Best bang/buck High end system... help :)

[n-ster]

Ok, so I want to make a list of what you would need to make a nice HIGH-END system (at least for me it's high end since it will have i7), but bang/buck is VERY important... This system is for gaming... Budget: 1200$ +-200$ with monitor will be bought in June

CPU: i7 at Microcenter ~250$ tax included

Motherboard: DFI DK: It seems pretty good... lots of TPU members had a good experience with it

RAM:The famous Crucials at 50$... (side note: I think 3GB is more than enough for gaming or else prove me wrong with a link)
Just found this great looking deal

GPU: Cheap gtx 260 with unusually high clocks... is there a catch? (Uncertain)

Case choices: Antec 1200, XCLIO Windtunnel, NZXT Zero, XCLIO ADVANCED, ABS Diablo (Uncertain)

Monitor: Love this one

DVD burner: Quite fast

PSU: PP&C 750W... the famous red one... 120+tax -40MIR = 89$ or 90$ or Corsair

On Air: Xig s1283V 40$ + shipping

HD: 2x This

With the ABS Diablo (and TX-2 paste), the total comes to 1350$ tax & shipping included and MIR included

[CDdude55]

Some good Gskills on the cheap: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231222. But Crucial is some good stuffs to.

WD Raptor is $99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136033

Or this $90 WD caviar(black): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136283

The rest all looks like a great system, and DFI has proven itself as a great board.

Monitor wise this one looks pretty good:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236050. I am not to sure how good Asus monitors are tho.

I dont know of much good WCing kits as i use all fans for my cooling and has yet to fail me.

Good luck with the build.

[n-ster]

Thxs CD... but I think I found better options

Those Gskills' Timings is cas 9 only and they don't OC as well apparently (1600 vs 2000)

Those raptors are good, and I will definitively keep them in mind, but I think 2 7200.12 (single platter) drives in Raid 0 should do the trick Though the AALS series from WD is another good option!

I heard great stuff about ASUS... But have no idea about Acer... any thoughts anyone? anyways, I would prefer a 19x10 or 19x12 monitor.

Thanks for the luck

[CDdude55]

Originally Posted by n-ster

Thxs CD... but I think I found better options

Those Gskills' Timings is cas 9 only and they don't OC as well apparently (1600 vs 2000)

Those raptors are good, and I will definitively keep them in mind, but I think 2 7200.12 (single platter) drives in Raid 0 should do the trick Though the AALS series from WD is another good option!

I heard great stuff about ASUS... But have no idea about Acer... any thoughts anyone? anyways, I would prefer a 19x10 or 19x12 monitor.

Thanks for the luck

lol, i didnt even look at the timings on those, once i see a cheap tri channel kit i go crazy. And i dont OC, so my bad.

I didn't know your where doing a raid setup, should be a fast system with the right drives.

I dont think Acer is that bad, but i would go Asus personally(even tho my Hanns.G monitor is pretty good)

[n-ster]

Thxs for your opinion on Acer still open to suggestions! will update my OP later...

[n-ster]

OP updated

[Methious]

Depending on the OS (32 vs 64bit) if your using a 64 bit OS or Vista there's a proven performance hit with 3 GB or ram. For that price I'd grab two kits if the board has 6 slots or look for a cheap 6 GB kit.

[PennySavre]

Your system isn't too far from some of the things I would probably choose.

[n-ster]

tell me what you would choose instead of what I listed !!!

I really think 3gb is enough... I will look into it... but I can't see how 3gb can be used >.<

[aCid888*]

I had a DFI board and all it did was throw up error code 88 and refuse to boot 80% of the time, when it did boot I couldnt OC anything.

I'd have a look at another brand.

[RevengE]

I picked my i7 up at mircocenter it was like $245.00 with tax, that sale has been going on for awhile if I was you I would go pick it up soon because you never know they might cut the sale. I would get 6 Gigs of ram with Vista 64 I'm running vista 64 with 6gigs and it's blazing fast. When it comes you watercooling you have so may choices first off are you watercooling just the CPU? Or videocard as well? Check out Petras techshop.

[PennySavre]

Originally Posted by n-ster

tell me what you would choose instead of what I listed !!!

I would be going for the 4870 1GB myself, there is a Sapphire one for $190 at Newegg but no rebate. It might be a little slower than the NVIDIA card in some games. The reason why I recommend the 4870 1GB is because I have one and I like it .

For memory I might grab a faster DDR3 stock-clocked kit myself. I'm not sure what, maybe some Reaper or something... I'm not sure if you need the memory to be a certain voltage though for the Core i7 set-up, if you do then I might pick a different kit than the Reaper I said then.

The DFI board sounds good... I'd probably look at that and maybe a few others such as the Asus P6T boards myself.

[RevengE]

I'm using 6gigs of G.skill 1600 triple channel PIs with my i7 blazing fast.

[n-ster]

I'm happy with that ram... Fit got it to 2ghz+ no problem! and it's cas 7! WC would be GPU and CPU

[Bluefox1115]

+1 to Petra's. Also check out Frozencpu.com, they have a wide variety as well.

[RevengE]

well If your watercooling the CPU/GPU it will be pretty expensive. Do you plan on dpi g an extreame overclock on the CPU? Also are you overclocking the GPU?

[DaMulta]

Canada has newegg now

http://www.newegg.ca/

Yep yep

[aCid888*]

Shame Canada doesn't have Newegg US prices.

Best place to buy in Canada is www.DirectCanada.com No tax for non-BC residents and the delivery is very fast.

[n-ster]

For now, I'm not interested in knowing WHERE to buy the WC, but more about WHICH parts I should buy... actually, no... I'm more interested to know if WC is worth the price compared to the xig s1283v

Oh and what temps you get with your WC setup on a i7...

Also... WHICH CASE? I listed some that seemed pretty nice in OP
What's the best Bang/buck GPU???
And what if you consider upgradeability? ( I think I did with that gtx 260)

[jjnissanpatfan]

I have the Thermaltake V9 Black Edition for a case. I also have air cpu cooler (vigor monsoon dual 120 fans) with a i7 at 4.2. I use this set-up for about 3 weeks.. now under full load@4.2 cpu volts at 1.4 after 20mins core's get to 80c. They idle about 40c about what the cpu does stock with the intel heatsink so i think i'm safe. So depending on what you do.. i'd say a nice air flow case with a good cpu cooler 4.2 is great!!!Also with that case i can put my hand in there and not feel any hot air anywhere!!

[n-ster]

Thxs for the input! I believe 80 centigrate should be the max I should do on load... I'm actually thinking of a OC between 3.6 and 4ghz... depending on what vcore I can get them at

[HammerON]

Originally Posted by n-ster

Thxs for the input! I believe 80 centigrate should be the max I should do on load... I'm actually thinking of a OC between 3.6 and 4ghz... depending on what vcore I can get them at

Attaining 4GHz on the i7 shouldn't be a problem with a good air cooler. Would remain cooler with a water cooled solution of course.

Go with the Antec 1200 series case ~ I personally like Antec cases!!!

[RevengE]

4.0 is easy on a i7

[n-ster]

lol... yea 4ghz seems easy on i7 doesn't it? but I don't want to burn my i7 out too fast xD

I'm hesitating for case, HD, and GPU... maybe a bit monitor too... any thoughts?

[n-ster]

guys check this combo out!!! great price with a great board! won't change my decision though anyways I'm getting it in June....