My First Computer Build

[Kyle Root]

After over a year of debate with myself (scary. lol) I decided to take the plunge Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend and buy the parts I needed to build my own computer from scratch. I had been looking around for quite some time at the piece parts and had recently ironed it out to the i7-2600k Intel chip as the backbone for my Video/Photo/Audio editing system. The reason I chose the 2600k was the relatively high price/performance ratio. Some of the benchmark results I reviewed online had it running downright close to the Intel 6 core chips (close enough that the hundreds of extra dollars for a 970, 980, 990 series were not worth it for me as a hobbyist).

What I ended up buying is listed below. It’s now Dec 11, 2011 and I’ve only had the system up and running for a couple days. (Between work and being sick, and the family being sick and yada yada yada, it took me a while to actually put the thing together.) I am 100% satisfied with the system I have built. I was very very nervous about doing it myself. Not for fear of not being able to assemble all the parts and run the wires, but a fear of “Holy crap I hope I don't mess up the CPU to MB installation” or “Oh man I hope I don’t get one of those -No boots- or -endless boot loops- “ like I’d read so much about. Well, once it was all hooked up and I hit power, it booted and recognized everything with no problems. I was so excited and a huge wave or relief fell over me.

Now I’m not into PC Benchmarking and all that, but I did run the Windows Experience Index on my new system and got a 7.8 for the CPU and 7.9 for everything else. So, I figure that must be good, because my previous HP system was a 6.5 or something.

Also, this thing FLIES! With the SSD, literally I’m into Windows in about 15 seconds from the time I hit power on. Also, Premiere Pro CS5 opens in just a few seconds. It’s great.

Here’s what I got.

- i7 2600k
- ASUS P8P67 Pro Rev 3.1
- Corsair Obsidian 650D Case
- Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600
- Corsair H60
- EVGA GTX 560ti Superclocked
- Seasonic X750 Gold
- Sony Blu Ray Burner
- Win 7 Pro
- AFT Pro-55u Card Reader
- Crucial 128GB SSD, CTFDDAC128-MAG-1G1
- DELL U2412
- Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

Retail Price = $2,371.63, Thanks to the sales I paid = $1,878.64 for a savings of $492.99
(Everything came from Newegg, except (1) the SSD, which I got on Amazon at a Lightening Deal for $179 and (2) The Dell Ultrasharp 24" Monitor which I got for $299)

Now, had I taken advantage of the Coolermaster case sales, I could have got a HAF 922 for $50 or a HAF 932 for $100 and saved on the case. I also could have gone with a cheaper Blu Ray Burner and Card Reader and saved an additional $100 there. So I could have got out for maybe a tad over $1,600. But for me, I liked the features of the Corsair (standoffs preinstalled, easily removeable dust filters for the fans, side window, tool less drive bays, easy latch doors, large interior, cable routing), the apparently solid reviews for the card reader, and kind of trust the Sony name for the Blu Ray over LG or Lite On personally.

I looked online at some custom builder sites, and having a similar system built would have cost close to $3,000, so doing it myself definitely saved a lot of money!

I haven’t bought any additional hard drives, because as we all know, the Thailand effect is still happening, and the $80.00 Western Digital SATA III 1TB drives that I wanted are now something like $200.00. So I’m holding off on buying an internal drives for a while, and am using a USB 3.0 Passport as a standby, and it is working very very well.

I'm anticipating this system to last me at least 5 years, as historically, I upgrade at the 5 year mark. Until this past Feb, I was still using CS2. and before that I was using 6.0 for a long time!

[Nate Haustein]

Nice setup!

[Kyle Root]

Thanks! Here's a pic of what the inside of the computer looks like.

All in all it took between 3 and 4 hours to assemble everything.

[Stelios Christofides]

How noisy is this set up?

stelios

[Kyle Root]

I haven't taken actual sound meter readings yet... To me it's not that loud at all.

Of course, that's caveated with, I have it sitting on the floor beside my desk (as shown in the recent Home Away From Home Category here on DVInfo).

When it was being assembled and I was testing it and had it on the desk right in my face, it was "loud"... about as loud as the HP Elite Computer I've been using for the past year.

Also, the case has a 3-speed fan control built in, so by simply setting a switch on top, I can adjust fan speed and control the noise level if need be. I'll try and take some readings later and post the results.

[Kyle Root]

Ok I took some readings:


Fan Speed :::: In front of computer :::: On Desk

Low --------------------- 46db ---------------------- 34db
Medium---------------- 50db ---------------------- 36db
High--------------------- 54db ---------------------- 39db

[Mark Goodsell]

I bought my first computer way back a long time ago. I paid a bunch of money and it crapped out right out of the box. I ended up fixing it myself rather than send it in. I learned a little about computers right then and there. Ever since then I always build my own machines.

Nice thing about building a computer is you learn a lot about technology at the time after researching all the products. If things go wrong, you can lift the hood and fix it yourself. Plus you get direct Microsoft help because it's OEM software.

Glad it's running fine.

[Graeme Hay]

I just build a new computer, similar specs but I don't plan to overclock. I was surprised how fast windows started up, man these SSD HD's are fast!