New computer build

Bucky Badger

Bucky Badger

Go Kyle Go
Joined
May 11, 2003
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Well my 8 year old desk top cropped out on me. Finally going to build something I want. Doing a lot of work with HD movie editing lately with my camcorder. Also have picked up making slide shows from Craigs list.Nice little market for that. Hope all the links work. Should be a pretty mean machine. Should be able to overclock it on air to 4.4*fingers crossed*


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

GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT51264BA1339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148346

SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0 Port supports SDHC/VISTA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820300608

Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARX 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136891

LITE-ON 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner with 3D Playback iHBS212-08 LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106348

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
 
very nice. :) should notice a difference from an eight year old desktop. <g>
 
Or, you could buy one of the smaller Bahama islands. j/k That i7 chip alone is worth more that all my gear lol

Looks like a nice rig.
 
Bucky Badger said:
I have a BFG550 from my other one i'm gonna try to use
Click to expand...

Two 12 volt lines, each at 18 amps...

That graphics card will be a power hog (1GHz x 1.75Ghz GPU x Shader) but you can try it. I'd rather have a 80 amp monorail or 20 amp quadrail myself.
 
bucky and magnethead...and anyone else that is knowledgeable......

i'm thinking of a laptop and a docking staion this time instead of a tower.

What would you recommend for $1800 and under. I don't know much about puters.

my work computer that I use at home is a dell M6400 laptop but I can't use it for personal use.
 
muggle not said:
bucky and magnethead...and anyone else that is knowledgeable......

i'm thinking of a laptop and a docking staion this time instead of a tower.

What would you recommend for $1800 and under. I don't know much about puters.

my work computer that I use at home is a dell M6400 laptop but I can't use it for personal use.
Click to expand...

I don't get into notebooks much...mostly only for web surfing, but i'm sure more will chime in.

If I "were" to get a note book and drop my desk top it would be http://www.malibal.com/ or http://www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx , but i like high end stuff

Question is what do you want to do with it? 1800 max is a huge budget
 
DanicaFan said:
That's all I use and they have never failed me.
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Yeah, but you also drink Bud Light Lime, so.....

But seriously, there's nothing wrong with AMD. A lot of the Dell servers we've bought at work (and I'm talking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth) have AMD processors. And these are high end, high use servers.
 
DanicaFan said:
I still have an old AMD Thunderbird 1.2Ghz processor and it still runs like a charm! It has outlasted several motherboards...lol
Click to expand...

I hear ya'.

I recently took 20 years worth of computer parts to the electronics recycling. Anything without 64bit architecture is pretty much worthless to me.
 
muggle not said:
bucky and magnethead...and anyone else that is knowledgeable......

i'm thinking of a laptop and a docking staion this time instead of a tower.

What would you recommend for $1800 and under. I don't know much about puters.

my work computer that I use at home is a dell M6400 laptop but I can't use it for personal use.
Click to expand...

take a look here and read some of the reviews muggle not. newegg is a great place to get any type of computer, good prices and knowledgeable customers. http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=32&name=Laptops-Notebooks

personally i would stick to intel processors and nvidia graphic cards. laptops run hot and amd processors get hotter than intel processors, at least they use to. haven't kept up much lately. i've had two radeon graphics cards and both had driver problems. i've personally had very good experiences with toshiba satellite laptops (we have two and daughter/sil have two). easily as good as dells i've used and cheaper for the same specs. agree with bucky on getting a high end computer. a gaming system will run anything. <g>
 
Muggle, depends on what you do.

Alienware isn't what it used to be. After Dell bought them, ..... Let's just say I've had to work on a few of the newer ones.

Stay away from dell. Let me repeat that. Stay away from dell.

Unless you have bookoo budget for their corporate grade stuff, anything else is !#%&.

IBM/Lenovo thinkpads, Acer (of all companies- remember they bought gateway), Toshiba Satellites, and anything by HP/Compaq except the 5 series.

4 GB of RAM is a must, especially for a laptop.

The i7 laptops are the best out there, but be prepared to pay on the heat side. They must be used on a hard surface, they're not true "laptops". They overheat like a SOB. But what do you expect when you stuff a 4 core hyperthreading desktop CPU in a laptop? One of my friends has one with a 9800 laptop nvidia card with dual 4GB of ram, and he can play any game out there, but the laptop gets too hot to even touch. IMO, an i5 should be sufficient 98% of the time.
 
muggle not said:
bucky and magnethead...and anyone else that is knowledgeable......

i'm thinking of a laptop and a docking staion this time instead of a tower.

What would you recommend for $1800 and under. I don't know much about puters.

my work computer that I use at home is a dell M6400 laptop but I can't use it for personal use.
Click to expand...

You don't really need a docking station with a laptop anymore -- just a monitor with speakers and HDMI-in (or a TV) and an HDMI cord. Just about everything comes with HDMI-out. If you go Windows, I recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad laptops.
 
VaDirt said:
Yeah, but you also drink Bud Light Lime, so.....

But seriously, there's nothing wrong with AMD. A lot of the Dell servers we've bought at work (and I'm talking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth) have AMD processors. And these are high end, high use servers.
Click to expand...

AMD's new processors aren't what they used to be. Intel's processors are cheaper, faster and more energy efficient. Some of AMD's processors are cheaper but you get what you pay for.
 
Magnethead said:
Muggle, depends on what you do.

Alienware isn't what it used to be. After Dell bought them, ..... Let's just say I've had to work on a few of the newer ones.

Stay away from dell. Let me repeat that. Stay away from dell.

Unless you have bookoo budget for their corporate grade stuff, anything else is !#%&.

IBM/Lenovo thinkpads, Acer (of all companies- remember they bought gateway), Toshiba Satellites, and anything by HP/Compaq except the 5 series.

4 GB of RAM is a must, especially for a laptop.

The i7 laptops are the best out there, but be prepared to pay on the heat side. They must be used on a hard surface, they're not true "laptops". They overheat like a SOB. But what do you expect when you stuff a 4 core hyperthreading desktop CPU in a laptop? One of my friends has one with a 9800 laptop nvidia card with dual 4GB of ram, and he can play any game out there, but the laptop gets too hot to even touch. IMO, an i5 should be sufficient 98% of the time.
Click to expand...

After reading your recommendations and bucky, and Andy I am starting to think that it may be better for me to forego the laptop and stick with a home computer but again I don't quite know what to buy. need to keep it under $1800.
 
muggle not said:
After reading your recommendations and bucky, and Andy I am starting to think that it may be better for me to forego the laptop and stick with a home computer but again I don't quite know what to buy. need to keep it under $1800.
Click to expand...
There is no 'Best' of the desktops simply because the companies don't care anymore. IMO there is such an aftermarket for computer stuff, the OEM's have thrown in the towel and design their stuff to last 3 months out of warranty. Last year I worked on a dell that actually had 1 month of warranty left on it, but Dell wouldn't even honor their own warranty. The power supply shorted out, overheated the graphics card and melted it's fan shroud, and took out the RAM. $300 repair bill before the labor and fuel charges. It was a $1500 desktop, too. Fully loaded with TV tuner, gaming graphics card, ect. (Which is part of why the power supply shorted, wayyyyy too much load that Dell ignored)
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
AMD processors aren't worth a **** anymore.
Click to expand...
Kommando Andy, let me ask you a question. Since you appear to be in the need of a car, let's see what is out there. I'll just give you two and you pick according to your wallet and needs. Honda has a very reliable gas effecient model Fit that you can get around 15 grand. It can get you where you want to go and take care of all your need. The Volvo has three crossovers that will do the same thingThe difference is about 17 or 18 grand between the two; Which one is better? If the Fit does everything that you need and has a fine record for maintenance, the question is moot. Yes the Volvo will handle all of your needs as well and also has a fine maintenance record buuuutttt cost more than twice as much. For many people, the fit would be the better choice. Now for someone that has a higher need for things the Fit doesn't do or have, the the Volvo might be the choice. As for the two different PCU's, AMD or Intel, I've looked at the list of the best and what they are capable of doing. No you, as a quasi journalist, might need a whole lot more than me when it comes to computing so while you might have a lousy opinion of AMD, the AMD works fine for me and does an excellent job with what I want to do. And I don't have to pay out the waazoo for it. And some of the top end AMD processors can do a lot of things. Intel might be the best, but again Cadilac is better than Chevy and so on and so on.
 
buckaroo said:
Kommando Andy, let me ask you a question. Since you appear to be in the need of a car, let's see what is out there. I'll just give you two and you pick according to your wallet and needs. Honda has a very reliable gas effecient model Fit that you can get around 15 grand. It can get you where you want to go and take care of all your need. The Volvo has three crossovers that will do the same thingThe difference is about 17 or 18 grand between the two; Which one is better? If the Fit does everything that you need and has a fine record for maintenance, the question is moot. Yes the Volvo will handle all of your needs as well and also has a fine maintenance record buuuutttt cost more than twice as much. For many people, the fit would be the better choice. Now for someone that has a higher need for things the Fit doesn't do or have, the the Volvo might be the choice. As for the two different PCU's, AMD or Intel, I've looked at the list of the best and what they are capable of doing. No you, as a quasi journalist, might need a whole lot more than me when it comes to computing so while you might have a lousy opinion of AMD, the AMD works fine for me and does an excellent job with what I want to do. And I don't have to pay out the waazoo for it. And some of the top end AMD processors can do a lot of things. Intel might be the best, but again Cadilac is better than Chevy and so on and so on.
Click to expand...
I put an AMD in my last build simply because it was cheap.
 
Mag, having a bit of trouble interpreting 1-4-1
Do I put my memory in Channel A 2 and 4 or B 1 and 3 or do I put in in 1 and 2..the manual seems to contradict it self
http://www.manualowl.com/m/Gigabyte/GA-Z68A-D3H-B3/Manual/207322

I have 2 sticks of DDR3 4 GB so it seems that it would be 1 and 2, but I thought memory was put in the same channel:confused:

Make sure you scroll down on the web page for the manual...Don't have to down load anything
 
buckaroo said:
Kommando Andy, let me ask you a question. Since you appear to be in the need of a car, let's see what is out there. I'll just give you two and you pick according to your wallet and needs. Honda has a very reliable gas effecient model Fit that you can get around 15 grand. It can get you where you want to go and take care of all your need. The Volvo has three crossovers that will do the same thingThe difference is about 17 or 18 grand between the two; Which one is better? If the Fit does everything that you need and has a fine record for maintenance, the question is moot. Yes the Volvo will handle all of your needs as well and also has a fine maintenance record buuuutttt cost more than twice as much. For many people, the fit would be the better choice. Now for someone that has a higher need for things the Fit doesn't do or have, the the Volvo might be the choice. As for the two different PCU's, AMD or Intel, I've looked at the list of the best and what they are capable of doing. No you, as a quasi journalist, might need a whole lot more than me when it comes to computing so while you might have a lousy opinion of AMD, the AMD works fine for me and does an excellent job with what I want to do. And I don't have to pay out the waazoo for it. And some of the top end AMD processors can do a lot of things. Intel might be the best, but again Cadilac is better than Chevy and so on and so on.
Click to expand...

The only problem with that analysis is that I can buy a lower end Intel processor for the same price as a higher end AMD and the Intel will still perform better. AMD used to have more bang for its buck, but that's not the case anymore. I've had AMD and Intel computers the past few years... the laptops I buy with Intel hardware are cheaper and much better.

I donated a desktop a few months ago -- all Intel hardware and the thing was 12 years old and everything still worked. In this particular computer, the only reason I ever replaced anything was to upgrade hardware.

The only thing that ever went bad in my AMD Athlon XP desktop (with a custom graphics card, sound card, USB card) was the processor. And my other AMD Athlon desktop, I upgraded everything and had over 3GB of RAM in it. This was back in 2004-2005. I could never get performance out of it. Same with the AMD laptop I had.

I just can't say that my experiences with AMD products have been as good as everyone else's experiences. As for cars, I can't say I've had a negative experience with any brand... but I did look up what I bought.
 
buckaroo said:
Kommando Andy, let me ask you a question. Since you appear to be in the need of a car, let's see what is out there. I'll just give you two and you pick according to your wallet and needs. Honda has a very reliable gas effecient model Fit that you can get around 15 grand. It can get you where you want to go and take care of all your need. The Volvo has three crossovers that will do the same thingThe difference is about 17 or 18 grand between the two; Which one is better? If the Fit does everything that you need and has a fine record for maintenance, the question is moot. Yes the Volvo will handle all of your needs as well and also has a fine maintenance record buuuutttt cost more than twice as much. For many people, the fit would be the better choice. Now for someone that has a higher need for things the Fit doesn't do or have, the the Volvo might be the choice. As for the two different PCU's, AMD or Intel, I've looked at the list of the best and what they are capable of doing. No you, as a quasi journalist, might need a whole lot more than me when it comes to computing so while you might have a lousy opinion of AMD, the AMD works fine for me and does an excellent job with what I want to do. And I don't have to pay out the waazoo for it. And some of the top end AMD processors can do a lot of things. Intel might be the best, but again Cadilac is better than Chevy and so on and so on.
Click to expand...

And I don't buy computers for performance. I bought the laptop I did because I KNOW what I'm getting. As many times as I've fixed my family members' Acer and HP laptops, I don't think I'd buy one.
 
Bucky Badger said:
Mag, having a bit of trouble interpreting 1-4-1
Do I put my memory in Channel A 2 and 4 or B 1 and 3 or do I put in in 1 and 2..the manual seems to contradict it self
http://www.manualowl.com/m/Gigabyte/GA-Z68A-D3H-B3/Manual/207322

I have 2 sticks of DDR3 4 GB so it seems that it would be 1 and 2, but I thought memory was put in the same channel:confused:

Make sure you scroll down on the web page for the manual...Don't have to down load anything
Click to expand...
Looks like using ports 1 and 3 (physical #2 and 4 from left) are how the hardware was designed...not sure why it's RTL numbering. They must have designed it upside down or something :shrugs:
 
Magnethead said:
Looks like using ports 1 and 3 (physical #2 and 4 from left) are how the hardware was designed...not sure why it's RTL numbering. They must have designed it upside down or something :shrugs:
Click to expand...

I think you mean sockets marked 1 & 2, which would be 2nd and 4th from left. Then each Dimm will be on it's own channel. DDR3_2 on channel A and DDR3_1 will be on channel B.

To explain, physical memory bank 1 (on left, since old convention is to count physical banks with #1 closest to CPU) consists of slots DDR_4 & DDR_2, with both on channel A. They probably assigned DDR1 to bank 2 (channel b) because it may be closest to the memory controller. By using both channels A and B, you'll have 2X duplex RW and a bigger pipe for each.
 
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