building a new pc, need advice!


Recommended Posts

well it's been a few years and im coming into some good money in abut 5 weeks. im looking to build a high end / current desktop system. i just need some advice on what would be considered "current" hardware to tide me over for awhile. budget wise im thinking about $1500-$1700. plus ill be selling my current rig for about $650.

case: i always go with coolermaster: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216 . "open to other ideas too."

lcd: ill be buying at best buy "i like to see them in person" it will be a HP and a 25-27".

ill be buying windows 7 ultimate oem. i may also be dual booting with mountain lion osx86.

need advice on:

cpu: intel quad core... no more than $300

gpu: nvidia, no more than $250-275

mobo: asus of course.

ram: either gskill or ocz, id like to use 12-16gb dual channel.

psu: id like to get another 850watt.

hdd: probably a 750gb sata and im considering a ssd as well.

dvd drive: blue ray / dvd / cd burner. probably lg or liteon?

thanks!

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1107503-building-a-new-pc-need-advice/
Share on other sites

Great build! If you can afford 50 more bucks, get this for your HDD

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136533

I swear by Caviar Blacks! :) They are well worth the money! Above you said you are considering an SSD? Get it! It's probably the best thing since sliced bread.

Great build! If you can afford 50 more bucks, get this for your HDD

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136533

I swear by Caviar Blacks! :) They are well worth the money! Above you said you are considering an SSD? Get it! It's probably the best thing since sliced bread.

thing is i currently have a 750gb drive and i don't even use half of it lol. i may look for windows 7 elsewhere, see if i can find a better deal as i still have to get a new lcd that will probably be around 200-$250.

thing is i currently have a 750gb drive and i don't even use half of it lol. i may look for windows 7 elsewhere, see if i can find a better deal as i still have to get a new lcd that will probably be around 200-$250.

Is there a reason why you need W7U? The only difference between Professional and Ultimate is Bitlocker and language packs. Personally, get Professional. It will save you some money. :)

post-447111-0-25774700-1348434069_thumb.

i dunno ive just always used ultimate but yes i may look into professional as well. hopefully some of this stuff will be on sale by the time i order. im sure ill have to make a few adjustments.

forgot to add a 3rd party heatsink/fan: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835106185

forgot to add a 3rd party heatsink/fan: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835106185

Go with this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

If your going to get a 25-27" screen for gaming you might want to get something better then a GTX 660.

The ASUS P8Z77-V LK might do everything you want for less then then ASUS P8Z77-V PRO.

I wont be gaming at all really. I am open to suggestions on the nvidia gpu. Id like to not go to much higher price wise.

As far as the cheaper asus board it seems the ram i chose wouldnt work. http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=486 . So ill probably stick to the one i picked.

I wont be gaming at all really. I am open to suggestions on the nvidia gpu. Id like to not go to much higher price wise.

As far as the cheaper asus board it seems the ram i chose wouldnt work. http://www.gskill.co...s.php?index=486 . So ill probably stick to the one i picked.

I think you should get a Macbook Pro or HP Envy or one of Sony's notebooks. They're all quad-core and come with good GPUs. I don't think investing on a desktop is a good decision if you won't be gaming. Also, you could wait for a bunch of Windows 8 machines coming next month with touch screens. :D

Please save yourself some grief and get some speed for your sequential AND random read/write speeds. I have two 240GB Neutron series CORSAIR in RAID 0 (1GB transfer rate) - but since you are only interested in 120GB - here's the one I would go with: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233342

Where does it say that?

Scroll down on the gskill website. It lists board compatibility. I also downloaded the asus pdf and its an older board.

Please save yourself some grief and get some speed for your sequential AND random read/write speeds. I have two 240GB Neutron series CORSAIR in RAID 0 (1GB transfer rate) - but since you are only interested in 120GB - here's the one I would go with: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233342

Hmmm.. ive heard great reviews on the samsumg ssd i listed. Ill keep yours in mind though. And yeah im only getting the 120gb for a windows install. Ill also have another hdd for misc items or programs. As i said i may revise my list a bit as i get closer to purchasing.

i dunno ive just always used ultimate but yes i may look into professional as well. hopefully some of this stuff will be on sale by the time i order. im sure ill have to make a few adjustments.

Don't know what the pricing is on Win8 Pro, but if they are comparable, go with Win8, even if you don't plan on using. You get downgrade rights with Win8, so you can still legally use Win7 Pro, but you've always got a Win8 license if you decide to use it instead.

Great build! If you can afford 50 more bucks, get this for your HDD

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136533

I swear by Caviar Blacks! :) They are well worth the money! Above you said you are considering an SSD? Get it! It's probably the best thing since sliced bread.

I think im gonna buy this hdd so thanks for mentioning it.

Anybody have any other gpu recommendations or did i pick a decent one? Also remember i dont game much if any.

Don't know what the pricing is on Win8 Pro, but if they are comparable, go with Win8, even if you don't plan on using. You get downgrade rights with Win8, so you can still legally use Win7 Pro, but you've always got a Win8 license if you decide to use it instead.

What do you mean downgrade rights? Anyways i plan on skipping w8 totally. This rig will run w7 + mountain lion.

Do you really think gskill can test over a 100 boards just to make sure it works with ever single one and for asus to do the same?

If you go to the asus website and download the pdf for the board the ram i picked isnt supported. Plus it appears to be an older board from the one i chose. But thanks.

If your going to get a 25-27" screen for gaming you might want to get something better then a GTX 660

Well ive heard this is a great card. Plus i dont game. My current xfx 5770 can utilize my hp 25" so im sure the 660 is a good upgrade.

Well why not? Most companies have a QC division just for this purpose lol

+1. ;) also thats why theres compatibility lists on the asus website. They are updated frequently.

speaking of monitors ill probably be getting this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+25%26%2334%3B+LED+HD+Monitor/1791143.p?id=1218291944678&skuId=1791143#tabbed-customerreviews. hopefully it will be on sale when i go to get it. ive had good luck with hp's and i love the glossy display.

I know you are going to think I'm nuts, but don't skip Windows 8. I use it exclusively at home and at work. With the 660 GTX card you are looking at, you can support more than one monitor. Do you plan to have more than one display eventually? When win 8 starts up with more than one monitor - one gets the desktop and the other gets the modern UI.

You can have both in desktop if you click the desktop tile - but in any case - even if you hate the new modern UI - the ton of benefits you get with Windows 8 desktop is absolutely worth it. Now here's a cool kicker, with the board you are looking at, you can enable Hyper-V (version 3.0!) with your new system and run any other OS if you wish.

By the way, NeoWin has an article on the new Samsung 840 Pro: https://www.neowin.net/news/techspot-samsung-840-pro-ssd-review but I don't see it as much as a review - I might have missed seeing page 2. :) If it performs well though, that might be a good counterbalance to the Neutron series by CORSAIR.

If you go to the asus website and download the pdf for the board the ram i picked isnt supported. Plus it appears to be an older board from the one i chose. But thanks.

Its a list of ones that have been tested nothing more, where does it state that its not supported in black and white?

Their is no newer or older when comparing the same chipset in the same range just what features one has to the other.

ASUS P8Z77-V LK Release Date: April 16, 2012

ASUS P8Z77-V PRO Release Date: April 10, 2012

Links for Release Date

http://reviews.cnet.com/motherboards/asus-p8z77-v-lk/4014-3049_7-35223981.html

http://reviews.cnet.com/motherboards/asus-p8z77-v-pro/4014-3049_7-35163106.html

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I used a Pixel 10 Pro XL when it first came out for about 8 months. When I first got it, it was using Google assistant and that was fast, when asking it to call somone etc. Then it automatically switched with some update to Gemini. Doing even the simplist of things like asking it to call someone in my contacts was soooooo slow compared to Google assistant. I guess it had to go out to the cloud to do that? Back on iPhone and while Siri is dumb right now, it does do those simple things, like call someone, set a timer, star the stop watch etc, really fast. That an while I like Google Material Design 3 over iOS 26, they Pixel 10 Pro XL was so slow in comparison to the iPhone 17 Pro I am using.
    • I use Gemini in my rotation of AI clients...that work pays for. It is good at most things, better than copilot for imgage searching and making images, worse at writing vs Claude and way worse at hadling technical issues when it comes to Azure stuff. I also use YT premium and maps. Anything else Google is a pass for me. I have now seen multiple people locked out of their Google accounts for reasons that are just very vauge.
    • Microsoft is building an AI datacenter that "uses less water than a fast food restaurant" by Ivan Jenic Image: Microsoft Microsoft has announced plans to build a new datacenter campus in Pecos, Texas, as the company continues to invest billions in AI infrastructure. The new facility, called project Kilby, will reportedly have a capacity of 2 gigawatts and will be one of the largest single capacity additions in the company’s history. To power the campus, Microsoft signed a 20-year deal with Chevron to supply natural gas from the Permian Basin, America's largest oil field. This deal is set to become the largest collaboration to date between a U.S. oil and gas giant and Big Tech. It’s no secret that Big Tech has often been criticized for exploiting natural resources for its AI developments. Microsoft is trying to mitigate some of that negative consensus by promising to build its own power supply for the new datacenter, independent of the public grid. The Pecos datacenter will be powered by a power plant hub, built by Chevron, with up to 2.5 gigawatts of gas-fired capacity, with potential to scale to up to 5 gigawatts. The facility will include at least seven GE Vernova turbines, with first power potentially coming online as early as late 2027 or early 2028. The power plant hub is part of an approximately $7 billion investment by Chevron, making it one of the largest dedicated energy projects tied to a single datacenter campus in the U.S. Microsoft hasn’t publicly disclosed the amount it’s investing in the new datacenter. Microsoft has also committed to implementing a closed-loop cooling system that will only require an initial water charge to operate. The company said that “the total lifecycle water use of this datacenter is only a fraction of that consumed annually by a typical fast-food restaurant.” What the press release doesn’t mention, however, is how much water the natural gas plant itself will consume, or how a 20-year fossil fuel commitment squares with the company's pledge to be carbon negative by 2030. The construction of the new datacenter should provide over 6,000 construction jobs at peak build-out, and create hundreds of operational job roles once the facility is built. Via: Reuters
    • A lot of uncertainty in this story. Might. Could. Maybe. The truth is we don't know what will happen to the universe in the end, or if it will end. Our own Milky Way galaxy will merge with the Andromeda galaxy in about 2.5 billion years, with our solar system as part of a new, larger cluster. I guess we'll have to and see how it goes down.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      tuben earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      mnsgroup earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Conversation Starter
      sumytbe earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Year In
      B4dM1k3 earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Year In
      DarkWun earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      523
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      195
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      94
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      82
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      67
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!