Help Building my first computer

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Dustman0587

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Hey all, I was wondering if someone could help me out. I have picked out my motherboard, cpu, memory, case, hard drive, and video card. I have a couple friends who have been able to give me some advice, but more is always appreciated. I have also read up on the reviews for the products I am planning on purchasing.

What I want help with is to make sure I am on the right track, and that there is something I haven't considered, that may cause me issues in building the computer.

So here is what I have so far:

Motherboard:
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Processor:
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

Case:
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Video Card:
Customer Reviews Of MSI N250GTS TwinFrozr 1G OC GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Hard Drive:
Newegg.com - HITACHI Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K (0S00163) 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Memory:
Newegg.com - GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10660) Desktop Memory Model GB38GB1333C9QC

As for the rom drive, I plan on taking it out of an older desktop computer: A 8.5 DVD RW and a 48x CD-Rom

Also for the keyboard, mouse, monitor, I plan on also taking from an old pc.

Should I install more fans and/or heatsinks or will the case come well equipped with those?

Do I need to buy any more cables, or do the cases and parts include what I need?

Thanks to anyone willing to help.
 
why do you want to go with a Phenom II 965 Black Edition? i have that processor and i wish i would have gone with an i7 920 or 930.

Also, my personal opinion i would go with Radeon Graphics card over Nividia, just my personal preference. i think the equivalent of a 260 is a 5850 ( someone correct me if im wrong ).

Also i would recommend at least a 750Watt power supply.

and i also recommend you get a CPU cooler. if you dont know what that is go to new egg and type in " CPU cooler " and youll get your answer.

And it will help us help you if you tell us what your budget it.
 
My budget is around the $1000 mark. Not including the monitor and other accessories.

As for the processor, I don't really have anything to go off of to know what is better than what. Just from reading reviews and from talking to a friend of mine, I've heard that the Phenom II 965 Black Edition is one of the better ones out there. I'll look into the other two that you suggested as well.

Same goes for the graphics card, I will look into the one you suggest.

For the power supply, do I need to find one compatible with my case and/or motherboard?

Thanks for the advice on the CPU cooler, they look cheap and worth it.
 
Also, my personal opinion i would go with Radeon Graphics card over Nividia, just my personal preference. i think the equivalent of a 260 is a 5850 ( someone correct me if im wrong ).

Also i would recommend at least a 750Watt power supply.

and i also recommend you get a CPU cooler. if you dont know what that is go to new egg and type in " CPU cooler " and youll get your answer.

1. A GTX 260 is equivalent to a ATI 4870/5770. A GTS 250 is around a 4850/5750.

2. Why would you recommend a 750W PSU as the minimum to buy? That computer won't come close to utilizing all that power, even with newer generation GPU's it would be difficult to use that much power.

3. Unless he's overclocking, there should be no need for an aftermarket CPU cooler, unless he has a high ambient room temperature.
 
The GTX260 is not DirectX 11 compatible, only ATi's 5xxx and nVidia's GTX4xx cards are, so if you want a long lasting, future-proof build go with one of those cards. I recommend ATi's 5870 but if that's too expensive look at the 5770, 5830, and 5850 cards. The GTX470 is nVidia's cheapest DX11 and it is cost-comparable to the 5870 (around $400) so you won't be able to go nVidia for cheap if you want DX11 support.

I would also recommend the i7. I have the 930, the 920 is pretty much the same thing. It's a very fast processor and it supports hyper threading (each core acts as two cores, so to the OS it is an 8 core processor). The memory controller is integrated into the i7 CPU for very fast DDR3 RAM access compared to systems with the RAM controller in the northbridge.
 
The GTX260 is not DirectX 11 compatible, only ATi's 5xxx and nVidia's GTX4xx cards are, so if you want a long lasting, future-proof build go with one of those cards. I recommend ATi's 5870 but if that's too expensive look at the 5770, 5830, and 5850 cards. The GTX470 is nVidia's cheapest DX11 and it is cost-comparable to the 5870 (around $400) so you won't be able to go nVidia for cheap if you want DX11 support.

I would also recommend the i7. I have the 930, the 920 is pretty much the same thing. It's a very fast processor and it supports hyper threading (each core acts as two cores, so to the OS it is an 8 core processor). The memory controller is integrated into the i7 CPU for very fast DDR3 RAM access compared to systems with the RAM controller in the northbridge.

Good point
 
I will be using the computer for gaming mainly starcraft II, and further down the road school work, term papers ect. I feel like as long as I install windows it should be compatible with any online course work I need to do.

I went with your advice on the video card and found:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100297L Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ ATI Eyefinity Technology

I am worried about it fitting, the reviews say its huge, but I believe the case I plan on getting is big enough. And its also PCI Express 2.1 x16 Interface, and my motherboard is 2.0 so should I go with:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100282-3SR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity


As for the processor, I've heard that AMD's quality over shadows the price. But it seems like the i7 is very nice processor too, but I think I might stick with AMD because its about $100 cheaper and does the job.

Whats the verdict on the power supply and any other cooling systems?
 
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