early June build: input please

G

ginkilla

Weaksauce
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
81
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Gaming, Work, Photoshop, Music Development, Media, Web browsing, life

- Able to play Crysis admirably (don't like the game itself much but since I'm gonna be playing other high end games using this as a benchmark, maybe would like to show off some time in the future too :)

- QUIET. Not SUPER quiet but no jet engines please.
I am willing to make a compromise regarding performance & silent operation...

- Able to multitask with zero slowdown

- Able to run virtulization software

- Able to display HD media at 1900x1200

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

Up to a grand total of $3,000

3) Where do you live?

San Francisco, California

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.

everything needed for a new PC build

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

none

6) Will you be overclocking?

yes

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

24" + maybe 2 19" (maybe 30")

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

End of month, early June

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

RAID, Firewire, Crossfire & SLI potential.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

yes
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Note: I have a discount for all Dell products, and will be purchasing my monitors from them as well as whatever else that is cost effective.
Question: what are the best monitor's they are offering right now (IPS)?

Also, is it possible to fit a i7 965 into my budget? I know it is ridiculously priced but I would like my system to be "unique" to some extent, and it seems every single person buying a computer today is opting i7 920! I know it sounds silly... Sorry.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So without further ado, some components I'd like to see

*Corsair PSU either 850TX or 1000HX

*thinking of DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8 LGA 1366 anyone have this?

Also the new EVGA Classified revision looks appealing

*HDD choice would be Caviar black & and an INTEL x25m 80GB

*Case-wise, I very much like the SILVERSTONE FT01, or should I opt full tower for cooling/silence?

*Graphics card: I'm not sure about an SLI/CF solution, no experience with it. How hard is it to set up, and is it much noisier than a single 285?

Alright, I got a few more ideas but let's hear what you guys are thinking.
 
Good budget man. Not worth getting a i7 965 when you can O/C the Core i7 920 cpu. As far as IPS monitor, look at the HP LP2475W which is a pretty good deal at $555 from Amazon.com. Newegg at $560 w/free shipping. With a $3K budget, I would go 2 x 24" or 1 x 30" HP LP3065 display. It's gonna be sick gaming on that 30" with 2 x Radeon HD 4890 1gig in Xfire.

The only Dell IPS monitors are the 30" lcds. They use to have the 20.1" IPS panels on the 2005FPW and 2007FP but, now they are using either S-PVA or 6 bit TN panels on the 20" size lcds. The 24" Ultrasharp 2408WFP uses an S-PVA panel. The 2408WFP rev A01 should have reduced lag input. The first batch of 2408WFP is known to having bad input lag compared to the earlier model 2407WFP.
 
Last edited:
I know 965 is not worth it but it's EXTREME for pete's sake. EXTREME! argh i'm trying to convince myself the same but I feel like I'm being cheap getting the lowest end i7.

Yes I know that statement contradicts itself.

You may have missed the part in which I mentioned I am getting significant discounts on Dell products so Hewlett Packard displays are out of the question.

As far as 24" go 2408WFP looks like a good option so I'll keep that in mind. Is the 30" Dell any good?
 
i agree with hardwareguru the 965 is a waste, just get a 920 under water and oc....thats extreme
 
okay well if I'm getting the 920 instead I guess I'll forgo spending the entire 3000 on the computer instead get a 2,500+/- dollar one and a television to boot :) Or I still may get the 965 (975 actually that'll be here at the end of the month!)

Anyway aside from the processor are there no other people willing to comment?
 
Please be more specific, as asked in the question, about what parts you need. Monitors, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc are all part of the PC as well you know.

Also I concur with HardwareGuru: Do not go for the 965 unless you're bloody retarded. Not gonna sugar coated: it is an EXTREMELY STUPID idea to go with the 965 or 975.

Here's a Prelim Setup I'm borrowing from this thread:
$289 - Intel Core i7 920 CPU
$210 - Asus P6T SE Intel X58 ATX Motherboard
$180 - 2 x G.Skill F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$250 - XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$75 - Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$25 - Samsung SH-222F 22X DVD±R SATA DVD Burner
$110 - PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W PSU
$40 - Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm HSF
----
Total: $1179 plus tax and shipping.
 
Out of curiosity, what is your current setup now? Dannys build looks solid and balanced. Yeah.. I know it's not unique as others because alot of people build a Core i7 computer with the 920 cpu. But, what matters is that you have a faster system than your previous computer. Also, you can focus on getting a nice display. The 2408WFP is a good 24". It would be good if you receive the Rev A01 model that supposedly have a lower input lag than the Rev A00 model. The Dell 30" 3008WFP is a good 30" but, very expensive though at $1800 - $2,000. Soo.. unless you have a major discount off the Dell monitors, I rather get the HP LP3065 30" that can be bought at $1200 and is ideal for playing high FPS gaming. The 30 Dell 3008WFP also suffers from lag input. But, some people complain about the lag while others say it's not an issue though.
 
For a build w/ over the top hardware + to satisfy e-peenage, consult your nearest Alienware dealer.
 
tl;dr most of it... It sounds like you want to spend money. If you want to spend money and actually notice extreme performance, spend it on the storage, not all on the CPU. You have a budget of $3k? Lets see...

$1200 - Danny's build
$1100 - 5x OCZ Vertex SSDs 60GB
$450 - Areca 1220
=========
$2750 + whatever else you need, hehe

But if you happen to find $25k lyin around...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs
... people are probably getting sick of me posting this vid, lol.
 
@ HardwareGuru: current setup: None. My Opteron 165 died, and I'm scrapping the whole setup. It was quite nice back in the day. Had it clocked @ 2.40 Upgraded the video card to a 4830 recently.

well thanks for putting it bluntly. alright so the 965 is out of the question. And no I don't want to spend a bunch of money thank you very much, I was just entertaining the thought of getting the 965. Regarding storage, I don't think I wanna get into a complicated RAID setup rather just have a fast HDD that isn't going to bottleneck my system. I have heard that HDD are the primary bottlenecks of system performance from many people. So either one SSD or a VelociRaptor.

The 4890, I hear, is insufficient for running Crysis on high settings at 1900x1200 res. So unless I CF it (and I have mentioned my lack of trust to the whole SLI/CF system, also what is the NOISE factor?). I'm thinking 285GTX until the newer cards come out in Q4.

Again, about the motherboard. I could only find a few reviews of the DFI LanParty UT X58-T3eH8
newegg reviews seem favorable http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136063&Tpk=DFI%20UT%20X58-T3eH8

So has anyone on this forum any experience with this? I used the DFI LP UT NF4 Ultra-D and it's been fantastic...
 
You can probably sell your 939 gear here on the FS/T forum for some nice change, if anything still works. ;)

RAID setups are far from complicated, especially RAID0. A VRaptor is not worth its price over a Caviar. A single Vertex SSD isn't worth it over a Caviar either, but if you have money to spend, two in RAID0 would smoke 3 Caviars in RAID0. ;) I guess you didn't watch that vid I posted. :(

Many vidcard configs are insufficient for running Crysis on High at that res. For an FPS game, personally, I like at least 100fps... so in my book, nothing runs that game sufficiently, lol. I think the only single card thats ok at it is the GTX295:
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/mutligpuupdate2gpufeb09_021209154227/18251.png
that image is from this review: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=8

If you liked the Ultra-D, you should like the DFI X58.
 
I watched the video. It was impressive. Very much so.

Yeah the motherboard still works and everything aside from the CPU.

Nah I know it's not too complicated. I just don't have money for 2 80GB intel x25m's. So if I go SSD either that or the 120GB vertex.

Plus 1 terabyte caviar black, for storage, maybe I'll even go RAID 0 2 640GB.

30FPS is minimum for myself so the 285 should run it sufficiently until GTX300 series arrives.
GTX 295 is a dual card in one setup, as I said I heard it's quite loud. I mentioned that I'd like a quiet(er) PC.
 
For that budget, get a 920 CPU. Grab a referb 30" 3008 Dell monitor for ~1200. Toss in 2x 285s for another 600. That'll bring your monitor+GPU up to 1800. From there, add on the 920 and a mobo for ~550. 6 GB of ram, although if you want V.machines you might consider 12 which would be another 200. Add in a 1K PSU for another 200. That leaves you a storage budget of.... 250$.

Of course, if you wanted you could get a single 24" monitor for 300ish, 2x 260s for 300$, a 750 PSU for 150$ and the same mobo, CPU,storage, ram and have 1250 left over to upgrade in 6 months or a year.
 
Heh, loud is subjective... I think all of the high end cards are loud, lol, but thats just me.
 
If you're going to play Crysis and you decide to get the GTX 285, I suggest you have the game setting at high and don't enable Anti- Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering when playing the game at 1920 x 1200 res. Or, you can drop down the res at 1680 x 1050 and have settings all on very high and see how that goes. It should still look good and you'll have pretty good framerates. Don't bother with AA, it will just slow the game down.
 
Regarding the monitor, I'll be getting a hefty discount so I'll see how much it is comparing the 24" to the 30". 30" sounds like overkill but if the price is right....

Maybe the i7 950 will be a better bargain, or the 940 will drop in price. What do you think?

Okay, well are any SLI/CF setups worth the while, and are they quiet? And yeah I understand I'll be subjecting myself to lower setting in crysis with a single GPU setup.
 
A Core i7 920, 12gigs RAM, GTX 285 video card, WD 640gig Sata 3.0gb/s hdd will be a pretty sick upgrade from your AMD Opteron 165. The Opteron 165 is similar performance to an Athlon 64 3800+. So, a Core i7 upgrade will be a major ass upgrade. I would say the Dell 2408WFP is more worth it than the crazy 3008WFP price of $1,700.00. I would see the 2408WFP priced at $480 when it goes on sale. For 30" display, I'd rather get the 3007WFP-HC model for $1,100. It may not have as much inputs and features but, has a lower input lag and more ideal for FPS gaming. Hehe, getting a 30" will certainly make you want to upgrade your system.
 
HardwareGuru said:
A Core i7 920, 12gigs RAM, GTX 285 video card, WD 640gig Sata 3.0gb/s hdd will be a pretty sick upgrade from your AMD Opteron 165. The Opteron 165 is similar performance to an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ at stock speeds. ...
Click to expand...

fixed. sorry, i used to own one, and i loved mine (clocked to 2.6Ghz), haha.
 
I am fully aware of the sort of hardware I'd need to be gaming on a beast of that magnitude.

hardwareguru, you think I'd need 12 gigs? Seems a bit overkill, no?

Again, I don't want my HDD to be holding back my system, so I think I wanna go SSD or Raptor.

Also I'm really anxious about when to buy my system. I really would like to do it immediately but...
I hear that the 950 will lower the price of the 940 and I'd be able to pick one up for 350 or so.
What do you guys think? Wait til the end of the month, or just DO IT?
 
Fine, O/C Opteron 165 at 2.6ghz comparable to an Athlon 64 FX-60 cpu. Hehe lol But, anyways.. yeah 12gigs is alot. I was just following Dannys build hehe. 6gigs of RAM is alot already but then, photoshop can use alot of RAM. As far as the Core i7 940 cpu, I guess it's up to you if you want to get it. But, I don't see a need to when you will O/C the Core i7 920 anyways.


enginurd said:
fixed. sorry, i used to own one, and i loved mine (clocked to 2.6Ghz), haha.
Click to expand...
 
so you are saying if I buy now I'm not loosing out? In that case I might just buy tonight!
 
yeah the opteron 165 was an amazing investment I got a ton out of it! Hope the i7 920 doesn't disappoint..
or I might just be disappointed with myself.
 
By the way, Core i7 920 cpu is on sale at Microcenter for $200 if you have a Microcenter store near your area.
 
ginkilla said:
... Again, I don't want my HDD to be holding back my system, so I think I wanna go SSD or Raptor. ...
Click to expand...

$230 - WD3000HLFS: 102MB/s
$70 - WD6400AAKS: 92MB/s

9.8% faster but costs 300% more, yet half the space... does that make sense to you? :confused::eek::p

Mind you, I have both HDDs... and I'm telling you the VRaptor is not worth it.

Wait as long as you can, build when you can't wait any longer.
 
well theoretically I could wait forever. this machine I'm using right now is fine for office tasks but it's slowness and inability to run jack-shit is driving me crazy.
 
Alright, so I've got another draft for my build set up

some questions
- I hear the SeaSonic M12D SS-850 850W is very quiet and efficient. What do you guys think?

Anyone recommend a better PSU?
remember, I would like to keep it modular/quiet/power, will this deliver?

- cases, what are your guy's thoughts on the FT01 Silverstone, as opposed to the Antec P193? FT01 is all aluminum, while the P193 is a mix.

I am considering getting a full tower for maximum airflow, yet I would like to maintain a degree of silence so the HAF is out of the equation.

Motherboard: Still looks like the DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8 LGA 1366 is my pick. Or is the EVGA Classified worth it?

Regarding SSD: The intel x25m 80GB MLC is one of the best still, right? Or should I opt for a vertex instead?

Still considering even the VelociRaptor.

Here's the newegg link: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=13597428
 
I've always found Seasonics a bit overpriced. However, they are very good quality and typically very quiet as well. $220 for 850W? definitely overpriced. Corsair typically gets supplied by Seasonic and CWT -- also very good and quiet. The HX1000 is only $20 more and offers 150W more power. Still, I wouldn't go with either of them, lol. I wouldn't spend more than $150 for a PSU for that system.

I like Silverstone a lot better than Antec. Though, the Antec is probably more quiet.

Vertex will save you a lot of money. Samsung just released theirs, though you'll probably have to wait for their prices to settle.
 
Yes the pricing for the SeaSonic is a tad extreme, however they are currently offering a $50 dollar mail in rebate, so it is not too bad of a deal.
Add in the quality + acoustics and it becomes an even better deal.

Corsair HX1000 is far too loud, I would think, judging from reviews. Am I missing something here?

Also you mention not spending more than $150 on a PSU for THAT system, are you inferring my build is somehow sub-par? If so, please elaborate.

intel x25m 80GB is less than the 120GB vertex and offers superior performance, so I'll probably go with that one.
 
It's not that your build is sub-par, but you don't need 850 watts of power for that system. A good 550-650 watt power supply is more than enough, especially if you aren't planning on running multiple video cards.

However, I can't offer a "quiet" substitute for your choice, since my perception of quiet is much different than yours.
 
Out of curiosity, how do you judge/consider "quiet"?

And I do plan on running a dual GPU setup possibly when the GT300 series is released (or ATI equivalent)

So, does no one else have anything to comment upon? I guess I must be more talented at putting together builds than I thought.
 
ahh, indeed it is loud after 500W. Good thing you won't be using that much power with that current config, huh? :p That Seasonic is probably the quietest one you'll find, I'm assuming.

If you do get SLI when the GT300 comes out, please update this thread and quote this post. ;)
 
So anyone out there got any more input for me? I'm planning on buying this weekend.
 
guys, I'm deciding whether I ought to go full tower or mid tower (FT01 Fortress). Would I benefit from a full tower setup?
 
If you want raw speed from your hard drive, get the SSD instead -- I agree with enginurd that the VelociRaptor isn't worth the money. I know nothing about the Intel X25M series SSD, so I can't tell you whether or not it's better than the OCZ Vertex cities.

All of the stuff that you plan on ordering can fit a decent mid-tower case. However, it really depends on the case that you buy. For example, both the Antec Three Hundred and the Cooler Master Centurion 690 are both classified mid-tower cases, but the CM 690 has more room to work with than the 300, especially with video cards.

Cooler Master, Silverstone, and Lian Li (among other name-brand case manufacturers) generally have large, spacious cases. Antec and Thermaltake's cases are hit or miss; some have enough space for everything but others are smaller than most users would use.

My advice to you is to go with a full tower case only if you want a full tower case.
 
ginkilla said:
guys, I'm deciding whether I ought to go full tower or mid tower (FT01 Fortress). Would I benefit from a full tower setup?
Click to expand...

Its simply more room to work with when inside your case, and typically more room is better for cooling the system. Personally, I hate working in cramped cases.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top