# Building a PC



## xxfluffypunkxx (Apr 1, 2013)

Have you ever built a PC at home.. if soo how?!?

What kind of cooling did you use.. what kind of processor?


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## Cylon (Mar 15, 2013)

I built my pc last year by searching for explanations and tutorials on google, it helped me alot! The cooling and processor is ofcourse relative to your budget, you should search around a bit =)


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

xxfluffypunkxx said:


> Have you ever built a PC at home.. if soo how?!?
> 
> What kind of cooling did you use.. what kind of processor?


 I built one when this was a computer....










It had an 8088 processor (I think).

The next closest thing I did was bought a new case for my Gateway (I didn't like the case and wanted fans for my hard drives) and swapped all the parts.


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> I have built my first pc a few months ago.
> Watch Linus tech tips or newegg for basics on how to build a pc.
> 
> I am currently using air cooling with the stock intel cooler. (I will upgrade when I need to overclock).
> ...


You won't need to overclock. And why would you overclock an ivy to begin with? I mean other than to prove how silly it is.


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## Johnny Canuck (Mar 16, 2013)

I actually built computers as one of my previous jobs, and honestly once you get one under your belt it's not to difficult. Most of the parts really only fit in a particular spot and a particular way. If your finding that your having to put a lot of effort in to get a part to go in you may want to double check your putting it in right. Also, this is a big thing to watch out for but make sure you don't bend pins on the cpu/socket when putting it in. They only fit in one way and this is usually indicated by notches on the processor and socket. It is possible to bend them back but it is tricky and if a pin snaps your done. Also a lot of motherboards require a secondary power connection from the power supply so aside from the regular 20/24 pin power connector it may require a second four pin connector. Same with newer video cards. The front panel switches can be a little tricky to connect but your motherboard should come with diagrams showing how to connect them. I just use air cooling in my systems and honestly most coolers come with paste pre-applied to them so it's not bad to snap them in place. Good luck and if you have any questions just ask.

Cheers


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> My processor is made to overclock (has the K symbol).what is wrong with Ivy bridge anyway? Why wouldn't you want to overclock? It is free (if you could cool it well enough) and boosts your performance.


It wasn't "made" to be overclocked, it's just unlocked so you /can/ overclock it.

The problem with ivy bridge is that they run really hot and draw a lot more power when you overvoltage. You get better performance out of sandy bridge. Further, there's literally no consumer application that's going to require that level of processing power.


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## LifeSuckz (Aug 20, 2012)

I have a water-cooled PC. Quad radiator with Koolance 370 heatsink. Intel 3770k OC'd to 4.5 Ghz. GeForce GTX 690. I play games maxed out. This is my 3rd built.


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## hammerfast (Mar 8, 2012)

i got an i5 with a crappy american heatsink


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## JustAPhase (Mar 4, 2013)

My processor is an Intel® Core™ i7-3970X Extreme Edition Six-Core @ 3.50 GHz
Cooling system: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan
RAM: 64GB (I have eight 8GB sticks) DDR3. Corsair Vengenace brand. 
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX TITAN 6Gb.
I use an SSD for my games and all that stuff. I keep school files and such on an external hardrive.

I love my PC. It's a real powerhouse.


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## JustAPhase (Mar 4, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> your 17
> 
> how can you even afford that dude? your still in school
> 
> ps. it's darn awesome though


Having no friends or a life gets you a lot of time. I've saved money over the summer working various jobs. It's not like I have bills to pay! Thanks though, I'm very proud of my desktop! It's my pride and joy.


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## JustAPhase (Mar 4, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> That's awesome
> 
> I have an antec 1200 v3 gaming case. It is gigantic and it has 3 120mm intake fans.
> 
> ...


Googled it, that's a pretty sick case! Cleaning it often must be a pain though.

I haven't invested in a good case yet, most of my money went to processor and my gpu. But there isn't any feeling better than being able to brag about running a game maxed out, that nobody even likes to actually PLAY. (Cough cough CRYSIS.)


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

I have a lian-li right now. Got it for $80.


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## JustAPhase (Mar 4, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> How many fps do you get on pong ?


You're crazy. I can't run that game!
I need like an Intel i10 Octacore!


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

lian-li makes the best cases

No one makes better cases. No one.

It's a great case, well worth the money and a complete steal at what I bought it. It's a very minimalist design, which I like.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

Sacrieur said:


> lian-li makes the best cases
> 
> No one makes better cases. No one.
> 
> It's a great case, well worth the money and a complete steal at what I bought it. It's a very minimalist design, which I like.


 For the price, the $40 NZXT case I bought for my PC is impossible to beat. And it's very minimalist. Probably the only thing you and I agree on. I love simplistic design.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

Cheap cases end up being rattle cages with poor ventilation and limited functionality, no thanks. I'll have my $250 Coolmaster full tower case thank you.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

Noca said:


> Cheap cases end up being rattle cages with poor ventilation and limited functionality, no thanks. I'll have my $250 Coolmaster full tower case thank you.


 Rattles are easy to fix. The only one I've ever had was a simple fix with poster putty from the dollar store.

I have 3 120mm fans in my cheapo case right now (Two blowing on the hard drives and one in back) and room for four more. Not exactly poor ventilation. I'd have preferred to have filters though. This one didn't came with those. I think I can improvise some.

I'm not saying I would never pay $250 for a nicer case but I can't afford it. For someone like me, paying that much for a utilitarian item like a case when I can spend much less and get over 90% of what I need would be crazy. I'm not trying to build anything special but you could build a pretty nice system in this case if you wanted to

And most of all, if I was going to pay much more for a case, it wouldn't make sense unless the components were also high grade. My motherboard probably wouldn't have cost much more than $60 off the shelf brand new. My hard drives and my APU are the only things in my system that I'd really feel the pain if I had to replace.

My last system survived 6-7 years in a basic Emachines case. This one is more than adequate.


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## FunkyMonkey (Nov 26, 2012)

I built my own a few years ago from my xmas money cost me about £150 (all 2nd hand parts from ebay) It could play crysis and anygame I tried but now its old and sucks, 
I bought a new graphics card 3 days ago, it came yesterday and its AWSOME my comp plays anything i've tried so far with no lag  
Heres the card. (2gb) cost me £122.99
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200912571259?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649









My plans was to buy a CPU 8gbram and motherboard bundle for around £200 next week but since my comp is running perfect with this card alone I probably wont bother 
I got Quadcore 2.8ghz processor and 4gb ddr2 OCZ memory in atm.


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## TheExplosionist (Apr 13, 2009)

Ahvav said:


> Oh that makes sense. (is it because of the 22nm die instead of the 32nm one?


Unlike Sandybridge and Wolfdale which had soldered on IHS, Ivybridge uses paste due to longterm stability problems with solder cracking leaving air gaps.


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## Saekon (Jan 13, 2010)

I'll be building my own PC soon'ish (it's my first time :blush) . Just waiting for the parts to arrive. Up till now I've only ever used laptops but since discovering Steam I've also discovered the need for a real machine!


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## Futures (Aug 27, 2005)

I'm planning on building my first PC soon. Still debating between 3770K or 3930K. I don't game at all but I do quite a bit of full HD video editing and music creation.


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## maninabox (Aug 23, 2012)

I have the older i7 980X water cooled. I haven't upgraded anything on my computer except for the RAM in like 2 years.


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

Ahvav is right, with GPU acceleration nowadays there's actually not that big of a need for a strong CPU.


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## JustAPhase (Mar 4, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> But if you are video editing, an ssd or a very fast hard drive is a must


An SSD drive is a must, period. HDD drives disgust me. They're only good for storing documents.


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> But if you are video editing, an ssd or a very fast hard drive is a must


No HDD I know of, not even SCSI ones, come close to SSD speeds.


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> I have the Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD1000DHTZ 1TB 10000 RPM HDD in my computer and an OCZ Vertex ssd as a boot drive.
> 
> The hard drive is VERY fast *for a hard drive.* But it still doesn't compare to my ssd.


Vertex II or III? I'm running a III right now and I never have to wait for anything ever.


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> Sorry I misspelled that. I have the OCZ Vector (very similar names, I know)


How is that new controller treating you? OCZ has really surprised everyone with their SSD quality and speed.


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## DarkIceDragon (Apr 20, 2013)

*I haz a little question....*

Can someone check this build out?
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/BiA

Budget is a factor


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## DarkIceDragon (Apr 20, 2013)

Ahvav said:


> Very nice, but I would probably go with a little more expensive power supply (don't buy cheap power supplies), I would recommend corsair for power supplies. You will also definitely need more ram. If you want to save some money, you may want to remove the cd drive because it is not needed at this day and age. You may also want an hdd with a bit more storage, you can get a 1.5tb hdd for about 15 dollars extra
> 
> But very nice selection though.


Thanks for the tips ^^.
I finally had the guts to tell my folks that I wanted another PC. Lol 

Seeing as most of the games I buy are still CDs, and plus I watch quite a few movies too, i'll be keeping the drive. I'm thinking of adding a card reader too.


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## TheExplosionist (Apr 13, 2009)

Sacrieur said:


> How is that new controller treating you? OCZ has really surprised everyone with their SSD quality and speed.


Samsug 840 Pro is the best SSD at the moment.

OCZ still have a bad rep for the high failure rate.


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## Saekon (Jan 13, 2010)

Here's my build. You'll probably notice a lack of monitors, I'm planning to use my TV as the monitor and if that really, really doesn't work out I'll consider buying a real one. I also already have the peripherals but since I'll be using them with the PC I figured I'd add them too. I'll probably add some more non-stock fans as well later on, but only after I've put it together and see how it copes.

P.S. case is overkill on size, I know. More so once I get around to setting up a NAS, but that's all the better!


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

TheExplosionist said:


> Samsug 840 Pro is the best SSD at the moment.
> 
> OCZ still have a bad rep for the high failure rate.


In the vertex I & II/Agility lines. Vertex III/IV and Vector lines have all been shown to be quite reliable and quick (not as reliable as Intel, perhaps, but still pretty darn reliable). And in their defense, it was the Sandforce controller to blame.


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## JustAPhase (Mar 4, 2013)

DarkIceDragon said:


> Thanks for the tips ^^.
> I finally had the guts to tell my folks that I wanted another PC. Lol
> 
> Seeing as most of the games I buy are still CDs, and plus I watch quite a few movies too, i'll be keeping the drive. I'm thinking of adding a card reader too.


I'm not sure if you know this but.. 
http://store.steampowered.com/

Discs are obsolete. Steam has cheaper games. Amazing deals. It is a great multiplayer platform. The only reason I wouldn't use it is if I had a bad Internet connection.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

On speed, SSDs are fine (I guess) if you need the speed. Generally, the HDD suits my needs fine. Only reason I'd really bother with the extra expense would be the fact that there are no moving parts in an SSD. Unfortunately, they still wear out and have unexpected failures. I can deal with old HDD technology until this changes and prices come down a whole lot more.


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## DarkIceDragon (Apr 20, 2013)

JustAPhase said:


> I'm not sure if you know this but..
> http://store.steampowered.com/
> 
> Discs are obsolete. Steam has cheaper games. Amazing deals. It is a great multiplayer platform. *The only reason I wouldn't use it is if I had a bad Internet connection.*


Precisely.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

PickleNose said:


> On speed, SSDs are fine (I guess) if you need the speed. Generally, the HDD suits my needs fine. Only reason I'd really bother with the extra expense would be the fact that there are no moving parts in an SSD. Unfortunately, they still wear out and have unexpected failures. I can deal with old HDD technology until this changes and prices come down a whole lot more.


? Have you actually used a computer with an SSD before? I'm guessing no. And the price has come down a LOT. SSD's are pretty cheap nowadays.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

Noca said:


> ? Have you actually used a computer with an SSD before? I'm guessing no. And the price has come down a LOT. SSD's are pretty cheap nowadays.


 I have not. I don't doubt they're lightening fast. I just don't care. While the speed certainly can't hurt (it really never does, I guess) the only reason I was interested was the tantalizing thought of silent operation and no parts to wear out. That was before I found out they do wear out and sometimes just plain die.

I'm sure reliability will get much better. I'll wait.


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## TheCanadian1 (Sep 14, 2009)

I built mine 2 or 3 years ago.

AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.4Ghz
Honkin' huge corsair heatsink with dual fans that push/pull air
12GB DDR3 Ram
2 x ATI Radeon 5650 Graphics

Hard dive is 1TB but it's slow. I don't really notice anyways, so I'm okay. I didn't want to dish out for SSD until they're cheap. 

The case is huge. 2 fans on top, 2 fans on front, 1 fan on side, 1 fan at back, and power supply fan. Plenty of air flow, but I still have heating issues after long period of gaming.

3 monitors at 1440x whatever it is


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## Arterius (Apr 3, 2012)

People still run their OS on mechanical hard drives? Laugh.


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## Nono441 (May 14, 2012)

This is my build, I started from scratch 2-3 years ago (including monitor, case, keyboard, everything) and slowly added/upgraded components over the years. Currently:

1920x1080 21" LCD monitor (x2)
1000W Corsair PSU
HD6950 GPU (2GB)
12GB DDR3 (though only 4GB at the moment as one of the sticks has died recently)
i5 3500k (quad core @ 3.7GHz)
120GB Intel SSD (Linux Mint on it, ridiculously fast)
500GB 7200rpm HDD (Linux home partition on it)
500GB 7200rpm HDD (Windows on it)
2TB HDD (external hard drive)
DVD reader/burner (but I'm starting to wonder if it was worth the $20, as I use it once in a blue moon)

It was pretty much state of the art a couple years ago but now it's a bit ancient, but still runs everything I throw at it without issues. My next upgrade will probably be a second graphics card, or I was considering getting a laptop instead to be a bit more mobile (fast but disposable 14'' laptop with an SSD in it, pretty much, but they are pretty expensive in NZ)

Putting Windows on this desktop was an afterthought, to be honest. The original purpose of the build was graphics research and development, not gaming.

Just put the thermal paste on the correct side of the processor. Don't be this guy.


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