Yeah, another one of those threads.

Basically, it's about time to get a new (desktop) computer, since my laptop I got for college is no longer able to run the newest games (I want to play Just Cause 2 SO BAD). Basically, I'm expected to spend about $1000 (maybe more, we'll see), and I'm hoping that 2 years from now I'll be able to play new stuff on medium graphics at a playable framerate. I don't really know where to start; we got my laptop from Dell and I'm reasonably satisfied with it, though I'm definitely willing to go elsewhere. I have no experience with actually building a computer, though I'm minoring in electrical engineering and my dad has a master's degree in such, so I don't doubt we could manage it; who knows, maybe the prospect of a father-son project will get him to kick in a few extra bucks. Any ideas on where to start looking?

Hmm. I don't know about memory, mobo's or HDD's but Intel's new i5 and i7 CPU's are quite good, so I heard.
AMD Radeon HD 6000 -series has some very good graphics cards, like the HD 6970.
For a good computer case you should try looking for Antec enclosures, I have the Antec Sonata 3 500 and haven't had any issues so far. The Antec cases have lots of room for components, too.

Pretty sure it's ATi Radeon not AMD. Don't know for sure though, I have only ever had Nvidia cards.

It was ATI Radeon. AMD decided to make it AMD Radeon.
The HD 4000- and HD 5000 -series are still ATI Radeon, though.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af1 ... /Guide.png

pretty good reference. if anyone tells you otherwise they're dumb.

(you can also save on harddrives if you want less space/not an SSD(SSDs are great for boot drives))

(you can also pretty much get whatever case you damn well please, I wouldn't spend over $150)


excellent/outstanding will do what you want, as they're equal to what I spent ~3-2 years ago on mine and it still runs everything all high w/ a 4870. though I'd recommend getting 1333/1600 clocked RAM regardless of build, 800 clock has become highly noticeable as of late.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811162051 This is an excellent bargain case, steel, big, heavy, immobile.
Add this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.591935

Some thermal paste and ♥♥♥♥ you need to put the thing together and whee enjoy your computer.
Now you also have money left over for peripherals.

1. Go to Facepunch
2. Go to the computer building thread.
3. Make new topic.
4. Give them all the details (Budget, location, what you want it to do)
5. Have them build a computer for you.
6. Assemble computer.
7. ????
8. Wet pants at new-found speed and ability.

uh I definitely would not recommend Facepunch the people who post builds there hardly know what they are doing also pyro that case visibly looks like it'd have terrible airflow, and only 3 mediocre reviews? lol.

but that's a great combo for the money. it's a shame the video card/processor isn't a step up(lol, hexacore. full-computer combos the only way they can sell them now?).

Hmm, I created a list of parts about a week ago, although it was 900 Euro. Not sure how that would translate into dollars, but it would probably end up being around 1200. I'll post it anyway:

NZXT Phantom € 126,74
Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B € 34,-
Corsair TX650W € 72,50
Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 € 90,-
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition € 201,90
Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 € 112,60
Asus ENGTX560 Ti DCII TOP/2DI/1GD5 € 254,-

Total: € 891,74 /$1.215,53

If this is too much(probably) you could save some money on the memory, which is way too much unless you want to do video renders, the case, which is just plain awesome or the processors cooler, which I need for overclocks to handle the renders.

On the other side, this beastly pc will easily hit 4.0 ghz on all six processor cores, and it has a 900mhz GPU, making sure that everything will run on high for the next 2 years.(There is also a 1ghz version or the 570 editions, but those came out later then the list.)

Oh and it's missing a harddisk, I would recommend taking it out of your older pc/selling it to pay for a 1TB disk.

If you live in Europe this computer could just as well be much cheaper in the US

FTW go for it. Nice and big with lots of room, and you can water cool it. I would personally try and get an Intel i5 or i7 if I were you, though.

As far as I know a i5/i7 around €200 will never give you the performance you can get out of one of these stock. The only real pro to having a i5/i7 is that you can overclock it slightly further when water cooled. Which I'm fairly sure he won't do.
On the other side, a i7 with comparable specs will set you back €800. This is a hexacore, they normally are unaffordable.
Now compare that i7 with the phenom, which costs about a quarter of the i7, 3.0 stock versus 3.4 stock. Phenom II's have proven to be quality, unlike their predecessors. Then there's the extra CPU cooler, which can take it straight to 4.2ghz.

He probably won't need all that power, though in 2/4 years it would still be awesome, only needing a minor graphics card replacement to bring it back to date.

that's...completely incorrect.

1100T price via newegg: $239

its equivalent, the i5-661: $215

and you definitely DON'T need watercooling to overclock an i5/i7. air is good enough to achieve far greater output than their equivalent AMD processor. i5/i7s have greater overclocking potential, and that's pretty much the situation.

the equivalent i5/i7 to your AMD cpu will always defeat yours when both are overclocked to their maximum be it on air or water. buying an i5/i7 and not overclocking is pretty pointless.


durghh there is a reason all the i7s/i5s are out of stock on newegg. they are. at this point in time. better than AMD counterparts. hexacores are not some kind of gift from god, they are not even v. good. they are not ridic expensive, though they are slightly more expensive than the intel competitors. and the competitors intel brings to the market are guaranteed to reach better speeds safely if you know what you're doing, at all.



just wrong

A smackdown was laid.

And I shall accept.



Right, because I didn't say nearly the same thing....

Then there's the point that all currently issued sandy bridge based systems have been diagnosed with a error.
Oh and that the base clock of a 1055t is higher then the base clock of a 661. Adding the fact that he will add a graphicscard anyway and that never said he had any intention to overclock, I'm fairly sure the 1055t will outrun the i5 by miles.

Oh, and did I mention this was a list I had made for a pc that was quite specifically build for renders?

Nah, in your defense: this was not that clear.


Nope, definitively not 800 dollars. You are completely right...


Once again, this is just a quick list of parts that I would use for both gaming and rendering. Both the processors and the memory(especially the memory) will be overkill for gaming, but in terms of renders they will serve me way better then a i5 quad core with 6 gigs.