Right. Building a PC thread.

[lacktheknack]

Holy fucking shitballs OP is in Edmonton.

Mind = blown.

What part of town are you in?

Whoa whoa WHOA. Three Edmontonians in one thread?

The internet just got a lot smaller... It's a small internet after all?

This reminds me of a friend who met a lovely tourist while on vacation in Europe, and after talking for a half hour, realized that they both lived on the same street.

I'm on the south side... the REALLY south side. South of Anthony Henday south side.

Lol that's hilarious. I grew up in Millwoods, right by the golf course. I'm downtown now, but I work just off 17th street.

I don't meet many Albertans on this site, but when I do, they tend to be Edmontonian.



Anyways, /derail. The OP actually has locals to help him actually build the thing if he wants.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

You don't need 1500

I just bought this a few days ago, it's getting shipped
http://www.excelcomputers.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=52594
It's more then powerful enough to run tf2 on high, and AAA games on low, considering that's what my computer does now and it's awful . 5 year old laptop that was shitty then

This thing is 1300, and far better than my old computer, and I can easily upgrade the ram which is the only dodgy part. If made the computer myself, I could have gotten it far cheaper. You could probably get one to do what you want for less then a thousand.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Damn you Edmontoners! Everyone in Toronto is so dumb and uninteresting.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Dude. Go to Future shop or best buy or what ever... Buy a $700 computer (Not counting monitor, Keyboard, speakers and all that stuff) with at least a i5 processor and hopefully a 500-600W powersource, and 4GB ram. And then buy a $100-150 videocard (Make sure it is a Geforce or something else from NVIDIA) and replace the shitty one that came with it if it had one (Esspesually if it was AMD, they are not meant for games). That should let you play Nearly any game near full settings (AAA or not) and you will for sure spend less then $1500.

Hell my current computer was a peice of crap. About 6 years old, Pentium D 2.8 GHz with integrated graphics and 1GB ram. Could barely run AAAA reckless disregard for gravity.

Bought a $50 GT 520 Silent 1GB DDR3 graphics card, and 2 1GB ram sticks, slapped them in and got the best Driver firmware for the card from NVIDIA. I can now run Portal 2 near max stats at about 40 FPS.

You will NOT have a problem with my suggestion and save yourself a fuck ton of time and pain and possibly money.

 

[Signa]

Lastly, watch this video. I'm not a fan of AMD cards, and this is why:
They don't support the rendering of those Physx particles and objects. The game won't be broken with out it, but it does make it look SOO much better.

GPU accelerated PhysX really isn't much of a selling point for Nvidia because so few games actually support it. There are only about 23 games that even use that feature, and only two of those have come out in the past year. PhysX might be important if The Batman Arkham games, Metro 2033, Mafia II, Alice Madness: Returns, or one of the other few PhysX enabled games are your favourite games.

PhysX really hasn't taken off because it is Nvidia proprietary, game developers aren't interested in putting extra effort into a feature that the consoles can't use, and only a portion of the PC audience can use. As such I really wouldn't get an Nvidia card solely on the basis of PhysX unless some of the few PhysX enabled games are among your favourite titles.

Fair point, but for me it was a happy coincidence that I ended up with a Nvidia card and found that it did more. It's still something I would take into consideration next time I need a card. I played through Batman without the Phsyx enabled because I thought my PC couldn't handle it. It turns out I goofed one setting on the Nvidia control panel, and now I'm replaying the game with it on and it does improve the experience. And that's why I'm recommending it, because it's all about the experience.

 

[Wolfram23]

Dude. Go to Future shop or best buy or what ever... Buy a $700 computer (Not counting monitor, Keyboard, speakers and all that stuff) with at least a i5 processor and hopefully a 500-600W powersource, and 4GB ram. And then buy a $100-150 videocard (Make sure it is a Geforce or something else from NVIDIA) and replace the shitty one that came with it if it had one (Esspesually if it was AMD, they are not meant for games). That should let you play Nearly any game near full settings (AAA or not) and you will for sure spend less then $1500.

Hell my current computer was a peice of crap. About 6 years old, Pentium D 2.8 GHz with integrated graphics and 1GB ram. Could barely run AAAA reckless disregard for gravity.

Bought a $50 GT 520 Silent 1GB DDR3 graphics card, and 2 1GB ram sticks, slapped them in and got the best Driver firmware for the card from NVIDIA. I can now run Portal 2 near max stats at about 40 FPS.

You will NOT have a problem with my suggestion and save yourself a fuck ton of time and pain and possibly money.

Sorry man, but that is an absolutely terrible idea. He said $1500 is his budget, maybe he's well off and that's not a big deal for him. If he could only afford $800 or something then it would be pretty easy to build one like that instead.

 

[FloodOne]

I built a mid level rig for $500.

ATI 6770, 8gb RAM, 1tb HDD, 600w Power Supply Unit, and a smallish motherboard (can't remember offhand what exactly it was).

It's not blowing the screen off my monitor, but I can play most games at high settings, and it games almost never chug.

 

[lunavixen]

i built a mid range PC for about $550AU, 8GB RAM, decent processor and motherboard, dunno which parts exactly, my brother is the one who found them and who waled me through the assembly of the system

 

[Solo-Wing]

Dude. Go to Future shop or best buy or what ever... Buy a $700 computer (Not counting monitor, Keyboard, speakers and all that stuff) with at least a i5 processor and hopefully a 500-600W powersource, and 4GB ram. And then buy a $100-150 videocard (Make sure it is a Geforce or something else from NVIDIA) and replace the shitty one that came with it if it had one (Esspesually if it was AMD, they are not meant for games). That should let you play Nearly any game near full settings (AAA or not) and you will for sure spend less then $1500.

Hell my current computer was a peice of crap. About 6 years old, Pentium D 2.8 GHz with integrated graphics and 1GB ram. Could barely run AAAA reckless disregard for gravity.

Bought a $50 GT 520 Silent 1GB DDR3 graphics card, and 2 1GB ram sticks, slapped them in and got the best Driver firmware for the card from NVIDIA. I can now run Portal 2 near max stats at about 40 FPS.

You will NOT have a problem with my suggestion and save yourself a fuck ton of time and pain and possibly money.

Sorry man, but that is an absolutely terrible idea. He said $1500 is his budget, maybe he's well off and that's not a big deal for him. If he could only afford $800 or something then it would be pretty easy to build one like that instead.

Yeah but with this set up he could play anything Meduim-High with full Resoltion with no problem and save him self about $500. What will that extra 500 get him? like 10 more FPS on a slightly higher quality then this plan?

 

[Waaghpowa]

I think it's worth mentioning that if you do go ahead and build that PC, you could go ahead and throw your Xbox out and not notice the difference. It could handle just about everything on high or more, which is already far better than anything the Xbox is capable of handling.

 

[Wolfram23]

Yeah but with this set up he could play anything Meduim-High with full Resoltion with no problem and save him self about $500. What will that extra 500 get him? like 10 more FPS on a slightly higher quality then this plan?

Yeah, pretty much! From 30fps medium to 60+ Ultra high.

Plus it would continue to perform like that for several years.

 

[viranimus]

What purpose would it serve? Well, I have my Xbox 360 for pretty much all of my AAA games. I will, how ever, use this PC to play some games. Games like TF2, Minecraft, and such on full capacity. If I would play any AAA games, it would only be on minimal settings. Besides that, I'd also use it for browsing the internet and such. I'll probably use Windows 7 or 8 depending on how long it takes me to make the damn thing.



TLR- Making PC that can run semi power hungry games (TF2 on highest quality, some AAA games on lowest) Give me any tips on any aspects o building a PC

Ok just in case no one else has told you yet, for specifically what you stated you wanted, 500$ is too much to invest, much less 1500 and thats even accounting for US Canadian exchange rates.

Not questioning if the suggested builds are worth 1500$.. Just making very sure you understand that what you asked for is absolutely nominal and can be handled with a 2.5 dual core, 4gb of DDR2 ram and a Geforce 9500 1gb. So make sure to consider all that as well.

 

[Joccaren]

Viewsonic VP2365LED 1080P 23" E-IPS Monitor $329.99
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=66781&vpn=VP2365-LED&manufacture=ViewSonic

Why settle for 1080p?
You can get a reasonable 2560*1440 monitor with free shipping for around $350.
Sadly only 59Hz, but the extra resolution...

 

[Wolfram23]

^True. A 7770 is more than enough for GPU power to get that sort of performance.

 

[loc978]

Honestly, if you're going for a budget system to play current midrange games at full detail, $1500 is overkill, even if you need all of your peripherals. Since Newegg exists in Canada, so you're covered the same as we in the states.

I'll throw an experimental price-only budget build (an actual budget build, mind you... not a $1400 middle-top system) up here... but I'm not doing compatibility research here, so you'll most likely need to swap a part or two out for something in a similar price range:

[edit]
What lies below is the thought processes that took place before I was corrected a couple of times.
this post was the eventual conclusion [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.378476-Right-Building-a-PC-thread?page=3#14804768].
[/edit]

-Proc: AMD Phenom II X4 955, 3.2Ghz, Socket AM3, quad-core, 95W [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113007]
$109.99

-Mobo: ECS IC780M-A2 [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135250]. Honestly, not a lot of good options for AM3 boards on Newegg.ca, but there aren't a lot of good budget quad-core processor options that aren't AM3s. The ECS isn't an ideal choice, but it has very good reviews. More importantly, it has no onboard video (which can be a pain in the ass to disable, depending on the BIOS the manufacturer goes with. Bad idea on your first build). If you find a better one elsewhere (preferably an Asus or a Gigabit, apparently MSI is dodgy this generation), go with that. Apparently ECS is a pain to deal with if you happen to get a bad board. My roommate calls this "cheap Chinese crap".
$54.99 or...
-Alternative: ASUS M4A88T-V EVO AM3 880G [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131827]. In case you don't mind disabling onboard video (might be a pain, might not. Either way, it'll be a better motherboard): . The more I think about it, the more I'm sure I should remove my first recommendation, onboard video or no. I'll leave it up in case you find my thought processes on the matter useful.
$89.99

-RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180]
$31.49
-Alternative: Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148457] If you go with a motherboard capable of DDR3-2000 (like the Asus I linked):
$51.99

-Vid card: GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI V3 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125412]. Chosen more for noise, heat dissipation and stability than speed, although it has more than enough of that for your purposes (even my old 7950GTX can run TF2 on full... and it's old now).
$139.99

-Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233]. Upside: very modern, modular, friendly for first-time builders who don't want to do any metalwork on their case... also very good cooling right out of the box.
Only downside: it's all plastic on the outside. Tough plastic, but still plastic. Don't drop it down a flight of stairs.
$69.99

-Power Supply: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V Modular [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171036] this may actually be overkill for this system, but you're always better safe than sorry when dealing with power supplies.
$109.99


-HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185]. Side note about hard drives... since most of 'em are made in Japan, prices have gone up and reliability has gone down in recent years... since the earthquake. There's about a 10% failure rate no matter what brand you buy nowadays, unless you spend the ludicrous amount of money necessary to get a decent sized solid state drive.
$79.99

-Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204].
+$20.99
=$672.92

-OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986]...you'd totally be able to get what you want running under Linux for free, but that would take a lot more work. Soon as Steam and Source go Linux native, it'll be no work at all...
+$109.99
=$782.91

Now, for your keyboard, mouse and monitor... it's mostly a personal ergonomic choice, though there are some monitor brands to avoid for their failure rate. My opinion on the matter may not mean much to you or most folks on this site. I've been building systems for close to 20 years now and I'm set in my ways.
I like a 2-button corded optical wheelmouse. They usually cost $15 new, $5 used around here.
The keyboard layout I use for gaming has fallen so far out of vogue, you can't find it anymore... but just about any flat, $10 keyboard should do you fine. If you want a specialized gaming keyboard, expect to pay around $80.
My eyes are so badly damaged, I may as well not have peripheral vision for other than movement, so I like 19" 4:3 monitors. this [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116463CVF] is what I would choose,this [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116437CVF] is a widescreen equivalent, and this [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116439CVF] is closer to what most people would recommend. Oddly enough, they're all close to the same price point.

I'll just assume you want the HD monitor, so
$174.99
Also, that one has speakers built into it, so no need to worry about those unless you want surround sound.

Assuming ~$150 for your mouse and keyboard... this is, at a maximum an $1100 build. Much more than I expected, but I never have to account for mouse, keyboard, speakers, monitor or operating system. I have those just laying around in great numbers. For me, it would be just under a $700 build.

Also, I'm working with what I know here. You may be able to get better performance for your dollar from an FM1 board build... I just have zero experience with those.
One thing about going Intel... only if you want top-end stuff. They've got the speed advantage, but expect to pay double for the same bang if you're not buying top-end stuff.

Went over a few things with my roommate, and if you want to build something a bit faster and more expandable with an FM1 board/processor (which is what AMD is still developing for), he recommends these:
-Proc: AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with onboard AMD Radeon HD 6550D [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106001]. The on-chip video here will apparently disable itself in the presence of a dedicated GPU.
$129.99

-Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-A75-UD4H FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128515]
$117.99

He also scoffed at my hard drive choice (with good reason). Recommendation:
-HDD: Seagate Constellation ES ST500NM0011 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148756]. Half the space, a bit more expensive, much better speed... a bit noisy, but also less likely to be dead on arrival. As an enterprise drive, it's designed more for business systems, with access speed and longevity in mind. If you need more storage space later, you can always add drives. No need to worry about space now.
$104.49

Everything else would remain the same. This would improve the build quite a lot at a cost of $72.50.

 

[TakeyB0y2]

To be short and sweet, a lower-end Intel i5 processor and 4-gigs of ram should be good enough. Depending on what kind of games you look to be playing, honestly, I'd say if you wanna save your money, go with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 ti should be good enough.

Example of a $270 560 ti: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127608

I'd suggest going with the 560 ti with 2gb of video ram.

The motherboard is probably the most complicated part about picking parts for a PC. Go with one with good reviews, and MAKE SURE THAT IT HAS THE RIGHT SOCKET TYPE FOR THE CPU YOU'RE GETTING! If you go with my advice in getting an i5 processor, it should go with an LGA 1155 socket, but that's not always the case. Both the processors and motherboards will have the socket type in their names on Newegg. I don't know much about AMD motherboards or CPUs, but I know quite a bit about Intel ones.

SOmeone already offered aid, but I'll offer mine as well. Reply or send a PM if you would like more comprehensive help. Hell, I could walk you through picking out parts if you like, as long as you don't keep me up too late :S

 

[Baldr]

I'm A+ cert tech. Newegg usually has the best deals and almost everyone who builds their own computer uses it. They usually have great things on sale and you won't be overpriced.

How I go about building a computer:
First is selecting the CPU, this will determine your motherboard, which then determines other things.

Then look for good deals on motherboards that fit that type of CPU. Sometimes you'll find a CPU/Motherboard combo deal.

Next is Memory. Go to the manufacturers page and look up your motherboard's memory compliance list. For some reason you can have the exact type of memory that is the exact right type, but for some unknown reason doesn't work with that particular motherboard. The chances of this are really slim, but it an easy search and will save you headaches down the road.

90% of the time your Motherboard will be an ATX type or MicroATX, this will determine what Case you buy. Just be aware if it is not an ATX.

Make sure you got enough Watts for every device on your Power supply.

Everything else should be standard SATA devices.

THIS IS IMPORTANT:
There are videos on Yotube on how install about everything. Watch 1 or 2 them before attempting, they are a great resource tool if you never done anything like this before. I still watch them even though I may already know what I am doing.

And use Anti-Static gear or mats.

 

[Rastien]

snip

Right build no.2 with some escapist input We have added a monitor to this one.

i5 2500K $224.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Windows 7 $109.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Sapphire 7850 $259.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102986

SILVERSTONE 600W PSU $72. 99 (with $10 rebate making it $62.99)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256071&Tpk=silverstone%20600w

Z77 Motherboard $129.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128543

COOLER MASTER HAF 922 Now: $109.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

DVD Burner $20.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

2TB HDD Now: $119.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148529

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO $34.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

8GB 1600Mhz RAM $42.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226217

Viewsonic VP2365LED 1080P 23" E-IPS Monitor $329.99
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=66781&vpn=VP2365-LED&manufacture=ViewSonic


$1446.89 after rebate, $1456.89 before it

snip

I'm going with a 7850, I just don't think the boost in performance to the 7870 is worth it. A 23" is the best I could do, I think the 24" Dell was a bit too much and it went over budget and I had to get an IPS so the Viewsonic is what I chose.

I'm not too sure on the PSU but the extra wattage should give it more headroom. Saying that it may not be needed due to the efficiency of the 7850.

Left the mouse and keyboard out for now though we still have $50 there to work with and I'm sure we could edit the other parts if we are going to add one in.

Just a heads up, if this bro is using an old monitor its probably VGA he will need to chuck in a VGA to DVI converter or he won't be able to plug in his monitor

-edit i see you included a monitor my bad.