Looking for some advice on this build

[webmaster]

Trying to finalizemy decision on my first build. This is what I have come up with. I'mjust hoping some more experienced builders could point out any fatal flaws I have made in my decision making process. Any tips would be appreciated. I want to go with a good 3 monitor setup capable of handling some gaming and photoeditting and a reasonable speed.

 

[webmaster]

I should also ask if anyone knows for sure if this video card will safely fit in the midtower case I'm looking at. As far as I can tell, everything should be fine, but in my research on Google, there have been a few other people creep up asking, who were met with some skepticism. Yet I never really found a solid answer..

 

[JustaTinkerer]

Missing optical drive

 

[webmaster]

Missing optical drive

Ahhya, I have one already from my old computer, thus I never really thought about adding one in this list. Its just an old HP Pavillion I was going to pull it out of, but I figured that should suffice. Or should I pitch the few extra bucks and get a new one?

Do you think my choice of compenents is alright?

 

[JustaTinkerer]

The CM scout is a close fit but it will go, read,

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/305146-15-6950-storm-scout

Depends, its a good build, everything will fit together, looks good to me, its hard to tell someone else a lot of this is personal preference.

I have the Vertex + 60gig I would advise getting a bigger SSD on buy two of them and raid0 them, 60 gig OS drive is hard to live with.

OH just noticed....I dont know if the CPU fan will fit, someone else might be able to tell ya

 

[webmaster]

The CM scout is a close fit but it will go, read,

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/305146-15-6950-storm-scout

Depends, its a good build, everything will fit together, looks good to me, its hard to tell someone else a lot of this is personal preference.

I'm a little iffy over this card fitting business. From what I can see the GPU I'm looking at measures 29cm (11.4 inches) where the case says it's max is 10.5 inches. That doesn't add up to me. I don't see any mention of a 6870 in that link, just the 6950. Everything I can find seems to be a split on whether or notit will fit. Half say yes, half say no. SHould i just get a full tower?

 

[webmaster]

On the SSD. I didn't even really think I would need one when I first started looking into this, but I repeatedly see them recommended for caching. Is the 60gb not going to beenough for this? I don't really intend on storing anything on it.

Edit: The more I look at this, the more I don'tthink that my GPU is going to fit in this case. Any recommendations for a single card capable of running 3 simultaneous monitors? (with Eyefinity?) that would have an appropriate length for this case? I'll have to go back to searching somemore I guess. As for the CPU fan, I havent got a clue, I just assumed it should be alright. Appears to have 16.1cm in height.

 

[radrok]

I want to go with a good 3 monitor setup capable of handling some gaming and photoeditting and a reasonable speed.

You probably will need to think about your GPU decision if you want to do some 3 monitor gaming because a single 6870 is just not going to cut it at decent framerates unless you use 1680x1050 monitors.
What about picking a 2500k and with what you save purchase a better GPU?
If you do photoediting you won't need HT THAT much especially because it's 2D and the highest strain I've seen on my CPU was with Genuine Fractals plugin for Photoshop for a upscaling job.
Things change if you are going to do some rendering but you didn't mention it.

Also it's so sad to see that mechanical drives cost THAT much, sigh.

 

[webmaster]

I think I'm just going to grab a CM Storm Sniper case instead, and that should offer me tons of space for GPU and CPU fan. About $50 extra, but that's alright.

 

[webmaster]

You probably will need to think about your GPU decision if you want to do some 3 monitor gaming because a single 6870 is just not going to cut it at decent framerates unless you use 1680x1050 monitors.
What about picking a 2500k and with what you save purchase a better GPU?
If you do photoediting you won't need HT THAT much especially because it's 2D and the highest strain I've seen on my CPU was with Genuine Fractals plugin for Photoshop for a upscaling job.
Things change if you are going to do some rendering but you didn't mention it.

Also it's so sad to see that mechanical drives cost THAT much, sigh.

What would you recommend as a better option for my GPU? I'm on a $2000 budget excluding monitors which I already have picke dout down at Staples. I'm still a good shot under $200 on the totalbuild, so I can afford to go as far as another couple hundred on a GPU if it's really a must. But hey, the more I save, the more I can blow on games at a later time.

 

[radrok]

I strongly recommend, if you can wait, to see at which price point the 7950 places or even the 7800 series would be a best bang for your money right now but I think the latter will come in more than a month or so.
Otherwise a 6950 2GB is a strong GPU and will let you play in eyefinity although you need to sacrifice some eyecandy.
I honestly can't say anything about Nvidia on tri monitor gaming because when I had the 480s I didn't test them so I don't know if it's painless as eyefinity is.

Do you really need a 2TB HDD? This is one of the worst times to purchase a high capacity mechanical drive due to the Thailand flooding, prices have come down but they are still high.

 

[webmaster]

I don't particularly need the 2tb harddrive as I had 3 1.5TB externals. I just figured lots of room for play would be nice. It's hardly a neccesity though.

As for time, I don't really have it. I need to get a computer together in the next couple of weeks.

 

[BrooksyX]

Better ssd than the Vertex IMHO:
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC064D/AM 2.5" 64GB SATA II...

 

[webmaster]

For roughly $50 more I could go with this GPU instead http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=292642&CatId=7005

What exactly do you mean by "sacrifice some eyecandy"?

 

[webmaster]

Better ssd than the Vertex IMHO:
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC064D/AM 2.5" 64GB SATA II...

Only $10 more than the Vertex through TigerDirect, so I could manage that too if you think it's that much better.

Chaning to the Storm Sniper case, the Samsung SSD, and the 6950 only puts me up about $110 over my original build plans, and everything should fit in the case comfortably I believe.

That's not too bad. I'll see if anyne else has any suggestions before making a final decision. Thanks for the tips, keep em coming.

 

[radrok]

The Samsung 830 is SATA III so you get faster Read/Write etc than the Vertex 2 so if you can go with that one don't hesitate.

What exactly do you mean by "sacrifice some eyecandy"?

It depends on which games we talk about but on newer titles you'll need to lower your textures and forget high AA samples to get good framerates.
It all boils down on the resolution you are going to play, is it 1920x1080 (5870x1080) or 1680x1050 (5040x1050) ? If it is the latter then you can probably play at higher details.

 

[webmaster]

It depends on which games we talk about but on newer titles you'll need to lower your textures and forget high AA samples to get good framerates.
It all boils down on the resolution you are going to play, is it 1920x1080 (5870x1080) or 1680x1050 (5040x1050), if it is the latter then you can probably play at higher details.

Ahh, I think I'll be safe then. Thanks I'll gof or the Samsung.

This puts me right around $1850, which is still $150 under budget. So I'm sitting alright budgetwise if this winds up as my finalized choice.

 

[Crap Daddy]

I'd say get a better board, crossfire capable at x8x8 ASUS or ASRock, if you'll have the system on a SSD get a cheaper and smaller HDD, a Corsair TX850 non-modular - same price as what you picked - and get 2x6950. Eyefinity is not going to work good on that mid-end card you picked.

 

[BrooksyX]

Only $10 more than the Vertex through TigerDirect, so I could manage that too if you think it's that much better.

They are good drives, I have 2 of them in raid 0 plus its $10 cheaper upfront which is a plus. I havent dealt with OCZ MIR rebates but I never included rebates in my purchase price I just think of them as hopefully Ill get a nice little bonus and buy some beer or a cheap part with it 6-8 weeks later.

 

[radrok]

I'd say get a better board, crossfire capable at x8x8 ASUS or ASRock, if you'll have the system on a SSD get a cheaper and smaller HDD, a Corsair TX850 non-modular - same price as what you picked - and get 2x6950. Eyefinity is not going to work good on that mid-end card you picked.

He'd be better off picking a 7970 if he's willing to spend that money on GPUs

 

[Proph3t]

little bit cheaper for the ram http://www.frys.com/product/6487402?site=frysecampaign

 

[Crap Daddy]

Yes but he can't wait and 2x6950 are cheaper than one 7970.

 

[webmaster]

I'd say get a better board, crossfire capable at x8x8 ASUS or ASRock, if you'll have the system on a SSD get a cheaper and smaller HDD, a Corsair TX850 non-modular - same price as what you picked - and get 2x6950. Eyefinity is not going to work good on that mid-end card you picked.

Any time I start trying to figure out a build I always went with a bigger PSU and everyone is always screaming at me "You don't need that big as power supply!". So now I go for the smaller unit, and I'm going to get the exact opposite, lol. What do I really need to power this unit? If 850W is necessary, I'll go for it. Does it really make a difference? I always figured why not aim high and have a little extra, but after a thorough smashing voer that point of view I opted for a smaller unit.


Going for 2 6950s is just getting out of my budget. I'm not going to be doing a ton of gaming. I mostly stick to my console for that. As far as PC gaming I'm mostly in it for RTS and maybe some Diablo 3 come the time. I don't need a crusher of a GPU. More than anything I want desktop real estate. If I need to spend more to get one card that runs well, that's fine. But I'm not looking at spending $600+ on GPUs here.

As for the motherboard. If I choose not to go for dual GPUs, do I really need to make a change?

 

[webmaster]

little bit cheaper for the ram http://www.frys.com/product/6487402?site=frysecampaign

If it's not a Canadian supplier it makes no difference to me. I'm not prepared to wait as up to a couple months for stuff to get through the border. Ordering stuff out of the states is a damn headache. If I wanted to wait forever I could probably shave at least a couple hundred off ordering all this through NewEgg.

 

[radrok]

Yes but he can't wait and 2x6950 are cheaper than one 7970.

Isn't the 7970 going to officially launch in 2 days? 9th of January, I think he could wait 2-3 days. Now naturally I didn't count the retail disponibility but I think it's not going to vanish at the price it's being sold.

As for the motherboard. If I choose not to go for dual GPUs, do I really need to make a change?

No you don't, but you will not be able to upgrade later either unless you change mobo.