Description
Now Updated Pics of cable management
I decided after selling my macbook pro I was going to build my own computer. I really wanted to just play the sims 3 which was impossible to play on my macbook pro. After months of research I went with these parts. I had a budget of $1000 and that was it and I think I did pretty good for my first time. The build took me a totally of 5 hours to put together (might be slow but I just wanted everything to be right). I order all my parts from newegg too and they were great, everything came in 2 days and I got started on things right away.
CPU: I went with the i5-4670 because it was one under the i5-4670k. I really wanted the k but I didn't have the money and I knew I would have to get a cpu cooler with it and that was more $. But I don't see myself needing to overclock at all. The performance is great for me.
Motherboard: It was a pretty simple choice for the board I really wanted something with wifi and bluetooth and it had both and is good since I'm not overclocking. I think this board also as widi too (I don't see myself needing it but it's ok)
Memory: I got Team Vulcan memory. Number one I love star trek so the vulcan got my attention. 2nd is I got it on sale for 58 dollars! For now 8GB is all I need though in the future I do want to go to 16GB and when I do I will be getting vulcan memory again.
Storage: I got the WD Caviar Black because it seemed to be pretty good for games and it had all the storage I needed. I'm eventually soon going to get a samsung 840 or 840 evo 120GB just for performance but right now the WD is going very fast my OS comes up so fast almost as fast as the OS on my old macbook pro. My only thing I don't like is it's LOUD.
Video Card: Ok this is where things started to get hard there were so many options but in the end I found the card by looking on a list of cards compatible with the sims 3 and this was the second one from the top card and I looked at the price and it was perfect. I was on here one day and choose the xfx one by seeing the core clock rate and it was I think the 2nd or 3rd highest for the 7950 ( I don't know if it makes much of a difference) but I love the card. One day I plan to upgrade to something more powerful but this card should be with me for a long time. OH Yeah it came with 4 free games too which was awesome!( I got Hitman: Absolution, Saints Row IV, and Sleeping Dogs and Crysis 3)
Case: Oh my baby my baby. I love this case! First before building the computer I wanted something that was small because the computer was going to go in my room on my small desk. I love how with this case you have so many options with colors too. As far as building in it, it was great I didn't have problems with the size and the cable management was good too. My only complaint is the usb ports seem to easily move forward and backwards when plugging things in but it's not a huge issue. After using this case for weeks now I still love it and I open it up every 2 weeks to clean and things and it's really easy to do. The case though can get very dirty if you don't care for it. The front filter can be a bit hard to clean (as you can see the small amount of dust visible). I haven't found a way to clean it to wear it would look like new yet but I hope to get it looking like it did out the book. Also I have been carrying this case around my house and it's super easy to move, I plan to take it with me to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving and I expect the transport of it to be easy too.
Power Supply: The power supply was a bit of a challenge as far as finding one that would go with the case. I needed something in the 550w to 700w range so I went with 650. I hear that you don't want to go cheap on a psu so I did some research and it seems rosewill is a good brand and it is bronze certified so that was good. My only thing I had a problem with was putting it into my case. As most know the Prodigy's psu area is small and semi (what I have) and modular psu really aren't that good with this case. But I got it to fit, though I worry a little about the stress on the cables but that's more a case problem. Ok after weeks with this now I see I made a great purchase with this. It is extremely quiet I can never hear it and it works great.
Optical Drive: I know most people don't usually put these into their case anymore but most of my games are on a disc and I have dvds and I don't really plan on converting completely to digital yet. This OD does it's job and is great and cheap. After using it some more I have to say that it's extremely loud when a disc is in it. I was letting the windows disc reset my computer one night and I went to sleep and woke up to a loud airplane like noise and it was the OD. But if you don't use it very often you should be fine.
Operating System: I know some people don't like windows 8 but I like it. It took a while to get use to it but I download the classic start menu and that made it easier but I also got a free upgrade to 8.1 so when it came out I just uninstall it. But I didn't have problems with either and they run well. Update Windows 8.1 was working great for me but then a new update came and I updated it and I started having boot problems. Today my computer wouldn't boot to desktop at all, even after hours and hours of troubleshooting. So I had to wipe my drive losing just a day worth of stuff I didn't back up. I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with 8 or go back to 8.1. After trying to figure out the problem with my windows not boot it turned out my sata cable to my hard drive was a bit loose or it got wiggled a little so it wasn't a windows problem. But I've gone back to 8.1 and just love it though I'm not crazy about the way to get to the program page.
Keyboard: I didn't have a keyboard so I got the MK 320. It was cheap and does it's job. I didn't need a gaming mouse or keyboard just something simple and easy.
Case Fans: For christmas I asked for case fans. They just came today and the Noctua installation went very well. Now the BitFenix Pro 230mm fan was another story. It came with no instructions and the problem was that the screw holes have some type of problem where I they won't allow the screw to go in fully. Me being stupid (you can all laugh) I used a power drill to get them to go in all the way and I messed up the head, not a big deal I have more screws but I don't know how to unscrew it out now. Newbie Troubles lol
Other things I needed: I had to get a 4 to 3 pin adapter so I got one off of newegg for $4. I also had to get a DVI to VGA because I'm using my old TV for a monitor until black friday comes around. * Update my dad let me borrow his tv which has a hdmi port so I currently use that as my monitor so no more vga to dvi needed.
Future Upgrades: -SSD (birthday is around the corner so next thing) -Upgrade some parts and recycling the case and some things. -I now want to upgrade my graphics card (not because my 7950 is bad I just want to get something better) so I want a 770 4gb the Gigabyte one or either a Gigabyte 780. This is more of a dream right now but I can't wait to start upgrading and adding parts.
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