My First Computer Build , could use some help!!

[Peobsi]

Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

PSU: Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

Processor: Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077

Motherboard: ASRock Z68 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157251

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

I'm wondering if everything will fit up okay in the case, if the PSU is potent enough, and if I chose quality products. I'm also wondering where I could possibly save money, for example: the hard drive, should I wait for prices to go down to buy that? And the case, do I need a gaming case with lots of fans? I'm not sure what my fan situation needs to be like, if I get a simple bare case do I need to get a coolant system or fans? Sorry for all the questions, any help would be greatly appreciated!!

(i originally was planning for a $500 budget and this comes out to $638 ...)

 

[RoboGeek]

i think you should get a intel i5 rather than an i3. you dont need a fancy case or any cooling apart from one fan but the case you chose is pretty cheap anyway, the place where you could save more money is RAM you could either just go down to 4 GBs or go down to 4 GBs but faster as you dont really need 8 GBs

 

[Peobsi]

id like too but the i5 is quite a bit more.. is the difference worth it? like night and day?

 

[YawningAngel]

The i5 is a lot faster, but you're not likely to have issues using the i3. Additionally, the i5's primary selling point is that you can overclock it: no offence, but you don't seem like the kind of technically-minded person who'd be comfortable doing that anyway. That Hard Drive is quite small, and you probably don't need a Z68 motherboard - Z68 is a premium chipset, with features you either don't need or can't use.

 

[Peobsi]

none taken, and do you suggest i get an h61 motherboard then? they are about 30 dollars cheaper

 

[Hateren47]

The cheapest way to get a good gaming experience CPU wise the next 3-4 years or more, on a budget, is the i5-2500K from Intel. You'd be a fool to not get this if it's within budget.

How ever if it's not within your budget to get the best bang for the buck CPU (this is from a satisfied AMD user, but the i5 is pwn)your best friend is AMD.

Replace you MB and CPU with a GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521] and a AMD Phenom II X4 970 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894] @ 3.5 GHz and get 2 extra cores gratis.

If you can get your hands on a used HDD it would be greatly beneficial since they are quite expensive at the moment. And a slightly more powerful PSU wouldn't hurt either. Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044] perhaps.

Only 5 american smackers more, but worth it.

 

[Wollen]

If you plan to use this PC primarily for gaming then i would suggest going for 4GB of RAM, spread out over 4 1GB chipsets. Dont worry to much about the brand, cheap RAM is just as good as the more expensive ones.

Also, i would suggest that you get a motherboard that supports Crossfire, then you can install a second GPU at a later time when the current cant hold up on it's own.

 

[shado_temple]

Christ, I didn't realize how expensive HDD's are at the moment. I used to be able to get 1 TB for $70, but now it doubled? I knew they went up, but not that high.

OT: Everything seems to be more or less in order, though I'm hoping you've taken additional expenses into account, such as OS (a Win7 license will run you about $100). Also definitely pick up a combo disk drive, though those are as cheap as $25, which shouldn't be much of a problem.

As for the processor, before you decide between the i5 and the i3, what, exactly, are you planning on doing with the computer? If gaming (since this is a gaming site, I'm just going to assume), what sort of games will you be playing? Oh, and as for the difference: someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but the i5 has hyperthreading (ability to overclock the cores to "double" the amount of cores that the software can use) enabled, whereas i3 does not.

The fans in the case should be enough for what you've got; even if you put it together, and it seems to be running hot, it wouldn't be difficult to toss in an aftermarket cooler.

 

[12GaugeLobotomy]

Christ, I didn't realize how expensive HDD's are at the moment. I used to be able to get 1 TB for $70, but now it doubled? I knew they went up, but not that high.

OT: Everything seems to be more or less in order, though I'm hoping you've taken additional expenses into account, such as OS (a Win7 license will run you about $100). Also definitely pick up a combo disk drive, though those are as cheap as $25, which shouldn't be much of a problem.

As for the processor, before you decide between the i5 and the i3, what, exactly, are you planning on doing with the computer? If gaming (since this is a gaming site, I'm just going to assume), what sort of games will you be playing? Oh, and as for the difference: someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but the i5 has hyperthreading (ability to overclock the cores to "double" the amount of cores that the software can use) enabled, whereas i3 does not.

The fans in the case should be enough for what you've got; even if you put it together, and it seems to be running hot, it wouldn't be difficult to toss in an aftermarket cooler.

Yeah, it's not really a good year to be buying hard drives to be honest. Huge floods hit Thailand in October, crippling companies that supply Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi GST, Toshiba, and Samsung.

OT: Looks like a pretty sweet build in terms of value for money. Like Hateren47 said though, you might be wise to get a slightly beefier power supply, even if just for the sake of expandability

 

[antidonkey]

Like many others, I suggest going with an I5. It's the current bang for buck CPU and if you get the K variant, then it's unlocked for potential overclocking goodness.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I'd go for the AMD 6870 instead of the 6850. I'm noticing that my own 6870 is already starting to reach it's limit, so that'll happen even quicker with the 6850. And the price difference isn't that much anyway. Later, if that single card won't do, you can buy another for cheap and put them in Crossfire mode.

Overall though, not a bad build at all, but as said before I'd go for the i5 instead of an i3. The difference really is pretty big.

And that case will do by the way. You only really need a crazy cooling setup when you're doing all kinds of crazy overclocking, though an aftermarket cooler won't hurt for your PSU. But if the standard cooler on the i3/i5, whatever you're going to get, isn't as awfully loud as my Phenom's stock cooler then there's not much of a need to.

And a slightly more powerful PSU wouldn't hurt either. Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044] perhaps.

I concur, because with that PSU you can easily CrossFire two 6870's which offers awesome performance in relation to it's cost. I know I regret my own 550W PSU. Not that it sucks for this build, 550W is plenty, it's just barely not enough to CrossFire, which is a damned shame.

I wouldn't advise that Phenom though, not when he can afford that i5. I'm a Phenom user myself, but I can't deny Intel's superiority in terms of speed.

 

[Frost27]

Looks great! The only suggeston I have beyond the ones mentioned above would be to consider going with a higher wattage on your PSU. 550 seems like it would be barely enough, if not slightly below optimal and if you added an additional hard drive later on you could run into problems.

 

[MrTub]

Christ, I didn't realize how expensive HDD's are at the moment. I used to be able to get 1 TB for $70, but now it doubled? I knew they went up, but not that high.

OT: Everything seems to be more or less in order, though I'm hoping you've taken additional expenses into account, such as OS (a Win7 license will run you about $100). Also definitely pick up a combo disk drive, though those are as cheap as $25, which shouldn't be much of a problem.

As for the processor, before you decide between the i5 and the i3, what, exactly, are you planning on doing with the computer? If gaming (since this is a gaming site, I'm just going to assume), what sort of games will you be playing? Oh, and as for the difference: someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but the i5 has hyperthreading (ability to overclock the cores to "double" the amount of cores that the software can use) enabled, whereas i3 does not.

The fans in the case should be enough for what you've got; even if you put it together, and it seems to be running hot, it wouldn't be difficult to toss in an aftermarket cooler.

I7 got HT, sadly the i5 haven't got it and it's not really overclocking. It fools the computer into thinking you got double the amount of core, but I will still advice him to get a i5 since it got 4 cores and it's very good and i3 only got two cores.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I'd want 2GB GPU ram.

My system is stellar other than a lack of ram on my GPU. Battlefield requires more for high res and detail, and if you want to fiddle with 3D you'll definitely want more.

Might not matter to you, but I've had mine about a year and I'm already considering an upgrade. Anyone wanna buy a 5870?

 

[Cowabungaa]

Looks great! The only suggeston I have beyond the ones mentioned above would be to consider going with a higher wattage on your PSU. 550 seems like it would be barely enough, if not slightly below optimal and if you added an additional hard drive later on you could run into problems.

It isn't. Computers don't use even nearly as much as many people think. However, 550W is a bit on the low side for things like CrossFire, though it is possible if you have a really good 550W PSU. For a single-GPU setup though 550W will do absolutely fine.

However, seeing as how a good 650W PSU isn't that more expensive I'd recommend that in case the OP wants a big boost in graphical power for only a small price. An AMD 6870 CrossFire setup is pretty damn powerful, and way cheaper than the GeForce 580GTX, which is comparable in power.

 

[Mafoobula]

Actually, for a little less cash, you can get a GeForce GTX 550 Ti [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625], which performs a little better than the 6850.

I concur with the PSU needing more power. Like someone mentioned, you might want to upgrade/expand in the future, and first and foremost, you have to make sure what you put in your box later is going to get sufficient power. And really, those video cards suck power like nobody's business.

RAM... 8GB of DDR3-1600 is actually quite a bit, compared to the rest of your selected hardware. You could certainly get away with only 4GB at the same speed, but you'll only save about $15.

And yes, I think you'd do well to get a beefier CPU. Dual-cores are not to be underestimated still, but I just think we're not far away from a point where quad-cores are expected. Dual-cores are only a few years old, you know, and they've been a minimum requirement for games for a while now. In another year or three, it'll be that way with quad-cores.
If you want to stick with Intel, it'll cost you another $60 for the other two cores. Specifically: Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074]

However, if you go AMD, you'll save a bundle, even if they're not quite as efficient as Intel's Sandy Bridge. I'll refer you to Hateren.

Replace you MB and CPU with a GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521] and a AMD Phenom II X4 970 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894] @ 3.5 GHz and get 2 extra cores gratis.

Furthermore, by choosing an AMD CPU, it'll be in your best interest to go with the Radeon video card after all, since it's all AMD tech, meaning it works together a little better. This Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948] is nice by itself, and Crossfires easily enough in a year or two when you need an easy upgrade, AND it costs a mere $35 more.

Finally, don't forget to factor in the cost of software and accessories: OS, to start, but what about productivity (MS Office) and anti-virus? And cables! Unless the picture of the product shows the box, what you see is what you get. SO, you're going to have to remember to pick up a few SATA cables and maybe a displayport/HDMI cable for the video card.

Best of luck with your build. The hardest part is making sure you have all the right parts for the job. After all this, it's as easy as putting stuff into the designated slots.

 

[Peobsi]

I appreciate all the advice, I should have mentioned that I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I do enjoy playing blizzard's games and would love to play Diablo 3. I'm more or less getting this computer to do that, and to perhaps enjoy bethesda games as well like Fallout 3 and Skyrim. The parts are still arriving, but I ended up getting the i3, what I did change was the ram- I bought 4g instead of 8g. I understand that the i5 would be nice, but I mean as you upgrade a bit there, I'd probably want to then upgrade the video card a bit, then maybe add a cooling system, by that time it would already have been far more than I anticipated. At first I wanted to spend 500 dollars, and ended up spending about ~150 more than I wanted. I think it's a solid mid to high range pc atm, and if it can play rpg type games into 2012 then my build was successful.