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Need your help on a PC
I am building a pc atm and ready to buy it... my limited is $1,500 - 1,700...
My first build was this
amd FX 4100k 3.6ghz quadcore
Thermaltake Frio OCK CPU Cooler
GigaByte GA - 970A - D3 AMD 970 Socket AM3+ ATX Mainboard w/ On/Off Charge, 7.1 Audio, GbLAN, USB 3.0, SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe X16, 3 PCIe x1 and 2 PCI
8GB DDR3/1600MHz dual channel memory
AMD Radeon HD 6870 1gb PCIe ( I am thinking on getting 2 of these cards... Opinions on this please)
850w power supply
tb harddrive
I was going to go for a SSD card but i heard that it was really worth it soo I rather not drop the money on one and try and put the money else where 
I am needing help on building a solid gaming computer that i can run any game on very high settings.. this is my first gaming pc.. and i want it to be worth it ^_^
Comments
You can build a really nice rig for 1500. You can go with Intel with that kind of money. Quiz is really good at helping people out with this. Are you going to need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor?
Go with an SSD
1. SSDs are worth it.
2. Why choose AMD CPU over Intel? There's no compelling reason, IMO.
3. I prefer a more powerful single-gpu card over crossfire. AMD makes good GPU hardware, but their driver support continues to have problems, especially with crossfire support. Did you know AMD has yet to release official 7970 drivers? Yup, the card has been on the market for about a month and you're still forced to use beta drivers.
spend some time on tomshardware
he does a monthyl best cpu for hte money and best gpu for the money
he also does regular system builds for x amount of money
so take a look at what he has built recently and his reasonings
That's not a bad build, apart from getting two mid-range video cards rather than one high end one. But if you drop one of the vdieo cards, it's more like an $800 build than a $1500 build. So if you found a site that wants to charge you $1500 for that, then maybe you should look elsewhere.
On your budget, you want a Core i5 2500K, together with a P67 or Z68 motherboard. AMD is a nice budget option, but the high end is all Intel.
Next, don't get two mid-range video cards. You're better off with one high end card. You might want to look at a Radeon HD 7950 for that.
Just saying an 850 W power supply doesn't actually specify the power supply. Quality matters, too, and more than the nominal wattage. Let's see the exact brand name and model.
And where are you going to buy the parts?
Sic Luceat Lux
Guy I really appreciate the builds but I got impatient and just built one about lunch time eastern time
This is what I bought: Please Tell me if I fcked up ^_^
I dont really go for Intel so I didnt get it but this is my build and I already ordered it
CAS:Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower Gaming Case W/ Side Panel Window
CPU: AMD FX-4170 4.20 GHz Quad-Core AM3+ CPU 4MB L2 Cache & Turbo Core Technology
FAN: * Thermaltake Frio OCK CPU Cooler (Designed for Over-Clocker King)
HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
MOTHERBOARD: * [CrossFireX] GigaByte GA-970A-D3 AMD 970 Socket AM3+ ATX Mainboard w/ On/Off Charge, 7.1 Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe X16, 3 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI
POWERSUPPLY: 850 Watts - CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gaming 80 Plus Power Supply
VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card
Sorry I got impatient but I really wanted to buy my gaming rig and hopfully I did I good job ^_^ I guess we will find out
and to answer you question were i am getting the parts at.. I am a ROOKIE at putting together a computer and I really dont trust myself atm to do so.. I know were to put the stuff and how to install it.. but I just didnt want to chance it and went to cyberpowerpc and yes I know that was probably the most rookie's mistake i could of done.. but doing cross prices from each site (newegg vs cyberpower) it wasnt that big of a difference.. or maybe i just messed that up tooo lol
*facepalm*
Why do people do this? Well, I hope that at the very least, you didn't actually spend anywhere near $1500-$1700. Don't try to overclock the processor, as while the CPU cooler can handle it, the motherboard you picked can't.
At cyberpower that is a $1100 comp. With those parts and nothing else upgraded. yes, I am very bored.
that is how much i spent.. and sorry Q I got excited and impatient..
I wont be over clocking anything, since i dont know how to do it and I really dont have the desire to either ^_^
again sorry for getting so impatient
but Did i do alright?
i think i know your reasoning in chosing amd instead of intel (you probably read the opencl article on tomshardware)
it is a fairly new concept tho .and nobody know how this stuff wil actually pan out.but if your into the type of stuff the opencl article mention they cover in the futur 8 other article,ya amd make sense since nvidia is very far and i aint even sure intel support opencl lol.dont forget micrsoft directcompute tho .in my view opencl has a big headstart because almost all the party be it mobile or not have opencl or will soon ,aside from intel.as we know intel isnt very strong in mobile like smartphone and we already know arm love the idea put together by the opencl group .so yes a 4100 would probably be way sufficiant if opencl is your plan 1
its not about all that.. I am just a AMD kinda of person I guess.. Intel is great in all but I rather go with amd since that is what I have always used... if that makes sense
waiting on Q to get back and tell me if i still FCKED up or did alright ^_^
You could have done worse, and most people who get unduly impatient probably do do worse than that.
If you're not overclocking, then the processor heatsink is a waste of money, as the stock heatsink is adequate for the processor at stock speeds. But at least that's only wasted money, and not also bad performance.
Your processor doesn't seem to exist. Or at least AMD says it doesnt, and New Egg doesn't sell it. It looks like it's basically an overclocked FX-4100.
The video card is a nice enough choice. There were several "good" options that you could have gone with, depending on your budget, and you picked one of them.
The power supply is all right, but not that great. It won't cause problems for you, though--unlike a number of the other power supplies they offer. And not just the generic ones, either; the Thermaltake TR2 is garbage, and I'd distrust Raidmax anything, too. The Corsair TX650 V2 is both better and cheaper than what you picked, but you still did better than one would expect from picking a power supply at random.
On a large budget, you could have had an SSD. But at least you can say that you didn't pay for an SSD. I was somewhat worried when you said your budget was $1500-$1700, and then you listed parts. Because $1500 for what you got is a terrible deal. $1100 is perhaps still overpriced (the power supply and processor heatsink are the big culprits), but certainly a lot less bad.
I hope you did get Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, as the default is to have no OS, to keep the starting price down.
Quiz is here the info on the cpu i got
AMD FX-4170
4
4.2 GHz
32nm SOI
Total L2 Cache: 4x 1,000 KB
Socket AM3+
95W
5200
now that i look at that and look at this
AMD FX-4100
4
3.6 GHz
32nm SOI
Total L2 Cache: 4x 1,000 KB
Socket AM3+
95W
5200
I dont notice any difference.. a couple friends that have custom built pc helped me a little and they looked at the cpu and told me it wasnt overclocked and now thinking of it I paided 30 bucks more for it then the 4100 so I am thinking now it is OC'ed.. hmm
Now you said the mobo cant handle the cpu being OC'ed so should I call them and have it switched out? or what?
hmm Well thanks for telling me I didnt totally fck up.. and I really Appreciate you commenting back..
for future upgrades when the time is right.. can you link a mobo and power supply and other things I shouldv'e of went with from newegg.. and i will bookmark this so I never have to ask again :P
Thanks again quiz..
Here's AMD's official list of FX processors on the market:
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/processors/amdfx/Pages/amdfx-model-number-comparison.aspx
I don't see an FX-4170 on that list. It's possible that AMD is going to release it very shortly, and CyberPower PC merely jumped the gun. New Egg will sometimes do that, and start selling parts a day or two before the offiical release.
Zambezi has been out for several months now, so it's probably about time for AMD to release higher bins of the chips.
Regardless, what you really want is to not go over 125 W. If the processor is 95 W or 125 W at stock speeds (and AMD hasn't gone above that since a short-lived 140 W bin of the Phenom II X4 nearly three years ago), then it should work fine with the motherboard.
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The trouble with power supplies is that new products launch, old ones get discontinued, and a lot depends on the price. If the power supply you picked were $70 cheaper, I'd say, yeah, great choice. You don't need really high end quality on a power supply. You do need something good enough that it's unlikely to ever cause problems for you, and you got that. The problem is that you could have gotten it for $40 cheaper.
Power supplies are a major pain to evaluate as few people have the equipment to properly test them, so there are only a few good review sites for them. And if a power supply hasn't been reviewed by one of those sites, then there's no real way to know if it's good. Well, sometimes you can tell from the specs that it's garbage, but sometimes you can't, even if it is terrible. And even the good power supply reviews are hard to decipher if you don't know what their measurements mean.
Your right its not on that list at all so it made me want to go research it a bit and I found this
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-FX-Series%20FX-4170%20FD4170FRW4KGU.html
which it was said to be release Q4 2011 but found a thread on toms site that it is being released in Q1 2012.. hmm
I tried to understand what was being said on that site lmfao but have no clue.. all i know is it is avaible in 95w and 125w so either or I will be fine since you said 95 or 125..
I had them cancel the order b/c the cpu isnt even out yet.. like you said Quiz i am going to go threw what you have said here and try to build something good..
I guess i will build it from new egg instead seeing how you prefer this right?
I am going to need links bro honestly..
again budget is 1,500 I got a monitor, cyborg m.m.o 7 mice just need a key board and what not.. like i said this is my first computer and i want it to last me a great awhile ^_^ but be a BEAST at the same time..
example i want to play tera high settings, GW2, battlefield 3.. high settings help me out here...
btw I need everything to get it up and running.. cords whatever it might be.. lmfao so please dont forget anything
I still want to stick with AMD cpu
Quiz this is my attempt on new egg let me know
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129100
Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128510
Cd Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106276
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153136
KeyBoard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109191
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231501
Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996
120mmCaseFans x7 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103073
200mmCaseFan x1: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200028
HeatSink: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103089
No video card yet b/c I dont know what to buy yet for video.. that 7950 is 500 bucks?
grand total so far is $996.00
Hang on and I'll come up with something. I just got back from the grocery store. You know it's cold outside when you can see icicles hanging from your eyelashes. I've had ice in my moustache quite a few times, but I do think this is the first time I've had it in my eyelashes.
I remember those days like when i was a kid in northern PA in the states.. but now I live in Virginia and last night was the first time we got snow and it was less then a 1/4 inch. and the temps are like 50-60 one day and 30-40 the next lol
I added the 7950 to the cart and the total came out to 1423 but the thing is the heatsink I have doesnt go with AM3+ it supports up to AM3
I am glad I was going through everything and trying to figure out if everything goes together..
Here you go:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.822654
That's a much faster processor than what you were looking at. Don't be fooled by the clock speeds, as some processors tend to do more per clock cycle than others. And it's a pretty good motherboard in the combo deal. The motherboard has a $20 rebate, too.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
The stock cooler that comes with the processor is terrible. So this one isn't.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161452
8 GB of memory is plenty, and it's got the right specs with an ample heatspreader.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442
Because a computer without an SSD is slow. You'll probably need to update the firmware on it when it comes, or else it will start causing blue screens after about 5000 hours of use. But you can do that before you install Windows.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136939
How much hard drive capacity do you need? You picked a 1 TB hard drive, so here's a cheaper 1 TB hard drive. It's slow, but when you put everything for which the speed matters on the SSD, it won't matter that the hard drive is slow.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119224
This is the same case you picked at CyberPower PC, so I figured you must like how it looks. It's also only $80 after the promo code. It doesn't have some modern luxuries, but it does have all the airflow you'll ever need for anything you might plausibly want to do with the computer. And for a lot of things that you won't plausibly want to do.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020
This one also has a promo code, as well as a $15 mail-in rebate. This power supply isn't really high end, but it is pretty good, and the difference between high end and pretty good isn't that much.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244
All SATA DVD burners are basically the same, so pick the one that is cheapest the day you buy it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
Because you need an operating system.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102962
Because it's the cheapest Radeon HD 7950 in stock. And Sapphire won't cut corners excessively the way a few board partners sometimes might.
That comes to $1473, including shipping and before $35 in mail-in rebates, so it fits your stated budget pretty well. It sounds like you might still need a keyboard, speakers, and surge protector. But those aren't expensive.
Some comments on your build:
That's a nice case, but I don't see any real need to spend $175 on a case. If you love the looks of the case, then have at it, but I think full tower cases are overkill unless you're getting two high end video cards in SLI or CrossFire. And that is, itself, overkill unless you're giong to spread the game window across at least three monitors for an ultra high resolution.
How much hard drive capacity do you need? I don't know. Personally, I have a 120 GB SSD and no hard drive at all. Capacity needs vary wildly from one person to the next. If you check how much capacity you have in use right now and then get a hard drive with double that, you should be pretty safe.
The motherboard is Socket AM3+, which is appropriate for an AMD processor. And you did pick an AMD processor. But at the high end, Intel's processors are a lot better right now.
And speaking of the processor, the one you picked is appropriate to an $800 budget gaming system or so. But on your budget, you can get something better.
I'm guessing you looked at DVD readers for an optical drive. Hardly anyone gets those anymore, because it's cheaper to get one that can both read and write.
The power supply is garbage. Thermaltake's TR2 line is the sort of thing that reputable companies just wouldn't sell.
I don't see any need for a fancy keyboard, but if that's the one you want, then have at it.
You don't need 16 GB of system memory. And you don't need memory rated at 2133 MHz. The performance difference between 1600 MHz and 2133 MHz memory usually won't be outside the margin of error for gaming purposes. And very few consumers have any plausible use for over 8 GB of system memory. Even 4 GB is plenty for most systems, though you can get 8 GB just because it's so cheap.
Part of the idea of picking a case with a bunch of fans is that the case will come with the fans included, so that you don't have to buy fans separately.
That's a big CPU cooler, and looks like it would probably work pretty well. It's more than I'd spend for a CPU cooler, but if you're looking to overclock the processor further than I would, then have at it.
You're missing an operating system, and you also don't have a solid state drive. An SSD isn't necessary to make a computer run, but it will make it run a lot faster. You're aware that your build missed a video card.
Thanks Quiz really appreciate it bro
ya i know i was missing a video card and yes i am on that likes looks lol... I am going with the video card that you recommended 7950 and the power supply.. I dont have a OS b/c I have the disc already
I would go with Intel but I am just not a intel kinda of person... and I was reading further into your post saying 16gb memory... I didnt need that much but couldnt that be said with a intel cpu too..? I am not questioning you at all but doesnt it fall along the same line?
Intel I cores are more for rendering and multi-tasking and huge projects right? wouldnt it be overkill?
Since you seem to be in a hurry, I'll mention that if you buy parts off New Egg, they'll probably show up a good week sooner than if you buy something from CyberPower PC. You do have to assemble the parts yourself if you get stuff off of New Egg, but that isn't that hard to do.
I am in a rush.. but we are talking about a lot of money and I am trying to take it slow now.. Thanks to your **Facepalm** when I said cyberpowerpc ^_^
I want to make sure I am happy with everything this time and not rush into something that i wont be happy with in the long run..
I really appreciate you taking the time and getting that build because i know you could of been doing something else.. so thank you again.
But now I know what to buy and what to stay away from ^_^
The problem isn't CyberPower PC, really. You do get better value for the money if you assemble parts yourself than if you hire someone else to do it. But some people have more money than time, or are really terrified of assembling parts themselves, and it can make sense for them to pay an extra $100-$200 for some other company to assemble the parts. For the people with a lot more money than time (e.g., work 60 hours per week, but make $300k per year), it can even make sense to go with a boutique vendor that will charge several hundred dollars more than CyberPower PC, but won't even give you the option to mess up the order and get something bad.
Rather, the problem is buying something before you know what to get. The worst is when someone comes in and says, hey, I just bought something at random and it's too late to return it or chage the order. Is it good? It's almost invariably something much, much worse than what you had originally ordered from CyberPower PC, and the answer is, the optical drive is good (because even the very cheapest ones are good), the memory and processor may or may not be good, and everything else in the system is junk. That it was on sale at Best Buy doesn't magically turn that into a good deal.