Building a gaming rig. First timer.

[RileyRandom]

I spent a couple of hours comparing parts and seeing if they are compatible with each other, and i think this is a good set up. Tell me if i'm wrong, also tell me if all they will work together.

Lite-On IHAS424-98 Internal DVD Writer - DVD+R 24X, DVD-R 24X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6X, Lightscribe at TigerDirect.com


Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200rpm, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM at TigerDirect.com


XION AXP Gaming Series AXP600 Classic Mid-Tower Case - ATX, USB 2.0, eSATA, 11x drive bays, 2x 120 mm blue LED fan, Black at TigerDirect.com (too small for motherboard?)


MSI NF980-G65 Motherboard - Socket AM3, NForce 980a SLI, ATX, RAID, SATA, Gbit LAN, Hybrid SLI, 3-Way SLI at TigerDirect.com

Corsair Dual Channel 4096MB PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory (2x2048MB) at TigerDirect.com

XFX HD577AZNDC Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Display Port, HDMI at TigerDirect.com

Corsair TX750W 750-Watt Power Supply - ATX, 140mm Fan, SLI-Ready, SATA-Ready, 80Plus at TigerDirect.com


AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition AM3 CPU HDZ965FBGMBOX - 3.40GHz, Socket AM3, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB, Retail, Processor with Fan at TigerDirect.com

 

[pparks1]

My suggestion would be to bump the caviar blue drive to a caviar black. You will get better performance and won't have to spend much more money.

The case and the mobo are going to fit together...they are both ATX.

 

[kurahk7]

I spent a couple of hours comparing parts and seeing if they are compatible with each other, and i think this is a good set up. Tell me if i'm wrong, also tell me if all they will work together.

Lite-On IHAS424-98 Internal DVD Writer - DVD+R 24X, DVD-R 24X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6X, Lightscribe at TigerDirect.com


Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200rpm, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM at TigerDirect.com


XION AXP Gaming Series AXP600 Classic Mid-Tower Case - ATX, USB 2.0, eSATA, 11x drive bays, 2x 120 mm blue LED fan, Black at TigerDirect.com (too small for motherboard?)


MSI NF980-G65 Motherboard - Socket AM3, NForce 980a SLI, ATX, RAID, SATA, Gbit LAN, Hybrid SLI, 3-Way SLI at TigerDirect.com

Corsair Dual Channel 4096MB PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory (2x2048MB) at TigerDirect.com

XFX HD577AZNDC Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Display Port, HDMI at TigerDirect.com

Corsair TX750W 750-Watt Power Supply - ATX, 140mm Fan, SLI-Ready, SATA-Ready, 80Plus at TigerDirect.com


AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition AM3 CPU HDZ965FBGMBOX - 3.40GHz, Socket AM3, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB, Retail, Processor with Fan at TigerDirect.com

1 question-Why are you planning to buy an triple-sli board when you are planning to buy an ATI card?
Edit: The RAM timings seem a little high, mine 1333mhz are just 7-7-7-20
Edit2: Tigerdirect does not always have the best prices, a great alternative is newegg.com
Edit3: Why don't you step down the Phenom II x4 965 to a Phenom II x4 955; they are both black edition processors and a simple multiplier bump would bring you the same performance

 

[RileyRandom]

Exactly why im asking you guys, its my first build and i would like some recommendations based off this.

 

[kellymac35]

My suggestion would be to put the same items in a cart at Newegg then compare price. While I am a huge fan of Tiger, On a recent build Newegg was 250 cheaper. Also spend more time deciding on your rig. If you are asking here you will definetly get some good advice, But there are a lot of options to look at and that can't be done in a couple hours.

 

[Heroxoot]

I get a sapphire instead of a xfx, as they have better fans. Ram timing can be better. Get a black instead of blue, should only be 10 bucks more. The mobo will fit that case, both are ATX, but the case is a bit expensive in my book.

The best thing you could do, which I still need to, IS REMOVE ALL THE HEAT SYNC goo shit, and buy some real thermal paste. Newegg.com - Arctic Silver ASTA-7G (2-PC-SET) Premium Silver Thermal Adhesive - Thermal Compound / Grease

Could not find this on tiger, so I go to my second most loved site. After that stuff its all extras. Better cooling for the cpu, 3rd party cooling for the gfx card, etc.

@Kelly Newegg tends to get you back in tax and shipping. Tiger normally has free on both. Either way they sync up prices a lot.

 

[not so gray matter]

My recommendations:

Buy a GIGABYTE branded motherboard. They're super reliable, have good tech support and have decent options. MSi are good but they're more expensive, GIGABYTE mothboards tend to be the cheaper yet reliable alternative, similar to Honda vs Volkswagon. For example, this board supports 2-way Crossfire (If you really want that, I don't recommend it) and it's got DDR3 memory with AM3 support. It's also $50 cheaper than the board you're looking at.

Whether you get ATI or NVIDIA for the graphics card (I recommend NVIDIA due to personal experience.) get a board that supports that cards bridging component (CrossFire/SLI). However, you only really need that capability if you plan on using it. The difference between one and two cards in SLI isn't like adding a whole new card. It's usually between 10 and 30% increase. You'd do better off getting a nicer card than you will using SLI/Crossfire no matter how cool it seems.

Make sure to get a case that's got decent airflow and lots of fans. Gamig rigs can get hot, especially if you go with SLI or CrossFire. This case by NZXT has room for up to 8 fans and could give you optimum airflow. Just make sure that you have enough room for your motherboard/cards. If you buy an ATX motherboard, you need a case that can fit that size.

Get a few hard drives if you can. That way you can set one up as a main drive, and another as a slave for storage, etc. It'll also allow you to easily access system images and such for when you inevitably have problems.

Get a decent sound card to go with your gaming system. There is nothing worse than buying a nice gaming system w/ a quad core processor, high end gfx but buy no external sound card and end up using Realtek crap sound. The most popular gaming sound cards are the Sound Blaster X-FI series but you could also go with the HT | Omega series.

Short List of Recommendations:

NZXT Beta Evo Case (Up to 6x120mm, 2x140mm) - $40
No Crossfire: GIGABYTE GA-890XA - $140
CrossFire: GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA - $180
G-SKILL 2x2GB DDR3 1333 (10600) - $110
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black - $160
Zalman CPU Cooler - $50
NVIDIA: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (896MB, 448-BIT, GDDR3) - $200
ATI: GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD 5830 (1GB, 256-BIT, GDDR5) - $230
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium (7.1 channel) - $80
Corsair 750Watt PSU (4 x PCIe) - $90
2 x Western Digital Caviar Black (640GB) - 2 x $74.99
ASUS DVD Burner (SATA, 24x) - $25
COOLER MASTER 120mm Case Fans (4 in 1 pack, 44.73 CFM) - $13
2 x NZXT 140mm Case Fan (62.5 CFM) - 2 x $13

Total: $1145 - $1185 before tax (if applicable).

Notes: If you want to do crossfire/SLI get the $180 motherboard. This one can support two graphics cards fully functioning, the other cannot. However, if you end up wanting CrossFire, you'll need to get Radeon Cards as GIGABYTE motherboards don't support SLI. I still recommend an NVIDIA card, but I don't recommend crossfire or sli. It runs them at x16 and x8 instead of two @ x16. You could probably go with a few less fans, but since they're cheap I wouldn't skimp. You could also go without the CPU Cooler, but it'd help keep your CPU cool in the event that you're doing heavy gaming. If you do buy that case with those fans be sure to install them properly. You'll need three of the smaller fans blowing air in, one smaller fan blowing air out in the back and the two larger fans blowing air out from the top. That'd give you one in the front, two on the sides, one out in the back and two out on the top along with the PSU fan. The two on the sides could be slower if you wanted. As long as you have the two larger fans plus one smaller fan going out with the three others installed you'll have a negative pressure system because the cumulative CFM of the out fans will be higher than the in fans. This will make sure your system stays cool. It'd have a total of 135 CFM In and 170CFM out.

If you want to spend less, let me know how much and I can spec out a system for that price.

 

[RileyRandom]

" You could probably go with a few less fans, but since they're cheap I wouldn't skimp. You could also go without the CPU Cooler, but it'd help keep your CPU cool in the event that you're doing heavy gaming. If you do buy that case with those fans be sure to install them properly. You'll need three of the smaller fans blowing air in, one smaller fan blowing air out in the back and the two larger fans blowing air out from the top. That'd give you one in the front, two on the sides, one out in the back and two out on the top along with the PSU fan. The two on the sides could be slower if you wanted. As long as you have the two larger fans plus one smaller fan going out with the three others installed you'll have a negative pressure system because the cumulative CFM of the out fans will be higher than the in fans. This will make sure your system stays cool."

That REALLLY confuses me.

 

[sygnus21]

I'm thinking about building a new system myself but am still doing some research.

At any rate the reason for my post is to say you could probably save that $80 dollars on the soundcard, if your board does on-board sound and you aren't too picky about sound (quality?)

Just something to think about. Although I myself perfer dedicated soundcards.

 

[RileyRandom]

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=69431&stc=1&d=1272252761

So like this? Correct the big and small fan part.

 

[Heroxoot]

kick the sound card and just get 1 HDD for now. PCs can be upgraded, build your basic rig now, and add more later. You went AMD so its very upgradable on the CPU also.

 

[not so gray matter]

Basically yes. The whole point is to have more air leaving the case than coming in. This is called negative pressure. It simply causes air trapped in corners to leave the case rather than stick around.

If you used the case I linked to, you'd have one fan in front (the other port is used for cd rom/hard drives, etc) two on the side, one in the back and two on the top.

Top: 2 x 140mm
Back 1 x 120mm, PSU Fan
Side: 2 x 120mm
Front: 1 x 120mm

Ignore the orange text in the picture



Granted, that setup leaves two ports unused but you really don't need more fans than that. That'll give you atleast a 1.7:1.35 Out to In CFM ratio and it'll increase with the PSU fan. CFM = Cuber Feet per Minute, it measures the amount of air going through the fan.

In response to HexoRoot: I don't recommend not buying a sound card, especially if you're building a gaming system. Sound is the second most important thing in competitive gaming and having a good sound card like X-FI or HT | OMEGA instead of the stock Realtek built in can be the difference between life and death. He'd also need a good headset for gaming, I recommend the PC-151 for $60. It's the only real way to game.

To the system builder: As I said, if that setup is too $$ I can recommend cheaper stuff. In fact I probably wouldn't build my system that expensive, but if that's the way you want it then go for it. I'd probably lose the $180 motherboard in exchange for a $100 version w/out 2 x PCie x16 and eSATA. I'd also prolly go without the CPU Cooler for now and might just go with one hard drive instead of two since I have a bunch of external hard drives. I'd keep DDR3 motherboard and ram and that PSU is rated well for anything you'd need to ugprade to. I'd also keep the NVIDIA gfx card & X-Fi sound card as they're decent cards without breaking the bank. In other words I'd probably spend about $900 instead of $1100.

 

[RileyRandom]

Basically yes. The whole point is to have more air leaving the case than coming in. This is called negative pressure. It simply causes air trapped in corners to leave the case rather than stick around.

If you used the case I linked to, you'd have one fan in front (the other port is used for cd rom/hard drives, etc) two on the side, one in the back and two on the top.

Top: 2 x 140mm
Back 1 x 120mm, PSU Fan
Side: 2 x 120mm
Front: 1 x 120mm

Ignore the orange text in the picture

View attachment 69440

Granted, that setup leaves two ports unused but you really don't need more fans than that. That'll give you atleast a 1.7:1.35 Out to In CFM ratio and it'll increase with the PSU fan. CFM = Cuber Feet per Minute, it measures the amount of air going through the fan.

In response to HexoRoot: I don't recommend not buying a sound card, especially if you're building a gaming system. Sound is the second most important thing in competitive gaming and having a good sound card like X-FI or HT | OMEGA instead of the stock Realtek built in can be the difference between life and death. He'd also need a good headset for gaming, I recommend the PC-151 for $60. It's the only real way to game.

To the system builder: As I said, if that setup is too $$ I can recommend cheaper stuff. In fact I probably wouldn't build my system that expensive, but if that's the way you want it then go for it. I'd probably lose the $180 motherboard in exchange for a $100 version w/out 2 x PCie x16 and eSATA. I'd also prolly go without the CPU Cooler for now and might just go with one hard drive instead of two since I have a bunch of external hard drives. I'd keep DDR3 motherboard and ram and that PSU is rated well for anything you'd need to ugprade to. I'd also keep the NVIDIA gfx card & X-Fi sound card as they're decent cards without breaking the bank. In other words I'd probably spend about $900 instead of $1100.

Yeah, this was suppose to be a budget build, and once i stared looking at parts it started to really go up in price, i just really want a rig that can play a game like mw2 on mid-high settings. I don't need anything to be playing stuff like crysis....yet.

 

[th3r0ck]

well with my system, i get all games ultra high etc etc. but the processor is bottle necking. so, i cant play CRYSIS in good mode[slow] and got problem with The Wheel-man. all other games , just perfect. i am playng Battlefield BC2, COD MW2, Stranglehold, getting ASCREED 2, just cause2. i will get Core2Quad now and then.
i was looking for ATI processor in our local market. DAMN they are too high priced then international i.e newegg.
but for pc rigging i think newegg is the best marketplace.
Mine cost
35,000.00 BDT

=

506.696 USD

 

[pparks1]

Riley....my question to you is how much do you want to spend??

Next, There really isn't going to be a good reason to have 6-8 fans in a case like this for what you are trying to achieve. Unless you are doing significant overclocking and plan to run 2+ video cards...2 case fans should be just fine.

Edit: Based on the case you are looking at, there are 2 fans in the front. I would add 1 fan to the back and you should be fine.

 

[sygnus21]

Agree with the fan thoughts. Six to eight is a lot, and "could" be loud. Look at my system specs, I'm only running the stock 3 fans in my Antec P182 case.

Other than my CPU fan - ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT, and the standard video card fan, that's all the fans I have. Again, look at my system specs.

Games played without issue...

Bioshock 1 & 2
Mass Effect 1 & 2
Dargon Age: Origins
Boarderlands
Fallout 3
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Half-Life 2 series

 

[th3r0ck]

i use 3 fans.
in-tacked cpu fan
Zalman fan with my ATI RADEON 4770HD
and an extra hit redactor fan with my casing.

no problemo till today.

 

[RileyRandom]

I'm actually trying to stay really cheap on this build, so any recommendations about how to lower the price?

EDIT:I don't want it to be real loud either.

 

[th3r0ck]

can u give us a budget?

 

[RileyRandom]

500-700? I don't really know of a real one, i just want a cheap rig thats good quality and can run fairly good games at decent settings.