Hardware A new computer?

[gifi4]

Planning to get a new computer soon and I want one with good specs, so any suggestions on what the specs should be like?

I already want a quad core processor or dual core if I can't get a quad core.
USB 2.0 or 3.0.
HDMI
Not sure how much RAM I want, maybe 3 or more Gigs as I'm currently using 1 and it's horrible.

What else should I be looking out for?

 

[Evo.lve]

Get 4Gb of the slowest norm of DDR3 RAM (1067Mhz IIRC), it's actually pretty fast.

If you can afford something better get it.

Um, get an i5 or one of those new AMD APU thingys...

USB3 is pretty much standard on any new mobo, good luck actually finding a decent priced USB3 device though.

That's all I got.

 

[Deleted User]

Planning to get a new computer soon and I want one with good specs, so any suggestions on what the specs should be like?

I already want a quad core processor or dual core if I can't get a quad core.
USB 2.0 or 3.0.
HDMI
Not sure how much RAM I want, maybe 3 or more Gigs as I'm currently using 1 and it's horrible.

What else should I be looking out for?

List your price range. It'll help tremendously, also whether or not you'd be willing to build one.

 

[gifi4]

Planning to get a new computer soon and I want one with good specs, so any suggestions on what the specs should be like?

I already want a quad core processor or dual core if I can't get a quad core.
USB 2.0 or 3.0.
HDMI
Not sure how much RAM I want, maybe 3 or more Gigs as I'm currently using 1 and it's horrible.

What else should I be looking out for?

List your price range. It'll help tremendously, also whether or not you'd be willing to build one.

price range would be anywhere from $0 (lol) to $2500.
I would build it myself but I don't have much knowledge as of yet.

 

[Sop]

Planning to get a new computer soon and I want one with good specs, so any suggestions on what the specs should be like?

I already want a quad core processor or dual core if I can't get a quad core.
USB 2.0 or 3.0.
HDMI
Not sure how much RAM I want, maybe 3 or more Gigs as I'm currently using 1 and it's horrible.

What else should I be looking out for?

List your price range. It'll help tremendously, also whether or not you'd be willing to build one.

price range would be anywhere from $0 (lol) to $2500.
I would build it myself but I don't have much knowledge as of yet.

Holy carp you're rich, the new Macbook Pro's look pretty good, Quad core i7's and ATI Raedon 6870M.

 

[gifi4]

Planning to get a new computer soon and I want one with good specs, so any suggestions on what the specs should be like?

I already want a quad core processor or dual core if I can't get a quad core.
USB 2.0 or 3.0.
HDMI
Not sure how much RAM I want, maybe 3 or more Gigs as I'm currently using 1 and it's horrible.

What else should I be looking out for?

List your price range. It'll help tremendously, also whether or not you'd be willing to build one.

price range would be anywhere from $0 (lol) to $2500.
I would build it myself but I don't have much knowledge as of yet.

Holy carp you're rich, the new Macbook Pro's look pretty good, Quad core i7's and ATI Raedon 6870M.

Kind of after a Desktop Computer, not a laptop, plus I don't really like Mac.

Rich? Not really, we're like $5000 in debt but my dad got a new job and he is paying it off quickly, it was $10,000 a few months ago.

 

[Evo.lve]

I'd highly recommend building your own, it's not that hard and the end result is much better.

 

[gifi4]

I'd highly recommend building your own, it's not that hard and the end result is much better.

Know of any guides? So I don't end up fucking up bad?

 

[Rydian]

Wait.

Do you want to game?

Because if you do you failed to mention the most important part, the video/graphics card.

 

[Deleted User]

Well, a $2500 rig would definitely last you 3-5 years... (Insert massive jealousy here courtesy of GBATemp).

Go the i5/i7 Sandy Bridge route. i5-2500k or i7-2600k both are well within your price range.
They both overclock extremely well considering their price-tag (more emphasis on the i5-2500k here).
RAM is extremely cheap these days, so 4GB / 6GB / 8GB ~ They're all game within your reach.
HDD wise you have several options. You could either go with several 1TB drives, or go with a hybrid mix of
a SSD & a 1TB drive (SSD to boot off of, speed sup load times) etc.
Video Card wise ~ Make the choice to either go w/ a single card or go w/ a crossfire/SLI setup.
I'll just go out on a limb and recommend a Radeon 6850 or GTX 460 as video cards.

You can adjust your price depending on what you want to go with, whether you're after performance, a median, etc.

 

[gifi4]

Wait.

Do you want to game?

Because if you do you failed to mention the most important part, the video/graphics card.

Ofcourse Rydian, was hoping someone would recommend me one lol. What would be a good one?
I2aven's_Sage recommended me the Radeon 6850 or GTX 460, but what would be the best in my price range?

And again, has anyone got a guide or anything to build a computer?

 

[Rydian]

That's a great price range, a 6850 would be my recommendation as well, though depending on what you want to play you might not need that kinda' power, a 5770 might do you just fine for example.

 

[Deleted User]

Well, you have to keep some things in mind. For example, a Radeon 5970 isn't going to be cost-effective if you're only playing on 1440x900 or 1600x900 Resolutions. You have to consider things like what maximum resolution you want to be gaming on; otherwise some cards will be overkill, and money spent on a different card-configuration would be better spent on different parts of your system. Stronger Video Cards are all about being able to play on a higher resolution; so you should really choose your card based on what resolution you'll be playing under.

If you're going with a new monitor as well (part of your new system) then there's also the consideration between 60hz and 120hz. (120hz being the stereotypical 3D setup) (that's also a consideration...) but most professional FPS gamers like to have a 120hz monitor. 1920x1080 60hz would be fine for any modern non-fps game, though, and to be fair, unless you're a professional you won't be able to tell the difference between 60 and 120hz anyway.

You can have driver/setup issues with running cards in SLI or CrossFire, and it may not help all games. StarCraft II for example, doesn't support Cross-Fire or SLI.
2 Cards also creates more heat than one! Building a new computer is mainly going to focus on specialization; for example, if you're going to overclock the i5-2500k or i7-2600k, you'd want to go with a 3rd-party cooling system/heat-sink as opposed to the stock setup.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon...-card,2857.html - Here's a good Graphics Card guide.
Tom's Hardware puts CPU/GPU guides out about once or twice a month depending on the hardware release's.

With your budget you can afford just about whatever video card you want; so it's important to identify the resolution you'll be playing at, and how much you're willing to pay for each component. Video Cards can get --Expensive-- and SLI/Crossfire are often designed so that performance scales.

Nvidia has come up with a card that can challenge the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970's title as the fastest graphics card in the world. The GeForce GTX 580 wins its share of battles against the previously undisputed king-of-the-hill, and while it's outperformed by dual-card solutions like Radeon HD 6870s in CrossFire and GeForce GTX 560s in SLI, the GeForce GTX 580 scores a well-deserved place on the honorable mention list.

So while 2 6870's beats a GTX 580, it's definitely going to put out a lot of heat as well (so is the 580), everything just requires a measure of thought.

 

[gifi4]

I'm loving all these suggestions but this is all assuming I'm building the computer which is why I requested a guide, so does anyone have one for me to use?

 

[Originality]

$2500. That can easily land you the best parts on the market. In fact, $1500 USD would be able to. Here's a PC parts buyer's guide to demonstrate:

Spoiler

It doesn't mention the GTX 580 which is $500 USD and greatly overkill unless you have a huge monitor, but that's still easily within your budget.

Some words of advice though. Intel Sandy Bridge undoubtedly offers the best performance (even beating a 6-core Core i7-980X in some tests), but the motherboards have a design flaw involving the SATAII controller (20-30% of being affected, which will cause the I/O to degrade in 1-3 years rendering them inoperable). SATA III ports are unaffected though, and you can use a PCI-E port to add extra SATA II/III ports as necessary. If you follow Raven's advice and get a SSD and 1TB HDD (along with a DVD drive), you have to keep that in mind as there are only 2 "safe" ports. Revised motherboards with B3-stepping (instead of the faulty B2) are expected in the coming couple of months.

Also, with SSDs, the SandForce 2000 controller is showing up on the market, and the OCZ Vertex 3 (being released in around 3 months) has already shown speeds that completely dominate the current genreation of SSDs. In fact, it's arguably the only SSD to ever show the full potential of a 6Gbs SATA III port - and only Sandy Bridge motherboards can get that (PCI-E based SATAIII controllers have limited bandwidth due to PCI-E design, and non-Sandy Bridge motherboards featuring SATA III use a single PCI-E lane to power it so they have the same restriction). Either way, both the current generation of SSDs and the generation that's just around the corner are much, much faster than HDDs. Also, if you have to get a current generation SSD, the Crucial C300 series are the best on the market.

The only other part of the system to consider is the graphics, but Rydian and Raven have that covered. Consider your needs, consider your monitor, consider your budget. The mid-ranged GTX 560 is plenty powerful for any game at maxed settings and overkill if you've only got a 19" monitor. If you've got a 24" or bigger monitor, you might consider a high-end graphics card like the HD6970 or GTX 570 so you can pump up the AA and AF. Also consider if you want more than one monitor - the HD6970 is ideal for EyeFinite.

EDIT: A 70 year old lady I know can build a computer with YouTube videos. It's relatively easy anyway - open the case, put the back-plate on (comes with the motherboard), ease the motherboard into position, screw it down. Put the power supply in, keep the cables out of the way for now, connect any case fans to the motherboard, then start putting in the HDDs and DVD drive. Connect the front panel connectors to the bottom right of the motherboard, start plugging in the power cables, plug in the SATA cables, plug in the graphics card, plug in the power cables for the graphics card, and use the holes/space in the case to tie up any loose cables. Close motherboard, connect power, and monitor cables, connect keyboard and mouse, boot up Windows/Linux installation CD. Follow the on-screen instructions. Did I forget anything?

 

[gifi4]

$2500. That can easily land you the best parts on the market. In fact, $1500 USD would be able to. Here's a PC parts buyer's guide to demonstrate:

Spoiler

It doesn't mention the GTX 580 which is $500 USD and greatly overkill unless you have a huge monitor, but that's still easily within your budget.

Some words of advice though. Intel Sandy Bridge undoubtedly offers the best performance (even beating a 6-core Core i7-980X in some tests), but the motherboards have a design flaw involving the SATAII controller (20-30% of being affected, which will cause the I/O to degrade in 1-3 years rendering them inoperable). SATA III ports are unaffected though, and you can use a PCI-E port to add extra SATA II/III ports as necessary. If you follow Raven's advice and get a SSD and 1TB HDD (along with a DVD drive), you have to keep that in mind as there are only 2 "safe" ports. Revised motherboards with B3-stepping (instead of the faulty B2) are expected in the coming couple of months.

Also, with SSDs, the SandForce 2000 controller is showing up on the market, and the OCZ Vertex 3 (being released in around 3 months) has already shown speeds that completely dominate the current genreation of SSDs. In fact, it's arguably the only SSD to ever show the full potential of a 6Gbs SATA III port - and only Sandy Bridge motherboards can get that (PCI-E based SATAIII controllers have limited bandwidth due to PCI-E design, and non-Sandy Bridge motherboards featuring SATA III use a single PCI-E lane to power it so they have the same restriction). Either way, both the current generation of SSDs and the generation that's just around the corner are much, much faster than HDDs. Also, if you have to get a current generation SSD, the Crucial C300 series are the best on the market.

The only other part of the system to consider is the graphics, but Rydian and Raven have that covered. Consider your needs, consider your monitor, consider your budget. The mid-ranged GTX 560 is plenty powerful for any game at maxed settings and overkill if you've only got a 19" monitor. If you've got a 24" or bigger monitor, you might consider a high-end graphics card like the HD6970 or GTX 570 so you can pump up the AA and AF. Also consider if you want more than one monitor - the HD6970 is ideal for EyeFinite.

EDIT: A 70 year old lady I know can build a computer with YouTube videos. It's relatively easy anyway - open the case, put the back-plate on (comes with the motherboard), ease the motherboard into position, screw it down. Put the power supply in, keep the cables out of the way for now, connect any case fans to the motherboard, then start putting in the HDDs and DVD drive. Connect the front panel connectors to the bottom right of the motherboard, start plugging in the power cables, plug in the SATA cables, plug in the graphics card, plug in the power cables for the graphics card, and use the holes/space in the case to tie up any loose cables. Close motherboard, connect power, and monitor cables, connect keyboard and mouse, boot up Windows/Linux installation CD. Follow the on-screen instructions. Did I forget anything?

So that's all I've got to do? If so, that's relatively easy, oh before I forget, do I need a bios? How do I install one?

 

[Rydian]

It comes already installed in the motherboard.

 

[gifi4]

It comes already installed in the motherboard.

Cool, thanks, not sure when I'm getting all the parts but it could be a few months, either way it'll be some time this year.

 

[Deleted User]

The only slightly confusing irritating thing for me when we were building my youngest brothers computer was figuring out where all the cables go. If you have a friend or someone you can bring-in to help you plugin the connectors to the right-places it's a breeze.

You might want to look into seeing if you can find a motherboard that supports the new "BIOS" system. UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. If you can't, though, no big deal, just throwing this out there. UEFI - Shaping up to replace the traditional BIOS interface in the future. Basically, though, it's just placing a more user-friendly GUI for BIOS navigation of features (etc).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLwHKHqBitc...embedded#at=112 - a video of UEFI in action ~ just thought you'd like to see how it compares to what you're probably used to anyhow.

As far as some additional tips go; I'll just say this since it hasn't been mentioned yet. Do not skimp out on the power supply. It's the most important part of your system; and it should be managed by a name-brand, not an obscure 3rd party PSU.

 

[Originality]

Obscure 3rd party PSUs have a tendancy to blow up. That's why it's always recommended to go for recognized brand PSUs like OCZ, Corsair, Tagan, Antec, Enermax, etc.

Also getting a modular PSU is very helpful, in that you only have as many wires plugged in as you actually need (so you don't have to tie up a whole bunch of unused power cables). For most people, that would mean 1 graphics power cable and 1 or 2 SATA power cables plugged in, whilst the others are left out.

Last bit of advice I can think of... pick a good case. You want plenty of airflow but you also want it to be big enough for your graphics card and you want it to look awesome from the outside. There's a huge range of cases to choose from, so take these "months" to pick out a good one. I use an Antec 1200 because it has better airflow than most cases and is big enough for any graphics card.