About ready to build/order my new PC

Greetings,
I earlier posted a thread called x58 with i7 where I posted my thoughts and asked some questions. I have resolved a number of them I think, and I have been putting together my build online, but now I have a few more questions I hope you guys can answer before I order.

See TL;DR at the bottom.


I have decided to go with the Gigabyte x58 UD3R motherboard with the i7 950 CPU. The Gigabyte because compared to the Asus Rampage 3 for the price, I think it is a great deal and should be fine for me; the i7 950 because it is only about 30 bucks more, and because I read that a quad-core 2.66 ghz could actually be slower than a dual-core 3.0 ghz, and I do not intend to mess with overclocking.

I have picked the "Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Case" for my case. From reviews it seems like it should provide plenty of cooling, but I wondered if you guys think it will be enough.


Now, I came across a website that will assemble your computer for free. See the link; this is what I have started from:

http://www.superbiiz.com/system_conf.php?preid=87


On Amazon.com, the Gigabyte x58 UD3R, the i7 950, the Cooler Master 932, the EVGA GeForce GTS450 FPB 1 GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 01G-P3-1450-TR, and 3x 2GB 1600 mhz Corsair RAM = $838.87

On Superbiiz, the first 3, along with GIGABYTE nVidia GeForce GTX460 1GB DDR5 2DVI/Mini HDMI PCI-Express Video Card, and Super Talent DDR3-1333 6GB (3x2GB) CL8 Triple Channel Memory Kit, = $838.00


Now, on amazon.com, the 450 gpu was $130, and the 460 was about $200. Yet I can get the 460 on Superbiiz for the SAME price!


For +$13, I can get Super Talent Chrome Series DDR3-1600 6GB (3x 2GB) CL9 Triple Channel Memory Kit.


Getting two Western Digital Green Caviar 1.5TB hard drives would be about $12 more (for the both of them) than from amazon.com. BTW, has anyone had bad experiences with 2TB over 1.5TB hard drives?


Now the Power Supply. Someone in the other thread recommended Corsair 650w power supply. The one I found on amazon.com is $89.99. The Corsair 750w is $109.99.

Now, the seemingly best power option offered on Superbiiz is the Topower/Epower ZUMAX ZU-750W 750W ATX12V 2.0/EPS12V Active PFC Power Supply for $82.00. That is 750w for less than the price of the Corsair 650w. And I found a review that said it is a good power supply.

The Windows 7 64bit sold on Superbiiz is $105.00 vs. $94.00 on Amazon.


TL;DR

Superbiiz: (built for me, 30 day parts and 1 year labor and phone support warranty)

For Case, Motherboard, CPU, RAM (Super Talent instead of Corsair), GPU, 2x 1.5TB HDD, Power Supply (Epower instead of Corsair, but 750w and cheaper), and Operating System, it is $1,177 (if 1333 mhz RAM) or $1190 (if 1600 mhz RAM).

Amazon.com: (build myself, which I have never done before, no warranty)

For all of the above, with the exception of different RAM (Corsair 1600 mhz) and Power Supply = $1163 (with Corsair 650w) or $1183 (with Corsair 750w)


RAM comes with the Superbiiz build, I cannot select "none" for it. I can select "none" for the Power Supply, so I could buy the Corsair Power Supply separate, which leads to another question, should I get 650w or 750w?

I can select "none" for the operating system and hard drives as well.

Basically, if I just get the case, motherboard, cpu, gpu and RAM, I come out better than amazon.com except for the RAM. But, it would be nice if they installed the operating system and made sure everything works right.


P.S. My laptop is croaking on me, first it was a hard drive, which I replaced with two 500GB hard drives, which leads me to a question, can laptop hard drives be used in a desktop (I noticed an option on Superbiiz for an adapter to put 2.5" HDD in 3.5" HDD slots). Then the graphics card died, and now pink dashes cover the screen shortly after the screensaver starts or the screen goes to sleep.

Also, I have Windows 7 64bit on my laptop, but as said it is dying on me, so I am wondering if I should save money and use the Windows 7 for my new desktop, which leads me to the question, if I use that one Windows 7 on both computers, at least until my laptop dies completely, will Microsoft detect it and pwnhammer me for it? The laptop originally came with Vista, but did not come with disks, and I did not back up the Vista OS before my HDD died. Also, my Windows 7 pack came with both 64 bit and 32 bit, but apparently you can only use the code for one or the other. But if I could get away with it, I would be happy to load 64 bit on my destkop and 32 bit on my laptop.

Anyways, advice appreciated.

Again, main points:

Corsair for RAM and power supply hugely important, or can I go with Super Talent and Epower? Also, 1333 or 1600 for RAM? and 650w or 750w for Power Supply.

Also, Superbiiz seems to be the best deal for getting a Geforce 460, whereas from amazon.com I would probably get a Geforce 450. How big a deal is the difference?

I seem to remember that you were in India, is that the case, or have I mixed you up with someone else? If you are in the USA, you should look at www.newegg.com --- I also encourage you to build your own; you get the manufacturer warranty on every part, which depending on the part is at least 1 year and usually 2,3 or even 5 years (some parts are lifetime). So the 1 yr warranty from whomever you buy it prebuilt from is pretty pointless as far as hardware is concerned.

Now to answer the questions:

The HAF 932 is a wonderful beast of a case, it will provide more cooling then you will need with that system... no doubt at all. (I own one myself and I have an overclocked CPU with a more powerful GPU, and it's all nice and cold inside).

The GTX 460 blows the 450 out of the water, there is no comparing the two. You can get a 768mb 460 for under $150 at any time on newegg, and you can probably find a 1gb version for the same price on sale.

Yes you can use a laptop hard drive in a desktop, with or without an adapter in some cases.... if those laptop HDDs are only 5400 rpm than I would not consider it if I were you... if they at 7200 rpm and have at least 8mb of cache, then I'd go for it if you want to save money for now.

If you have a Windows 7 disc, you ought to be able to install it on your desktop. It sounds as if your laptop has died completely already, so you should be in the clear.

if you don't plan to OC, super talent 1333 is fine for RAM --- and a 650 watt PSU (by a decent company) is plenty for you, even if you go SLI down the road. Notice that I said " a decent company" --- E-Power should be avoided; don't take my word for it, just read the reviews on their products by reputable websites such as www.hardocp.com that actually stress test the power supplies they review.

So is your budget somewhere around $1200.00? Also, where are you located again?

Oklahoma, USA.

HAF 932: Awesome, and I understand it is tool-less so it should be easy for me to setup.

GTX 460: a 768 mb 460 was $159.99 on Newegg. However, I will want a 1GB, which is why I thought that this website's deal was so good, because I can get a 1GB 460 for the same price as a 450, with the exception of different RAM. On Newegg, the lowest price I saw for a 460 was $189.99.

Laptop HDD: The Laptop HDDs are 7200rpm

Windows 7: I am sure I can install Windows 7 on my desktop, but what I was wondering is, can I have the same Windows 7 running on two different computers at the same time, or will it not let me. My laptop is still (barely) useable, when the screen does not have pink lines all over it (the pink lines sometimes disappear, and then reappear whenever the laptop screen goes to sleep).

Power Supply: So, if I were to either have Superbiiz build my computer without the power supply, or build the PC myself and get the Power Supply, since the Corsair 750w is only $20 more than the Corsair 650w, should I go ahead and get it? (note: I looked at that hardocp.com site and could not find a review of the epower zu-750w. On amazon.com it has 1 review of 5 stars).

And you said that Super Talent RAM is fine (I saw a passing remark in a review that Super Talent are known for high performance memory, so that is good). Now, if I decide to upgrade to 12GB of RAM in the future, could I buy 3x 2GB of Corsair RAM and install it alongside the Super Talent, or would it be better to replace the Super Talent with all Corsair RAM if I decide to in the future?

Someone in the other thread mentioned that the onboard soundcard should be fine, I do not need a creative labs sound card. A question of mine which went unanswered was, can a sound card be added later if I decide I need it? Or is it like a graphics card with an integrated graphics card?

I would like to keep the budget $1200 or less.

Addition to the Super Talent 1333 Mhz vs. 1600 Mhz

If I were to get Corsair in the future, they would probably be 1600 Mhz (the ones I am looking at now are such). Could 1600 Mhz Corsair be paired with 1600 Mhz Super Talent? Could 1333 Mhz Super Talent be paired with 1600 Mhz Corsair?

The difference between 1333 Mhz and 1600 Mhz Super Talent from Superbiiz is $13.

Check these out at Newegg:
MBO: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TX
CPU: Intel Core i7-960
RAM: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1.5TB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1.5TB
GFX: MSi GeForce GTX 460(Fermi) 768MB
ODD: LITE-ON Black DVD Writer
MOS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade
CSE: Cooler Master HAF 932 Black Steel ATX

$1232.89

Yeah, yeah, I broke the budget. Money well spent, though.

EVGA GTX 460 1GB for $140.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...0-_-tigeremail

MSi GTX 460 1GB for $136 with Free Shipping & 2 Free Games (email me the codes for the games if you don't want them....) I'm half tempted to buy this myself.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127551


***You can pair the memory you mentioned, but it's not recommended, due to a propensity for problems when combining different speeds and brands of RAM. Even if you don't have any trouble, it will just default to run at the speed of the slowest DIMM. ***

### One more thing I thought of... since you aren't planning on Overclocking or Water Cooling, you should consider the HAF 922, since it's $40-50 cheaper and even although it's listed as a "Mid Tower" it's as big or bigger than allot of "Full Towers" --- the only real downside is it doesn't have a clear side panel, which may or may not be an issue for you. ###

I'm not a fan of mail-in rebates. And the rebate on that Tigerdirect 460 expires on 2/28/11, which is only 7 days away.

The MSI expires on 2/22/11. Also, it has a "coupon" for the two free games. I have no idea how that works.

Can anyone answer the questions about sound card and power supply?

You have to purchase your item before the rebate expires, then depending on the item you may have anywhere from 15 - 60 days to actually fill it out and send it in. It takes 5 minutes, 10 if you aren't used to the process - I have saved somewhere around $800-850 on rebates alone over the last 2-3 years, so it could work for you too.

The free games are digital downloads, you go to the site, enter the code and download the game.

Sound card is your choice, just about every motherboard made now has at least 5.1 surround sound built in and most have 7.1 capability; the sound card is no longer essential for the gamer, but it's a rather subjective topic too.

The system you are planning to build will be fine with a 650 watt PSU, the 750 watt for $20 more is not worth it nor necessary if you don't want to OC especially.

If you aren't in a big hurry you could check out combo deals and weekly specials as well... with a little more time you can sometimes save up some decent cash.

Whelp, I decided to take a desktop build to the check-out on Superbiiz.com. I learned that shipping UPS Ground (the cheapest and slowest option) is $60 and some odd cents. I am pretty sure that even if I could get them to match Amazon and Newegg prices on their parts, the shipping would make the cost more than if I ordered the parts separately. (I canceled the order obviously)

If I build the PC myself, I can salvage Windows 7 64bit from my laptop, along with two 500GB 7200rpm HDDs. However, I would love to get one of those barebone laptops and salvage the CPU, RAM, and HHDs from my laptop and put them in the barebone.

My laptop:

17" screen
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.50Ghz x2 processor
Geforce 8600GS (dead, the laptop is using a back up VGA display driver)
4GB RAM (upgraded from 2GB)
2x 500GB 7200rpm HDDs (upgraded from 2x 120GB 7200rpm HDDs when the primary 120GB HDD died)
webcam (don't care), wireless, fingerprint reader (don't care), DVD/CD drive, yadayada

The major reason I wanted Superbiiz to build the computer was because I read about some problems with the Gigabyte UD3R motherboard (rev 1.0) making noises and having trouble with the BIOS (note, the may have been a problem for overclockers, not sure). Also, I have heard that you must put the RAM into certain slots first (white instead of blue I think, or the other way around). Basically, if everything went smoothly, I could probably assemble a PC myself, but if I ran into a problem, I would probably have to take the computer to a tech person, which defeats the purpose.

Meh, decisions, decisions.

No one else has any input? /characters

Building your own is easier than you think and newegg.com is generally regarded as the best place to shop online. That's my 2 cents anyways.

To the OP, did you check out the computer configurators at Cyberpower or IBuyPower. If not, just more options for you. I'm debating on whether to build my own, but I'm somewhat scared to because I'm sort of computer illiterate, or using one of those sites