1000-1350 Build, looking for advice

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onetwenty8k

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 24, 2006
Messages
2,554
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Regular browsing, music encoding, DVD encoding and gaming.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
My budget is somewhat flexible, obviously the cheaper the better but I'm looking to spend less than $1300 all together.
3) Where do you live?
NJ
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Everything minus a DVD burner.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Samsung DVD+-RW
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes, I plan to.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Dell 2407.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
This month.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I don't plan on ever using crossfire or SLI because I want this machine to be as energy efficient as possible and usually when I upgrade cards, I buy a new one not add another one.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yes.


I'm confused whether to go with dual channel RAM or triple channel, is there a real performance difference between the two? Because of this confusion I don't know what kind of motherboard to get or which socket 1156 or 1366. The thing I know that I want are the following.

Antec P183: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129061
Seasonic X650: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

I want to make very clear that this machine needs to be efficient with power that is why I am going for the 80Plus Gold PSU. If you can convince me that a lower standard 80Plus PSU can do then I will do it but from what I've read, this is the best. So I need high efficiency and low heat + noise. This seems to be the perfect PSU even though it is pricey.

The case is also good with cooling and is low noise which is why I picked it.

The rest of the parts are up to you, I would post my build but I feel embarrassed by the lack of knowledge with current computing so I'll leave it out. Thank you.
 
A P55-based system is more than enough for your needs.

$140 - Antec P183
$100 - Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W PSU (free shipping)
$170 - Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P
$222 - Intel Core i5 750 & Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus combo deal (free shipping on both)
$94 - G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2GB DDR3 1600 CL9 kit (free shipping)
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB HDD (free shipping)
$310 - Sapphire HD5850
=====
$1091 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

I went with the Antec TP-650 because it's cheaper, despite its 80 Plus Bronze rating. While I know that the Seasonic X650 has a higher 80 Plus (Gold) rating and is comparatively quieter, the P183's design will reduce the amount of noise coming from either PSU. Either power supply would be better than what you could have picked a couple of years ago, and unless you run them side by side in an open case and with the same testing equipment that [H] and JonnyGURU use, I'd doubt that you would be able to tell the difference between them.

The HD5850 and HD5870 will be in short supply this holiday season and the HD5850 that I linked to may be out of stock by the time that you place your order. If that's a concern for you, you may want to consider either the HD5770 or the HD4890 instead. I doubt that DirectX 11 games will be must-haves until the end of next year, at the earliest.
 
IMO, that PSU would be cutting it close. The HD5850 uses about as much power as the HD4890, if not a bit more.

Plus, a passive PSU will generate a lot of heat inside the case. You would have to add more fans to mitigate that, and that would lead to more noise.
 
Imho, $ 80 is too much money to pay for zero dBA.

Even worse when, as noted before, your psu fan will probably be a lot quieter than your case fans as it is.
 
Okay, and after reading it seems that the i5 is what I need. I don't plan on doing SLi or Crossfire so I don't need i7 and the two 16x slots. Any other suggestions for this build?
 
Which games are you planning on playing? How often do you plan on encoding DVDs?

PSU issues aside -- to me, it seems like you'd rather stick with your first choice -- do you see any problems with the Core i5 build I presented to you earlier?
 
I encode probably a few DVDs a week because I'm digitizing my collection. But I really like the build you presented, it seems really solid. The games I play currently are GTA SA, GTA IV, L4D, TF2 but currently I am limited by my card and I would like to play some of the new NFS and Crysis. I like to run everything at native res of course which is 1920x1200.

I made I think one change and that was to the RAM. I opted for the CL7 G.Skill ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

Regarding the PSU, I'm still lured by the 80 Plus Gold Seasonic but I could also go for something less. What do you think of the OCZ Z-Series 650W or maybe the 550W? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341036

Thank you for your help.
 
CAS Latency (CL) or other RAM timings will have little to no affect on overclocking performance. To most users, they wouldn't be able to recognize any performance benefit between CL7, CL8, and CL9 RAM. Unless the CL7 RAM can be found for less than CL9 RAM, stick with CL9 RAM.

Crysis is a horrible barometer for gaming, as it's designed to bring even high-end graphics configurations to their knees. For that particular game, to obtain the best possible performance possible from a one-GPU video card, you'd probably have to go with the HD5870... but there's no guarantee that you'll find one in stock this month.

Check out JonnyGURU.com and see whether or not the OCZ Z-Series PSUs have received positive feedback. You could also check the [H], AnandTech, or Silent PC Review. I believe that you're making a bigger deal of the 80 Plus rating than necessary, but I really don't know what else to tell you.
 
Okay, the only reason that I'm obsessed with the 80Plus rating is that my energy bill is high and I want to be absolutely, positively sure that my powersupply is as efficient as possible so that I can get the most life out of it and use the least amount of power that I will need for this setup.

Tell me, do you think it would be smarter to go with a crossfire or SLi setup with say two 5770 cards? As I said my budget is flexible and I will go up to around $1300-1400. Thanks.
 
In terms of energy consumption, a system with one HD5850 or HD5870 will use less power than a dual HD5770 CF setup. However, a HD5770 CF setup is more realistic right now, given the scarcity of HD5850 and HD5870 cards this holiday season, and it outperforms either card in certain benchmarks. You'll have to take a look at benchmarks to help you come to your final answer there.

If you're serious about a CrossFire setup, get a 750-850 watt power supply for the extra power. The Antec TruePower New TP-750 is 80 Plus Bronze certified, and I'm sure that you could find others that are rated higher. The point that I was trying to make earlier was that you shouldn't pursue one thing (like the 80 Plus rating) at the expense of everything else. But, considering your (legitimate) reasons for doing so, I'm done preaching.
 
Oh please don't stop preaching, why do you think I posted here? I welcome the preaching.

Whenever I think crossfire and the two lesser cards vs the more powerful card I always think back to when SLi first started and you could have the option of SLi'd 6600GTs or one 6800Ultra and the 6800 was the better choice. I'm going to have to do some more research and hopefully some more people can chime in to help me decide in which direction I should go.
 
I can't help you on the CF debate. I personally just stick with one card myself and ensure that I have the best card that I can (justifiably) afford at the time. But in my case, I purchased the HD4890 in anticipation for a new monitor purchase and knowing (based on past experience) that the new 5-series cards would be in short supply.
 
That's the way that I'm usually inclined to go aswell. Time to do some research and look at power consumption etc...Thanks tiraides.
 
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