*Guide to Choosing Parts*

A Guide to Choosing Computer Parts -By Proximon

This parts guide is intended to help most of the people who come to this forum asking what they should buy to build a computer. It's not intended to be a specific parts list, but rather the information you need to begin making informed decisions. It may seem like a lot of text. Well, there's a lot to know and I've tried to keep the size down and keep the language simple.

EVERYTHING on this guide is subject to change. It is up to date as of November 11th, 2009.

Much of the information in this guide came from regular contributors to this forum, by way of discussions, arguments, and advice. It is all supported by research. More information comes from various tech sites across the internet, including this one. ( I always keep an eye on this board, and what you see here reflects the current ideas.)

Other General Guides
Homebuilt PC Buying Guide - jbakerlent
Skora's Index

When you are ready to make a post and ask for advice, please use THIS format.

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Choosing a CPU
The very first decision you need to make is which processor to use. Intel has good CPUs in all categories, and AMD has good CPUs in several price points.
The fastest CPUs for the system builder are Intel. There is no debate here, it's been this way for some time now. If you last built a machine in 2005, this may come as a shock, but it's true.

Tom's Hardware now has this large and complete CPU guide stickied in the CPU section. I recommend you read it.


Overclocking
And while we are at it, I think I'll say a bit more on this subject. If you are building your own system, you should be planning to overclock. There, I said it, and it's true. There was a time, not so long ago, when this was best left to only the most knowledgeable and those with deep wallets. These days, it's only a very small step from designing and assembling your own PC, to overclocking it. The gains to be had are LARGE and the risk is far less than it once was. I have to say there is still some risk, or I'll get sued or at least hated... but there is more risk in just building your own computer in general than overclocking it. There is also a certain amount of knowledge to be gained in the process, that will benefit the average user. See the note on the P55 boards though.

Quad Core vs. Dual Core
For most builds, quad core CPUs are now the norm. If you have a very low budget or very minimal needs, dual core is OK. I'm still using a fast dual core, and I assure you if I had a need to upgrade it would be done.... but if I were to build a fresh machine today, it would have a quad. Using a quad core now simply improves the longevity of the build.

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Motherboard Chipset
We will now get into the specifics of motherboard choices. When we talk about motherboards, the first and most important thing (after CPU socket) is chipset. The chipset of the motherboard will determine how the board handles all the various parts that get plugged into it. If your CPU is the brain of the computer, the chipset is the spinal cord. So, we classify motherboards by the chipset on them. I use chipset in a broad way here, and it can include more than one chipset on the same board.

Advanced: Learning about the voltage regulation of a motherboard will take you a very long way in evaluating the quality of that board. For a truly masterful guide to this subject see this Hardware Secrets Article.

Intel CPU Boards
(in order of current new build popularity)

- Intel P55
This is the new chipset, supporting LGA 1156 processors (called both i5 and i7 in a confusing move by Intel). The cost of the motherboards are generally about the same as P45, and the least expensive processor is quite fast. This will now be the primary choice in new moderate or "mainstream" builds. These boards can support dual video cards of either the Nvidia or ATI type, but not all come with that ability. Suitable for most dual card setups, but if you are using for instance crossfire 5870s, you will want the X58 board.
WarningA quality issue has been identified related to the most popular maker of LGA 1156 sockets (Foxconn), used in almost all brands of P55 boards. This issue will mostly effect serious overclockers, not moderate overclockers or non-overclockers. Steps are being taken to eliminate this problem, but since it mostly effects only those who are "mis-using" the hardware there won't be any recalls forthcoming.

-Intel x58
The x58 supports LGA 1366 i7 quad core CPUs from Intel. like the P55, x58 boards can support BOTH SLI and crossfire. All x58 boards should support crossfire, and most will likely support SLI. You cannot use an x58 board with older CPUs. Cost is higher than a good LGA 1156 build by 1-200 bucks. Likewise for a top-end AMD build. However, that extra cash would be better spent on GPUs unless you have a large budget. If you use many programs coded for multiple cores, you may want to consider X58 for the upgrade path. Next year 6-core CPUs will become available for this board. Multiple expensive GPUs? Serious professional computing using 4 or more cores? This is probably your platform.

- Intel P45
Largely replaced by P55. Still, you might find some good deal for low budget Intel builds. Great OC ability and some boards have decent crossfire support. Some models use DDR3.

-Intel P43
Much the same as the P45. These boards will have slightly less OC ability, no crossfire, no virtualization support. If you will not overclock and just want a budget LGA 775 board, this is the line to look at.

-Intel G31
There are a few of these boards still in production, with more recent BIOS versions. For general computer usage on a tight budget they are quite good. They have basic onboard video, enough to type a word doc or surf the internet. Total platform expense makes AMD a better choice at this price point, usually.


nVidia boards
(750i, 780i, 790i, 980a, etc.)
I do not recommend any nVidia chipset boards at this time. Not for Intel or AMD builds. Those wishing to SLI should use X58.

And that's it. Just those Intel motherboards you need to consider, and probably just the P43/45, P55, and X58 make sense right now. Yes, there are many other chipsets but none of them are worth looking at in depth today.

AMD CPU Chipsets

Most of the modern AMD chipsets now come in an AM3 flavor - what that means is that the motherboards use DDR3 and ONLY AM3 CPUs can be used in them. This get's confusing and we really don't want to be confused, do we? For new AMD builds, you will probably want AM3 and DDR3 now, except in lower budget builds. Don't be confused by boards that SUPPORT AM3 CPUs but are really AM2+ boards.

AMD 790GX
This crossfire board is quite nice really. Good prices and performance, and it includes an onboard GPU that's very strong for onboard. The combination of graphics power and support for Phenom II make this board quite nice for the home user that needs something stable but not the fastest gaming experience. Think of it like the P45, only with onboard graphics as well. PCI-E 2.0 @ X8 in crossfire.
Oddly, AMD pushes this chipset as THE chipset to have currently, even though the 790FX is shown to be a bit faster. Perhaps it's because of cost, and AMD wants to be your BUDGET choice.

AMD 790X
Like the 790GX but without the onboard graphics. Very popular right now due to price and features.

AMD 790FX
A bit more pricey that the 790GX, this board will have more features but no onboard GPU. Most of the deluxe AM2+ or AM3 boards will fall into this category. PCI-E 2.0 @X16 in crossfire. Similar to an X48 board, but for AMD CPUs.

AMD 780G
This would be a budget choice. It's not the overclocker that the 790GX is, and doesn't bench quite as well. However, if the extra 20 US$ is going to be too much, it is not a bad choice at all. Does include a good onboard GPU, just like the 790GX.

AMD 785G
No large changes over 780G, but it's new and may support future CPUs better. Comes in both ATX and micro-ATX sizes and is budget friendly. Some increased onboard GPU functionality.

AMD 770
Don't let the prices for these boards fool you. They can be decent overclockers and come in both AM2+ and AM3 flavors. I do not have good benchmarks for them. They do not support true crossfire, but should run any single video card fine. They do NOT have onboard graphics.

AMD 760G
A basic board best suited for non-demanding usage. Very tight budgets may consider this. Onboard graphics adequate for office/surfing duties.


Other Motherboard Considerations

There is a lot more on a motherboard than the AMD or Intel chipset. Audio chips, SATA controllers, USB chips, heatsinks... it can be a long list.

Integrated graphics?
There are times when you just don't want a separate graphics card. Many computers just need to run office apps, or play a few movies occasionally. Fancy gaming video cards are not wanted. This is a good time to consider AMD actually. The 790GX chipset has the best onboard graphics and uses AMD CPUs. I will not cover this in detail here, as most of our visitors are building rigs that at least game occasionally. Ask us which onboard graphics motherboard is right for you, and we'll help. IF you are building a gaming rig with a 790GX, it's nice to have that backup GPU.

What about SLI?
SLI means running two or three Nvidia graphics cards linked for increased gaming performance.
Crossfire means running two or more ATI Radeon cards linked for gaming performance.
The best dual video card setups for LGA 775 OR AM2+ are currently crossfire. The Intel/AMD crossfire chipsets are also more stable than the nVidia SLI chipsets such as the 780i, which have been plagued with problems. If you really need an SLI board, I recommend x58 or P55 right now. See above.

Expansion slots?
This is important. It's a key part of planning out your computer. A large video card that is placed on some boards might block access to parts of the board you need. Two large video cards may make it impossible to install that sound card you want. Look at the expansion slots, imagine your cards and where they will be.

Ethernet?
All modern boards come with built-in wired networking ability. Only certain boards come with built-in wireless functionality, so you may need to buy a wireless add-in card. The onboard wired Ethernet will be all that most people need.

Sound?
See the sound card section below.

Ports?
Hey, there are all sorts of things that can be plugged into a motherboard. PATA, SATA, USB, eSATA, Firewire, the list goes on. Make sure you know what you need, and what you do not. Make sure you aren't paying extra just for some fancy port you will never use. Some people really do need 8 USB ports. Many of your ports are accessed in the back of the board, and some are internal.

(Continued in the next post)

Video Cards
This is covered very well and simply right here at TH, and I have little to add to this simple, direct write-up done every month:
TH Guide November '09
What this article does not address is the relative stability of the crossfire chipsets compared to current SLI chipsets. See the motherboard discussions for that.
Also not covered in the TH guide are more transitory deals and special overclocked cards that might be better choices for some.
See also this recent article covering performance of single and double GPUs. Also at that site you will find comparisons of 3-way and even 4-way GPU configs. They were done a while back now but still very good info.

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Sound Cards
With CPUs getting more powerful with more cores, and memory cheaper, the old argument of performance enhancement doesn't make as much sense. At one time using a PCI sound card such as a Soundblaster helped your computer run better while playing those demanding games such as Quake II

These days, onboard sound can be found on every motherboard you will buy. It works, and does not noticeably slow your computer. Occasionally it fails to work, just like other parts of your motherboard. Your motherboard will produce surround sound that will probably sound just as good to you as some fancy Audigy sound card.

Some folks have ears and brains wired a bit differently. They notice a difference in movies, games, and music when they use a modern sound card. These same people will have expensive 2.1, 5.1, or even 7.1 speaker systems.

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Hard Drives
There are many things to consider when picking a hard drive for your system. You may even need to decide if you want a traditional HD or one of the new Solid State Drives (SSDs).
Speed is important, but can be determined by many things. In traditional platter-based drives the platter density, the amount of built-in cache, the RPMs of the platters, the firmware, and other things could determine the speed. There is no telling without viewing benchmarks.
Then there is reliability and support. Many, many years ago (15 or so) I called a company about a hard drive that was clearly failing. 2 minutes later I was told a new drive was on the way. It arrived 3 days later with a return box for the old one. No questions asked, just respect. While that company probably does not have that level of service any more, they still get my business. Good thing they are still the most popular HD company
Also, these days we worry about power consumption and heat generated. Another important factor.
Here is a brief simple page on hard drives: http://www.hard-drive-help.com/technology.html

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Optical Drives

In recent years, there has been a lack of solid testing done on DVD burners. Read speed on both CD and DVD, write speed on all types of media, and other factors need to be considered. Error handling varies as well. Some drives will choke horribly while playing a DVD movie that has a small scratch, while others barely stumble at all.
We have assumed that most drives were good these days, but a recent test at Maximum PC showed some significant differences.
Blu-ray burners are approaching affordability and will probably now be considered for higher end builds.

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Monitors
The most popular monitors these days are widescreen LCDs. LCDs are easier on the eyes than the old CRTs, weigh less, and take up less space on the desk.
The resolution of your LCD monitor will determine to some degree how much video card power you need. You probably do not want to game on a 30" 2560 x 1600 monitor using an $80.00 video card. A GTX 280 is probably far too much card for a 15" monitor.

Many people are interested in the 22" or 24" widescreen monitors these days, as they provide good value. You can choose to buy one of the lower cost offerings, or pay a bit more for some good improvements in color, response, and contrast. NO good reviews are done on lower cost LCDs these days. There is a rather masterful article/thread in another forum that will give you far more than you need to know, or you can just skip down to the recommendations, which are quite good:
Anandtech's "The LCD Thread"

This has always been an item I preferred to buy locally. There is nothing like seeing a monitor in a shop, and being able to return it if there is something wrong. Shipping costs and such mean that you can actually pay less locally. So, if you can, get a list together of a few you would like and go hit the stores for them.

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Well, that covers the important parts. Yes, there are more parts to think about, but nothing I needed to write up here. If you need specific parts recommendations, check my parts list linked below.


My personal big list of all the parts I currently like:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/269620-31-list

Tecmo34's list of parts, including complete builds at various price points


If you have a list like this let me know, and I'll link to it right here.

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Assembly
Finally, I would like to provide a few links to help some of you learn how to assemble a PC correctly:

Here is a GOOD step-by-step. Really good. If you encounter anything in any other links that contradict this, THIS is the right one. Sadly, no pics:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_T [...] sembly#CPU

Driverheaven has a great guide up now with pictures:
http://www.driverheaven.net/articl [...] 2&pageid=1
The very nice case makes it look a bit too easy maybe, but it's a nice system using great parts.

Here is a tutorial with pictures that shows how to put together a cheap PC. All parts are cheap and you should NOT use the PSU they use:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/f [...] s?page=0,1

This you tube video has some good points, and is done with fairly modern equipment, all new. The case he is using is a micro-ATX case from Antec:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdsUuWlhOvo

Finally, I have my own method for applying thermal paste to Heatpipe Direct Touch (HDT) coolers such as the Xigmatek or Sunbeam CCTF...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] e-xigmatek

Good point, I need to get to that. I don't have any solid recommendations right now, I'll have to do some research. Last I heard the whole 700 series was problematic.

Edit: I withdraw my earlier comment.

I have to say this is looking like quite a nice guide.

That's correct. The two slots operate at x8/x8 when crossfired, limiting bandwidth slightly with very high end video cards or very high resolutions.
Some serious overclockers still argue for P45 as the first choice for crossfire. They point out that, for them, the extra overclocking makes up for any PCI-E bandwidth limitation. This is probably true, although for moderate overclocks the x48 works well.

WOW i just read that link you posted proximon, i had no idea. never heard that they were even considering pulling out of the business. but it makes sence cause arint the x58 mobo's supposed to support both SLI and Crossfire?

Thanks for the info, Proximon, this thread is a big help to me.

If I get some feedback from some of the others here with good ideas, and flesh it out more, I'll lobby for a sticky. Your suggestions are good and I'll work on them tonight.

(note to self about sound card vs. onboard)

If I make it too big and complicated it will get skipped. Have to keep the size down but we'll squeeze in what we can and link what we can't.

I think we already have a good memory sticky... I'll link it.

I nominate for a sticky!!! Good work man.

Trust me if I seen anything abnormally wrong, I would of called you out. Sometimes ima ass lol.

thank for good information
its usefull for me and each other,
but how about AMD system?
in this post why only intel build sistem?

If you think it is too much text there should at least be a note telling people what information to post at the start - even if they don't read it then at least we have some idea of what to go on.

You could take out some of the detail and use a few more links to other forums.

Jeremy

Excellent thread. I certainly see nothing worthy of an argument. To niggle, I think the Coolermaster RC-690 is an outstanding case, but it usually gets mentioned in individual build threads. Another good place to buy (I've found good deals on CPUs) is Microcenter.com.
More trivial, you're missing an "L" in "spectacularLy" when describing the epic fail of cheap PSUs.
Your approach "This is how it is. Click here to learn why, or to learn more" is good, and can keep this shorter.

Awesome, Just Awesome. I am having a hell of a time with my Blue bomber build and if I had read this first I probably would have gone another way. Any good books covering hardware the people have found usefull?

Is a retention bracket a huge deal. Im not familiar...

I've used Antec Basiqs and have had great luck. They are supprisingly heavy with would point to quality.

Hey Proximon,

You helped me with building my first build 2 months ago. And I am happy with it. Building the pc turn me into a pc addict. I can't resist looking at hardware reviews and news everyday. I am not as much a noob as before I guess.

Anyway, I think you have to decide between 9800gt (AKA 8800gt) or the new hd 4830. I don't care what anyone says the 9800gt is definitely cheaper, sometimes as much as $25 with rebates. If you choose to recommend the hd 4830 over the 9800gt, you do risk seeming biased since you already recommended the hd 4850 and the hd 4870.

I like that you tried to compile something like this, but I don't think it is going to decrease the number of new build posts. And that is okay. Computer parts vary and sometimes people have specific questions, concerns or expectations for their new build.

And about the 8800gt prices. They are ridiculously expensive at newegg now.
For example, the EVGA 8800gt. I remember this being less than $120 two months ago, and now it is $165!!!!! It is a standard 8800gt, no overclock.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130318

Some updates.

excellent guide Proximon, I am planning my first build and this has been hugely beneficial.

Added, thanks!

Dude, I don't think you needed to quote all that lol!

This has really given me confidence in my picks for my first build: Antec 900, Antec TPQ-850W, P5Q-E, E8400, G.Skill pi Black PC6400 DDR2, Palit HD4870 1GB Sonic Dual Edition... and of course I picked up a hot 22" HDMI ASUS LCD for cheap (rebate$) on Newegg. God, I love Newegg. Tho I do disagree with you about the WD hdd. Grab the Seagate version. 640GB, 32mb cache (twice the WD) PLUS the AWESOME 5 YEAR WARRANTY on Seagate hdds. WD has only a ONE YEAR WARRANTY.

Good point. I will add some more HDs to the list. HDs are one of those rare areas where we actually have some statisics to go on, and Western Digital is acknowledged to have the best quality, at least last time I checked. I also have some really good experiences with tech support. Of course, the last time a WD failed on me was 1997.

While the WD 320 and 640 are faster, 16MB or not, I'll add some Seagates as well.

Yea this really helped me out - Trust me if you don't want noobs like me coming on here asking dumb questions STICKY THIS! hehe