Please Help. Building my first rig.

[pinky867]

Hi,

Need help on what to buy for my first DIY computer.

Usage:
Surfing, watch video, games(FPS, sports and action) and photoshop.

What I have:
HD with OS from my current HP computer
Geforce GTS 240
DVD drive.

Can recommend me which CPU, Mobo, PSU and RAM?
Thank you.

 

[darkarn]

How much are you willing to pay?

 

[-Sora-]

How much are you willing to pay?

Golden question

 

[Alternative X]

1) Budget ?
2) What games are you playing?
3) How heavy is your photoshopping?
4) Yo, your GTS 240 is on par with entry level GPUs in the market, get a new one.
5) If you want to transfer your OEM Windows to your new build, be prepared to make a call to Microsoft to activate your license for your new build.

 

[pinky867]

1) Budget ?
2) What games are you playing?
3) How heavy is your photoshopping?
4) Yo, your GTS 240 is on par with entry level GPUs in the market, get a new one.
5) If you want to transfer your OEM Windows to your new build, be prepared to make a call to Microsoft to activate your license for your new build.

1) $800? I dont need high end.
2) Games like crysis, mass effect, fifa, skyrim, assasin creed... (very seldom play games)
3) Editing photos and digital colouring.
4) Iszit necessary? If yes then what should I get?
5) Can you please elaborate further? Why do I need to call MS to activate License?

 

[royfrosty]

1) $800? I dont need high end.
2) Games like crysis, mass effect, fifa, skyrim, assasin creed... (very seldom play games)
3) Editing photos and digital colouring.
4) Iszit necessary? If yes then what should I get?
5) Can you please elaborate further? Why do I need to call MS to activate License?

$800 to play the games you listed is kinda a bit hard. Neither does the GTS 240 will fair well on the games you listed.

License of MS is a OEM keys that is locked with your current HP PC motherboard. Which cannot be transfered over to the new board.

AND guys FYI don't bother to ask Microsoft to help you reactivate the keys again when using OEM keys. Cause now they are more stricter than before and caller may not be able to request to activate windows.

Even if the mobo uplorry they wont reactivate for you.

In all you could not use the windows key on the HP desktop and transfer it to your new PC. You will have activation issues.

PS: I myself have tried it 5 times with 5 different CSO, none of it will budge.
Any way for $800

ASRock H81M HDS + i3-4130 ~ $215
Crucial 8gb 1600mhz Value Ram ~ $95
WD Blue 1tb ~ $67
Zotac GTX750ti 2gb ~ $208
Sharkoon MS140 ~ $54
FSP 350w PSU ~ $39 (1 year warranty)
Samsung DVD Drive ~ $21
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM ~ $110

Total ~ $809. Buy at tradepac. DIY

 

[pinky867]

$800 to play the games you listed is kinda a bit hard. Neither does the GTS 240 will fair well on the games you listed.

License of MS is a OEM keys that is locked with your current HP PC motherboard. Which cannot be transfered over to the new board.

AND guys FYI don't bother to ask Microsoft to help you reactivate the keys again when using OEM keys. Cause now they are more stricter than before and caller may not be able to request to activate windows.

Even if the mobo uplorry they wont reactivate for you.

In all you could not use the windows key on the HP desktop and transfer it to your new PC. You will have activation issues.

PS: I myself have tried it 5 times with 5 different CSO, none of it will budge.
Any way for $800

ASRock H81M HDS + i3-4130 ~ $215
Crucial 8gb 1600mhz Value Ram ~ $95
WD Blue 1tb ~ $67
Zotac GTX750ti 2gb ~ $208
Sharkoon MS140 ~ $54
FSP 350w PSU ~ $39 (1 year warranty)
Samsung DVD Drive ~ $21
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM ~ $110

Total ~ $809. Buy at tradepac. DIY

Thanks for the reply.
Actually, I played crysis and skyrim with my current computer before. Set everything to low. Nonetheless, I dont use this computer to play games often so gaming is not important.

Is there anyway I can clone my HD so that I dont have to reinstall everything?

 

[cenedra]

I just changed an entirely new system last Saturday, even bought a SSD to replace my old HDD. The only thing I reused is the casing and the psu, which I bought a month ago.

I downloaded 64 bit windows 7 from Microsoft website, installed it into my new comp, and registered it with my oem 32 bit windows 7 product key which I have been using before I upgraded to this new comp. Don't need to call up Microsoft to reactive or anything at all...

 

[royfrosty]

Thanks for the reply.
Actually, I played crysis and skyrim with my current computer before. Set everything to low. Nonetheless, I dont use this computer to play games often so gaming is not important.

Is there anyway I can clone my HD so that I dont have to reinstall everything?

You can clone. But you got to uninstall all the HP bloatwares and drivers that are installed in the hdd. And reinstall all the new drivers over again for the new pc to work.

A clean reinstallation is recommendable.

I hope you are not going to use windows vista on the new pc.

 

[pinky867]

You can clone. But you got to uninstall all the HP bloatwares and drivers that are installed in the hdd. And reinstall all the new drivers over again for the new pc to work.

A clean reinstallation is recommendable.

I hope you are not going to use windows vista on the new pc.

I hate reinstalling.

BTW, is Asrock a reliable brand? Asus and Gigabyte too ex?
Also, If I get a SSD and install OS and connect my old HD as a secondary HD will it work? Will it have any conflict?

If I used my old GPU and save $200, I can actually upgrade to a i5 4460.
Good idea?

 

[bloo1998]

I hate reinstalling.

BTW, is Asrock a reliable brand? Asus and Gigabyte too ex?
Also, If I get a SSD and install OS and connect my old HD as a secondary HD will it work? Will it have any conflict?

If I used my old GPU and save $200, I can actually upgrade to a i5 4460.
Good idea?

Onboard graphics for i5 4460 is almost as good as your 240 card.
Should get the 750Ti if you want better graphics performance.

 

[royfrosty]

I hate reinstalling.

BTW, is Asrock a reliable brand? Asus and Gigabyte too ex?
Also, If I get a SSD and install OS and connect my old HD as a secondary HD will it work? Will it have any conflict?

If I used my old GPU and save $200, I can actually upgrade to a i5 4460.
Good idea?

Board reliability will be a heng suay thing nowadays. Doesn't mean buy Asus/MSI/Giga will last longer.

It will work. OS please go get a win7. HDD as a secondary drive. But you have to format the HDD before being detected in windows.

Another work around with your budget is to go for Pentium G3258 unlocked version.

If you wanna reuse your HDD,

ASRock H81M HDS + Pentium G3258 A.E ~ $158
Crucial 8gb 1600mhz Value Ram ~ $95
Corsair Force LX 128gb ~ $98
Zotac GTX750ti 2gb ~ $208
Sharkoon MS140 ~ $54
FSP 350w PSU ~ $39 (1 year warranty)
Samsung DVD Drive ~ $21
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM ~ $110

Total ~ $783. Buy at tradepac. DIY

At least this rig will score better for your gaming needs than a GTS240

 

[pinky867]

Board reliability will be a heng suay thing nowadays. Doesn't mean buy Asus/MSI/Giga will last longer.

It will work. OS please go get a win7. HDD as a secondary drive. But you have to format the HDD before being detected in windows.

Another work around with your budget is to go for Pentium G3258 unlocked version.

If you wanna reuse your HDD,

ASRock H81M HDS + Pentium G3258 A.E ~ $158
Crucial 8gb 1600mhz Value Ram ~ $95
Corsair Force LX 128gb ~ $98
Zotac GTX750ti 2gb ~ $208
Sharkoon MS140 ~ $54
FSP 350w PSU ~ $39 (1 year warranty)
Samsung DVD Drive ~ $21
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM ~ $110

Total ~ $783. Buy at tradepac. DIY

At least this rig will score better for your gaming needs than a GTS240

Thanks for the info and help.
Greatly appreciated.
I have a better idea on what to get now.