After watching many YT videos of tek syndicate and getting sucked into the whole pc hardware world, I decided to take my quest to this forum.
So I'm looking into building a new PC, but I already have a few parts that I want to use for it. My goal is not to build the best gaming rig, rather an all-round good system that will last for more years than the average off-the-shelf system. Oh, I live in Belgium, so please bear with me and use European retailers and euro prices, thank you! Below I will show you what I put in my "builds" most of the time, but I want to know if there's any room for improvement, any imbalance in the system or things that I overlooked?
First off, what do I have?
2 VGA monitors with a resolution of 1680*1050.
Antec HCP-850 (850W modular PSU)
3 HDD's for secondary use (of which 2 small-ish ones, long story)
Scythe Kama-Panel 3
What is the goal?
A desktop PC up to around 1000 euro (but preferably lower)
Dual monitor support
An SSD as primary drive
Plenty of SATA ports (3 HDD's, the new SSD and perhaps another HDD, 2 e-sata's on the kama-panel)
Strong overall performance, no OC'ing required
Optical DVD drive
Optional:
BR drive instead of DVD
FireWire
So now we have a picture of what I'm trying to achieve, let me get to the thoughts I have/had so far. In the end, I can't decide which manufacturers to choose (AMD/Intel, AMD/NVIDIA, ...), but I often end up with the following conclusion.
CPU + MOBO - AMD: FX-8120, ASUS sabertooth 990FX => 320 euro - Intel: i5-3550, ASUS sabertooth Z77 => 420 euro
GPU - AMD: XFX Radeon HD 7850 Dual Fan => 200 euro - NVIDIA: ASUS ENGTX560 DC/2DI/1GD5 => 180 euro
MEMORY: Corsair 8 GB DDR3-1600 (CL7, anyone?) => 90 euro
HDD + SSD: Kingston SVP200S3/120G => 80 euro Seagate ST2000DL003 => 95 euro
CASE: CM Storm Enforcer => 90 euro
OPTICAL: whichever => +- 20 euro
Additional thoughts:
2 SSD's in RAID 0?
Water cooling?
SLI/Crossfire using cheaper GPU's?
Is going for CL7 worth the money in this system?
Better case?
Is intel really worth the extra 100 euro's compared to the rest of the system?
This build brings me to about 1000 euro, but as I have never really built a PC yet, I am unsure of its capacities. So I’m looking for opinions, suggestions or whatever this quite long post made you think.
I'm mostly using alternate.be, but someone referred me to hiq24.de as well (hardware is a bit cheaper in Germany). Through tek syndicate, I also came to know pcpartpicker, but all prices are in dollars, and most retailers are overseas.I think, if and when I buy the hardware, I’ll go for alternate. I already bought some hardware there and didn’t have any problems. Perhaps some stuff from hiq24 if the price difference is really worth it.
The thing that got all of this started is when I bought an SSD several months ago. Somehow I kept having problems with my computer, did a few dozen windows re-installs, and no clue what was going wrong. In the end I wanted to test the SSD and put it in my laptop. No, it’s not coming out anymore. (This is the origin of one of the 3 before mentioned hard drives.)I hope I can sell my old PC in one way or another, but with all the excess hardware transferred to this new build. (Yes, there are 4 HDD's sitting in my tower right now, and it only has 2 3.5" bays...)
Waiting for the 660 won't be a problem, I'm actually doing an internship in China right now and won't be home until October.
Alternate.be isn't all that cheap compared to other stores. I personally buy most of my stuff from Zercom.eu (NL), they charge 10 euro for shipping to BE, so it's best to but as much as possible in 1 time.For GPU's however, I suggest that you look at caseking.de (DE), their prices are good and often have amazing special offers. So check them out, you could safe a couple of bucks.
I mostly deal with newegg and american and canadian stores but I'm going to go with the stores Ssoele.be reccommened, they may or may not be the cheapest stores but computer knowlege is universal, I'll see if I can get you a well rounded computer for you
Sorry for the late reply, but thank you Ssoele for the great website references, and thank you gigabusterEXE for the awesome build.
Personally I might go for the GTX660 instead of 670. But I'm starting to get a general idea now of what I'll be picking. I will have to wait for my return to belgium before starting my purchases though. In the meantime, keep drooling!
And instead of that big bulky heatsink on the mobo. What's your opinion on liquid cooling? I was thinking about the Corsair H60, but it doesn't appear on the zercom shop.
I like to keep things a bit upgradable, so I had the idea of going with a not-too-high-end GPU to keep the cost a bit within bounds at first. And then go SLI/Crossfire when money needs rolling again. What are your thoughts on this kind of approach? That's because I have no idea how the performance of multiple graphic cards scale up to stronger single cards.
well SLI isn't supported in all games but its supported in MOST demanding games that would need it crossfire is supported in all games, if you want to go with a weaker card I'd go for the 660Ti but its gennerally best to keep a single strong card in my opinion, its also more power effecient