First build!!!

[jljr]

Hi everyone, I'm looking to build my first computer and after reading this forum for a couple of weeks this is what I've come up with (my budget is aroud $900 - moniter, I don't do much gaming but I appreciate a fast , quiet computer):

CPU:
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail


Motherboard:
ASUS P7P55D-E LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Case:
LIAN LI PC-62B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

PSW:
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ... - Retail

Ram:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK - Retail

DVD:
LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support - Retail
Item #: N82E16827106335

HD:
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Video card:
ASUS EAH5670/DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail

HSF:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long ... - Retail

OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM


I think thats everything, from Newegg it comes to about $1000 (without shipping) which is a litttle over but doable. I don't now where to cut if I needed to, the case maybe. I want a simple clean case I looked at the Antec 300 and it looks ok I see it comes with this: (Antec Three Hundred + BP430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply, I think the PSW will be enough? If not will the one above fit? Does it matter that this case is a bottom mount for the PSW?). I don't know if I need a different HSF but I don't know how good/loud the stock fan is? This fan looks good except it looks difficult to put in. Is there much difference between Win7 Pro and Home? I appreciate your comments/suggestions.

[glc]

I would spend a bit more on the hard drive and get a WD Black.

Look at the Antec Sonata 3 500 case/PSU combo.

Win 7 Home Premium is all you need.

The stock heatsink is fine if you aren't overclocking.

[jljr]

Thanks glc. I've looked at the Sonata 3 and I'm not sure I like the door. Does it get in tge way? It's a nice looking case with the door closed and the included psw would eliminate some work for me. I got back and forth on it. I have a Microcenter near me so I've been able to actually put my hands on it. In regards to the HSF is the stock one quiet? I'd spend a little extra to have less noise. I wasn't sure if that was a good fan or not, it gets good performance reviews but they say its a little tricky to install.

[glc]

Why would the door get in the way? How often would you be opening it?

If you don't want the stock heatsink, that one you picked seems to be the best for the money.

[jljr]

I don't know how many times I would be opening it in any given time. Not ever having had a door it just seemed like it would be a hassle to always open the door to access a drive or the power button. Maybe it isn't but that's why I asked. I found a 500 gb black WD drive and will down grade to Win 7 Premium, saves me a few bucks, thanks. I'll start getting parts this week, some from Newegg and some from my local Microcenter (save some shipping costs)!
I'll post more then, thanks for your help!

[glc]

Don't forget sales tax. Unless you are in CA, TN, or NJ, there's no sales tax at Newegg.

I have a door on my case, and it's no hassle at all. If you want a different case, unless it's an Antec, get it without a power supply and get a good power supply (Antec, Corsair, Seasonic). The Lian-Li and Corsair combo you had is EXCELLENT. I think a 430 is cutting it a bit close with that video card but it will work, I think ATI recommends either 400 or 450 minimum. You need long cables with a bottom mount.

[jljr]

I'm going to take a second look at the Sonetta 3. It gets recommended a lot so I think its worth another look. How do you extend cables from a bottom mount PSW? Aren't they hard wired in? Do you use extensions? The only thing I could find cheaper at Microcenter was the CPU. Even with shipping the case is cheaper at Newegg.

[glc]

You buy a power supply that has long cables. If you read the reviews of any power supply, someone will very likely have commented on cable length and bottom mount. All Corsairs should be long enough, as should all Antecs except the Basiq.

[jljr]

Thanks, thats good to know. Newegg has the Sonata 3 on sale for $89 with free shipping until 3/23! That will probably swing me in that direction.

[glc]

Well, that's after a rebate. Still, $109 is a good price.

[jljr]

glc , do you know anything about an static problem with these cases? Several of the reviews on Newegg talk about it. Seems to be when you touch the front of the case it shorts out and reboots your system. Truth or urban legend?

[glc]

Just don't set the case on carpet.

[jljr]

Is that a general rule or just particular to that case?

[glc]

That's a general rule. Either put a plastic mat under it or use wood blocks/strips.

[jljr]

glc, can you give me a primer or a place I can look up what some of the info on PCI expansion slots mean? Specifically what this means:

Expansion Slots:
PCI Express 2.0 x16 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 (single at x16)
1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 (at x4 mode, 2.5GT/s)
PCI Express x1 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots (2.5GT/s)
PCI Slots 3

I looked up at Wikipedia and didn't quite understand it, maybe you can help.

Thanks...

[David M]

I think you will like the Lian-Li case. That's all I buy now. The quality is very high. A door on the front can help reduce the noise from fans on the front of the case. Also, you can shut the door to eliminate flashing or brite LED's at night. Some doors have keys so your cat can't surf for kitty porn while you are gone.

[glc]

Your video card will go into this one:

PCI Express 2.0 x16 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 (single at x16)

You have 6 more slots if needed. One of them is sized for a PCI-Ex16 card, but it will only run at x4 speed. You have 2 slots for PCI-Ex1 cards. You have 3 legacy PCI slots.

A PCI-E card will fit in any PCI-E slot that's the same size or bigger. Legacy PCI will only fit in PCI.

[jljr]

What do the x16 or x4 speed mean? What other type of cards (sound?) go into those slots?And does it matter that it would only run at x4 speed?

Thanks...

[glc]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

A lane is composed of a transmit and receive pair of differential lines. Each lane is composed of 4 wires or signal paths, meaning conceptually, each lane is a full-duplex byte stream, transporting data packets in 8 bit 'byte' format, between endpoints of a link, in both directions simultaneously.[4] Physical PCIe slots may contain from one to thirty-two lanes, in powers of two (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32).[3] Lane counts are written with an × prefix (e.g., ×16 represents a sixteen-lane card or slot), with ×16 being the largest size in common use. A PCIe card will fit into a slot of its physical size or larger, but may not fit into a smaller PCIe slot. Some slots use open-ended sockets to permit physically longer cards and will negotiate the best available electrical connection. The number of lanes actually connected to a slot may also be less than the number supported by the physical slot size. An example is a x8 slot that actually only runs at ×1; these slots will allow any ×1, ×2, ×4 or ×8 card to be used, though only running at ×1 speed. This type of socket is described as a ×8 (×1 mode) slot, meaning it physically accepts up to ×8 cards but only runs at ×1 speed. The advantage gained is that a larger range of PCIe cards can still be used without requiring the motherboard hardware to support the full transfer rate, which keeps design and implementation costs down.

What does this mean to you? Even though you physically have two x16 slots, the second one will only run at x4 speed maximum.

PCI Express has replaced AGP as the default interface for graphics cards on new systems. With a few exceptions, all graphics cards being released as of 2009 from ATI and NVIDIA use PCI Express. NVIDIA uses the high bandwidth data transfer of PCIe for its Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology, which allows multiple graphics cards of the same chipset and model number to be run in tandem, allowing increased performance. ATI also has developed a multi-GPU system based on PCIe called CrossFire. AMD and NVIDIA have released motherboard chipsets which support up to four PCIe ×16 slots, allowing tri-GPU and quad-GPU card configurations. Uptake for other forms of PC expansion has been much slower and conventional PCI remains dominant. PCI Express is commonly used for disk array controllers, onboard gigabit Ethernet and wi-fi but add-in cards are still generally conventional PCI, particularly at the lower end of the market. Sound cards, modems, serial port cards and other cards with low-speed interfaces are still nearly all conventional PCI. For this reason most motherboards supporting PCI Express offer conventional PCI slots as well.

Other than video cards, MOST expansion cards are still legacy PCI. Other than video cards, MOST PCI-E cards are x1 cards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PCIExpress.jpg

PCI Express slots (from top to bottom: x4 , x16, x1 and x16), compared to a traditional 32-bit PCI slot (bottom), as seen on DFI's LanParty nF4 SLI-DR.

[jljr]

Newegg has this PSU on sale for a couple of days:

Antec earthwatts EA500 500W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-17371007-LC1A)

Is there much difference from the one I already have listed? I know its 50 watts less but other than having 2 rails as opposed to one (hopefully someone can explain that) I don't see much of a difference. I believe it has enough power for my system and its a good brand. I would like to save a few bucks (I know it's only a rebate but still) if I could.

[David M]

A rail is an individual circuit within the PSU that provides one of three different voltages to your computer. A power supply has multiple circuits which provide power to different loads or hardware devices such as a graphics card. A draw from one rail is not supposed to affect another rail. The advantage is that voltage drops, spikes or electrical noise on one rail will not affect another piece of hardware on another rail. The downside is you could potentially max out the amount of current you can draw from a PSU with two or more rails sooner compared to a PSU with one rail. This could happen if you do not adequately balance you loads between rails.

The trade off is electrical isolation versus being able to use your PSU's maximum power. Typically, the 12 volt rail(s) are the concern since most of the computers power draw is supplied by the 12 volt rail(s).

I think it is best to have multiple rails combined with a PSU that is more than barely adequate. If you are going to purchase barely adequate then get a PSU with only one 12 volt rail.

Always though get a quality PSU. Antec is one of the highest rated PSU manufacturers.
What Power Supply should I get? How many Watts? Who made it? Guide Inside.

Newegg has a power supply sizing calculator that you probably want to try before purchasing.
http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html I ran your hardware configuration and it comes out to 354 watts. Therefore a 550W PSU would be more than just adequate.

For another $10, after a rebate, you can buy a 550 watt PSU with a 120mm fan that produces only 21 dB that is quieter and just as good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-004-_-Product

[jljr]

Thanks for the reply Dave. The one you suggested I think I have in my build list already.I just saw the Antec one go on sale and knew it was a good brand. I'll check out those links.

[glc]

Grab it if you want. The EA500 is the same power supply that's included in the Sonata case I recommended before.

[jljr]

The video card on my build list is out of stock, this was recommended from another thread:

GIGABYTE GV-R485ZL-512H Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125238).

Toms Hardware has this with the same chipset:

SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ech-_-14102824)

Price wise they're close and they look the same except for ports but neither one gets a good recommendation from the recommended video card sticky because of return/customer support problems. The recommended cards with this chipset are a little more expensive, my budget is around $100.

Any one have input on these cards?

Thanks

[glc]

Sapphire is a high quality card, but there's no end user support in the US.

[jljr]

I've started my build and everything is going well but I have a couple of questions. The parts are all the same as listed at the top except for the power supply, I bought an Antec EarthWatts 500 power supply.

Connecting the power supply to the motherboard the manual says to use the 24 pin connecter to the EATXPWR. I got that but it then says to connect an 8 pin connector to the EATX12V. Can I use any 8 pin connector coming from the power supply? Also the connecter on the motherboard has only 4 pins with a cap? on the other 4. Do I take that off?

On the SATA cords that came with the motherboard there are 2. One has a 90 degree connection at one end and the other cord is straight. Are they both the same? Is the 90 degree just for ease of installation? Can I use any of the cords coming out of the power supply that match up? There are a lot of cords!

Lastly, I connected the 2 case fans to the motherboard using the smaller 4 pin connectors. They had an extension on them with a bigger 4 pin connection that didn't match up. Was that correct?

Thanks

[glc]

You should do this before putting everything in the case:

PROBLEMS with a NEW BUILD? Try This!!

Remove the cap and use the 8 pin EPS connector. There's only one 8 pin connector on the power supply. It may split into a 4 and 4. Do not use the one that splits into a 6 and 2.

The 90 degree is simply for convenience - a SATA data cable is a SATA data cable. Use any SATA power connector, doesn't matter.

You can either connect the fans directly to the motherboard chassis fan connectors, or use the adapters and connect them directly to the power supply.

[jljr]

Thanks glc. Is there any advantage connecting the case fans one way or another?

I read the sticky that you refer to but the pins are so small I was worried about touching one of the other pins that are right next to it. Is that a concern?

[glc]

Not a concern - but your board may have a power button on the board itself, or it may come with Q-connectors, that would make it easier.

Connecting them direct allows them to be monitored by the motherboard, but may draw too much current. It's kinda a 50-50 choice.

[jljr]

Done! Booted right up. No problems except noted as above. Plugged the 8 pin in and everything booted up no problem, went to the BIOS page for CPU temps and it was running at 36 C. I had to change where I had one of the chasis fans plugged in becasue that plug was not a monitered plug. Switched it around to one that was and changed the setting to have the MB moniter temps. Temp stayed at 36 C for about an hour while the side covers were off. Thats the only BIOS setting I changed, I don't want to get into playing with the settings much if I don't have to. Put the covers on and loaded drivers rechecked the temp and it was running at 40C. Let it run for a while and then loaded Win 7. No problems there either. I have a new moniter, a Samsung Syncmaster 23". Has a nice picture and looks good. So everything is going good (I'm typing this on the new build now). Thanks to glc, Dave M. and anyone else I missed. Props also to Khalil, he didn't respond directly to any of my posts but his stickys on video card and MB selection were a big help. Also you posts to others were always insightful and informative without any snarkiness that some have. Thanks again PCMech