Looking to purchase new mid range gaming pc. Any helps and advices appreciated!

[Pascal]

Keyboard and mouse is something you should choose yourself IMO, based on what you like. e.g. I dislike keyboards with keys that feel a certain way (I like them to be easy to press) and I don't like gaming mice with the thumb place. Razer is a quality brand for gaming stuff altho it can be overpriced.

[Jack Sawyer]

Deathadder Black Edition! I just ordered that, as my Deathadder 3500 scroll wheel gave up the ghost.

As Pascal said, it's actually personal preference. You need to go and touch them, like a priest to a schoolboy.

[bigred]

Gaming headset reqs? Gotta make fun of people when I headshot them.

[Jack Sawyer]

Steelseries seems to be a brand quite favoured by gamers. You can check out the Syberia V2. There seems to be the Plantronics gamecom as well.

Headsets, since you will be wearing them for streches, also have to be felt extensively if possible.

I like my Audio Technica ath-m40fs connected witha Grado plug, it'sawesome, but it has no mic.

[Pascal]

I have Sennheiser H205s + a Logitech C270 HD which sits on top of my monitor. Both are awesome and serve like 6 purposes in total. You can also buy clip-on microphones but don't buy the really cheap ones as they're shit.

[bigred]

Got home from business trip to find all my parts delivered. Take all the boxes out and prep for build.

Me: Ok, everything is here...wait...where's the RAM? WHERE'S THE RAM?

calls tech support

Me: WHERE'S THE RAM???!?!

Newegg Support: LOL OUR BAD! WE'LL SEND IN A FEW DAYS, K?

Me: FUFUFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU U

[Pascal]

Haha What did you go for in the end?

[bigred]

A mix of recommendations. I can skype you the list sometime. I finished putting it together tonight. Just need the RAM.

One thing though...can't figure out where to plug front case fan power cords...

[Pascal]

Are they 3 pin or 4 pin? If they're 3 pin they plug into the motherboard headers. If they're 4 pin they plug into the 4pin plugs on your PSU. I'm guessing they're 3pin and you've run out of motherboard headers/don't have any in the right location, in which case you'll need an adapter like this:

http://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-270...o+3pin+adapter

[bigred]

Are they 3 pin or 4 pin? If they're 3 pin they plug into the motherboard headers. If they're 4 pin they plug into the 4pin plugs on your PSU. I'm guessing they're 3pin and you've run out of motherboard headers/don't have any in the right location, in which case you'll need an adapter like this:

Amazon.com: C2G / Cables to Go 27077 6-Inch 3-Pin Fan to 4-Pin Power Adapter Cable: Electronics

Yep. Pretty much. I don't see any reasons not to run my pc even if the fans don't work yet. I'll order a few of those.

I have a few cables that came with the PSU that you can optionally plug into the PSU that are labeled TX/HX series only. They look like PCI-E and SATA adapters. What are they?

I'm also* thinking about purchasing a fan controller. Thoughts?

[bigred]

Memory on truck for delivery. Will probably get here within the next 3 hours. Then I plug it in, hit power but, nothing turns on, and spend rest of day troubleshooting. HUZZZZAH!

[bigred]

What's my strategy for installing apps on ssd vs HD?

Easy targets for SSD: OS, Games, any high intensive I/O apps

Easy Targets for HD: Music, Video, Pictures, small utilities

Unsure: Highly used utilities such as Steam (launches most games), iTunes, etc

[bigred]

ERMAHGERD WINDERS ERS INSTERLLING!

[bigred]

So I didn't touch the BIOS commands at all...lecture me on why this was bad

[Jack Sawyer]

Nope, it isnt bad. Later on when it's time, you will delve into it.

Any bumps in the road yet?

[bigred]

Nope, it isnt bad. Later on when it's time, you will delve into it.

Any bumps in the road yet?

Plugged usb 3.0 into wrong thing and forgot to plug gpu power cord back in after rearranging cable. That's about it. Things running very smoothly since windows installed

[givememyleg]

hi boys. 6 months ago i wanted to buy a new pc but that didn't happen. since my laptop has become worse and worse, i'm going to do it now.

Best Mainstream Gaming PC | Hardware Revolution is pretty sexy. i pretty much followed it closely for tier 4 but added a few things. i assume this build will be fine but if jack/pascal/whomever has any advice, or anywhere i could save some $$ without affecting quality too much, holla. i wanted to stay under $1000 but i think that's pretty hard with a monitor. i already have a copy of win7 64 bit i can use.

GPU: AX7850 2GBD5-2DHPP Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 [$214.99]

CPU: Intel Core i5-3550 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core [$209.99]

Monitor: ASUS VH232H Glossy Black 23" 5ms Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD [$159.99]

SDD: SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA [$98.95]

MB: ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 [$84.99]

HDD: Western Digital 1 TB WD Blue SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache [$81.99]

PS: Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-550 550W [$69.99]

Case: Corsair Carbide Series Black 300R Mid-Tower [$66.71]

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) [$39.99]

HS: Corsair Air Series A50 Performance [$31.24]

SC: ASUS XONAR_DG 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Xonar DG Sound Card [$26.00]

Total: [$1,198.31]

[Pascal]

All of it looks great man. You don't really need the sound card though, your onboard stuff will be more than enough enough unless you're an audiophile? You'd be better spending the money on an extra quiet fan or two for the case to keep it nice and quiet, you can either put it on the side panel or in the roof.

Pretty sure I read that the Rosewill have great quality insides and are used for more expensive PSUs so good choice there.

[Jack Sawyer]

The power supply is rated for 40c. Since you live in Siberia, that shouldn't be too big a problem.

Btw, relevant link from earlier

Why Does Everyone Hate Windows 8? Should I Upgrade?

[Jack Sawyer]

Ok 'leg, here we go. To sty under $200:

Get rid of the GPU. Stick to onboard graphics until you can get the GPU. Don't play games for the first month

I don't really like he mobo. I tend t abhor PCI slots, and it has to many of them. I'd try to look for one which only has PCI Express slots.

Do you need the HDD/ have a serviceable one lying around? If no/yes, get a Uspeed dock and stick your dying laptop's hdd in there. Use until you can get a Green 2 TB, better GB per buck compared to he blue.


That's it, I don't have anything else.

[bigred]

So...what antivirus stuff should I get?

[Pascal]

I like Avast because the nice lady loudly tells me she's updated my database

[Luco]

I use Kaspersky because my bank gives me licenses for it every 12 months, but if they didn't I'd be using Security Essentials because it integrates with windows update.

[NightGizmo]

I use Norton and I have no problems with it. Don't use Mcafee.

[Poker Orifice]

Really been enjoying reading this thread & tbh, getting a bit jealous reading about your new puters.
I'm using a 17" Acer laptop atm, nothing special at all but it gets me by... barely, along with an external 24" Acer LED Monitor. I've been thinking about getting a desktop for awhile now & had been thinking about just picking one up out of the box (with an i5, & 8+GB Ram). After following this thread for awhile (& clickin' on links) & talking with a couple guys in town who build puters, I'm looking to get one for myself for Christmas.

The back & forth discussion, & seeing the stuff you guys have chosen has been super helpful to me. I now feel like I have a far better idea of what I want for myself.
It's still a ways away but will post here when I finally get it together (might have to bink a score in an MTT to help justify the expense... but would have to enter some first, lol).

tks again for posting. You're helpiing people out here that you may not have been aware of (... well now you're aware of one anyways).

[Poker Orifice]

I use Norton and I have no problems with it. Don't use Mcafee.

I've heard many others say this ^ too. Wondering > why not McAfee?
Being a near computer illiterate (never used a computer until 5yrs. ago) I've always used McAfee, mostly just because it came with the first Dell laptop I had & also because I've never experienced any problems.
I've heard it's a bit of a resource hog, but anyother reasons (please don't flame & SCREAM at me.... go easy on me)

[givememyleg]

everything came yesterday. kind of giddy putting it all together right meow.

pretty sick looking at my new monitor vs my old one side by side. no comparison.

[Pascal]

pics!

[NightGizmo]

I've heard many others say this ^ too. Wondering > why not McAfee?
Being a near computer illiterate (never used a computer until 5yrs. ago) I've always used McAfee, mostly just because it came with the first Dell laptop I had & also because I've never experienced any problems.
I've heard it's a bit of a resource hog, but anyother reasons (please don't flame & SCREAM at me.... go easy on me)

A few years ago, Mcafee was pretty good. But somehow they managed to screw up their software pretty badly, and now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

- It's a resource hog and slow to scan. It scans weekly and runs until it is done, using up a lot of CPU in the process. It got so bad on my brother's computer that it would use up 100% of his CPU for 2 days straight, every week.
- Updates frequently require reboots (frequently == a few times a month). Sometimes Mcafee would make you reboot, and then 5 minutes after rebooting you were forced to reboot again by Mcafee due to another update.
- The software constantly nags you to pay for upgrades and add-ons, popping up at random times and interrupting your work. This is something I hate -- I paid for the software I want, stop harassing me trying to get more money out of me.
- In the past couple of years they have had some serious bugs pushed out to customers. Most recently (a few months ago) an update broke networking on many computers, requiring a manual fix to be able to connect to the Internet again.

[Poker Orifice]

- It's a resource hog and slow to scan. It scans weekly and runs until it is done, using up a lot of CPU in the process. It got so bad on my brother's computer that it would use up 100% of his CPU for 2 days straight, every week.
- Updates frequently require reboots (frequently == a few times a month). Sometimes Mcafee would make you reboot, and then 5 minutes after rebooting you were forced to reboot again by Mcafee due to another update.
- The software constantly nags you to pay for upgrades and add-ons, popping up at random times and interrupting your work. This is something I hate -- I paid for the software I want, stop harassing me trying to get more money out of me.

- I just set mine to scan manually, setting it to do so at night once I'm finished for the day
- the Updates frequently thing... yah this is the pain the ass, causes my computer to temporarily lag & has happened while in big hands >> Now I just turn off 'automatic updates' anytime I'm doing something important (like playin' the pokerzz, lol).. then back on again when just dk'n around (like right now). I get ya though. Before finally realizing to do this... it did suck
- I've never had any pop-ups of any kind ever? I'd surely be tilting if I did (ie. like a Titan support window popping up on my screen in the middle of a tourney, lol.. wtf is that?)

Thanks for the response though. I've been wondering cuz I hear it often, from many. I use software essentials on one of my other puters, but the rest are all McAfee. For me it's been good... but I don't really have any experience with others to compare it to (only listening to friend's experiences with their av software).

For me when I first got it, it just seemed real easy to use.. especially for a computer idiot.. err.. umm I mean 'illiterate'.

One thing that did piss me off with McAfee. This past year I went to re-new, and they wanted to charge me full price.. after giving me 50% off each year for the past few years. I refused, telling them > give me the same deal for renewal as last year & it's a done deal, otherwise forget it. They finally agreed to the deal, 4mos. after expiry, lol. Too late, buddy who works at computer store gave me one from there for $20 (< same guy I'm asking to build puter for me).

I'm getting more jealous reading your post Leg. & yes.. 'pics. please' (just spent another couple hours reading up on & checking out diff. stuff on the internetzzz... fk.. I'm hooked!!!).

[givememyleg]

pics!

here was after i finally got everything installed and hooked up right before i crossed my fingers and pressed power..... nothing happened. ugh, hope i just have something hooked up wrong (maybe the power switch?) and i don't have a doa mb or psu.

[lolzzz_321]

hmmm i did a soft build or something and turned my pc on by shorting some power switch or something

pretty sure it's in here - Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 2 - The Build - YouTube

im sure more qualified people can help you out, GL

[Jack Sawyer]

Check if all cables are connected, particularly this one:



It looks like an ATX 4 pin power connector, someone correct me if I'm wrong (power for teh CPU bra). If it is, it should go straight into the board (in its appropriate socket, fits one way), not at the angle it appears to be dangling from there.

[givememyleg]

got it powered on, something was loose, not sure what it was, probably the cable jack suggested. however my case didn't come with a speaker (i mean really?) so i don't/can't hear the post boot 'beep' to know everything is good and i get no signal on my monitor... hmmmm.

edit - nvm, the onboard vga wouldn't load but dvi on the vid card would. woop woop, on to installing the os.

[givememyleg]

posting from the new computer.

zomg ssd.

[MadMojoMonkey]

[Poker Orifice]

Cool.

I'm getting more pumped now. Watching those NewEgg YouTube vids. Maybe a Birthday present to self instead.

[givememyleg]

I still can't get over the fact that it takes 14 seconds from when I press restart to when I have chrome open again.

[Pascal]

Bump. How's the PC bigred?

[Poker Orifice]

Looking for suggestions on what brand of power supply I should consider?

I'm building a PC mostly for playing poker...
i5 3570k
ASUS P8Z77-V LK
Corsair Vengeance 8GB
SAMSUNG 840 SSD 250GB
Asus 24x DVD Burner
Video Card (< low-end, if at all, maybe EVGA GTX650 or GT 640)... will add this later if I feel like it

Guessing I'll need ~500W Power Supply? Not overly concerned with noise but don't want it to be louder than other fans combined if poss. Want something reliable, that runs cool, lasts long.
thoughts?

tks

[dneureiter]

Looking for suggestions on what brand of power supply I should consider?

I'm building a PC mostly for playing poker...
i5 3570k
ASUS P8Z77-V LK
Corsair Vengeance 8GB
SAMSUNG 840 SSD 250GB
Asus 24x DVD Burner
Video Card (< low-end, if at all, maybe EVGA GTX650 or GT 640)... will add this later if I feel like it

Guessing I'll need ~500W Power Supply? Not overly concerned with noise but don't want it to be louder than other fans combined if poss. Want something reliable, that runs cool, lasts long.
thoughts?

tks

Yea 500 watts is fine depending on the card.Just make sure it is a brand name PS not a junk one.

Something like this, or another antec, corsair, thermaltake, ocz product. Antecs generally good deal pricewise and never had issues.

[kiwiMark]

ten watts.

[Poker Orifice]

Yea 500 watts is fine depending on the card.Just make sure it is a brand name PS not a junk one.

Something like this, or another antec, corsair, thermaltake, ocz product. Antecs generally good deal pricewise and never had issues.

Thanks for your help. It just gets a bit overwhelming reading through reviews, etc. Don't want to fk it up.

[Poker Orifice]

Still haven't built new puter
when it comes to buying things for myself I'm a HUGE procrastinator. My partner shipped me a few bucks on Stars on Boxing Day, insisting I put it into a computer. Procrastinated & missed the Boxing Day sales but now am ordering up parts as I write this but wanted to review some of the info. (& links) that members put in this thread as I found it hugely helpful. (maybe someone else in a similiar situation to mine will too... hence the bump)

[Poker Orifice]

Got it! (finally... took me a year, lol)
i5-4670 Haswell
ASUS H87M-PRO
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x 4GB)
Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB
WesternDigital WD Black 500GB
SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W
ASUS 24x DVD
Windows 7 64-bit
Fractal Design Arc mini-R2

All came in for just under $1k

I wanted to thank a bunch of you for your posts in this thread as it was extremely helpful for someone who had absolutely zero clue where to get started... & saved me from buying a Dell or similiar.