building a computer, what's the best stuffs?

gaming and video editing are two completely different things that need entirely different specs. Pick one or build two computers.

 

I would be wary of nvidia right now, I and a friend have both had a LOT of problems with our 200 series cards.

 

Radeon cards are good, but their drivers are shit, which leaves a bit of a dilemma. Nvidia have been the best gaming for years, which is why your friends recommend them, but it seems they may have cocked up big time with the 200 series (my mate and I are struggling to find the exact cause of our problems).

Regardless, some rules for building a gaming PC:

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Less is more

12GB ram will give no additional benefit over 8GB which gives little benefit over 4GB. More than quad core will give no benefit.

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The faster, the better

more cores doesn't help, faster cores will. Don't get anything less than 3.0Ghz

Tons of ram doesn't help, fast ram does. DDR3 is a must, get the highest speed supported by your board and processor. Lower timings are better. The two most important are: CAS Latency and recharge time. The lower the better, however higher mhz takes precedence. Pay attention to triple/dual channel support on the board. Triple channel means RAM must be installed in groups of 3 identical modules, dual channel in groups of two. Mess this up and it runs much slower. The more modules you have, the better (so long as you don't break the dual/triple channel rule). If you have a board with 6 ram slots and you want 6GB of RAM, go for 6x 1GB over 3x 2GB. This is because of the recharge time, which is a period after a module has been written in which it cannot be written to again. More RAM modules means there will be other RAM modules available while others are recharging, making the system overall more responsive. G-Skill Ripjaw RAM is awesome. Don't forget that you will need a 64bit OS for more than 4GB of RAM.

Hard disks are easily the slowest part of a computer (excluding optical and floppy drives) and there isn't a whole lot that can be done about this. SSDs look great on paper but realworld performance is lacking.
You'll want SATAII/SATA3gb/s, unless you're very rich and hardcore, in which case U320 SCSI and SAS are options (bear in mind these two have a maximum drive capacity of 300GB). You want at least 7,200RPM rotational speed, and avoid 'green' or 'eco' drives as these run at 5,400 RPM and even if they claim equivalent performance to 7,200s, they aren't equivalent.

Seek time should be as low as possible, and the drive should be one of: hitachi, western digital or samsung. If you're going for SCSI or SAS then seagate and fujitsu become options. For optimum performance, you want at least three disks. One for installing your OS and programs on, one for your pagefile, and one for installing games on. It's quite common to use a western digital raptor/velociraptor for the latter, but you could also use one for the former, or even for all three (if you're using SATA). If you're going to download a lot of stuff then get a fourth hard disk (a high capacity one, such as a samsung spinpoint F3)

RAID: avoid RAID 0. It brings very little performance benefiit and comes at the cost of data security. I personally use RAID 1 on my OS disk (RAID 1 is where two identical disks are mirrored to look like one disk, and data is written to both, so if one dies then the other takes over). Avoid 'onboard' raid on your motherboard, if you want raid then get a proper raid card (promise, adaptec, LSI logic, mylex or 3ware) avoid 'zero channel raid'.

Optical drive: mostly irrelevant as far as performance is concerned.

CPU cooler: This is hugely important. Don't use the cooler that came with your CPU. It will be adequate, but only just. This is especially true of intel coolers. Frostytech have a nice list of coolers ranked by cooling performance on a 125W CPU, Wander over here: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2521&page=4 to take a look. Note that it only lists AMD compatible coolers, intel compatible is on the next or the previous page. Also pay attention to the noise level, you don't want it to be too high or it will be irritating. (i'm deaf so I couldn't care less).

Case: This is also hugely important, but not for the reasons most people think of. Get a fancy looking case if you like, but looks are a secondary concern. Most important is airflow/thermal performance. You want 80mm fans in the front and the back at minimum (or slots to put said fans), the more the merrier, and the bigger the better. Side panel fans are a double edged sword, they can improve airflow, or they can totally balls it up. It depends on the case design. Make sure none of the fanciness blocks fans. Front fans should draw air into the case, back fans should pull it out. Side again depends on case design. For the record I hate tooless cases, its faster to use a damn screwdriver. If the case has a full height drive rack, then you will need a full tower (not a mid tower) otherwise the graphics card wont fit in the case.

Fans: the higher the CFM for a given size, the better. Also pay attention to the noise ratings.

CPU: The killer question. As said before, no more than 4 cores are necessary, and hyperthreading is a waste of effort. Higher clock speeds are better, bigger L2 and L3 cache sizes can also help. Pay careful attention here as the cache sizes quoted could be either per core or unified (all cores sharing the same cache). Also pay attention to the TDP (thermal design power) as this affects what cooler you choose.

Motherboard: You want one that is compatible with your CPU (Both in terms of socket, FSB and TDP) and has SATAII plus at least one PCI-E x16 slot. ATX boards are easier to work with than microATX/uATX. This and the processor dictate what ram you can use, and how much, so DDR3 and as high as possible mhz. Good brands are: Asus, DFI, Gigabyte, MSI, AsRock. Patton also likes biostar, but I have no experience of them. Avoid ECS, PCChips, EVGA and foxconn. Pay careful attention to the chipset; a nvidia graphics card on an ATi motherboard chipset might be what is causing the issues my mate and I have, we just haven't been able to prove it yet.

power supply: Don't skimp here. If this blows it could well take out the rest of your system. you want at least 500W. You will need PCI-E power connectors, and fewer, bigger 12V rails is preferable to more smaller ones. Choose from: Antec, thermaltake, silverstone, seasonic, OCZ, Enermax, coolermaster, corsair. Note that a higher rated PSU will NOT use more electricity than a lower rated one in the same computer; this is a common misconception. The rating is the MAXIMUM amount of power it is capable of supplying, so the higher the better, but there's no need to go overboard. Don't touch any brand I have not listed, and if your case came with a power supply then junk it unless its one of the above.

Sound card: Avoid creative, they suck. Asus Xonar are the way to go.

graphics card: Your choice is ATi radeon or Nvidia geforce. good brands are: BFG and XFX (these are the most used by gamers), MSI, gigabyte. Avoid: sparkle, evga, HIS

Keyboard: logitech G19

mouse: I like the logitech MX518, but if you're going to be playing a lot of online FPS you may want a razor.

plug in wired network card: if your onboard sucks, intel is the way to go.

This ends today's lesson, I hope you've been taking notes because there'll be a test.

 

SSDs aren't worth it, they dont perform very well in real world use. Windows 7 ultimate isnt necessary either, professional has everything you'll need.

 

yep they arent widespread yet though. They've been around for a while.

 

choosing the parts is half the fun.

Don't read what I wrote like a book. After the two rules, each paragraph deals with a specific component. You need to choose each component individually, reading what I wrote about that specific component and making sure it goes with other relevant components.

Break it down. Start with the CPU, read what I wrote about CPUs, choose what CPU you want and make a note of it, then choose a motherboard to fit it, reading what I wrote about motherboards, etc etc. When you're done post links to everything you chose and someone will point out any mistakes you've made.

 

processor is only 2.6Ghz, which is a bit slow. There's faster ones, but the phenom II series is good, if you want a phenom II get a faster model. CPU is a synonym for processor.

You haven't actually chosen a motherboard, thats the information page for the NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI chipset, which is a component on a motherboard.

The two graphics cards are made by different manufacturers, otherwise they're identical.

Good choice on PSU, but my friend suggests getting the hx rather than the tx. The hx is modular, meaning unused cables can be removed, resulting in a less cluttered case, and apparently the build quality is very slightly better than the yx, even though theres nothing wrong with the tx.

 

yes it does, it goes up to 3.4Ghz

No, that's another chipset. You won't find a motherboard on the nvidia site. try newegg

they're about equal. I've never had a graphics card from either, since I tend to use XFX or BFG, but I've had motherboards from both and they're both good.

Other than cost you can't go overboard with a PSU.

 

Motherboard is a nice choice, however there are two important things I need to point out. One is the black heatsink to the left of the cpu socket, the other is the ram slots being very close to the CPU cooler bracket. While these are not bad things per se, they do need taking into consideration when you are choosing a CPU cooler, as the height of the ram modules/heatsink could obstruct some coolers. This is not a particularly unusual situation but it's often overlooked.

Excellent choice on the processor, its one I'd choose myself oh wait, I did

Case wise both are nice, both are very well known brands that pay close attention to thermal management. I'm a bit disappointed that theres no picture of the inside of the coolermaster, but it shouldnt matter. Both come with front and back fans, the coolermaster also has a top fan. I think it's probably personal choice on this. I've had coolermaster cases before (my stacker 810 is awesome), but silverstone have a very good reputation as well. It might be worth noting that the silverstone mounts the PSU at the top (the traditional location), while the coolermaster mounts it at the bottom (I think for physical stability), which can lead to issues with cables not being long enough, however there are extension cables readily available if needed.

 

cant tell you from the information you've given. See if you can get motherboard information from dr hardware.