Battra92 Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 (edited) Here's my build: feel free to critique it and/or make suggestions. It comes to ~$700 before shipping so it gives me some wiggle room for an extra HDD in the future or maybe a BD drive. I do a lot of video encoding so that's my concern besides gaming. Check my Steam Profile to see the sorts of games I normally play. I'm not big into a lot of PC games but there are a few out there I wouldn't mind checking out (mostly shmups so nothing too taxing) I already have a copy of Win 7 and plan on dual booting with Linux. SAPPHIRE 100326DDR3L Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm ... MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR Edited March 2, 2012 by Battra92 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 That all looks solid to me! As for an AMD video card, I've had more issues from them than I have with NVIDIA, but I know plenty of people that swear by AMD cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 Oh yeah, and you should probably throw in a DVD drive on there, if you haven't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 Awesome, looks good. I also appreciate the links provided as I plan on building my pc soon, so this gives me a starting point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted March 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 Awesome, looks good. I also appreciate the links provided as I plan on building my pc soon, so this gives me a starting point! Yeah no problem. As for the DVD drive, I already have one. My brother gets my old system and he already has a working DVD drive so I'll keep mine which I flashed the firmware on to region free. I'm keeping my card reader / floppy drive as well. Also for those who use it, do you think this can run Dolphin fairly well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 That can run anything fairly well. Looks completely good from here. I'd change the case myself, as Rosewill doesn't have the best cable management. I'm partial to the Cooler Master HAF 912 (about the same price), but it doesn't have as many fans as the one you linked. Either way, looks like a solid build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted March 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 Yeah, I was looking at that as well as the Antec Three Hundred series. The biggest problem with PC cases seems to be the ugly ones work well and the stylish ones stink. I mean, that Cooler Master looks butt-ugly IMO. Of course, taste is subjective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted March 3, 2012 Report Share Posted March 3, 2012 Yeah, I was looking at that as well as the Antec Three Hundred series. The biggest problem with PC cases seems to be the ugly ones work well and the stylish ones stink. I mean, that Cooler Master looks butt-ugly IMO. Of course, taste is subjective. I hear the Antec is even worse off in terms of cable management, but yeah, I know what you mean. If you're looking for nicer looking ones Corsair has a nice range of cases, but they're really expensive and probably out of your price range. I just went with the HAF 912 because it was the least ugly of the ugly. At least it doesn't have obnoxious LED lighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted March 3, 2012 Report Share Posted March 3, 2012 I'll echo Spork and say change the case. Personally, I'd go for a full tower. You'll be glad of the extra room to work with and the additional ventilation, especially if you're overclocking that 2500k. I'm not sure about the motherboard either. It doesn't appear to support crossfire or sli so that might be a barrier for you later on. This one is just 25 quid more but it supports both and is generally viewed as a fantastic board all around. I assume you have harddrive/s for this system already? If you don't, I'd make sure to shop around well. Prices are still considerably high after the Thailand floods last year. If you can manage it, I'd avoid buying a new hard drive until the end of the year when prices should be more in line with pre-flood prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Not all mid towers are bad. I have an antec 900 and it's plenty big enough for my needs. I used to have an old Antec full tower and that thing was huge and it even made it hard for some cables to reach their destinations. Full towers made of steel are also a bit on the heavy side if you ever want to move your compy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 I'm not saying mid towers are all bad, just that they can be a pain to work in. As for the Antec 900, it's bigger than the average mid tower. It's a quality case though and would certainly be a better choice than the Rosewill. @Battra: The Rosewill case you linked isn't very deep or wide so it may be a problem. If you're set on getting it, I'd at least make sure there's enough room to fit the graphics card comfortably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted March 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 @Battra: The Rosewill case you linked isn't very deep or wide so it may be a problem. If you're set on getting it, I'd at least make sure there's enough room to fit the graphics card comfortably. I ended up opting for this case. Or, as the French say, Voilà! Everything fit comfortably enough and I was impressed at how quiet it is! I'm used to having fans grind. Yet these things were moving lots of air and keeping my PC nice and cool while making less noise. Of course, I'm sure replacing the 12cm fan might be an issue later on. My only issue with the case thus far is more an issue with the Mobo. The case has four USB ports on the front and took up both the on board USB ports. Oh well ... This is actually the first PC I've owned that has no floppy drive. Weird, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted March 8, 2012 Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 Ooh, nice build. I'd have gone with the i5-2400, but I'm not into cpu-intensive stuff and am notoriously parsimonious. How's the fit for the graphics card? I'm gonna build a new PC here and that case looks perfect, but I'm planning on getting a physically large GPU (GTX 570) and am concerned about how that would work in a mid-tower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted March 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 Ooh, nice build. Thanks I'd have gone with the i5-2400, but I'm not into cpu-intensive stuff and am notoriously parsimonious. I can be but mostly with things like lunch. I'd been saving for a while and actually came out $100 under budget thanks to getting some deals and reusing some parts I already had. [/quot] How's the fit for the graphics card? I'm gonna build a new PC here and that case looks perfect, but I'm planning on getting a physically large GPU (GTX 570) and am concerned about how that would work in a mid-tower. The graphics card fit fine but it wasn't a super long card either. I'll have to pop the side out and show off my horrid cable management skills sometime. On a side note, I installed Linux Mint last night and I've never been so damn frustrated! Part of it is my own fault (I was raised in the day when you had at least three hard drive partitions and Windows 7 created a hidden one on its own so Linux wouldn't create a fifth partition so I had to delete some partitions and move stuff around and combine them up.) Now tonight I get to figure out why the ATI driver won't work. Whee! :-/ This time I should document it better than I did four years ago when I built my last PC. ;; I have a 1TB HDD in this box as well as the 750GB from my last box but I'm thinking of pulling the four year old 750 drive and putting it back in my old box and either re-purpose that as a HTPC or something or giving it to my brother. We'll see ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 Went to scan.co.uk and bought: XClio Touch 320 Full Black Mid Tower Case with 2x120mm Blue LED Silent Blade Fans w/o PSU 650W PSU, Coolermaster GX RS650-ACAAE3-UK, 85% Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX v2.31 Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad, 3.3GHz, HD3000 IGP 850Mhz, 6MB Cache 95W Retail Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3, Intel Z68, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID SATA, PCIe 2.0 (x16), VGA On Board, ATX 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston DDR3 HyperX Genesis Grey, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-27, XMP, 1.5V 1TB Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm 64mb Cache 8ms NCQ OEM I also acquired a Sapphire HD 6870. Which I'm told is not bad. Oh, and I bought a 60GB ssd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 Nice build. I was going to berate you for getting a Z68 motherboard at first, but then I realized you got an SSD, so it made sense. Have you thought about a aftermarket CPU cooler, though? I noticed you went for the 2500K rather than the 2400, and if you're going to be overclocking much you may want to look into something like the CM Hyper 212+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 (edited) It's the scan deal of the day, the whole lot except the graphics and SSD came to ~£450 after tax and delivery. I don't know anything like enough to even think about overclocking. EDIT: What's up with that mobo then? What's the significance of the SSD? I just want to play some games and boot up quickly... Edited April 30, 2012 by Thursday Next Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 It's the scan deal of the day, the whole lot except the graphics and SSD came to ~£450 after tax and delivery. I don't know anything like enough to even think about overclocking. EDIT: What's up with that mobo then? What's the significance of the SSD? I just want to play some games and boot up quickly... Ahh, then I wouldn't worry about a cooler if you don't plan on OCing. The stock Intel one will do you fine The thing about Z68 boards is that they boast something called "ssd caching" that P67 boards don't. The thing is, SSD caching is really one of the few things Z68 boards do that P67 boards don't, so I almost always recommend P67 boards unless you're getting an SSD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 Cool. Thanks for the explanation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted May 8, 2012 Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 Need a bit of advice. I plugged all the things into the bits. Switched it on and it doesn't show a POST screen or anything. It beeps once every five seconds or so. The closest thing I can find is "continuous short beeps" (I'd call these more intermittent than continuous) means a power issue, but I've tried with two power supplies and everything bar the CPU and one stick of RAM removed. One thing I haven't been able to try yet is connect the display to the Mobo VGA port (I've tried the Graphics card DVI and HDMI and the Mobo HDMI). Is it likely that the system will only output through VGA until settings are changed or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted May 8, 2012 Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 Need a bit of advice. I plugged all the things into the bits. Switched it on and it doesn't show a POST screen or anything. It beeps once every five seconds or so. The closest thing I can find is "continuous short beeps" (I'd call these more intermittent than continuous) means a power issue, but I've tried with two power supplies and everything bar the CPU and one stick of RAM removed. One thing I haven't been able to try yet is connect the display to the Mobo VGA port (I've tried the Graphics card DVI and HDMI and the Mobo HDMI). Is it likely that the system will only output through VGA until settings are changed or something? It should work with VGA/DVI out of the box, not sure about HDMI though. As for the beeping, have you checked all your connections? It seems obvious but it's a pretty common problem. I'd check the motherboard connections first. There should be a main 24 pin connector (it may be a 20 pin and 4 pin connector) and also an auxiliary 4 pin connector. Make sure they're connected as tight as they can be. Then just make sure hard drives, GPU, etc are all seated correctly. For the RAM, this takes a bit of pushing but you'll hear the click when it's seated right - and both latches at the side of the slot close into position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted May 8, 2012 Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 Definitely connected the 20+4 and the other 4pin. Well, the mobo doesn't have the DVI, that was on the graphics card. So I've only been able to connect the mobo via HDMI. I'm *fairly* sure that I connected everything right. I'll double check everything is tight tonight connect with VGA and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted May 8, 2012 Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 In my experience something always goes wrong when you build a new computer, so it's good when it's obvious like this. If everything appears to work it just means something's broken but isn't being up-front about it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted May 8, 2012 Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 I guess I've gotten very lucky so far because I've never had PC hardware fail on me and the most serious issue I've had when switching out components is the front USB ports not working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted May 8, 2012 Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 I don't think I've had any major parts fail except when it's my fault. Usually I just haven't connected something right, though I have had the occasional bad stick of RAM, a couple of hard drives die (always with enough warning for me to back them up, thank god) and I could never get the front USB ports on my old case to work. But again, it's almost always that I've done something wrong (that or a software problem) and can easily rectify it once I figure out what it is. I remember the first time I got a video card that actually required separate plugs from the power supply. I didn't realize that, so when I tried to boot it it made this continuous horrible high pitched scream. That was really stressful until I figured out what the problem was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.