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Forums - PC - Help Building a New Computer

I am building a new computer,please help me build it.

I normally only learn about computer hardware when i am buying or upgrading the hardware and then i lose track.So i might not know a few things though i have mentioned all my queries below.

I am trying to build a system that would last and as interconnected and wireless as possible.

I will be using it for :


Video Games
Video Editing
Audio Editing
Image Editing
Display forPC,TV,PS3
Heaphones for TV,PC,PS3,Phone(if Headphone are bluetooth)
Router for 2 home PC,1 phone,Media Server,PS3,TV(if Display is internet connected)
Dual Shock 3 Connection
Virtual OS operations
Hackintosh(So only Intel processors)
DLNA - Media Server,Android devices,Apple devices
Wireless File and Date Transfer to PC - Android with bluetooth to PC

 

Products and Technology :

CPUProcessor - 4-6 Cores,Overclock Support
Motherboard - PCE-E,USB,SATA,Ethernet,DVI,HDMI 1.4,Display Port,Wi-Fi,Bluetooth,Optical Audio,Integrated Card Support,Overclock Support,multi-GPU support
GPUGraphic Card - Memory,Multiple Display Support,3D Displays,Dual GPU,Resolution 1080p or better
HDD - 2 -3.5tb
RAM - 8+gb
Display -  24 -27inch,Resolution 1080p or more,Contrasts,Colors,DVI,Display Ports,HDMI,Wi-fi,USB,Bluetooth,Speakers,Headphones
Speakers - More Channels,Wireless Streaming
Headphones - Noise Cancellation,Microphone,Blue-tooth,Wireless,More Channels,Bluetooth,Battery Life
Router - Gigabit Ethernet,Wireless standard N.Good Wireless bandwidth,NAS,DLNA
Heatsinks and Coolers
Power Supply

 

Some Question's from my side :

CPU :

Xeon gaming and normal apps - How is Xeon on Gaming and Normal PC applications?
i7 Extreme Sandy Bridge - Is this required for my usage and will it be worth it?
Core i7 First Gen Core systems - So Sandy Bridge Extreme Processors are very expensive but 970 and 980  6 core Westmere CPU's cost only $500.Is that a bargain and Is buying 1 year old processors good?

i7 2600K - Will this be enought for me?
i5 2500K - Will this be enought for me?

Core vs thread - so AMD vs Intel,AMD provides more Cores but Intel does threading.Whats the difference?
Duration Without Update - How long each of them will be enough to perform the heavy task applications,2-3 years?

Motherboard :

Sound Card - Is it Required or Motherboard will take care of it
Wi-Fi Card - Is it Required or Motherboard will take care of it
Blue-tooth Card - Is it Required or Motherboard will take care of it
SATA 3 and PCI-E 3
Duration Without Update - How long will this be enough to perform the heavy task applications,2-3 years?

RAM :

Channels - How many channels is good?
Speed - Whats the difference between different 'mhz'?
Duratin Without Update - How long will this be enough to perform the heavy task applications,2-3 years?

GPU:

Cores - I read this when checking out Nvidia Cards,they have 100's of cores.What do they mean?
Speed - How much is good as in 'hz'?
Bandwidth - How much bandwidth is good?
Duration Without Update - How long will latest GPU's be enough to perform the heavy task applications,2-3 years?

Display:

What Aspect ratio should the Display have as WEB is designed 4:3 and many movies have 21:9 ratio.
Do the multidisplays connection to GPU share resolution in output of do they have 2 x resolutions coming out of GPU?

Heatsinks and Coolers:

Are liquid Coolers really required?
Fans vs Liquid Coolers?
Are heatsinks required?
What all components can and should have heatsinks and cooler?I see them on RAM these days

Wireless :

Wireless Headphones,Keyboard,Mouse,Router - What does range in 'HZ' mean
Will different wireless technologies interfere with each other?

Speakers and Headphones - Standard - What do different Standards like dolby,true HD differ?
Power Supply - How Many Watts Should my Power Supply be and what all Sockets Should it have?
Keyboard
- Do i need to my two keyboards? Ergonomic keyboards for typing and SonyApple Wireless keyboard or just one?
Mouse - Do i need to my two mouse? Ergonomic mouse for gaming and MicrosoftApple touch mouse or just one?
Optical Drive - Should I buy a Blu-ray Drive?
Webcam
- I Don't Video Chat much and have iphone as a video chat,should it buy one?
Printer
- I make alot of notes and i like them clean and formatted but should i go far to buy a printer on do it on paper and phone
Tablet or netbook or ultrabook
- I have an iphone 64gb and will have a good PC.Is there a need for medium screen portable device?

 

Please Help in the following way:

Technology - As in what all tech is needed to make it possible like technical information like cores,wi-fi,pci express,aspect ratio,memory,etc

Products - Products on the market that will make it all possible like Intel,Nvidia,Evga,Asus,Apple,Cisco,etc and their different product lineup's.

Suggestions - Suggest what configurations will be good for my usage like xeon,core i extreme,core i7,12gb ram,etc



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bump



I think you should get an AMD Bulldozer CPU and an AMD Radeon 6950 GPU because he is the underdog. And it would make a good comp.



Slimebeast said:
I think you should get an AMD Bulldozer CPU and an AMD Radeon 6950 GPU because he is the underdog. And it would make a good comp.

I also want to build a hackintosh which won't be possible with AMD CPU's

 

I you are knowledgable about computer's please try to answer the above questions?



snakenobi said:
Slimebeast said:
I think you should get an AMD Bulldozer CPU and an AMD Radeon 6950 GPU because he is the underdog. And it would make a good comp.

I also want to build a hackintosh which won't be possible with AMD CPU's

 

I you are knowledgable about computer's please try to answer the above questions?

I'm like you. I always build my own PC but I lose interest in the technological details between my PC upgrades and I only read up on it when I'm about to build a new PC. I only know that If I were to get a PC right now (I will buy one in a few months since my current PC is from late 2008) I would get

Core i5 2500K (most bang for your buck)
8GB cheapest RAM (unless im gonna overclock, which I wont)
A SSDI 80GB as launch-up/system harddrive (Intel because it's signficiantly better quality)
Built in sound on motherboard (I currently have a $80 XFi Soundblaster card and it's not worth the extra cost)
A Radeon 6950 or geforce 570 GPU (possibly the 560 is better bang for buck, Im not sure) . A single-GPU GPU because SLI/Crossfire setups suffer from microstuttering



Around the Network
Slimebeast said:
snakenobi said:
Slimebeast said:
I think you should get an AMD Bulldozer CPU and an AMD Radeon 6950 GPU because he is the underdog. And it would make a good comp.

I also want to build a hackintosh which won't be possible with AMD CPU's

 

I you are knowledgable about computer's please try to answer the above questions?

I'm like you. I always build my own PC but I lose interest in the technological details between my PC upgrades and I only read up on it when I'm about to build a new PC. I only know that If I were to get a PC right now (I will buy one in a few months since my current PC is from late 2008) I would get

Core i5 2500K (most bang for your buck)
8GB cheapest RAM (unless im gonna overclock, which I wont)
A SSDI 80GB as launch-up/system harddrive (Intel because it's signficiantly better quality)
Built in sound on motherboard (I currently have a $80 XFi Soundblaster card and it's not worth the extra cost)
A Radeon 6950 or geforce 570 GPU (possibly the 560 is better bang for buck, Im not sure) . A single-GPU GPU because SLI/Crossfire setups suffer from microstuttering

but will it last long?

for system storage,the applications would eat up more than 80gb easily



Really depends on how much video editing and how heavy on the gaming you want to go. TomsHardware is a pretty useful site for advice on what to buy.

CPU: Core i5 2500K is good for all games (pretty much). I don't know any games that really uses more than the four threads you get on the i5 and it performs just as well as the i7 on nearly all games. If you're doing a lot of video and editing and using a lot of programs that utilise multiple threads (e.g. Adobe Photoshop) then you may want to look at the higher spec Core i7s. Depends on what you need more. If you're primarily gaming with a little bit of image/video editting then you can save some money and go Core i5 2500K.

Motherboard: Just make sure it's compatable with the CPU. I don't know all the features of each motherboard off the top of my head but the P67 and Z68 chipsets generally cover most of what you need. If you do go for an extreme Core i7 3XXX, make sure you go for the X79 chipset. Also, most mainstream and enthusiast motherboards come with 7.1 onboard sound.

RAM: RAM is fairly cheap at the moment so 8Gb is quite affordable. Obviously more is better but check how high you can go on the motherboard. I think most don't go beyond 32Gb. I don't think the speed makes too much difference in games, but I don't know for vid/image editing. Unless you use onboard graphics (which you won't) it doesn't matter too much. Just make sure you buy DDR3 and that it matches with the number of channels on your motherboard. Most of the labelled brands are fine. Also check what version of Windows you get/have. Home versions of Windows 7 have a lower RAM limit.

GPU: There's a thread about the new Radeon HD 7000 series of cards comming out in January here:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=138096&page=1#

Note, NVidia and AMD/ATI have different GPU architectures. NVidia cores and AMD stream processors are not equivalent. At the moment both cards provide equivalent performance at similar price points. If you're going heavy on the video editing and gaming (as in High Res, multi display, possibly 3D) then you'll want one of the top of the range cards.

Currently an AMD HD6950 or NVidia GTX 580 are pretty high spec. If you think that's overkill then an AMD HD6870 or NVidia GTX 560 Ti will play all games at 1920x1080 and at High detail levels. I wouldn't go any lower than that though.


Display: Really depends if you're going to do a lot of 3D gaming. Bare minimum for your purposes sounds like a 24" LED.

Power Supply: Surprisingly, this is probably the most important component in your case. Make sure it's a trusted branded and that it has a high efficiency rating (80+ bronze as a minimum). When calculating required wattage:

20 Watts per drive.
100 Watts for the CPU
40 Watts for the mainboard.
40 Watts for the usual video card
100 Watts for the firebreathing video card (200 for the absolute high end cards).

Then double it for future proofing and headroom.

For a bit of extra money you can also get modular PSUs that can help with cable management and improve airflow in your case. I've found Antec generally have good modular PSUs.

Heatsinks and Coolers: CPU & GPU most certainly need heatsinks and fans as a bare minimum! As long as you buy a retail CPU then it should come with a stock heatsink and fan which is fine for most applications. The only time you really need a different cooler for the CPU is if you plan on overclocking. Liquid cooling should allow you to overclock further. GPUs already have a cooling system setup.

For RAM it's less important but most of the "enthusiast" types come with a heat spreader. It can't hurt afterall. Also, with your case, remember that if you have a lot of fans the airflow will be better but so will the dust buildup (as I've discovered recently )

HDD: Go for a Solid State Drive as a boot drive. Makes a world of difference.



Scoobes said:

Really depends on how much video editing and how heavy on the gaming you want to go. TomsHardware is a pretty useful site for advice on what to buy.

CPU: Core i5 2500K is good for all games (pretty much). I don't know any games that really uses more than the four threads you get on the i5 and it performs just as well as the i7 on nearly all games. If you're doing a lot of video and editing and using a lot of programs that utilise multiple threads (e.g. Adobe Photoshop) then you may want to look at the higher spec Core i7s. Depends on what you need more. If you're primarily gaming with a little bit of image/video editting then you can save some money and go Core i5 2500K.

Motherboard: Just make sure it's compatable with the CPU. I don't know all the features of each motherboard off the top of my head but the P67 and Z68 chipsets generally cover most of what you need. If you do go for an extreme Core i7 3XXX, make sure you go for the X79 chipset. Also, most mainstream and enthusiast motherboards come with 7.1 onboard sound.

RAM: RAM is fairly cheap at the moment so 8Gb is quite affordable. Obviously more is better but check how high you can go on the motherboard. I think most don't go beyond 32Gb. I don't think the speed makes too much difference in games, but I don't know for vid/image editing. Unless you use onboard graphics (which you won't) it doesn't matter too much. Just make sure you buy DDR3 and that it matches with the number of channels on your motherboard. Most of the labelled brands are fine. Also check what version of Windows you get/have. Home versions of Windows 7 have a lower RAM limit.

GPU: There's a thread about the new Radeon HD 7000 series of cards comming out in January here:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=138096&page=1#

Note, NVidia and AMD/ATI have different GPU architectures. NVidia cores and AMD stream processors are not equivalent. At the moment both cards provide equivalent performance at similar price points. If you're going heavy on the video editing and gaming (as in High Res, multi display, possibly 3D) then you'll want one of the top of the range cards.

Currently an AMD HD6950 or NVidia GTX 580 are pretty high spec. If you think that's overkill then an AMD HD6870 or NVidia GTX 560 Ti will play all games at 1920x1080 and at High detail levels. I wouldn't go any lower than that though.


Display: Really depends if you're going to do a lot of 3D gaming. Bare minimum for your purposes sounds like a 24" LED.

Power Supply: Surprisingly, this is probably the most important component in your case. Make sure it's a trusted branded and that it has a high efficiency rating (80+ bronze as a minimum). When calculating required wattage:

20 Watts per drive.
100 Watts for the CPU
40 Watts for the mainboard.
40 Watts for the usual video card
100 Watts for the firebreathing video card (200 for the absolute high end cards).

Then double it for future proofing and headroom.

For a bit of extra money you can also get modular PSUs that can help with cable management and improve airflow in your case. I've found Antec generally have good modular PSUs.

Heatsinks and Coolers: CPU & GPU most certainly need heatsinks and fans as a bare minimum! As long as you buy a retail CPU then it should come with a stock heatsink and fan which is fine for most applications. The only time you really need a different cooler for the CPU is if you plan on overclocking. Liquid cooling should allow you to overclock further. GPUs already have a cooling system setup.

For RAM it's less important but most of the "enthusiast" types come with a heat spreader. It can't hurt afterall. Also, with your case, remember that if you have a lot of fans the airflow will be better but so will the dust buildup (as I've discovered recently )

HDD: Go for a Solid State Drive as a boot drive. Makes a world of difference.


would i5 and 8gb ramget outdated near term?

also do what application could take more

 

also what intel threads vs amd more cores?

 

don't worry about cost though just tell if its good for that cost



snakenobi said:


would i5 and 8gb ramget outdated near term?

also do what application could take more

 

also what intel threads vs amd more cores?

 

don't worry about cost though just tell if its good for that cost

I'd be more worried about the CPU being outdated than the RAM. The RAM is an easy and cheap upgrade even if you do find you need more, whereas the CPU (especially Intel CPUs) will likely need a different socket and therefore require a whole new motherboard.  If you want to completely future proof top of the range CPU then go for one of the extreme Core i7 3XXX series (assuming price is no issue- it's ridiculously expensive vs the other i7s).

You can also overclock but I can't offer any advice about how to do that as I've never done it before.

As for threads vs AMD cores, from what I understand, in the Intel i7, each core can handle 2 threads (known as HyperThreading), so the 6 core i7 3XXX can carry out 12 threads. The AMD bulldozers on the other hand have a very different architecture. Each core is paired with another core in a module. The cores within a module share a certain amount of resources and is comparable with a single Intel core with Hyper threading. This basically means an 8-core (4-module) AMD bulldozer (e.g. AMD 8150 FX) is comparable with an Intel 4-core Hyper Threaded CPU (e.g. i7 2600/2700K).



All I can say is: for HD video editing: minimal of 2TB hard drives.. at least 8gb RAM (12gb is better).. nVidia GTX570... defintaly an i7.. AMD and video just sucks.. and then you still wait hours to render a video...




 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!)