Help with a computer build.

[Akaru]

Remember that friend I was going to help build a computer for (AKA buying a prebuilt and slapping a highend graphics card into it)? Well, he told me that he wants me to build a computer from ground up for him. Now this will be my first time actually building a computer from ground up. I have only been slapping RAM, graphics cards, hard drives, fans, power supplies, etc into a computer. Now comes the real deal. So I will need help choosing the parts first of all. I will give him 2 configurations to choose from. An i7 configuration and a C2D (maybe a third C2Q).

 

Before I list the parts, I am still choosing them and need help. Choosing a motherboard for the C2D/C2Q is the hard part since there are so many chipsets. Which chipset should be the minimum for an Intel chipset and what is the minimum for an Nvidia chipset? I don't want you to post a link to a motherboard on Newegg or whatever. I just want opinions on the chipset model. My current decision is a P45 for a minimal Intel chipset and a 750i for an minimal Nvidia chipset.

 

EDIT: What's the difference between the Intel G, Q and P Intel chipsets? I know that the X series are for enthusiasts.

[Jager]

the p 45 is pretty much hands down the 775 board to go with, jsut make sure your southbridge is also good. pcie 2.0 x16 x2 is the minimum a p45 should sport.

 

nividia boards are not known as great long term boards as they have had issues with the chip solder, depending on the newer versions may be better but YMMV. the 790i is the best nividia board on the market atm comparable to the p45 in total options etc. great all around boards, great overclockers and tons of expansions if your friend wants to get new gear.

 

the 750i is comparable to the p43 and some g31 series mobos. use these if hes on a bit of a budget squeeze and or plans only to run 1 vid card and isnt pushing crazy overclocks. they are great boards but have limitations in overall number of slots and ram specs etc.

 

as for the designations, the numbers are for differences in the level and newness of the chipsets. ie the g series g31 etc is a lower budget mobo chipset that generally supports 1 vid card and 2 mem sticks.

 

the q idk, havent paid attention to that.

P p43 being teh budget p45 for the high end 775 socket mobos (c2d c2q p4 etc)

 

x is for the i7 boards. x58 is the most common. its the top performer atm

 

HTH

[Akaru]

Hmmm. Thanks for the reply. I never knew Nvidia chipsets were not that good. The P45 only has 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, but it has a PCIe 2.0 x8 slot.

 

BTW, he is not going to overclock. He doesn't even know what a processor is. :/ I might just go with the P45, but then I will have to go with ATI, since Intel and Nvidia are not the best of friends, and he might CrossFire it up. I'm not a big fan of ATI though.

 

EDIT: And I need help choosing RAM. On my last computer, I bought 4 different 2x1GB sets of RAM and none of them worked. I need DDR2 RAM for the C2D/C2Q setup and DDR3 for the possible i7.

[Jager]

they are good, but if your friend is not a computer person having to diagnose a bad soldered chip on an nvidia board is impossible without a flat rma to nvidia (the chips are epoxied on and the solder/bedding for the pins is under that) so the newest ones are ok, but nvidia rolled the chips that go can go bad (takes about a year or so) in with the newer ones and didnt bother telling anyone til afterwards when they were all installed.

 

the newest intel mobos support sli (some x series) so you could go that route and as long as your vid card is a gtx 2 series (250 260 etc) it will be fine those chips are made after the issue was discovered and such.

 

ati cards are not bad though it really depends on the gaming your friend plans to do, as well as the resolution at which the monitor runs. most ati cards are neck and neck with their nvidia couterparts.

[Jager]

ram just grab a 2x2gig set of ddr2 off newegg if you can they are fine should be about 50-60 bucks for a decent set of speedier timings

 

ddr3 you should go 3x2gig or 6 gigs of ram so that it runs at its best. they sell matched sets as well and again id point you toward newegg and find the best price versus best timings and go from there.

[Shadowex3]

Firstly go ahead and make it a choice between C2Q and i7, the Q9000 quads are cheap enough that its not really logical to get a dualcore anymore.

 

Nvidia chipsets... they're just not worth it. Sli has been proven time and again to not be economically viable or even logical compared to saving and upgrading more often and their actual mobo quality is really lacking compared to Asus or even gigabyte. That being said if he isn't ever playing the latest and greatest games like Crysis Wars, Farcry 2 and the like your better off getting him an Asus p45 board with the usual 4gb of ram and a gtx 260 or 275.

 

As for the mobo differences the number usually means whether its a micro-atx or fullsized ATX board and whether it's got onboard graphics or not. In general matx boards will have an onboard graphics chipset while normal ATX boards won't.

 

You've already basically done everything you need to do to build a computer from the ground up, you just haven't done it all together. It's not that difficult just pretty time-consuming, especially the very first time when you need to get all the mobo mounts and everything screwed into the case. In general your best build sequence after verifying all the parts are the right ones before opening them is:

 

1. Unpack the case and get it all set up, mobo spacers screwed in, fans mounted etc

2. Put the PSU in and slide the drives into the bays. Plug the PSU into the wall (path to ground!)

3. Mount the mobo with the backplate for your heatsink in place. Plug in the mobo.

4. Stick the PSU into the now grounded mobo and mount the heatsink

5. expansion cards

6. cords.

 

Unlike what you've worked on before these are all fresh parts, they'll prolly take a bit more force than you're used to and comfortable using. This stuff's made out of layered fiberglass, it's tougher than you think.

 

[edit]

 

Forgot some helpful linkies:

 

Cpu charts

High and Midrange VGA charts

 

newegg is where you want to buy most parts obv and SVC is the best place to get fans and heatsinks from. Yate Loon fans are known for being quiet and moving decent amounts of air, 120mm fans are always better than smaller fans, Noctuas are overpriced underpowered POS fans that are utterly silent, and Delta fans are called "screamers" for a reason.

[Akaru]

Okay, this is what I have so far. I have dumped the C2D.

 

Processor:

C2Q Q9400

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115131

 

OR

 

C2Q Q9550

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

 

Motherboard:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

 

Video Card:

EVGA 896-P3-1258-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130441

 

OR

 

XFX GX260XAHBF Black Edition GeForce GTX 260

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150399

 

Power Supply:

OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022

 

OR

 

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017

 

This is all I have for the C2Q build so far. Comments please.

[Jager]

the core 216 is better then the 260 its a updated and unlocked chip. the 9550 is much better then the 9400 due to much bigger l2 cache (double!) and you probably want the 600w just incase your friend decides to step up with a bigger vid card down the road or more drives etc.

 

if you could give us some idea of the budget you are working with it would allow us to present many different options within your price range.

 

edit2 if you can afford the i7 system the memory throughput destroys anything on the market right now and a 9550 wouldnt hold up to a i7 920 at stock speeds most of the time as gaming takes more out of core 1 and 2 then 3 and 4 unless specifically optimized for multicore usage.

[Akaru]

the core 216 is better then the 260 its a updated and unlocked chip. the 9550 is much better then the 9400 due to much bigger l2 cache (double!) and you probably want the 600w just incase your friend decides to step up with a bigger vid card down the road or more drives etc.

 

if you could give us some idea of the budget you are working with it would allow us to present many different options within your price range.

 

edit2 if you can afford the i7 system the memory throughput destroys anything on the market right now and a 9550 wouldnt hold up to a i7 920 at stock speeds most of the time as gaming takes more out of core 1 and 2 then 3 and 4 unless specifically optimized for multicore usage.

 

Haha. Forgot about his budget. It's 800, nowhere close to a i7 rig. I just wanted to present him with more than 1 option. His uncle works with computers and will review my setups before buying.

 

BTW, they are both Core 216s. I don't know why the XFX doesn't list it. But I don't like the XFX because the memory clock is 300 lower than that of the EVGA. And I am a EVGA fanboy.

[Jager]

well both vid cards have a good warrenty, so if you prefer evga then go with them, assuming the usual scenario, you will get roped into helping fix stuff so might as well know go with companies you like.

 

assuming an 800 dollar rig i can see a bare bones i7 happening with a 216 vid card maybe, but assuming you want a gaming rig, with new drives and such its probably better to go 9550. that being said watch the deals on systems off tigerdirect newegg zipzoomfly.com etc before you buy to make sure as some of the back to school deals are ridiculous. and then score the vid card you want on top of them.