I need computer parts advice.

[seirachan]

List of everything in my computer

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

 

CPU

AMD Phenom II X4 965: 

Deneb 45nm Technology

 

RAM

4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 668MHz (9-9-9-24)

 

Motherboard

ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3)

 

Graphics

X193W (1440x900@75Hz)

AMD Radeon HD 7870 Series

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=69828&vpn=FX787ACNFC&manufacture=XFX

 

Hard Drives

932GB Seagate ST1000DM003-9YN162 ATA Device (SATA):

 

Optical Drives

SAMSUNG DVDWBD SH-B083L ATA Device

 

Power Supply:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=43101&promoid=1201

 

Audio

Realtek High Definition Audio

 

I need to replace motherboard, Processor and Ram but I don't know a thing about them to even know whats good and whats okay. I recently replaced graphics card, Power supply and Hard drive. I'm hoping to spend no more then $300 on a motherboard but prefer $200, I'd like something that wont need replacing in 2 years and with Processor no more then $250. Ram I don't think should be too expensive, should at most be $100. Just something that wont need replacing in a year.

My computer is supposed to be built to play games max graphics but something in wrong inside of it and it keeps getting worse, blue screens a lot. So I need to replace these last 3 parts and fix it for good.

 

I buy off of http://www.ncix.com if you wanna help either give me an idea of what all the numbers mean for Processor, ram and motherboard or suggest me a few. I've heard ASUS motherboards are good but still don't understand the numbers and letters.

[dman720]

Not sure what your looking for as you said gaming, what you have is more then enough to run all games out. But the Blue screen does point to me for a few things. 

 

• Do you OC anything, stop might be a bad OC
• Run memtest86 check for bad ram
• As you said a new hard drive, did you wipe it first?

 

If you can make it blue screen get a picture with a phone cam or (i forgot) there is a way to make to stay on so you can copy the info. Most times there is a hint in there on what is causing it.

 

Now if you really want to speed your PC up a SSD will make it run a lot faster. From off to windows ready to run on a SSD is 30-45 sec, vs 2-3 minutes. Games, programs, and anything else will load 50-85% faster. 4x4GB sticks of DDR3-1866 could help, if you have bad memory pick up this i have 16GB on win7 64bit and it running at 6GB most times, someone bound to say you dont need that much but win7 will only ever use 1-2GBs but as you load more apps and chrome or IE or firefox tabs you have open, more memory you use, at one point i had 38 tabs open at one time, and totaled out 4GB just on chrome alone. 

 

 

I think you can also just get a new CPU as FX 8350 will fit in that board with a bios update to 3030. If you want to still replace your mobo, then few things you should let us know

 

How many SATA port are you using right now, will you be using more? Will you need more storage room later. Are you going to SLI/Crossfire ever? Do you have ever think about a sound card for better sound production capabilities, do you use Wifi or would you like to wifi to your TV to play moives off your PC....Well i could name more but i will wait. 

 

 

Here is what im using and why

 

Processor: Intel® Core i7-3930K CPU @ 3.20GHz (12 CPUs), ~3.2GHz | Corsair H100 Watercooler 
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011 Intel X79 
Memory: 16GB (4x4GB) CORSAIR Vengeance DDR3 1866 9-10-9-27 
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB SSD , 4x2TB WD Black, 1x1TB WD Blue 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 
Monitor: ASUS VG278H 3D Monitor, HP w2207 Wide LCD Monitor, 
Sound Card: Speakers (Logitech G35 Headset) 
Speakers/Headphones: Pioneer 7.2 VSX 1020 875W, 7 KLH 90w, 110w subwoofer 
Keyboard: G-19 
Mouse: Logitech HID-compliant G700 Gaming Mouse 
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 

Computer Case: CORSAIR 800D 

 

Top end CPU for fast video encode times and anything CPU heavy.

Lots a ram, will never need to use a hare drive page file again ~ slows PCs short on ram / number 1 cause of slow PCs

9 TBs of storage for movies 780+ GBs / anime 1.3+ TBs / manga 600+ GBs / music 300+GBs / games 600+GB.

SSD ~ 45sec from off to ready is epic and on BF3 I load and spawn befor anyone else.

 

 

 SSD vs HD

[Dae314]

SSD won't help as much as other hardware when gaming unless you've got lots of disk activity going while you game for some stupid reason >.>. It sure would help you on the loading screens though assuming you put the game on the SSD.

Siera, check my guide's mobo, processor, and memory sections to get an idea of what's good and what's bad.

Your memory isn't going to cost you more than $60, I guarantee that. 8GB (2x4GB) of 1600MHz memory on the low end of the price spectrum is less than $40 sometimes.

As for CPU and motherboard, you have the option of moving to AMD's Vishera stuff (successor to the first gen FX series) or switching to Intel. When you decide which it'll be easier for people to make recommendations to you.

[dark4yoyo]

OH ! that PSU !!!

Seriously... 950W for a single HD 7870 lol. You could probably run 3 of those on this PSU.

Back on topic, your budget being what it is, I really don't why you shouldn't take an i7 3770k. It is better than Vishera (for a price of course).

I'd recommend this :

i7 3770K 3.5Ghz $320

Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H $150 (140 with rebate)

Corsair Vengeance Blue 2x4GB 1600Mhz CL9 $45

Total of $515 or $505 with rebate.

That is without an SSD.

Though if this PC's only usage is gaming, a $230 i5 3570K would do the job perfectly and then you have 100 dollars to buy a SSD.

I must warn you though, once you taste SSD's, there's no going back to slow HDD's.

And @Dae314, yes it is true that SSD's don't change anything to gaming, but they are quite awesome for pretty much anything else.

Edited January 24, 2013 by dark4yoyo

[seirachan]

OH ! that PSU !!!

Seriously... 950W for a single HD 7870 lol. You could probably run 3 of those on this PSU.

Back on topic, your budget being what it is, I really don't why you shouldn't take an i7 3770k. It is better than Vishera (for a price of course).

I'd recommend this :

i7 3770K 3.5Ghz $320

Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H $150 (140 with rebate)

Corsair Vengeance Blue 2x8GB 1600Mhz CL9 $45

Total of $515 or $505 with rebate.

That is without an SSD.

Though if this PC's only usage is gaming, a $230 i5 3570K would do the job perfectly and then you have 100 dollars to buy a SSD.

I must warn you though, once you taste SSD's, there's no going back to slow HDD's.

And @Dae314, yes it is true that SSD's don't change anything to gaming, but they are quite awesome for pretty much anything else.

What is a SSD? is it something extra to put in your computer? or will I have to replace something?

What is OCing something? Yes I wiped the hard drive first, I was thinking of reformatting it but I haven't been able to get a portable hard drive off of one of my friends yet to store my stuff.

Whats a SATA port? and I never saw any reason to have a sound card, I knew someone always having trouble with them and always thought it was just fine without it.

Also when I buy a new Processor will I have to get another fan for it? or does it come with it?

 

It's suggesting me this for some weird reason... looks way to big http://secure1.ncix.com/products/?sku=47090

 

Ends up being $605.27 with taxes and everything

 

that $50 off of the Processor ends today :/ got no money to buy it till Feb.

Edited January 23, 2013 by seirachan

[dman720]

OH ! that PSU !!!

Seriously... 950W for a single HD 7870 lol. You could probably run 3 of those on this PSU.

Back on topic, your budget being what it is, I really don't why you shouldn't take an i7 3770k. It is better than Vishera (for a price of course).

I'd recommend this :

i7 3770K 3.5Ghz $320

Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H $150 (140 with rebate)

Corsair Vengeance Blue 2x8GB 1600Mhz CL9 $45

Total of $515 or $505 with rebate.

That is without an SSD.

Though if this PC's only usage is gaming, a $230 i5 3570K would do the job perfectly and then you have 100 dollars to buy a SSD.

I must warn you though, once you taste SSD's, there's no going back to slow HDD's.

And @Dae314, yes it is true that SSD's don't change anything to gaming, but they are quite awesome for pretty much anything else.

What is a SSD? is it something extra to put in your computer? or will I have to replace something?

What is OCing something? Yes I wiped the hard drive first, I was thinking of reformatting it but I haven't been able to get a portable hard drive off of one of my friends yet to store my stuff.

Whats a SATA port? and I never saw any reason to have a sound card, I knew someone always having trouble with them and always thought it was just fine without it.

Also when I buy a new Processor will I have to get another fan for it? or does it come with it?

 

It's suggesting me this for some weird reason... looks way to big http://secure1.ncix.com/products/?sku=47090

 

Ends up being $605.27 with taxes and everything

 

that $50 off of the Processor ends today :/ got no money to buy it till Feb.

 

 

SSD is a Soild State Drive/Disk (but there is no disk), Best way to think of it is like "long term RAM storage" but it is not RAM. It used a 6-12 chips of NAND with a control chip made buy a few companies that then sell to corsair,a-data,Kingston, and so on. With SSD you will see big really big performance increase anytime you access the data on a SSD over if you had only a hard disk.

 

Here is a good video from my good friend Paul 

 

 

OCing = (Over Clocking) as you did not know what i meant i will guess you have not.

 

 

SATA 1 / 2 / 3 is what now used for DVD-roms / Hard drives/ SSD / and a few other things. The video above talks a little about SATA. Good thing is SATA 1 can be used on SATA 3 and backwards to.

Why I asked is before i have once in the past filled my PC SATA ports all up and my HDs were full to, so i needed to buy a new mobo or a SATA PCI-E Card to install more drives, not fun. 

 

When and If you buy a new CPU it depends if you geta Retail or OEM CPU. Retail tend to come with fan and heatsink, install info, and other documents. OEM are just the chip, but can be cheaper.

 

 

Really for that price i would do a H80i or H100i but really a stock CPU will be happy with even the most cheap of cheaps fan and heatsink. http://secure1.ncix.com/products/?sku=67721&vpn=CNPS%205X%20Performa&manufacture=ZALMAN%20TECH&promoid=1338

 

 

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=76932&vpn=FD8350FRHKBOX&manufacture=AMD&promoid=1338

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=75613&vpn=Sabertooth%20990FX%20R2%2E0&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1338

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=62312&vpn=CML16GX3M4A1600C9&manufacture=Corsair

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=64385&vpn=RR-212E-20PK-R2&manufacture=COOLERMASTER&promoid=1338

[† L4ugh]

Since you want this to last, I would buy the fastest i7 you're willing to pay for. You'll probably also want a mobo with the z77 chipset and an after market heatsink if you're going to OC. You don't really "need" an ssd, and you can always add one later, so I'd focus on getting the best processor, mobo, and ram you can afford.

[seirachan]

Since you want this to last, I would buy the fastest i7 you're willing to pay for. You'll probably also want a mobo with the z77 chipset and an after market heatsink if you're going to OC. You don't really "need" an ssd, and you can always add one later, so I'd focus on getting the best processor, mobo, and ram you can afford.

Yeah it's mostly deciding the parts.. Maybe my friend can help me with the final decision, but lately when i say anything about computers he hasn't been replying... I don't know why. But I do video editing rarely, I just can't find the time to do it all the time and I want a TV tuner or something to record games to do reviews. Which connects to your computer, I know for a fact it can't handle it right now. I also need to record the games, so I can store the footage and make videos, which I keep crashing the way my computer is right now. But I got some great news my moms getting a bonus so I can buy just about anything but I need to play her back over time. I'm thinking about adding in my new case as well; http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=62655&vpn=VN300M1W2N&manufacture=Thermaltake&promoid=1310 cause mine right now is a little beat up from falling on the floor, which is probably why I'm having these problems. So I don't know if I want that ultimate processor or one cheaper but still good.

[dark4yoyo]

Yeah it's mostly deciding the parts.. Maybe my friend can help me with the final decision, but lately when i say anything about computers he hasn't been replying... I don't know why. But I do video editing rarely, I just can't find the time to do it all the time and I want a TV tuner or something to record games to do reviews. Which connects to your computer, I know for a fact it can't handle it right now. I also need to record the games, so I can store the footage and make videos, which I keep crashing the way my computer is right now. But I got some great news my moms getting a bonus so I can buy just about anything but I need to play her back over time. I'm thinking about adding in my new case as well; http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=62655&vpn=VN300M1W2N&manufacture=Thermaltake&promoid=1310 cause mine right now is a little beat up from falling on the floor, which is probably why I'm having these problems. So I don't know if I want that ultimate processor or one cheaper but still good.

Lol that is one expensive case, I personally don't think it's really a good idea to invest so much in a case unless you're doing some extreme overclocking/water cooling. I would rrecommend a buying a case around 50 or 60$.

And if this computer is for gaming, then intel is a clear winner. i5 3570k or i7 3770k.

[Dae314]

Take a look at the storage section in my guide (the sticky at the top of the tech forum here). There's a section in there explaining SSD technology. You should also see the further reading section at the very bottom of the guide since there's some SSD resources down there.

Speaking of cases, I just read one reviewed by anandtech (and others) that looks absolutely killer:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6681/nzxt-phantom-630-case-review-the-relentless-pursuit-of-perfection

I'm not sure if anywhere's actually retailing it yet... but the reviews its getting are awesome ^^.

If you're doing game recording, I believe that falls into the category of "some stupid reason" that I mentioned above. I *think* screen capture programs record directly to disk (correct me if I'm wrong). In that case, recording to SSD would be really helpful xD. I highly recommend Crucial M4 . It's got a great cost:performance ratio.

[dman720]

Take a look at the storage section in my guide (the sticky at the top of the tech forum here). There's a section in there explaining SSD technology. You should also see the further reading section at the very bottom of the guide since there's some SSD resources down there.

Speaking of cases, I just read one reviewed by anandtech (and others) that looks absolutely killer:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6681/nzxt-phantom-630-case-review-the-relentless-pursuit-of-perfection

I'm not sure if anywhere's actually retailing it yet... but the reviews its getting are awesome ^^.

If you're doing game recording, I believe that falls into the category of "some stupid reason" that I mentioned above. I *think* screen capture programs record directly to disk (correct me if I'm wrong). In that case, recording to SSD would be really helpful xD. I highly recommend Crucial M4 . It's got a great cost:performance ratio.

Fraps and Dxtory are two of the top video capture programs, Fraps only can record on one drive. Dxtory can record on to two HDs even if there not raid drives. I would not store video on a SSD if you only have cash for one. My RAW video folder is never smaller then 400GB of video, 5 mins of video is on avg. 3.5GBs so one full round is 80-120GBs (this is on BF3 @ 60FPS 1920 x 1080).

Corsair cases are getting pimp, @ CES 2013 they had the new 900D (to expense for most people) but the 600T look great and the build quality is top.

If you want a Intel CPU 3570k is best for the price. But for video encoding CPUs are going 3960x>3930k>FX8350>3770k>3570k now games will not care about the these (3960x, 3930k, 8350, 3770k) as there no/few games that will use more then 2 cores, BF3 was said to be the best multi-core game and it did, on my old Q6600 it did use 4 cores but once the CPU hit 3GHz it stop caring on how many cores or threads the CPU had.

Also what games are you talking about, after 17 years of PC gaming i seen whats need for most game engines and i keep up with whats coming out.

Crysis 3 is going to need

Minimum of

Dual Core @ 3GHz

4 GBs RAM

560Ti

25GB on the HD

You should be able to hit 30-45 FPS on MED/MAX (eye candy off) settings @ 1080p

edit: cant find edit

Might also add the new 1150 Haswell chips are due out soon so it might toss the prices and whats best all around.

You need Fifteen Posts to edit -- EO

[seirachan]

I'm thinking of getting
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=77251

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=67721&promoid=1338

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=70263&promoid=1338

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=59431&promoid=1338

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=70541&promoid=1270

 

let me know if I've fucked up in there somewhere lol

 

ends up being $582.81

 

also turns out my moms having problems getting her bonus so I can get it sooner with my bf's help.

[Dae314]

Why bother getting a cooler if you're not gonna overclock? The memory you chose is fine except for the fact that the heat spreader on it is really tall. In case you actually want to get a big cooler in the future to overclock, it's better to get short memory which has less of a chance of interfering with a large cooler.

[seirachan]

Why bother getting a cooler if you're not gonna overclock? The memory you chose is fine except for the fact that the heat spreader on it is really tall. In case you actually want to get a big cooler in the future to overclock, it's better to get short memory which has less of a chance of interfering with a large cooler.

My friend told me to get a processor fan just in case it didn't come with one, it's only $14 so it's super cheap no reason not to get it at the price. If I don't use it then I got a nice spare.

Memory is ram right? how is that gonna interfere are the ram slots too close to it and the fans going to stretch out the processor area a lot?

 

When I put this together I'm gonna call over my friend and we will do it together and he teaches me about it.

Edited January 25, 2013 by seirachan

[Dae314]

Very high end air coolers (ones you might use for overclocking) are pretty big and depending on the layout of your motherboard, can sometimes hang over into the memory slots. Your current cooler is small so that shouldn't be an issue, but if you ever want to upgrade to a large air cooler in the future, it's worth finding a shorter set of memory now. It doesn't cost you anything extra. I'm not telling you to buy low profile memory which does cost something extra. I'm just telling you to get memory that doesn't have a heat spreader that doubles its height.

Unless you're buying from secondary channels (think used), all processors should come with a stock heatsink and fan. Since you're going to use your own make sure you have some thermal paste laying around somewhere too.

[dman720]

Just to show how big some of the air coolers are, once you have tall memory you need to keep in mind if you get (ever) new aftermarket cooler could hit the ram.

 

 

 

Now the retail 3570k from most sites i have read it will comes with a stock fan and heatsink, pre-applied thermal paste.

[seirachan]

Just to show how big some of the air coolers are, once you have tall memory you need to keep in mind if you get (ever) new aftermarket cooler could hit the ram.

 

 

 

Now the retail 3570k from most sites i have read it will comes with a stock fan and heatsink, pre-applied thermal paste.

holy shit that is big.. well I'm not gonna be OCing ever so I don't think I'll ever need that.

[ZeroPenguins]

Keep in mind that mother is a mATX board, so it looks big on on a mATX board. However on a standard ATX motherboard it looks normal hahaha I got a cooler that is about that big or even bigger. Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme.

[JohnFlower]

Keep in mind that mother is a mATX board, so it looks big on on a mATX board. However on a standard ATX motherboard it looks normal hahaha I got a cooler that is about that big or even bigger. Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme.

i was going to say that, but i thought most people would know lol.

as for cpu coolers, you can get a h80 for a decent price. that way you wont need to worry about clearance. that said, i prefer low profile ram, those dimms look fugly.

[† L4ugh]

Personally, I would stay away from that big ass Noctua heatsink. Not that it isn't a really good heatsink, it just happens to be a total brick. You could get similar, if not better, cooling performance from a sealed liquid cooling unit. It would also take up a lot less space on your mobo.

 

I tried really hard to find a way to allow myself to recommend a liquid cooler, but I really couldn't come up with anything that would justify the added expense. The reason why I wanted to is because it would allow you to overclock your cpu more than the one you currently have selected. It would also allow you to cool the cpu with the cooler air from outside the case, rather than using the already warm air inside it. Since the case you picked out can support to big fans at the top of the case. You could set it up so all the hot air gets pushed out through the top. This would require you to not only pay more for the water block, but also pay for the two fans for the top of the case. There just isn't any way to justify spending the extra amount of money if your not going to overclock.

 

I am fairly confident that the cpu you selected will come with a heatsink. It's listed as retail, which means it will come in a box like the one pictured. That box is too big to carry one little processor by itself, so there will be a heatsink in there. It will probably be a total piece of crap, but it will be there. You're able to buy cpus without the heatsink, but if they're marketed properly they will be listed as oem. It could also be listed as refurbished, but I usually stay away from refurbished products. I would also recommend the thermal paste, and always will, it's just good insurance to have it around.