New compooter. Halp?

• Compass wrote on 2011-12-24 19:32

  Quote from Orion;704353:

  Also, I'm supposed to buy a CD Reader/Burner if I wanted to install an OS from disc?
  And I can fit any type/speed of RAM into the motherboard I picked out? It says Memory Standard: DDR3 1333/1066, idk what that means.
  
  computer illiteracy at it's best.

  
  
  Any (normal) CD/DVD drive would do as long as it can read the format. (Maybe that's what you mean by reader/burners?)
  
  Also DDR3 1333/1066 is the speed I believe of the RAM.
  Looks like your computer can support that speed.
  
  Also if you want an 8 gigs of ram I've matched the specifications of the ram that The Cat posted and any one of these would do. But I might be wrong, you might want Osay to double check.
• Orion wrote on 2011-12-24 22:40
  Something like this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
  Just need something that can install an OS. I don't really use it for anything else.
• Compass wrote on 2011-12-24 22:53

  Quote from Orion;705038:

  Something like this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
  Just need something that can install an OS. I don't really use it for anything else.

  
  
  Yeah that seems like it would do the job. [:
• Osayidan wrote on 2011-12-24 22:56
  You can put 2 of these for 8 GB
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139046
  
  When it comes to RAM, unless you want a specific design for matching the rest of your case, or for overclocking, stick to kingston.
• Orion wrote on 2011-12-25 00:23
  Thanks again guys. (:
  Looks like I got all my parts in order.
• Orion wrote on 2011-12-27 13:24
  I think I'll be keeping RAM at 4GB for now. Anything that requires higher than that probably won't run very well on my system, plus if I want the extra 4GB I can just buy it later on. Saves me a good $20.
  
  Also someone suggested I upgrade the power supply to a 450W to ensure I have "that overhead I will want in those rare situations where I have a really heavy load." Good idea or no?
  
  For reference, my up-to-date system is here:
  
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]Case (still debating)
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146061
  
  Motherboard
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131724
  
  Processor
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078
  
  Video Card
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
  
  Hard Drive
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767
  
  Power Supply
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029
  
  4 GB RAM
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139046
  
  CD/DVD Burner (still need to get SATA cable for this)
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204[/SPOILER]
• Compass wrote on 2011-12-27 13:36
  Why are you still debating the case?
  And what do you mean by more ram won't work well?
  Ram makes your computer faster so I don't understand
• Tsubaki wrote on 2011-12-27 18:06

  Quote from Orion;708433:

  I think I'll be keeping RAM at 4GB for now. Anything that requires higher than that probably won't run very well on my system, plus if I want the extra 4GB I can just buy it later on. Saves me a good $20.
  
  Also someone suggested I upgrade the power supply to a 450W to ensure I have "that overhead I will want in those rare situations where I have a really heavy load." Good idea or no?
  
  For reference, my up-to-date system is here:
  
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]Case (still debating)
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146061
  
  Motherboard
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131724
  
  Processor
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078
  
  Video Card
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
  
  Hard Drive
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767
  
  Power Supply
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029
  
  4 GB RAM
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139046
  
  CD/DVD Burner (still need to get SATA cable for this)
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204[/SPOILER]

  
  
  Processor
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078
  
  disappoint
• Orion wrote on 2011-12-27 21:54
  When I make these threads people always assume I want to be able to play Battlefield 3 on Ultra settings even though I clearly specified I'm not going to be playing any high demand games with this system. The i3 is fine.
  
  @Compass: Any program that takes up 4 GB or more to run probably isn't going to do well with my system so I don't see the need for 8 GB right at this moment. My two current games only take up to ~2 GB each so it shouldn't be a problem.
• Orion wrote on 2011-12-28 22:35
  More questiiooonsss.
  When I'm looking at the pictures of my motherboard, the diagram says it has one PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, and my video card says it uses PCI Express 2.1 x16. Does that mean anything?
  
  Motherboard
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131724
  
  Video Card
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
  
  Other than this I have all of my parts ready. I found a 450W PSU that was on sale.
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171060
• Orion wrote on 2011-12-28 23:25
  Well one last (hopefully) thing I'm concerned about is that Sapphire's website claims the 6850 card needs a 500W PSU minimum, so I found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182044
  Hope it's good enough. :l
  
  Other than that I hopefully have all my parts ready. If I'm lucky enough I might be able to upgrade the i3 to an i5 2500k depending on my money.
• Mystickskye wrote on 2011-12-31 11:44
  You have more power than you'll ever need. People and even the manufacturers love to overspec minimum power requirements but you won't ever need that much power. The two biggest power sucking components in your system by far are the GPU and CPU and in your system their TDP sums to a bit over 200W iirc. Anandtech's bench info puts full system draw at around 274W for a fully loaded 6850 and though the test system's specs aren't known they have an i3-2100 bench at 122W draw for full load. That's about 60W above the 2100's TDP so 274W for a system with a 6850 sounds kosher. With 500W you have plenty of headroom to spare.
  
  I wouldn't bother going up to a 2500k unless you intend to get an aftermarket heat sink to overclock it with. The i3-2100 is a decent core as is, if you want more power I'd go with the i5-2400 as last I checked the price jump from the 2400 to the 2500 was proportionally bigger than the performance jump.

  Quote from Compass;708436:

  And what do you mean by more ram won't work well?
  Ram makes your computer faster so I don't understand

  RAM doesn't necessarily speed things up. Most people will suffice with 4GB and adding more won't actually result in an increase in the speed at which things are done.
• Orion wrote on 2011-12-31 11:58
  Well I ordered my parts two days ago and they should be here by Monday or Tuesday. I went with a 500W PSU that had a promo code for $10 off for a total of like $55 from a hopefully respectable brand. Also went with a Cooler Master RAF 912 case instead (for appearance mostly) and I kept the i3 2100 for money reasons. But it came with a 10% off promo code too so that was cool.
  
  Final build for anyone who cares:
  
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]ASUS optical drive
  Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM HDD
  1 stick 4 GB RAM
  Intel i3 2100
  OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W PSU
  Radeon HD 6850
  ASUS P8H61-M motherboard
  HAF 912 case[/SPOILER]
  
  Total was $627 including tax+shipping.
• Mystickskye wrote on 2011-12-31 12:11
  Well then you can rest easy knowing that you have far more power than you ever need and sufficient RAM unless you're like my nutjob friend that likes to have over 100 tabs open in chrome.
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-12-31 23:34
  You gotta remember that you can't trust the max power output listed on the PSU for these comparisons, for several reasons.. that I listed somewhere before. The most obvious one is that the PSU power rating includes all power, across all outputs together. But unless you actually use all of them, you won't be able to get its total power output. If say, 2 outputs give 250W each, advertising it as 500W total.. and you try to draw 400W from one output instead, you'll get pwned. D: Then you gotta keep in mind that power output decreases as the PSU ages, I believe heat affects it too, etc. You don't save that much by going for an underpowered PSU anyway, and a good PSU can be re-used in your next build, or if you install a more powerful CPU/GPU later on, etc.
  
  Anyway, the one you picked is probably a decent choice. :3