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Final Gaming Build - Please Rate

C

CaseyJ70

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
88
1) What will you be doing with this PC?

Gaming, movies, music, some school work.

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

~1500$ CDN for the new PC.

3) Where do you live?

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?

Motherboard, CPU, RAM (6GB), HDD, Video Card, Case/PS

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

Dell 2407

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes, looking at the i7.

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

24 inch 1920x1200

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

ASAP.

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

USB 3.0, possibly SLI?

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

Vista, but want to upgrade to Win 7.

Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi 700MHZ 1536MB - $539.99
CPU - Intel Core i7 930 - $299.99
Motherboard - ASUS P6X58D-E - $233.20
PSU - Corsair TX850W - $139.99
HDD - WD Caviar Black 1TB - $87.99
RAM - G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB - $149.99
Case - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II - 89.99

Grand Total = 1541.00 without O/S.

O/S - Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate OEM?

I just have a few questions for you guys. Is it a general consensus that Win 7 Ultimate is not worth it? Are the only differences between it and Pro the bitlocker and language packs?

Also, I'm kinda stuck with the video card. What I'm planning on doing is buying one 480 and then in a couple months grabbing another to run SLI. Is this a good idea? Or should I just go with 2 460's in SLI? Would the 850W PSU run either configuration fine?

For the mobo, what is everyone's thoughts on the Gigabyte UDR3? From what I've read, it seems like most people are happier with the Asus board.

Lastly, I plan on O/Cing the 930. What cooler would everyone recommend? I've been looking at the Corsair H50/70s which look pretty solid. Any other recommendations?

Thanks guys, please give me some constructive comments as I want to make sure everything is good and order ASAP.
 
CaseyJ70 said:
1) What will you be doing with this PC?

Gaming, movies, music, some school work.

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

~1500$ CDN for the new PC.

3) Where do you live?

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?

Motherboard, CPU, RAM (6GB), HDD, Video Card, Case/PS

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

Dell 2407

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes, looking at the i7.

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

24 inch 1920x1200

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

ASAP.

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

USB 3.0, possibly SLI?

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

Vista, but want to upgrade to Win 7.

Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi 700MHZ 1536MB - $539.99
CPU - Intel Core i7 930 - $299.99
Motherboard - ASUS P6X58D-E - $233.20
PSU - Corsair TX850W - $139.99
HDD - WD Caviar Black 1TB - $87.99
RAM - G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB - $149.99
Case - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II - 89.99

Grand Total = 1541.00 without O/S.

O/S - Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate OEM?

I just have a few questions for you guys. Is it a general consensus that Win 7 Ultimate is not worth it? Are the only differences between it and Pro the bitlocker and language packs?

Also, I'm kinda stuck with the video card. What I'm planning on doing is buying one 480 and then in a couple months grabbing another to run SLI. Is this a good idea? Or should I just go with 2 460's in SLI? Would the 850W PSU run either configuration fine?

For the mobo, what is everyone's thoughts on the Gigabyte UDR3? From what I've read, it seems like most people are happier with the Asus board.

Lastly, I plan on O/Cing the 930. What cooler would everyone recommend? I've been looking at the Corsair H50/70s which look pretty solid. Any other recommendations?

Thanks guys, please give me some constructive comments as I want to make sure everything is good and order ASAP.
Click to expand...

For dual GTX 480s in SLI you will need at least a 1000W PSU. Plus, in most games dual GTX 460s in SLI will beat a single GTX 480 and still allows you to use an 850W PSU.

Second, you don't need even Windows 7 Pro unless you plan to upgrade your system to more than 16GB of RAM and/or run heavy-duty conttent creation programs and higher-end video editing programs. But since you have only 6GB total listed, Windows 7 Home Premium is all you need.
 
Going Dual GTX460 can also save you about $100+ than the GTX480, pending which model you get.
 
CaseyJ70,

Are you ordering from Newegg.ca?

850TX is $139.00 - $20 rebate + $9.99 shipping = $128.99
HX850 is $154.49 - $20 rebate + free shipping = $134.49

not sure what your tax rate is and it's difference between 139.99 and 154.99.. but maybe you should order the HX850. It's modular (if you don't like cable clutter), and is 80 Plus Silver certified, 2 additional years warranty (7 vs 5 on 850TX). Seems like a deal for an extra $6 dollars. I know RedBeard (sp?) said somewhere that the HX is better than the TX.. or at least he ranked it higher.

EDIT: Then again, maybe you don't like rebates. It's still $6 difference after shipping. How do you feel about rebates?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info. I'm order from ncix.com. I might do the HX though. I just need to decide if 850 is going to be enough. It's so tempting to SLI the 480s, and it doesn't sound like 850W will power them.
 
sli 480 would be complete overkill for 24" display and need minovsky ultracompact fusion reactor to power it. Its hard to suggest. you would be better off getting a single 30" and sli 460 than sli 480 with 24"
 
Alright. SLI 460s it is. Does everything else look good then (RAM, Mobo)? Still wondering about the Asus board vs. the Gigabyte...
 
i agree with 460 sli for 1 monitor, win7 home premium and HX version of that 850w psu.

personally i would go with the Samsung Spinpoint F3 for the HDD.

on the mobo, that gigabyte and Asus are both good. Do you really need USB3/Sata 6GB? Most do not. Might want to look at this board. Same family as the Asus you listed and nice spacing for the 460gtx in sli.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131365
 
Go with Windows 7 Home Premium. The "unique" features that make Windows 7 Professional (Windows XP Mode) and Windows 7 Ultimate (BitLocker Drive Encryption) more desirable can easily be replicated on Windows 7 Home Premium with freeware (VirtualPC 6.x and TrueCrypt, respectively).

Asus and Gigabyte make good boards; you generally couldn't go wrong with either brand. While Notleh is correct in saying that most people don't need USB 3.0 or SATA III (aka SATA 6Gb/s), they are both backwards compatible with older technology, making them good long-term options for future upgrades. Assuming you could afford to, it wouldn't kill you to have one or both of those features.

One good (fan-based) CPU cooler is the Prolimatech Megahalems.
 
Cool. Thanks guys. I'm beginning to learn more towards the Gigabyte board now. Plus, it's $10 less. I've also looked at that particular heatsink. What fan would be best to pair up with it?
 
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