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Old 05-19-2012, 09:28 PM   #2
GoinAllTheWay
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Get a better power supply. IMO, your MOBO and PS are the backbone of your system and future upgrades rely on both being able to keep up.

Can't go wrong with an Antec case.

I'm guessing no gaming with this rig? If you do plan to, I'd consider a better Graphics card. If your just surfin and such, it's totally fine.

The rest I can't really comment on, it's been a couple of years since I built my last rig so don't know enough about current hardware as far as MOBO's and processors.

Last edited by GoinAllTheWay; 05-19-2012 at 09:33 PM.
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Old 05-19-2012, 09:35 PM   #3
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Get a better power supply. IMO, your MOBO and PS are the backbone of your system and future upgrades rely on both being able to keep up.

Can't go wrong with an Antec case.

I'm guessing no gaming with this rig? If you do plan to, I'd consider a better Graphics card. If your just surfin and such, it's totally fine.

The rest I can't really comment on, it's been a couple of years since I built my last rig so don't know enough about current hardware as far as MOBO's and processors.
Yeah I'll just be doing casual gaming, but I'm thinking I should level out the price with the video card and the processor.. lol.
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Old 05-19-2012, 10:22 PM   #4
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With no gaming or just casual gaming, the PSU is fine.

On that note, forget the AMD CPU and mobo and even the videocard for the moment ($365 together).

And buy this Core™ i5-3570K Processor w/ Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard bundle for $369
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...3570K_Z77XUD3H

I'd also swap the 1TB Seagate for $99 for the 128GB Crucial M4 for $99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX35603

But I'm biased toward SSDs and advocate them in EVERYTHING.

Last edited by Hack&Lube; 05-20-2012 at 12:00 AM.
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Old 05-19-2012, 10:48 PM   #5
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Should I buy Windows 7 OS.. or it is better torrent it illegally?
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Old 05-19-2012, 11:08 PM   #6
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Should I buy Windows 7 OS.. or it is better torrent it illegally?
Better? What do you mean by that?

Nobody is going to advocate piracy on a public message board but if you have to ask this question then you don't have the technical savvy to deal with the 2nd option when it breaks or inactivates itself which may or may not happen.

Last edited by Hack&Lube; 05-19-2012 at 11:11 PM.
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Old 05-19-2012, 11:42 PM   #7
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I would never pirate Windows 7, but that's just me. Too much hassle.
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Old 05-19-2012, 11:43 PM   #8
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Here's a deal for a hard drive, this weekend only.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...i&promoid=1382

Here's windows 7, this weekend only.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...t&promoid=1382

Memory express should price match if they are open.

Look for 1600 memory. It's about the same price.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...Y&promoid=1114

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...d&promoid=1114

That bundle deal hackandlube linked to is good. Just guessing but the onboard graphics are maybe just as good as that video card you linked too.

Last edited by Vulcan; 05-20-2012 at 12:09 AM.
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Old 05-20-2012, 12:02 AM   #9
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Here's a good power supply

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...X&promoid=1114
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Old 05-20-2012, 02:15 AM   #10
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Repeat after me:

I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
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Old 05-20-2012, 03:40 AM   #12
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Repeat after me:

I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
I will not build a brand new computer without a solid state system drive.
Will probably buy one later... 1TB is a lot compared to 128 gb SSD though.
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Old 05-20-2012, 04:07 AM   #13
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Will probably buy one later... 1TB is a lot compared to 128 gb SSD though.
I recommend doing a disk image for later then. That way it's an easy transfer once you get the SSD.
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Old 05-20-2012, 04:29 AM   #14
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I recommend doing a disk image for later then. That way it's an easy transfer once you get the SSD.
What's a disk image? And why's a SSD essential for a PC build?
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Old 05-20-2012, 05:14 AM   #15
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I recommend doing a disk image for later then. That way it's an easy transfer once you get the SSD.
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What's a disk image?
It doesn't matter because general users should never, ever do that.

Installing an OS onto an SSD should be done fresh. For people who don't know how to tweak these things themselves, the OS recognizes SSDs and will install differently and configure itself differently (TRIM enabled for one thing) than compared to a mechanical drive. Imaging/cloning a mechanical drive to an SSD is a pretty bad idea because even the OS will be misconfigured and your partitions will be mis-aligned. A regular hard drive usually starts its first partition after 63 empty blocks, while SSDs require 64 blocks of data for optimal performance. Correcting this requires a ton of effort with another system, gparted, and messing with your blocks and cylinders and moving data around which will further shorten the life of an SSD. Cloning a mechanical drive to an SSD without making any corrections may confuse the controller and optimization routines also.

Last edited by Hack&Lube; 05-20-2012 at 05:25 AM.
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Old 05-20-2012, 05:20 AM   #16
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why's a SSD essential for a PC build?
Because quite frankly, it's more important than any of the other items you bought and you could have definitely have trimmed some costs here and there to afford one. More than anything that you bought, an SSD will be the one item that will give you the most tangible feeling of a fast computer. Boot in 10 seconds, programs load almost instantly, no sitting around and waiting around for a dumb, slow, mechanical drive.

If you buy one later you will have to reinstall everything again.

The 1TB drive would be only for large files like movies, music, general storage, etc. Do you already have a computer of some sort? Return the 1TB drive, buy an SSD, and use your old harddrives for mass storage.

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Old 05-20-2012, 05:43 AM   #17
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Because quite frankly, it's more important than any of the other items you bought and you could have definitely have trimmed some costs here and there to afford one. More than anything that you bought, an SSD will be the one item that will give you the most tangible feeling of a fast computer. Boot in 10 seconds, programs load almost instantly, no sitting around and waiting around for a dumb, slow, mechanical drive.

If you buy one later you will have to reinstall everything again.

The 1TB drive would be only for large files like movies, music, general storage, etc. Do you already have a computer of some sort? Return the 1TB drive, buy an SSD, and use your old harddrives for mass storage.
I have a crap load of music.. so I figured I would need the storage. I only own a crappy laptop so removing the hard drive from that isn't an option. If I were to get an SSD card later, how would I reinstall everything? Is it the same as reformatting the drives and OS?
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Old 05-20-2012, 06:05 AM   #18
To Be Quite Honest
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It doesn't matter because general users should never, ever do that.

Installing an OS onto an SSD should be done fresh. For people who don't know how to tweak these things themselves, the OS recognizes SSDs and will install differently and configure itself differently (TRIM enabled for one thing) than compared to a mechanical drive. Imaging/cloning a mechanical drive to an SSD is a pretty bad idea because even the OS will be misconfigured and your partitions will be mis-aligned. A regular hard drive usually starts its first partition after 63 empty blocks, while SSDs require 64 blocks of data for optimal performance. Correcting this requires a ton of effort with another system, gparted, and messing with your blocks and cylinders and moving data around which will further shorten the life of an SSD. Cloning a mechanical drive to an SSD without making any corrections may confuse the controller and optimization routines also.
I disk imaged my HDD after I installed everything I wanted... However, it's possible, and yes there will be work to do.

You can use http://www.paragon-software.com/ which is a disk manager and then fix the alignment issue from there.

Here is info on how to align your ssd Migrate that bitch!

However, if you are a bit n00b, I'd recommend not doing it as well...
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Old 05-20-2012, 06:07 AM   #19
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What's a disk image? And why's a SSD essential for a PC build?
Essentially its a back up of a clean install with everything ready to go. So IF something happens you don't have to spend a day fixing everything. You just re-install!
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Old 05-20-2012, 09:25 AM   #20
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Because quite frankly, it's more important than any of the other items you bought and you could have definitely have trimmed some costs here and there to afford one. More than anything that you bought, an SSD will be the one item that will give you the most tangible feeling of a fast computer. Boot in 10 seconds, programs load almost instantly, no sitting around and waiting around for a dumb, slow, mechanical drive.

If you buy one later you will have to reinstall everything again.

The 1TB drive would be only for large files like movies, music, general storage, etc. Do you already have a computer of some sort? Return the 1TB drive, buy an SSD, and use your old harddrives for mass storage.
Where does one put one's massive Steam folder with such a setup?
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