Some advice on building a new PC

I live in Brazil. The problem is that not only are most things hard to find here, they`re exhorbitantly overpriced, hence why it`s worth it to bring them over from the US or Europe.

 

Hmm, you're probably right, not had to look for stuff in Brazil before, it doesn't look very easy. As for the build, a fair few things change in 6 months, so I'll produce some rough ideas for $1000-$1500.

$1000 build [Gamer i5-5850 1TB]

Core i5 750 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215
Gigabyte P55A-UD3 M/B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412
4GB XMS3 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260
XFX Radeon HD5850 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150477
NZXT Tempest Evo case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146062
Corsair TX 650W PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
WD1001FALS 1TB HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
LG GH24NS50 24x DVDRW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136177

$1024 total, $30 mail-in rebates (not sure if they apply to you).

$1250 build [Gamer i5+-5870 1TB +SSD]

Core i5 760 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Gigabyte P55A-UD3 M/B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412
4GB XMS3 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260
XFX Radeon HD5870 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150476
WD1001FALS 1TB HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Intel X25-V 40GB SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167025
NZXT Tempest Evo case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146062
Corsair TX 650W PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
LG GH24NS50 24x DVDRW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136177

$1259 total, $30 mail-in rebates.


$1500 build [Crossfire i5+-5850 1TB +SSD]

i5 760 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Gigabyte P55A-UD4P M/B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128409
4GB XMS3 LL RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260
2x XFX Radeon HD5850 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150477
Corsair TX 750W PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
WD1002FAEX 1TB HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
Intel X25-V 40GB SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167025
NZXT Tempest Evo case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146062
LG GH24NS50 24x DVDRW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136177

$1506 total, $35 mail-in rebates.

 

Thank you very much, sammorris, you are most helpful.

I will forward the product links to the person who will bring them to me. I'm not very familiar with newegg, though, and I tried reading around their FAQ but found no help about this: do you know if there's a way to tell them to ship the items to a specific store of theirs? The person who will bring it to me will disembark in NY only for a day, then head on over here to Brazil, so it'd really need to have a store there. If newegg doesn't provide such an option, could you recommend a similar online shop which has physical stores in NY to where the parts could be shipped to, please?

 

I don't know of any stores that have physical stores you can order online to, not in the US at least (remember I don't live in the US). You would have to deliver them to someone's address in the US and proceed from there.

 

Ah, I see, my bad, I assumed you were from the US.

I just noticed you recommended SSDs in the two most expensive builds. What are they for? I read a bit about them on wikipedia, but I don't see what it is for if it only has 40 GB capacity and will still require me to use a regular SATA HDD.

 

SSDs (well, the good ones anyway) are tremendously faster than hard disks at loading things, so by using one just for your OS and critical programs (which will fit on 40GB) your PC basically boots windows and loads these applications 3 - 5 times as quickly. A PC really does feel a lot faster with an SSD installed.

 

Personally, I'll stick with my platter disks for a while...I just can't justify spending $400 on a 32GB drive...even if it does do 250/170.

 

Well, they're not quite that bad. It's $100 for 40GB, but still...

 

Ok, so these are the parts I managed to get. The MB was a slightly updated version and the graphics card got switched by a 2GB HD5870. Will it all work out nicely together or is there some sort of incompatibility, because of the different motherboard? Here are the parts already bought, (will get the PSU and case afterwards):

- VGA: Saphire Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition 2gb GDDR5

- RAM: Corsair DDR3 4Gb XMS3

- CPU: Intel Core I5-750

- MB: Gigabyte P55A-UD5

- HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1002FAEX 1TB


And just out of curiosity, is there much performance lost between Crossfire HD5850s or a HD5970 against the 2GB HD5870?

 

Should be fine. The 2GB HD5870 is a waste of money though unless you're using a large (30") screen (not an HDTV) or multiple monitors in eyefinity, as it literally offers no performance gains over the 1GB outside these areas.

As for the graphics setup (% compared to a 4870)

HD5850 = 155
HD5870 = 180
2GB HD5870 = 180
2xHD5850 = 155-310, depending on game (typically 280)
HD5970 = 160-320, depending on game (typically 290)