First time PC Build.

Mr. Prince

Well after using and abusing my PC for a little over 7 years, it's time for an upgrade. While I'm tempted to buy from HP like I usually do, the building a PC is cheaper (WAY cheaper) but I know very little (or anything) about building one.

I have however been reading up on it and the only thing I'm concerned about is setting up the BIOs and programing in Windows.

As for parts here's what I've selected and if anyone who has had experience in building PCs could help me in figuring out if these parts will work right together? If not could you recommend some better ones? (bare in mind a budget of $1200-$1500)

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811144076

DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827151141

Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136076

Graphics Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130071

Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817341010

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145034

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813188017

Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115003

darlaka

You should be fine.

Onigumo

It should be noted that building your own PC can lead do difficulty in repairs. Most computer repair techs prefer a standard built pc. So customizing might mean more expensive and longer times for repairs.

l2agnarok

It can also be stated that if something goes wrong you know exactly what happens since you built it, instead of searching many hours checking every component of the computer of already built computer.

abc

hum…I would choose some motherboard with more usb ports...just that...

captain usopp

HP sucks. And who's to say your gonna have problems with your new pc. as long as you build it right in the first place. (get working parts, etc)

GearSecond

I dislike all prebuilt PCs, not just HP in particular. I had an HP printer that was buggy though. I gave it away, the software glitched on install and it hardly ever worked right.

Also, you know whatever parts go in, and you put them in, so if there's an issue you can identify it, and it should be no problem to replace unless it's outdated and has been discontinued.

Mr. prince, you should be fine. If there's any problem you can always see what's not working and ask here. Just remember to install part by part, not in mass quantity. If you install 4 things and it suddenly stops working, that can mean hours of work taking out items(which may work) when you'd have known immediately if you did it piece by piece.

Bounty1Berry

Nice parts. Someone's got a big budget.

Personally, I favour Seagate over other hard drive makes because theirs have a 5-year warranty. They generally lag slightly in performance though.

The case is a very bold stylistic statement. One consideration: is the PC on your desk or the ground? Top-mounted ports are more convinient for the ground, side- or front-mount for the desk.

Kudos on not scrimping on the power supply. $1200 worth of kit blown up by $12 worth of power supply is a real shame.

How do you feel about a RAID array? Instead of one 400Gb drive, buy two 200Gb drives, set them up in RAID 0, and you get 400Gb of capacity, but it's close to twice as fast as the 200Gb would have been alone. Might cost a few dollars more, and it will be a reliability risk (if one drive goes, you lose the data on both)

Mr. Prince

@Bounty1Berry:

Nice parts. Someone's got a big budget.

Took me few months to get that much saved up. :3

The case is a very bold stylistic statement. One consideration: is the PC on your desk or the ground? Top-mounted ports are more convinient for the ground, side- or front-mount for the desk.

It's on the ground actually that's one of the reasons I went with that and the slew of expansion slots I figured would be good for future upgrades. Yeah I know it's a bit gaudy but I thought the blue/black scheme looked pretty spiffy.

Kudos on not scrimping on the power supply. $1200 worth of kit blown up by $12 worth of power supply is a real shame.

Indeed and thank you.

How do you feel about a RAID array? Instead of one 400Gb drive, buy two 200Gb drives, set them up in RAID 0, and you get 400Gb of capacity, but it's close to twice as fast as the 200Gb would have been alone. Might cost a few dollars more, and it will be a reliability risk (if one drive goes, you lose the data on both)

Well see that's another subject, I'm not even all that clear on how RAID works and actually I'd rather get two 400GB hard drives and have one work as a backup. I know that's a lot but I "rat-hole" lots of stuff, the amount of cool looking sigs and avatars I've accumulated over the years is over 10 gigs (not to mention my manga, anime, music, etc. etc).

Also I have three other questions if anyone would care to answer,

Overclocking: I understand this can increase the over all PC performance but it seems like this also shortens the lifespan of the parts. Could this thing run max settings on games without overclocking?
Cooling: This kinda goes hand in hand with the Overclocking. I'm aware that the two 80mm fans are probably not enough, would this cooler take care of the overall cooling needs?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835154001
Motherboards: I'm having a tough time deciding which of these four Motherboards I should use;
EVGA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813188017

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813188016

ASUS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142R

Thanks again in advance.

FireFistAce 0

Not a bad rig. For the cooling, though, go phase cooling, if you can afford it. Costs a chunk, but damn, is it worth it.

And get a Raptor when you can. 10,000 RPM is godly.

Bounty1Berry

@Mr.:

Overclocking: I understand this can increase the over all PC performance but it seems like this also shortens the lifespan of the parts. Could this thing run max settings on games without overclocking?

Probably most anything available now.

The real concern tends to be resolution. If you're running even a 20" 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 monitor, you probably won't be going high enough to stress a video card. But if you have one of those 30" LCDs with the 2560x1600 resolutions, then you might have issues.

Cooling: This kinda goes hand in hand with the Overclocking. I'm aware that the two 80mm fans are probably not enough, would this cooler take care of the overall cooling needs?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835154001

If you bought the "retail package" CPU, it comes with a heatsink with fan. The Core 2 Duo is a fairly cool-running chip at stock, and even mild overclock, so the stock heatsink-fan is usually adequate.

The Tuniq Tower has a good reputation, but that's $65 you can spend elsewhere if you aren't trying to get huge overclocks.

Add a 120mm rear exhaust fan (like $10), and possibly cut away some of the air-blocking mesh of the exhaust area, and cooling may improve.

On the mainboards:

The EVGA 590 board you linked is Socket AM2. I think you put the wrong link on, or you'd be a very sad Spanda when you got it and found the LGA775 processor didn't fit. Otherwise it's a very nice board. :happy:

The EVGA 650i board doesn't support SLI, but has three PCI slots.

The Asus 650i board offers SLI, but only two PCI slots.

Do you think you'll want a lot of PCI devices (i. e. wireless card, SCSI, TV tuner card?) Or do you think you'll want to add a second video card for better gaming performance at a later date? That will be a major factor.

Also, you might want to check if you have any strange port needs– i. e., if you NEED a parallel port, the Asus board includes one, but the EVGA one would consume a precious PCI or PCI Express slot to add one,

With the open box offering, you run the risk there are parts missing. If you eschew the Tuniq cooler, you can redirect the funds into getting the non-opened one. I know a lot of people say they got open-box stuff and it's fine, but I'm not a risk taker.

Mr. Prince

I think I've got it set up now, how's this?

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.asp?ID=4514234

Bounty1Berry

Can't see it. Goes to a login request.

Mr. Prince

k I'll just show it piece by piece.
Case
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811144076

Extra Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811998121

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813130081

Graphics Card
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130071

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817341010

Processor
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115003

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145034

Hard Drive (might get two)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136076

DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827151141

DVD Drive
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827135143

Floppy Drive
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16821103116

Mr. Prince

After looking around the site more for cases, I've found this one…
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811163075

The cooling is still bothering me as is the space but this one seems to accommodate all of that and I like that the PSU is installed at the bottom rather than the top. The only thing that bugs me about it is the price. However since I'm still a newbie at this any expert opinions are welcome.