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Putting together a PC from Newegg and wondering what advice anyone might have. Just building a tower as I have everything else I need already.

If you don't know what you're doing before you start custom building a tower, then the best advice is don't do it. Not until you -do- know what you're doing.

The two biggest reasons for sticking to shelf PCs

1) Warranty issues. If anything goes wrong on a custom built PC, you're stuck tracking down -which- part is fried, then contacting that manufacturer and hoping they'll give warranty, which is unlikely. Instead, you're likely going to be footing an expensive bill for a professional tech to disassemble it and tell you what's wrong, and then you need to track down the manufacterer, get a warranty replacement part, and then spend money on another expensive bill for the replacement to be professionally installed so as not to void the warranty. An off the shelf PC will carry a factory warranty (And probably a Store one as well) that will replace or repair your computer should anything go wrong with it within the warranty's coverage.

2)Lifespan. By building a PC to specifics now, you're pretty much sinking your money into a build that you'll be stuck with for the forseeable future. Unless you've got money for top of the line parts (which would also negate the cost-effective arguement), then you're more or less stonewalling a lot of better upgrade opportunities that may come along after you've built your rig. As well, upgrading an older custom build is much more costly than upgrading or replacing a stock model with all the fix'ins

I don't mean to kill your hopes and dreams like the sad, ragged old drunk that sits at the bar till' last call, but again, unless you're 100% sure of what you're doing when you decide to build a custom rig, you should stick to buying shelf PCs and maxing the tits out of them. It's cheaper, warranty is easier, warranty is -better-, the lifespan is longer, upgrading is easier... you get the idea. I'm not saying don't do it, but for what you spend, this day in age building a custom rig is no longer the cheaper, or even 'better' option. For the money you spend building a custom rig, you can get a pretty high-end prebuild from any major retailer.


EDIT: Also looked up Newegg. Much as I hate to rag on a legit Canadian company, they're an online custom PC retail service. Never, ever, custom build a PC online. If you -must- go custom built, always get it done in an actual custom builds shop. An online retailer will rarely give warranty on it's products. If they screw up your build and it fries because of an assembly error, there's a good chance you're footing it. If it's built in a store, then you can at least bring it back, they can inspect the damage, referance the work order, and will probably cover the R&R themselves.

Are there any games that you are particularly interested in running good sir?

When I built mine it was specifically for Red Alert 3 and DoW2. Might help narrow down the bits n bobs you require.

I do know what I am doing as I have built all my computers, but I don't live on tech blogs and updates so I don't keep up on every detail of what is happening (or has happened). I've had dealings with Newegg before and never had any problems with them and have always been a treat to work with. Next you'll tell me to avoid thewarstore.

I also disagree that building your own PC leaves someone 'stuck for the foreseeable future'. If anything it is the opposite becuase you can swap out parts, nothing is proprietary or welded in. Want a new video card? Swap it out! Want to put another HDD in? Go ahead, no one is stopping you, go crazy!

Run two video cards in crossfire. I'm currently using two Radeon HD 6870 1GB, if you're looking for a specific product recommendation.

Of course, that will cost you ~500 USD, so you might also try a pair of GeForce GTX 460 768MB. Not as good, but ~200 USD cheaper.

In fact, just read this article it says essentially the same things that I would, and saves me the typing.

How about if I just get one Radeon HD 6870 and later on get the second one and crossfire them? Would that be ok?

Crossfire/SLI is a money sink as you do not experience a 100% gain from running two lower end cards. Instead, you should get a single, more powerful card, get the same or better performance, and save a ton of $$$. You can easily build a custom PC that will last you years upon years. I have only made two computers for myself, the first one I made eight years ago and it was replaced one and a half (almost) year ago. It didnt run everything on high settings in it's last year, but it could run just about everything.

Also, Video card manufacturers are constantly coming out with new stuff, so do not get the newest and the best, it is never worth the money.

From what I can tell, the new Radeon cards are fail, as my older 4870 performs on par with the 1gb ones. Same clock speeds, same memory, more bit rate. I do not understand why they come out with new cards when their numbers arent any higher.

One of the most important pieces to focus on is probably your Mobo, as that will determine what you can upgrade to in the future. I picked up an MSI 790FX for around 160USD. It was the most expensive piece in my system, and it will serve me well for years. It supports DDR3 1066-2166. Manufacturers had not even gotten over 2000 when i purchased it. The board has excellent features, and I have never had an issue with it. MSI is world renowned for achieving the highest stable clock rates out of any company, so I figured if it will overclock like that, then it should be able to handle running my N/A system for a long time.

I would agree that you should know how to handle problems of many kinds before building your own system, but you will save a ton of money if you do.


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Just a good tip from someone who spends hours every day pouring over hardware stuff, mostly on newegg. Stay away from anything that just came out, especially new technology. If you really want it, then wait a while before you buy it. If you can live without it, buy something that has been purchased and reviewed by a lot of people. It wont be "cutting edge" but who really gives a rat's arse? If you arent into benchmark cock measuring, then you do not need the new stuff.

From my personal experience, you will get more power for less $ if you go with an AMD quad core CPU. The six core AMDs are terrible as they have the same cache sizes as the quad cores, and cache size makes a lot more difference in varying levels of computing than clock speed. Also, I have DDR3 1600 in my machine, if you want DDR3, stay away from anything below this. As DDR progresses, latency delay increases (DDR2 clocked around 3 - 5, DDR3 clocks at 7-10). This latency is a delay from when data packets access the RAM banks, to when they leave the RAM banks. This "lag time" is offset by having more RAM with higher clock speeds, but having DDR3 1066 puts the clock speed on par with high end DDR2 1066, except DDR2 has much lower latency, so it would perform faster.

Video card companies do not differ at all, they each make similar stuff, and they each perform on par with each other (although ATI seems better on paper, it still tends to perform on par with Nvidia). Just do your research on each part before you buy it.


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upon reading that article, appearently the only advantage to the new 6000 series radeons is that they are designed to perform better in crossfire, and they seem to use less power.

I am shocked that the GeForce cards use so much power, 100W is just stupid on a video card as the highest end CPUs are a little over that, but do so much more work.

Nice catch on the motherboard. I was looking at a similar one but the RAM stopped at 1600. The RAM I have in my wish list at the moment is 1600, but for another $20 it's worth the option to be able to upgrade later. When I have something closer to put together I'll probably post the list before purchasing it.

Check out my message and this heatsink: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154011

Very powerful, very very very large. I would get it if I was going to splurge on a system. Otherwise, get a Scythe. They about half the price, and are more efficient.