Print
We’re in the home stretch of our build and are almost ready to power her up. But you can’t do that without a power supply. This hasn’t changed in years—four screws hold the rectangular power supply to the case (image A). Lately, though, many cases feature mounts that let you orient the PSU upside down if you choose to. For PSUs with fans that suck air in through the front, this doesn’t really matter, but for power supplies with bottom-mounted fans, you can mount them so that they pull air in from either the top or the bottom. The HAF 922 case has external vents that allow the PSU to both suck outside air in and also vent hot air out of the case, so that’s what we’re doing.
(Image A)
(Image B)
The GPU should be mounted in the top full-length x16 PCI-E slot. Hold the card parallel to the slot and carefully push it in place until it locks (image B). If the rear of the card will not fit, check the fit near the rear slot covers. You may have to either bend the metal slot cover slightly or shift your motherboard a tad if it will not go in.
It’s time to hook up the case’s front USB and audio cables to your motherboard (image A). They are clearly marked “USB” and “Audio” and there should be no chance of mixing them up as they’re keyed for slot entry. The HAF 922 does not have a front FireWire port, but if the case you’re using does, make sure you are plugging it into the right header on the motherboard.
(Image A)
(Image B)
The Asus board includes a nifty all-in-one Q connector that allows you to plug the entire set of front-panel connectors into it (image B). This saves you the hassle of hunching over your case with a flashlight trying to figure out which one you got wrong. Go ahead and plug the Q connector into the motherboard. For the audio header, the HAF 922 provides an AC97 or HD Audio connector. You should consult your mother-board’s manual to determine which one your board has—these days, it’s usually HD Audio. The Asus board is compatible with both types, but you have to input which type you’re using in the BIOS.
The drive cage on the HAF 922 makes it a snap to install hard drives. Simply pull out a drive drawer, spread the cage, and put in your drive. Then slide the drive back into the cage and lock the arm in place (image A).
(Image A)
(Image B)
It used to be that you couldn’t mount the typical 2.5-inch SSD without shelling out for a drive adapter, but today most ship with adapters. The Corsair Force 60 comes with the adapter already attached. Insert it into an empty tray (image B) and slide it back into the case. You don’t have to worry about it being completely fastened down as there are no moving parts to damage in an SSD. Finally, remove one of the front bezels from the case, slide in your optical drive and lock it in place (image C).
(Image C)
While we’re here, let’s also plug in the SATA cables to the three drives. Most feature-packed boards have more than one controller for SATA. Ideally, you’ll run most of your drives off the chipset’s own south bridge. If you are running a SATA 6b/s drive on Intel hardware, however, you will need to run the drive on the board’s discrete SATA 6b/s controller—on our board it’s color-coded white. Plug your optical drive and the SSD into the mobo but leave the hard drive’s SATA cable disconnected during the OS install. We’ve found that Windows Vista and 7 can get a bit wacky when more than one drive is attached during the OS install.
With hard drives now reaching 3TB, it’s pretty hard to go back to a 60GB boot drive. But for people who like the sound of 250MB/s read speeds and damn-near-zero access times, it’s well worth scaling back. Here are a few tips to help make a smaller SSD work effectively as a boot drive:
Turning off System Restore or cleaning up restore points will save you a whole lot of storage space.
Disable Hibernation: Hibernation writes what’s in memory to a file on your hard drive. Unfortunately, if you have 4GB of RAM, it will take up 4GB of space. If you have 8GB, it’ll eat 8GB. Since most people on desktops don’t run hibernation—they run standby instead—you can probably live without hibernation enabled. To turn it off, spawn a command prompt with administrator rights by typing cmd in the search bar of Windows 7 or Vista and right-clicking it. Select Run as Administrator. At the command prompt, type powercfg -h off and close the window. Reboot and the hibernation file should be gone.
Disable System Restore: Windows’ ability to create restore points can be helpful in a pinch but it’s also a big space suck. And while it does sometimes save your bacon, it also often can’t do jack when your OS gets broken or infected. To disable it, right-click My Computer. Select Properties. Select System Protection and then click Configure. Now click Turn off System Protection and reboot. If you want to leave System Protection on, but still shave off some gigabytes, double-click My Computer. Right-click the C: drive and click Properties. Click Disk Cleanup, and then More Options. Select Cleanup under the System Restore heading.
The final step is to power up all of your components. This is easy for an old pro but rookies can still get snagged on the process. Because of the different connectors used in boards, PSUs now ship with universal connectors that split apart. This eliminates the need to use an adapter but confuses the hell out of newbies.
(Image A)
The Corsair PSU features convertible plugs (image A). On the top left is a 6-pin/8-pin GPU power plug. On the top right we have an EPS12V/ATX12V power plug (ATX12V in 4-pin configuration and EPS12V in 8-pin). On the bottom is the main power connector, which is convertible to 20-pin or 24-pin. These plugs convert by attaching or detaching the additional pins. On the GPU power plug, for example, to run it as an 8-pin you carefully line up the extra two pins and connect it to the corresponding port on the motherboard. Should you worry about plugging the pins in the wrong way? For the most part, no. The pins are keyed so as not to allow you to, say, jam your 8-pin EPS12V plug into an 8-pin GPU or vice versa.
You should also know that generally speaking, the convertible plugs are intended to be plugged into the same socket. Do not, for example, try to take your PSU’s 20-pin main power connector and combine it with a 4-pin ATX12V plug. It probably won’t fit, but don’t even try it.
(Image B)
First, let’s plug in the 24-pin main power connector (image B). The Asus board has a 24-pin plug, as most motherboards today do. Only very old boards still sport 20-pin connectors. Next, we’ll plug in the 8-pin EPS12V connector. The Asus board, like many others, has a plastic cover that needs to be moved from half of the pins. If your PSU has an 8-pin EPS12V (our Corsair does), remove the cover and use the 8-pin plug. If your PSU does not, you can get by using just the 4-pin ATX12V. In fact, many boards will run fine with just the ATX12V plug. But if you are planning on heavy overclocking or other tasks that put a lot of stress on the CPU, we recommend that you run the full 8-pin connector.
(Image C)
Now, fish out two of the combo 6-pin/8-pin connectors and plug them into the GTX 470 card (image C). Finally, attach power to your hard drives (remember to leave your mechanical drive’s data cable disconnected during OS install) and plug in the optical drive. The final step is to plug in the various case fans. You’re now, as they say, good to go. Well done!
OK, maybe you're not really good to go, after all. Have no worries--we've distilled a quick drill for a system that will not POST.
✔ Is the power supply switch turned on?
✔ Is the power supply plugged in firmly?
✔ Is the power cable plugged into the wall?
✔ Is the monitor on?
✔ Is it plugged into the PC? (Hey, we have to ask.)
✔ Is the front-panel connector for the power switch wired correctly?
✔ Did you plug in the ATX12V/EPS12V? Failing to plug this in will prevent the system from POSTing.
✔ Disconnect any 4-pin Molex connectors. These are easy to accidentally short out.
✔ Do you have the RAM in the correct slots? RAM in the inner pair of slots in a CORE ix rig may cause it not to POST. Remember to power down the PSU before you move RAM around.
✔ Reseat RAM (with power off).
✔ Reseat GPU (with power off).
✔ Reseat the CPU (with power off).
✔ Remove and reseat the motherboard and check for errant stand-offs on the tray that may be shorting the system.
So you pulled off the task of building your new PC and it POSTed on the first attempt. Now what? Believe it or not, there’s actually a method to installing Windows and the associated service packs, patches, and drivers. Even with Windows 7. Here’s how we do it in the Maximum PC Lab.
First, perform a standard installation of Windows. If you’ve never done this, simply put the install disc in the optical drive and the machine should boot to it.
After you’ve installed Windows, next install all the service packs and patches. Since most people don’t have the patches downloaded, you will need to connect your machine to the Internet to download them. Windows 7 supports most network devices with native drivers, so you should be able to easily accomplish this task.
One thing to note: Make sure your box is hooked up behind a NAT—you do not want to hook an unpatched machine directly to the Internet because it will come under attack almost immediately. Also, do not do anything with the machine other than run Windows Update. Remember, the machine will have built-in vulnerabilities out of the box. Many people begin surfing around while downloading patches in the background. This is just patently not safe without proper antivirus protection and the latest security patches installed.
Once you have the latest patches or service packs installed, you should install the drivers for your board, load an antivirus application, and continue with your configuration and setup.
Finally, remember how we told you not to hook up the data cable of the secondary SATA drive? Now would be a good time to do this. Why did we recommend waiting in the first place? We’ve seen the Windows boot loader get quite wonky when it sees multiple drives to install the OS to. One time, on a two-drive machine, we watched Vista install the system volume on one drive and the OS on the other. This would mean that one day, if you removed the secondary drive, the machine would stop booting.
Next Page: The Final Analysis »
Comments are closed on this article
Philips
November 09, 2011 at 10:49pm
Thank you for the tips. These are very helpful. Gaming would be more awesome with this.
Philips
September 30, 2011 at 10:49am
This is cool. Building ultimate game pc is awesome. This post is adorably fantastic.
AlaskanInjun52
December 19, 2010 at 2:05am
Hey there. I just joined the Max crowd. I guess what you can call a "tinker" . I always wanted to build my own pc ever since I tore apart my first dell. Just to see how it works. I now have only one workin puter; Dell Inspiron 1720 I had for .....geez...forgot..and its startin to give me probs. So ; this X-mas I treated myself for my first build. I got an ASUS mobo...probably one of the newest ones out there..it's a p6x58d-e....for i7 intel(which I like), and I got the newest case(coolermaster HAF-X). I know its a 1366 chipset . I am wonderin if anybody could send me some suggestions on what and where to get the rest of my build. I figure I need to spend another 1100, to 1200 more for a complete build. Any suggestions would really be appreciated.
Ulimek
December 02, 2010 at 10:56am
It's been a while since I built a rig (about 5 years ago). And I'm in the process of ordering new hardware to build another gaming rig similar to the build on this article. I've noticed how the builder have blue nitrile gloves on and have the hardware on a tabletop with a rubber mat. Is that enough to prevent ESD (electro-static discharge) on the valuable components when building a rig?
Another question is about how the builder overclocked the i5-760 to 4GHz. They mentioned that the CPU ran stable with "no issues whatsoever..." Was/is the Cooler Master heatsink in the build efficient enough to keep the the OC'd CPU cool?
da_samman
December 01, 2010 at 5:02pm
Two of the parts are no longer available at Newegg, the case and teh mobo. What are some worthy substitutes or these parts?
jordinyc
November 13, 2010 at 10:48pm
I'm a huge noob when it comes to building (this is my second, my first was around 2002), and I have a question about airflow. Prolly a non issue, but thought I'd ask.
The diagram below shows how the fans blow air thru the case. There isn't any problem and everything feels physically cool, even when rendering videos via Vegas and spawning a mess of colliding crap in gmod. However, just knowing that the CPU fan blows in opposition to the rest of the case makes me worry if I'm supposed to (a) put the CPU fan on the other side of the fins, (b) use the included ASUS apps or BIOS/CMOS settings to reverse the spin, or (c) maybe change the direction of the back fan (which might end up drawing in hot air from the PSU as shown below.
http://i56.tinypic.com/20hx53p.jpg
Am I worrying about nothing, or is this something I should even consider doing anything about?
Jims45wow
November 28, 2010 at 5:09am
If the side vent is pretty open near the CPU cooler, you're probably fine. Fan foils are designed for one-way flow, unless they are flat--So, reversing direction would decrease efficiency--So, I don't think it's possible... If your CPU is warming up more than you like, or if it's easy to flip the fan, or if you get a new cooler, I would push the air to the rear--If it aint broke, don't fix it. HEY, someone needs to market a smoke tester that's safe for PC parts!
billt_houston
November 08, 2010 at 4:56pm
I like the idea of using a SSD drive as the boot drive but I am not sure how to make it work.
First I would install the operating system on the C:\ drive. Next I install a conventional hard drive and lets say I call it the D:\ drive.
What happens when I get updates to the operating system, will they still go to the C:\ drive?
Would I install all my programs on the D:\ drive?
If I am using a program to move my old programs to the new computer (C and D drives) What happens to the programs that were all on the C drive in my old computer?
jordinyc
November 13, 2010 at 11:22pm
If you install apps on the secondary higher capacity regular hard drive, they'll update fine in spite of your "windows drive" being C: and the apps being on D: (or more likely E:).
I once worked on a computer that was stupidly partitioned as a 20GB C: and a 60GB D:. Why? I have no idea, but the client was WAY too squeamish to let me ghost the disk to another drive broken up more practically. Still, it worked just fine and there was never an issue with updates failing or anything pointing to the wrong anything.
The only benefit to keeping the game software itself on the SSD is load times. If you only play one videogame for a few months, then move on to another, sure, keep it on the SSD. Just mind the space required and what you have available. I set up the above using only a recycled 80GB hard drive. One. No SSD, no terabyte anything. I have Windows 7, Fallout 3, Half Life 2 (as well as Portal, HL2DM, and GMod), and I still have 22GB left.
One last thing: The magazine article about this also points out the possible options of disabling hibernation as well as System Restore. Do you need system restore? How good are you at troubleshooting? Do you need a file as big as your RAM just so you can go into sleep mode and then unplug it? HELL NO!
kenson
December 04, 2010 at 5:57pm
This is my first build, I have got all the parts but the GPU when i went to buy it they told me they have two ENGTX 470 , The ENGTX 470/2Di/128MD5 or the ENGTX 470/2DI/128MD5/V2. what one should I get?
da_samman
October 18, 2010 at 11:27am
I am as the subject states. HOW has onboard audio become so good that it is good enough for gaming? What about electrical noise and the extra work for the CPU? My wish list at Newegg.com still has a soundcard on it, but now in light of this article and other similar ones having no mention of a soundcard, now I am not so sure.
V/R,
SGT Samuel Eugene McClard II
da_samman
October 14, 2010 at 2:13pm
Once again, there is spam in the comments advertising whatever when there should ONLY be commentary related to the article. Seriously, this comment spam is getting out of control. Come on, MaximumPC webmasters, surely there must be a way to stop the spam.
V/R,
SGT Samuel E. McClard II
DEATH TO SPAMMERS!!
igor1977
October 11, 2010 at 12:40pm
I have been an avid reader of your magazine, when Vista OS was called Longhorn :) :). I'm wanting to do a homebuild of a business/gaming computer. Does anyone have any suggestion for parts?
da_samman
October 07, 2010 at 3:52pm
I've been an avid reader of Maximum PC for several years. When did onboard sound become so good that its performance hit to the CPU became so negligible that a sound card became "no longer necessary"? I may not have ever owned a really good sound system, but I've always noticed a difference in performance AND sound quality.
V/R,
SGT Samuel E. McClard II
P.S. PLEASE, Maximum PC, do SOMETHING about the BLOODY COMMENT SPAMMERS!!
da_samman
October 06, 2010 at 1:59pm
1. What's the make and model of the screwdriver you use for all your builds? I'm in the market for one like it.
2. Where's the sound card? Are sound cards now no longer necessary?
3. WHAT is the reason that the red version of the HAF 922 case is $50 more expensive than the black version? The side panel window? Honestly, I just compared the three models of the HAF 922 on Newegg.com and saw nothing that could justify the price difference. If ANYONE out there knows the reason PLEASE reply. Thank you.
V/R,
SGT Samuel E. McClard II
P.S. DEATH TO COMMENT SPAMMERS!!
jlh304
October 24, 2010 at 6:28am
The screwdriver is a Snap-on Tool SSDMR4B. The best tools money can buy.
aferrara50
October 07, 2010 at 11:59am
sound cards are not necessary anymore since onboard audio is good enough. The only way you will be able to tell the difference is if you are running a ridiculously good sound system. sound cards are also nice bc they take load off of ur processor, which is negligible.
the case is a mistake in my opinion. They said the color wasn't justified and that they just liked the color.
It is quite interesting that an i5 was chosen instead of an x58 i7. You can build a solid i7 build for the same price
asus mobo~200, i7 930 cpu~300, 6gb corsair dominator ram~180, gtx470 gfx card ~250, 750w psu~80, antec 1200 case~150, any random hdd ~50-70 and dvd drive ~20
Eoraptor
October 12, 2010 at 5:04pm
What you said... Unless you're running some 10 inch speakers, or trying to push through thirty feet of speaker wire, an on-board sound soloution is just as good as a carded one. Compared to 1080P video decoding (or higher) sound ouputs are a negligable impact on your processor cycles.
Now, if you're trying to run, say Crysis at max resolution with every iteration of scaling, shading, and tesselating possible turned on, and your CPU and GPU are both starting to smoke, then you might consider jumping to an x1 sound card solution. Otherwise, the five to eight channel outputs on any aftermarked mobo will play even your best bluray experience in surround just fine though the nicest PC/MP3 speakers with little to no distortion or electronic noise.
IMhO anyway
Emmit066
October 06, 2010 at 12:43pm
Stupid n00b user, I accidentally double posted. Anyway, I think I figured out what I'm going to do anyway. I'm going to try and utilize some of the parts in this build for my new machine. Performance reviews that I have seen are steering me toward Intel. I could wait until the Bulldozers come out, but then I'll just be waiting for the next big thing and I'm done waiting. Time to pull the trigger and get my game on!
Emmit066
October 05, 2010 at 10:10am
I was all set to build a brand new AMD 1090T system until you guys wrote this article! I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I have a PNY 9800GTX video card that I was going to use for my upgrade, as well as a 700 watt PS, SATA DVD burner, & HDD's. The parts I would have need to buy would have been the following:
AMD 1090T, MSI 890FXA-GD70, G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 ram, Cooler Master CM690 II case.
Since this rig was going to be used for mostly gamin I'm not sure if the i5 or the Phenom II 1090T is going to be the best path to follow. I've had my current mobo for 4 years although I went from an Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego to an Opteron 165 a few years ago (currently OC'd to 2.3 GHz from 1.8).
I just want a system that's going to have longevity and play BFBC2 as well as my other FPS games. Would love to see an AMD build done with a Phenom II hex core, but who knows if it will happen.
aferrara50
October 04, 2010 at 6:22pm
I love how it's titled as "How to build the ultimate gaming pc" when the pc being built can barely play a single new game on max settings. Ultimate entails at least 3 gtx480s at minimum and at least an i7 980x. Title should read "How to build a budget gaming pc" not "ultimate"
sniggler
October 04, 2010 at 9:14am
Try turning it to blow out the top of the case. I have the same case / cooler (although mine is black). I was having trouble maintaining uber-low temps up in the 3.8 - 4 GHz range. Turning the cooler right-side up to blow out the top of the case lowered my temps about 4 degrees. I also reversed the rear case-fan to suck air in from the back. The 250 mm fan does all the work, sucking the hot air out the top.
qurious
October 04, 2010 at 6:19am
I'm really starting to wonder if it's worth paying for this magazine. So much of the content is available online for free, and very shortly after the current is in my mailbox. I saw Maximum Tech in the store and left it there for the same reason.
Once tablets are cheap enough that I can read digital on the crapper, there's no reason to pay for print...
Brdn666
October 04, 2010 at 4:29am
I'm not sure why MaxPC disregards AMD entirely on these builds. I'm mean, sure the high end is no contest really, but mid-low range, it shouldn't really matter. Intel chips beat the hell out of AMD at the high end because of hyperthreading. 8 threads sure does beat 4 threads (almost always, nowadays). So that makes sense. But the chip here doesn't even have that. You can get an Phenom 2 X2 555 BE (3.2 gHz) for $99, and with that you can (most likely, these days since they are fairly old) unlock the 2 cores and get a X4 965 BE in all ways except name and price. If you look at actual benchmarks, it's almost all GPU bound at higher levels. So it doesn't really matter which CPU you are running with, if you are looking at cost. I have a Phenom 2 X4 B55 (the name of the unlocked chip) running at 3.5 gHz with a 470gtx GPU and I can easily max out any game at 1920x1080. So I don't really understand the logic.
chad152
October 21, 2010 at 4:55pm
I agree completely. Using a AMD processor and ATI card will give you more bang for your buck. It only makes sense to use Intel/Nvidia if you're building a high end gaming system, which this clearly is not. Using a AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition (which is $30 less) OC'ed to a modest 4 GHz on a ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 mobo with a SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100282VXSR Radeon HD 5850 video card would probably give you an extra 10 - 20% increase in fps. An even better build would be a GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H mobo and use the money you save on this on a SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870. Either one of these builds would blow this one out of the water.
Gutter96
October 03, 2010 at 6:06am
Pretty sure Keith & Max PC are right on the money. I have 2 midrange gaming rigs myself. One is an i5 750, 4GB DDR3 1600, Radeon 5850, 60GB Vertex 2 SSD, 1.5TB Barracuda, Corsair H50, Samsung Blu-Ray/DVD Combo, Seasonic Gold 650W PSU, Storm Sniper case & Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Guess how much it cost me.... about $1400. Not chump change certainly. But compared to the rigs Max PC regularly reviews with high end parts..... $4000-$8000! Hell, even the 2009 Dream machine cost almost $4000 and it was scaled back to reflect the "Down Economy". Someone wrote that they got a "faster" 1366 platform machine for less. Faster in what? Gaming? I don't think so. Unless you're gaming on 30" panels with GTX 480s in SLI or 5870/5970s in Crossfire the difference is nil. Plus with the extra you spent on the 1366 CPU, the motherboard, & third stick of memory. You could have gotten a hella fast SSD. In a typical gaming scenario, the i5 would STILL kick it's ass with an SSD. I also have a near identical AMD hexacore rig if that's the way you swing. Guess what. IT TOO is about $1400. In all honesty I can't see or feel a difference in the 2 rigs. They are both awesome. So to say that Max PC is wrong to call this rig midrange. I disagree. If it's not in your budget, that's fine. Buy what IS in your budget and upgrade when you can.
DerekG
October 03, 2010 at 12:43am
I don't know where Maximum PC is buying their parts but they need to shop around. I built a much faster PC for the same $1400 price almost six months ago. Granted, this includes rebates and Bing cashback when it was available. I didn't build an overclocker's PC, just something that could chew through any game and it does. Seems like they could do better with $1400.
i7 920 LGA 1366 (stock fan)
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R (USB 3.0 SATA 3.0)
OCZ platinum 10666 6GB RAM
Diamond Radeon HD 5850 1GB
Pioneer BDR-205 Blu-Ray burner
LG DVD-RW
Dual Samsung HD103SJ RAID 0 1TB drives
CM 650W Silent Power PSU 80+
CM HAF-922 case (black, not ugly red)
Win XP Pro x64 (should have bought premium and saved $ because Virtual XP PC is worthless)
Eoraptor
October 04, 2010 at 9:38am
Well, just from the looks of it, you've gone with a less expensive iteration of the case, a smaller power supply, and forwent the after-market cooler entirely; and of course, the aforementioned rebates and Bing credits. So of course that left you free to splurge a little on the CPU and mobo with the faster triple channel option.
And also remember this article probably was written about a system built at least a month ago to have it ready for print and the website now, and that prices do fluctate from month to month.
Eoraptor
October 02, 2010 at 3:54pm
Or simply use SHIFT+DELETE to bypass the recycling bin and directly delete files. (no for the faint of heart)
Wonko33
October 02, 2010 at 12:37pm
you can reduce the size of your recycle bin too, that way when you delete big files they don't use space anymore.
bbecker42
October 02, 2010 at 10:59am
I love this build overall, being very similar to my $630 Core i5 750+4870+4gb+Haf 932 build, but that is by far one of the most ugly, ricer cases ever conceived. Why not have gone with a PC-K62R1? Less money, infinitely better looking than any of the Haf series.
Eoraptor
October 02, 2010 at 10:16am
Well, this was actually a helpful little refresher course for me. I've rebuilt numerous PCs over the years, but the last time I completely stripped a case or did a ground up rebuild was in 2004
*A Shuttle Nforce 2 board with an Athlon XP 2300+ CPU OCed and 1.0 gigs of DDR ram across two of three slots and a dual VGA header. (It's STILL a very capable daily user after several ugrades and currently runs Windows 7 with nary a hiccup on 1.25 gigs of DDR while waiting for a replacement set of DDRs to make the jump to the max 3 gigs)
But as you can imagine, things have changed in the home-build world since I put old Nforce together, and this article really helped me to start straightening my head out in preparation for my first ground up build in a long while. Things like tweaking and setting the bios before even entering the OS, color-coded slots on the mobo, six different kinds of power connectors, and having the pins on the mobo instead of the processor are entirely new concepts to this old bodger who services older customers using hand-me-down machines still running XP sp2 and occasionally even windows 98! (So yeah, living under 60 gigs is not a problem for me)
I've kept myself sharp on reading the latest parts on NewEgg and other sites, but that doesn't tell you the nitty gritty like "Don't touch the pins!" when it comes to bolting everything together. I still regularly encounter Slot 1 CPUs that you can just jam in and out with the power off.
And this certainly seems like a very capable daily driver for the price spent. It looks to fall in the same range as old Nforce, being powerful enough for anything out there today, and upgradeable enough, to serve on active duty for years and upgrades to come.
Colticide
October 02, 2010 at 7:36am
I'm really really new to computers but say your not on a buget and you have money to spend. would it be better to go with a Asus ENGTX 480 instead of the 470?
Keith E. Whisman
October 02, 2010 at 5:10pm
The current top dog video card from Nvidia is the 480GTX. The current top dog video card from AMD is the 5870X2, I think the 5870X2 is faster than the 5970 but the 5970 is still faster than any Nvidia graphics card and the 5970 is only $600 bucks compared to the $1200 bucks the 5870X2 is being sold for on Newegg.com. The 480GTX should cost about $500 bucks and for an extra hundred you get more performance.
Ashton2091
October 02, 2010 at 2:56am
When the hell did 1,400 become the midrange price? Who is that midrange for? Def not me and a lot of others. I love MaxPC, but you're not writing for the gamers that are on a tighter budget than 1400. That's a insane number for a midrange gaming rig. I just recently built a very good rig (which i would call midrange) for 850. What was I able to get for 850? hmmm...lets see...Phenom II X4 920 2.8Ghz (OC'd to 3.2), AMD Radeon 5670, DDR3 1600 Memory, 1TB 7200 RPM Seagate HD, Gateway 720p LCD, Cooler Master Elite 430, Creative X-Fi with 64MB Ram, 650 Watt PSU, Digital TV Tuner, etc. Now, I know that isn't as fancy as the rig int he article...BUT...it ran Crysis (which I hate but is a good demo) smooth as butter on 720p (which is pretty dam good) at highest settings possible. Encoded entire 120 minute movie to dvd with Nero Vision in ten minutes. I could go on and on with this...but the point is, try writing a article for readers that don't have 1400 bucks and want to get their game on. The rig in the article is closer to a high end rig than a midrange. Mid to High if you will. The article is well written, but to call it a midrange gaming rig...not accurate. Just writing for the ones of us who don't have 1400 to blow on a gaming rig.
kevaskous
October 02, 2010 at 10:09am
Just because you can't. doesn't make it not a mid end rig. 1400 is rather good for a mid end system. A high end system is quite a bit more stout then that. also a 5670 is a joke for games, nothing mid range about that card. my 5850 is mid end, sorry you're on a tight budget, but don't bash them for speccing a mid end system that doesn't meet your price tag.
Ashton2091
October 02, 2010 at 11:46am
easy to say that 5670 is a joke. but i ran it...and it was dam good. i've been a system builder for more than 10 years now. sorry dude...but yes...1400 is NOT mid range. closer to high end. the point of my comment is that they have never written a guide for the folks that don't have 1400 to spend. does that make sense? there's no reason to argue that point. there really isn't. we can argue what cards and parts are and are not mid range, but if I (and many others) can successfully build a great system for under 1400, then it would be great for MaxPC to write about that considering they can communicate with geeks on a mass scale. mid range or not mid range...i think people, especially newbies...would like to know that they can build a GREAT gaming system for under 1400.
Dunimas
October 02, 2010 at 1:09pm
Actually, i'd say 1400 is definitely mid-range. Given that MaxPC are the ones who do the actual reporting I'd say they are better to say so than you are. Just because you can't spend 1400 on a pc doesn't mean it isn't mid-range, it just means you can't afford it.
frizzly
October 02, 2010 at 2:12pm
these Maximum PC guys are taking the name of the magazine a little tooi seriously. they need to realize that not every one of their readers has a rich dady that spends to much time at work and buys thier kids anything they want out of guilt. the rest of us hard working people are liveing in a resesion and have to think about putting food on the table instead of having the biggest @#$% on the block. they get their equipment for free from vendors for advertising reviews and have lost sight of what is practicle and important. now lets see how long it is before this comment gets deleted.
Keith E. Whisman
October 02, 2010 at 5:02pm
MaximumPC has always been and always will be about the highest possible performance parts known to man, price be damned. If it cost $5000 dollars and gets you 3 FPS more than a $300 dollar part, the $5000 dollar part is still what everyone should want because it's the best performing part. This isn't a magazine about best price for performance, it's about the best. I'm very freaking poor right now but I love MPC because it lets me dream about what I could have. I love knowing what's the fastest possible when it comes to computer hardware.
The magazine you described in your post does exist however, it's called Computer Shopper Magazine. Computer Shopper would agree and probably label the AMD Radeon 5670 as a super duper high end gaming graphics card.
I think that everyone around here will agree with my assessment that a 720P monitor just plain sucks. 720P is closer to 1024X768 but in wide screen. Definitely not high resolution and with a 5670 you should be able to play any game at great FPS at 720P. You don't need much for gaming when it comes to low resolution, that CPU starts to come into play at lower res like this.
Considering that NewEgg.com has 23" 1080P IPS panels for less than $300 bucks I just can't justify living with less. It it were a laptop that would be different but a so called gaming desktop is just plain pathetic.
Keith E. Whisman
October 01, 2010 at 10:12pm
I just built a NewEgg WishList with what I think should be my next build. What do you guys think. My intention was to see what I could get for $1400 bucks on the AMD front but the MaximumPC nerd in me wouldn't let me stop at $1400.
Update Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model 996770 Model #:996770 Item #:N82E16820226095 Return Policy:Memory Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $149.99 $149.99
Update SAPPHIRE 100280SR Radeon HD 5970 (Hemlock) 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support ... Model #:100280SR Item #:N82E16814102887 Return Policy:VGA Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $599.99 $599.99
Update Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card Model #:70SB088600007 Item #:N82E16829102021 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $199.99 $199.99
Update Logitech G510 Black USB Wired Game Keyboard Model #:920-002530 Item #:N82E16823126100 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $119.99 $119.99
Update Logitech G500 10 Buttons Dual-mode Scroll Wheel USB Wired Laser Gaming Mouse Model #:910-001259 Item #:N82E16826104318 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Mail in Rebate Note (Add) $69.99 -$6.00 Instant $63.99
Update ViewSonic VP2365wb Black 23" IPS LCD Monitor w/4-port USB hub, height&pivot adjustment Model #:VP2365WB Item #:N82E16824116421 Return Policy:Monitor Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $329.99 -$40.00 Instant X3 = $869.97
Update Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM Model #:GFC-00599 Item #:N82E16832116754 Return Policy:Software Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $99.99 $99.99
Update COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKAA00 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ Cooler Master RSA00-80GAD3-US 1000W ... Model #:RC-942-KKAA00 Item #:N82E16811119234 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $399.99 $399.99
Update MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard Model #:890FXA-GD70 Item #:N82E16813130274 Return Policy:Limited Replacement Only Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $199.99 $199.99
Update AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX Model #:HDT90ZFBGRBOX Item #:N82E16819103849 Return Policy:CPU Replacement Only Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $305.99 -$10.00 Instant $295.99
Update OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX240G 3.5" 240GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Model #:OCZSSD3-2VTX240G Item #:N82E16820227591 Return Policy:Limited Replacement Only Return Policy In Stock Mail in Rebate Card Note (Add) $579.99 -$70.00 Instant $509.99 X1
Update SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Model #:HD103SJ Item #:N82E16822152185 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $74.99 X2 = $149.98
Update LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support Model #:iHAS424-98 Item #:N82E16827106335 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $23.99 $23.99
Update LG Black 10X Blu-ray Burner - Bulk SATA WH10LS30 LightScribe Support - OEM Model #:WH10LS30 OEM Item #:N82E16827136181 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Note (Add) $109.99 $109.99
Subtotal: $3,793.83
It's still reasonable and plenty powerful but, alas, I couldn't do what the great maximumPC editors could do.
squarebab
October 01, 2010 at 9:28pm
Enter my chamber if thou wouldst dare
The wisdom of the multiverse I keep in my lair.
I shall regale with legends of warriors and elves
(then he'll go home and play with himself).
'Cause I'm Blackwolf! The dragon master!
Blackwolf! that most almighty sage!
Blackwolf! So many beasts have I slayed!
I'm four thousand years old! (and he's never been laid).
I can school you in the ancient craft of the age,
at the Renaissance Fair, 'tis all the rage.
Yes sorcery's well known throughout the land.
(Yes, he can make his d**k grow with just one hand!).
maxuh
October 01, 2010 at 8:17pm
Yo Gordon, were you eating those Jack in the Box tacos when building this system? Cause this is awesome.
Gary1847
October 01, 2010 at 6:24pm
I have a 212+ coolermaster fan and heatsink facing the same way that this one is and I am running a second fan next to the ram, it just clears. I also have a kingston double fan memory fan that is very close to the second fan. I have all the fans on the heat sink and the rear case fan all blowing out the back of the case. Afternoon temps on a hot day are 32c motherboard and 36c CPU. Motherboard is an ASUS Rampage III Formula with an i7 920 and 12 gigs of Patriot XMP ddr3 ram. Before with my V8 coolermaster the best I got was 46c motherboard and 48c CPU. So I would have to say it works.The second fan is a blue fan from coolermaster #R4-L2S-122B-GP. Newegg sells a pair of them for $8.93 or something like that.Coolermaster includes the brackets for adding the second fan in the box.
Jay_Slim
October 01, 2010 at 5:22pm
Does anyone who has a similar build to this know if a second fan on the cpu heatsinkwill block the ram?
iDaeth
October 01, 2010 at 4:51pm
You guys could have saved A considerable amount if you had gone with an AMD Phenom II X4, since the hyperthreading is disabled on the i5. That AND if you got the black edition, it has an unlocked multiplier, so OCing is even easier. And AMD motherboards have a tendency to be a heckuva lot cheaper than Intel's. Oh, and go with G.Skill RAM, it'll save you some cash. And you guys called it budget! HA, and it's your job to know this! Unless this was supposed to be made with just parts that came out this year . . .
I could be an AMD fanboy, but you guys did give up some dollars.
xXGearheadXx
October 02, 2010 at 6:22am
I've compared comparable phenom (965BE) rigs to the i5 750/760 numerous times and the difference in price is almost marginal...P55 vs. 790/890gx with similar features are nearly identical in cost(+/- $10). The Ram is the same cost...only difference is about 30 bucks on the CPU.
For that 30 bucks, you get an SLI and Xfire capable board, and a CPU that is all around a bit quicker than the phenoms (especially when OCed). Unlocked Multis are overrated on intel chips as well...just get your hands dirty and crank the BCLK!
Purpleheezy
October 02, 2010 at 11:43am
Plus cranking the BClock will result in an overall faster overclock than if you just crank the multipliers.
Velox
October 01, 2010 at 3:44pm
My wife just walked by as I was reading this article "that is one ugly tower" she says. I have to agree. Seems to be a throwback to the defunct alien green towers of yesterday.
