PC Build

[CognitiveDissonance]

Hi, I'm looking to build a gaming PC for $1000 Australian, but I'm not all that familiar with the latest parts / the art of building a computer. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Does this look okay?

HD: 1 TB Seagate
RAM: 4GB DDR3 Kingston
CASE: Antec 902
PSU: Corsair 650W TX
GPU: Radeon 6950 2GB
CPU: i5 760
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P6X58D-E

Also, is a sound card necessary? / Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Stoogie]

since u live in australia ill build u a box for u from pccasegear and get back to u in about 30 minutes

 

[Stoogie]

for a soundcard i would recommend a Auzentech X-Meridian 2G and upgrade the opamps to something like LME4972 or OPA627. i use the LME4972 atm they are good for metal/techno with AKM DACs. anyway soundcard link is here:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=211&products_id=16247

 

[Stoogie]

as for your computer build i recommend this:

 

[Avaholic03]

Not a bad setup. You might consider getting a smaller SSD for a boot drive, and use that big Seagate as storage only. I think HD read/write speed would be the bottleneck in that setup you posted.

I've never really seen the need for a separate sound card. I guess if you want a really awesome audio experience, they aren't that expensive. But I'm not much of an audiophile, so my onboard sound works fine.

 

[Stoogie]

Not a bad setup. You might consider getting a smaller SSD for a boot drive, and use that big Seagate as storage only. I think HD read/write speed would be the bottleneck in that setup you posted.

I've never really seen the need for a separate sound card. I guess if you want a really awesome audio experience, they aren't that expensive. But I'm not much of an audiophile, so my onboard sound works fine.

SSD's provide no performance gains for gaming. So that is a big nono

 

[gl1koz3]

There's something weird with CPU/MB here... MB says LGA1366, but the CPU is LGA1156. If you can just plug them in, fine, but this seems like wasting some dollar on of the ends.

If you don't really care for top sound quality, I wouldn't suggest adding any sound cards. Sometimes the integrated ones even produce little to none background noise, so buy first, then see.

EDIT: This is about your own build.

 

[Avaholic03]

SSD's provide no performance gains for gaming. So that is a big nono

Oh really? [http://chris.pirillo.com/are-ssds-good-for-gaming/] I guess load times don't affect gaming experience?

 

[CognitiveDissonance]

Thanks for the help guys. Awesome effort Stoogie! If I buy that exact setup from pcasegear, is it necessary to buy (/steal from my old PC) disc drives etc?

So, is the sound-card required for gaming and average quality music? Or does it just boost quality?

 

[gl1koz3]

Just boost quality.

Also, SSDs are the shizz. Your load times will drop significantly. Even if the game is not on the SSD, having the system on it will still give a great boost.

Also #2, if you have a drive too big (you have 1TB), format it using big allocation units (i.e. 64K). That will mean less fragmentation for big data reads... stuff that we need a lot these days anyway. The drive will be faster.

 

[Pr1de]

i also need to thank you guys, i've been thinking of doing the same(building a pc i mean). right now i'm using a relic. its Satellite from toshiba with a pentium 3 processor and lets just say its so old that it lags when i scroll down or try to watch any kind of vid.

 

[Stoogie]

SSD's provide no performance gains for gaming. So that is a big nono

Oh really? [http://chris.pirillo.com/are-ssds-good-for-gaming/] I guess load times don't affect gaming experience?

i can load metro 2033 max everything with 2x 6870's and a 7200.10 drive in under 5 seconds. and also for gaming u aim for the best FPS not load times.

If anything i would recommended a hybrid SSD drive like a seagate momentus 500/750gb because. spending like $140/$150 on a 60gb SSD u wouldnt even beable to put any games on it due to NO SPACE LEFT> but with a $120 2.5" momentus drive u can and it is quite similar. however u dont need it just any 7200rpm drive is perfectly fine.

 

[Pr1de]

for gaming u aim for the best FPS not load times.

Totally agree

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

There's something weird with CPU/MB here... MB says LGA1366, but the CPU is LGA1156. If you can just plug them in, fine, but this seems like wasting some dollar on of the ends.

If you don't really care for top sound quality, I wouldn't suggest adding any sound cards. Sometimes the integrated ones even produce little to none background noise, so buy first, then see.

EDIT: This is about your own build.

Holy cow, the sockets have to be the same or the pc will NOT work!

Get different motherboard.

 

[Stoogie]

Thanks for the help guys. Awesome effort Stoogie! If I buy that exact setup from pcasegear, is it necessary to buy (/steal from my old PC) disc drives etc?

So, is the sound-card required for gaming and average quality music? Or does it just boost quality?

u can add a disc drive (dvd burner) for $29 or get a blu ray reader(and dvd burner) for $69(the samsung one there).

The Creative X-Fi chipsets CA20k2 etc will improve FPS slightly (however that fps increase is going down due to the increased power of cpu/gpu's these days) However Creative X-Fi chipsets are bad with motherboards that support SLi like for example a intel mobo northbridge chipset with CF and SLI capabilities. Why? because it causes noise isses and a driver bug issue resulting in occasional crackling and popping sounds. Which is why i recommended the previous Auzentech X-Meridian 2G because it uses a CMI8788 Chipset and has no issues wat soever apart from it being limited to PCI(which doesnt matter anyway unless pci's die off in the future).. Cough unlike Creative. i hate creative. they are so fail. but yea i use a Auzentech X-Fi Forte which has a creative chipset CA20K2, and i live with the crackling driver issue everyday.

but in general Soundcards are just used to increase audio quality.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Hi, I'm looking to build a gaming PC for $1000 Australian, but I'm not all that familiar with the latest parts / the art of building a computer. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Does this look okay?

HD: 1 TB Seagate
RAM: 4GB DDR3 Kingston
CASE: Antec 902
PSU: Corsair 650W TX
GPU: Radeon 6950 2GB
CPU: i5 760
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P6X58D-E

Also, is a sound card necessary? / Any suggestions?

Thanks

Your motherboard is NOT compatible with your cpu.
Please be more specific as to the MODEL of ram you have as the processor only supports dual-channel DDR3-1066/1333mhz.

Don't buy those parts as they will not work.

The motherboard you listed is made for core i7 processors.
You see, every cpu has a socket type, this will tell you which motherboard it will work with and it will ONLY work with that kind of motherboard. The cpu and the motherboard both only support a certain speed/s of ram (1066,1333,1600 etc) and if both the motherboard and processor support the same speed of ram (for example 1600mhz) then you should buy ram that runs at that speed.

 

[Stoogie]

IMO u should add in a CPU cooler like a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ for example at $39, which is one of the best cheapest ones available. and just overclock your cpu but try to keep ur ram at the same mhz speeds as ram increases dont do much for gaming at all. Also Note that ASUS has autovolting settings in the bios when u overclock the CPU so u dont have to trial and error anything to manually add the voltage cause it does it all for u. u can keep speedstep(i think its speedstep havent overclocked anything new in a while) up if u want to since it helps with power saving(fully compatable with overclocks).

IT depends on CPU batch luck aswell, also if u lap ur cpu or not. or watercooling. but mine on air a i7 860 gets 3.6ghz with that cooler and 2 coolermaster silent fans at 7v(not 12v) so its 13db silent. and i get 79C in prime with HT on, on air, at 1.18v. Just play around its fun lol

 

[Stoogie]

Hi, I'm looking to build a gaming PC for $1000 Australian, but I'm not all that familiar with the latest parts / the art of building a computer. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Does this look okay?

HD: 1 TB Seagate
RAM: 4GB DDR3 Kingston
CASE: Antec 902
PSU: Corsair 650W TX
GPU: Radeon 6950 2GB
CPU: i5 760
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P6X58D-E

Also, is a sound card necessary? / Any suggestions?

Thanks

Your motherboard is NOT compatible with your cpu.
Please be more specific as to the MODEL of ram you have as the processor only supports dual-channel DDR3-1066/1333mhz.

Don't buy those parts as they will not work.

yea his parts dont match up

 

[Pr1de]

IMO u should add in a CPU cooler like a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ for example at $39, which is one of the best cheapest ones available. and just overclock your cpu but try to keep ur ram at the same mhz speeds as ram increases dont do much for gaming at all. Also Note that ASUS has autovolting settings in the bios when u overclock the CPU so u dont have to trial and error anything to manually add the voltage cause it does it all for u. u can keep speedstep(i think its speedstep havent overclocked anything new in a while) up if u want to since it helps with power saving(fully compatable with overclocks).

IT depends on CPU batch luck aswell, also if u lap ur cpu or not. or watercooling. but mine on air a i7 860 gets 3.6ghz with that cooler and 2 coolermaster silent fans at 7v(not 12v) so its 13db silent. and i get 79C in prime with HT on, on air, at 1.18v. Just play around its fun lol

Wow you know your stuff

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Personally I would recommend getting the core i7 950 since the price dropped from $600 to $250 and is an AMAZING processor. It will work with your motherboard too.
Also, I hear that people who bought that asus board thought it "wasn't that great" and said that the gigabyte ga-x58a-ud3r is much better.

Just look:

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-LGA1366-CrossFireX-Motherboard-GA-X58A-UD3R/dp/B0034CSTFY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1293614519&sr=1-1

Just putting it there for you to consider as an alternative.