Right. Building a PC thread.

[Westaway]

Well guys, I honestly couldn't have asked for more. Thanks for making this such an awesome thread. I truly appreciate it. I promise I'll upload pictures once I make the thing.

 

[Palfreyfish]

These threads are always good, there's always some form of discussion, and it's always good to know more before I start looking for parts and stuff.

On a related note about coolers & fans etc, is there a Noise : Efficiency ratio for coolers and fans, or are there coolers and fans that are quiet and efficient? Also, has anyone got any knowledge on the Razer Tiamat 7.1, and following on from that, are dedicated sound cards necessary?

 

[Palfreyfish]

These threads are always good, there's always some form of discussion, and it's always good to know more before I start looking for parts and stuff.

On a related note about coolers & fans etc, is there a Noise : Efficiency ratio for coolers and fans, or are there coolers and fans that are quiet and efficient? Also, has anyone got any knowledge on the Razer Tiamat 7.1, and following on from that, are dedicated sound cards necessary?

For fans ball bearing ones will last you a lot longer, I know you didn't ask that but it's good to know.

You can actually get a good balance of efficiency and performance. I know bit-tech gave a good review of the "Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro". I use a Noctua U12P-SE2 and it is quiet even with 2 fans. The 2nd version of the OP's build had a Hyper 212 Evo and Overclock3D say that "in practice the fan is barely audible at low fan speeds, and not much louder at full tat", plus it is a cheap cooler at only about £25.

If you have the cash and want the best of both worlds you could look into water cooling. They give you low noise and performance but at a price.

I don't think a sound card is truly necessary unless you are an audiophile or something like that. Many motherboards have built in 7.1 surround ports but if you want more quality then go for it, just make sure you have the speakers to fully make use of it.

Ball bearings are good I assume for much the same reason they are in longboard wheels? I assume case fans are a requirement, as is a good case, I was contemplating the cosmos two as I quite like the design of it etc, but is there anything anyone can recommend?

Granted if I get the headset I want I won't be able to hear much anyway, but I'd like the ability to watch films and game at night without my fans whirring away and waking up the house.

On to Water Cooling. I want it, but seeing as my build will be the first time I've actually put together a PC properly[footnote]I've installed graphics cards and RAM and the like for friends, but never actually put the whole thing together[/footnote], I'm a tad nervous about WC, main reason being that it's my new electronic baby and I'm putting tubes full of water into it. I know that my fears are unfounded, but still, convince me it's a good idea.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Ball bearings are good I assume for much the same reason they are in longboard wheels? I assume case fans are a requirement, as is a good case, I was contemplating the cosmos two as I quite like the design of it etc, but is there anything anyone can recommend?

Granted if I get the headset I want I won't be able to hear much anyway, but I'd like the ability to watch films and game at night without my fans whirring away and waking up the house.

On to Water Cooling. I want it, but seeing as my build will be the first time I've actually put together a PC properly[footnote]I've installed graphics cards and RAM and the like for friends, but never actually put the whole thing together[/footnote], I'm a tad nervous about WC, main reason being that it's my new electronic baby and I'm putting tubes full of water into it. I know that my fears are unfounded, but still, convince me it's a good idea.

I haven't done WC before but I know you can set it up before you put it into the PC to test for leaks so don't worry about that. As long as you take precautions you should be fine.

On the topic of cases as long as you don't get a cheap POS you should be fine. I wouldn't go beyond £50-60 though it looks like you are willing to spend a lot more than that.

It depends on how much you want to spend and whether you want to WC or not.

EDIT For case fans noctua are quiet and effective though they are expensive. There are other brands too but I have experience with Noctua and can vouch for them.

Well I'm not willing to spend huge amounts of money on a case, but all the nice, sturdy looking ones seem to cost a gajillion dollars, such as the one I mentioned above. Granted, I will be working and not doing much else with the money so I could afford an expensive case, but if something £50 will get the job done, then I can spend more on something like a GPU or motherboard.

About the watercooling, I didn't think of that, so that's basically put all my fears away. Is open-loop WC where you connect and fill the tubes by yourself, meaning that you can have one system to cool the CPU and GPU?

And I'll add noctua to the list of places to look for parts then.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Well I'm not willing to spend huge amounts of money on a case, but all the nice, sturdy looking ones seem to cost a gajillion dollars, such as the one I mentioned above. Granted, I will be working and not doing much else with the money so I could afford an expensive case, but if something £50 will get the job done, then I can spend more on something like a GPU or motherboard.

About the watercooling, I didn't think of that, so that's basically put all my fears away. Is open-loop WC where you connect and fill the tubes by yourself, meaning that you can have one system to cool the CPU and GPU?

And I'll add noctua to the list of places to look for parts then.

Yeah, open loop is where you do it all yourself. From what I have heard closed loop is as good as air most of the time and gets very expensive once it beats it outright.

With open loop EVERYTHING can be water cooled. CPU, CPU, the motherboard and even the freaking RAM, I shit you not.

If you needed to go cheap on a case is surprisingly good value for money and can work with water cooling though if you do an open loop I would pay a bit more for a case.

If you want to be 100% hardcore you could make a mineral oil PC. Yes, this is legit.


I wouldn't do it unless I had tons of cash but it looks awesome.

Holy shit what the fuck that's a thing that works? Wow that's amazing.

Won't do open loop then, well, maybe not until the fifth rebuild in 2030 etc. But wow I really want to try that mineral oil PC. That was just fucking insane.

EDIT, and that case looks nice. Hmm. I need to do some basic maths.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Well I'm not willing to spend huge amounts of money on a case, but all the nice, sturdy looking ones seem to cost a gajillion dollars, such as the one I mentioned above. Granted, I will be working and not doing much else with the money so I could afford an expensive case, but if something £50 will get the job done, then I can spend more on something like a GPU or motherboard.

About the watercooling, I didn't think of that, so that's basically put all my fears away. Is open-loop WC where you connect and fill the tubes by yourself, meaning that you can have one system to cool the CPU and GPU?

And I'll add noctua to the list of places to look for parts then.

Yeah, open loop is where you do it all yourself. From what I have heard closed loop is as good as air most of the time and gets very expensive once it beats it outright.

With open loop EVERYTHING can be water cooled. CPU, CPU, the motherboard and even the freaking RAM, I shit you not.

If you needed to go cheap on a case this one [http://www.ebuyer.com/172779-casecom-6788-all-black-case-km-6788-black] is surprisingly good value for money and can work with water cooling though if you do an open loop I would pay a bit more for a case.

If you want to be 100% hardcore you could make a mineral oil PC. Yes, this is legit.


I wouldn't do it unless I had tons of cash but it looks awesome.

Holy shit what the fuck that's a thing that works? Wow that's amazing.

Won't do open loop then, well, maybe not until the fifth rebuild in 2030 etc. But wow I really want to try that mineral oil PC. That was just fucking insane.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

These guys have a guide and sell kits and bits. The oil is not conductive so it can cool everything without shocking any components. They don't put the HDD or DVD drive in as it may wreck the disks but apart from that you can submerge the whole system. It looks awesome.

What put you off open loop? I said you can cool all those components but you can just make a small loop just for the CPU if you want. You just cool what you want.

Me having the potential to accidentally not tighten a connection enough, and then suddenly coolant, coolant everywhere 3 months down the line.

Also, the last question on their FAQ made me chuckle. I might upgrade to open loop if it's really really necessary, but it's currently out of my league.

Also, you're good at recommending monitors or so it seems. All I want is something that'll look good. I currently have a 20" Samsung Syncmaster2043NWX if that means anything, got it off a friend for around £30, with a resolution of 1680x1050 and that's about all I know about it. I'll be keeping this one but I want something bigger and better, and is it viable/a good idea to set up games to use multiple monitors when the monitors are of different sizes/type/resolution etc?

 

[Palfreyfish]

Me having the potential to accidentally not tighten a connection enough, and then suddenly coolant, coolant everywhere 3 months down the line.

Also, the last question on their FAQ made me chuckle. I might upgrade to open loop if it's really really necessary, but it's currently out of my league.

Also, you're good at recommending monitors or so it seems. All I want is something that'll look good. I currently have a 20" Samsung Syncmaster2043NWX if that means anything, got it off a friend for around £30, with a resolution of 1680x1050 and that's about all I know about it. I'll be keeping this one but I want something bigger and better, and is it viable/a good idea to set up games to use multiple monitors when the monitors are of different sizes/type/resolution etc?

That's understandable, I get you. You will still be fine on air cooling anyway.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-eyefinity-technology/how-to/Pages/faqs.aspx
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-surround-technology.html

They can be different sizes if you connect both monitors to a PC. AMD Eyefinity will work just fine. nVidias version needs 3 monitors so it's out of the question.

You could game on both using AMD but it will make all monitors run at the lowest resolution of the 2 so it will look pretty bad on the new monitor so it would be best just to game on 1.

What kind of monitor are you looking at?

Currently no monitor at all, it's the last thing on the list of parts, seeing as I've already got an -alright- one here. Recommendations?

I also have to go for the night, but I'll be back tomorrow at some point. Thanks for the help

 

[Angry_squirrel]

When I built the PC I have now, it was my first build, and I didn't have anyone to help, so I got a prefab with a decent motherboard, and replaced a few parts.

I managed to get a prefab HP for £200 (around $300) and replaced the graphics card with a GTX 560 (£160, which is about $240) and a 650 watt PSU (£60, which is about $90)
So that's a total of approximately $630, plus the price of a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers (I've had these for a while, I cant remember how much they cost me)

I can play Battlefield 3 on mid/high settings, and everything else I've tried on max.

So that's my recommendation if you're worried about fucking up and don't have a friend to help. You'll also be able to do a lot more than I did given your budget.