Help buying a new PC.

[† ballard]

You could buy the Dell and upgrade the graphics card and swap out the optical drive for a bluray burner later on.

Here's this AMD Phenom II x6 2.8GHz processor instead of the quad core I posted.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103851

or this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103858

Edit: I didn't see L4ugh's post. The configuration he has is a nice alternative to the one I posted. It would be $710 without the OS if you want to use "other methods" of getting one.

[† L4ugh]

Well the one I posted was more of a comparison to the Dell. I went back on Newegg and put together one that I would actually build for under $1,000. It's over the $749 of the Dell but to my surprise it's under the Dell with the $250 upgrades.

ASUS M4A88TD -------------------------------------- $95

2x Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB -------------$64

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition ---------$180

EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 550 -----------$140

CORSAIR CWCH60 Hydro Series ------------------$70

Western Digital WD15EARS 1.5TB ----------------$60

LG Black Super Multi WH12LS30 ------------------$80

APEVIA X-TROOPER ---------------------------------$40

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM --$100

Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W ------------------$75

Total came to 924.79 with shipping included, atleast to where I live. I don't think I missed anything but I thought that before I added the power supply so you never know.

The retail box AMD processor comes with it's own heatsink so you could save $70 by dropping the water cooling block. I added it because I don't know what quality of heatsinks come with the AMD processors anymore. Last retail AMD I bought was a Athlon XP and it's heatsink was a bitch to put on. I've never done a water cooled pc myself but the one above is a complete unit so it would be easier to install and operate [compared to other water cooled setups]. A leak in the tubing or fixtures would still really suck. You could probably find a better case too but $40 for a steel case seems pretty fair to me, and the two APEVIAs I own seem to have held up pretty good. The Mushkin ram is also a personal preference but I'm sure you could easily find another brand if Mushkin isn't to your liking.

[ウェンキ Leki]

Not really a fan of that case, but then neither am I of the Dell cases.

Taking a look at the different parts and using Google to help me better understand them it seems the graphics card you've chosen is a lot better than the one on the Dell according to: http://www.hwcompare.com/10247/geforce-gtx-550-ti-vs-radeon-hd-6450-oem-1gb/

I'm confused as to how I would know what fans or how much of a power supply I'd actually need for various builds.

I'm kind of thinking I'd enjoy at least 6GB of ram, but from what I know, 32-bit OS only supports up to 4 GB.

The thing is it seems places like LYCOMPUTERS will charge $109 just for the OS. :/ I tried a pirated version of Windows 7 once before but it failed to install and I had to redo the install with XP again on this current PC.

I believe the 6-core 2.9 GHz processor of the Dell would be a much greater option then the Processor chosen.

Checking prices of Blu-ray drives and burners on newegg, it seems I can get a Blu-ray Burner for the same price as just the Blu-ray reader on the Dell site would cost. If I do go with the Dell I might drop the Blu-ray drive and purchase the burner from newegg later on and install it myself.

I've tried LYCOMPUTERS as Leki suggested and I love some of the cases they offer, however no matter how I go about it, a close to equivalent specs ends up coming up to near $900. :/

I know what you mean, maybe you could leave out somethings like Blueray and other things that can be put in it later and you can buy it separately.

[-Zero-]

My post will differ from the rest, I will provide with info on what I think are the best deals for performance on what you said: most cores, speeds that are able to reach 4 GHz, under $1000. I'll give several choices and then you can pick out what appeals to you.

CPU:

For CPU, you can ditch AMD as Intel's Sandy Bridge processors pretty much are killing Phenom II's, Athlon II's and such. Sure they may be somewhat pricier, but even something like the Dual Core i3 2120 is better than a Phenom II X6 AND they're pretty much close in price. Since you said you wanted the most cores, I listed the two CPU's that might appeal to you.

Intel Core i5 2500k: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Intel Core i7 2600k: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

Motherboard:

You can also ditch the P67 and H67 chipsets. Z68 is the better one of all 3. I assume you know a bit of what it is.

Asus P8Z68-V: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

Graphics:

Right now the king of all GPU's is the Geforce GTX 580 from Nvidia, but the price point is too high for this build, however the Radeon HD 6950 would look much better in this build. At around 200-300 dollars, it's worth the price, and if you can do a BIOS flash on it, you can easily turn it in to an HD 6970. Combine 2 of those, Bios flash them, and put them in CrossfireX, and you have a system that can surpass a dual-gpu HD 6990, GTX 580, and even the dual gpu GTX 590.

Here is a Newegg list of all the HD 6950 2 GB models:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600100181%20600095873%20600007782&IsNodeId=1&name=2GB

PSU:

The PSU you'll need largely depends on how many components you have and the power you'll need. Currently I recommend at least a 550 W PSU. If you plan on doing multi card setups then at least a 600-700 W will do, especially if you're going to do some overclocking on the CPU and/or GPU's. Don't go with really cheap PSU's. Unreliable and suckish, they'll ruin your system. At least a bit over 100 dollars on a PSU is good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139023

If you want a nice looking case with good space, then a modular PSU will be fine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

I'll leave the choice of cases up to you. Just make sure they're ATX, have a good chunk of space inside, have excellent cooling, and also make sure that you can mount the PSU AT THE BOTTOM. The PSU gets fresh air from there and it won't overheat your entire system. Corsair and Cooler Master are my top choices for cases.

HDD:

Hard drives are horrendously cheap now, so whatever suits you is good. I recommend getting a 7200 rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s drive. They're cheap and over 1 TB is the norm now. If you're willing to spend on a solid state drive, then that will boost your system incredibly, especially with the ISRT in your Z68 motherboard( a HDD with SSD performance, if you put a HDD and an SSD together).

Memory is easy. Don't go with 4 GB, that's pretty much the minimum these days. 8 GB is excellent. Your motherboard allows up to 16 GB of memory. Any brand is good, although G.Skill produces some excellent models, and it's my favorite.

Optical drives are up to you as well. They're cheap now a days so any that you pick for your system is good enough. I recommend Lite-ON, LG or Samsung. Aftermarket cooling for your CPU is good, but even with overclocking with the stock cooler it'll remain stable, so it's up to you if you want one, and I don't think I need to mention what O.S you need.hehe.

All in all, you're looking at 800 to 1100 dollars depending on what you want to pick.

Considering that you want to do encoding, the Quicksync Engine in the i5 and i7 will help you out tremendously. Here are some tests done, see for yourself: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/9

[Om nom nom]

I think that you have an overkill PSU. I'm running 2x5850 on a 650 Watt PSU. If my memory serves me correctly, the 550 GPU will draw roughly 30 watt more on load. If I were you Koby, I'd go down to a 550 Watt PSU atleast, as it'll save on the power bill down the line.

If I were you, I'd build it myself, or if that's not an option, I'd buy the components from somewhere other than Dell. Dell will give you dud components, and items like the PSU are too critical to be used as a generic brand. My old comp PSU died, taking most of the components with it. Not pretty.

You might also want to have squiz on this site here for power usage estimates: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Other than that, I think that the others have the components down pat.

[z9k7]

i can only replacing part,not entirely built PC. I prefer buy suitable parts on moment I buy new PC and hand it over to technician to build it.

[Koby]

I decided against buying a computer at the moment. I'll wait till I really actually need one and maybe learn some more stuff as well as have the money. I bought a new TV instead.

Shopping for this one and looking around at parts and stuff I kind of feel like perhaps I could just about build one myself. Only thing I'm worried about is the heatsink and the processor and knowing whether or not a part would fit for another and fit within a tower right and shit like that.

[† ballard]

When you decide to build one feel free to ask me for any advice. Just keep in mind if you are going to apply your own thermal paste to only put a very small amount... no more than the size of a grain of rice... smear it around evenly with a credit card edge or something of that sort. Stock heatsinks that come with processors usually already have some on it so you could always just use that. I highly recommend using Arctic Silver 5. An aftermarket cooler will most likely fit without any problems in your computer case.(I've personally never had any problems with mine not fitting.) Just be sure that it fits on the socket that your motherboard has.

[Odeiux]

I decided against buying a computer at the moment. I'll wait till I really actually need one and maybe learn some more stuff as well as have the money. I bought a new TV instead.

Shopping for this one and looking around at parts and stuff I kind of feel like perhaps I could just about build one myself. Only thing I'm worried about is the heatsink and the processor and knowing whether or not a part would fit for another and fit within a tower right and shit like that.

You could always try a building service from like NCIX, or NCIXUS.

Or if you prefer doing yourself, here's a building tutorial from Hardware Canucks:

[Guest]

Koby, I built my own Computer about two year ago, i can give you some tips if you need any when your ready to get a new pc

[allajosh]

here me and my brother both made pc togather we ordered r parts from two sites NCIX and TigerDirect look at thoses sites and see if u find anything interesting and if u cant order because u dont have a credit card buy one or those gifts like a visa card or mastercard but rmember the is taxes and shippping glhf:byebye:

[Vespalyn]

Just looking over some of the responses here and throwing bits of advice. I could put together a list of parts if you want.

Firstly, Newegg.com

If you have the mindset of spending as little as possible, go with the AMD Phenom X6 1090T. If you're willing to spend a little more to acquire much better quality and performance, the i5-2500k is the best all-around choice. X6 $170, i5 $210. Getting the most performance out of the least amount of money is AMD's game. Sheer power is Intel's. Personally I'd go with Intel over AMD for CPU quality, especially if you have around $1000 to blow.

Don't go down the pre-built route; avoid Dell at all costs. Build your own or find a nearby shop that will build it for you. The main edge is knowing the parts you're putting into it are of good quality. Even though Dell usually provides solid power supplies, they are generally just enough to run the system at it's specs and leaves little room for upgrading other parts.

You're not even going to need a power supply over 450w unless you decide to make gaming a priority and buy a $250+ GPU. If you end up doing that, 600w or 650w is more than enough for just about any single GPU. Buying a modular PSU will be a bit more expensive, but it makes dealing with cables much easier, especially for new builders. Never cheap out on your PSU, and while it's better for the PSU to be bottom-mounted rather than top-mounted, it ultimately doesn't make as much of a difference as you think it would. Similar to single-rail VS multi-rail PSUs - it's usually not a deciding factor.

Ram is inexpensive right now, might as well get 8GB. Your options are either 4gb or 8gb. Forget 6 GB as it isn't worth taking up 3 DIMM slots on your motherboard.

Samsung Spinpoint F3 for your hard drive. I only recommend Western Digital for external USB hard drives or their Caviar Black line.

Your case really doesn't matter much in this situation. Pick whatever mid-tower you like. Don't worry yourself over fans. Too many fans can actually hinder airflow and execute the opposite of what you'd quickly assume. Two fans, one pulling in air from the front and one exhausting out the back are good enough.

I don't know what kind of gaming you have in mind and your FPS/graphical expectations, so I won't recommend any video card yet, but I recall seeing a superclocked card recommended a page before. It's really not worth the extra money of buying a factory overclocked card over a regular card because the performance increase doesn't justify it. I have no problem with you choosing a 550, however.

If you're not planning on overclocking your CPU or anything like that, the stock cooler and thermal paste that comes with it will be fine. If you want to overclock or just want your CPU to not produce as much heat:

First, buy the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ cooler. It'll fit in just about any mid-tower, but just check the height in whichever case you decide to buy to make sure. The 212+ is 60mm tall. Should do this with all of your parts, checking their dimensions and comparing it to the dimensions your case supports.

Second, don't buy the Arctic Silver 5 paste, it's outdated and requires a good bit of curing time, 3 days or so before it really starts working at it's best. Buy Arctic Cooling MX-2 or MX-4.

As for applying the thermal paste, a thin line down the center of the CPU is the absolute best method for an i5 chip, and probably most other chips. You can use the dot method advised earlier if you want, that's sufficient as well. If you think you put too much, you probably didn't. Even if it's oozing a little on the sides after you've placed the heatsink on, don't worry about it as most pastes aren't conductive or harmful. Don't smear it on the CPU with your finger or even a coffee filter, as the vital section of the chip that needs to be covered with paste is about the size of a quarter in the middle. Smearing the entire chip causes air bubbles which interferes with optimal heat transfer.

You could install Linux and run a virtual machine inside a virtual machine to test various Windows 7 torrents and make sure they work properly and are virus free without harming your host machine. If all else, I could ask one of my friends if they'd cough up one of their sources.

It sounded like you were disappointed at the thought of spending $900. Just know that the estimation given earlier is spot on. You're going to spend $700-800 on an AMD build, or $800-$1000 with an i5 build and decent GPU. The GPU is one of the few things you could possibly cut down on costs with. You could opt to not buy one at all, and use onboard graphics until your next paycheck to buy a new card. If you go that route, your total cost may be higher in the end, but you'll most likely walk out with a better card as the thought of spending $1000 or more at once can be daunting as opposed to $700 now, $300 later.