So it's about time to update the old laptop to a desktop. Would like to get a decent setup and it seems the most cost efficient way is to build it yourself at home. I have zero experience doing this, but I've found some advice on what parts I should select that fall into my performance/cost range.
As I'm not totally confident in my ability to get it up and running, does anyone know of a company that assembles it using the components I choose?
Ok you've probably heard this but it's really not that hard. All you need is a small screwdriver set.
These days your connections are color coded and most motherboards have decent documentation. The best thing you can do for yourself to save aggrevation if you do it yourself is buy a good case. Don't go cheap. most good ones use screwless mounts for your drives, the only part you'd need any tools for is mounting the motherboard inside the case.
In fact the only real delicate part is heatsink on the CPU. Which generally requires a bit of a delicate touch and some force to clamp it down. Even a first timer taking their time could have a new machine assembled in an afternoon.
I've built a couple hundred machines so whatever you're leary of feel free to ask. I can walk you through it.
That's a really good case. It's a midsized so placement of stuff is going to be key. So long as all your components are SATA you shouldn't have to worry about cabling too much.
Get 2 of them in raid. Your access times will be nonexistant. You don't need the hybrid SSD if you don't want to spend it but I recommend RAIDING drives. It's worth it.
Beyond that your specs look good. My recommendations is be careful with that side fan on the access panel. I wouldn't put one there because video cards can be kinda bulk and you could have a fitment issue with that or the CPU cooler. Besides that put a cooling fan anyplace you can fit one. Spend extra and get quite ones unless you like playing next to something that sounds like a vacuum cleaner.
Bomb seems to have this well in-hand but I thought that I would mention that I, Yes, Dan, built his own PC. It was a few years ago but I did. It obviously isn't that difficult.
That case is nice. The CM 912 case doesn't have that side fan on access panel, just vent. Was just gonna go with stock fan and no extra cooling fan since I won't be overclocking. The Corsair Vengeance memory has heat spreaders, they should fit I'm hoping. Power supply is modular so less cables.
Not familiar with RAID, but the B75 mobos don't support it. Would have to bump up to the Z77s. The 128gb SSD would prob meet my needs, put the OS/WOW on it and I should be good to go.
If you get an SSD you don't really need to RAID the drive. What that basically means is the controller takes multiple physical drives and treats them as a single logical drive. So it spreads the data out across both drives. So it halves your access time for stuff because both drives are doing the seeking at the same time.
Say I wanted to set up 2 monitors, WoW fullscreened windowed in one of them, would this card support it? One monitor in the hdmi port and the other in the dvi port? Or will the hdmi be used for something else?
Not only will it support dual monitors it says it can support up to 4. You'll love a dual monitor set up. I've been running that way for a few years. I'll never go back.
Last batch of parts should be arriving this afternoon. Planned to start building after work, but now Seeker's telling me the Theramore senario is going live today?
This isn't a problem once you've got it physically assembled. You'll need something to do while you do all your installs and driver updates instead of just staring at progress meters.
Did the external build first to test all the components and got the single beep I was hoping for.
Had a little trouble getting the mobo settled on the case pins, but it's screwed in so I guess it's good. Also the 4 pin power to mobo is sort of draped over the gpu since it wasn't long enough to go behind and up to the top location.
Everything else went smooth. The Windows install was fast on the SSD, same with updates. Almost ready to go.