First Time Build

Status
Not open for further replies.

bearstronaut

Beta member
Messages
5
I've never built any PC or computer in general before, so I really have no idea what I'm doing. I want to make sure I'm doing everything right so here's what I have in mind:

Case:
COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Video card:
EVGA SuperClocked 015-P3-1582-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Mother board:
EVGA X58 FTW3 132-GT-E768-KR LGA 1366 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Power Supply:
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200 (CMPSU-1200AX) 1200W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply (I know this is overkill but I might add more components later)

Processor:
Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601960

Gaming SSD:
Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive

OS SSD:
Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive

Storage hard drive:
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Memory:
CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9

OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit

Blu-Ray Drive:
LITE-ON 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner with 3D Playback iHBS212-08 LightScribe Support

Monitor:
ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" HDMI LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor


I have a high budget so the price is alright but because I have never done this and the people on this forum seem knowledgeable I thought that I could get an opinion on whether everything is balanced.
 
If you have the budget I'd upgrade to current generation tech.
Also 1200w is more than you'll need.

Processor: +30$ Intel i7 2600k.
Motherboard: -10$ Asus P8Z68-V Pro.
Memory: -25$ 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600.
Power Supply: -90$ Corsair AX850w (same as yours, just less watts).

...So actually cheaper to get more up to date hardware, everything else looks good.

*Edit - Took a second look at your storage drive. Suggest getting a 7200 RPM one instead, will be faster for you.
+70 Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB.
 
Thank you for taking the time to help me out, I really do appreciate it. If you don't mind, however, I have a few questions. Isn't the 1366 more up-to-date than the 1155? Is there a reason you dropped 4GB of RAM? Also, I know that the storage drive is very slow but the kind of stuff I put on it will go unaccessed for months if not years, so unless the lower speed is going to be unusable I'd like to stick with the one I put.
 
The 1155 socket is newer than the 1366 socket. 4gb of RAM was dropped because 1155 socket runs in dual channel, not triple channel, so you wouldn't have a good performance for what you spent, also, 8gb is more than enough. If this "storage" is not going to be used much, then that drive is fine, but don't expect fast access times if you randomly want to open a file from there.

My suggestions:

Drop both of your SSDs, and grab one of these: Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD). Much faster due to higher 4k random read/write rates. Also, there's no way you'll need more than 256gb for OS, Programs, and Games, so why not put them on the same drive? If you still want to separate the drives, then get one of these for games: Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) and one of these for your OS and all other programs: Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

As for the monitor, I'd recommend you take a look at Samsung monitors or LG monitors, as they are the best in my experience (I have never used Asus monitors, so I cannot comment on their quality).
 
Night Fox covered pretty much everything.
I suggested the 7200RPM one since it still undercut your budget by $25 to have it, up to you if you want to get it.
If you're worried about the RAM you can always get a second set, though I would hold off till you've tried 8GB first and see how much of it you actually utilize.


N. Fox, I suggested a Z68 MB because of SSD Caching for 64GB drives or smaller. You have way more experience with them than me so is it better doing dual drives and using caching or just one big one and switching to a P67 if he isn't going to use the features of the Z68?
 
I am trying to get the most time out of this computer that is possible, so I got the large power supply for future-proofing. That is also the reason why I liked the 1366 socket, because it has 6-core processors and triple channel. Not that it is necessary now, but it may be in the future. Also, for the SSDs, the M4 vs the C300 seems to be really heavily debated, and different sites say one is better than the other, but is the difference really very noticeable? I want a fast computer but I am not looking to shave .5 seconds off my boot time with a different drive.
 
1366 socket is no longer being used. The 1155 socket will be used for the new Ivy Bridge processors that will be coming out next year (I believe). The current 2500k or 2600k processors (1155 socket) crushes most 1366 sockets in terms of performance. If you want the best, get 1155 socket and a 2500k or 2600k then get an Ivy Bridge processor when they come out.

As for the SSDs, I only suggested the C300 because it is best for reading, not so much writing. If you want an all around good SSD for both writing and reading, I'd go with an OCZ Vertex 3 as its read/write speeds are leveled out and pretty high. Faster read rates are better for OS and games as it is doing way more reading files than writing them.

Personally, I don't get why anyone would use SSD Caching. I can see it being good for some server applications that need to access files constantly and want to speed it up a bit. For a normal user, I doubt anyone really cares if they can open a picture or a document a second faster. In my opinion, keep the SSD separate and use that for the things that you use all the time like web browsers, games, and other programs where you can actually tell the difference in speed.
 
Alright, I understand what you are saying about the 1155 vs the 1366, but why would Crucial release an SSD that is worse than the previous one they released?
 
One is not better than the other, they are simply different. The C4 has higher 4k random write rate while the C300 has a higher 4k random read rate. I'm saying, that for a drive that will mainly loading the OS, games, and programs, you won't be writing lots of small files as much as you will be reading them, so the C300 is the better choice.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom