Braineack

iTrader: (62)

This is why I just buy a Dell.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Horrid responce time, crap useless aspect ratio, and bottom of the line contrast ratio. All for the glass? Plus it's soooo overpriced.

Yuck.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

I love how this thread has gone from "I want a normal PC" to "I want to build a replica of Neo's workstation from the Matrix."



WTF?

Why would he spend $360 for some random 27" monitor of unknown quality from a guy in South Korea when for a hundred dollars less he can get a name-brand 27" monitor with a 3 year warranty from a US-based vendor, for $150 less he can get a Hanns-G with a 1 yr warranty from the same US vendor (I actually have three Hanns-G monitors, two of which are five years old, and they've actually turned out to be great monitors), or for less money still, he can get something smaller. (And trust me, three 27" monitors is going to be way too much.)

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

I'm really shocked that you guys actually took that seriously. Of course I'm not building that....

Anyway, after looking at some parts and a few basic How-To guides for PC building, I'm gonna start ordering stuff next week. Basically going off the list that was posted on the previous page with some minor changes.

So, besides the main parts that I will need, I will also need a monitor, keyboard and a mouse. No speakers, though...unless they're cheap. I like to use headphones, especially when I am fapping.

EDIT: I'll also need a copy of Windows 7.

Looks like building one will come out to a little more than buying one, but I'd rather learn how to build and know exactly what is on my computer and how to fix/swap/change hardware whenever something go wrong or needs to be changed.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Good idea.

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

Thanks. What are your thoughts on this list that Unknown drew up?

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

Because I want the screen resolution of 2560x1440. I do not want a crappy 1920x1080 resolution. My main 24" currently is 1920x1200 and the 24" 1920x180 I have next to it sucks in comparison. Also if you actually go look at the reviews for the monitors they are extremely stellar. I have been following these monitors for the past 6+ months. I just have not had a chance to drop $600-$700 on 2 of them.

So go find me a name brand monitor that is new that has 2560x1440 resolution for anywhere near that price. The cheapest one on newegg is here and it is nearly the cost of 2 monitors from ebay. What is really sad is about a month ago those monitors were going for $310 shipped on ebay and would be to you within 3-4 business days.

Here is a extremely long thread over at AnandTech about the monitors. Has tons of info about them.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

I'd price compare against the 'egg (Newegg.com - Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, HDTVs, Digital Cameras and More!), Viper, and the only processors I've bought in the past 2 years have been I5s. Phenom II's aren't bad, but they are half the price of a dramatically faster I5.

I'd also buy a larger hard drive.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Fair enough- to each his own.

My big monitor at home is a 28" Hanns-G at 1920x1200, and I rather fancy it. It is a 16:10 aspect ratio, rather than a 16:9, so the pixel pitch on it is about the same as you'd get with a 1920x1080 monitor at 16:9.

On the other hand, I've never owned a 2560x1440 monitor, so I guess I have no idea what I'm missing. Personally, I'd prefer to pay a bit less and get a 3 year warranty with a US-based supplier.

When I first got my 28" monitor (from either NewEgg or Tiger- can't recall which) it developed a defect after a couple of weeks. Still worked, but had a dark vertical bar through the image, basically one column of dead pixels. I called 'em up and explained the situation, and they shipped me a replacement immediately, along with a call-tag to ship the old one back free of charge. After I received the replacement, I sent the old one back, and it's been working great since then.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Woah, hold on there broman.

That motherboard is LG775 socket type. Meaning youre AM3 socket CPU won't even fit on it. (wich you should get BTW)

Look into getting an asus M4N - M4A model board.

Not going to run a video card, MAKE SURE the motherboard has a integrated video. Plus supports ddr3 ram which it should. ATX form as well.

The list looks good, i've had bad luck with seagate. WD hdd's aren't much more expensive. I'm at work, so i can't go into to much detail about that list. Just that the mobo + cpu wont work together. Who the F put that list together???

This is what i'm saying about the advice in this thread.

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Also you will need a few SATA cables to connect the HDD and the DVD drive.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Probably, the motherboard should come with 1 or 2. If your luck is like mine, they won't be long enough. lol

I see the case has 1 120mm fan, you might need another for the front.

My advice is to buy just enough now, and then all this ad-on BS these guys want you to get you can get later and install it later. This is also a good idea to help diagnose problems if you get any when you first startup.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

An interesting point is raised concerning case ventilation...

Buy a case which has provisions front and rear for the largest fans possible (eg: 120mm.)

When you receive the case, you will find that the fan orifii are covered in a sort of mesh grille formed by stamping hexagons out of the sheet metal.

Place the fan against this opening from the outside of the case and use a Sharpie to trace around the area that actually needs to be open (eg: around the inside edge of the fan housing.) Using a nippy-cutter, dremel with cutoff wheel or similar, remove this grille entirely, creating a complete, unobstructed opening for the fan to blow / suck through.

This will promote more airflow with less noise.

When placing fans, be mindful of the overall movement of air through the case. For instance, you don't want three fans (don't forget the power supply) all trying to blow air out of the case with nowhere for it to get in. If you choose to use a front fan at all (usually not necessary) ensure that it is oriented to draw air into the case.

When selecting a power supply, choose one which also has a single fan of the largest size possible. The power supply manufacturers are usually better about installing a formed wire grille instead of just punching holes in the sheet metal, so you probably won't need to hack that.

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

Can you explain why the I5 is better and why I should get that?

I explained earlier why a hard drive over 500GB is just wasted space for me.

The list was put together by UnknownPerson on the last page, I put it over here so people could check it out.

You have to break down everything else you mentioned above. I have no idea what any of that is or means.

....what?

I don't understand..

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

As a matter of generalization, AMD tends to design CPUs which are cheaper to manufacture than Intel's and provide less efficient instruction processing. Or, Intel tends to design CPUs which are more complex and thus have lower manufacturing yields / higher manufacturing cost, but offer greater computational power for a comparable clock speed and core count.

The degree to which this is important to any average user is open to interpretation. To some extent, the debate over Intel vs. AMD has become a matter of Ford vs. Chevy.

If you want a relatively fair way to compare the real-world performance potential of one CPU to another, go here: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

That said, there will always be a better / faster / more powerful CPU, and it really doesn't pay to get hung up on the numbers game. It also, however, does not pay to get hung up on saving a paltry $30 by selecting an older-generation chip which is significantly less powerful than a newer, faster CPU. Personally, when I am building a new machine I just buy whatever Intel CPU happens to cost $150-$200 at the time, knowing that this will always tend to get me into the performance range which is appropriate for my needs.



SATA = Serial ATA. It's the interface most commonly used today to connect hard drives and optical drives to the motherboard. Uses a skinny little cable with a latching connector on the end. Unless it's a white-box, your motherboard will probably include more of them than you need, so don't worry about it.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

And then have to clean the loads of dust that will inevitably cover ALL your expensive parts. More than likely causing more damage than it's worth.

All i'm saying is that you'll be trying to connect v-band flange onto a t25 flange. ****'s not going to fit.

I'm done in this thread. Everyone else seems to have great ideas.

OP, do some more research. People in this thread are insistent on telling you what parts to buy instead of giving you the basic information on how a computer is put together, and what the numbers mean. It's like we tell the noobs here, read up. Building a computer is no more difficult than putting a turbo system on a miata.

UnknownPerson

2 words: Resolution. IPS.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Dust will always enter a computer, regardless of how large the fan openings are.

If you own a cat, then cat hair will also enter it.

In general, it seems like I have some reason to be inside each of PCs at least once a year or so, so when that happens I just take it out to the garage and give it a thorough blowing-out with the compressor and the little rubber-nozzle thingy. (What the hell is that tool called, anyway?)





Yeah, I missed that.

OP: There are about a half-dozen different styles of CPU socket out there. In general, each new generation of CPU brings with a new socket type, and the two manufacturers (AMD and Intel) always* use sockets which are incompatible with one another.

So if you have a current-gen Intel i-series processor, those use the LGA1155 socket, and you need a motherboard with that socket on it. The previous-gen i-series processors used the LGS1156 form-factor, and required motherboards with that socket. If you have an AMD Athlon 64 then you need an AM2 socket motherboard. If you have an AMD Athlon II you need an AM3 socket, but you can also use a motherboard with an AM3+ socket, as those are backwards-compatible. If you have a newest-gen (Bulldozer) AMD CPU, you technically require an AM3+ motherboard, but you MIGHT be able to stick it into an older AM3 motherboard, although this is a bit of a hack. Etc.

It's quite annoying and confusing, and a lot more complex than it used to be 20 years ago.

So, long story short, the CPU and the motherboard need to be chosen as a matched pair. When you pick the CPU you want, you can then search for motherboards which provide the socket it needs. Conversely, if you fall in love with some specific motherboard, you'll then need to filter your CPU choices to only those which will fit in it.




* = This is a fairly recent phenomenon. AMD started out manufacturing clones of Intel CPUs. Around the mid 90s, they started designing their own CPU cores and coming up with innovative stuff, but still made sure to be pin-compatible. Starting around the time of the Pentium 2, when Intel invented their own proprietary slot. By this time, AMD had grown sufficiently large that they could justify inventing their own incompatible standard and trust that motherboard vendors would support it, so they did. Since then, AMD CPUs have always used different sockets from Intel CPUs.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Iguanas per second? I thought the IguanaMax rate was defined by the physical interface, and thus the same across all monitors which support any given HDMI or DVI standard?

UnknownPerson

LOL. OOPS. Yeah, I put it together really quick at work. I was using the Chrome search for AM3, must have accidently clicked it.

VIPER: Definitely get a motherboard that supports AM3 if you go with and AMD processor (assuming its AM3/AM3+). Something like this: NCIX US - Buy M5A78L-M LX PLUS - ASUS M5A78L-M LX Plus mATX AM3+ DDR3 AMD 760G 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 1PCI SATA2 VGA GBLAN Motherboard - ASUS - Great price and fast delivery - sorry for dropping the ball with that...

There is definitely no need for a second fan. Both of the computers in this house that use the Sonata cases have NO heating issues with the single 120mm exhaust fan.

i5 is only "better" marginally because of its architecture... For the price and for your need, the AMD processor I posted or similar should do just fine. Also, 500GB should be fine since you have a bunch of external HDDs.

LOL. Definitely do some research on everything as much as you can... obviously we can only give so much information and pick what we think will suit you best and... sometimes we screw up a bit. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if you go AMD or Intel, or if you get a Sonata or another case as long as whatever you get makes you happy and suits your needs. Having too much is never a bad thing As we are here, we're just trying to save you some coin.