Hello, I have been thinking about building a PC (for school and gaming) for the first time and think I found a decent build. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to take a look at it. The main thing I am concerned about is if things are all compatible. I THINK they are, but idk if I can trust Newegg's info on products or not, I've only used them for a few cables here and there. Link to public wishlist is there. Also, can anyone tell me if that is a decent graphics card for gaming? I'm not looking for Crysis at 60 fps, more like Oblivion and Skyrim (I'm assuming I will be ok on the Skyrim front as it will be on PS3 and 360 too). The main reason I am getting that GFX card atm is because it has triple monitor support. I have 1 monitor already but plan to supplement it with 2 more later.

Also, I know it lacks RAM, I have 4 sticks of DDR2 1Gb (2 Rendition, 2 Samsung, all same speed). If anyone has a good suggestion for a minimum 4x1Gb DDR3 1333 RAM that will work well on this build please suggest it. Thanks in advance.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10708649

That motherboard doesn't support DDR2, and 2x2GB is preferrable to 4x1GB, so you can expand later.

Are you planning on getting an HDD too? 60GB may not cut it for games and OS.

How are you going to install Windows with no DVD drive? :tongue:

If you post an amount you'd like to spend, it will be a lot easier to help. I can assume it's the total in the wishlist, but maybe you're fine with spending more, or would like to spend less than that if possible.

Lol I had a DVD drive, I forgot to save it. Oh and I have a 2 TB drive I use with my laptop (via an external drive bay). I plan to throw that in, or one of the other 4-5 HDDs I have. I guess I need RAM too so I'll add that. The wishlist is updated so take a peek. Trying not to break $1000 but could potentially go up to $1100

A price would be helpful to go by. Also while a SSD is great, its really fast storage, but not a lot of space. I would try to get a HDD in there as well. You may want to save a bit by getting the 955 instead. It is the same chip, just clocked a bit slower, which you always overclock anyway.

Edit-Also, it is a bit late to be building PCs without any/either USB 3.0 or SATA III 6Gbps now. I would atleast shoot for a mobo to use one of the newer standards. (While you cannot really "futureproof" yourself in the tech world, it can always help to have some of the newest features.

It can be done. Trust me.

So is Crysis 2...and that will look better and need mroe pwoer than the original one did so I'm actually expecting Skyrim's requirements to be similar to Crysis 1.

You won't be able to play games off an external HDD because of the USB 2.0 bottleneck. Though it can work for storage. I'd recommend either using one of the internal HDD you have lying around or just buying a new one since they are fairly cheap.

I wouldn't buy an SSD on a <1000 build as the money could be allocated for more potent hardware or saved.

There are a couple of different ways to do it. For example, create a virtual machine, install Windows 7 in there, then clone the virtual machine hard drive to your real hard drive using one of a handful of tools that exists for the job

http://blog.ryantadams.com/2008/02/01/how-to-boot-from-the-network-pxe-boot-with-tftp-and-windows-pe/

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/12/-the-usb-flash-drive.ars/

Shhhh.

Anyways as it shows on the Wishlist between the Mobo and the Case I have plenty of spots to throw a secondary and even a 3rd or 4th HDD if I wanted to lol. But anyone got any info on how well this will actually work?

Well as long as you actually have enough places to plug them in and a PSU that can power them I see no reason it wouldn't work fine.

I'd skip the SSD for anything under $1100, and that can be your first upgrade.

See this:
http://i51.tinypic.com/xauxrk.png

$880 before rebates, and without a HDD and motherboard. You'll have to wait a couple weeks for the P67 motherboards to be in stock, and that will pretty much make it just under $1100. If you want to spend less, and not have to wait, you can go Phenom II X4 955 and an AM3 motherboard.

You found a build you like and you're sticking to it, aren't ya?

Thats a nice build, but I really don't want to spend all $1100 if I can avoid it. I will probably drop the SSD but besides that is my current system a good build?

Well, if it wasn't what I thought was best for the price, I wouldn't have suggested in the first place :vaultboy:


965 can be dropped down to a 955. They're the same CPU, with the 965 you're paying more for a pre-overclocked CPU. A couple button presses in BIOS and a 955 becomes a 965.
The PSU is overpriced for being only 550w and non-modular.
I'd ditch the SSD and spend much more on the GPU. The 5770 is a great card for the price, but there's much better out there if you can spend more.

Did what you suggested, I suppose I will throw 1 or 2 of my old HDDs in instead of the SSD. Any suggestions on the graphics card to switch in? If I take out my current one I have like 340 additional monies to throw at my system. So I COULD buy a really nice 300 dollar graphics card or I could do something else. Also, please keep in mind that my graphics card needs to be able to do a triple monitor setup with ease, preferable through DVI as My current monitor doesn't have an HDMI and I don't want to upgrade that if I don't have to.

I'd go with a 6950 2GB. Under $300, and you can drive 3 monitors with eyefinity, but one HAS to use displayport for triple monitors from one card. There are 2 DVI ports, and then you'd just need one DisplayPort to DVI adapter.

Already intended to do it like that. Good find. Any final suggestions looking at the current wishlist? I think this is a good build, I have to wait until I get my taxes filed and returned, which should be tomorrow for filing and who knows for the return.

Very good chance that card be unlocked to perform just as well as a Radeon 6970 by a simple flash of the BIOS. I have an XFX2GB Radeon 6950 and iGuess I believe has a Sapphire model. We've both managed to successfully unlocked the shaders on our cards and overclock them to Radeon 6970 speeds. It's probably the best bang for buck card on the market right now.