 650; I used one of the wattage calculators based on my prospective setup, and it was right around 700W.

 

[boiler1990]

That's cool. I didn't want to monopolize your decision; I just knew that the PSU I have worked with your prospective set up (since I did that), and it's relatively inexpensive.

You won't be disappointed by the Corsair though; the HX750 is one of the most purchased PSUs. I'm trying to get the AX850, but it's expensive; I'm waiting for at least a 10% off sale on newegg

 

[Paejunho]

What I really like is that some of the cables are supposed to be removable on the HX750, right?

 

[boiler1990]

Yeah, it's almost entirely modular. The only cables that don't come off are the 24-pin mobo power and the 4 and 8pin CPU power cables (I believe).

 

[Paejunho]

Question about multiple monitors... do the EVGA GTX 460s have multiple DVI ports? If not, what would you say is the best setup for 3 monitors?

 

[boiler1990]

All of the GTX 400/500 cards have 2 Dual-link DVI ports and a Mini-HDMI port. You can support two monitors on each card (I'm not sure if that's in SLI; you may need to check NVidia's site). I think you can do two on one card and one on the other.

 

[Paejunho]

Awesome. I eventually want to have 3, maybe 4, but that would require a bigger desk, with some shelving or something 😛

 

[Paejunho]

I just got my processor and Disc Drive.... I found out they charged the motherboard as a separate order because it would ship separately... it should be here tomorrow or the following day!

 

[Paejunho]

Got my motherboard today. It's amazing. And it weighs a ton. I almost have enough parts to get it put together and atleast get the OS installed.

 

[boiler1990]

Yeah, ATX boards weigh a ton. The GPU weighs a decent amount for the size as well, and the CPU cooler is a bit unwieldy. My computer must weigh somewhere around 30-40lbs in my case 😉

 

[Paejunho]

Wow it's been a while since I updated this.... sorry work has been crazy busy. I'm ordering the power supply, SSD, one of the graphics cards, OS, and one set of RAM. After that, I should be able to get the OS installed and get everything running

The second set of RAM, graphics card, etc. can be added later, yeah?

 

[Paejunho]

Confused about one point however:

EVGA Makes a bunch of slightly different models of GTX 460 GPUs. The all have model numbers like this:

01G-P3-13XX-TR

but the XX is replace by a number. I can't decide which one of them I need, and they are all above $200 except the SE version (Which I understand is the "stripped down" version). They are mostly within $20 of each other, so whats the best choice?

 

[boiler1990]

The XX numbers differentiate the different models. Some have different coolers, different overclocks, memory size, etc. I would just look at the specs and the last two letters (the TR in what you posted), which determine the length of the warranty.

EVGA's 460s for some reason are still quite expensive compared to some others. If you can afford it, I would look at the GTX 560 ($250), as it is equivalent to a GTX 470 (before overclocks).

 

[Paejunho]

Is the 560 really worth the extra $50 or so?

 

[boiler1990]

At the same clocks, the 560 performs ~10% better than the 460. Increase the 560 clocks to its stock speeds, and it does about 33% better (about on par with the 470 - those test results are within 5 fps).

If you can get a good deal on a 460, then by all means go for it, but if you're going to pay $200 for one, you may as well go for the 560. Plus you get the new architecture.