[New Build] First build. Gaming/video editing. Suggestions/help

beerlotus

Honorable
Jun 20, 2012
7
0
10,510
I went ahead and made this build the other night.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=19606292

Approximate Purchase Date: Hopefully by 6/23/12. Will purchase as soon as I'm sure of the build I want

Budget Range: $1000-1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (I'm usually the person who hosts game servers/voice chats as I have been running the better machine/internet connection), programming, possibly video recording/editing, surfing the internet, streaming video

Parts Not Required: Monitor, keyboard, mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, any website is fine as long as its easy/does not increase the total cost of machine.

Country: USA

Parts Preferences:
-I'm going with the AMD FX8150 processor currently because it seems to be the best power to price as of the most recent benchmark data I've seen http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html and the motherboard is part of a combo deal that will reduce the price and I've heard good things about MSI so I was thinking I would risk it.

-The graphics card was picked because of price and power, I keep seeing other builds with newer cards so I'm not sure if it might be a bit old.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe, not likely unless I end up having to.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 is what my current monitor is best with

Additional Comments: Less bling where possible. I was hoping to build another computer, the last one has lasted for 5 years and is dying but I can possibly get it fixed up and gifted to a friend later. I think this should make a decent machine to last me for a while but I wanted to ask if there were any problems can see.

- I looked up psu requirements and my computer should only take around 500W so I should be safe with a 600

- The main hard drive was picked because I tend to get bored of games quickly and swap up what I'm playing but I don't want to have to deal with moving files. I don't know how it happens but I tend to use 300-400GB on my main drive. The other option I was looking at was a 480GB SSD but that was about $110 more so I'm not sure if its worth it.

EDIT: I put the fan in there because I did not notice that the CPU came with a fan but I've been unable to figure out what kind of fan it comes with so I have no idea how good it will be. I'm getting the thermal paste because I will need it for other computers.
 
Solution
-I'm going with the AMD FX8150 processor currently because it seems to be the best power to price as of the most recent benchmark data I've seen http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html and the motherboard is part of a combo deal that will reduce the price and I've heard good things about MSI so I was thinking I would risk it.

No it isn't. I'd trash that whole build - the FX-8150 is good for things like photoshop and multimedia applications - but you'll really need the i7-3770K if you're going to be doing any sort of real video editing. You're also paying way too much in storage and not enough in GPU and CPU areas. The extra SATA cables and thermal compound aren't needed as your motherboard will come with three or four to...

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
-I'm going with the AMD FX8150 processor currently because it seems to be the best power to price as of the most recent benchmark data I've seen http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html and the motherboard is part of a combo deal that will reduce the price and I've heard good things about MSI so I was thinking I would risk it.

No it isn't. I'd trash that whole build - the FX-8150 is good for things like photoshop and multimedia applications - but you'll really need the i7-3770K if you're going to be doing any sort of real video editing. You're also paying way too much in storage and not enough in GPU and CPU areas. The extra SATA cables and thermal compound aren't needed as your motherboard will come with three or four to start with, and RAM speeds above 1600 are completely pointless. Velociraptor HDs are also *NOT* worth the premiums being offered - go with an SSD / HD combo.

-The graphics card was picked because of price and power, I keep seeing other builds with newer cards so I'm not sure if it might be a bit old.

Good choice definitely but if you can squeeze a bit more into your budget - especially an NVIDIA card like the 670, that would be ideal.

- The main hard drive was picked because I tend to get bored of games quickly and swap up what I'm playing but I don't want to have to deal with moving files. I don't know how it happens but I tend to use 300-400GB on my main drive. The other option I was looking at was a 480GB SSD but that was about $110 more so I'm not sure if its worth it.

I'm in a very small minority in this board when I say that SSDs <128GB are overkill. Paying that much for a drive with a relatively low cost per GB isn't worth it - get a 128GB and then a secondary storage device, that will be far more cost effective, IMO.

Maybe try something like this:

Case: Corsair Carbide 300R - $79.99
PSU: Seasonic S12 II 620W - $86.99
Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 - $139.99
CPU: 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-3770K - $349.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
RAM: 8GB G.Skill Ripjaw X 1600Mhz 1.5V - $46.99
SSD: 128GB OCZ Vertex 4 - $129.99
HD: 3TB Seagate Barracuda ST - $169.99
Optical: LG Blu Ray Burner - $79.99
Video Card: EVGA Geforce GTX 670 - $399.99

Total: $1,518.98

A little bit over budget but it's a far more balanced system than the original build was.
 
Solution

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator


I was trying to stay within budget - I like Seasonic PSUs, I have the 430W version of the one I linked to.
 

beerlotus

Honorable
Jun 20, 2012
7
0
10,510
Thanks for the advice.

-I very often see people who have tried only Intel cpus say go Intel and people who have tried both AMD and Intel say go AMD. I was thinking about getting one of the Intel cpus but I was not sure if the increase in benchmark scores would be worth the 75% increase in cost. While checking out the scores for the 8150 I've seen that its been scoring higher in each new benchmark comparison so I'm curious if it really is worth it to go with the higher cost currently better cpu or go with the lower cost cpu with possible potential for growth over the next 5-6 years as operating systems and program software gets better at using the multiple cores.

-On the subject of hard drives. I have 3TB of files currently on my computer, I know some of those will get deleted but I'm sure more will be added in the coming years, I picked the two 3TB drives because I figured I would never need more than that and often enough the storage I use does not get used for hours at a time so I wanted them to be energy efficient drives. Unless there is a better option for that I'm probably still going to get those
-For the main HDD/SSD. I tend to switch what game I'm playing very often so having 128GB for my OS install/games would end up with me having to swap files often or use the storage drive for installs which seems like it would counter the entire idea of buying a SSD for faster load times so I might want to look for a 240 or 256GB SSD instead.

-I went for a non-nvidia card this time because the last one I have gave me all sorts of trouble with driver problems causing games to crash. Have they gotten over that problem with the newer cards?

-I'm probably going to go with the modular version of that PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095 it's only $3 more and then I don't have to worry about extra cables in the case.

-I also noticed the blu ray burner you threw in. I barely even use the dvd burner I have currently so would it really be worth it to drop the extra $50? I'm kinda tempted to just pull my old dvd burner from my last machine and let my friend get stuck with a dvd reader only and save myself a bit extra.
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
-I very often see people who have tried only Intel cpus say go Intel and people who have tried both AMD and Intel say go AMD. I was thinking about getting one of the Intel cpus but I was not sure if the increase in benchmark scores would be worth the 75% increase in cost. While checking out the scores for the 8150 I've seen that its been scoring higher in each new benchmark comparison so I'm curious if it really is worth it to go with the higher cost currently better cpu or go with the lower cost cpu with possible potential for growth over the next 5-6 years as operating systems and program software gets better at using the multiple cores.

Actually that's not true - quite the opposite, I had an AMD CPU in my system and I got really tired of the way it was performing and went back to Intel - I got the i5-3570K and it's been great so far. The FX is a terrible choice as there's been so many things going wrong with it. Here's a couple of articles you should read and understand before buying an FX-8150:
- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120.html
- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-hotfix-bulldozer-performance,3119.html
- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8150-zambezi-bulldozer-990fx,3043.html

-On the subject of hard drives. I have 3TB of files currently on my computer, I know some of those will get deleted but I'm sure more will be added in the coming years, I picked the two 3TB drives because I figured I would never need more than that and often enough the storage I use does not get used for hours at a time so I wanted them to be energy efficient drives. Unless there is a better option for that I'm probably still going to get those

You can certainly reuse any HDs you have - that's one part of my system(s) that get recycled frequently - the drives you have now can get ported over to your new build with no problems, whether you use them internally or buy an inexpensive external enclosure for them.

-I went for a non-nvidia card this time because the last one I have gave me all sorts of trouble with driver problems causing games to crash. Have they gotten over that problem with the newer cards?

Yeah the newer cards - the 680 and 670 - are greatly improved from previous generations. There's been some issues with the Radeon 78XX and 79XX as far as the drivers go but those seem to have been cleared up now.

-I'm probably going to go with the modular version of that PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817151095 it's only $3 more and then I don't have to worry about extra cables in the case.

If you route your cables behind the motherboard tray correctly you won't need to worry about them, I'm generally more of a fan of non-modular PSUs as I've had way too many modular ones fail on me.

-I also noticed the blu ray burner you threw in. I barely even use the dvd burner I have currently so would it really be worth it to drop the extra $50? I'm kinda tempted to just pull my old dvd burner from my last machine and let my friend get stuck with a dvd reader only and save myself a bit extra.

I include BD-R burners on higher-end builds because the people that own them (like me) tend to hook their PCs up to LED TVs and this gives you the option of playing back movies with enhanced content or enabling the DVR functions on Windows 7 and using the BD-R burner as a backup.