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My second attemped build

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    #2
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,319 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    stylie wrote: »
    Hi folks,

    Last year I came on looking for advice, which I received in spades, about a build I planned doing. Unfortunately I was let go so I couldnt spend any money on a luxury item...but fear not as I have squirrelled away some duckets and starting the research phase for my new pc...this is what I have come up with so far

    Intel Core i7-950 Box 8192Kb, LGA1366

    ASUS P6T, Sockel 1366, ATX, DDR3

    6GB-Kit Corsair DDR3 PC1333 C9 Classic

    Antec Nine Hundred, ATX, ohne Netzteil

    Corsair TX750W 750 Watt

    XFX GeForce GTS 250, 1024MB DDR3, PCI-Express

    WD Caviar GreenPower 1TB SATA II

    My planned OS will be 64bit Win 7

    Now I have some extra peripherals, dvd drvies etc

    This pc will need to handle a lot of encoding, DVD/Blu-Ray, pc gaming and possibly home theatre.

    My main concern is the motherboard and the graphics card...I think the mobo is good and fairly future proof but I havent been gaming in so long I dont know what a good graphics card looks like

    Any help appreciated

    The GTS 250 is a rebranded 9800GT. You may wish to look at a GTX260 or a Radeon 4890 instead. Alternately, both companies have new generations out for DX11 in the coming months.


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    #3
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    Actually the GTS250 is a rebranded 55nm 9800GTX+ (which is a 65nm version of the 80nm 8800GTS!) and is the weakest gaming-grade GPU offered by nVidia in the retail channel. The GTS240 is a rebranded 55nm 9800GT (which is a 65nm version of the 80nm 8800GT, yes, headache time!) but from what I've heard and seen its only being sold as an OEM part.

    I'm sorry, but for all non-enterprise users the i7-950 is stark raving madness. If you need HyperThreading get either a i7-920 or (to cut costs further) an i7-850 and a decent cooler and OC the beggars. Then use the €200-€400 you save to shore up other components. GTS250 is naff given the cheaper HD4850 is also a lot better but for gaming at 1080p and up you'll want a HD4890.

    And a TX750 is utter overkill unless you intend on getting two HD4890s and OCing them and the CPU. Getting a TX750 for a single mouldy old 8800GTS with 55nm power savings is rank madness :eek:

    If you're buying on HWVS there are plenty of good alternatives to the Antec 900, although it ultimately depends on taste and budget. One thing to check is the HDD - its a 5400rpm drive. A 7200rpm drive will be much faster. Also if you enjoy mentioning the name "i7-950" in vain you could drop some of money you'll save getting something else into a cheap wee SSD for use as an OS drive. Maybe.

    Oh, and to finish off, if you're that mad about performance try to get 6GB (or 4GB if you switch to LGA1156) of decent DDR3 - keep an eye out for any affordable 1333/1600MHz CL6/7 kits you can find, sometimes HWVS has mad offers on them. Your PC will thank you ;)


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    #4
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    Thanks for the replies

    The hard dirve was just thrown in there to make up the list :( my bad

    The reason for the big power supply was to future proof, I didnt want to be adding components down the line and lack for power, is that enough reason to go 750 W ?

    bit dissappointed with my choice of processor, going to look at the ones you recomend..

    Also back to the drawing board with graphics cards, it was a lot easier 4yrs ago :(


    At least my motherboard seems ok :)


    I really do appreciate the help lads


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    #5
    STOP RESISTING
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭STOP RESISTING


    The X58 mobo supports both AMD's CrossFireX

    "ATI has opened the CrossFire architecture to Intel, allowing CrossFire to be enabled on many Intel chipsets which boast two x16 PCI-E slots. SLI, however, requires a motherboard which is SLI certified, which includes all nForce chipsets (such as the nForce 590 SLI, nForce 680i SLI, and nForce 790i), and most Intel X58 and Intel P55 based motherboards"-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossFire

    and Nvidia SLI

    "Hell Freezes Over: NVIDIA Announces Native SLI Support for the Intel X58 Chipset".-http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3395

    This means that if you were so inclined you could run 2 Radeon 4890's crossfired for ~300+ or a single Nvidia GTX285 for around the same price.

    On 3DMark06 1.1.0 a SINGLE 4890 scores 19912 marks, a single GTX285 AMP Ed scores 21403 marks but having DUAL 4890's would surpass this gap of 1491 marks and cost about the same.-http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality/3DMark06-v1.1.0-3DMark-Score,1468.html


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    #6
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    Thanks...I'm going to have another rethink and post it up here in the next day or two..

    Any other advice for a first time builder ? fans, cables etc ?

    I see HWVS offers to build it for 20e ? I have stripped and rebuilt pc's before but maybe for peace of mind I should let them do it for me ??


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    #7
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    Cables are usually okay unless you're doing something odd or you're buying/playing with peripherals as well. Fannage varies wildly with regard to system heat output, heat distribution, case cooling and additional cooling capability built into the case :D

    You can get HWVS to do it for you but building it yourself does wonders for confidence in your ability to sort out stuff that may occur further down the road. Aaand saves €20... ;)


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    #8
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    OK guys, how does this system look..I have not included a graphics card/cards as i would appreciate some more input from here first

    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 BOX, 775



    ASUS P5Q Premium, Sockel 775 Intel P45, ATX



    4096MB-Kit Corsair TWIN2X DHX 8500C5DF, CL5



    Antec Nine Hundred, ATX, ohne Netzteil

    Corsair TX750W 750 Watt

    Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1,5TB SATA II (ST31500341AS)

    Samsung SH-223L Lightscribe Retail

    Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (bulk) - 30SB073000000

    Allnet ALL0123 32-bit PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter - Copper RJ45

    I know the PSU might be big but for the sake of a few euro I would rather have the extra size in case I need it in the future.

    Should I get more RAM ? I plan to use Win 7 64bit so maybe I should double my amount.

    Looking for advice/criticism :)

    Any suggestions for a good graphics card/cards and 22in + monitor greatly appreciated


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    #9
    Deano12345
    Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭Deano12345


    Whats your budget,I'll throw something together for you


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    #10
    Farcear
    Registered Users Posts: 618 ✭✭✭Farcear


    Core2Quad cpus and Socket 775 mobos are being phased out for intel's new Core i5 socket 1156 and Core i7 socket 1366. It's no guarantee of being future-proof but it might make upgrading easier later on.

    If you are planning on spending €260 on a CPU, then I'd definitely recommend you have a look at the Core i7-920. With hyperthreading, you have 8 logical cores and that must come in useful for encoding DVDs.

    Why do you need an ethernet adaptor? Your motherboard should have plenty of ethernet connection sockets...

    RAM: I don't have any experience of W7 64-bit myself yet, but I'm sure some of the other guys on here could tell you that it doens't need any more than a gig of RAM itself. This leaves you with 3GB of RAM for other stuff.

    If you did go the i7-920 route, you could get 6GB of triple channel memory which I can almost guarantee would be more than enough for almost everything.

    Graphcs card: If you have the money, the new ATI HD4850 (€200) and HD4870 (€350) would definately be the way to go now.


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    #11
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    My budget will be between 1000e and 1500e..ideally I would like to include a monitor within that but its not vital.

    Thanks for the help, keep it coming


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    #12
    Deano12345
    Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭Deano12345


    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=461645 - Coolermaster HAF 922 = €92

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=460921 - Corsair 850 Watt PSU = €149

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=488153 - LG Blu-Ray Reader + DVD RW = €99

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=343055 - Samsung F1 (1TB x2) = €68 x 2

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=487794 - Corsair X32 SSD = €121

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=428330 - Gigabyte UD3R = €163

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=391447 - Intel i7 920 = €240

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=449938 - 6GB 2000MHZ OCZ Blade = €145

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=485310 - ATi 4890 = €203

    Total = €1348 For the PC

    + Monitor

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=425732 - Acer 21.5 Inch = €149

    Total Cost : €1497

    *Some Notes*

    That PSU is quite powerful so you can add another 4890 down the line if you wish

    You should install your OS and programs on the SSD (The Corsair X32) for high performance.

    I've included 2 Samsung 1TB drives for your storage.Now most of us dont have 2000GB of files so what you should do is set the drives to run in a RAID 1 configuration where you use 2 drives and as soon as you copy a file to the RAID array it will make a copy of the data on both drives.SO if one fails you just take it out and replace it and the working drive will copy its data onto the new drive.Because it does this,your actual amount of space on the RAID array is half of the total capacity of the 2 drives together.In short you will still have 1TB (1000 GB) of storage.

    That LG drive will read blu-rays and DVD's but you cannot burn blu-ray disks,you cna however burn DVD's

    The UD3R has 6 DIMM's (Ram slots) and the ram I selected is a kit of 3 sticks.You can add another 3 sticks later on

    *Let me know if you have any other questions*


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    #13
    meepins
    Registered Users Posts: 366 ✭✭meepins


    For just over 200 euro you can get an ATI 5850 graphics card. Unless there is a significant drop in the prices of the older cards, I don't see any reason to waste money on them when you get a lot more power with a few more euros.


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    #14
    Farcear
    Registered Users Posts: 618 ✭✭✭Farcear


    I've read that the i7-920 gets very hot, so definately add an after-market cooler in that build.


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    #15
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    @Farcear....definitly will have a lot of fans

    @meepins...Thanks more graphics card info

    @Deano12345...where to begin :)

    Thanks for the build...I was going to use hardwareversand but do you think I would be better off with komplett ?

    I cant fault your build I might however add a blu ray re writer to it.


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    #16
    Deano12345
    Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭Deano12345


    Good suggestions from the guys above but the 5850 costs €277 which pushes you over budget.To the OP,how much gaming will you actually be doing ?

    Also,the stock i7 cooler will cool the i7 fine if you keep it at the stock speeds.All the Intel coolers keep their chips under their recommended max temps at stock.If your not overclocking then you don't need an aftermarket cooler

    I've gotten nothing but good service from Komplett,built my entire PC from there

    TBH,Blu-rays are in their infancy at the moment and are quite expensive (€35 for 5).I'd wait for a while before investing,at least until Blu-Ray players become more common/cheaper


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    #17
    Venom
    Registered Users Posts: 6,984 ✭✭✭Venom


    Deano12345 wrote: »
    Good suggestions from the guys above but the 5850 costs €277 which pushes you over budget.To the OP,how much gaming will you actually be doing ?

    ATi HD5850 can be gotten from online stores for around €213 or from Peats for €239. Komplett's pricing on the 58XX series cards is just fcuking insane atm and seeing as you sorced all your suggestions from them I reckon a much better deal can be gotten elsewhere.


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    #18
    jonny72
    Closed Accounts Posts: 674 ✭✭✭jonny72


    Hardwareversand have good range and pretty much unbeatable prices - 5850 is 206 euros and the i5 750 is 160ish euros.. but then again it is in Germany, Komplett will be more expensive but safer.

    Definitely go with an SSD if you can, a good one too, OCZ vertex or along those lines.


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    #19
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    The amount of gaming is a good question. A couple of years ago I was playing 4/5hrs a day every day. I packed it in and since then i have played very little. I do intend to game and would like to have a very good rig to game on. Ideally I hope to have a dual monitor set up, with gaming/poker on one and general stuff on the other..

    I probably will hold off on a blu ray reader/rewriter as Im not even watching the blu ray on my tv :( will just get a light scribe dvd rom and pencil in a blu ray for a future buy..


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    #20
    Farcear
    Registered Users Posts: 618 ✭✭✭Farcear


    I mean getting a special fan specifically for the CPU to replace basic Intel fan -- http://www3.hardwareversand.de/_/articledetail.jsp?aid=25731&agid=669

    I went with Komplett for most of my stuff simply because they're in Ireland and if anything went wrong with my first build, I can talk to someone who speaks English!


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    #21
    Venom
    Registered Users Posts: 6,984 ✭✭✭Venom


    Farcear wrote: »
    I mean getting a special fan specifically for the CPU to replace basic Intel fan -- http://www3.hardwareversand.de/_/articledetail.jsp?aid=25731&agid=669

    I went with Komplett for most of my stuff simply because they're in Ireland and if anything went wrong with my first build, I can talk to someone who speaks English!

    Im a big komplett fan myself and have bought 95% of my pc parts from them over the last 5 years but lately their stock levels and prices have left a lot to be desired.

    Stylie your first build list with a 5850 replacing the crap card listed seems like a solid build imho. Yes there are better parts out there but thats always going to be the case when dealing with PC's so dont get to wrapped up in "future Proofing" as it just dosent exit :)


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    #22
    Deano12345
    Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭Deano12345


    Farcear wrote: »
    I mean getting a special fan specifically for the CPU to replace basic Intel fan -- http://www3.hardwareversand.de/_/articledetail.jsp?aid=25731&agid=669

    I went with Komplett for most of my stuff simply because they're in Ireland and if anything went wrong with my first build, I can talk to someone who speaks English!

    I know what ya mean man.still,if he's not overclocking there's no point getting a better CPU cooler.

    Take Venom's advice and go with the 5850 if you can get it for cheap enough.Its a nice GPU


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    #23
    cashville
    Registered Users Posts: 397 ✭✭cashville


    GPU - I got a GTX 285 for €300 and would highly recommend it. But it's up to you with the budget etc. As far as future proofing goes I would like to think it'll hold up for a while.

    Best of luck, hope it all works out for you.


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    #24
    Venom
    Registered Users Posts: 6,984 ✭✭✭Venom


    cashville wrote: »
    GPU - I got a GTX 285 for €300 and would highly recommend it. But it's up to you with the budget etc. As far as future proofing goes I would like to think it'll hold up for a while.

    Best of luck, hope it all works out for you.

    The GTX 285 unless selling for less that €150 is nothing but a waste of money at this point in time. Was a great card in its day but that day ended with when ATI launch the 58XX series of cards :)


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    #25
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    Would I be wise to wait for win 7 to be out before I buy the build? would give me some extra time to build my budget up to..


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    #26
    Deano12345
    Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭Deano12345


    stylie wrote: »
    Would I be wise to wait for win 7 to be out before I buy the build? would give me some extra time to build my budget up to..

    If you can wait,then do :D


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    #27
    cashville
    Registered Users Posts: 397 ✭✭cashville


    Venom wrote: »
    The GTX 285 unless selling for less that €150 is nothing but a waste of money at this point in time. Was a great card in its day but that day ended with when ATI launch the 58XX series of cards :)

    I don't doubt you, I needed my card at the time and had the cash. Right now I don't have 2 cents to rub together, it's great to have boardsies guide you.


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    #28
    batman2000
    Registered Users Posts: 833 ✭✭✭batman2000


    Farcear wrote: »

    RAM: I don't have any experience of W7 64-bit myself yet, but I'm sure some of the other guys on here could tell you that it doens't need any more than a gig of RAM itself. This leaves you with 3GB of RAM for other stuff.

    If you did go the i7-920 route, you could get 6GB of triple channel memory which I can almost guarantee would be more than enough for almost everything.

    On the RAM issue I would say give the W7 2GB RAM and then have 4GB for 'other stuff' Although the DDR3 is triple channel the Latency times are not as good as DDR2 RAM. You can get cheap fast CL5 DDR2. In my case I was limited by my CPU FSB. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62002064&postcount=2

    While DDR3 is averaging about CL7. Thats my tupence.


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    #29
    Effluo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,890 ✭✭✭Effluo


    stylie wrote: »
    Would I be wise to wait for win 7 to be out before I buy the build? would give me some extra time to build my budget up to..

    If you don't have an unearthly amount of cash then maybe you shouldn't go i7!
    You pay a very large premium for what would be not "that" much better!

    An am3 build is just as "futurproofed"


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    #30
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    AM3 is fine for (hardcore) day-to-day usage, gaming etc. Its really only heavy multimedia and Photoshop users who should look at i5, and only enterprise users, enthusiasts, massively heavy-duty apps and coders should look at i7 if they have the spare cash. The rest of the time its a waste of hard-earned cash :P


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    #31
    stylie
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭stylie


    Solitaire wrote: »
    AM3 is fine for (hardcore) day-to-day usage, gaming etc. Its really only heavy multimedia and Photoshop users who should look at i5, and only enterprise users, enthusiasts, massively heavy-duty apps and coders should look at i7 if they have the spare cash. The rest of the time its a waste of hard-earned cash :P

    Thats pretty much me then, I could have 100's of pics to work through and do a lot of media conversion.

    As we speak the budget is set at 1500e...waiting to the 22nd is going to be a pain :(


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