$4000 Budget

T

TomJesusBrady

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Messages
182
Hey guys looking to build a new comp. Current one just is not cutting it anymore. Plus i would like to jump up to a 30" monitor. Thanks in advance for any help

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly just gaming and watching movies

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$4000 all included

3) Where do you live?
Boston

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
I need everything, I will not be reusing anything. Also for cpu I think I would like to get a i7 980x unless you guys can talk me out of it lol. And i would like to water cool the system including the video card.

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

6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I plan on getting either u2711 or 30", I have dell 20% coupon. I am really stumped on the monitor.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next month

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I more than likely will not be going with gtx480 so crossfire would be nice.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
I have windows 7 home 64bit
 
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re i7 890x.. I would save yourself about 750 bucks for the time being & go with a 920 or 930 & then in 2 years when 1366 is at the end of its cycle replace it with whatever is the best that 1366 ended up offering.. I just cant see any type of justification to spend that much money on a CPU that doesn't make coffee in the morning for you..

Also is your 4k including the monitors or no? Also considered dropping the 30" & going with like 3 25 or 26" for eyefinity?
 
bastage said:
re i7 890x.. I would save yourself about 750 bucks for the time being & go with a 920 or 930 & then in 2 years when 1366 is at the end of its cycle replace it with whatever is the best that 1366 ended up offering.. I just cant see any type of justification to spend that much money on a CPU that doesn't make coffee in the morning for you..

Also is your 4k including the monitors or no? Also considered dropping the 30" & going with like 3 25 or 26" for eyefinity?
Click to expand...

Yes the 4k includes the monitor. And no I am not much of a fan of eyefinity. The bezels in between the monitors just would drive me crazy.
 
"Reasonable" High-end Gaming PC:
$470 - Intel Core i7-930 CPU + Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R X58 ATX Motherboard Combo
$165 - Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$860 - 2 x Gigabyte GV-R587UD-1G Radeon HD 5870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$439 - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M160G2XXX 2.5" 160GB SSD
$25 - LG GH22NS50 DVD Burner
$160 - Corsair 950TX 950W PSU
$300 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$80 - Corsair Hydro H50 CPU Cooler
-------
Total: $2500 plus tax and shipping

Just add a 30" monitor and a storage drive (2TB maybe) and you'll be set. You should have enough for a watercooling setup. Dunno too much about water cooling hardware so can't help you there.
 
Instead of a single 160GB X25-M SSD, consider 2x80GB models in RAID0 instead. You definitely have the budget for it. ;)
 
enginurd said:
Instead of a single 160GB X25-M SSD, consider 2x80GB models in RAID0 instead. You definitely have the budget for it. ;)
Click to expand...

i would only do this if you dont care about trim. your drives will lose performance faster than worth it. get the 160 gb drive from intel. as for storage get 2 1 TB HDD and put in raid0.

get eyefinity.
i dont care if you think it will bug you.
it wont
and you will never game on 1 monitor again.
it is seriously the best gaming experience out there. also while your at it get 120Hz monitors so you can take advantage of 3d when it has the bugs worked out.

your eyes dont notice the bezels. what happens is you focus on center screen like normal and then the outer screens are used for perephrial vision.
ie
on racing games you can judge speed and distance better
on shooters you can see someone sneaking up on you that you wouldn't normally see
RTS.. you can see 3 times more of the map. (which should alone make it worth it)


ALSO here is an idea to throw out there.
wait for the eyefinity 6 cards and get 5 monitors to put in portrait mode.
 
Danny Bui said:
"Reasonable" High-end Gaming PC:
$470 - Intel Core i7-930 CPU + Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R X58 ATX Motherboard Combo
$165 - Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$860 - 2 x Gigabyte GV-R587UD-1G Radeon HD 5870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$439 - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M160G2XXX 2.5" 160GB SSD
$25 - LG GH22NS50 DVD Burner
$160 - Corsair 950TX 950W PSU
$300 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$80 - Corsair Hydro H50 CPU Cooler
-------
Total: $2500 plus tax and shipping

Just add a 30" monitor and a storage drive (2TB maybe) and you'll be set. You should have enough for a watercooling setup. Dunno too much about water cooling hardware so can't help you there.
Click to expand...

With a $4,000 limit, including the monitor I'd do things pretty much like you posted here. Though I'd go with 12GB of RAM and a Dell 3007WFP-HC or Dell 3008WFP for the monitor. Once you go 30" nothing else will do. I'd probably go with a different motherboard than that one as well.
 
NoForgiveness said:
And I would buy a 5970 if I had $4,000.
Click to expand...

I would too if they were in stock ;)

Here's an updated build with the additions/changes that Dan_D recommended:
$470 - Intel Core i7-930 CPU + Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R X58 ATX Motherboard Combo
$330 - Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$860 - 2 x Gigabyte GV-R587UD-1G Radeon HD 5870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$439 - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M160G2XXX 2.5" 160GB SSD
$25 - LG GH22NS50 DVD Burner
$160 - Corsair 950TX 950W PSU
$300 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$80 - Corsair Hydro H50 CPU Cooler
$1400 - Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC 30" LCD Monitor
-------
Total: $4065 plus tax and shipping
 
enginurd said:
A higher end model, no doubt. So which one? eVGA?
Click to expand...

With a $4,000 budget I'd go with an EVGA X58 3X/4X SLI Classified or perhaps one of ASUS' higher end models like the P6T7 WS Supercomputer. I know there are some X58 boards coming out that are supporting SATA 6G and USB 3.0 but I haven't worked with any of them yet so I can't really say anything about them.
 
Agree on the higher end motherboard. The classified has been one of the best boards I've ever owned, although the new Rampage III extreme with SATA+6 and USB 3 looks very promising. At the very least, wait until the Rampage is released in several weeks, then compare.

With 4K, you can also do a very nice water cooling setup, although it would be a custom setup you build yourself. The H50 Danny recommended is a very popular option, and it's nice that it gives you about the performance of a TRUE air cooler without the bulk or fan noise, but a custom setup is necessary to really move beyond the performance limits of good air coolers. Of course, there is also the argument that any further performance advantage you'll achieve with a high end water setup is not worth the cost in expense, time, or setup complexity. Depending on your wants/goals, it's a valid argument, but still, nothing graces the consummate home built PC like a well built water loop :)

EDIT: With $4K to spend, you might as well get a Blu-Ray drive.
 
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Markyip1 said:
Agree on the higher end motherboard. The classified has been one of the best boards I've ever owned, although the new Rampage III extreme with SATA+6 and USB 3 looks very promising. At the very least, wait until the Rampage is released in several weeks, then compare.

With 4K, you can also do a very nice water cooling setup, although it would be a custom setup you build yourself. The H50 Danny recommended is a very popular option, and it's nice that it gives you about the performance of a TRUE air cooler without the bulk or fan noise, but a custom setup is necessary to really move beyond the performance limits of good air coolers. Of course, there is also the argument that any further performance advantage you'll achieve with a high end water setup is not worth the cost in expense, time, or setup complexity. Depending on your wants/goals, it's a valid argument, but still, nothing graces the consummate home built PC like a well built water loop :)

EDIT: With $4K to spend, you might as well get a Blu-Ray drive.
Click to expand...

Yea I think I will be waiting for the rampage III just saw a review yesterday and it looks very promising. As for eyefinity, I looked more into it and saw a bunch of videos. And all I kept looking at is the bezels. I am pretty dead set against it. So its looking like a 3007 at this point and i7 930. Saw a bunch of reviews where i7 930 overclocked over 4ghz is just as good as the 980x. So might as well save the extra money.

As of now what I know I am definitely going to get:

$199 - I7 930
$850 - 2x 5870 Go with XFX?
$160 - Corsair 950TX 950W PSU
$300 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$105 - LG Black Blu-ray Disc Combo SATA Model UH10LS20
$1119.20 - 3007WFP-HC

I am still undecided on memory. 6gb or 12gb? The motherboard I will be waiting to see more reviews of the rampage III when a more stable bios is available. Thanks again for the help
 
Again I'd go with 12GB of RAM. Probably not necessary, but why not? As for the processor, no, a Core i7 930 is never going to be the equal of a Core i7 980X given the same clock speeds but it will do just as well for gaming. Bear in mind that the 980X has two additional CPU cores.
 
I am finally going to put the order in tonight.

Case - Corsair 800d

Cpu - I7 930

Motherboard - Asus Rampage III

Memory - Corsair 6gb x2

Video Card - Asus 5970

HDD - x25-m 80gb and Samsung 1tb

Power Supply - Corsair hx series 1000watt

Blue Ray drive - Lg

What cpu cooler should I get? I decided not to go with water. And any other recommendations or does everything look fine. I also decided to go with the new zr30w 30" monitor from hp. It brings the total to a tad under 4k.

Thanks again for any input

Jay
 
Cogage TRUE Spirit is a popular after-market cooler for the 930. Check here for other top-rated coolers.

Badass build, btw. I'm jealous.
 
Go with two sets of this G.Skill kit instead; that way, should any DIMM fail, you only have to RAM one set of RAM, not everything.

Consider the Cogage TRUE Spirit, which is based off the same design as the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme.

Do you have any Blu-ray media playback software? If not, you may want to consider either buying a retail packaged BD drive or searching online for some good media software.
 
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