It can handle the newest games easily, even if it bottlenecks the most powerful GPU. You have a Socket AM3 motherboard, yes? It's also pretty good at overclocking with its unlocked multiplier. I've read that it can reach 3.5GHz on air, easy.
Printable View
It can handle the newest games easily, even if it bottlenecks the most powerful GPU. You have a Socket AM3 motherboard, yes? It's also pretty good at overclocking with its unlocked multiplier. I've read that it can reach 3.5GHz on air, easy.
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 w/ Dual DDR3 2133, CrossFireX/SLI ------------------------------------ $194.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...7%28ME%29.aspx
Processor:
Intel Core™ i5-2500K Processor, 3.30GHz w/ 6MB Cache ----------------------------------------- $229.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...7%28ME%29.aspx
Memory:
Patriot Viper Xtreme Series, Division Viper 2 Edition DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) ----------------------- $109.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...8%28ME%29.aspx
OS Hard Drives:
(RAID 0) 2 x Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black 7200rpm SATA III w/32MB Cache ---------------- $54.99 X 2 = $109.98
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...3%28ME%29.aspx
Storage Hard Drives:
(RAID 1) 2 x Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blue 7200rpm SATA II w/32MB Cache -------------------- $69.99 x 2 = $139.98
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...5%28ME%29.aspx
DVD Drive:
LG Super-Multi 22x DVD Writer, SATA w/ Lightscribe, Black ------------------------------------ $24.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...3%28ME%29.aspx
Graphics Card:
eVGA GeForce GTX 460 2GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI --------------------------------------------- $239.99 X 2 = $479.98
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...3%28ME%29.aspx
Power Supply:
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 850 Watt -------------------------------------------------- $144.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...9%28ME%29.aspx
Case:
?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ------------------------------------------- $???.??
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...?????????.aspx
Sub-Total - $1,434.89
Total - $1,506.63
Savings - $120
Final - $1,386.63
Build for a friend, suggestions? All products must be from Memory Express. Probably not going to go with the RAID stuff, except maybe for the OS since SATA III RAID is oh-so-fun.
personally i'd go for an ATI card.
mines brilliant.
Only things that beat 460's in SLI are 5850's/5870's in Crossfire (would cost more) or a 5970. The 5870's would cost more and the 5970 isn't available, the 5850's would be the same price but my friend and I both prefer Nvidia. I'm not sure if the 5850's are better than the 460 2GB models either, only the 768MB and 1GB models are shown on Toms Hardware.
3DMark06 v1.1.0:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2....1.0,2484.html
Sum of FPS Benchmarks Totals:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2...tals,2485.html
We are kinda already over his budget a little, but it's lenient. The goal was $1,300 for tower + monitor + keyboard. That's the main reason we will probably ditch some HDD's and probably down it to 4GB of Memory instead of 8GB. There's always the possibility that we might get some kind of deal on a monitor with purchase of a system at the same time.
Forgetting the HD6000 series much? Unless he's gaming on 2560x1600 (which 460s won't be swell at anyways with certain titles), there is no need for 2GB VRAM. If you are going to spend a premium, spend it on a card that actually has more shader muscle.
He'll be on a 22" monitor most likely unless I can convince him that an extra 2" for 24" is worth it.
Then in that case you should definitels scrap the 2GB 460s. That's wasted VRAM.
Also, going from 22" to 24" is not worth it if he's already at 1080p or 1200p. It's barely worth it going from 1680x1050 to 1920x1080.
1920x1200 is gods true monitor size.
all who say nay shall die.
Mk, I'll save some money and go with the 1GB versions. Unless you can recommend a better performing single or dual card solution for the current price or cheaper.
I can't find any more monitors at that size for a good price. THEY STOPPED PRODUCTION for that res :gonk:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bodzilla
Samsung still makes the 2443 model, $339 or so.
I think we're going to go with this:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...2%28ME%29.aspx
Or this:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...7%28ME%29.aspx
True, but those are ugly monitors with gay bezels. I want a plain matte black, thin/regular size bezel with rotation capability such as your monitors. Like you said, though, that shipping company destroyed the two of the last remaining of that other type you ordered. That was truly a loss.
The 2443BW HAS (1920x1200) is still available which would suit me fine if each monitor didn't cost $340. With the price of LCDs these days, I wouldn't pay more than $280 for a monitor like that.
The 2443's are superior, that's why they're expensive!.. Right? Actually no, they're just non-standard size and not many were produced so they cost more.
I don't like intrusive bezels, and the first monitor I linked to isn't bad. I doubt my friend will care though since he probably won't ever go multi-monitor.
If you aren't averse to rebates, I would look at the HD6950. If not, then just stick with the 1GB GTX 460s. The HD6870 performs identically for all intents and purposes, though if you overclock the 6870 it scales better than the GTX460.Quote:
Originally Posted by Freelancer
Also, at $344, you might as well splurge on a fancy IPS panel.
Going for a single GTX 560 Ti instead of two 460's. Can add another in the future but want to stay under budget more.
Again, why that card? Do you have such a hard-on for nVidia that you'll take what is easily one of their crappier cards over a superior AMD offering? That thing is basically like a slightly faster GTX460 1GB. I don't know about you, but I'd seriously rather have the 6950 over the 560 Ti or 460.
Unless you do compute or 3D, there is actually no advantage to staying with Nvidia at all right now at all price ranges (Crossfire scales better) and card combinations save the GTX590...and even then only because of noise produced by the HD6990.
Can't deal with AMD/ATIdriversshit sorry.
The drivers are perfect, I've used ATI for like... 6 years now. They never released drivers that blew up cards like Nvidia that one time lol. I'd definitely go with what Amit said, choosing Nvidia over AMD in this situation is needless brand whoring.
You've probably spent so much time reading about Nvidia fanboys bitch about ATI that you've never actually used or tried one of their cards for any extended amount of time.
BOOM ROASTED
On what do you base this argument? I have never ever had an issue with the drivers and I've been using ATI cards since the Rage Pro. And I'm not biased either. I've also used GeForce since MX4. I am running a GeForce 7800 GT right now (fantastic card, even today). Use what gives the most bang for buck. The GeForce GTX560 Ti is not it. I have no quarrel with Nvidia other than them having a premium on their products for no tangible benefit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Freelancer
In the past 8 years of building computers for friends/family I've built at least 4 AMD/ATI systems and the graphics drivers are always causing problems. Not to mention people hate the Catalyst interface and almost always thank me when I finally convince them to switch over to Nvidia. I've gone through 3 ATI cards personally that also had driver issues and an All-In-Wonder card that simply stopped providing TV Tuner capabilities one day for no reason at all.
Maybe I've had a bad run of cards or models, or just shitty versions of graphics drivers but AMD/ATI has almost always failed on me. I think two of all the AMD/ATI systems I've built worked properly. Due to this I can't bring my self to use anything from that company when it comes to GPU's, and I only use AMD CPU's when people are building extremely low budget systems.
Or something you put on the system that doesn't need to be there is causing problems. You should think back and try and find another common factor other than the ATI graphics card.
I've never had an issue with Nvidia either, other than one card just up and dying one day and EVGA overclocking my current GPU too far out of the box (so I have to use RivaTuner to underclock it), but neither of those reflects on Nvidia's design. Your AIW card dying is just something that happens. No chip from any company for any component has a 100% reliability rating, and certainly not after being used for awhile. You just need to do your homework on which particular OEM you buy from. Some are better than others. And the drivers are generally a non-issue, especially today.
i have a 6950, brilliant card works perfect.
get it.
Yeah there is definitely something wrong with the other components or even the software of the systems Freelancer built. The only horror stories that I've heard about ATi drivers are from Linux users. Never had much of a problem with nVidia, either, but after that one GPU breaking driver set I always wait at least a week after new nVidia drivers are released before updating.
Also, there is nothing wrong with the Catalyst Control Center. It is much the same as the nVidia Control Panel. It's just flashier. And has more options.
well i've had a hole heap of cards.
I've gone from ATI 9600? cant remembe a LONG time ago to a 6800, to a 8800GTX and now i have 6950.
never had much of a drama with either manufacturers, i just went with was was a better deal at the time. And as long as you stay away from shitty manufacturers and go with say Asus or gigabyte you'll be fine.
the 6950 is a better card. so get it.
Def nothing wrong with the systems I've built, they had nothing in common with each other except for the graphics drivers. They've all had various sockets, AMD/Intel processors, diff brand motherboards, different types of RAM, etc... Nothing in common with eachother except the ATI stuff. All the ATI cards I've bought were either direct from ATI or Asus.
I've read A LOT of ATI horror stories and the general consensus that I've read on unbiased sites like Overclock.net is that Nvidia has better drivers and support than AMD/ATI.
Lol. ASUS? A good manufacturer? Ha ha ha!
I stay away from their motherboards like the plague; the features for the price is crap and their reliability is no better than any other manufacturer. Their laptops have problems with heat (they either overheat or they clock the parts below spec to maintain a safe level). Their graphics cards have all these gimmicks that jack the price up with little actual benefit to the user. Stay simple. If you want Nvidia, you get eVGA. If you want ATI, get XFX, Sapphire, or PowerColor. MSI is passable. Gigabyte does some actually useful things with their coolers (that aren't ridiculous like this 3-slot ASUS crap), so they are good, too.
Like I said, though. Do your homework and you will be rewarded.
Also, Freelancer, I'm also talking about software. What did they have in common there?
XFX wasn't available at the time and Sapphire and TrueColor wouldn't deal with warranties properly here in Canada when I was building those systems so Asus was basically the only solution.
Software wise, Windows, AVG Free, and Graphics Drivers were the only things in common. The individuals who commissioned me to build the systems then took over after that point and did their own shit.
And Diamond? They are usually solid. HIS is temperamental.
Yeah, sounds like your luck just blows. The overwhelming majority are fine with ATI. But now you've got Newegg in Canada, so your selection is better and easier.
Newegg still requires shipping, why use Newegg when I can use Memory Express and get the same prices without shipping charges and waiting for stuff to arrive? Memory Express has a more limited selection, but they have way better customer service and are local.
I don't remember Diamond being available here either, in fact I don't recall the name much at all really (vaguely from some hardware reviews). HIS was available here and I think I did actually get one of their cards now that I think back. Also, the Asus card I bought was 4+ years ago I think. Back when they were less shitty about offering dumb extra features and tacking on more $$$.
Why use Newegg? Because you need quality components that you apparently have a hard time finding otherwise. Shipping is worth a little peace of mind, no?
Didn't have Newegg 4 years ago though. So yeah, also not needing anything from them now lol.
woah, all of those brands are the shitty "i sure hope this works and i dont have problems..." type of brands in australia.Quote:
Originally Posted by Warsaw
lol.
Are you for real? Sapphire is the top brand for ATi brand video cards in North America. I have personally owned four Sapphire, two XFX and one Powercolor video card. They all work excellent. I gave the the XFX ones to my cousins and replaced them with the two Sapphire Atomic HD 3870 that I sold a good couple years ago. I currently have a Sapphire HD 5750 Vapor-X that's overclocked higher than a stock HD 5770 and it runs beautifully. The Powercolor card is a Radeon X1600PRO that I bought in April 2006 and it's still kicking in one of my old PCs. Oh, and with the Sapphire Select Club, I get free stuff forever just for buying and registering a video card with them.
MSI...I couldn't say. My friend has had his Gigabyte HD 4890 for a long while now and it seems fine so far.
Yeah XFX is probably the best AMD brand right now... my system is running a Sapphire at the moment though.
my bro burnt out like 3 sapphires and power colour brand ATI cards, after that he went the freelancer path and went a bit nividia AT ALL COSTS, I think he runs a gigabyte 5870 now and is perfectly content with it.
Could be something like both our country's fruits.
all our best fruit goes to america so make it look like australia has the best fruit in the world, and you guys do the same to us with your fruit.
:shrugs:
K so his system is running:
Intel Core i5-2500k @ 3.40 GHz (will OC more when he gets a not-stock cooler).
eVGA GeForce GTX 570 1GB SuperClocked Edition
8GB Corsair XMS 3 RAM
500GB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA III
Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced Case
Samsung 225BW 22" Monitor (1680x1050).
The GTX570 is a great choice of card.
@Amit: My GeForce 6600GT is an MSI (rebranded as Apollo) and it has bee running amazing for seven years now. The first one I had was better though. The current one has a plastic heatsink cover where the old one had this massive aluminum heat sink with a large fan. Something on that one got torched, though.
Here's what his WEI looks like:
This is my computer
http://codebrainshideout.net/too_awe...mycomputer.png
For a more detailed description, see this: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...roduct=3816187
It's about time that I get an upgrade, seeing that I have a computer that was made in 2008...
Now, I want to get an entirely new computer, seeing as this computer refuses to accept any changes to it (for example, I attempted to put three different kinds of graphics cards in the computer, and by that I mean only one graphics card, but having to try three different times. And all of them resulted in the computer unable to produce anything 3D. If it tried to, the computer would crash.) and I know the hardware is outdated.
I have set my eyes on this:
http://www.circuitcity.com/applicati...1624&csid=_22#
Why CircuitCity you ask? Newegg doesn't have it, and Amazon, CircuitCity and CompUSA all get it from the same place for the same price. Other than that I like CircuitCity, I used to go to it after school (when they had those computer lobbies that let you play games)
If you don't want to click the link, here is what it is:
Quote:
Intel 2nd Gen Core i7 4.6GHZ Overclocked Barebone PC
This Bundle Includes:
- ASUS P8P67 Pro B3 Motherboard
- 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2600K Unlocked Quad-Core Processor
- 8GB DDR3 1600MHz System Memory (4 x 2048MB)
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Chassis
- 750W Power Supply
- CoolIT ECO A.L.C Liquid Cooling System
- 4 Free Game Coupons (Mafia 2, Just Cause 2, Total Shogun, and I think Singularity)
I understand what barebone means, it only comes with the parts listed above, and I have to provide the other parts. I already have bought another graphics card (got this for a really good price before it was deactivated) and I was planning on using every thing else my computer had (hard drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other stuff) and I am willing to spend this much for something like this.
However, I am wondering, is it a good deal or not? Granted all the parts by them self give a total of $870.93 (without tax) however the bundle has all the parts already installed (which is good because I am stupid at building computers) and it includes 4 "free" games (which, along with the parts being already put together, probably would make it $999.99)
Again, I am willing to spend this much, however I am curious if it is truly a good deal, or if there is something better out there.
Lol, I have a computer that was made in 2004. Funny part? I can still play most games at maximum settings. Mass Effect? No problem. STALKER? Got that (DX9). BC2 Campaign? Yup. HAWX? That too. AvP? Runs like a charm. FEAR series? Heh.
Build as good as you possibly can. If you can get the general best (bleeding edge is unnecessary), you won't have to upgrade for at least six years. The i7 is pretty damn good. The RAM is more than sufficient. Which graphics card did you get? If it ain't a GTX570, GTX580, HD6950, or HD6970, you will have to upgrade before too long.
He said he already had an HD 5850 1GB from a previous purchase.
I think that's a pretty awesome system, the CoolIT coolers are awesome and were developed locally here in my city. They were demoed at Fragapalooza and are pretty awesome alternatives to Corsair H50/H60/H70's. I'm in love with the 1155 processors since building the system for my friend, unlocked core multipliers are processors that aren't $1,200 alone? Hell yes!
I missed the hyperlink; the blue is so dark it almost looks black.
That said, the 5850 is looking long in the tooth now and will need replacing within a year.
The 1155 platform is powerful, but like its 1156 predecessor it is an evolutionary dead-end. They call it "i7" but it still lacks some of the features which made the original i7 desirable, like triple-channel RAM. That extra memory throughput is indispensable in demanding games. But, since it's the best right now and because 1366 is dying, I have to back it.
I have to also say that I'm really liking the Gigabyte board I installed today, the GA-P67A-UD3-B3 (the revised version that fixes the problems with 1155 Sandy Bridge launch motherboards that were all recalled). Lots of awesome features, but interestingly enough I thought the 3x USB power was neat. It provides triple the power to every USB port so you can power three times the devices connected to a hub! :)
Had never really used Gigabyte much in the past but I was REALLY impressed by this board and I'll probably feature Gigabyte if I can't get my hands on an eVGA one when Ivy Bridge comes out.
Perhaps maybe the card I chose was a bad decision, when I look at a 6950 for example I see that it beats the 5850 (however there have not been any game tests done so far, the comparisons seem to be only based on the product specs for right now) and if thats the case, the 6970 would obviously beat the 5850 as well.
The reason why I have that Sapphire card is because at the time before I bought it, I had around $150 in spare money. With the 6950 being $274.99 and the 6970 being 374.99, I was not able to buy those cards. Also at that time the 5850 cards were being sold for $184 to around $240 dollars. This Sapphire Card on the other hand was $142.98 and seemed to be exactly the same as the other cards, only less expensive. At first the card was out of stock, so I had to wait until Newegg notified me of it returned. Instantly bought it when it was available. And of course, this computer I am on now would not work with it, still unable to produce 3D effects. I knew at that moment that it was the computer at fault (because honestly I don't think three graphics cards in a row would have the same issues.) so that's why I am up for a new computer.
See what happens when you play brand favourites? Just use what has the features you want and meets your minimum review rating/number of reviews ratio.Quote:
Originally Posted by Freelancer
Bad decision at the time, probably not. The HD5850 is still quite capable (lol, certainly beats my card hands down), but since we are on the edge of what I am perceiving as a generational evolution in software's graphical quality, it is going to be outclassed. Now, the 5850 and 6870 are practically the same card. Stay away from the 6800 series if you have a 5800. Only the 6900s would be worth your consideration; that or Nvidia's GTX570 or 580.
Overclocked 570's perform extremely closely to 580's from what I've been reading. So long as they don't explode and stop working like a lot do apparently... *Makes note to tell friend to not OC GPU*
eVGA motherboards usually have the best performance features I want, but we'll see what's out when early 2012 rolls around. You know, if the world doesn't end.
570s perform very well until you hit 2560x1600. Then games like Metro 2033 kill them even in SLI.
Yeah but if you're using a 2560x1600 monitor and not running a top-end card from either Nvida or ATI's latest few series of cards you're doing it wrong.
Ex: GTX 580/590 or HD 6990.
HD6970s in Crossfire > HD 6990 > GTX590.
HD6970s in Crossfire are also pretty much the same as GTX580s in SLI. Superior Crossfire scaling and all that. It becomes even more apparent if you start doing three-card setups.
Speaking of SLI: AMD and company have released the 990FX motherboard chipset. The draw? It supports both SLI and Crossfire, so now you don't have to go all AMD if you want an AMD CPU. This is good news for me, since now I can choose 580s for my build this September. Oh, these are also AM3b (also called AM3+) motherboards, so they support the full featureset of upcoming AMD FX line of CPUs (Bulldozer/Zambezi). If you are rocking an AM3 board, you can still use the new CPUs, you just don't get the power and frequency management features or the HT 3.1 capability.
Yeah, the GA-P67A-UDX series all seem to support both SLI and CrossfireX. I think Intel has allowed SLI and CrossfireX on the same boards for a few generations though, no?
And yeah, of course 6970's in Crossfire are better than a single 6990/GTX590. I was just saying that if you're running 2560x1600 you better be using the best available single card or a at least a dual-card configuration. I think GTX 460's in SLI would be better than a single HD 6990 or GTX 590 as well. I guess I should have just said that you should use at least a dual-card configuration or a top-of-the-line single card for 2560x1600.
I'm wondering what we're going to see early 2012 for Ivy Bridge and PCI-E 3.0 for graphics cards...
I don't think GTX460s would be better. I haven't seen any benchmarks that suggest they outperform GTX570s in SLI, which means they can't possibly outperform the HD6990. But yeah, Intel has. When you went AMD, you either had to pick an nForce board or an AMD chipset board, so it has been either or but never both. Finally we have a unified solution. I don't like being stuck with just one company for my peripherals.
April is when Ivy Bridge hits us according to Intel's roadmap. I suspect we will see the usual industry-dominating performance and a hefty price tag to go with it.
I heard that some Ivy Bridge stuff may actually start late 2011, not sure if that's accurate at all though.
Naw. What you're thinking of is the E series Sandy Bridge. Supposedly similar performance, but on a larger process and not as many features on the motherboard chipsets.
Ah, yeah you're right.
The Sandy Bridge E series is supposed to be the replacements for the top-end "Extreme" series style CPU's right? IMO Extreme's were never worth the $1,000+ price tag just for unlocked multipliers, so these newer gen 2 Core i chips are awesome.
E-series will fill an approximate role to the 1366 i7s right now, including the Extreme. And you are right, nobody in their right mind would buy one of those Extreme CPUs. Even for bleeding edge. The performance of an i7 980X is barely above that of the i7 930. Just OC the cheaper part. It's easy and reliable and not at all risky for such a low level overclock.
I'm pretty sure that if I were to build right now I'd just buy an i7-2600k based system. If it's anything like the 2500k I just put together it would be wizard.
Yeah, I went there and said "wizard".
I don't think the performance gain over the original LGA1366 is worth it. We've progressed in efficiency, but the Nehalems overclock almost as well as the Sandy Bridge, and they have more useful features on desktop than Sandy Bridge. Dead socket? Maybe, but so is LGA1155.
But 1155 processors come in k variants that have unlocked cores.
So? Without an impractical setup, you aren't going to get appreciably higher clocks than you can with any old 1366 i7. 1366 also has the advantage of triple channel memory and more PCI Express lanes. QuickSync is irrelevant. Turbo cores is irrelevant.
Except triple-channel memory is only useful for preventing you from attaching most large CPU coolers. It doesn't give you any kind of performance boost, and it's dumb because it's TRIPLE channel as opposed to a multiple of two.
Multiple of two doesn't matter for something like that. If it did, AMD's triple core CPUs wouldn't be worth anything but the tests show that they are actually doing exactly what you think they would: performing smack in the middle between dual and quad core CPUs that have similar single-threaded performance.
All the benchmarks I have seen with 1366 point out that the triple channel memory helps it in benchmarks where you have to shove a lot of things into and out of RAM. That means things like SysMark and Crysis at 2560x1600. Assuming you have an SSD, load times should decrease for everything as well since there's more throughput available, allowing all that data to be stashed away into memory faster. That's why even the original 1156 "i7" CPUs couldn't keep pace when matched on clocks, and that's why I have never ever recommended them. Sandy Bridge 1155 closed the gap mostly, but why would you want the crappy one-off when the real deal is right around the corner? That would be like me buying an AMD 1100T CPU right now because it's good enough for what I need. However, it's already obsolete because the newest is literally a couple of weeks away.
Besides, what do you need a huge cooler for if you are water cooling? And if you want to build bleeding edge performance, why aren't you water cooling?
Some of the giant air coolers cool better than your low-mid range water-cooling stuff, and it's a lot cheaper because the low-mid range water-cooling stuff isn't designed to cool, it's designed to be quiet.
Was never a fan of the 3 core CPU's either.
Yes, but not being a fan doesn't mean they don't have their place. Three cores for the price of two and performance better than two? I'd buy one if I was in a pinch. The hexa-cores are in a similar position.
Also, which giant coolers are you talking about? Last I read, things like the V8 work on 1366 pretty well.
Anything similar to the Thermalright Ultra-120, so things like the Megahalems or however you spell it, and other coolers like the Noctura DH-14.
Interesting.
All this is academic, though. People who dropped money for i7 on LGA1366 are resting easy right now knowing that their platform is still king of the hill.
1366's replacement is drawing near though. Did you see the new lga2011 boards? :D
Can't wait to upgrade. World of Tanks plays like poo.
A friend pointed out to me that I could get the parts cheaper if I ordered from Newegg (which I knew would be the case), here is the list:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=14044771
The motherboard was switched for this as it was him who suggested to change it.
Does this look better/is it still compatible? Instead of it being $999.99 it's $879.93, so obviously there's a cheaper price.
• Motherboard is great.
• PSU is great.
• Processor is awesome.
• RAM is great for doing what it needs to, I'd personally find some in black or red to match the motherboard though.
• Antec KUHLER costs more than Corsair H70 and performs approximately the same.
• Case is a Cooler Master = great.
What are you doing for GPU?
I still have this as I said before, and I can't return it since the time window ran out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Freelancer
Oh right okay then that looks pretty good. My only issues were Antec vs Corsair for cooler and color of the RAM (important because HAF has side window, and OCD).
Yes and yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by InnerGoat
I can't wait to upgrade to Bulldozer. When I went from AMD 64 3200+ to Phenom II X4 965, it was like an entire new world. Now I get to jump from the same AMD 64 to an FX-8130...o_O
Okay, I want to build an amazing desktop. Here is a list of the hardware I have chosen, are these the best parts you can get and are they compatible, I believe they are.
Motherboard
Asus Maximus IV Extreme Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **
Processor
Intel Core i7-2600 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
CPU Cooler
Corsair Hydro H60 CPU Cooler with free Akasa Apache Fan
CD Drive
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive
Sound Card
Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card
Power
OcUK Crusade 450W Dual-Rail High Efficiency Power Supply
Hard Drive
Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache 5900RPM
Memory
Corsair Dominator GT 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Triple Channel Kit with DHX Airflow Fan
Graphics Card
Asus GeForce GTX 590 OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Just need to find a case, I basically want a fucking BEAST computer. :) Comes to £1,793.88 altogether :S - Might have to shop around for cheaper prices or similar parts.
I'd get a Z68 based motherboard, they're newer and as such offer newer and better features... Check out the Gigabyte Z68X-UD7.
For the processor, get an i7-2600k. They have unlocked multipliers thus making them extremely easy to overclock.
CPU Cooler is decent, the H70 is better than the H50 and H60. Some newer air coolers perform just as well also if you want to go that route.
Optical drive, I haven't personally looked into a blu-ray drive for my PC yet really... Do you absolutely need one?
Sound card, well, I'm a fan of just using the integrated sound on your motherboard. It's usually sufficient nowadays, unless you're an audiophile or need the extra inputs/outputs of the sound card then I'd recommend against getting one.
You'll need at least a 750W power supply mostly because of that GTX 590. Corsair makes the best ones and I'd recommend getting one with overhead in-case you want to add an another GTX 590 in the future. I recommend the new Corsair Professional Series AX1200.
Hard drive, why did you chose anything except a Western Digital? Also, the drive you chose is only 5,900 RPM... Anything below 7,200 RPM is useless unless you're just using it for file storage. Western Digital Black drives offer a 5 year warranty as well instead of just 3 years like most other manufacturers. I also recommend getting a smaller hard drive for Windows+Programs and a large hard drive for file storage and stuff.
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
Memory looks fine to me, stick with Corsair for that regardless.
Graphics card... There are only a couple reasons to pick a GTX 590 over a GTX 580, here they are:
Get a 590 if:
1) You plan on getting a second 590 for SLI.
2) You're running at a resolution over 1920x1200 (includes the use of multiple monitors for gaming).
Get a 580 if:
1) You only use one monitor at 1920x1200 or less.
This is because the power in the GTX 590's will be wasted at anything less than 1920x1200, I currently favor them over the GTX 580's because I'd buy two for SLI and my resolution for gaming is 5760x1200. If you game at a resolution of 1920x1200 or less most of the time then GTX 580's in SLI will likely give you better performance.
Also, if you're buying an Nvidia card you should ALWAYS ALWAYS buy from EVGA. They have the best warranty and track record.
Okay, thanks. What you suggested looks MUCH better. They also physically look amazing.
The graphics card is apparently only £456.46 from here: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...s%20Family&sw=
Although it is £700+ on overclockers, is this right? :S
Haha, it probably has something to do with shipping or overclockers supply line.
Since you can't use Newegg (yet, Newegg owns the .co.uk domain name so who knows) I'd recommend checking out Tiger Direct. Play with your prices though, it might be cheaper to get all your core components (motherboard, cpu, memory) from one place and get the GPU's directly from EVGA if they'll ship to you.
What were you planning on using for a case? Some of my personal recommendations:
Mid-tower:
Cooler Master CM 690 II
Antec Nine Hundred II V3
Cooler Master HAF 922
Corsair Obsidian 650D
Full-tower:
Antec Twelve Hundred Gamer Case V3
Cooler Master HAF X
NZXT Phantom
Corsair Obsidian 800D (wicked amazing case, just as wickedly pricy and built for water-cooling)
Not found a case yet, nor keyboard + mouse + monitor lmaoQuote:
Originally Posted by Freelancer
I added some case suggestions into my last post. For peripherals I'm a huge fan of Logitech, and for your monitor you should get something from Samsung.
Antec Nine Hundred II V3
Cooler Master HAF 922
NZXT Phantom
REALLY hard decision between them top 3. They all look amazing. I'm really liking the NZXT Phantom for the design and layout, but then I like the other two for the materials used and the mesh infront of the fans. lol
The NZXT Phantom in white makes me drool. Have a gander through here and your mind will be made up pretty fast!
Hitachis are solid. I have three of them.
The ones you have probably aren't 5,900 RPM drives though... And they still don't have the 5 year warranty of WD Black drives.
The last one I bought is. All I use them for is movie storage.
Ah, well Hunter's looking for an OS drive. At least, he hasn't said otherwise.
Shouldn't he be getting an SSD for his OS drive? He did say he wanted a "fucking beast computer", after all.
If he has enough money to shat.
Personally I would just prefer a fast RAID 1 old style HDD OS Drive System over overpriced (but awesome) SSDs.
btw, Linux and SSDs =3
You mean a fast RAID-0? RAID-1 is mirror, doesn't really provide much of a performance boost.
And yeah, Hunter if you can afford to buy an Intel SSD for your OS I'd do that + 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black.
Fast was referring to decent RPM and Raid 1 for security. At this time I wouldn't throw money out the window to buy a whimpy 128GB SSD unless you know you are going to dedicate that computer to a certain task.
Buy an OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2.
1.5GBps read and 1.2GBps write.
:cwazy:
Damn, which is best to get here man? lol. Confusing me now :P I just need a quick hard drive with a good transfer rate for the OS and something good for storage of files.
Well, I know of several options...
1. Get two 7200 rpm hard drives and RAID 0 them. (if your motherboard supports it).
2. Get one 7200 rpm hard drive with lots of storage for date (media and smaller applications) and a SSD to store the OS and your favorite games and even large programs.
3. Buy a massive solid state drive for $1,000. (highly discourage).
If you're building a rig that nice, it seems silly to me to not get a small SSD as well for your OS.
SSDs are so amazing. i want to kiss my ssdQuote:
Originally Posted by Hunter
depending on how your budget stretches, get either a cheap 30GB OCZ drive or a still-pretty-cheap 60GB drive. the second option allows for about 2 games to be installed on it as well, and will have better wear levelling (you dont have to worry about that either way really).
Also, i'd keep important data off the SSD, such as documents or school work or whatever; OCZ drives are considered the least reliable. Just run programs and windows from it.
You could buy a Z68 chipset motherboard and use SSD Smart Response with a cheaper smaller sized SSD. It caches all frequently used files onto the SSD for faster access times and such. Not as good for gaming but Windows will benefit.
so i want to build a gaming desktop that i can pretty much max out anything on. i have a $1500 budget, but that includes peripherals. i found this build on a reddit build a computer thread, and i want to work off of it. im thinking of a better graphics card, and i dont want to crossfire/SLI them. im also considering possibly moving up to an intel i7, but im not sure if thats really necessary.
iv never built a computer before, so does anyone have any graphics card suggestions, and should i stick with the i5 or move up to an i7. again, $1500 budget WITH peripherals.
E: im also considering a small SSD for the OS.
Unless you do a lot of CPU intensive stuff the i5-2500k is plenty fast, especially since you can OC it to 4.8GHz fairly easily on air cooling.
ok, put this one together myself this time, again with a $1500 keeping peripherals in mind. decided against the SSD. now i have some real questions.
the build:
CPU
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard
Asus Sabertooth P67 (REV 3.0) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory
Corsair XMS3 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case
Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply
Antec 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Video Card
this might get a bit confusing, so please bear with me.
this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814261109 card has everything i want, and it has 2 GB vram instead of 1. im concerned about this one though because its from a company called palit, and iv been told the company is less heard of, so the quality might not be there. im also curious how many displays it supports, since it has 4 ports on the back. the most i have ever used is 2, so as long as it supports 2 displays with extended desktop, its fine. the concern here is with the "unknown" company.
if the above is not recommended, the other option is this Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB card, where i still need to support 2 displays in extended desktop. so which one should i go with?
im also curious if i should go with a different case. i also need a dvd drive / burner if anyone has any suggestions. a card reader for SD cards and such would be nice too.
EDIT: heres the list on pc part picker. http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ar/quR
Palit isn't as unknown as you think. It's quite well known in eastern Canadian retailer shops and I have a friend who has a Palit 9800GT. He got it about 3 years ago and it's still running, so...
so thats a yes on the palit then. alright. i used newegg's power supply calculator. it says i need about 510W for the stuff i have, but i want to be on the safe side with the fans and usb devices. so should i do 650W or 600W? also do i want "modular" or not, and why?
E: keeping in mind the xbox 360 controller uses 500mA or something stupidly high like that.
No Palit, if you're going to buy an Nvidia card you buy EVGA. They have the best warranty (lifetime) and they RMA very quickly and professionally. Worth any extra money you might pay.
Also, all Nvidia cards can use up to two display outputs. If the card has more than two display outputs you can chose any combination of two but no more than two. Does that make sense? If you want to run more than two monitors using Nvidia you need to buy more than one Nvidia GPU.
For your PSU, it depends on if you want to do SLI in the future. If you do you should probably go with something closer to 800W. Yes you want modular, it means that some or all of the cables are removable. This makes cable management a lot easier since you just don't use the cables you don't need on your PSU. I would recommend going Corsair or Silverstone for the PSU, both have good warranties and good quality products.
so possibly this for the psu?
for the video card, i kind of want 2GB of vram, just to make sure i can handle pretty much everything. the palit has 2GB, but lifetime warranty from EVGA sounds awesome for my luck. i had to send my laptop in for repairs twice, and both times were to replace the video card. so do i need 2GB, or will 1.5 or 1 be fine? also do i need a cooling fan for the cpu, or does the case i listed come with one?
E: oh hey that processor i selected says it has integrated graphics. thats not a problem as long as i have a graphics card, right?
