Building a computer: I need some serious help

[_echo]

Another thing. If you are going to go with the 2600 CPU, fork out the few extra bucks you save from the GPU and get the 2600K so you can overclock it down the road when it starts showing its age. Otherwise i would suggest the 2500k.

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

[lonewolf_kai]

Okay, got changes reflected in the OP, I think. Still working on the ram. Having trouble finding 1866 speed ram.

Edited February 28, 2012 by lonewolf_kai

[_echo]

get 1333 or 1600.

Heres a good set of 2x4GB Corsair brand

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144

[lonewolf_kai]

LOL, I just added those as you posted. Gave up on the 1866's.

Okay, updated the OP again.

Edited February 28, 2012 by lonewolf_kai

[_echo]

I cant think of anything else to add. Looks like a solid system for the time.

[lonewolf_kai]

Thanks again echo! I'll put the order in first thing in the morning.

Thanks to everyone also who contributed!! And especially Hana :hug:

[lonewolf_kai]

Box of cookies given out!! Yeahhh!

You'll have to find your own milk though....

Oh, also to save money, I decided not to go with an SSD and just stick with the single 1TB HD.

Edit1: Order is processing and buyer's remorse is already setting in.

Edited February 28, 2012 by lonewolf_kai

[HeyYou]

200 bucks for a case????

[Meo]

Seems im late to the party. In case you didnt order yet.

Case Corsair 400R saves you a 100$ and have everything you might need

Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z like her big sister, in a smaller package, and most importantly cheap

Intel Core i5-2550K No Hyper Threading but by the time you need eight real cores, you'll also need a new computer, so why pay more today.

With the money saved, you can get a decent 128gb SSD and get an even faster pc, I think im gonna get me one of these

Corsair Performance Pro

Take pics when you build it and please share with us.

EDIT: you placed your order while i was typing, oh well...

[lonewolf_kai]

Hello Meo! Yeah, I had already placed the order about 45 minutes before your post. Thanks for the input anyways. Be sure to stick around for the second half of this thread though: putting it all together. I'll need some help with that too!

Hi Red! That case was a bit expensive, wasn't it. I wanted a full tower though and check out all those fans. I have a mid tower now and there's like no room in it whatsoever. This time around, I wanted a lot of room for the guts, expandablility, air flow, etc.

Edited February 28, 2012 by lonewolf_kai

[lonewolf_kai]

any advice with putting all of this together?

Also, should I make more than one partition on the harddrive?

[HeyYou]

Going with a single drive for the time being? Then yeah, I would divide it up, 100 GB for O/S, and the rest for everything else. That way, if you have to reinstall the O/S, you don't lose everything else on the drive.

[lonewolf_kai]

Going with a single drive for the time being? Then yeah, I would divide it up, 100 GB for O/S, and the rest for everything else. That way, if you have to reinstall the O/S, you don't lose everything else on the drive.

Yeah, I wanted to get an SSD really bad, but funding ran dry. I think that's a great idea to separate the OS, Red. Thanks! After doing some reading on Don's thread about his build and partition mix up, which I'm probably going to mess mine up too (lol), I'm assuming that the Windows7 install will help me make the two separate partitions? Do I need to do anything before the OS install for that?

Oh also, a strange question but, do I need a corded keyboard initially or will the wireless work during the first bootup and installation?

EDIT: After reading and watching docs on how to build one, one of them stated you can either plug in your case fans into the motherboard itself or straight into the powersupply, but there wasn't much in the way of which is the prefered method. Any info about that would be helpful

Edited March 1, 2012 by lonewolf_kai

[lonewolf_kai]

WOOHOOO!!! All my parts are in! Time to start building and hoping I don't blow something up!!

Btw, that case is HUGE!!

Edited March 2, 2012 by lonewolf_kai

[Arion]

In case you need some help..... Here's some links and videos to help

Prebuild

http://media.highspeedbackbone.net/wmv/BYO-PC-Tutorial.wmv

http://media.highspeedbackbone.net/wmv/BYO-PC-tutorial2.wmv

These are a little dated but are very helpful. The 3rd and last video is on the following post. Couldn't put all three in one post.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Arion

[Arion]

last video

http://media.highspeedbackbone.net/wmv/BYO-PC-TUTORIAL3-2.wmv

[lonewolf_kai]

Oh! Thank you very much Arion. I'm very nervous about all this. I've been reading manuals all night so I'll check out those videos in the morning.

[lonewolf_kai]

So I can't use a RAID setup since I only have one HDD, correct?

[HeyYou]

Correct. Need more than one for RAID. (redundant array of independent disks.)

[lonewolf_kai]

I'm still not sure where to plug the fans into: motherboard or power supply? I don't see any directions onto which, so I'm going to give a guess that it's motherboard.

[HeyYou]

Yep, motherboard. Should be designated ports for various fans. Check your MB docs for their location.

[Hanaisse]

Kai, just follow your motherboard guide, it'll tell you step by step what to do.

[lonewolf_kai]

Okay, thanks for the help you two.

[lonewolf_kai]

Alright, got the computer up and running (Yeah!) and have installed nearly all my drivers. I've just installed my Video Card drivers, but I've got a problem with it. I have 16GB of Ram (4 dimms), but the video card is only seeing 4 gb of it. Why isn't the rest showing up? I checked Computer properities and it shows 16GB.

edit: oh, and I've also got the windows 7, 64 bit premium edition before you ask

EDIT2: Under the System Information on the Video Card, is says: Total Available Graphics Memory: 4095 MB. Shouldn't that be reading 16GB?

Edited March 3, 2012 by lonewolf_kai

[_echo]

No it shouldnt. Video cards have their own dedicated memory. Yours has 1GB dedicated and it shares 3GB of system memory. the 16GB of ram you have is for system use.