Build recommendations

[kevineugenius]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Primarily gaming but this will be my primary machine so lot of internet crap, movies, school stuff, nothing out of the ordinary or highly specialized though.

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

Fairly low, hoping to keep in the $800 range for the parts I need

3) Where do you live?

Seattle

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

Motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM, possibly blu-ray drive

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Reusing hard drives, optical drives, case, 750w PSU (sorry I don't have the specifics), Razer AC-1 sound card

6) Will you be overclocking?

1% chance I will overclock, 99% chance I never will

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

1x 24" currently, planning to end at 3x 24"

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

Within 30 days

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.

STABILITY, PCI slot available after a double-tall PCI-e GPU is installed

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, Win 7 Ult 64

My current plan is a 2600k CPU and a 6850 GPU. I could use help selecting a good stable motherboard, tons of features are not necessary but I don't want to be handicapped either, and some plug-and-play RAM that I won't have to fiddle with timings and voltages. I basically want to put all the parts into my box, turn it on, and never have to touch any of it again. I'm tired of fiddling to get that extra .001% performance boost. Budget is a concern, I'll have $400 plus everything I get from the sale of my old components and scrounging up a couple hundred on top of that won't be too hard. For the components I want/need, though, I don't think it should go over $800 should it?

Couple other notes:
I hated the stock intel coolers for LGA775 and LGA1366 due to those nasty spring-loaded snaps that would warp the board like crazy. If the stock coolers for 1155 are like this, then I want a new cooler as well. I will have my nice CoolerMaster LGA1366 HSF if the layout is the same and I can re-use it, that would be awesome. (edit, I believe this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057 is the cooler I have but I have no extra brackets other than the 1366 one)
What exactly is this B3 stepping stuff and is that something I need to worry about in selecting a mobo?
I refuse to buy anything ECS. No exceptions.

 

[kevineugenius]

My current considerations:
RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=Property&N=100007611%20600006050%20600006069&IsNodeId=1&PropertyCodeValue=523%3A23986%2C524%3A29248%2C524%3A35212%2C524%3A30325%2C524%3A29371%2C525%3A29367%2C525%3A29245%2C2599%3A29232&bop=And&CompareItemList=147|20-231-402^20-231-402-TS%2C20-231-311^20-231-311-TS
Is the CL 9-->7 worth the extra $20?

Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600093976%20600158412%20600008722&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&CompareItemList=280|13-128-501^13-128-501-TS%2C13-128-494^13-128-494-TS
Looking at the features included on the more expensive board... I really don't think I'll use any of them. At twice the price, seems to me that the benefits just aren't worth the cost. There's a Biostar and an Asrock in contention as well in that price range, but the $80 Gigabyte seems to have everything a growing boy needs

CPU
2600 vs 2600k... $15 difference and from what I've seen the k benches much higher even with no OC, so I'm saying the k is worth it

GPU
I've heard the 6870s have problems with Eyefinity so I'm avoiding those, stuff in the 69xx series are too expensive, and Nvidia stuff is all too expensive in the same performance range (looking at the 560 ti). Never owned a Powercolor product before but with all the 5-egg views it has, I'm not real worried.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131374

HSF
Assuming I can't re-use my LGA1366 cooler (though I might be able to rig it up), I'm leaning towards this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Grand total $664.55

Thoughts?

 

[Dangman]

Several notes:
1) We need to know what case you have.

2) We need the make and model of that PSU. Otherwise, it's pointless helping you.

3) For your needs, you'll be fine with the 2500K. The 2600K is viable if you do a lot of multimedia editing, rendering, or encoding.

4) CL 7 is not worth the extra $20. That $55 G.Skill set is all that you need.

5) The stock HSF for LGA1155 is similar to the older stock Intel HSF. Contact Coolermaster for a replacement bracket for LGA 1156/LGA1155 (compatible with one another). If you can't find said replacement bracket, juet get a new HSF.

6) Regarding the B3 stuff: Long story short, don't worry about it as most good quality mobos will be of B3 stepping.

7) There's a possibility of you going over $800.

8) You shouldn't be looking at the HD 6850 1GB due to the fact that you have a 24" monitor. As such you should be looking at the HD 6870 1GB (what eyefinity problems are you talking about? and where did you hear that from?) or the regular GTX 560 at a minimum. However if you're fine turning down a lot of settings in a game to low or medium, then the HD 6850 1GB is an ok choice.

 

[kevineugenius]

1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156191 Not my favorite but it was free

2. Hipro HP-W700WC3

3. Noted

4. Cool beans; would going with higher speed be worthwhile or just stick to the Ripjaws I had selected?

5. Talked with CM and confirmed. I've been a fan of these guys since my first product from them, and they continue to impress me

6. Aight

7. Aight

8. Re-googled the issues and it's the 69xx series that have the tearing problems, so I guess upping a few bucks for a 6870 would be fine. I just hate dealing with multi-GPU setups as they never seem to work right or give the performance boost they claim and I don't want to drop $600 on a single OP GPU so I'll survive if I have to run things at lower settings. I just want smooth and stable. And stable. With no lockups. Stability.

 

[Dangman]

You're looking at a new PSU as well. That HiPro is not a good PSU at all. I recommend getting this PSU:
$90 - Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU

GPU wise, are you planning on running Eyefinity? Also when you googled the "issues", did you take note of when those "issues" were reported? And are you sure you read that the HD 69xx series had tearing issues in Eyefinity with just a single GPU?

 

[kevineugenius]

I first heard of the tearing issues here http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1620777 and after a quick Google I figured it wasn't worth the risk.

What's wrong with the HiPro? Its been running my i7 920 with 2 4870s just fine.

 

[kevineugenius]

Tom's hardware shows a variety of 6870s in high-res and high-graphics settings ranging from avg 76-85fps which I'll average to 81 for ease and 6850s in the same settings ranging from 72-82 which I'll average to 77. That's 4fps difference, or roughly 5%. Passmark shows tests on these two cards with average scores of 2837 vs 2835 over thousands of submitted results, a difference of like .001%. What are you basing the recommendation for the 6870 on? I suppose if I'm playing games on Eyefinity in 3600*1920 resolution I'll want the best graphics I can get within my budget, but the 6870 seems like $25 wasted to me.

 

[Dangman]

I first heard of the tearing issues here http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1620777 and after a quick Google I figured it wasn't worth the risk.

Doesn't seem to be that big of an issue but whatever.

What's wrong with the HiPro? Its been running my i7 920 with 2 4870s just fine.

It's a HiPro. It's of low quality. Just because it's running your system fine now doesn't mean that it will continue to do so. Not to mention that it may be slowly damaging your parts over time. Your budget easily allows for a new higher quality PSU with a significantly lower chance of killing your hardware so I don't see a reason to keep that HiPro unless you're blood stubborn about it.

Also if you already have a Core i7 920 and HD 4870 Crossfire setup, why are you upgrading then? There's no point to, especially since you're not overclocking.

Tom's hardware shows a variety of 6870s in high-res and high-graphics settings ranging from avg 76-85fps which I'll average to 81 for ease and 6850s in the same settings ranging from 72-82 which I'll average to 77. That's 4fps difference, or roughly 5%. Passmark shows tests on these two cards with average scores of 2837 vs 2835 over thousands of submitted results, a difference of like .001%. What are you basing the recommendation for the 6870 on? I suppose if I'm playing games on Eyefinity in 3600*1920 resolution I'll want the best graphics I can get within my budget, but the 6870 seems like $25 wasted to me.

First of all, I'm not taking any review from Tom's Hardware seriously. There's a reason why they're a four letter word around this forum

Second, PassMark is a synthetic benchmark and therefore have no bearing on real world performance.

Third, there's a Newegg combo deal with the RAM you chose earlier and the HD 6870 1GB that only makes it $13 more than the PowerColor HD 6850 you chose earlier once you factor in shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.684213

Finally, in addition to the small price difference, I'm basing my recommendations off these reviews:
http://hardocp.com/article/2010/10/21/amd_radeon_hd_6870_6850_video_card_review/
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/291?vs=290

Those reviews shows that there is a large enough difference to justify an extra $13.

 

[kevineugenius]

I have 2 primary reasons for upgrading:
1) My motherboard sucks. It's supposed to be a high-quality product but it's a horrible pile of junk. I sent it in for RMA and they sent it back to me with bent socket pins so it's very close to a paperweight now
2) Crossfire is a joke. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to make it work, but it seems to me that if I plug everything in properly, install drivers properly, and enable CrossfireX, it shouldn't take anything more than that. My frame rates decrease with Crossfire enabled, though. Maybe it's due to my pile of worthless motherboard, I don't know. I've tried multiple power supply configurations so I don't think that's the issue.

Third minor reason is my RAM is very picky and I can't get it to run stable so I want to be rid of it. It's been a problem system since day 1 and I just want to cut my losses and try to get something that will be stable, even if the performance is identical to what I have now. Tired of BSODs, tired of my BIOS resetting itself, tired of troubleshooting and talking with tech support who have no clue what the problem is... If AMD actually had any contenders I'm pretty much irritated enough with this system that I'd swap to an AMD-based machine and see if I have better luck.

 

[Primu$]

Im not sure what case you have or the ambient temps of your space is but with a good case and cool ambient temperatures can change alot of things like random bsod's my friends rig on a warm day without a extermal fan tends to bsod.

 

[kevineugenius]

Well, I did extensive testing over about 4 months. Put in one set of three RAM sticks for a month; worked fine. Put in the other set of three for a month; worked fine. Put in both sets of three; crashes and BSODs within 5 days consistently. I've heard that running 6 modules can mean you have to adjust things so they're not actually running at "stock" settings and that's just a PITA that I don't want to deal with anymore. Tested both GPUs independently and they perform identically as single cards. In Crossfire, I lose about 40% performance, making some games drop below the 'playable' threshold. Ran them all on one PSU, ran them on two PSUs, no difference. If my PSU can power one of them in single-gpu mode it should be able to power one of them in double-gpu mode. After all this, I did a fresh install of Windows 7 (started out with Vista) and the exact same problems persisted. And that puts me at about 5-6 months of taking notes, removing an item, taking notes, adding an item, taking notes, swapping items, over and over. Just not pleased and am ready to move on. Been about a year and a half. Independently, each component might be fine (I'm suspicious of the mobo, I think it's junk and I hope RMA gives me a new one) but they don't play well together at all. Why have 3 RAM sticks and a GPU sitting on my desk doing nothing? Why rebuild the system around the same mobo that caused me such grief and use the same persnickety RAM that will require hours of tweaking? Nah, I'll just ebay it all.

P.S. Persnickety is actually a word according to Chrome's spellcheck... awesome.

 

[Primu$]

Can you tell me the exact size and ram kit brands you were using as most rams get finicky with unmatched pairs in any mobo. Sorry if you noted them above I may have missed it.

 

[engiNURD]

Yah, I had issues running 6 sticks in my x58 board. I had to drop the speed to DDR3-1333 and bump the vdimm to 1.65v to get it stable, which is a common remedy for maxing out your DIMM slots.

 

[kevineugenius]

Two sets of Patriot PVT36G1333LLK. Hopefully I'll get a fresh motherboard or be able to fix the bent pin and then in my spare time (lol, right) I wouldn't mind trying to get the thing stable just so I don't feel so defeated. Anyone who wants to assist me in that venture would be most appreciated.

I basically upped them to 1.64v and nothing else (which I did whether there were 6 or 12 gb installed). From some preliminary reading I've done, I should have also upped the CPU vcore (maybe, going off memory... I have it written down somewhere) and "loosened" the timings. I'm 99% sure there's nothing wrong with the RAM and for $500 I'll send you the mobo, cpu, ram, and both vid cards... just throwin that out there XD.