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My Custom Computer: What do you guys think of it and does it freaking work?


BurningCake

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Okay, so I finally stopped procrastinating and ordered parts for a custom (gaming/personal) computer I'm gonna build from Newegg.com. I was just wondering what everyone thought of my part choices and if it's actually compatible with each other (it should, I ran it through a compatibility program to check).

Here's the parts:

Corsair Carbide Series 400R Graphite grey and black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-35SAT3-120G 3.5" 120GB SATA III MLC

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227798

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

LITE-ON Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDS118-04 - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106276

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790

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

XION AXP-700K14XE 700W ATX SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80+ Bronze Modular Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817190031

Intel Core i5-3570 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i53570

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233

Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121014

Acer S201HLbd Black 20" 5ms LED-Backlight LCD monitor 250 cd/m2 ACM 12,000,000:1 (1000:1)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009256

Logitech Wireless Combo MK260 920-002950 Black 8 Hot Keys USB RF Wireless Standard Keyboard and Mouse

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126197

Total Computer Cost: Approx. $1,260

So what do you guys think?

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I think it would be worth it to get an i7 Intel processor, such as this one : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115229

Also, for the video card, what do you think about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130652

It has a 2gb rather than only one, which is a very nice extra.

Other than that, the motherboard is a very good choice, ASUS knows his shit.

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Thanks Xy. I already ordered the parts, but I'll bookmark those two pages so I can reference them in a future build.

And also, not sure if you can tell, but do all those parts play nicely together?

I haven't got enough practical experience to tell, (I've made tons of research, but only actually builded two) but a good guideline is to check if those parts are usually used together in pre-build computers.

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I also would have sprung for an I7 given an option, but otherwise it looks like a solid build. You probably could have gotten a little bit more for your money in the RAM, HDD, and video card departments, and the mainboard does look like a little bit of overkill for the system. On the other hand, it is certainly upgrade-capable, unlike most of the cheaper ones. Lately I've been a bit more under a budget, so I'll put together a computer over 2-3 months as Newegg gets stuff on special. That's a lot easier near mid-summer and the holiday season, as their sales pick up and the deals get easier to find.

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Thanks for the help guys. Now that I look, I could have probably done with an i7 CPU, but as for a better RAM, HDD, or video card, I had barely enough to buy those (only $30 left over in my bank account :/). And as for the motherboard, one of my choice reasons was indeed for the upgrade capability.

Once I actually get some more cash flow I'll look into maybe buying that 2GB video card Xy mentioned. Though honestly, I have 8 GB RAM (16 is kinda overkill, maybe I'll buy a 4 GB stick) and a 1TB HDD with a 128GB SDD, so I got plenty of enough space. lol

EDIT: Would anything bad happen if later I replaced my CPU or video card with a better part? I doubt it, since it doesn't store data but what about installed drivers and such?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Once I actually get some more cash flow I'll look into maybe buying that 2GB video card Xy mentioned. Though honestly, I have 8 GB RAM (16 is kinda overkill, maybe I'll buy a 4 GB stick) and a 1TB HDD with a 128GB SDD, so I got plenty of enough space. lol

Lolwut? It seems you have a somewhat misinformed view of how all of this works. Allow me to explain. Video ram =/= system ram. When a program is loaded it is copied from storage, your hard drive, to ram. This is because storage is far to slow to keep up with your systems cpu whereas ram is. Information that must be accessed constantly and quickly is stored in ram for use by the cpu and when no longer necessary is copied back to storage. Video ram is used exclusively by the video card for storing textures and other important video info in a quickly accessible form. The more vram the more the video card can do at once just like having more ram means your computer can do more at once. I hope this makes sense and doesn't seem like crazy rambling.

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If you still have the chance, trade down those Ripjaws for some RAM that isn't "specialty gaming RAM" since that means almost nothing, then take the money you saved and stuff it into a better processor or a better video card. i7 processors are nice, and since you have the power supply for it, you could totally go dual sli on that GTX 550ti

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Lolwut? It seems you have a somewhat misinformed view of how all of this works. Allow me to explain. Video ram =/= system ram. When a program is loaded it is copied from storage, your hard drive, to ram. This is because storage is far to slow to keep up with your systems cpu whereas ram is. Information that must be accessed constantly and quickly is stored in ram for use by the cpu and when no longer necessary is copied back to storage. Video ram is used exclusively by the video card for storing textures and other important video info in a quickly accessible form. The more vram the more the video card can do at once just like having more ram means your computer can do more at once. I hope this makes sense and doesn't seem like crazy rambling.

Ah, no, you misunderstood me. I know that video RAM =/= system RAM. You might have assumed that I was saying I had 8gbs of video RAM when I was actually referring to my system.

EDIT: @Moogle and Jay?: I was actually planning to upgrade my video card (either add another Nvidia card or replace it with a 2gb card) or processor in the future. Right now I'm content with my parts and I spent all my money. :/ So no upgrades for a while.

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Ah, no, you misunderstood me. I know that video RAM =/= system RAM. You might have assumed that I was saying I had 8gbs of video RAM when I was actually referring to my system.

EDIT: @Moogle and Jay?: I was actually planning to upgrade my video card (either add another Nvidia card or replace it with a 2gb card) or processor in the future. Right now I'm content with my parts and I spent all my money. :/ So no upgrades for a while.

I considered that briefly but the context seemed to imply you were confusing ram and storage. I apologize for my unnecessary rant.

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I considered that briefly but the context seemed to imply you were confusing ram and storage. I apologize for my unnecessary rant.

Heh, I appreciate the apology.

Specialist gaming ram is about as useful as ram heatsinks.

I didn't even realize they were gaming RAM modules. I just got them because they were on sale, and they were the highest rated 8gb RAM on NewEgg.

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