Hello everyone,
Long time lurker, first time poster here. It's been since 1997 since I've built my own computer. I used to do it in high school as a hobby, and I would like to get back into it. I have a few questions if you guys don't mind.
a) If I buy a SSD boot drive and a 1 TB HDD storage HD, do I have to link them with a RAID set up? Or can they be seperate? I am not sure how to link hard drives.
b) What is crossfire or dual video cards? Do you simply buy 2 of the video cards you want and the computer links them automatically?
This is the build I am looking at so far. The goal is to build a good gaming rig for myself that can double as a picture/video editor for my wife. Price is not a huge concern for us, performance is more important, though of course, if there are some parts I can get cheaper or more efficiently, please recommend them!
Case: Newegg.com - Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case -- $120
or
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Blue RC-932-KKN3-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $160
PSU: Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply -- $170
MoBo: Newegg.com - ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard -- $299
RAM: Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL -- $107 x 3
CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601920 - $294
Video Card: Newegg.com - HIS H587FN1GD Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card -- $389
DVD Drive: Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners -- $23
Hard Drives:
Boot Drive: Newegg.com - Intel X25-E Extreme SSDSA2SH032G1 2.5" 32GB SATA II SLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD - $377
Storage: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $95
Total: $2,088 ($2,128 depending on case)
------
Some points:
*The price overall doesn't scare me, though if I have wasted money in there, I'd like to get rid of it.
* I am not terribly confident about my choice of RAM. I wouldn't go as high as 12 GB for my gaming, but I would for my wife's programs. Is the quality of RAM I chose okay?
*The Intel SSD drive from what I can gather is the best SSD on the market, but are the other options comparable in that I won't notice an actual difference between them?
*Opinions between the Radeon 5870 and 5970? Is it worth the upgrade? Also, does it matter which Radeon 5870 I pick? Which manufacturers are good?
*I am pretty sure I want an i7; I am not a big overclocker, though I won't say I'd never do it either.
*The only complete guess I made was in the PSU. Any suggestions would be welcome.
*If you see anything I am missing, please let me know!
-----------------
Thank you all for your help, and sorry for a very long first post!
Long time lurker, first time poster here. It's been since 1997 since I've built my own computer. I used to do it in high school as a hobby, and I would like to get back into it. I have a few questions if you guys don't mind.
a) If I buy a SSD boot drive and a 1 TB HDD storage HD, do I have to link them with a RAID set up? Or can they be seperate? I am not sure how to link hard drives.
b) What is crossfire or dual video cards? Do you simply buy 2 of the video cards you want and the computer links them automatically?
This is the build I am looking at so far. The goal is to build a good gaming rig for myself that can double as a picture/video editor for my wife. Price is not a huge concern for us, performance is more important, though of course, if there are some parts I can get cheaper or more efficiently, please recommend them!
Case: Newegg.com - Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case -- $120
or
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Blue RC-932-KKN3-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $160
PSU: Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply -- $170
MoBo: Newegg.com - ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard -- $299
RAM: Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL -- $107 x 3
CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601920 - $294
Video Card: Newegg.com - HIS H587FN1GD Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card -- $389
DVD Drive: Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners -- $23
Hard Drives:
Boot Drive: Newegg.com - Intel X25-E Extreme SSDSA2SH032G1 2.5" 32GB SATA II SLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD - $377
Storage: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $95
Total: $2,088 ($2,128 depending on case)
------
Some points:
*The price overall doesn't scare me, though if I have wasted money in there, I'd like to get rid of it.
* I am not terribly confident about my choice of RAM. I wouldn't go as high as 12 GB for my gaming, but I would for my wife's programs. Is the quality of RAM I chose okay?
*The Intel SSD drive from what I can gather is the best SSD on the market, but are the other options comparable in that I won't notice an actual difference between them?
*Opinions between the Radeon 5870 and 5970? Is it worth the upgrade? Also, does it matter which Radeon 5870 I pick? Which manufacturers are good?
*I am pretty sure I want an i7; I am not a big overclocker, though I won't say I'd never do it either.
*The only complete guess I made was in the PSU. Any suggestions would be welcome.
*If you see anything I am missing, please let me know!
-----------------
Thank you all for your help, and sorry for a very long first post!