[Jim45]

Some info for you.
http://www.diy-gamin...ild-a-Computer/

About TIM, Thanks to Digerati. http://www.geekstogo...rface-material/

Thanks!
I have a friend a few hours away that knows this like the back of her hand that said I'm more than welcome to come to her house when I have everything,and I can build it, with her guidance and whatnot. I may take her up on it, but I really want to just build it at home, basically by myself, so I'll see how I feel after looking that guide and a few others that have been suggested.

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Just a little update, for FWIW. The gathering of parts has been slow going, due to my lack of work, but I'm getting there. Got my OS(Windows 7 Ultimate), motherboard arrived today, just ordered my CPU, so this is my collection so far:

Case
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811139010
PSU
http://www.newegg.co...k=corsair 650hx
RAM
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233186
GPU
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130625
Motherboard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131773
CPU
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115073
OS
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16832116992
DVD drive
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135204


I'm hoping to go with this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820167047
as a boot drive, and then go with a 500GB or Terabyte HDD for storage, not sure which brand yet, and(fingers crossed...) I'd really like to go with this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820167050
instead of the 80GB SSD, but we'll see.

Probably go with a pretty basic Blu Ray player like this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135247
or something similar.

Quite a few of these parts were purchased at other sites, and I didn't pay what is seen at Newegg. I've got a couple new credit cards that either had a credit statement for signing up, or an Amazon gift certificate for signing up, found coupon codes, etc. etc. I've been working hard and scraping and scrounging every little bit I can, so as far as my budget, I'm doing pretty decent. Got a HUGE break on my OS(and yes, totally legal), so that helped. My CPU, for example, was 194.99 at Amazon, no tax, no shipping, and I had $10 in rewards points on my Discover card, so it was $185 out the door. Just little things like that help. Anyway, lack of work has slowed this down, and I've also been relying on cleaning out the closets and selling a few things on Ebay and whatnot, but I'm almost there. In fact, I'm an SSD/HDD away.....or maybe just an HDD away, if I decide to just go with a big HDD, and skip the SSD for now. I'm going to try really hard not to do that though.

Edited by Jim45, 15 March 2012 - 12:55 AM.

[Jim45]

Just a little update, for FWIW. The gathering of parts has been slow going, due to my lack of work, but I'm getting there. Got my OS(Windows 7 Ultimate), motherboard arrived today, just ordered my CPU, so this is my collection so far:

Case
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811139010
PSU
http://www.newegg.co...k=corsair 650hx
RAM
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233186
GPU
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130625
Motherboard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131773
CPU
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115073
OS
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16832116992
DVD drive
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135204


I'm hoping to go with this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820167047
as a boot drive, and then go with a 500GB or Terabyte HDD for storage, not sure which brand yet, and(fingers crossed...) I'd really like to go with this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820167050
instead of the 80GB SSD, but we'll see.

Probably go with a pretty basic Blu Ray player like this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135247
or something similar.

Quite a few of these parts were purchased at other sites, and I didn't pay what is seen at Newegg. I've got a couple new credit cards that either had a credit statement for signing up, or an Amazon gift certificate for signing up, found coupon codes, etc. etc. I've been working hard and scraping and scrounging every little bit I can, so as far as my budget, I'm doing pretty decent. Got a HUGE break on my OS(and yes, totally legal), so that helped. My CPU, for example, was 194.99 at Amazon, no tax, no shipping, and I had $10 in rewards points on my Discover card, so it was $185 out the door. Just little things like that help. Anyway, lack of work has slowed this down, and I've also been relying on cleaning out the closets and selling a few things on Ebay and whatnot, but I'm almost there. In fact, I'm an SSD/HDD away.....or maybe just an HDD away, if I decide to just go with a big HDD, and skip the SSD for now. I'm going to try really hard not to do that though.

Edited by Jim45, 15 March 2012 - 12:55 AM.

[iammykyl]

Good to hear from you.

SSD. http://www.gamersnex...-ssd-for-gaming

Check out this HDD. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148840

[Jim45]

Good to hear from you.

SSD. http://www.gamersnex...-ssd-for-gaming

Check out this HDD. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148840

Thanks!
Yeah interesting read on the SSDs. Me not being a gamer, it does make me wonder if I'm not just caught up in some of the hype. Not that the SSD isn't faster, and no moving parts. The boot times are insanely quick, but you definitely pay for that. I watch my wife's brand new laptop boot up, with no SSD, and it's amazing, compared to the 10 year old Dell, I'm currently on. Her desktop was a Dell of about the same age.

Yeah, If I can swing it, I'm going to get an SSD......in part for the coolness factor, I'll admit it. But, if I don't, I can save some money and just go HDD and still be happy. I'm ending up with pretty good components that will result in a computer that will eat what I have for lunch, and I'm not even a gamer, lol!

[Jim45]

I have a question......it sounds like when people use and SSD/HDD combo, they use the SSD as a boot drive and usually put the OS and all other programs on it as well, and use an HDD for storage. When using just an HDD, I'm getting the impression that everything just goes on the one drive, but it gets partitioned. Or do people use two HDDs, using one for programs, one for storage?
Reason I ask is, my friend says that if I go with just one large HDD, just put everything on that one, and no partition is really necessary, because if the HDD dies, no partition will save data. I know there is more to it than saving data, but I don't understand the basic reasoning behind partitioning, but I've always heard you should. I know this person I speak of is very smart, but a few things they have said go against what is considered the "norm", so I keep my guard up. Maybe when you know that much about computers, and have several of them, and have parts laying all around, you can use some unorthodox methods, not really sure, but even with my almost zilch knowledge, I question that "not partitioning an HDD"........but maybe because I've always heard that you should. Just curious.

[Jim45]

Check out this HDD. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148840

Thanks! Was also considering this one http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136533
pretty much an equal, but WD hasn't reduced the 5 year warranty on this one, like Seagate and WD have done on many of their drives.

[iammykyl]

Many don't like partitioning the main drive as it does impact performance.
The benefits are that if there is corruption of the boot partition, you can restore it from an image, ideally stored on a separate partition or of the PC altogether. If there is corruption of the DATA partition and providing you have a backup, you can restore it as well.

Mechanical failure usually means loss of all information.

If you have one large drive, this is a simple set-up, http://www.techsuppo...rd-drives-2.htm and of course the are more complicated ways of doing it.

If you have a small HDD/SSD and a second larger HDD, I place the OS and essential programs on the first drive. 3 partitions on the second drive, large, non essential programs like office on the first partition. DATA on the second, backups on the third. I also use an external backup HDD.

If you have the money or a sophisticated solution is needed, workstion/server, you can move to various RAID arrays.

[Jim45]

Many don't like partitioning the main drive as it does impact performance.
The benefits are that if there is corruption of the boot partition, you can restore it from an image, ideally stored on a separate partition or of the PC altogether. If there is corruption of the DATA partition and providing you have a backup, you can restore it as well.

Mechanical failure usually means loss of all information.

If you have one large drive, this is a simple set-up, http://www.techsuppo...rd-drives-2.htm and of course the are more complicated ways of doing it.

If you have a small HDD/SSD and a second larger HDD, I place the OS and essential programs on the first drive. 3 partitions on the second drive, large, non essential programs like office on the first partition. DATA on the second, backups on the third. I also use an external backup HDD.

If you have the money or a sophisticated solution is needed, workstion/server, you can move to various RAID arrays.

Thanks for all that! So no sophisticated solution needed.
It's funny.....I've heard more than once that Windows 7 should be on at least an 80GB SSD, if you're going that route, but I have a friend in Detroit that has built a few computers....he's using a 64GB(Crucial M4, I believe) for his OS and a few other things, with no problem at all. He doesn't partition, he likes to use separate drives. He has an SSD and two Terabyte HDDs.

I hear the Intel and Ocz are the best for SSD, would you agree/disagree?

[iammykyl]

It is very hard to say which is the best brand SSD. New models come out all the time. It does appear though that the SandForce controller gives the better performance/reliability.

I don't think you need the best, reliability/price, for me, is more important.

Info. http://www.hardware-...-february-2012/

[Jim45]

It is very hard to say which is the best brand SSD. New models come out all the time. It does appear though that the SandForce controller gives the better performance/reliability.

I don't think you need the best, reliability/price, for me, is more important.

Info. http://www.hardware-...-february-2012/

Well, I guess I should have clarified.......when I said best, that is what I meant.
But yeah, thanks for that article. Corsair is at the top of their list....interesting, and I was considering their Force GT series, or maybe the Intel 520 series, which just came out. You definitely pay for Intel though. Corsair is a little more reasonable. That Force GT 90Gb might just be perfect for a boot drive.

[Jim45]

Do you think 60GB is enough for Windows 7?
http://www.newegg.co..._-20167094-L02B

[iammykyl]

60GB SSD will be big enough providing you install only your essential programs on it, other programs on a dedicated partition on the mechanical HDD. There are plenty of articles on optimizing a SSD, but proceed with care. When you have your fresh install of the OS, updated it, updated drivers, create an image so you can restore in case of disaster.

[Jim45]

Well, I ended up getting the 120GB Intel SSD
http://www.amazon.co...s00_i00_details
so now I really don't have to worry. I got a promotional certificate from Amazon over a shipping issue I had with them, so I got this SSD for 149.99. Couldn't resist....and plenty of room.

Ordered this a couple days ago as well
http://www.amazon.co...s00_i00_details

And an ASUS Blu Ray Player
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135247

So I believe I'm offically done! Shopping, that is.
Now the scary part....my first build. Yikes!

Edited by Jim45, 21 March 2012 - 05:23 PM.

[iammykyl]

Thanks for the update.

I know you have plenty of help around you, but remember, unplug when working on the rig, take anti static measure, even when handling parts, check and check again you have the stand-offs correct.

Good luck and please let us know how the build performs.

[Jim45]

Hello again,
I sort of abandoned this thread for quite a while....sorry. I know it helps others, just as I get help by coming here. So far, so good with the computer. Core temp is good, and everything seems to be doing what it should.

I intended to post pictures right after the build, but the morning after I finished it, and booted it into BIOS, we had to have out 17 year old cat put to sleep. He was our kid....so the excitement went right out of this. I think I let it sit almost a week before I even put the OS on. Just really didn't care. Plus, a couple of issues I saw with the BIOS had me thinking I had to return the motherboard, thanks to an ASUS tech support person that didn't know what he was talking about. Sure glad I called a second time for a second opinion. Got second level support, and there was nothing wrong with my motherboard.

Anyway, I keep putting off posting pictures and whatnot, and today I told myself I had to finish what I started, so here they are. I'm posting a link to the album on Facebook, because the size restrictions are ridiculous here, in my opinion. I had 26 pictures, and re sized them all to around 500kb, but there is a 1mb total size limit, which I didn't know. I simply didn't feel like resizing them again. I don't have a good photo program that works with Windows 7 yet on this machine, and didn't feel like setting up my old machine again.

Here is the link
http://www.facebook....=3&l=6b7c81f698