Building a new computer, review for the parts

KevinG1

Baseband Member
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Hi People...I am looking to build a computer by myself and thought just quickly get it reviewed with some experienced people out there :D Can ya please check if the following that I have selected is any good and compatibility and all (I know it's a big pc that I am building with configs)..It will be appreciated.

Prices are in AUD..:)
  • Motherboard ($175) *ASRock X58 Extreme X58
  • Intel CPU/Processor i7 3.06 GHz ($300)
  • WD 4TB (2x2TB) Internal HDD ($200)
  • CASE with PSU: RAIDMAX Tornado with 500W PSU ($85)
  • Network Card: TP-LINK TL-WN851N PCI 2T2R 300M Wireless-N Network Card ($34) will I still be able to connect Ethernet Cable if need be?
  • RAM DDR3 kingston ($200) 12GB RAM (3 x 4Gb)
  • DVD/Bluray Burner, Reader/Writer ($60)
  • Graphics Card ECS NVIDIA GTX460 PCIE2.0, 1GB, DDR5, 256bit, DX11, Dual DVI, Mini HDMI ($250) OR EVGA NVIDIA GTX470 PCIE 2.0, 1280MB, DDR5, 320bit, DVI-I, DVI-I, Mini-HDMI (012-P3-1470-AR/KR) ($325)

Total $1300..Is it too expensive for the configs above...? If yes..anywhere u know where I can get it cheaper.

oh and let me know if I have missed anything or I need anything extra i.e. an extra FAN on top of what I already have in the case :)
 
Hello KevinG

Sounds like you've got one hell of a machine build in mind. Might I recommend tigerdirect.com? You'll probably save a couple hundred dollars by going there. I have for a couple of years on all my PC builds. My other recommendations are as follows:
Motherboard: okay

CPU: okay

Hard drive: Seagate ST92505610AS Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive (it's $100 with the performance of a solid state drive and the storage of a hard disk drive) It takes A LOT to fill up 1TB, not just some music, pictures, and movies here and there. They're really not that necessary unless you're turning this machine into a home server. But again that's just my opinion. If you have 100's of movies, then by all means go for it.

Case: okay

Power Supply: okay, though you may want to look into a "Modular" Power Supply so you don't have a mess of cables everywhere that you're not using.

NIC: okay (keep in mind if you're router is only capable of "Wireless G" you'll only get 54Mbps not 300Mbps)

RAM: Overkill...games that I've seen only need 2 - 6GB of RAM. I know guys that play World of Warcraft on a laptop and have no performance problems.

Graphics card: EVGA no question, they just know what they're doin. lol

All-in-all you could get a pretty bad ass system for half the "Total $1,300" from tigerdirect.com and by purchasing extra as you need it. Need more RAM? Go for it. Need a 2TB hard drive? Why not...To me it seems a little silly to splurge on extras that your system won't really use. I've been building systems for a while now and 2-6GB of RAM on a 1066 FSB gets people pretty far. The next system I'm planning on building is $1,000 WITH liquid cooling. Just gotta figure out what you need and then what you're actually going to use. Again this all just my opinion. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for your opinion it is appreciated. Reason why I need 4 TB of HDD is simply because I already have about another 7 TB HDD filled lying around my home and I don't want to keep them in stack :p I want everything to be in one place.. Of course about 1 TB of that 4 Tb is going to be a mirror for another HDD (for backup purposes). Yes, I will be running some virtual machines/servers so I may need a little bit extra then 6 GB RAM. I have 6 GB RAM in my laptop and I feel it is not fast enough yet. So, I thought I will build a pc that will last long at least for another 4-5 years instead of 1 - 1.5 years and having me to change/upgrade again. OR What I can do is because this motherboard can support up to 6 sticks of RAM..I can get 2x4GB RAM (8 GB RAM DDR3) and see how we go and if need be I will have put in another 4 GB stick later.

My router is the Cisco Model DPQ3925 router so I believe it does support Wireless 'N' capability.

Supports 802.11n Wireless Access Point (WAP) with four Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) <--Just checked :)
 
for the video card go with EVGA. You definitly want at least 6GB of ram nowdays, which means go for 6GB(3x2), 9GB(3x3?) or 12GB(3x4!), don't go for less. I love your choices on the i7 processor :)

If you need help on acutally puting the parts together you can check out http://ElitePcBuilding.com , there is step by step instructions with pictures.
 
CASE with PSU: RAIDMAX Tornado with 500W PSU ($85)

switch that to a better case and better PSU
I would switch the WD HD's to some samsung 1TB F3'S
 
+1 to Vinman.

Also, I would go socket 1155 rather than 1366.

Mobo - ASRock P67 Extreme4 Motherboard [P67-EXTREME4] - $179.00 : PC Case Gear $180

CPU - Intel Core i5 2500 [BX80623I52500] - $229.00 : PC Case Gear $230

Memory - http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=13597 $65

Hard Drives - 4 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ [HD103SJ] - $69.00 : PC Case Gear $276

Graphics - EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB 01G-P3-1366-TR [11E-GTX460-1GBSE] - $199.00 : PC Case Gear $199

Case - CoolerMaster CM 690 [RC-690-KKN1] - $95.00 : PC Case Gear $95

PSU - Seasonic M12II 620W Power Supply [PSUSEAM12II620W] - $149.00 : PC Case Gear $149

Total - $1262

You get a much better power supply, a better case, better CPU performance. When you say a Bluray RW in your post, I think you probably misread, Bluray reader DVD writer for $60 is doable, but for a bluray writer, you are pushing it unless it is a used B-grade unit...
 
to poster above, why would you tell him to go from 2x2tb HDDs for 200 to 4x1tb HDDs for 275? doesnt make sense.

I say stick with the 2x2tb since its cheaper and requires less space, power and money.

as for everyone saying you need a better case, doesnt really make much of a difference. that is, unless there is better features like cable management etc..

Also, 2x4gb sticks of ram should be more than enough ;)
 
to poster above, why would you tell him to go from 2x2tb HDDs for 200 to 4x1tb HDDs for 275? doesnt make sense.

I say stick with the 2x2tb since its cheaper and requires less space, power and money.

as for everyone saying you need a better case, doesnt really make much of a difference. that is, unless there is better features like cable management etc..

Also, 2x4gb sticks of ram should be more than enough ;)

Same storage, a hell of a lot better performance, can RAID 0 to get even better performance, pushing towards the performance of a single SSD if he gets all 4 in RAID0. Only downside to that is paying more and having less reliability, however with reliability, the F3 drives are exceptional on that front, the short term failure rate is so damn low I wouldn't consider it much of a problem what so ever, unless OP is very unlucky

The cable management, the case I posted has much, much better cable management, and you have to remember with the original post, the case came with power supply, which is a complete waste.

And 2 x 2GB is more than enough for everything, with the exception of code compilation, server hosting or extreme photo/video editing, which OP didn't specify he would be doing
 
And 2 x 2GB is more than enough for everything, with the exception of code compilation, server hosting or extreme photo/video editing, which OP didn't specify he would be doing

More than 4GB of memory for code compilation? zzzzzz.....No offense, but if you are going to spend $1300 I would hope you use it to play some video games and/or you do video/sound editing and/or multiple programs running at the same time or something that requires memory usage. Code compilation uses very little memory over a very short period of time. Honestly if you have less than 6GB of memory, its either because money is tight, or you don't use your computer for anything "fun".

WoW on max settings can take up to 3GB of memory all by itself, the SWoTR beta on max settings takes 4GB and the list goes on. If you want to run dual box on any game you will be using the pagefile on max settings with less than 6GB. When people say "Im running blah blah blah and only using 4GB" your forgetting that your programs are running slower because they are using the pagefile as memory!
 
but will that little increase in HDD performance really make any significant difference? i guess coming from my perspective, im still using IDE drives so any SATA drive is better than what i got :p
 
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