Building a Computer - Require Assistance

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06-04-2009, 03:10 AM
ExoByte

Building a Computer - Require Assistance

I'm not too good at this, and it's my first time actually building a computer. I have some knowledge on the subject, but not enough for me to trust my own judgment. So far everything looks okay, but I'm sure I might actually be wrong.

I need two things. One, for someone to make sure all these parts are compatible with each other. I'm pretty sure they are, but I most definitely could be mistaken. Two, to make sure I'm not missing or forgetting anything.

Mobo: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=A455-2855

CPU: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...sku=CP1-I7-920

Graphics Card: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...09&sku=B52-280

Sound Card: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...2&sku=C44-3350

RAM: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...7&sku=C13-2040

Hard Drive: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...sku=TSD-1500AS

Power Supply: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=A406-1116

CPU Cooling Fan: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...9&sku=ULT40417

BluRay/DVD/CD Drive & Burner: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...6&sku=L12-1192

Case Fan: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=Q131-3024 x6

Case: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...134&CatId=1510

Speakers: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...3&sku=L23-6326

Keyboard and Mouse: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...6&sku=L23-9800

Monitor: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...0&sku=H94-2801

Operating System: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...3&sku=M17-7414

The price, after Shipping & Handling and Taxes, comes to $3,891.81
06-04-2009, 06:00 AM
ExoByte

Completely updated original post.
06-04-2009, 07:11 AM
Merlock

No point in a separate sound card. There's one on-board the motherboard.
And a 1000W PSU? What're you building, Skynet?
Also, scariest CPU cooler I've ever seen. :eh:

Oh, and do not get a Seagate HDD.
Mine just collapsed 3 months from purchase. Was told their latest series is known for that.
Sure, not a 100% certain claim, but you can never be too safe. So I got a WD.
06-04-2009, 07:21 AM
ExoByte

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merlock

No point in a separate sound card. There's one on-board the motherboard.

I can't settle for on-board sound. I've heard good things about this card, crisp, clear, high quality sound with no crackling. I'd like really high audio quality and am willing to put out the extra money to do so. It goes perfectly with the speakers for really high quality and really loud sound and heavy bass :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merlock

And a 1000W PSU? What're you building, Skynet?

Shhhh! :paranoid:

I plan on possibly expanding later, adding more in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merlock

Also, scariest CPU cooler I've ever seen. :eh:

Why thank you. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merlock

Oh, and do not get a Seagate HDD.
Mine just collapsed 3 months from purchase. Was told their latest series is known for that.
Sure, not a 100% certain claim, but you can never be too safe. So I got a WD.

I've heard this on their 1TB Hard Drives, but not their 1.5TB Hard Drives. I might just follow your advice on that though, just to be sage.
06-04-2009, 07:27 AM
Merlock

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExoByte

I've heard this on their 1TB Hard Drives, but not their 1.5TB Hard Drives. I might just follow your advice on that though, just to be sage.

Mine was a 160 GB. -.-
So I think it's safe to say it's hardly just the TB drives.

As for the sound, I guess with speakers, it might make sense.
Though I'd still never dish out over $100 for a sound card. Eesh.

Then again, I'm all for earphones and no speakers.
With them you can have the music or whatnot on as loud as you want and you aren't making the house shake.
Nor do the neighbours come at you swinging shovels. :eh:
06-04-2009, 12:44 PM
ninja9578

I also had a Seagate drive crash and they refused to honour the warranty. I only had it for about two years, it's a horrible brand.

The only brand that I would really trust for a hard drive would be IBM.
06-09-2009, 06:48 PM
[SomeGuy]

That's like...the best computer possible.
06-09-2009, 08:22 PM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merlock

Mine was a 160 GB. -.-
So I think it's safe to say it's hardly just the TB drives.

As for the sound, I guess with speakers, it might make sense.
Though I'd still never dish out over $100 for a sound card. Eesh.

Then again, I'm all for earphones and no speakers.
With them you can have the music or whatnot on as loud as you want and you aren't making the house shake.
Nor do the neighbours come at you swinging shovels. :eh:

Even using headphones your soundcard makes a difference. Onboard soundcards are a bad idea, they have really poor sound quality.

Really, an i7? Save some money and buy an AMD processor, unless you're doing serious work that needs that good of a processor. By the way, gaming is not serious work, I'm talking about doing things like heavy video encoding.

DDR3 memory is kind of pointless, you'll hardly get a speed difference for the price, you really don't need more than 4GB of DDR2.

For the HDD, go for a WD Black Caviar one, I hear they are great.

You seem to be trying to build the biggest and most expensive computer you can, but you're actually just wasting your money on things you don't need.

Edit: You could save a lot of money buying a normal DVD-Rom drive. Unless you watch lots of BLOOOOOO RAY movies, once again, useless.

Edit 2: Windows 7 RC1 is out, better than Vista, and free for now. It's also perfectly stable.
06-09-2009, 09:07 PM
ExoByte

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

That's like...the best computer possible.

Not quite. I haven't added multiple Graphics Cards for SLIing yet, or watercooling for ultimate overclocking capabilities. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

Really, an i7? Save some money and buy an AMD processor, unless you're doing serious work that needs that good of a processor. By the way, gaming is not serious work, I'm talking about doing things like heavy video encoding.

It will be utilized.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

DDR3 memory is kind of pointless, you'll hardly get a speed difference for the price, you really don't need more than 4GB of DDR2.

The motherboard is only effectively compatible with tri-channel DDR3, DDR2 RAM is useless on this board. Changing the RAM means changing the Motherboard, and vice versa.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

For the HDD, go for a WD Black Caviar one, I hear they are great.

Yeah, already looking into changing the Hard drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

You seem to be trying to build the biggest and most expensive computer you can, but you're actually just wasting your money on things you don't need.

No, I'm buying insurance by building a powerful computer that won't outdate itself immediately up completion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

Edit: You could save a lot of money buying a normal DVD-Rom drive. Unless you watch lots of BLOOOOOO RAY movies, once again, useless.

Now that the standard is officially Blu Ray, it's only a matter of time before it is fully utilized. Might as well invest in the drive now as I'm going to need to later anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

Edit 2: Windows 7 RC1 is out, better than Vista, and free for now. It's also perfectly stable.

Looking into it, haven't decided yet.
06-09-2009, 09:34 PM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExoByte

Not quite. I haven't added multiple Graphics Cards for SLIing yet, or watercooling for ultimate overclocking capabilities. :D

It will be utilized.

The motherboard is only effectively compatible with tri-channel DDR3, DDR2 RAM is useless on this board. Changing the RAM means changing the Motherboard, and vice versa.

Yeah, already looking into changing the Hard drive.

No, I'm buying insurance by building a powerful computer that won't outdate itself immediately up completion.

Now that the standard is officially Blu Ray, it's only a matter of time before it is fully utilized. Might as well invest in the drive now as I'm going to need to later anyway.

Looking into it, haven't decided yet.

What will you use the i7 for that a much cheaper processor can't do?
You might as well get a mobo that will support DDR2, because DDR3 isn't really worth the money. If you want to stick with it, then go ahead.
I don't know what you're talking about, Blu-Ray isn't "standard" of anything. It's not always even better than a DVD for movies, because I've downloaded ones that can fit onto a DVD-R. They're still not packaging software or anything you buy on a disk other than movies on Blu-Ray, most things aren't even on DVDs. If you pirate your movies and whatnot, opitcal drives are almost useless, they're only good for the occasional need. I've probably used mine about twice in the past couple years.
06-09-2009, 09:44 PM
khh

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

If you want to stick with it, then go ahead.
I don't know what you're talking about, Blu-Ray isn't "standard" of anything. It's not always even better than a DVD for movies, because I've downloaded ones that can fit onto a DVD-R.

Blu-Ray is a standard for optical disk storage. It's also a standard for storing movies on said disk.
Also, the Blu-Ray rips you've downloaded have been compressed, so that they've lost information retained on an actual blu-ray disk. This includes both image quality and bonus material. Besides, the DVDs you pick up in a store have much lower quality picture, because it uses an older, less efficient codec. However Blu-Ray equipment will get cheeper, and Blu-Ray burners will get faster as time marches on. Finding the right time for getting it might be difficult.
06-09-2009, 11:08 PM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by khh

Blu-Ray is a standard for optical disk storage. It's also a standard for storing movies on said disk.
Also, the Blu-Ray rips you've downloaded have been compressed, so that they've lost information retained on an actual blu-ray disk. This includes both image quality and bonus material. Besides, the DVDs you pick up in a store have much lower quality picture, because it uses an older, less efficient codec. However Blu-Ray equipment will get cheeper, and Blu-Ray burners will get faster as time marches on. Finding the right time for getting it might be difficult.

It might be the standard for movies, but how many people do you know that store any kind of data on a Blu-Ray disc that's not a movie? It's ineffecient to even use DVDs/CDs for data storage/backup.

Also, if you actually do buy Blu-Ray movies, then go for it. But I never buy movies, and have never needed an optical drive.
06-09-2009, 11:11 PM
[SomeGuy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExoByte

Not quite. I haven't added multiple Graphics Cards for SLIing yet, or watercooling for ultimate overclocking capabilities. :D

Well, I forgot about that. But it does look like a really nice set.

And Windows 7 is still in a beta, I wouldn't use it for a main OS. I'd buy XP actually.
06-09-2009, 11:59 PM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

Well, I forgot about that. But it does look like a really nice set.

And Windows 7 is still in a beta, I wouldn't use it for a main OS. I'd buy XP actually.

Please, don't buy XP. It's not even supported anymore, and it will become a virus hellhole in a couple of years, and it also doesn't make good use of the powerful hardware you're going to buy. Go with Windows 7 64 bit or Vista 64 bit, they are modern OSs and will make proper use of your hardware. Windows 7 is not in beta, it is a Release Candidate, meaning that it's not buggy, just missing features from the real release. If you want, you can go with Vista, or go with Windows 7. I would avoid XP though, anyone who says Vista is buggy or lacks drivers obviously only used it before SP1.
06-10-2009, 12:26 AM
[SomeGuy]

I just personally have bad experiences with Vista. But I actually didn't know that 7 was in RC1. When is RC2? Are they doing that?
06-10-2009, 12:38 AM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

I just personally have bad experiences with Vista. But I actually didn't know that 7 was in RC1. When is RC2? Are they doing that?

No, the release is coming out this summer.

Personally, my experiences with Vista have been pretty good. The only thing that bugged me was that the menus were moved, but it wouldn't be hard to adjust.
06-10-2009, 12:39 AM
[SomeGuy]

Oh.

Can you change the taskbar? I hate how it looks.
06-10-2009, 12:51 AM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

Oh.

Can you change the taskbar? I hate how it looks.

What, like get rid of the dock-like function? Yeah, you can change it back to the regular taskbar.
06-10-2009, 12:55 AM
[SomeGuy]

No, I mean the clear-ish ness. I like the vista style better.
06-10-2009, 02:23 AM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

No, I mean the clear-ish ness. I like the vista style better.

I'm not sure, I didn't mess around with the styles that much, because I liked the new Aero. There is probably a theme you can install or an option, I've never checked.
06-10-2009, 03:32 AM
[SomeGuy]

Cool. How long is the download for? Is there a time limit to the OS?
06-10-2009, 03:39 AM
Keresztanya

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

Cool. How long is the download for? Is there a time limit to the OS?

I think it expires on June 1st 2010. That's pretty long time to use it for.
06-10-2009, 05:27 AM
Exhalent

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

I think it expires on June 1st 2010. That's pretty long time to use it for.

This seems accurate.
http://windows7center.com/wp-content...5/slmgrdlv.jpg
06-10-2009, 10:30 AM
khh

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

It might be the standard for movies, but how many people do you know that store any kind of data on a Blu-Ray disc that's not a movie? It's ineffecient to even use DVDs/CDs for data storage/backup.

Also, if you actually do buy Blu-Ray movies, then go for it. But I never buy movies, and have never needed an optical drive.

This I agree to. There's no real point in storing backups or such in Blu-Rays yet. They have actually calculated that it'd be cheeper to get a 2nd harddrive for the purpose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

And Windows 7 is still in a beta, I wouldn't use it for a main OS. I'd buy XP actually.

It's not in beta, they've got a RC. And I can recommend it. I use 64bit Win7 as the main OS on my stationary computer, and it's caused me no problems yet. The 32bit emulation is excellent, and since it can use Vista drivers that's no problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

I think it expires on June 1st 2010. That's pretty long time to use it for.

It will become unusable then, but after the 1st of March your computer will start shutting down every 2 hours.
06-11-2009, 03:07 PM
marcc

Newegg.ca>Tigerdirect.ca ;)
06-11-2009, 04:09 PM
Taosaur

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demon Parasite

DDR3 memory is kind of pointless, you'll hardly get a speed difference for the price, you really don't need more than 4GB of DDR2.

DDR3 prices are approaching where DDR2 was when I had my machine built last October. Now that DDR3 is standard in off-the-shelf systems, the industry is all but retiring DDR2.