Review my build

So ever since joining these forums I've been dying to build my own. Finally it's a possibility!
Anyways would appreciate some reviews and feedback on this build.
I am not much of anything when it comes to computer use but I do dabble in a little bit of everything. So yea basically I would like to achieve mediocrity or a little more in a lot of aspects. Not looking for a high end gaming rig or anything.
One thing I am interested is making this a hackintosh potentially.

MOBO: One of 4 is what I'm looking at. Newegg has a deal for these mobos with a SSD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128494
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128512
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128503
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128501
Right now leaning towards the ud3 but tempted to go lower or higher. Feedback here would be nice .

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Pretty set on this one.

Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416
May need to change this for a hackintosh build. Will need to keep researching.

HD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147062
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233194
Will add a second drive at some point but planning on using my external or stealing one from an old computer for now.

Video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161315
Open to price cuts here

Case and PSU I haven't really decided on. Figured I would figure this part out once the rest comes together. I would like to save some $$ here as well. Might I add I am into the flashy cases possibly with clear side panel since I intend on getting this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223 in case someone gives some recommendations.

Thanks!

 

First of all, a hackintosh is illegal I believe. You want to achieve better than mediocrity with an i5 2500K, that's an understatement if I ever heard one!roflmao That's the mid-end of higher end CPU's man, that will way more than suit your needs for a long time to come. The GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 is an excellent mobo and perhaps way more than you currently need but is greatly expandable, even the UD3 at about the same price.

You mentioned saving money, get the GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3-B3 for $80 and use what you just saved, $80 towards your case and get a quality 550W PSU to protect your investment. Antec and Corsair are very good.

Also, you picked a near bottom end video card, though it's a decent one, and if all you want to do with it is watch videos and movies then it will be just fine. However, I'd prefer an nVidia video card but then that's just me.

As to RAM, all those G.Skills are good but if you're going to get 8 gigs then get a 64-bit OS as other wise you'll just be wasting your money if you get a 32-bit OS.

Sorry for laughing but you have the makings for a great machine that will last you for many years to come.

I think that's it. Enjoy your new build, it's a beast.:major

 

BTW, a 60 GB drive fills up real fast, trust me. Use the SSD as the boot and I hope that you can transplant your current hard drive(s) to use for extra storage if they're compatible, if they're SATA then you're fine. It's late/early so I'm out.:zzz

 

So I woke up and it looks like newegg had some price drops!
The ud4 is now $30 cheaper and the same price as the ud3. The d3 is $20 cheaper. So I am set on one of these two, I'm not doing myself a huge injustice by going with the d3 over the ud4 am I?. I am fine with paying the $80 but figure I could use that in other aspects of the build that I'm currently cutting down on.

The video card is something I didn't think I need to spend much since I'm not a gamer or into video editing. Also I figure it's one of the easiest upgrades in the future. If you think I can do better for under $100 though let me know. Also did want to mention that the d3 does not support SLI. Don't think that would ever apply to me but yea...

I think I am set on the corsair 60 gb SSD. It's $40 off with either of the mobos I am looking at. I do know it will fill fast but this was one place I was going to cut costs. I do have a few external HDs I figured could make things work for now. Sadly my spare drives from old computers are all IDE so they stealing thing wont work.

OS I plan on ubuntu and adding windows 7 down the line. Again if I end up the d3 I may buy windows 7 now.

 

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

Would like the antec 900 here but again depends on cost cutting elsewhere.

Will add the psu later when I start finalizing.

 

Well, in the interest of cost cutting, lose the Zalman HS/F and get the retail 2500K as Intel's heat sinks perform just fine up to a moderate overclock and if you want to go higher OC then the Zalmann is in, plus it looks very smart in a windowed case along with good performance.:cool

The 2500K also has onchip video capability and the UD3 has an HDMI port, the UD2H has in addition VGA+DVI ports though I've never researched on how good the video is on that CPU, must be decent as I haven't read any negative comments yet but I also haven't done any research on that either, if it pans out then you can lose the video card. Kaching!$$$:-D

I hope that someone with more experience than I do(which is none) on onchip video will come in here. You've got some homework to do there.

Oh, I like the Antec 900 too.:drool

 

Hi

The 60GB SSD would be fine, although after doing a fair amount of research, I settled on getting an Intel SSD, as they seem to be the best as far as reliability and performance is concerned.

You could likely go with a cheaper processor, maybe even go with AMD since you don't need maximized performance, and use that extra money for a regular HDD for storing your data on. Here is a list of Western Digital Caviar Black drives (best quality/performance for normal desktops) in various sizes. I have two of them, and LOVE them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...BESTMATCH&Description=wd+caviar+black&x=0&y=0

 

Yup mcsmc, all my HDDs are Caviar Blacks except for my 2TB Green, 6 or 7 of them and only my oldest IDE bit the dust, besides I think I contributed to its demise too. I've always loved WD products. BTW Tourangh, while having an SSD is nice, you'll only notice it on boot or program loading times. Kaching!$$$ I like my 40GB Intel SSD but I wouldn't buy one again until the price/GB comes down.

 

Yeah, you're the one that got me looking into the Caviar Blacks. My old system had a few Seagate 500GBs, which never had an issue, but of course they were a few years old. After researching the Caviar Blacks (wish there was a shorter name for 'em ), I was sold on 'em. I definitely have noticed a significant speed increase from the previous HDDs I had, when doing file transfers and extracting archived files. The reliability built into the drives is nice, too, though I do have some Seagate Constellation ES enterprise-grade drives for backup purposes (when I did the research, they had a much better reliability factor, and they're fast too). Of course, the ES's cost a pretty penny versus the Caviar Blacks, which are plenty fine for holding data I can afford to lose.

 

Although I am not a lawyer, my interpretation of the recent court ruling Apple won was that it was directed at retail system builders - not "do-it-yourself" builds.

Apple sought and won an injunction against a PC manufacturer attempting to sell fully built machines with OS 10 pre-installed. Based on what I've read on this, it appears the ruling is on point only for the sale of "plug and play" boxes and does not reference/apply to a hobbyist building a PC for personal use.

Apple sells OS 10 as a retail stand-alone disc/license package, and - unlike modding an XBox or attempting to crack the code on a satellite TV box - no reverse engineering (hacking) of the OS or hardware is required. Based on this, my take is that building an OS 10 compatible PC for personal use is not an issue Steve Jobs will call his legal team on to battle.

 

So I think I have it finalized at this point.
I'm skipping the SSD due to newegg now being sold out Was a good deal $60 for a 60gb.
A little pricier then I wanted but oh well. Only price cuts I can make at this point seem pointless and only something I will need to buy in the future.
According to my hackintosh research this should be compatible if I choose to go that route. The main drawing point for me was that it was 1/5th the price of windows 7 and it would be a fun experiment .

Anyways here are the specs.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129097
May go with v1 here but this will be last minute decision over $20

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139024

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128501

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

Video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353

HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

Grand Total: $820 with a few bundle deals.

Any point in shopping around or is newegg pretty good here?

 

Looks like a good all around system! I personally am not a fan of G.Skill RAM, but plenty of people have had great luck with it. I like Corsair and Crucial RAM, personally.

You'll love the case. I have an Antec 1200 (bigger version of the 900, basically) and I'm very happy with it.

Do you already have the monitor and keyboard/mouse you're going to use with your new build?

Newegg's generally good with overall prices. I'm sure if you spent a lot of time, you MIGHT be able to find a better price on a component or two, but to me it's worth it to do the whole order through Newegg. Much less to deal with if you need to return something.

Also, it's a good idea to run WD Data Lifeguard Tools (either the bootable disk version, or the installed Windows version) on the new hard drive (both the Short and Long Tests) to ensure the drive isn't faulty in any way. There's a bad apple once in awhile with hard drives, and it's always best to catch it early.

 

Wow, quite a jump in video cards! Also, run OCCT which is a burn-in app which will stress your whole machine and keeps data in chart form if you BSOD and/or something fails. Run it at least overnight if not 24 hours.

 

Thanks for all the help!
Placed the order just now for everything aside from the case. will take a look at the local store for that today before I order that.

And yea I have a few old systems I can steal mice and monitors from. Will probably get nicer equipment eventually but initially it should be fine.

Will be back soon asking for help when my first build doesn't power up

 

Just download the motherboard manual and familiarize yourself while waiting for the parts to be received. It helps in calming the ants in your belly.

 

So shipments coming in today

Did pick up the antec 900 at the local store but I am contemplating switching to this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227

Seem very similar aside from price. The cooler master only comes with one fan though