Compatibility test

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Dillon129812

Posts: 25   +0
Hi I was wondering if anyone could help me with putting together a desktop pc from scratch. I haven't done this before and I was wondering if someone could help me in determining if these parts will go together. I looking to build a gaming pc. These are the parts I'm hoping can go together. If there is a better deal or better performance system for the same budget I would be glad to know. :)

CPU: AMD - FD4170FRGUBOX
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-990FXA-UD5
Memory: Corsair - CMV16GX3M2A1333C9
SSD: Corsair - CSSD-F120GBGT-BK
HDD: Western Digital - WD30EZRX
Case: Antec - LANBOYAIR-RED
Video Card: EVGA - 01G-P3-1563-KR
Sound Card: ASUS - Xonar-DX
PSU: Antec - EA-750-GREEN
Moniter: Acer - S240HL
Blu-Ray Burner: Panasonic - UJ-240
Wireless Card: D-Link - DWA-525
Moniter: Acer - S240HL
Mouse: Logitech - 910-001773
Keyboard: CoolerMaster - SGK-4000-GKCC1
Network Card - Wired: INTELLINET - 522328
OS: Either Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8 Release Preview
Webcam: Microsoft - 7PD-00005
 
Hi Dillon, there's a few things that you could tell us to help us help you.
1. Do you have a budget?
2. Are you willing to buy online?
3. What is your intended usage for this PC? Anything other than gaming?
4. Do you require any specific parts?

as for your current list, It looks OK, but I would make some changes.

firstly, switch the AMD FX-4170 out for an intel i5. I run an FX-6100 in my rig, and it performs nicely, but it's not so great for intense gaming (BF3, Metro 2033, Crysis, etc.) I'd go with the intel i5 3570K or the 2500K. A nice Motherboard to go along with that CPU would be the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H, which is around $175.
Also, I'd suggest you look into getting an aftermarket Heatsink for your CPU. the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO is insanely good for the price of around $35, so I highly recommend that.
Next, the EVGA GTX560Ti is a great choice for gaming, but at around $330 (AUD) it's a bit pricey, and you'd be happier with a HD7870 or a GTX570. here are four cards I'd recommend:

AMD: Sapphire Radeon HD7870 2GB GHz - $320
or if you're willing to spend a little extra: MSI R7950 - $369
both these cards would outperform a 560Ti, plus they're PCI3.0

NVIDIA: ASUS GTX570 - $309
or if you're willing to spend a little extra: Gigabyte GTX670 - $399
these cards would absolutely demolish any game when paired up with a 3570K or a 2500K.

my personal recommendation would be:
CPU: intel i5 3570K
GPU: MSI R7950
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H - $175
HSF: Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO - $35

this list is just my opinion, so feel free to disregard :3

Anyway, moving on, the rest of the parts seem good, it's just those few things I wanted to point out. I'm sure other techspotters will help soon enough too.
Good luck :)
 
Ok thanks a lot for your help! :) I did have a fairly low budget. I was looking to spend about $1000-$1300 but I think I have gone well over that now haha. Yes I was planning on buying online so I get the models etc. that I wanted. Are there any websites you know of that are good for these sorts of things? Um I just wanted a PC that was going to be fast and able to play game at high settings as well as multi-tasking and just running things well and fast and not slowing down, freezing or crashing. :) What do you mean by specific parts? Thanks again your advice was much appreciated! :)
 
Also with the CPU wouldn't the one I had one my list be better than an intel i5 as the intel has 3.4 Ghz and the AMD has 4.2 Ghz? I don't know a lot about this stuff so your probably right I just noticed this that's all.
 
Also sorry for all the questions but I noticed the cheaper motherboard which you suggested has lots of USB 3.0 ports and HDMI which the motherboard I had on my list did not. This got me interested in this board rather than the other one but would this board work, keeping the other parts? Are the other parts on my list compatable with this board do you know?
 
to answer your first question, even though the AMD has 4.2GHz and the intel has 3.4GHz, it makes pretty much zero difference. the architecture of the CPU is what matters. The intel has much better architecture, meaning that even if the AMD was running at 4.2GHz, it wouldn't overtake the intel at stock speeds.
also, regarding the motherboard, the one I recommended is an intel socket 1155 motherboard, with a z77 chipset, meaning it will most definitely NOT work your originally selected AMD socket AM3+ CPU
and by specific parts I meant if you had a preference of (a) part(s), we could work it into the build. for example, I wanted a 6-core CPU, but I didnt want to spend like $500 on an intel one, so I went with the $160 AMD FX-6100.
any more questions, go right ahead and ask!
 
Ok so if I change the motherboard and the CPU to your suggestions every thing else will be OK to go with the new motherboard? Also are there any websites you change suggest to buy the parts from?
 
yep everything else should be fine. I'd still advise you to look into a different graphics card though.
If you're in the US, definetely go with Newegg.com or Tigerdirect.com
if you're in the UK I beleive it is SCAN.co.uk
and Australia has a number of options, I use MSY.com.au.
 
xcylent said:
to answer your first question, even though the AMD has 4.2GHz and the intel has 3.4GHz, it makes pretty much zero difference. the architecture of the CPU is what matters. The intel has much better architecture, meaning that even if the AMD was running at 4.2GHz, it wouldn't overtake the intel at stock speeds.
also, regarding the motherboard, the one I recommended is an intel socket 1155 motherboard, with a z77 chipset, meaning it will most definitely NOT work your originally selected AMD socket AM3+ CPU
and by specific parts I meant if you had a preference of (a) part(s), we could work it into the build. for example, I wanted a 6-core CPU, but I didnt want to spend like $500 on an intel one, so I went with the $160 AMD FX-6100.
any more questions, go right ahead and ask!
Click to expand...
What you were saying here about the $500 intel 6 core CPU and the AMD one where the AMD is the same but cheaper does this mean that AMD CPU's are cheaper for the same thing but intel ones are better quality and more expensive and have better stuff inside like you were saying something about earlier?
 
Also there are two of the GA-Z77X-UD3H Gigabyte motherboards which came up when I searched. One had BT and Wifi and one didn't. If I get the one with the wifi/BT is it pre-installed and ready to go once I install an OS or does it require drivers or a wifi adapter sold separately or something the wifi on the motherboard?
 
One more thing haha :) With the case I have choosen do you know if the motherboard and everything else will fit in it and are the correct size for it because I have heard some motherboards are to big for some cases. And do you know how I can find out which fans are made for it? Because it says I can put up to 15 or something fans in it but I don't think it said what model the fans were or anything.
 
to answer your first question, the AMD vs Intel debate is pretty intense,but I think this will give you a semi decent idea of what it's all about: http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/wkwtj/amd_vs_intel/
Anyway, the basic difference between the two is that AMD= better bang for buck, and intel=much better performance, but at a higher price.
and yeah, the main reason I got my CPU (AMD FX-6100, 3.3GHz, 6-core) was because I do quite a lot of CPU - intensive tasks so I thought I'd better go for 6 Cores. Otherwise I would've gotten an intel i3 2120 which performs around the same as the FX-6100 in gaming, buuuut it's only dual core, and I wanted hexa core. to be honest, I'm very happy with my CPU, it runs things nice and fast.
But I know that there are much better CPU's out there (anything from the intel i5 range will outperform an AMD FX series CPU in gaming & rendering) .
anyway, as I said earlier, I was on a very VERY tight budget of sub $850, so as I said, I couldn't really go spending a bucket load on an intel CPU- soooo I went with the 'Bang for Buck' option, which the FX-6100 fulfilled perfectly.
anyway, it's ultimately up to you, but since you're not on a super tight budget like I was, I'd recommend you fork out the extra cash and put it to use on the i5-3570K. It would be well worth it.

and to answer your second question, I went with MSY because one of their stores is like 10 minutes drive from my house, and also because they were the cheapest option (by about $30, but since I was on a budget I needed to save every cent ahaha)

I hope I cleared some things up for you :D

perhaps, review your list and then run it by us one more time?
 
Dillon129812 said:
Also there are two of the GA-Z77X-UD3H Gigabyte motherboards which came up when I searched. One had BT and Wifi and one didn't. If I get the one with the wifi/BT is it pre-installed and ready to go once I install an OS or does it require drivers or a wifi adapter sold separately or something the wifi on the motherboard?
Click to expand...

unfortunately I'm not sure, since I have no hands-on experience with that board. hopefully somebody else can contribute?
 
Dillon129812 said:
One more thing haha :) With the case I have choosen do you know if the motherboard and everything else will fit in it and are the correct size for it because I have heard some motherboards are to big for some cases. And do you know how I can find out which fans are made for it? Because it says I can put up to 15 or something fans in it but I don't think it said what model the fans were or anything.
Click to expand...

that's easy to answer. the case you chose (lanboy air) fits mini-ITX, micro-ATX, and standard ATX sizes. The motherboard I recommended for you is standard ATX and will fit just fine.
as for the fans, that's even easier. The lanboy air comes with 2x 120mm front fans, 1 rear 120mm, and 2x 120mm side panel fans.
that's a total of 5 case fans, which is more than enough. but if you do want to add more fans (which I'd say is highly unessential since it already comes with 5 fans pre-installed), you could add 2x 120mm fan for CPU and RAM cooling, 6x 120mm side drive bay fans, or 2x120mm top fans. that's pretty insane airflow, and in my opinion, highly unnecessary.

feel free to disregard this next bit since it's my personal opinion

If it were up to me, I'd switch cases completely, since $210 for me is waaaaay too much to spend on just a case. I'm perfectly happy with my $110 corsair carbide 400r, which is incredible for the price (I'd highly advise you take a look at some of corsair's cases!)
plus I personally am not a fan of the lanboy cases.
 
xcylent said:
to answer your first question, the AMD vs Intel debate is pretty intense,but I think this will give you a semi decent idea of what it's all about: http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/wkwtj/amd_vs_intel/
Anyway, the basic difference between the two is that AMD= better bang for buck, and intel=much better performance, but at a higher price.
and yeah, the main reason I got my CPU (AMD FX-6100, 3.3GHz, 6-core) was because I do quite a lot of CPU - intensive tasks so I thought I'd better go for 6 Cores. Otherwise I would've gotten an intel i3 2120 which performs around the same as the FX-6100 in gaming, buuuut it's only dual core, and I wanted hexa core. to be honest, I'm very happy with my CPU, it runs things nice and fast.
But I know that there are much better CPU's out there (anything from the intel i5 range will outperform an AMD FX series CPU in gaming & rendering) .
anyway, as I said earlier, I was on a very VERY tight budget of sub $850, so as I said, I couldn't really go spending a bucket load on an intel CPU- soooo I went with the 'Bang for Buck' option, which the FX-6100 fulfilled perfectly.
anyway, it's ultimately up to you, but since you're not on a super tight budget like I was, I'd recommend you fork out the extra cash and put it to use on the i5-3570K. It would be well worth it.

and to answer your second question, I went with MSY because one of their stores is like 10 minutes drive from my house, and also because they were the cheapest option (by about $30, but since I was on a budget I needed to save every cent ahaha)

I hope I cleared some things up for you :D

perhaps, review your list and then run it by us one more time?
Click to expand...
So as long as I don't multitask and just have one thing big thing open at a time the CPU you recommended will be good? Is that what you mean? And with the PSU I'm not sure if I included one in the list but how big will it need to be to run all of these things do you know and what will fit inside the case? :) I'll put up a new list now.
 
And one more thing do you know anything about SSD's? I've heard it is good to have an SSD and an HDD installed in a PC but what do you put on either of them like what do you store on either one do you know? :)
 
well the i5-3570K is an absolute beast of a CPU so you'll have no trouble whatsoever with multitasking, gaming, or anything at all. plus it's overclockable if for some reason you want extra speed.
your PSU is fine, 750W is more than enough. although I'd probably go with a corsair HX-650 as it'd be much more suited to your build wattage-wise, plus it's modular, sleeved cables, and will run ANYTHING you plug into it (unless youre using like 3 graphics cards and 5 Hard drives at once). I have a HX-650 in my computer, so from my hands-on experience so far I can tell you this is one incredible power supply, and I'm sure others will agree with me. It's something like $130, not 100% sure.
also most PSU's will fit in almost any case these days, but make sure to post a final list of your parts so we can double-check it :)
 
Dillon129812 said:
And one more thing do you know anything about SSD's? I've heard it is good to have an SSD and an HDD installed in a PC but what do you put on either of them like what do you store on either one do you know? :)
Click to expand...

ermmm well an SSD is a Solid State Drive, think of it like a giant USB stick on steroids that you use for mass storage.
it's pros are that it is ridiculously fast, you'll get boot times of like 8-10 seconds if you install windows onto it. plus the general read/write speeds will be outrageously faster than any Mechanical Hard Drive.
it's cons are that it's expensive, and has less space than most mechanical hard drives.

If you were to get a SSD and a HDD, you'd want to install windows and all your core files onto the SSD (because that's where the speed is needed, right?) and you put all your movies/games/music/other onto the hard drive.
 
Here is the list with the changes:
CPU: Intel - BX80637I53570K
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-Z77X-UD3H-WB
RAM: Corsair - CMV16GX3M2A1333C9
SSD: Corsair - CSSD-F120GBGT-BK
HHD: Western Digital - WD30EZRX
Case: Antec - LANBOYAIR-RED
Blu-Ray Burner: Panasonic - UJ-240
Video Card: MSI - R7950-2PMD3GD5OC
Sound Card: ASUS - Xonar-DX
Wireless Card: D-Link - DWA-525 (Not sure if I need this)
Moniter: Acer - S240HL
Keyboard: CoolerMaster - SGK-4000-GKCC1
Mouse: Logitech - 910-001773
Is this all good in your opinion? :)

(Also which OS do you recommend?)
 
xcylent said:
ermmm well an SSD is a Solid State Drive, think of it like a giant USB stick on steroids that you use for mass storage.
it's pros are that it is ridiculously fast, you'll get boot times of like 8-10 seconds if you install windows onto it. plus the general read/write speeds will be outrageously faster than any Mechanical Hard Drive.
it's cons are that it's expensive, and has less space than most mechanical hard drives.

If you were to get a SSD and a HDD, you'd want to install windows and all your core files onto the SSD (because that's where the speed is needed, right?) and you put all your movies/games/music/other onto the hard drive.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks yeah I had noticed the SSD's were a lot more expensive than the HDD's with GB's.
 
looks much better now :)

although one thing I forgot to mention is that 16GB of RAM is pretty insane, because 16GB is MONSTROUS. you will never ever EVER fill 16GB if you're not running any insanely high RAM taxing programs.
Right now, I have 8 tabs of google chrome open, skyrim, and music playing. with my 8GB, it only put the RAM under 45% meaning out of my 8GB, I still have around 4 whole GB of RAM to fill. now with 16GB I consider that extremely Overkill. If you downgrade to 8GB of RAM (which would still be overkill, just not as much lol) you save a good $70. I'd suggest: Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB (2X4GB). this RAM is much cheaper, at around $65, plus it's faster than your original 16GB.

as for the OS I'd recommend Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. get the OEM edition, (don't worry about what OEM means) for around $95. and professional or ultimate have no advantage over home edition, except for some stupid added features I can't even remember because they're useless.+
 
you know what, why don't I just make an entire build for you. you can tell me whether you like it or not.

also since you live in victoria, use www.pccasegear.com
go ahead and make an account on their website (takes like 2 mins) because you'll need the account.

once you've made an account and you're logged in, click on this link:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=wish_lists&wlcId=76444&action=wish_lists

it's the build I made for you.

for those without an account, these are the parts:

Case: Corsair Carbide 400r
CPU: intel i5 3570K
CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO
Graphics Card: MSI R7870 Hawk 2GB
SSD: Samsung 830 series 128GB
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
BluRay Burner: LG CH12LS28 12X
Power Supply: Corsair HX-650
Monitor: ASUS VE247H 23.6" LED 1920x1080
Mouse: Logitech G700
Keyboard: CM QuickFire Pro Cherry Black mechanical keyboard
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DX
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

TOTAL: $1958

so to sum it up, that is an absolute monster for under 2k. It could demolish any game or task you throw at it. If I were you, I'd get that. but then again, it is your choice to do whatever you want so you can feel free to completely disregard this if you'd like:3
 
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