# Trying to build a powerful computer



## calnick0 (Jul 19, 2009)

1. Budget: How much money are you willing to spend on the build?

1200 on the computer itself. More for keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other peripheral components. If there is a substantial performance increase for stretching the budget a bit I'd consider that.

2. Brands: Are there any brands of components you want or don't want?

I prefer AMD because they are usually the best value, from my experience, but not to the extent to sacrifice performance and money to have it.

3. Multitasking: Will you be multitasking with this computer and if so, how much?

Yes, a lot. I use lots of tabs and windows to surf and usually have several programs running at the same time.

4. Gaming: Will you be gaming and if so, how much and how new are the games?

I would like to be playing new valve games on the pc but that is not necessary.

5. Calculations: Will you be doing any intense calculations or media encoding?

I will probably do some video editing. I don't know if that goes under here

6. Overclocking: Do you plan on overclocking and if so, how much?

I will overclock if it will not affect the life of the PC significantly and is a large performance increase for the price of the cooling components.

7. Storage: How much storage will you need and what will you be storing?

A terabyte is probably good, mabey more, mabey less. I store a lot of movies and music.

8. Legacy Support: Will you need support for older hardware like parallel, serial, or PS/2 devices?

I don't think so.

9. Operating System: Do you want Windows XP or Vista, or Linux compatibility?

I will probably try to get windows 7 if it's better than vista and use XP until then. If you can convince me to get Linux I'm all for it.

10. Case: Do you want help selecting a case and if so, how big do you want it?

Probably this case http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=FT01&area=. I think that will be big enough

11. Accessories: Do you want a keyboard, mouse, or other items included?

Yes, recommendations on a mouse, keyboard, and screen would be good but please don't function them into the budget.

12. Recycled Components: Will you be reusing any components you already have?

No.

13. Monitor: If you want a monitor, what size do you want and should it be widescreen?

A screen with a good amount of real estate an HD screen probably. I will probably be connecting the computer up to an HD tv as well as the screen in the future. 

14. Stores: Do you have any online stores that you prefer to purchase from?

No, wherever is the cheapest. In fact, I prefer refurbs and open boxes.

15. Location: What country do you live in?

I live in California.

Thanks For Your Help!

Nick

P.S. I like the stuff on this list http://www.maximumpc.com/best-of-the-best


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

http://www.techsupportforum.com/f24...-are-6-suggested-models-with-spec-367415.html

Look at the $1200 one.

A word on AMD: right now AMD is doing pretty good in the low-end budget CPU market, but they can't compete with Intel on high-end processors. The recommended CPU for gaming at the moment is the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400/E8500/E8600 (8400=3.0GHz, 8500=3.16GHz, 8600=3.33GHz). 

The cases recommended on here the most are the Antec 300/900/1200 series and the Coolermaster Centurion and HAF cases. I have an Antec 900 and it's very good, lots of room and air flow, and the PSU being on bottom gives it a low center of gravity so it's quite stable on the ground.

If you're going to use Windows 7 then you can cut out $100 for the OS, and bump the graphics card recommended in that thread up to a Radeon 4890, Radeon 4850x2, or GeForce GTX275.

It's difficult to tell the effects of overclocking, but on the E8x00 processors an overclock of ~500MHz is possible without greatly affecting the life of the processor, for a moderate boost in performance. With the Corsair 850w power supply and aftermarket heatsink suggested you should have no trouble if you do decide to overclock.


Hope that helps.


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## night81cal (Jul 19, 2009)

Interesting template you are using 

A fast dual core should be good.
Like AMD Phenom II X2 550.
New new AMD Phenom II generation is pretty good. Compared to the C2D E8400 it's a bit slower but you save about $70.

For Multitasking the amount of RAM is more important. You might want to go with 6GB to 8GB of RAM (DDR2 w/ 1066MHz) if you do lots of Multitasking.

As Motherboard I would go for Asus M4N82 Deluxe.

Graphics Card: nVidia 9600/9800 GT.

Hard drive: 1TB Western Digital Green or 1TB Seagate Barracuda. Maybe you go for two identical drives for mirroring.

Monitor: Dell S2209W (22" Full HD)

Case: Whatever you like  I just would go for a 500W power supply.

Stores: Check zipzoomfly.com / newegg.com. zipzoomfly usually has free shipping (even on cases). Depends where you live you can also check at Fry's or Microcenter. They have pretty good deals as well.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

500w is not recommended for a 9600GT or 9800GT the PSU is not the area to save a couple of dollars.
Here is the XFX power recommendation for the 9600GT it is a blue print card the same as the rest> http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/9series/9600GT.aspx#4


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## night81cal (Jul 19, 2009)

wrench97 said:


> 500w is not recommended for a 9600GT or 9800GT the PSU is not the area to save a couple of dollars.
> Here is the XFX power recommendation for the 9600GT it is a blue print card the same as the rest> http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/9series/9600GT.aspx#4


Sorry, my mistake. I actually wanted to write 600W.
I had a Ultra X3 Modular PS with 600W (I recently sold the computer). That is/was a good power supply.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Ultra PSU's are not good quality units. I prefer Seasonic and Corsair.
If you're doing heavy multi-tasking, a Quad Core would fill your needs the best.
I like CoolerMaster & Antec cases but cases are a personal preference.
OC'ing voids the CPU warranty.


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## night81cal (Jul 19, 2009)

Tyree said:


> Ultra PSU's are not good quality units. I prefer Seasonic and Corsair.
> If you're doing heavy multi-tasking, a Quad Core would fill your needs the best.
> I like CoolerMaster & Antec cases but cases are a personal preference.
> OC'ing voids the CPU warranty.


Quad core just makes sense when you have a good scalable operating system that can bind threads on certain cpus. As far as my experience goes there are just a handful operating systems (unix based) that can do that good. Windows isn't one of those. In worse case a multi core cpu can get contra-productive. A quad core cpu will not benefit multiple programs running in Windows. Except those programs are designed for multi core cpus (like video-/ picture editing software). But most "office programs" just run on one core anyway. In that case it's up to the operating system. 

My AMD Phenom X4 9850 is in a Antec NSK4480 case. Nice and solid case and came with a quite 380W power supply. 

I just have a quad core cpu because I used the system virtualization. There you can bind virtual computers to a cpu core. If you run multiple virtual systems a multi core cpu really makes sense.


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