Build advice

[JrRacinFan]

First off sorry about the re-post

Yeah like I said, that's my personal choices with the build. Posted that to give you a couple ideas.

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

Here's a combo deal with the case & psu.

2 coupon codes on those that are valid TODAY only
EMCKBJB37
EMCKBJB36

EDIT:

They are only valid if not purchasing the combo but as seperate But it comes out to be $10 cheaper when seperate

[trickson]

About Windows 7 get the 64 bit edition as it is GREAT ! As for the setup the OP has listed I like it all really I do . I am not familiar with DDR3 RAM but Kingston Hyper X RAM ( the kind I have ) Is the best I have ever had . So I would venture to guess that if you can get some in DDR3 then do so .

[freaksavior]

Originally Posted by qubit

Hey, nice to see you back, freaky.

"Troll post" or not, I have to agree with MM to wait for AMD's Bulldozer CPU to be released in about a month. You know how it is with these major launches, the whole market gets turned upside down and today's hot chip is tomorrow's has-been.

Wait, definitely wait. I want an i5-2500K system and I'm sitting tight.

Here's a really good breakdown of which Windows 7 edition has what feature - scroll down to the big comparison chart. Personally, I'm not happy with anything less than Ultimate, regardless if I'm gonna use every feature or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions

As this will be used for a personal build, why not get a TechNet sub and be done with it? You get 5 keys for every edition of all versions of Windows, plus lots of other MS products. It's worth thousands, yet only costs a few hundred, because of the "evaluation" restriction. For home use, this is no problem at all!

See what you get here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...s/default.aspx

Dude, it's a no-brainer.

Yes and no, since I already have a license for every other machine, it's not much use to pay for that at this point.

i5 is for sure, and again bulldozer if the build doesn't happen. i5 is plenty fast just like my current i7 but this is dedicated for gaming and i5 does pretty damn good at it.

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

First off sorry about the re-post

Yeah like I said, that's my personal choices with the build. Posted that to give you a couple ideas.

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

Here's a combo deal with the case & psu.

2 coupon codes on those that are valid TODAY only
EMCKBJB37
EMCKBJB36

EDIT:

They are only valid if not purchasing the combo but as seperate

heh no worries.

Originally Posted by trickson

About Windows 7 get the 64 bit edition as it is GREAT ! As for the setup the OP has listed I like it all really I do . I am not familiar with DDR3 RAM but Kingston Hyper X RAM ( the kind I have ) Is the best I have ever had . So I would venture to guess that if you can get some in DDR3 then do so .

64 bit is a must, with anything over 3gb of ram and then the video card, it's stupid not to get it.


I have crucial value ram, and it'll overclock to 2133 but I do know the kingston is good stuff.


Right now with Jr's addons, i'm over the 1500. The SSD is what's killing me.

$1,497.00 + the Price: $129.99 watercooling loop.

2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
($59.99 each)


XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
$274.99

Team Xtreem LV Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model TXD34096M2000HC9KDC-L
$49.99

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$159.99

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
$219.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
$139.99

LITE-ON Black Internal 12X Blu-ray Combo with SW SATA Model iHES112-29
$74.99

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$194.99

Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply 
$249.9

Total $1,497.00

[johnspack]

2600k. ht is not useless, I've already found my flying sim + windows will actively use 6 threads, which gave a performance boost in my sim. even crysis 2 was showing activity on 5 threads. but if you have the money, i'd wait for sb-e and get a real cpu......

[trickson]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

64 bit is a must, with anything over 3gb of ram and then the video card, it's stupid not to get it.


I have crucial value ram, and it'll overclock to 2133 but I do know the kingston is good stuff.


Right now with Jr's addons, i'm over the 1500. The SSD is what's killing me.

$1,497.00 + the Price: $129.99 watercooling loop.

Yes SSD's are way over priced right now but man they are fantastic to have .
All I know is that the kingston RAM I have has been better than any of the fancy name brand stuff I have ever had . Kingston RAM is a must have in my next build as well . I have been able to get my RAM to do things I could never get corsair , Crucial or Patriot RAM to do . If I were you maybe you could get the SSD drive later on maybe wait some and save up Just a thought . Could keep your price down some .

[theeldest]

Personally, I like simple. Have you considered Intel's SSD caching with the Z68 chipset?

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI S...
SSD: Intel 311 Series Larsen Creek 20GB mSATA SATA II S...

60GB is going to get pretty cozy. My 120GB filled up faster than I'd imagined with only OS + Games & Apps.

Sure you end up with a smaller drive but it intelligently caches on the block level to maximize functional use. It's also an enterprise class SLC drive for better reliability / performance.


It's up to you, though. Peeps seem to be opposed to SRT on this forum.


And @johnspack: In the benchmarks I've seen, the 2500k and 2600k trade places for top performer in games. Some will see a benefit, some will see a hit. Save the $100 and spend more on GPU.

[trickson]

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III M...

I found this on the Egg if this helps you it has a rebate .

[johnspack]

Yes, I guess if you know what you are going to run beforehand, and know you won't be running anything that could use more than 4 threads in the future, the 2500k is a stellar performer.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

From the tid bit of info i have read, asus boards are not what they used to be.

Saddly this is true, but I would still say they are some of the best boards around. Just not the absolute tanks they used to be. Or maybe it is just that everyone else is getting better, it makes ASUS look worse than they used to be by comparison? IDK.

Anyway, I actually agree with JrRacingFan's suggestion of an ASRock board. Since ASUS bought them ASRock has steadily improved in quality, to the point that I consider them in every build I do. The bang for the buck that you get with them is very good.

[trickson]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

Saddly this is true, but I would still say they are some of the best boards around. Just not the absolute tanks they used to be. Or maybe it is just that everyone else is getting better, it makes ASUS look worse than they used to be by comparison? IDK.

Anyway, I actually agree with JrRacingFan's suggestion of an ASRock board. Since ASUS bought them ASRock has steadily improved in quality, to the point that I consider them in every build I do. The bang for the buck that you get with them is very good.

I would have to agree I have been hearing good things about Asrock as of late and maybe getting one myself soon . Almost time for a new build !

[qubit]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

Saddly this is true, but I would still say they are some of the best boards around. Just not the absolute tanks they used to be. Or maybe it is just that everyone else is getting better, it makes ASUS look worse than they used to be by comparison? IDK.

Anyway, I actually agree with JrRacingFan's suggestion of an ASRock board. Since ASUS bought them ASRock has steadily improved in quality, to the point that I consider them in every build I do. The bang for the buck that you get with them is very good.

That's good to know about the ASRocks. I'll consider this as a budget buy for my non-computer literate friend who needs a new PC at the moment.

Since I bought my Gigabyte board (see specs) I haven't looked back. Rock solid stability and awesome set of features and overclockability. I especially like the dual BIOS feature for peace of mind. My next build is likely to be based around a Gigabyte mobo.

[freaksavior]

Originally Posted by theeldest

Personally, I like simple. Have you considered Intel's SSD caching with the Z68 chipset?

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI S...
SSD: Intel 311 Series Larsen Creek 20GB mSATA SATA II S...

60GB is going to get pretty cozy. My 120GB filled up faster than I'd imagined with only OS + Games & Apps.

Sure you end up with a smaller drive but it intelligently caches on the block level to maximize functional use. It's also an enterprise class SLC drive for better reliability / performance.


It's up to you, though. Peeps seem to be opposed to SRT on this forum.


And @johnspack: In the benchmarks I've seen, the 2500k and 2600k trade places for top performer in games. Some will see a benefit, some will see a hit. Save the $100 and spend more on GPU.

That's 20gb. meh not enough. The z68, I have no problem with.

Originally Posted by trickson

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III M...

I found this on the Egg if this helps you it has a rebate .

That may be closer to what we go with. It doesn't need to be big, just enough for the OS and a game or two. Everything else can go on the mechanical drives.

[theeldest]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

That's 20gb. meh not enough. The z68, I have no problem with.



That may be closer to what we go with. It doesn't need to be big, just enough for the OS and a game or two. Everything else can go on the mechanical drives.

20GB isn't really 20GB when it's block level caching. Have you read Anand's review on SRT?

His test ran about 6 games a couple times to see the performance increase as it got cached. Was pretty close to a stand alone SSD. His only complaint was stuff getting ejected when he loaded the *entire* adobe creative suite.

I'm not sure if that's a realistic test for you (it's certainly not for me).

If you think you do need more than the 20GB and you're looking at OZC the switch from Agility to Vertex would probably make a difference given the higher write performance.

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III ML...

[rickss69]

I have tried many different motherboards with SB and have found all capable. Go with the cheapest you can find...Biostar seems to lead in that respect right now.

[trickson]

Originally Posted by rickss69

I have tried many different motherboards with SB and have found all capable. Go with the cheapest you can find...Biostar seems to lead in that respect right now.

I would go for an Asrock before a Biostar JMHO. Never had a good Biostar MB ever .

[freaksavior]

Originally Posted by PopcornMachine

I like the ignore feature on this forum quite a bit.

I really like the flag feature which I just used on your useless post.

Originally Posted by theeldest

20GB isn't really 20GB when it's block level caching. Have you read Anand's review on SRT?

His test ran about 6 games a couple times to see the performance increase as it got cached. Was pretty close to a stand alone SSD. His only complaint was stuff getting ejected when he loaded the *entire* adobe creative suite.

I'm not sure if that's a realistic test for you (it's certainly not for me).

If you think you do need more than the 20GB and you're looking at OZC the switch from Agility to Vertex would probably make a difference given the higher write performance.

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III ML...

From price point, OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III M... is more appearling. This puts me just at $1500.

Originally Posted by rickss69

I have tried many different motherboards with SB and have found all capable. Go with the cheapest you can find...Biostar seems to lead in that respect right now.

Good to know. Thanks.

______________________________

Currently listed

2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
($59.99 each)


XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
$274.99

Team Xtreem LV Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model TXD34096M2000HC9KDC-L
$49.99

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$159.99

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
$219.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
$139.99

LITE-ON Black Internal 12X Blu-ray Combo with SW SATA Model iHES112-29
$74.99

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$94.99

Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply
$249.9

Total $1,397.00
+ watercooling 129.99 = 1526. Need to shave down about $30

I think I would still like 8gb just because but since we are so close to the $1500 limit i'm not sure.

I could skip a hard drive, but the recent trend i've had with drives id rather run a raid 1 just in case one died out.

[trickson]

You could get a better cheaper LG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA In... That saves you some .
Oh One more thing this is my 4,000th post !!!

[rickss69]

Originally Posted by trickson

I would go for an Asrock before a Biostar JMHO. Never had a good Biostar MB ever .

[freaksavior]

Originally Posted by trickson

You could get a better cheaper LG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA In... That saves you some .

True. That's nearly $20. Need about 10 more shaved off.

Also, anybody else have suggestions/concerns on the mobo or psu? I'm liking everything else so far.

[Derek12]

I saw some ASRock Boards with bad capacitors, what I can't know if it were cause by bad board, bad PSU or bad cooling. I believe the last one!

However I have friends with ASRock ones and they are working strong for years and very budget value ones


I also have told that Corsair builder series aren't recommended because of bad experienced with vented caps and failure rates I didn't experience for my own (I don't have that PSU) but maybe they are right (or no).

[erocker]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

Thanks for the suggestions. Not going to lie, I expected to have to flag a few posts with useless information and trolling like mailman did.

I suggests you keep your own thread on topic. This discussion is not relevant to it. If you have a problem with a post, report it. Stay on topic.

[freaksavior]

Edited cart with the 1gb 6950 again. At 1920x1080, there is no gain and $40 wasted.

So replace the 2gb in my previous list with 1 gb and total is $1,342.10 + 129.99 + 1471

[trickson]

I am not sure about this but you could get 2 of these HDD's and save Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 ...
But this depends on you HDD requirements . 1T x2 is a bit much for me . I have 2 500GB in RAID0 and find that is more than enough for me .

[LordJummy]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

Edited cart with the 1gb 6950 again. At 1920x1080, there is no gain and $40 wasted.

So replace the 2gb in my previous list with 1 gb and total is $1,342.10 + 129.99 + 1471

Actually in some newer high end games the 2GB is very much needed at 1080p. I usually play in eyefinity, but some stuff just on one screen and I've seen vram go over 1GB easily with everything fully maxed.

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by trickson

I am not sure about this but you could get 2 of these HDD's and save Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 ...
But this depends on you HDD requirements . 1T x2 is a bit much for me . I have 2 500GB in RAID0 and find that is more than enough for me .

He has a larger collection

Actually I am pretty interested with the 1gb/2gb decision, when the 8800 came out the 512mb became quite a bit faster than the 256mb version after only half a year because of new releases. Do you think the 1gb version will suffer the same problem? At least on 1080p that is.