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My PC buid plan

^^^ lol, tru ^^^ But I think im going to stick with custom.

Do you guys think I need anymore fans or cooling than what the lancool case comes with? It has two fans. One 120mm in the rear, and one 140mm in the front. Is that enough to cool the whole system decently?
 
Rob587 said:
Do you guys think I need anymore fans or cooling?
Click to expand...

I have a case with a blowhole, so the air goes in the back, towards the CPU, and then out the side in a blowhole. I have a single case fan, and a CPU fan facing the blowhole. Moral: If you have good airflow, you don't really need much else.

I think your case setup will be good.
 
Rob587 said:
My PC build** plan. :) What do you guys think?

LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W............................................................ $69.99

AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core.... $99

ASUS M4A78L-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 760G HDMI Micro ATX Mobo.. $69.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM............. $47.99

HIS H467QS1GH Radeon HD 4670................................................ $79.99

Kingston HyperX T1 Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066.................... $116.49

Sunbeam PSU-COM680-BK-US 680W Power Supply........................ $64.99

Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive.................................. $31.99

Total....................................................................................... $565.43

I feel like im spending a bit much on the graphics card considering my needs, but im not sure what a good step down would be.
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I recommend at the minimum at least two hard drives. One for the main OS and programs, and then a second one for backup.

Or, what I used to do, is have a 500GB for the OS and applications, and a second 1TB drive for videos, music, photos, stored downloads, etc.

I currently have four hard drives. One 500GB for Windows 7 and applications, a 500GB for Mac OS X/apps/media, a 1TB backup drive to backup that Mac OS X drive, and a 1TB scratch disk for Final Cut (plus a small partition for a second Mac OS X installation, in case the first one fails for any reason).

Since I keep nothing of critical value on the Windows OS drive (as no one ever should), I have never lost anything of significance on this machine. Even if my main Mac OS X drive crashed, I have a complete backup.

I plan to get a fifth hard drive specifically for media and stored downloads. That way, even if I do a complete erase and reinstall of Mac OS X, all of my music, videos, photos, etc are completely intact and maintain their organizational scheme.

People underestimate the importance of backups, especially in these modern times. Think about it. If, right now, everything on your computer were instantly lost, what would you lose? Only copies of valuable photos of family and friends or from overseas trips? Only copies of thesis papers or college work? Only copies of work documents that would take endless hours to reproduce, if at all possible? Copies of music and movies for which you've lost the original CDs/DVDs?

The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't ignore backing everything up regularly and reliably. I'm also using Carbonite, the online service, to backup things like documents and photos. That way, if my home burns down and I lose all my hard drives, I still have valuable data on a remote server.
 
I just built a PC for my buddy using a Lancool K58 and it's an awesome case for the money. Really easy to work in, reasonably quiet with the stock 120's, and it looks great.

The only problem is that most PSUs 4-pin 12v motherboard lead isn't long enough to reach the top upper corner where they typically plug in, so make sure you buy a 8" extension.
 
fireshot91 said:
Actually, now that I think about it, would it not be cheaper to get a refurb HP or Dell or something? Better bang for your buck. Those Windows installation CDs really get you:eek:
Click to expand...

but he would get a not so nice case, that and the refurbs would prob still cost more than the one he's building and he would be unable to mix n match parts.
 
The Lian Li is a fine case. I'd go for DDR3 right now given the prices. Are there any other power supply options available? I'd look at Corsair or Antec.
 
Rob587 said:
Well, I looked at this CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W. But it had 150watts less and was the same price. Is it a substantially better choice? Or should I go with the higher wattage raidmax?
Click to expand...

Right now, I'd say neither. :)

If you head over to TechBargains, you will see that Newegg just put on sale the Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU for $49.99. That actually may be the better deal for you. CheapStingyBargains may also have it listed as well.

Also, for their pre-Black Friday special, Newegg has that Gigabyte GA-MA785G motherboard on sale for $82.99. However, I'd say to stay with the MA785-GMT board, as the one that is on sale takes DDR2 memory. That's the only difference between the two boards (maybe besides the Southbridge).

Foxeo has a great point as well. You'll definitely need more than 1 drive. Two at the least. A 250GB at the most for Windows 7 (just put the OS on that drive, and nothing else. I personally have 3: a 200GB for the OS alone (Windows 7), a 320GB for programs and nothing else, and a 1TB for my personal files and FS9 (I primarily built this machine for flight simulation). I have it split into two 500GB partitions, so if I feel like it, I may throw OSX on that other drive and see what I get.

Are you or is a friend of yours a college student? If so, you might try getting the upgrade for $30 through that college discount. It's a little bit of a pain to do, but it works.

EDIT: Here's the link to the PSU. Hurry, it's expiring soon.

BL.
 
What is the purpose of putting windows 7 on one hard drive, then files and programs on another? Im not understanding the benefits. :confused:
 
Rob587 said:
What is the purpose of putting windows 7 on one hard drive, then files and programs on another? Im not understanding the benefits. :confused:
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Your programs and settings for those programs outside the registry would be preserved, in case your OS drive crashes. You could reinstall the OS, then the programs, and the programs should pick up right where you left off. Also, your 'Documents' folder would be preserved, as it wouldn't be on the OS drive as well. It frees you to reformat and reinstall the OS as many times as you want, without losing your personal data.

BL.
 
Rob587 said:
What is the purpose of putting windows 7 on one hard drive, then files and programs on another? Im not understanding the benefits. :confused:
Click to expand...

While it used to be a good idea in the Windows 9x days, lately Windows is stable enough that you don't need to keep your Windows on a separate drive any more that you need to keep OS X on its own drive. Even if Windows does somehow destroy itself, the installer will just put everything into Windows.Old, and you can retrieve it there.

In the rare instance where the HDD itself dies, it doesn't matter if Windows is on it or if it's a bunch of data.
 
Rob587 said:
Due to some good suggestions, here is my latest improved PC build plan.(changes are ram and mobo):

LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W............................................................ $69.99

AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core.... $99

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G Mobo.................... $89.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM............. $55.99

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600................ $93.99

RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W Power Supply........................ $49.98

Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive.................................. $31.99

Windows 7............................................................................... $104.99

Total....................................................................................... $595.92
Click to expand...

Graphics Card?

Good performance for 109.99 is the Radeon HD 4770

Even better for 116.99 with free shipping is the Radeon HD 4850 1GB

Most reviews I've read say that you don't need DDR3 or high clock speeds for good performance in RAM, 4GB of DDR2 800 should do it.

Enjoy!
 
kumbaya said:
Most reviews I've read say that you don't need DDR3 or high clock speeds for good performance in RAM, 4GB of DDR2 800 should do it.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

It isn't the clock speed that is worrying him, but rather the (future) availability of DDR2. It's slowly fading away to DDR3, with the perfect example being the prices he originally posted for the DDR2 memory as compared to DDR3.

BL.
 
Yea, it just seems as though DDR3 prices are almost identical to DDR2 right now. So I might as well just go with DDR3.

Also, Im just going to use the onboard graphics for now. Ill get a graphics card a few months down the road.
 
[removed suggestion for HDD, Green is only storage quality]

I don't see a GPU in there? Any ideas? HD 4850 or HD 57xx series do fine. Avoid GTS 250..... rebranded crap... 1.7%

Edit - Good cards for mainstream I recommend would be either the ATI HD 5750 (you could spend an extra $30 and get the 5770 which is clocked faster and has extra 80 cores) or the HD 4850.

Well, just see the attachment....
 

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I wouldn't buy a WD Green drive for a single drive system. They're typically behind the rest of the pack when it comes to performance and not really suitable for a primary drive.

I've had good luck with Segate Barracuda 7100.10, 7200.11, and 7200.12 series drives in a variety of sizes, and they're typically quite fast.
 
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