KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[deskjetser]

I have a 64 GB 3 Gb/s SSD from my old build, and I plan on getting a 6 Gb/s 2 terabyte HDD for program storage. Anyone know if the SSD still wins for booting, seeing as how there's no spool-up?

SSDs are great, even some of the slowest are still vastly faster than the fastest HDDs. Go for it.

[Exal]

heres my new build what do yall think:

Windows 8

15.6†matt screen w/ 95% ntsc color gamut 1920x1080

4th gen haswell core i7-4800mq

GeForce gtx 780m

16 gb ram at 1600mhz

120gb ssd

750gb hdd at 7200rpm

[Leonov]

heres my new build what do yall think:

Windows 8

15.6†matt screen w/ 95% ntsc color gamut 1920x1080

4th gen haswell core i7-4800mq

GeForce gtx 780m

16 gb ram at 1600mhz

120gb ssd

750gb hdd at 7200rpm

I assume this is a laptop? If your really need portability go for it. If not spend that chunk of change on a rig, Plenty of Mini-ITX stuff out there that takes up barely any space and is quick as sin.

Edited October 15, 2013 by Leonov

[sharpspoonful]

This will be my first build. I have no experience with building computers other than swapping RAM and HDs. Any suggestions?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1uU25

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1uU25/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1uU25/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($194.97 @ Outlet PC)

Motherboard: MSI H87-G43 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($98.98 @ Outlet PC)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($85.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.96 @ Outlet PC)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Microcenter)

Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($25.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Corsair C70 Military Green (Green) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Microcenter)

Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.49 @ Amazon)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($94.98 @ Outlet PC)

Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard ($10.63 @ Amazon)

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse ($52.99 @ Amazon)

Total: $1077.94

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-15 00:15 EDT-0400)

I'll have enough funds as soon as I can sell my MacBook Pro.

Edited October 15, 2013 by sharpspoonful

[Traches]

I've gotta steer you away from the razer mouse (or anything else they make, for that matter)-- I've had 3 of them break on me after only a couple months. The logitech G9X is my current favorite, but it's far from the only good mouse out there.

Are you 100% sure you'll never want to overclock? The K variant of the processor you chose (4570k) isn't too much more expensive and will allow you to do that down the road. KSP will get a pretty linear bonus from added clock speed, and haswell chips can overclock very well.

Good PSU, mobo looks fine, memory's a little expensive (always seems expensive I guess) but looks good, good graphics card... The only other thing I might change is the hard drive. I've had a few seagate drives go bad on me, so I'm a western digital fanboy these days. That said, that was years ago and things could have changed-- it's worth looking up failure rates. If you're willing to deal with a little bit more complicated setup, solid state drives are teh secks, and have come down in price too.

[briansun1]

I have to agree with above. that and you do not need brand name ram ether. Other than that why not go with one of amd's new cards?

and for psu save some $$ and pick one of these

Edited October 15, 2013 by briansun1

[Leonov]

-snip-

Take a look at this.

Got the cheaper Corsair XMS3, Still has the same warranty and quality as Vengeance Ram.

Changed the PSU to a Corsair CX600M, cheaper than the Seasonic but has the same level of quality and has a little more power.

the Seagate hard-drives are just as good as any WD, you are fine there.

Are you sure you want a Razer mouse?, they aren't doing to well reliability wise lately. The Logitech G series is doing really good and is rock solid reliable.

-snip-

Razer isn't doing very good these days, reliability wise.

The Non-K processors have limited overclockability, plenty to keep his system happy without venturing to the K.

Admittedly Corsair Ram is a little more expensive, The piece of mind brought by higher quality parts justifies the price IMO. Nothing is more frustrating when building a computer is parts that arrive DOA or Malfunction.

-snip-

The GTX 760 is a very fast GPU. There are only a few of the New cards from AMD that beat it, the only one of these cards worth getting is the R9 280X which is a little pricey in this budget.

[jfx]

A Radeon 7950 might be an alternative, they are sold off at the moment for as low as $190. The new generation of Radeons are just rebrands anyway (except for the enthusiast parts 290 & 290x due in two weeks).

[briansun1]

or a 7970 and they when you can crossfire with a 280X when you get the $$

or a 7990 qweqweqw

Edited October 15, 2013 by Leonov

[sharpspoonful]

Thank you Leonov, I'll probably be using your listing. And the peripherals are there as placeholders really. ATM, I am not in need of a high-speed mouse or keyboard. plus I' probably end up buying better gear as time and money moves on.

Edit: I'm trying to keep the price range around or under $1100 USD for the system, excluding keyboard/mice/headsets/etc. I'll start buying parts next month, and finish as soon as I can sell my laptop.

Edited October 15, 2013 by sharpspoonful

[briansun1]

on "headset's" just buy a good pair of headphones and buy a clip on mic like this

[Traches]

Take a look at this.

Changed the PSU to a Corsair CX600M, cheaper than the Seasonic but has the same level of quality and has a little more power.

Looking at reviews, the CX600M isn't corsair's strongest offering in power supplies. It doesn't look like jonnyguru's reviewed it, but he has reviewed the seasonic PSU mr spoony had picked out originally. If jonny says it's a good PSU, it's good. http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=323

the Seagate hard-drives are just as good as any WD, you are fine there.

I got hit hard by the reliability issues with their barracuda drives in 2009-2010, so I've been buying WD ever since. That said, after a little research it looks like seagate has solved those problems, so I can't disagree!

Razer isn't doing very good these days, reliability wise.

Have they ever? 2 of them I picked up refurbed for $20 and they each lasted a couple months. After that I gave them the benefit of the doubt and bought a mamba full price, and the left click button went bad (started double-clicking all the time!) after only a couple months. Got my G9X and haven't looked back.

The Non-K processors have limited overclockability, plenty to keep his system happy without venturing to the K.

Very limited. What kind of oc are you going to get with a locked multiplier? I just want him to be aware that with that processor, he can't OC. If he's cool with that, then no problem.

Admittedly Corsair Ram is a little more expensive, The piece of mind brought by higher quality parts justifies the price IMO. Nothing is more frustrating when building a computer is parts that arrive DOA or Malfunction.

DOA sucks I agree, but it'll happen with corsair just as often as any other reputable brand. It's pretty much a crapshoot.

[briansun1]

for ram you can go with something like this

[sharpspoonful]

I don't plan on over clocking mostly because I have pretty much no experience with OCing. I get that you get a performance boost but I honestly don't see much of a need with what I plan on playing. Which is BF4, KSP, and some Steam games.

[Galacticruler]

So I've been thinking about moving to a Linux based OS for transitioning users to it from Windows.

Zorin OS.

only issues I can think of:

1. Can't install, networks are not automatically detected, meaning I might not get it installed right(A bit of help finding what I need for this would be great)

2. Nvidia Nforce 430 chip on this dinosaur, which may/may not be an issue.

3. the install disc is VERY slow, and I'm trying to do this secretly.

So, any advice?(I've been thinking of waiting for $600 to buy a new PC with AMD/Intel and a Radeon 7770 HD Ghz Ed.)

[briansun1]

the only thing I can see wrong with that build id the PSU... you DO NOT cheap out on your psu. it is just not done... well unless you like you pc extra crispy and with blue smoke coming out of it. see this list and chose one

[Galacticruler]

Well I would replace the one on both lists...if you'd supply the extra $$$.

Thats the theme behind both of those builds, lowest possible price, for the highest possible performance.

[briansun1]

just think about it though would you reather be out 50ish $ or 400?

[notfruit]

I want to build this one:

AMD FX-6300 6-core Processor

8GB of DDR3-2133 RAM

MSI 970A-G46 ATX motherboard

A-Data XPG SX910 128GB SSD

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM

MSI Radeon 7790 1 GB

Antec 400W ATX12V / EPS12V PSU

and a BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower

Is there anything more preferrable or something I'm doing wrong?

[briansun1]

• What are you planning to do with this compuer? Please be as specfic as possible.

• What is your budget?
  1. Does this include a copy of Windows?
  2. Does this include peripheals (a keyboard, monitor, mouse, speakers, etc.)?

  [*]Are you from the United States or a different country? Are you ordering from your own country or from across borders?

  1. Wherever you may be from, does the store that you are planning to order from have a website? It's okay if it isn't in English, we can manage.
  2. If you are from the United States, do you live nearby a Microcenter?

• Do you have any specific requests with the build?
  Do you plan on overclocking? If yes, do you have a specific goal in mind?
• Would you prefer the build to be particularly small?
• Would you prefer the build to be particularly quiet?
• In general, do you prefer this to be a computer that you can spend money on now and let it rest, or a box built for continuous upgrading?
• Do you ever plan on utilizing NVIDIA's SLI or AMD's CrossfireX technologies? These features, with a compatible motherboard, allow a user to link multiple identical graphic cards together for added performance. In real world terms, this lets you buy a second identical graphics card down the line as a relatively cheap and easy way to gain a fairly large boost in performance. However, this requires buying a SLI/CFX compatible motherboard and PSU now, which may result in slightly higher initial cost.

Edited October 15, 2013 by briansun1

[jfx]

Well I would replace the one on both lists...if you'd supply the extra $$$.

Thats the theme behind both of those builds, lowest possible price, for the highest possible performance.

Ever smelled a blown up electrolyte capacitor? You will understand then (I was lucky back then - no other parts were damaged besides the PSU) .

But a 550w PSU will be overkill for your build anyways. You'd be better off with a quality 400w or 450w PSU. People tend to recommend oversized PSUs partly because "you might want SLI one day. The thing is in SLI will suck 60% of the time - every time. For example if you bought a gtx 460 two years ago and want to add another one because of the new battlefield - you'll be stuck with the 1gb version and that will fail pretty hard. Besides that there are the usual SLI/Criossfire problems (frame latency, sketchy AFR behavior and noise). So selling off your old GPU and going for a new one will be better almost anyways.

The guys from anandtech ran their r9 280x benchmarks with a i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz (the beastly prosumer 6-core part) and maxed out at 311w drawn at the wall outlet (at 92% efficiency thats about 290w the PSU delivers to the components - which is the number the rating tells you).

That means a 400w PSU would have been about perfect for their build (and yours is cute in comparison).

Rule of Thumb: TDP of components + ~50w + 30% safety margin = needed PSU wattage. This only applies for quality PSUs though - cheap ones will inflate their output numbers by utilizing useless 3.3V and 5V rails.

Edited October 15, 2013 by jfx

[deskjetser]

Well I would replace the one on both lists...if you'd supply the extra $$$.

Thats the theme behind both of those builds, lowest possible price, for the highest possible performance.

Ever smelled a blown up electrolyte capacitor? You will understand then (I was lucky back then - no other parts were damaged besides the PSU)

That sure was lucky. My only experience with crappy PSUs was when a power surge took out my RAM, GPU and and totaled my mobo. That's not even mentioning that the PSU had parts deformed from the heat, it sure took one hell of a pounding. Must of been the mother of all surges, back then it was my parents house, and it took out most the lights and screwed up alot of our appliances.

That was a few years ago now, and i've learned the hard way from personal experience. Never go with a cheap PSU, it's the one thing in my book that is necessary to fork out some extra cash for, no matter how much of a budget your on.

[hotmailcompany52]

So, Im here for some advice on building a custom pc for gaming games such as GTA V when it comes out on pc.

My Budget is about £1000 and with this I need to buy windows 7, the parts, keyboard, monitor and a mouse.

As you could of guess I am English and I don't mind buying across borders as long as it doesn't cost a fortune.

With my pc I would like to have 1 500GB SSD and 1 1TB HDD. I also don't mind my pc being mildly loud. I would like to invest money into my pc and then let it rest but it would be nice for me to have the option to upgrade it.

[Leonov]

-snip-

Go here, the lists read from left to right.

European prices are like night and day compared to US Prices, This list is always nice and full of good suggestions.

Samsung are making good SSDs right now, Their 840 Evo Line is stupid fast at a great price.

As for HDD's go with Seagate or Western Digital they both do good.

Price out a good monitor, ASUS and Dell make Good Monitors.

Keyboard depends on if you want Mechanical or if Rubber dome is good for you.

Mice depend on how you like your grip, how many macro buttons you need, things of that nature.

[hotmailcompany52]

Thanks Leonov.

This is my partlist so far: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1PQkC What do you guys think?