*Researched online, read some gaming reviews and decided on the Intel i5 Haswell processor. The video card represented the most expensive card I have ever purchased at $250. After reading over the material at TonyMacx86, I decided I wanted the Hackintosh option. Not 100% sure, if I will pursue this option, but if I do, I'll add it to this guide.
*PCPartPicker.com- once you have an idea of the parts you want, this is a tremendous resource for comparing costs from different vendors.
*Options to Save: There are options to save on this build. By looking at the case, video card, motherboard, a single hard drive, although you'd want to choose the 1TB drive and omit the SSD drive), and using the stock cooler that comes with the CPU, I believe you could push the cost down to about $1000 or less. Just keep in mind, you need to have your CPU, Motherboard, and Video cards to be compatible with one another.
*Total Build Cost: $1219+ $97 tax = $1316.
2B Parts
*Motherboard- Gigabyte GA-Z87MX- D3H: $135. Make sure motherboard, CPU, and case are compatible. Gigabyte blurb: The latest Intel 8 Series platform offers significant improvements in performance and power consumption with the latest 4th generation Intel® Core™ processors and Intel® Z87 chipsets. Description at NewEgg: GIGABYTE GA-Z87MX-D3H LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard.
*CPU- Intel i5 4670K (Haswell): $200.
*Video Card- Asus GTX670-DC2-2GD5: $250.
*Memory- Corsair CML8GX3M2A1600C9, 2x4GB: $83.
*Power Supply- Corsair CX600M 600 Watt ATX Modular: $68.
*CPU Cooler- Corsair H55: $45. (Optional! The CPU comes with a stock cooler.)
*Storage- Sandisk SDSSDX-120GB-G25: $100. Solid state drive.
*Storage- 2 Seagate Barracuda 1TB drives ST1000DM003: $120. Internal drives.
*DVD Burner- Sony AD-728OS-OB: $28.
*Wifi Card- TP-Link TL-WDN4800: $35.
*Operating System- Windows 7 OEM: $65.
*The Case- Fractal Design Define XL R2: $90. Fractal Design blurb: ATX, Micro ATX, mini-ITX, E-ATX and XL-ATX motherboard compatibility.
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| An Empty Shell |
2C Case Discussion
I don't believe there is any pressing need to spend more than $100 on a case. You can probably find a good case for half that price. That said, there are a variety of nice cases on the market with a range of prices. When purchasing a case, you want one with easy access to both sides, with a cable management compartment which is a separate space on the back side of the case about an 1" wide where cables can be routed. A give away clue is that when looking at the main compartment of the case, you'll see rubber cable access slots for the cables to come through. Another good feature quick connect slots for the hard drives and several/many fans. For a first time builder, I think a mid-tower is a good choice. USB and headset connections on the front of the case should be expected.
*The Cable Management Compartment: notice the backside of the motherboard and access to the bottom side of the CPU that would allow the future install or uninstall of a CPU cooler.
*Sound Proofing- I zeroed in on the Fractal Design "Define" cases, because of their sound proofing. Honestly I don't know how much difference it makes, but I liked the idea. My old PC was noisy. My G5 Mac was relatively quiet until all the fans kicked in, but it was still not annoying.
*Originally I was going to purchase the Define R4 which is a mid-tower case about the size an old Mac G5 tower. This is plenty big enough, but when I went shopping, I found that the XL R2, a full size case was less expensive ($99 vs $125) . I assume because it is an older design case? Not sure. The XL R2 case came with 3 fans included.
*If I had a critique regarding the XL R2 case is that the front door gives it the minimalist appearance if you like that, but it requires the door to be opened for DVD access. Not a big deal, mostly a neutral.
*The builder in the NewEgg video builds in a Corsair case (link perishable), Corsair Carbide Case which has these same type of features, but I'm not sure about sound proofing. Those cases run from $70- $170. If the Amazon link dies, google "Amazon.com Corsair Cases".
2D What I Learned/Important Points
*Caution: Static Electricty- Observe static charge cautions when assembling a computer. You don't want to discharge static electricity from yourself to the computer. I bought an inexpensive wrist static strap and used it during assembly connecting it to a partially installed power supply bolt.
*Cases include marked wires- I assume this is a standard, but for the Fractal Design case I used, all of the interface items on the case (USB connections, Power Supply, Audio plug in, etc), include installed and more importantly marked wires making it relatively painless to figure out what they are, and in combination with the motherboard diagram, where they should be plugged in.
*Initial Build Outside the Case- Really smart to determine if you have a viable motherboard before getting everything hooked up inside the case and then have to take it all apart.
*Motherboards are basically plug and play- I may be going out on a limb here, but it seems that motherboards and components designed to make an electrical connect to the motherboard are designed so that you can't plug the wrong multi-pin connector into the wrong motherboard receptor, either by virtue of the shape of individual pins on a multi-pin plug and latches on the side of a plug.
*Memory- Also called RAM should be installed in pairs for ATX boards. My understanding is that it is not required (but don't quote me), Dual channel architecture insures optimum performance. References: Dual Channel Archtecture, SuperUser Link. So if you want 8GB RAM, you'd buy 2x4GB which are sold as a pair. On the motherboard, RAM slots are organized into pairs/channels and are labeled. Two sticks or RAM are not installed adjacent to one another, but skip a slot. Two sticks of RAM go into slots marked DDR3_1, DDR3_2. A notch in the slot prevents RAM sticks from being installed in the wrong orientation in the slot.
*CPU- Intel CPUs have no pins, AMD CPUs have pins.
*CPU Cooler- Fan and pump plug into the CPU and CPU OPT connectors on the motherboard.
*3 Pin Plug Can fit Into 4 Pin Receptor- I saw this when hooking up 3 pin CPU cooler fan/pump electrical connections on the motherboard. Note, there is a small notch on the side of the connectors along with the shape of the pins, to make sure it is plugged into the correct 3 pins of the 4 pin connector. This Tom's Hardware thread sheds some light onto the situation. Quote: The 3 pin fans allow the motherboard to monitor the speed of the fan. The fourth line on a 4 pin fan allows the motherboard to control the fan. The connectors of both are keyed so that you cannot plug a 3 pin fan into a 4 pin motherboard connector wrong.
*Fan Direction- Point of interest. Look for arrow on side of fan which indicates which way it blows. Fans either blow into the case or out of the case. Case installed fans suck cool outside air into case. Since I added a fan, I elected to make the top fan and exhaust fan that pulls air out of the case.
*6+2 PCIE 8 pin connector: Depending on the '''PCI Express Video Card''' that is purchased, it may require a 6 pin PCIE or an 8 pin PCIE connection. The 6+2 is a 6 pin connector with an addition 2 pin connector offering the flexibility functioning as either a 6 pin or 8 pin power connector. When Slid together and plugged in, an edge on the back of the 6 pin connector holds the 2 pin connector in place beside it. Reference this JonnyGuru.com FAQ. Quote: High end PCI Express (PCIe) graphics cards often need auxiliary power. This power is delivered to the card via either a 6-pin PCIe connector or a 6-pin and 8-pin power connector. PCI Express graphics cards without any kind of auxiliary power connector are called "75W cards" because 75W is the most power the card can pull from' the PCI Express slot. A graphics card with one 6-pin PCIe power connector is called a "150W card" because the 6-pin allows the card to draw up to 150W of power. A graphics card with two 6-pin PCIe power connectors is called a "225W card" and a graphics card with one 6-pin PCIe and one 8-pin PCIe power connector is called a "300W card". Some power supplies use what is referred to as a PCIe power connector. This is because the power connectors have a removable pair of pins that converts an 8-pin PCIe connector into a 6-pin PCIe power connector.
*Molex Connectors- Used to provided electrical power from the power supply to devices such as hard drives.
*SATA- Serial ATA Components data cables used to connect DVD, SSD, and Hard Drives to the motherboard. SATA data cables are individual connections. Each SATA device gets an individual cable to connect to the motherboards SATA block. I need to verify if it makes any difference which device is connected to which port. I've had no issues with the SATA connections I made in my build.
*SSD- Solid State Drive. Data storage device. This is where your Operating System and programs reside. Faster than legacy hard drives and no moving parts.
*Power Supply- Go modular! A modular power supply with power cables that can be connected to the power supply as needed is the way to go. It makes assembly easier and reduces clutter. A single Power cable coming off the Power supply can power multiple devices.
---End of Part 2---
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