Computer Builds

[Aqweei]

Disclaimer: Can't seem to find a thread. Yes, Ive searched and searched (Computers, Computer Builds, PC Builds, etc) if this has already been done please let me know.

Figured this would be a cool idea. If you are passionate about computers and enjoy building them perhaps this thread could be a nice way to show off your specs, ask questions, and get opinions!

Post pictures as well if you have them!

Current Specs:

Asus P8Z68-V LX

I5 2500k OC'd to 4.2ghz (Validation Link HERE, shows my old gtx 260 OC'd as well)

Kingston 8gb DDR3 1600

EVGA GTX 670 FTW edition

PC Power and Cooling 760w PSU (would absolutely love if it was modular, but I got it at an amazing price and I love it other wise!)

CM Hyper 212+

Lite-On DVD Drive x 2

NZXT Phantom Black/Orange

Edit: Forgot my drives I also have a 500gb caviar blue by Western Digital and a Crucial M4 64gb SSD

Ive done some very basic modding to my case. Things I want in the future whether it be in a completely new build or just upgrading this one.

-SLI/Crossfire

-3 Monitors

-Watercooling

-Case completely pimped out

Pictures!

[Breakfast]

Cool beans. I'd like to build a computer for gaming. All I have is a crappy laptop.

I would probably get a GTX 570. Is the 670 a whole lot better?

I'm fairly new computer parts so I don't exactly know what the hell I'm talking about.

[Aqweei]

Cool beans. I'd like to build a computer for gaming. All I have is a crappy laptop.

I would probably get a GTX 570. Is the 670 a whole lot better?

I'm fairly new computer parts so I don't exactly know what the hell I'm talking about.

Well, there are 2 parts to the answer to that question.

1.) Yes, the 670 is better than the old 580's.

2.) What is your budget, what games will you want to play, and what resolution are you going to be playing at? These all affect whether or not the 670 would be a whole lot better for you. If you want to play single monitor, WoW, at 1680 x 1050 then the 570 would be plenty for you to enjoy the game at maximum settings. If you want to play on anything over 1080p or dual monitors and battlefield 3 then I would recommend a 670 or better for maximum quality.

I greatly enjoy building pc's. If you'd like to send me a PM with a budget I would be glad to help you make up a part list!

[Jcannon98188]

Your best bet is to shop at www.newegg.com, buy the parts, and put everything together yourself. Best bang for your buck, you can get a good gaming rig for about $500 that way.

[Aqweei]

Your best bet is to shop at www.newegg.com, buy the parts, and put everything together yourself. Best bang for your buck, you can get a good gaming rig for about $500 that way.

The Truth has been spoken! Newegg is my favorite place to shop. http://pcpartpicker.com/ is also a good site. You select what parts you want and it finds the cheapest deals on them for you

[WizardTrip]

Ooh...I'll play. First, Aqweei, nice build and awesome OC!

This is my Hackintosh build. Also running Win 7 for gaming. I built this thing back in 2007/2008 time frame.

Asus P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz (OC to 3.6GHz) w/ Xigmatek HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler

Asus GeForce 8800GTS 512 (G92) w/ Scythe MUSASHI Copper Heatpipe VGA Cooler

Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) (4 x 1GB)

Rosewill RC-401-EX PCI NIC (onboard NIC worked with the hackintosh, but caused some issues. This works OTB and shows as builtin).

LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD SATA (due to nForce Mobo, SATA DVD drives are problematic with hackintoshes)

Corsair 750-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply

Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 Full Tower Case

I had it OC'ed to 4.0, but couldn't get it stable. The blame is on the Mobo IMO, not the e8400. I haven't had a need to upgrade until recently, and the main thing needing an upgrade is the GPU. I also built my unRAID server, but it's specs aren't all that impressive since it is just a media server with 10TB worth of drives.

[Aqweei]

Nice build My old build that I actually just got rid of in February was

MSI G31TM-P21

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400

4GB DDR2 RAM G.Skill PC2 6400

Nvidia gtx 260

250 GB HDD

Lightscibe CD/DVD Burner

started out with a 8400gs. lol

I built my current computer because I was never able to afford a top of the line one and that was what I had always wanted. Thanks for the nice comments! The OC is actually low believe it or not. If you put the i5 2500k under water it is easy to get that thing up to 5.0ghz!

[Laney]

I don't have any *really* good pictures since I re-built it with a new case, but I has a few. I built this computer a little over a year ago

Desktop:

• ASUS Rampage III Extreme
  
• i7-950 (first generation)
  
• 12GB DDR3-1330 (I think, can't quite remember)
  
• ATI Radeon HD 5870
  
• 2 TB Seagate Barracuda plus 640 GB Western Digital Caviar Blue
  
• 750W Gold Pro-series PSU
  
• Dell SP2309PW 23" 2048x1152 monitor + 20" Acer monitor
  
• Klipsch Bookshelf speakers with Pioneer receiver (not pictured on my desk, same as the ones on my boyfriend's)
  

Album -My desk is the one to the far left.

Laptop:

• i7-2k series (sandy bridge, can't remember exactly)
  
• 8GB DDR3
  
• 750GB HDD
  
• NVidia 570m, 1GB
  
• Wacom Medium
  

[WizardTrip]

I'll take some pics of my rig when I get a chance (and after I clean it up a bit).

I'll also add that I picked up a couple of 10,000 RPM WD Velociraptor drives for dirt cheap awhile back that I put in it.

I'm also still kicking with the original USB Harman Kardon soudsticks I bought back in 2001

These:

[Aqweei]

Laney- SUPER Jealous of the Wacom! I have wanted one for so long. Pretty nice rigs you have there. I have an HP probook with an old AMD processor, 8 gb of ram and like Radeon HD3000 graphics lol? Only paid 300$ and its running Windows 8 like a champ so Im not gonna complain.

Edit: Here is my set up. (I didnt see yours until after I posted but that is pretty awesome!)

WizardTrip- Those are some cool speakers! Ive got a cheap pair of Creative 2.1 speakers myself. Would love to throw a sound card in and get some nice book shelf speakers but thats not gonna happen for a while lol.

[Absidey]

omg, it's so neat! I know cord management is an art, and, dude, you're a master! I try to be all tidy with zip ties, but I always end up, "Augh, get! in! the! case! you squirrelly piece of crap!!!"

[Laney]

Laney- SUPER Jealous of the Wacom! I have wanted one for so long. Pretty nice rigs you have there. I have an HP probook with an old AMD processor, 8 gb of ram and like Radeon HD3000 graphics lol? Only paid 300$ and its running Windows 8 like a champ so Im not gonna complain.

Edit: Here is my set up. (I didnt see yours until after I posted but that is pretty awesome!)

WizardTrip- Those are some cool speakers! Ive got a cheap pair of Creative 2.1 speakers myself. Would love to throw a sound card in and get some nice book shelf speakers but thats not gonna happen for a while lol.

Haha thanks! The Wacom Medium is great, but it's super inconvenient if you're not using it on a near regular basis or making money off of it. It cost so much that I carried it in a separate case in my backpack (luckily it fit). Having the small Bamboo was much more convenient XD

Your rig is pretty awesome too! Love the cooling

omg, it's so neat! I know cord management is an art, and, dude, you're a master! I try to be all tidy with zip ties, but I always end up, "Augh, get! in! the! case! you squirrelly piece of crap!!!"

Forget zip ties, a roll of that magic self-attracting Velcro and a computer with a back panel for cable management XD

Took a couple of shots quick, my boyfriend borrowed my monitors once and neglected to re-manage the cables back there... GRR. I was going to get a pic inside my desktop but when I touched the case I saw a spark... Yeaaaahhh that's gonna have to wait lol

[Loren Wade]

This is all I own anymore. I've greatly reduced my computers in the house.

• 13" MacBook Pro: i7 2.8ghz, 750gb HDD, 8gb RAM
  
• Hackintosh Server: i3 3.1ghz, 10tb RAID, 8gb RAM
  

[Aqweei]

This is all I own anymore. I've greatly reduced my computers in the house.

• 13" MacBook Pro: i7 2.8ghz, 750gb HDD, 8gb RAM
  
• Hackintosh Server: i3 3.1ghz, 10tb RAID, 8gb RAM
  

To each their own! Nothing wrong with that. I would love to have some extra memory. Throw me a TB Edit: How do you like OSX in comparison to windows and the like? Ive always been curious about Mac products but Ive always been a PC/Android person. I wont touch an Iphone because Ive tried to use one and I simply cant stand texting on one and I enjoy tweaking around with my droid. However, the Macbooks are intriguing.

omg, it's so neat! I know cord management is an art, and, dude, you're a master! I try to be all tidy with zip ties, but I always end up, "Augh, get! in! the! case! you squirrelly piece of crap!!!"

Man, I wish! That actually took me two hours to get looking just that neat. There are people over at Overclock.net that make me look like an amateur. They sleeve their cables with paracord etc so they are colorful and all straight and want not. I will do that with my next big build, but thats it. I just in a new set of I/O front panels from NZXT from my case because I messed mine up, if I get a wild hair I may go and do a little extra tidy'ing up but we will have to see. My case definitely needs a good cleaning!

Haha thanks! The Wacom Medium is great, but it's super inconvenient if you're not using it on a near regular basis or making money off of it. It cost so much that I carried it in a separate case in my backpack (luckily it fit). Having the small Bamboo was much more convenient XD

Your rig is pretty awesome too! Love the cooling

Forget zip ties, a roll of that magic self-attracting Velcro and a computer with a back panel for cable management XD

Took a couple of shots quick, my boyfriend borrowed my monitors once and neglected to re-manage the cables back there... GRR. I was going to get a pic inside my desktop but when I touched the case I saw a spark... Yeaaaahhh that's gonna have to wait lol

Nice little set up. I may tidy up a bit and get some shots of my actual desk space too. I have things velcro'd and rubberbanded(is that a word? lol) off so they dont get every where. I can be a little OCD about cable management. I used to want a Wacom because I wanted to get into speed painting SOOOOOO bad. At the time I couldnt afford it and now Im out of the whole photoshop/illustrator stuff.

[Laney]

Nice little set up. I may tidy up a bit and get some shots of my actual desk space too. I have things velcro'd and rubberbanded(is that a word? lol) off so they dont get every where. I can be a little OCD about cable management. I used to want a Wacom because I wanted to get into speed painting SOOOOOO bad. At the time I couldnt afford it and now Im out of the whole photoshop/illustrator stuff.

Just my thoughts: Macs are basically high-end hardware (same as in a PC) with a Unix software platform and a lot of neat software. You're paying double what you would for a gaming machine that can't actually game. Most of the cost in Macs are in the screen, they use IPS screens which are basically true color to rgb printers (basically graphic designers won't have to tweak their colors for final products).

I've been neglecting the cable management because I have to RMA that 1TB external that's chilling under there, and I don't want to change anything until I transfer all the data and get a new one from Seagate lol. I love the Wacom, I do a lot of texture work for 3d models and using the Wacom + Nostromo makes me feel like an artsy bamf

[Waldo]

Hmmm, I've built all my computers for years. I'm a bit of a pack rat when it comes to parts.

No pics though, and I suck at cable management.

My current build is a few years old, I forget a lot of the exact specifics.

ASUS Mobo

2.33 gHz quad core OC'ed 33%

CPU cooler, no stats, but it's huge

8GB DDR3

GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512 GB

Internal cardreader

DVD burner (need to upgrade to a blue ray drive)

HD's - 2 TB, 500 GB, 500 GB, 500 GB, 250 GB, mix of seagate, western digital, and maxtor, anther place where upgrade is needed, I'm running out of drive space in my storage drives.

Wacom tablet, gaming keyboard

1000W power supply

Coolermaster Tower with an LOL number of fans.

Really frickin awesome monitor, 21" 1080P with ultra high contrast but slow reaction time (not so good for watching sports or action gaming, great for working on photos and strategy gaming)

I don't do much gaming though. Its more of a GFX rig for photos. When I game, I play Civilization or Open TTD. It runs Crysis like a champ though.

I'm probably going to move toward a whole home network mass storage network model in the future and move all docs, photos, videos, and music onto a separate device. We've got a laptop too. I just like the security of network storage too much, if someone were steal our desktop that would be very bad, sure the super important stuff is backed up, but not everything.

[Aqweei]

Just my thoughts: Macs are basically high-end hardware (same as in a PC) with a Unix software platform and a lot of neat software. You're paying double what you would for a gaming machine that can't actually game. Most of the cost in Macs are in the screen, they use IPS screens which are basically true color to rgb printers (basically graphic designers won't have to tweak their colors for final products).

I've been neglecting the cable management because I have to RMA that 1TB external that's chilling under there, and I don't want to change anything until I transfer all the data and get a new one from Seagate lol. I love the Wacom, I do a lot of texture work for 3d models and using the Wacom + Nostromo makes me feel like an artsy bamf

Haha, when I was real big into WoW i wanted a nostromo, I never even thought about using one for shortcuts in programs. Pretty good idea.

Yea, I understood that much about mac's save for the IPS screen part. I edit videos at work and end up lugging my dekstop up here every weekend because we only have 1 decent computer. Id like to get a decently powerful laptop to save me alot of the trouble.

Hmmm, I've built all my computers for years. I'm a bit of a pack rat when it comes to parts.

No pics though, and I suck at cable management.

My current build is a few years old, I forget a lot of the exact specifics.

ASUS Mobo

2.33 gHz quad core OC'ed 33%

CPU cooler, no stats, but it's huge

8GB DDR3

GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512 GB

Internal cardreader

DVD burner (need to upgrade to a blue ray drive)

HD's - 2 TB, 500 GB, 500 GB, 500 GB, 250 GB, mix of seagate, western digital, and maxtor, anther place where upgrade is needed, I'm running out of drive space in my storage drives.

Wacom tablet, gaming keyboard

1000W power supply

Coolermaster Tower with an LOL number of fans.

Really frickin awesome monitor, 21" 1080P with ultra high contrast but slow reaction time (not so good for watching sports or action gaming, great for working on photos and strategy gaming)

I don't do much gaming though. Its more of a GFX rig for photos. When I game, I play Civilization or Open TTD. It runs Crysis like a champ though.

I'm probably going to move toward a whole home network mass storage network model in the future and move all docs, photos, videos, and music onto a separate device. We've got a laptop too. I just like the security of network storage too much, if someone were steal our desktop that would be very bad, sure the super important stuff is backed up, but not everything.

I definitely understand about the whole home network idea. If you wanna get wild with it you could always get a server rack so everything would be bolted in. In the future I plan on having a small home network going on. I dont really keep a digital collection of movies or anything like that but Im sure once I have kids and the like I will have memories of them I will want stored and backed up.

I would love a nice monitor, that really the only thing Im lacking. Maybe next year Ill be able to afford 2 decent ones. The Korean monitors have caught my eye. 350$ or so for a 1440p resolution. Small risk involved but most everyone has been getting really nice production quality products from the sellers.

[Jcannon98188]

Haha, when I was real big into WoW i wanted a nostromo, I never even thought about using one for shortcuts in programs. Pretty good idea.

Yea, I understood that much about mac's save for the IPS screen part. I edit videos at work and end up lugging my dekstop up here every weekend because we only have 1 decent computer. Id like to get a decently powerful laptop to save me alot of the trouble.

I definitely understand about the whole home network idea. If you wanna get wild with it you could always get a server rack so everything would be bolted in. In the future I plan on having a small home network going on. I dont really keep a digital collection of movies or anything like that but Im sure once I have kids and the like I will have memories of them I will want stored and backed up.

I would love a nice monitor, that really the only thing Im lacking. Maybe next year Ill be able to afford 2 decent ones. The Korean monitors have caught my eye. 350$ or so for a 1440p resolution. Small risk involved but most everyone has been getting really nice production quality products from the sellers.

My dad sold a bunch of comic books recently, and just bought some pretty powerful server hardware. We are going to be rigging all the computers at his house up to a network storage setup. I have a couple 1tb drives that we are going to drop into a raid configuration and store all of our movies and whatnot on it.

[Waldo]

I definitely understand about the whole home network idea. If you wanna get wild with it you could always get a server rack so everything would be bolted in. In the future I plan on having a small home network going on. I dont really keep a digital collection of movies or anything like that but Im sure once I have kids and the like I will have memories of them I will want stored and backed up.

Just wait on the digital collection of movies. I don't have one yet, but.... CD's are dead and have been for a while, the writing is on the wall for DVD's and Blu-Ray's too. If you have the capability chances are it'll get used.

We've got a home network. The desktop acts as a server but I'd like to change that, mainly for security reasons, but also because organizationally I like network storage better. I've been separating my OS and program files from my docs/music/videos/pics drive wise for a long time (data storage drives fail at a much lower rate than the C:, they just don't get near the amount of wear and tear). Network storage devices (esp those that log on only wirelessly) can be placed in any inconspicuous location. I'm not as big on the bolt down server idea, outside of living beings, that would be by far the most important thing to save in the event of a fire.

[Aqweei]

My dad sold a bunch of comic books recently, and just bought some pretty powerful server hardware. We are going to be rigging all the computers at his house up to a network storage setup. I have a couple 1tb drives that we are going to drop into a raid configuration and store all of our movies and whatnot on it.

Nice, that sounds like a pretty fun project!

Just wait on the digital collection of movies. I don't have one yet, but.... CD's are dead and have been for a while, the writing is on the wall for DVD's and Blu-Ray's too. If you have the capability chances are it'll get used.

We've got a home network. The desktop acts as a server but I'd like to change that, mainly for security reasons, but also because organizationally I like network storage better. I've been separating my OS and program files from my docs/music/videos/pics drive wise for a long time (data storage drives fail at a much lower rate than the C:, they just don't get near the amount of wear and tear). Network storage devices (esp those that log on only wirelessly) can be placed in any inconspicuous location. I'm not as big on the bolt down server idea, outside of living beings, that would be by far the most important thing to save in the event of a fire.

Didnt think about the fire issues. lol. You make some valid point.

Im using an SSD as my C: drive, I wonder what the failure rate would be for that over a long period of time if you were to do exactly as you say and strictly keep the system on C: while letting everything else be on different drives?

I definitely agree with the everything going to digital statement ever since Spotify came out I have been losing interest in actually allowing my music collection to grow. I wouldnt mind having all of my movies on a drive, its just that we have roughly 200+ movies on dvd and I really do not want to rip them all. lol.

[Laney]

It's totally not worth it to rip DVDs, for the time that takes, ugh. Since Netflix I basically stopped torrenting shows/movies. They get new stuff up really fast. I had a Hulu for a while but most of anything I want to watch is on Netflix

[Aqweei]

Yea I couldnt imagine it would be. I plan on salvaging my computer up top and making it an HTPC when I build a new one in the future and it will have a blu-ray/dvd drive in it. So it really isnt going to matter that much. Would be nice if I could make it an HTPC now with the 670. Gaming from the couch would be pretty epic.

[Laney]

I have yet to build a theater pc. I have an HP Elitebook running on my main TV along with a smart Blu Ray player, and I have Boxee for the bedroom TV (I *heart* Boxee, if you want a media center sans gaming, totally recommend that!)

[Aqweei]

We currently have a roku player, so i definitely know where you are coming from.

[Jcannon98188]

I'd be careful with doing bluray in a htpc. I don't know if things have changed, but when bluray first hit the market me and my dad bought a bluray player for the PC. Quickly ran into an issue of no video players supporting bluray disks. There was an issue with different standards and ecodings being used that were supported by standalone players, but not windows applications. We eventually said screw it, and stopped using it and picked up a bluray player. Again, things may have changed since then, but I would do some research before dropping some money for the diskdrive. Also, I love my Roku. I spent $10 to get this app called "Roksbox" that allows me to stream music/pictures/video to my Roku device from a media pc. The UI isn't the greatest, but it allows me to get my movies to my tv. Between that and my Netflix account, I get tons of online content