Got the board, chip, and RAM!

[warfighter67 124]

Me and my dad have decided to give me a nice upgrade to my machine. It won't be top of the line--it won't even be optimized for gaming, I use it more as a DAW--but it will be cheap as hell compared to the top of the line.

Things I have to purchase:

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor

Graphics: HIS H777F1G2M iCooler Radeon HD 7770 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Series 32GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL 10 Quad Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Four 8GB Memory Modules)

Parts I already own to be used:

Soundcard: Creative Xb-Fi internal sound OR Alesis iO2 USB external sound

Case and 17 inch monitor, speakers, etc

500GB WD HDD for boot drive

1TB WD HDD for data drive--partitioned 500/500

Cost:

Motherboard $240

CPU $170

Video card $110

RAM $160

Total: $680

I eventually want to buy a second 500GB HDD and RAID it with my other one for faster OS booting.

Also, RAID Mirroring 4 1TB HDD on my data drive for secure backups and fast data transfer.

Computer specs at a high-level:

Processor clock speed: 3.40GHz quad core

RAM: 32GB at 1600mhz DDR3

Graphics: 1GB at 1GHz clock speed (guys, clock speed usually is better for graphics than more memory)

Storage space: 1.5TB current, 5TB eventually.

warfighter67, y u use so much RAM?!

The other people who make music around here can probably tell you that using your machine as a DAW (digital audio workstation) especially if you use large sample libraries like me can use up A LOT of RAM. Most studio machines, even for a hobbyist like me, tend to have between 16 and 32gb of RAM, while some professional studios having 128-192gb of RAM.

[GenuineTexan 38]

Couple of things:

-The only thing special about the "K" version of Intel processors is that you can overclock them. If you are not planning on overclocking, then you might find a normal version to be cheaper (just depends, if you can find a "K" for cheaper then get that). If you are planning on overclocking, then you also need to buy a new fan/heatsink for your processor as the stock will NOT be able to handle the increased heat.

-If you're getting a second drive just for OS/boot, why not get an SSD? You could get a slightly smaller SSD for the same price as your "boot drive" (but who needs 500GB for their OS???), and they are getting cheaper/more-reliable all the time.

-32GB of RAM is a whole lot, even for whatever audio stuff you're thinking about, 32 is way too much. You're overpaying.

-Did you factor in the price of an operating system license? The only Windows 7 versions that can handle 32GB of RAM are Windows 7 Home Professional ($300) and Ultimate ($319). The next cheapest version is Windows 7 Home Premium ($200) which can only handle 16GB of RAM (which is plenty). I priced these off of microsoft.com, so you may find better prices elsewhere.

-You might be happier, if you intend to do more gaming, to cut the RAM and use that extra cash to buy a better video card.

Good luck on the build!

Edit: Have you thought about what power supply and case you'll be getting? That's another ~$200 depending on what you decide to do...

Edit 2: Looks like your mobo might be overkill too, unless you plan on having 4 graphics cards in quad-SLI... lots of unused PCI slots on there.

[warfighter67 124]

Couple of things:

-The only thing special about the "K" version of Intel processors is that you can overclock them. If you are not planning on overclocking, then you might find a normal version to be cheaper (just depends, if you can find a "K" for cheaper then get that). If you are planning on overclocking, then you also need to buy a new fan/heatsink for your processor as the stock will NOT be able to handle the increased heat.

The store in question actually has the K version cheaper

-If you're getting a second drive just for OS/boot, why not get an SSD? You could get a slightly smaller SSD for the same price as your "boot drive" (but who needs 500GB for their OS???), and they are getting cheaper/more-reliable all the time.

SSD drives go bad, fast. Not interested.

-32GB of RAM is a whole lot, even for whatever audio stuff you're thinking about, 32 is way too much. You're overpaying.

Not really. I also like to multi-task on my machine quite a lot. I've used up to 26gb on a friend's studio computer when I experimented setting up an entire digital orchestra and then some.

-Did you factor in the price of an operating system license? The only Windows 7 versions that can handle 32GB of RAM are Windows 7 Home Professional ($300) and Ultimate ($319). The next cheapest version is Windows 7 Home Premium ($200) which can only handle 16GB of RAM (which is plenty). I priced these off of microsoft.com, so you may find better prices elsewhere.

My dad knows a guy who gives us free Windows 7 Ultimate copies

-You might be happier, if you intend to do more gaming, to cut the RAM and use that extra cash to buy a better video card.

Gaming isn't my priority. I only really play Minecraft.

Good luck on the build!

Edit: Have you thought about what power supply and case you'll be getting? That's another ~$200 depending on what you decide to do...

My dad has a ton of spare PS, and the 500 watt should do fine until I get a better one.

Edit 2: Looks like your mobo might be overkill too, unless you plan on having 4 graphics cards in quad-SLI... lots of unused PCI slots on there.

It's a super cheap motherboard. May as well future-proof my machine

[GenuineTexan 38]

Cheers then! Sounds awesome, and don't forget to update once you get it running!

[warfighter67 124]

Cheers then! Sounds awesome, and don't forget to update once you get it running!

Haha yeah, that's the painful part of setting up. You just get done building a machine and then you can't do anything with it for a couple of hours because it's installing updates!

[Ditto8353 202]

Haha yeah, that's the painful part of setting up. You just get done building a machine and then you can't do anything with it for a couple of hours because it's installing updates!

If you used SSD you would be done installing sooner.

[warfighter67 124]

If you used SSD you would be done installing sooner.

But SSDs go bad in like.. 1-2 months or so. I really do not feel like reinstalling Windows every single time I have to replace my SSDs

[Ditto8353 202]

But SSDs go bad in like.. 1-2 months or so. I really do not feel like reinstalling Windows every single time I have to replace my SSDs

You are tragically misinformed.

SSD lasts 10+ years. Not as long as a normal HDD, true, but certainly longer than a couple months.

[warfighter67 124]

You are tragically misinformed.

SSD lasts 10+ years. Not as long as a normal HDD, true, but certainly longer than a couple months.

Do you have a source for that? I looked up many places and talked to many people who said SSDs quickly degrade over time.

[Ditto8353 202]

Ever use a flash drive? They have very simplistic controllers and they last for quite some time. SSDs have much more advanced controllers to help them last for much longer by using "wear leveling" combined with additional reserve MOSFETs. Ultimately it depends on your read/write activity which is why you should never use SSD for simply a storage drive. They are meant for system and application usage.

Here is some reading material.

http://forums.macrum...ad.php?t=948946

http://www.tomshardw...27-32-life-span

http://www.techradar...044988/review/3

Edit: I'm not actually saying you should get a SSD. It probably would not be very useful for you since you are not gaming on a hardcore level. Rendering audio would probably use more read/write than usual as well. I was just correcting a bit of misinformation. I also suspect that most of the information that you ran across is out of date. Electronics technology is the fastest growing technology in the world and it can be difficult to keep up. Are you aware that a PC can be made within the space of an 8.5x11 piece of paper and just as thin?

[warfighter67 124]

Ever use a flash drive? They have very simplistic controllers and they last for quite some time. SSDs have much more advanced controllers to help them last for much longer by using "wear leveling" combined with additional reserve MOSFETs. Ultimately it depends on your read/write activity which is why you should never use SSD for simply a storage drive. They are meant for system and application usage.

Here is some reading material.

http://forums.macrum...ad.php?t=948946

http://www.tomshardw...27-32-life-span

http://www.techradar...044988/review/3

I'll get reading up on those.

However, using a DAW machine means doing A LOT of reading and writing very large sound libraries (I have a marching band drum kit that's 40gb on its own). Additionally, installing all of those sound libraries will also take up equal amounts of read/write. Sound libraries are also often uncompressed when stored on a HDD, but then they are compressed out the wazoo when loaded into RAM for usage.

Also, not sure yet how big SSDs can get while still being within budget, but my computer's C drive (where all my applications are stored) is already breaching 400gb in size. No data whatsoever on that drive; just applications.

[Ditto8353 202]

. . .

Edited while you were posting. Be sure to read it, I don't want you to misplace my intentions.

[warfighter67 124]

Edited while you were posting. Be sure to read it, I don't want you to misplace my intentions.

I read it now. I know computers can be very tiny these days, hehe. I thought I was reading up-to-date information, but I guess not lol. I'm probably still going to go with HDD as you and me both said, audio requires a lot more read/write.

[GenuineTexan 38]

However, using a DAW machine means doing A LOT of reading and writing very large sound libraries

If you just buy a small SSD as your boot/cache drive (only put your OS on there) then there's no risk of losing your data. If the drive ever does fail years down the line then all you have to do is reinstall your OS from disk onto the SSD, while your data is safe and sound on your HDD or RAID setup. This is becoming a pretty common setup nowadays. They also make faster-spinning HDDs, if you're interested. Standard speed is 5400 RPM ithink, but the one in my laptop is 7500 RPM so it transfers data a lot quicker but is still a hard disk.

Edit: Also meant to mention that your computer would only need to access the SSD during power-up because that's pretty much the only time it needs to access OS files, so there's not many read/write cycles if that's what you're worried about.

[warfighter67 124]

If you just buy a small SSD as your boot/cache drive (only put your OS on there) then there's no risk of losing your data. If the drive ever does fail years down the line then all you have to do is reinstall your OS from disk onto the SSD, while your data is safe and sound on your HDD or RAID setup. This is becoming a pretty common setup nowadays. They also make faster-spinning HDDs, if you're interested. Standard speed is 5400 RPM ithink, but the one in my laptop is 7500 RPM so it transfers data a lot quicker but is still a hard disk.

Edit: Also meant to mention that your computer would only need to access the SSD during power-up because that's pretty much the only time it needs to access OS files, so there's not many read/write cycles if that's what you're worried about.

Would there be a way to get the registry to a different drive? I've read of some issues installing apps to a different drive with the registry still being on the OS drive.

But if that's the case, I may as well just buy a 128GB SSD for my OS and install all my apps to a HDD.

only 5400 rpm? I have a 10,000 rpm 1.5TB HDD in the computer I'm posting from (I own two machines and the other is getting an upgrade. This one's still on 32bit windows LOL)

I believe my Western Digital HDDs on my other machine are 7200rpm though.

[transcengopher 349]

May I ask what do you need 1.5TB for? Because as of now when I have 4TB hidden all over my apartment, I use about 900 GB total out of all that, and that's mainly because of old video files I just can't be arsed to delete, because I have so much space left anyway.

Edit:

I believe my Western Digital HDDs on my other machine are 7200rpm though.

Unless it's their Green line, it's 7200.

[warfighter67 124]

May I ask what do you need 1.5TB for? Because as of now when I have 4TB hidden all over my apartment, I use about 900 GB total out of all that, and that's mainly because of old video files I just can't be arsed to delete, because I have so much space left anyway.

Edit:

Unless it's their Green line, it's 7200.

Two words: Sound libraries.

My 1.5TB is full and it only has 150gb of music and no videos.

[Ditto8353 202]

They also make faster-spinning HDDs, if you're interested. Standard speed is 5400 RPM ithink.

only 5400 rpm?

The standard is now 7200rpm, like your TB drive. High speed drives can get up to 15,000rpm last I saw.

[warfighter67 124]

So me and my dad decided to go for the ASUS Sabertooth as a motherboard instead because it has a 5 year warranty while the other one doesn't come with one at all. It has a few less PCIe slots, and it's $80 more expensive, but if it goes bad, at least we can get a replacement.

I'm going to talk to him about getting a 64GB SSD (under $100) for the OS.

I have to ask though, would putting the OS on its own drive (not even the applications) work well?

[Ditto8353 202]

Your boot and shut-down times will be slightly faster. And every time your system needs to access drivers it will be faster.

I don't know the value of using a SSD for only the OS though. It doesn't sound like an overwhelming change.

[warfighter67 124]

Me and my dad are considering te SSD option.

However, for now I've gotten the board, chip, and RAM. Picture in OP.

Also, my graphics card option is probably now an Asus Radeon 7850 2048mb VRAM because it looks like the best for its money.

[Ditto8353 202]

Find a GPU benchmarking website. Chart them on a graph against their current prices.

[Kimbblesrath 503]

I am thinking of upgrading my computer because right now, I CANNOT do with the crappy motherboard integrated graphics I have. And I was wondering which GPU I should get as I'm not too knowledgeable in this stuff. My budget is around $100 - $200, but if possible, not too far in that range. Another thing I want to do is get a widescreen monitor @ 16:9 as this 4:3 1024x768 monitor is too small for my 3D work and gaming. And the aspect ratio isn't standard. My questions on monitors are: What is LED backlighting and is it worth it? 2ms response time vs 5ms response time. Is there a big difference?

My specs as of now are:

OS: Windows 7

CPU: Intel i3 2120 @ 3.3 GhZ (it has 4 threads, but 2 cores...what?)

Motherboard: Dell 0GDG8Y (got no idea...)

Memory: 6Gb DDR3 RAM(if it matters, there are 2 slots, one with 4 gigs and 1 with 2 gigs)

GPU: The integrated thing on the mother board @ 850MhZ and 60Mb of RAM

EDIT: I don't know whatmy power supply is, and have no idea how to find out.

[Sda215 8]

I am thinking of upgrading my computer because right now, I CANNOT do with the crappy motherboard integrated graphics I have. And I was wondering which GPU I should get as I'm not too knowledgeable in this stuff. My budget is around $100 - $200, but if possible, not too far in that range. Another thing I want to do is get a widescreen monitor @ 16:9 as this 4:3 1024x768 monitor is too small for my 3D work and gaming. And the aspect ratio isn't standard. My questions on monitors are: What is LED backlighting and is it worth it? 2ms response time vs 5ms response time. Is there a big difference?

My specs as of now are:

OS: Windows 7

CPU: Intel i3 2120 @ 3.3 GhZ (it has 4 threads, but 2 cores...what?)

Motherboard: Dell 0GDG8Y (got no idea...)

Memory: 6Gb DDR3 RAM(if it matters, there are 2 slots, one with 4 gigs and 1 with 2 gigs)

GPU: The integrated thing on the mother board @ 850MhZ and 60Mb of RAM

EDIT: I don't know whatmy power supply is, and have no idea how to find out.

You should get an upgrade to your central processing unit, as well; at least probably to an Intel i5 (sorry!)

Gaming processing unit (I think) should be NVIDIA brand for gaming; at least GTX 660 Ti (again, sorry!)

LED Backlighting I believe is an aesthetic feature in the PC; and performace wise it's not worth the money; sure it is pretty, but it'll a terrible job on your heat.

Now, I know nothing about the 2 MS Response Time vs. 5 MS Response Time, but I believe (and this is just a guess, so I can be wrong on this) there is a difference(?).

Definite upgrade to RAM; it's a little too meagre...

I need to know the power supply; read the labels on it if there is one. Is it LGA? If it is, then I don't think it requires a replacement.

P.S. - Go to Ditto's How to Build a Computer (it's not the exact title, I'm aware) thread in the Off-Topic Section; his guide will help you.

[transcengopher 349]

I am thinking of upgrading my computer because right now, I CANNOT do with the crappy motherboard integrated graphics I have. And I was wondering which GPU I should get as I'm not too knowledgeable in this stuff. My budget is around $100 - $200, but if possible, not too far in that range. Another thing I want to do is get a widescreen monitor @ 16:9 as this 4:3 1024x768 monitor is too small for my 3D work and gaming. And the aspect ratio isn't standard. My questions on monitors are: What is LED backlighting and is it worth it? 2ms response time vs 5ms response time. Is there a big difference?

LED Backlighting is definitely not worth the cost. For aesthetics - maybe, performance - unaffected. Reaction time will definitely help if you like playing games where stuff moves quickly, like Tribes, for instance.

I'm not sure about GPU, something like geForce GTX 550 will probably cost you about hundred bucks, but it's not that power imbued to run all games at max settings. I kind of agree with sda about CPU, but it can wait, honestly, especially if you don't want to buy the whole new computer, which sort of ideal. (For computer, you can go in store and look up computer, but buy its parts instead and build it yourself, that way its cheaper).

To find out about power supply, you should take off right (if you look at the back) cover and there will be piece of paper on the block - unless this paper is outside, which is unlikely. Additionally, if you bought the whole PC, you can have its specifications paper somewhere.