*Guide to Choosing Parts*

[nydoc]

Anyone seeking specific advice should start a new thread, and send me a private message with a link to the new thread if they wish me to comment.

I do not know how to start a new thread. I am new to this form. Can you advise?

 

[shovenose]

click forums at the top of the tomshardware page
go to the category u want to post in
click the red ASK THE COMMUNITY button

 

[eng42day]

Proximon, excellent job. One thing that I would like to see if you could please is let us know for the different chipsets on the MB of which ones will support eight-channel LPCM audio over HDMI. I know that none of the 700 series from AMD would support this when they first came out but has there been any updates to them that will allow that now?

Thank you for you dedication.

 

[randomizer]

This topic has been desticky in top of the forum by Randomizer

Now linked in the master sticky

 

[shovenose]

why are u destickying everything? i understand tho cuz i have to scroll wayyy down to get past all the stickys

 

[Proximon]

I made a few updates. I need to go through the chipsets and see if any can be dropped from the list now.

 

[Toronto]

"Quad Core vs. Dual Core
For most builds, quad core CPUs are now the norm. If you have a very low budget or very minimal needs, dual core is OK. I'm still using a fast dual core, and I assure you if I had a need to upgrade, it would be done.... but if I were to build a fresh machine today, it would have a quad. Using a quad core now simply improves the longevity of the build. "

You should talk about the gaming aspects of dual vs quad cores, it would help more newcomers. Also, you should elaborate more.

 

[vsdagama]

Hexacores should be included also

And, personally I would say the motherboard is the brain of your computer, instead of the processor.
It links everything together, and manages alott

 

[Proximon]

I've made some updates.

 

[shovenose]

Hexacores should be included also

And, personally I would say the motherboard is the brain of your computer, instead of the processor.
It links everything together, and manages alott

nope. the cpu is the brain cuz it "thinks"
the mootherboard is the nervous system or the skelton or something like that...and then the psu is the heart i guess...

 

[Somebody_007]

It may sound strange but a computer can't really be compared to a human 😛.

Seeing as many components have their own brain(proccesor)and well my arm doesn't think.

And btw great guide. Good point about people reccomending for todays needs. I've been trying to tell people an i5 might do today but who knows what the tide will bring? Well nice to see someone agrees with me.

 

[Proximon]

It may sound strange but a computer can't really be compared to a human 😛.

Seeing as many components have their own brain(proccesor)and well my arm doesn't think.

And btw great guide. Good point about people reccomending for todays needs. I've been trying to tell people an i5 might do today but who knows what the tide will bring? Well nice to see someone agrees with me.

Actually, at least according to many schools of martial arts, your spine at least can be trained to react independently of your brain.

And yes of course it's not a great analogy. Beginners have to start somewhere, and I'm actually partly remembering my early introduction to computers back in the early 80s. Whenever you simplify something you make sacrifices. Nobody wants to read here about binary, instruction sets, protocols.... Computer journalism is full of college kids talking over the head of 98% of their readership. Sure, there's a need for the hardcore experts here at TH and at Anandtech and others. The problem is there is almost no one that tries to be in the middle. Actually, Gabriel Torres does a pretty good job (Hardware Secrets), better than me certainly 😉

 

[Somebody_007]

Yeah I've heard about that, but then the spine doesn't really think it's just wired to react to certain things. Which I can certainly think of causing problems. I mean if everytime someone scares you you punch them in the face it'll surely have some consequences.

And as for no-one really being in the middle. I suppose it's hard, either you just like computers a bit and build them because you need them or you work with them for a living(or it's a serious hobby). I think the the people at Bit-Tech do a great job. There articles are really good.

 

[Eleazaros]

A good guide. What I would add is about cases and PSU's.

PSU's degrade based upon a number of factors but an important one is heat.

It may seem a bit odd but having the PSU mounted on the bottom rear of a tower case means it tends to pull cooler air than from the top of the case -- your "river" analogy flowing from the front bottom to the top rear of the case. Don't think of it as a "free exhaust fan" - especially not in a heavily loaded system.

Electrolytic capacitors life is doubled for every 10C degrees shift in temperature. By having it as the uppermost back exhaust (they pretty much all have fans now), you pull all that hot air from the box across its circuits which can literally take years of life off even the best PSU out there.

 

[Proximon]

Another good argument for bottom mounted PSUs. Probably the best way is to pull the PSU air from outside of the case completely.

 

[Proximon]

This post is about 100 views shy of 100,000. About time for a major update.

 

[Proximon]

Well, I couldn't find a reason for a major update but I have made some changes, and reviewed every line.

 

[Wolygon]

Maybe you should save up your energy for SB and BD launch. A lot of people will may be re-reading this when they come out so you better update it quick.

 

[Proximon]

No problems there. They scheduled it before the end of my vacation 😉

 

[jimb_18]

Great info on all the parts in purchasing a desktop. Will be purchasing a couple of desktops with Intel i7. This is a biz computer and it will have a single threaded software running all the time as it ties into excel worksheets. It will also be using Yahoo IM with about 50 to 60 IM windows open all the time. Currently using a dual video card but will a better video card with 1 gig improve the computer speed? If so which card do you recommend?

 

[Proximon]

That would depend on the way Yahoo IM is coded, but I would have to say no. Mostly you need enough RAM. Nvidia video cards usually have the edge for 2D apps, moving those windows around might be a bit smoother with Nvidia.

 

[hunter315]

Jonnyguru consolidated all of their PSU FAQs you might want to put the link to it under the power supply section, its broken down nicely
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDFAQs

 

[outsidemyself]

Thank you so much for this guide. I'm really new to computer building, and this really helps. This is such a great place, I'm glad I found this forum!

 

[VGKitov]

Thanks for the great guide!

It was very usefull to me because you explained everething in a very understandable way

 

[defg0003]

when you update, could you provide current info on storage? I'm struggling a bit attempting to find understandable (to me 🙂) and current info on HDDs for a planned SB build.

SSDs seem well covered elsewhere - either buy a SF controller card (ala OCZ Vertex 2) or wait for the new gen Intel drives.

HDD choices are, from my perspective, harder to comprehend. the site linked as a resource for HDD info seems dated. I have extensive media libraries - sound and film, plus the ever-expanding collection of software - sound, financial, games, productivity, etc. - so I need a balanced and extensive HDD setup. probably 1 TB for applications and an additional 4 TB (min) for useable storage + backups/redundancies.

updated guidance would be appreciated. and, more importantly, thanks for a tremendously useful thread.

gracias.