Complete overhaul - stock P4 with OC i5 - $3000

R

reg411

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
107
Hi,

I am planning to completely replace my P4 system with the new i5 750. I chose it over the i7 860 and 920 because I will primarly be gaming on it. I will not be doing any photoshop, video encoding or insane multi-tasking.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
  • Primarily gaming at 1920x1200 on a 26" monitor. I'd like to have everything at highest setting with a minimum of 30fps. 4xAA/16xAF. I understand that for Crysis Warhead I will have to go lower, especially with any "reallife" mods. Damn you crysis :mad:
  • YouTube/Hulu HD & Blu-Ray without stutter.
  • Launch OS, Apps and games quickly. Solid State quickly.
  • Fold for [H] :cool:
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$3000 including tax & shipping

3) Where do you live?
Chicago

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
I need EVERYTHING. I also need:
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
  • Monitor
  • Wireless Router
  • Speakers (2.0)
  • Headphones

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing any parts.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes, 3.6-3.8 Ghz.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
26" 1920x1200 Asus vw266h

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Around 11/1/09.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Not really interested in SLI/Crossfire as I prefer single card solutions. I just need something that is excellent for overclocking.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Nope. Want to go with a clean install anyway.


Desktop:

$99.99 - COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$109.99 ($10 MIR) - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
$199.99 - Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
$64.99 - Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B. Intel CPU Heatsink (LGA 775 / 1156 / 1366)
$214.99 - MSI P55-GD80 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$97.99 ($10 MIR) - Patriot Viper II Sector 5 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory w/ 3DMark Vantage Model PVV34G1600LLKB - Retail
$289.00 - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2C1 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - OEM
$74.99 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
$129.99 - LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD±R DVD Burner - Retail
$379.99 - ASUS EAH5870/G/2DIS/1GD5/A Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity - Retail
$89.99 - ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card - Retail
$23.99 - Koutech IO-FPM220 3.5" Floppy Drive & Multi Card Reader Front Panel - Retail
$199.99 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full - Retail
$6.99 - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM


Sub-Total: $1982.87

Peripherals:

$269.99 ($30 MIR) - ASUS VW266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers w/ component connector - Retail
$60.99 - Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard - Retail
$52.99 - Logitech G5 7 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB Wired Laser 2000 dpi Mouse - Retail
$110.14 - M-Audio StudioPhile AV40 Desktop Speakers
$54.99 - LINKSYS WRT54GL IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless-G Broadband Router - Retail
$59.99 - JVC HA-RX900 3.5mm/ 6.3mm Connector Circumaural Full-Size Headphone

Sub-Total: $609.09

Grand Total: 2591.96

Additional questions/comments:

1. Since the i5 has no hyperthreading I just want to be sure that I'm not shooting myself in the foot by saving a buck now but gimped in a couple years. As stated earlier, gaming is pretty much the most intensive thing I'll be doing on this. Should I "future-proof" my system a little bit and go with the i7 860 instead? I hate using that word but wasn't sure how else to ask the question :p

2. MSI wasn't my first choice for motherboard. However, the GD80 has been getting rave reviews/winning awards. I've always used Asus boards in the past. I hope I'm not making a mistake going with MSI especially in the long run.

3. I know the g.skill ripjaws are almost always recommended here. I just don't feel comfortable with that brand :eek:. Corsair, while it is good, it's a bit on the expensive side, so decided to go with Patriot.

4. 2nd HD - I'm going with the WD 640 Caviar black instead of 1 TB because I don't need THAT much space and it is faster and has a "2 platter design"?

5. Video Card - Going with the Asus, because according to Brent/Kyle it will be at AMD specified settings and allows voltage tweaking via software. I'm just looking for a small overclock, nothing major though.

6. Sound Card - The speakers I will be getting are actually pretty decent when driven by a sound card like the DX, so I won't be using the onboard audio.
 
How are you going to future-proof if you switch to an 860? It's basically the same socket as the 750. If you want to future proof, get an i7 920. The i9 Gulftown will be on the 1366 socket
 
Ezzaron said:
How are you going to future-proof if you switch to an 860? It's basically the same socket as the 750. If you want to future proof, get an i7 920. The i9 Gulftown will be on the 1366 socket
Click to expand...

Well, I meant it in light of the fact that the i5 has no HyperThreading vs. an i7. I don't feel a 920 is warranted just for gaming, even at high resolutions. But I guess I am assuming future games won't really use hyperthreading all that much.

lt_shiro said:
Suggested changes

Intel Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Server Processor Model BX80605X3440 - Retail $240

Since you are overclocking its better option than i7 860.
Click to expand...

I thought the i5 750 was the sweet spot for gamers (at least according to H ocp's review)? I'm only overclocking because I can :)
 
I didn't read your post in the whole, i was taking my suggest base on his. i5 750 is perfect for gaming.

What you think of ASUS Maximus III?
 
reg411 said:
Well, I meant it in light of the fact that the i5 has no HyperThreading vs. an i7. I don't feel a 920 is warranted just for gaming, even at high resolutions. But I guess I am assuming future games won't really use hyperthreading all that much.
Click to expand...

Ah alright then, I was assuming that you were talking future-proofing concerning upgrade path. Anyways, do you plan on buying everything from newegg? I see that you're in Chicago and there's a microcenter there. You can buy the 750 for $159.99 + tax
 
Wow, nice budget. Pickup two of those X25-M 80GB SSDs and put them in RAID0 for computing heaven. Then and only then will you feel like the $3k was worth it. :p Shoot, get 3 or 4 if your budget allows, cuz SSDs scale wonderfully, lol.

For storage, get a 500GB or 1TB Samsung F3 or Seagate 7200.10, since they use 500GB-platters, they're faster than the 333GB-platter drives (640GB/1TB caviar blacks, etc).
 
lt_shiro said:
I didn't read your post in the whole, i was taking my suggest base on his. i5 750 is perfect for gaming.

What you think of ASUS Maximus III?
Click to expand...

It's a nice board but X-Fi is a Creative chipset. I'd like to stay away from that, it's just a personal preference thing.

I might just go with the cheaper UD4P from Gigabyte.

Ezzaron said:
Ah alright then, I was assuming that you were talking future-proofing concerning upgrade path. Anyways, do you plan on buying everything from newegg? I see that you're in Chicago and there's a microcenter there. You can buy the 750 for $159.99 + tax
Click to expand...

Thanks

enginurd said:
Wow, nice budget. Pickup two of those X25-M 80GB SSDs and put them in RAID0 for computing heaven. Then and only then will you feel like the $3k was worth it. :p Shoot, get 3 or 4 if your budget allows, cuz SSDs scale wonderfully, lol.

For storage, get a 500GB or 1TB Samsung F3 or Seagate 7200.10, since they use 500GB-platters, they're faster than the 333GB-platter drives (640GB/1TB caviar blacks, etc).
Click to expand...

lol, believe me it is tempting, but I'd like to keep things simple. I feel that RAID would just complicate things that much more. Again, it just comes down to personal comfort/preference, just not my thing :)
Thanks for the HD suggestion, will keep in mind.
 
An i5 solution is basically aimed at removing the CPU bottleneck from single GPU situations. I don't think you even need to OC that much (3.8Ghz-4Ghz is plenty) which is why I'm really against getting a "top-of-the-line" P55 mobo. It's an oxymoron and a waste of money, since the point of the i5 setup is so you have more money to spend on GPUs in the first place.

If Gulftown ends up being released as an affordable solution, of course any P55 adopter will be eating crow. However, I don't expect the 6-cores to become the next "Q6600" for at least 1.5-2 years, which is close to a typical upgrade cycle for me. Just looking at the estimated 1K unit price of the Gulftown tells me it will be a long time before we see it being an affordable option. Of course things may change if AMD decides to hurry up their Bulldozer release schedule...but no one really knows how that will turn out.

*so yeah regarding your build, I'd say the $170 range mobos are already more than enough. But yeah I had to do a double-take on your budget there haha.
 
RAID0 is not complicated. You enabled RAID, boot into the RAID setup utility, choose the drives, and select RAID0 with default settings and you're done in under a minute. :p A single SSD was just underwhelming to me, and with a budget of $3k, you really should make the system as fast as possible. Your computer is as fast as your slowest component. Look how much faster my RAID0 setup is:

http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/ocz_vertex.html

The key performance improvement with the indilinx drives is with the small write speeds (0.5MB increased from 4MB/s to 46MB/s!!!). Conversely, with the Intel X25-M, the key performance improvement in RAID0 will be the increase in sequential speeds (see the HDTune scores forum link at the top of my ocz screenshot page). Then, and only then, will you blow a similar mechanical setup out of the water. Seriously, it would be a shame to spend $3k and only get one SSD, IMO. :(

FYI, both Vista and Win7 installed in under 10 minutes with my RAID setup, and it was around 20min with a single drive (compare to 45min on my VRaptor).


edit: I also agree with mav451, $215 on a P55 is just ridiculous. Drop that down to a $150 range board. These are P55... mainstream... not X58.
 
enginurd said:
RAID0 is not complicated. You enabled RAID, boot into the RAID setup utility, choose the drives, and select RAID0 with default settings and you're done in under a minute. :p A single SSD was just underwhelming to me, and with a budget of $3k, you really should make the system as fast as possible. Your computer is as fast as your slowest component. Look how much faster my RAID0 setup is:
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/ocz_vertex.html
Click to expand...

Wow.
 
FWIW, megahalems ships with a thermal compound they claim is superior to AS5 if you want to save $7 :)
 
zukihara said:
FWIW, megahalems ships with a thermal compound they claim is superior to AS5 if you want to save $7 :)
Click to expand...

80-way Thermal Interface Material Performance Test @ BMR

Product Name.........Material Description...Viscosity......Avg Delta....Grade
Arctic Silver 5'.........'Polysynthetic Silver...'Low / Thin....37.55°C......A+
ProlimaTech PK-1....Aluminum Oxide..........Moderate.....38.30°C......B+

Negligible differences, IMO. Personally, I prefer MX-2 (because its non-conductive), which got an A- in that review.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top