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KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread


Leonov

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Ok. After recently realizing I left off a zero in my net gain of cash this month I have made the decision to build a computer! And I have little experience with this. I've talked to friends and learned the basics but I'm still looking for approval on what I am planning on getting (is it too much/too little) (also will I need a fan?).

BTW I am not looking for the super-computer experience, but I am much more than a casual gamer too! I am looking to make a computer that will last me quite some time and can be up-gradable (hence that 750 watt power supply).

Asus H97 plus (maybe) motherboard

Intel i5 Quadcore 4690 3.50 Ghz (motherboard support)

ASUS GeForce GTX 750 OverClocked with 1GB DDR5 Memory (GTX750-PHOC-1GD5)

8GB RAM (motherboard support)

Seagate Desktop 2TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5" Internal Drive

Corsair RM750 750w PSU 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified Fully Modular PSU

Coolermaster HAF 912 Flagship

Price currently sits at $844 from my nearby Fry's Electronics dealer, and with rebate it could be less expensive (however I've heard that their rebates are a Pain in the S)!

Comments and Suggestions?

That's almost identical to my set-up and it's a perfectly acceptable mid-range PC. Your PSU seems a bit overpowered for the build. Modern nVidia cards are very efficient and I think you could quite easily get away with 550W, although you might want to check your overclocking doesn't do something ridiculous to the power levels. However I would suggest going for a GTX 750 TI rather than the plain 750. The price difference isn't huge but the performance is apparently significantly better. The GTX 750 Ti is seemingly the best mid-range card around. But I can understand if you want to just stick with a 750, as when building a PC it's easy to get carried away with making every component slightly better, and before you know it you're at twice your budget. Maybe by getting a less powerful PSU you could afford it.

I am slightly surprised at the price. Your processor is a little better than mine,my graphics card isn't overclocked and you've got an extra 1 TB, but it only cost £435, which is around $690. And that was around 8 months ago. I thought things in the USA were cheaper? Although mine was a ridiculously good deal, and you have got fancier case.

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Even 550W are way more than this could ever need even with strong OC, 350W should be enough for every case.

Indeed, but for whatever reason the Corsair 450W is the same price as the 550W, and it seems to difficult to get anything smaller than a 430W in a decent brand.

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Graphics cards are massively parallel, with hundreds or even thousands of processing elements. nVidia calls them "CUDA cores", AMD call theirs "stream processors". The 750 Ti has 640 CUDA cores while the regular 750 has 512; in other respects the cards are basically the same. For a wider context, the bottom end 210 and 610 have 16 and 48 CUDA cores respectively, while the $1000 Titan X has 3072.

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What is the difference between the 750 and the 750ti? (Sorry, I'm a newb at this)

Also, about the price, I wouldn't be surprised if things are less expensive in Europe.

750 is 1 GB, 750ti is 2GB. From what I've read the 750ti is pretty much the best nVidia card in terms of performance vs. cost, so if your budget can stretch to it then it's recommended. The standard 750 is by no means a bad card, it's just more into the lower end of the mid-range gaming cards. There's not a huge difference, but it's worth it.

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The 750 comes in 1 GB and 2 GB variants, the 750 Ti I've only seen with 2 GB. I would avoid the 1 GB versions of the 750, it's not really enough for games nowadays. At the moment the pricing on the 2 GB 750 and 750 Ti is so close (at least in England) that unless you absolutely must keep to a budget or you've found a 750 at bargain price it's hard to justify not getting the 750 Ti.

Edited by cantab
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The 750 comes in 1 GB and 2 GB variants, the 750 Ti I've only seen with 2 GB. I would avoid the 1 GB versions of the 750, it's not really enough for games nowadays. At the moment the pricing on the 2 GB 750 and 750 Ti is so close (at least in England) that unless you absolutely must keep to a budget or you've found a 750 at bargain price it's hard to justify not getting the 750 Ti.

Ah, I see - I didn't realise there was a 2 GB non-Ti version. Seems an odd card to make, as there's already a small gap in price between the 750 1 GB & 750 Ti that it's a bit pointless trying to fit another graphics card in there.

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Also, one last question:

It does not appear that the case has a built in fan (clarification?), but the 750 ti graphics card does have 2 fans. Should I buy another or will this be enough?

(BTW getting a Corsair CX750 750 Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Certified Power Supply not a Corsair RM750 750w PSU 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified Fully Modular PSU)

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Looking to build a gaming PC for games in Alpha. Budget is in the 500-600 U.S dollar range. Need to squeeze as much power into that budget as possible.

Thanks!

-Zamorakphat

We are here to help, but expect you to participate in the work. What do you want to run at what settings? What hardware is needed for those kinds of things? At which configurations did you look? What is the system you propose yourself?

If you want a plug-and-play system without trouble or effort, you would probably be better off buying something off the shelf :)

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So I think I've got it figured out, how does this look?

What GPU are you using? That list doesn't have any, and you've said you'll be doing gaming, which most definitely requires one. If you can tell us how much you can afford to spend, you would definitely get a good recommendation. You also didn't include power supply in that list, nor does your case come with one (ones that come with cases are usually pretty bad though so that doesn't matter). Any power supply that's 500w and from a respected brand will do.

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What GPU are you using? That list doesn't have any, and you've said you'll be doing gaming, which most definitely requires one. If you can tell us how much you can afford to spend, you would definitely get a good recommendation. You also didn't include power supply in that list, nor does your case come with one (ones that come with cases are usually pretty bad though so that doesn't matter). Any power supply that's 500w and from a respected brand will do.

I mentioned previously that I already have a power supply and GPU.

One more question: If the case has, for example, two USBs, and audio jack, and microphone, but the motherboard just says "front panel header", would those work together? Or does it have to specify what the front panel has?

Edited by TechnicalK3rbal
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I cannot seem to find a post about which ones those are. Make and model of the PSU and the same for the GPU, please :)

Sorry, actually didn't post it here, it was on a different forum and I thought it was here as well. I don't remember the make of the PSU, but it is 650 watts, and the GPU is a GTX 650 Ti.

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Sorry, actually didn't post it here, it was on a different forum and I thought it was here as well. I don't remember the make of the PSU, but it is 650 watts, and the GPU is a GTX 650 Ti.

The make of the PSU is important, as has been discussed so often here before :) Well, it is actually the quality that counts, as badly built PSUs can lead to a lot of trouble and even damage.

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I mentioned previously that I already have a power supply and GPU.

One more question: If the case has, for example, two USBs, and audio jack, and microphone, but the motherboard just says "front panel header", would those work together? Or does it have to specify what the front panel has?

The front panel header is referring to the cluster of pins used for drive access and power lights, as well as the power and reset switch. On the Newegg page, you can see it is along the bottom of the motherboard, in yellow. The USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports are also along the bottom (blue and red, respectively) and the audio is to the left of the purple cluster of pins (which is a legacy connector).

But yes, the manufacturer of the PSU is important, if a PSU is shoddy and fails, it can take out a whole system. I would recommend upgrading the GPU if you can afford to, but it should run many games fine if you can't (though as it has been mentioned here, games tend to favor GPU performance nowadays).

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-snip-

No, I meant the connections on the front (built into) the case, like

11-163-254-Z02?$S300W$

Will these connect to the front-panel header, or would that motherboard not support it? And also, for the fans, do those connect directly to the motherboard?

Edit: And what is the serial header?

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No, I meant the connections on the front (built into) the case, like

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/11-163-254-Z02?$S300W$

Will these connect to the front-panel header, or would that motherboard not support it? And also, for the fans, do those connect directly to the motherboard?

Edit: And what is the serial header?

That's what I just explained-- the front panel header refers to where you plug in the LEDs and power/reset switch for the case (yellow on your board), the USB 3.0/2.0 on the case has its own connection (blue/red), and the audio jack has its own connection. Fans do connect directly, they are above and to the right of where the CPU goes on your board, labeled CPU_FAN1 and SYS_FAN1.

The serial header is for older devices, you most likely won't need it.

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Ah, thanks. I misunderstood what you said. Would the actual (cable? connector?) come with the motherboard or the case or would I have to buy it seperately?

Edit: The CPU_fan is for the CPU cooler, while the SYS_fan is the case fan, correct? What if there is two?

Edited by TechnicalK3rbal
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Ah, thanks. I misunderstood what you said. Would the actual (cable? connector?) come with the motherboard or the case or would I have to buy it seperately?

Edit: The CPU_fan is for the CPU cooler, while the SYS_fan is the case fan, correct? What if there is two?

The case will have all the appropriate cables pre-installed and labeled, you just have to plug them into the correct spot on the motherboard. You can technically plug any fan into either, the labels just let you know what the fan will be called in software. However, you do want to plug the CPU fan into the one labeled CPU, because it has 4 pins. 4 pins means the fan's speed can be controlled by the motherboard (usually based on temperature), meaning it will be quieter at idle.

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