Any thoughts on this mid-range build?

jhodach

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
274
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Will be primary PC. Mainly internet and light gaming (gaming includes WoW, and soon, Bioshock 2/Diablo 3/Starcraft 2)

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Like to build a new computer every 2 years and usually go "midrange". So anywhere between 1000-1500.

3) Where do you live?
Wisconsin (so NewEgg/Amazon best bets)

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Just about everything. I hate to really reuse parts. Like to start fresh.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Just gonna be reusing the DVD-rom, Keyboard and Mouse and X-Fi Sound Card

6) Will you be overclocking?
Not planning initially. And if I do, very slightly.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Have 22" currently, going to get a Samsung 260 so 1920x1080 rez.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Would like to asap, but for sure by the time BioShock 2 comes out.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Just reliability. Want to go with a single card (AMD 5850, so CF could be important

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Planning on buying Win 7 64 bit

This is my current build:

Intel 6750E 2.66 CPU
2gb memory
MSI p6n MB
X-fi gamer Sound card
Samsung 226bw 22" Monitor
Seagate 320gb HD
600W FSP Power Supply
Windows Vista 32bit

Here is what I plan on going with, for some of the parts, I have 2 choices, so if you guys and gals could give some advice.

CPU: Intel Icore 7 860
MB: Gigabyte GA-P55 UD4P (170 on NewEgg)
or Gigabye GA-P55 UD3R (140 on NewEgg)
Memory: GSKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Power Supply: Corsair HX 750 (170 on Newegg)
Corsair HX 620 (140 on Newegg)
Case: Antec P183
Monitor: Samsung ToC 260 (the one w/o the TV tuner)
Video Card: XFX 5850 Video Card (just getting 1... if they ever get in stock)
Hard Drive: for the longest time I had an SSD on there, but it just too much damn money. Only want 1 HD in the system so I think I'm going to be looking for a 150GB Velociraptor for 80-100 bucks. The SSD I wanted was the 120gb OCZ Agility series (320 on Newegg)
OS: Windows 7 64bit (Student edition for 30 bucks)

So there is the system I'd like to get getting. Been going back and forth with the MB and Power Supply. I just want a computer that is reliable, good at gaming and hopefully quiet. I hope you guys can give some comments/suggestions on what I'd be going for.
 
i7 860 isn't need for your build as it mainly used for gaming i5 750 would be better deal for you.

Antec New Truepower line is better value than Corsair currently.

Asus 25.5" is about $50 cheaper and uses the same panel as Samsung ToC.

Its better for you get a pair of SSD in raid 0 than 120 GB.
 
Yeah been looking at that monitor but I wanted the usb's on the samsung. Like I said about the Hard Drive's, only want 1. I want a real basic system. And is that true bout the Icore 5 for gaming? If I wouldn't know a difference, I'd defintely look at the Icore 5. And lastly, is that power supply you looked at modular?
 
Unless you ABSOLUTELY need HT for apps that specifically will benefit from it, yeah forget it. If you want HT, I would recommend x58/Bloomfield i7 instead anyway.

But back to the i5. OCing this to 3.6Ghz at basically stock vcore (or a small bump) and you should be set for quite a while: http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=857&p=11
 
Yeah there are really no other programs I use. I mean I may be on the internet while listening to Itunes or something but nothing else really. Does anyone have any thoughts/comments on my choices for power supply and motherboard? I'm just wondering if I should go with the cheaper of each to save myself some money?
 
http://promotions.newegg.com/GSkill...romotions.newegg.com/GSkill/100209/478x88.jpg
Use that link to save $20. ;) Go with the CL7 DDR3-1600 ripjaws and the UD3R u wanted. Yes, i5 is all you need for gaming, especially if you build every 2 yrs, lol.

Yes, the TP New series is modular and better priced than the HX series from Corsair. The flexforce modular cables of the HX series aren't worth the price premium, IMO.

RAID0 scales very well with SSDs, so two 60GB indilinx-based drives in RAID0 will outperform a single 120GB by a huge margin, including the all-important area of small write speeds, which increase nearly 400% with RAID0 (from 0.5MB-32MB), as seen here:
http://alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/ocz_vertex.html (also, check out the links at the top of the page)

The lowest I've seen a 60GB Indilinx based drive was the SuperTalent UltraDrive ME 64GB for $138 at the egg. All the indilinx drives perform nearly the same, so it doesn't have to be an OCZ Agility (which actually uses slower memory chips than the other choices): OCZ Vertex, SuperTalent UltraDrive ME, Patriot TorqX, and G.Skill Falcon. Even if you stick to a single Indilinx based SSD, it would still be faster than a VRaptor, just not enough to make most people say, "WOW." :p
 
Well I've finally bought my build. Pretty much the same as above, but I went with the core i5 as most have suggested it'll be fine for what I'll be doing with it. Now to anxiously wait for my components to come!
 
Will do! Most of my stuff is scheduled to arrive Wed. I have a mouse on order from Ebay and a raptor HD from a member of the forums here scheduled to be shipped out Monday. I"ll just be waiting on my 5850 from Tigerdirect to get here so I can have at it.
 
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