Building a computer (several queries)

[RagnorakTres]

I'm building a computer for a friend, and I'm ordering from Newegg. I'd like to use this ASUS motherboard [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131662] (I've had very good experiences with ASUS in the past) and this power supply [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006], but I don't want to order a power supply that will not work with the motherboard. The problem is that I know next to nothing about how power supplies work, so I don't know what the difference is between a 24 pin connector and a 20+4 pin connector. Can anyone enlighten me?

On a related note, how much RAM should I order? The mobo only (only, heh) has four sequenced slots, what's a reasonable amount? I have a price ceiling, but I'm well within it, so money's not much of an object.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Signa]

Both look excellent. As far as ram, I'd get at least 4 gigs. Probably 8 just because you're going to be running 64-bit Win7 I assume? No reason to not take advantage of the removed ram limit.

Personally, I'm running 6 gigs of triple channel ram and an i7 and it's great. Also an ASUS board, but it was $200 instead of $100. I'm kinda envious of that board, because I felt I overpaid since there were limited choices for i7 chips a year ago.

The last thing I'd like to mention is completely irrelevant, but I'm a total Rosewill fanboy when it comes to PSUs. I've been running one 24/7/365 for 4 years now and all I had to do is replace the fan once. Since your PSU won awards though, I have no justification to say you need to find a different one.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

There'll be no risk of that power supply not working Rag. The +4 is just a 4 pin connector which can be slotted onto the end of the 20 pin one, which any remotely up to date power supply will have now. Anything boasting i7 compatibility will certainly accommodate that.

And yeah, like Signa said, 4gb minimum for good performance with a 64bit OS. If you don't go for 8 now, just get 2 2gb sticks for now so you can add another 4gb at a later date.

 

[Yostbeef]

That is a quality PSU right there made by a damn fine company.And like the user above me said 4 gigs will be fine.All an all looks like your off to a good start,good luck mate.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

4 gigs of RAM would be plenty. Heck, my desktop only has 3 gigs of RAM and it shreds Crysis on ultra settings.

That PSU should work. I say should because if it ends up NOT working I'll look like a tosser.

 

[Signa]

One thing you may want to ask your friend is if they are planning on doing a lot of functions that revolve around raw number crunching. This means packing and unpacking zip/rar/7z files, video compression, or anything that is extremely CPU intensive. The reason why I ask is because Intel excels at those functions, but you need to pay a premium. As far as game performance goes, AMD offers close, if not sometimes better for half the cost. If you friend is only going to be using this machine for gaming and other standard, low-CPU usage tasks, then buying an Intel may be a waste of money.

Like I said, I have an i7 and love it, but I do plenty of video conversion stuff for my PSP. My friend just made an AMD hexacore machine and paid considerably less for it. The charts show in games that his CPU is on par with mine. It's only during the other tasks that my processor kicks the crap out of his.

 

[RagnorakTres]

Alright, thanks for the help.

I'm actually really impressed with this set-up, though I'd appreciate it if someone would take a quick run through it to ensure compatibility and such. I've ordered parts that didn't fit before. >.>

Spoiler: The build (full of links)

Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196]
Motherboard: ASUS P7H55 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131662]
CPU: Intel Core i7 860 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214]
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Bare [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284]
PSU: Corsair 750W Power Supply [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006]
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce 460 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333]
RAM: OCZ Gold 8GB RAM [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227621]
Disk Drive: Lite-On Black 24x DVD Write/Read [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335]
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754]

snip

I did indeed ask him this question (one of the first of a bevy I usually ask before building for a customer), he said he does a little of both. I figure an i7 is going to be worth the extra to him on the occasions he's not playing WoW or Torchlight.

 

[Yostbeef]

Alright, thanks for the help.

I'm actually really impressed with this set-up, though I'd appreciate it if someone would take a quick run through it to ensure compatibility and such. I've ordered parts that didn't fit before. >.>

Spoiler: The build (full of links)

Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196]
Motherboard: ASUS P7H55 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131662]
CPU: Intel Core i7 860 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214]
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Bare [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284]
PSU: Corsair 750W Power Supply [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006]
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce 460 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333]
RAM: OCZ Gold 8GB RAM [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227621]
Disk Drive: Lite-On Black 24x DVD Write/Read [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335]
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754]

Good job dude seem like a nice rig,just throwing it out there maybe go for the 470 instead of the 460 if you can spare the extra funds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121372&Tpk=asus%20gtx%20470

Awesome card for a good price.

 

[RagnorakTres]

snip

Only problem I see is that it's out of stock. >.> I don't know if he'll want to wait the extra time for Newegg to get another shipment, but I'll ask. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Alright, thanks for the help.

I'm actually really impressed with this set-up, though I'd appreciate it if someone would take a quick run through it to ensure compatibility and such. I've ordered parts that didn't fit before. >.>

Spoiler: The build (full of links)

Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196]
Motherboard: ASUS P7H55 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131662]
CPU: Intel Core i7 860 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214]
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Bare [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284]
PSU: Corsair 750W Power Supply [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006]
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce 460 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333]
RAM: OCZ Gold 8GB RAM [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227621]
Disk Drive: Lite-On Black 24x DVD Write/Read [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335]
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754]

snip

I did indeed ask him this question (one of the first of a bevy I usually ask before building for a customer), he said he does a little of both. I figure an i7 is going to be worth the extra to him on the occasions he's not playing WoW or Torchlight.

Good rig, have you considered doing a RAID 0 setup though? Two HDs splitting the data between them, theoretically halving access and write speeds. Of course, twice the risk of HD failure too though, and with just two HDs you can't recover it from the data on the survivor. It's worked well for me, but obviously a lot of people are put off by the increased risk.

That rig looks terrific though. I'm jealous.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Both look excellent. As far as ram, I'd get at least 4 gigs. Probably 8 just because you're going to be running 64-bit Win7 I assume? No reason to not take advantage of the removed ram limit.

Personally, I'm running 6 gigs of triple channel ram and an i7 and it's great. Also an ASUS board, but it was $200 instead of $100. I'm kinda envious of that board, because I felt I overpaid since there were limited choices for i7 chips a year ago.

The last thing I'd like to mention is completely irrelevant, but I'm a total Rosewill fanboy when it comes to PSUs. I've been running one 24/7/365 for 4 years now and all I had to do is replace the fan once. Since your PSU won awards though, I have no justification to say you need to find a different one.

Removed RAM limit? No, it's just ridiculously high.

OT: I still agree with this man though, it's worth getting more than 4, RAM is pretty cheap.

 

[RagnorakTres]

snip

Another of the bevy of questions I ask! It's like you people are computer professionals or something. I did indeed ask him if he wanted a RAID setup. I explained the various types and advantages, he said he'd rather not mess with it, but if he gets more drives he might ask me to help him set an array up.

 

[Signa]

Both look excellent. As far as ram, I'd get at least 4 gigs. Probably 8 just because you're going to be running 64-bit Win7 I assume? No reason to not take advantage of the removed ram limit.

Personally, I'm running 6 gigs of triple channel ram and an i7 and it's great. Also an ASUS board, but it was $200 instead of $100. I'm kinda envious of that board, because I felt I overpaid since there were limited choices for i7 chips a year ago.

The last thing I'd like to mention is completely irrelevant, but I'm a total Rosewill fanboy when it comes to PSUs. I've been running one 24/7/365 for 4 years now and all I had to do is replace the fan once. Since your PSU won awards though, I have no justification to say you need to find a different one.

Removed RAM limit? No, it's just ridiculously high.

OT: I still agree with this man though, it's worth getting more than 4, RAM is pretty cheap.

Semantics. Find me a mobo for a power user that comes close to the multi-terabyte limit 64-bit computing allows. For all intents and purposes, it's removed. Talk to me again in ~10 years when we are using 700GB ram.

Besides, when I said "removed limit" I didn't mean specifically that there was no more ram limits at all, just that the one blocking us was removed.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Both look excellent. As far as ram, I'd get at least 4 gigs. Probably 8 just because you're going to be running 64-bit Win7 I assume? No reason to not take advantage of the removed ram limit.

Personally, I'm running 6 gigs of triple channel ram and an i7 and it's great. Also an ASUS board, but it was $200 instead of $100. I'm kinda envious of that board, because I felt I overpaid since there were limited choices for i7 chips a year ago.

The last thing I'd like to mention is completely irrelevant, but I'm a total Rosewill fanboy when it comes to PSUs. I've been running one 24/7/365 for 4 years now and all I had to do is replace the fan once. Since your PSU won awards though, I have no justification to say you need to find a different one.

Removed RAM limit? No, it's just ridiculously high.

OT: I still agree with this man though, it's worth getting more than 4, RAM is pretty cheap.

Semantics. Find me a mobo for a power user that comes close to the multi-terabyte limit 64-bit computing allows. For all intents and purposes, it's removed. Talk to me again in ~10 years when we are using 700GB ram.

Besides, when I said "removed limit" I didn't mean specifically that there was no more ram limits at all, just that the one blocking us was removed.

I'll hold you to that...