Hidden-Street Hardware Buyer's Guide

[Dae314]

If you're not lying about just choosing whatever was at the bottom of your list when sorting by price on the PSU, you got incredibly lucky ._.

I honestly didn't know the brand, but on researching it that line from that manufacturer scored pretty well in reviews from 2012. I don't know how the PSU performs compared to newer units, but it's a pretty solid choice.

If you were lying about just picking whatever was at the bottom and you actually researched that model then hats off to you, you found a great PSU for a low price (I'm just taking your word on the price). However, if you did just pick that off the bottom of your list please do not do that again. The PSU is not an item that you want to just sort by price and pick the lowest one on... it just isn't.

I wouldn't recommend 4x2GB memory. Most motherboards will give you 4 memory slots, and doing 4x2GB maxes those out (bad for future upgrades). If you get 2x4GB now (same total memory, less modules) you'll have another 2 slots to add memory in later as opposed to having to remove 2 memory sticks and replace them with higher capacity memory.

Even if you're not OCing, the stock cooler isn't all that strong. You can get away with something in the $25 range though.

Yes you can go micro-ATX. Just watch the VRM stages if you can (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...or-Circuit/616).

I personally like sapphire :).

[AcrylicBlaze]

I guess it would be the cheapest 'safe' psu I found. Was actually going to use a seasonic m12ii but I found a shop was selling Super Flowers in many of their discounted bundles so I had a look. Turned out to be pretty alright despite being a pretty unheard of brand and could save a little as well!
Yeah, I took note of that warning in your guide. I was initially a little worried though

Ahh I see what you mean about the memory slots. Noted, wiil get the 2x4gbs, and a cheap cooler as well.

Reading through it now

[FailFTW]

For a cooler you might as well go for a Hyper 212. Those are around $30 and it's one of the better air coolers.

[AcrylicBlaze]

For a cooler you might as well go for a Hyper 212. Those are around $30 and it's one of the better air coolers.

Will look out for it

What do you think of the Asrock H87 Pro 4? Stuff onboard looks not too shabby; chokes, transistors and capacitors look okay

Spoiler!

- 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot (PCIE1: x16 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (PCIE2: x4 mode)
- 2 x PCI slots

Which slot on the motherboard would I probably be slotting a wifi card into? The other 2.0 x4mode slot or would any of the remaining slots do? I will be getting one as my computer area's a little too obstructive to reach with lan wires

[FanOfKOTOKO]

If you're worried about space for the wifi card on a microATX you can always opt for one of the usb options and place it elsewhere with an extension cord. Otherwise getting one that slots into the second PCI slot makes more sense, especially if you want to get something else in the future like a sound card or RAID controller.

[FailFTW]

Right now just in the super preliminary planning stages, but I'm considering building a server. I'm mostly gonna be using it to host Minecraft and probably other games, but I'll probably also use it as a file server too. It'll probably be on 24/7 except whenever I need to do something with it. I'll get an SSD for the Minecrafty things and a fair bit of RAM too, but what should I do about a CPU? Should I just get another one of the i5's I have already or get some cheap AMD? Form factor doesn't matter.

[DlPSHl7]

Thanks Dae.

(No I can't answer the above question)

[Dae314]

Unfortunately, I only just now thought to check the working copy of the guide I keep on my computer (this is where I do updates before pushing them to google). Due to my SSD failing, I wiped out the contents of my data drive and restored an OS image on top of it. Windows file restore was less than ideal for restoring the files I wiped out and the version of the guide it gave me did not contain most of the edits I'd been working on in the week leading up to the SSD failure.

After skipping December to enjoy the holidays I had hoped to push out an early update in January but I doubt I'd be able to get anything out before mid-January. This combined with the fact that I'm going to wipe my data drive (and thus rely on Windows File Restore one last time) when the replacement SSD comes does not give me very much confidence in getting an update out this month.

Please accept my apology for the inconvenience this may cause you. Most of the info sections should still be relevant however the SSD subsection is mostly out of date. This was the section I was making most of my edits in since I plan to peel it off and give it a section separate from hard drives. I'll be trusting my backups to Acronis in the future, so hopefully this won't happen again.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Dae314]

Guide Updates (2/9/2014):
1. Links updated
2. End of life products removed or replaced
3. SSD subsection split into new Section 8 with more detailed and updated information
4. Section 12 updated with QD-LED information
5. Kaveri APUs added to Section 2 recommendations
6. Changed line spacing to 1.15

The SSD subsection is brand new and probably contains some grammar, content, and/or wording errors. Please point these out to me. The same goes for the QD-LED section.

The new R7-250X card is not in the guide yet because I wanted to get the update out tonight.

I noticed this time around that some of the sections are getting a bit heavy on one brand. This happened inadvertently over time and is not meant to be fanboyism. I will try to address this next update.

[blankaex]

I'm pretty impressed you still continue to update this - your guide has probably helped more people than it shows! Just goes to show how much you love the topic. Keep up the good work Dae!