Building a PC from Scratch

[Oishi]

Hey fellas!

I'm trying to build a PC from scratch, and I have no idea what I'm doing. I bought a PC several years ago, it's already assembled, and it sucks. It could barely play Homefront. (14.37 fps, low settings ftw) I've already looked up several prebuilt PCs on the internet, but it's nowhere near the power of a custom built PC. I'd pretty much appreciate it if someone here who could give me a template of their own PCs (as I said, I have no idea how to even start building a PC). I don't mind how much it's gonna cost, I just wanna play decently.

So where do I start? Should I buy an i7 or others (like amd)? What's the best graphics card today? Nvidia or Radeon? How much ram should I put on? What brand is most dependable? Where would I buy a computer casing ? And how do I put a cooling system on the PC (planning to overclock it really high)?

I've also read sites about building a PC, but none of those helped me (extremely noob). Thanks to those that would help me in my greatest debacle in life.

 

[Furiey]

I was going to build one myself when I got this one, but I found that the local computer shop would put one together to the required spec for less than I could buy the components.

 

[Souron]

The big question is how much are you looking to spend?


And there's nothing "from scratch" about building a pc.

 

[Oishi]

My budget for a PC is about $3000.

 

[Zelig]

My budget for a PC is about $3000.

You can get a pretty bangin' PC for $3000, I was just pricing one this morning for myself:

Keep in mind that this PC would be wasted on any sub 30" monitor.

 

[Oishi]

You can get a pretty bangin' PC for $3000, I was just pricing one this morning for myself:

Keep in mind that this PC would be wasted on any sub 30" monitor.

Wait. Is Xeon better than i7?

Thanks for the template, but I don't think these parts are available on the other side of the world (*sigh* yeah, tough luck for me). I'll post what parts I could find.

 

[civ_king]

My budget for a PC is about $3000.

Decently? For $3000? You could probably make a good computer for under $2000

 

[GoodGame]

The big question is how much are you looking to spend?

And also what kind of electric bill you can afford per month.

My advice:

1. Research the basics of building a PC. E.g. watch how to assemble a PC videos.
2. Don't order parts until step 5. Design your ideal PC based on the specifications of software and other uses you have in mind for your computer
3. Research your design down to part-to-part interactions. Some parts just don't work well together, sometimes do to undocumented nuances. The internet is very useful at this point.
4. Research reliable suppliers of parts. If a company has a record of poor customer service, consider not ordering from them/through them.
5. Order and build before your return period ends. You typically have a short time to return a bad CPU in---usually measured in days.

 

[Speedo]

Decently? For $3000? You could probably make a good computer for under $2000

If you're just building a computer itself (don't need to buy monitors, speakers, etc) you can build a very good computer for under $1000. $3000 will pretty much buy a top of the line PC.

My advice:

1. Research the basics of building a PC. E.g. watch how to assemble a PC videos.

When you do your research, IMO, get off of CFC and go to an actual hardware forum like Anandtech, Hardocp, Techpowerup, etc. It's not that you'll get bad advice here. It's just that you'll get much better advice there.

 

[tokala]

The one exception would be if you want a PC specifically for Civ5, with other stuff only as an afterthought.

As already mentioned, you can get a pretty powerful PC for around $1000, if you want to spend more, you will get increasingly diminishing returns.

And the combination of self-declared hardware-noob and lots of money to burn just screams for a pre-assembled system. It shouldn't be impossible to find as decent shop that will do the compatibility research and assembly for you. Probably something like 10-20% more expensive compared to self-built, and that might even include some warranty and help in case something goes wrong.

My recommendations:
- i5-2500 or i7-2600 (the XEON is basically the same thing a bit more expensive)
- matching mainboard in $100 class
- 8 GB RAM (only 4 GB are really useful, but it's just THAT cheap at the moment)
- Intel SSD 320 Series 160GB as primary system drive, some 1-2 TB HDD as datadump
- brand name PSU in the 500W/$80 range
- case whatever, should be well ventilated (i.e. big, slow fans)
- Win7 64 bit
- Video card: if Civ5 is not the primary purpose for your computer, there's a Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Extreme floating around at the moment for a price that's just imposible to beat. Otherwise the GTX 460, 768 MB if you have a 24" or smaller display, 1024 MB for 27" or larger.

 

[Zelig]

the XEON is basically the same thing a bit more expensive

Yeah, I'm just using the Xeon for my built so I can use the 8GB sticks, which are only available in ECC memory.

 

[illram]

Cyberpower and ibuypower allow a lot of customization for pre-built PCs and are pretty cheap, I have not heard anything bad about them and I have asked around. Not sure about international shipping if you're not in the US though.

I concur with others that if you are very very new to PC builds and hardware in general (e.g., you've never swapped out a video card or an HD or done any hardware changes in a PC before) you might want to go with a pre-built system, and then upgrade it as you go along and gain experience. Putting together a PC is not very complicated but if you are starting without basic knowledge on where the hardware goes or how to troubleshoot problems it could be a huge headache for you. Just a caveat emptor though, it's very fun to build your own PC so as long as you know the risks more power to you!

 

[Fëanor]

€282 MB: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7
€248 CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K
€67 CPU Cooler: Prolimatech SuperMega + Thermalright TY-140
€76 RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 kit
€415 GPU(s): 2x MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5
€470 Main HDD: Intel 510 250GB
€170 Secondary HDD: Crucial m4 64GB 64GB + Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (combined using SSD Caching)
€120 Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
€153 PSU: Corsair AX850
€21 Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS324
€23 Sound: ASUS Xonar DG

Total: €2045 (2927 U.S. dollars)