Help with the last few parts for a gaming build

A

andocser

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 29, 2004
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Before I begin I want to thank everyone that reads this and replies for their time. This forum is really amazing because of people like you.


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

Gaming and folding

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

Not concerned about it at this point.

3) Where do you live?

Cicero, NY

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

Power Supply - For the sake of cable management, I'd like to go modular. I'm not planning on running SLI or Crossfire right now, but I'd like the headroom to do it in the future. I was considering a Corsair 850HX.

DVD Burner - Needs to be black and SATA, that's really all I care about here

Video Card - I'm looking for opinions here. I'll start by saying that I'm typically an Nvidia guy, but I'd be happy to buy AMD if I can get better performance at the same cost. I'd also like to stick to a single-card solution as I don't think it would benefit me a lot to run SLI or Crossfire given my monitor (22" LCD). I was thinking my best bet would be to buy a GTX 260 for now to hold me over until AMD and Nvidia's next refresh, but it looks like AMD has released their 5000 series cards already. I have not researched them yet. I can also keep my 8800 GTS for a couple more weeks if now is a particularly poor time to buy. What do you guys/gals think?

SSD - This is another place I'm looking for opinions. Unless there is a better way to manage it I'd like an SSD for my OS and most commonly used programs and I can use a set of 2x WD 640s in RAID 0 for everything else. I already have the WD drives. As far as capacity goes, a 64GB SSD should be sufficient for me.

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

I already have:

Case - Antec 1200

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-EX-58-UD3R

CPU - Intel Core i7 920, D0 stepping - I've got a TRUE to keep it cool as well.

RAM - OCZ Platinum 3x2GB DDR3 1600 kit

HDs - 2x WD 640gb Black Edition - I was thinking I'd use these in RAID0 to supplement an SSD that I purchase.

I'm also happy with my monitor (22" LCD, 1680x1050 native resolution), keyboard (G15), and mouse (MX518) so I'll be reusing those.

6) Will you be overclocking?

Oh yes

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

22" LCD with a native resolution of 1680x1050

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

Sometime before the end of the weekend.

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

N/A, I've already got the motherboard.

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

Yes, I've got a copy of Windows 7
 
Please list a ballpark budget.

The HX850 is great, but very pricey. I'd suggest the Antec TP New/Blue 750W thats on sale at the egg for $105 instead.

Don't spend more than $30 shipped on a dvd burner.

Vidcard: read the reviews on the new ATI cards, particularly for the games you play and resolution, and see if they provide enough performance improvement to warrant the price of the upgrade.

The best priced 64GB that I'd recommend is the SuperTalent UltraDrive ME 64GB, but it went out of stock at the sale price of $138 until early next month. However, for such indilinx based drives, I'd highly suggest getting two for RAID0 instead of a single drive. If you want to stick to a single SSD, I'd highly suggest switching to Intel X25-M 80GB, typically around $260 at amazon. Read about the Intel and Indilinx SSDs from the links at the top of my HDTune page while you look at my benchmarks from a single Indilinx SSD to a RAID0 setup: http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/ocz_vertex.html
 
Thanks for your reply enginurd.

If a ballpark budget is required, I've got up to $800 I'm willing to commit to the burner, power supply, SSD(s), and video card. That budget can be flexible.

While I was looking around I thought the HX850 seemed quite pricey but the two things that attracted me to it were the fact that I'd have lots of headroom if I ever wanted to upgrade my box for 2 or 3 GPU folding and, most importantly, the stellar reviews from everyone, including the [H]. Do you think the Antec you recommended would give me similar capability? I've used Antec TP units before in the past and they've always worked out well for me.

As far as SSDs go, thanks for the input. This is one area that I don't know as much about as I'd like to. Is there a specific reason you recommend 2 SSDs in RAID0? Also, you mentioned that if I'd like only 1 SSD then the Intel X25-M 80GB is the one to go for. I've read that the Intel drives are particularly good, but I don't know exactly what the difference is between them and the typically lower priced drives I see.

Regarding video cards, after reading some reviews it looks like the 5850 is a great card at a very reasonable price. (I know, overkill for my setup, but I don't mind the headroom to run it on a TV @ 1080P if I'd like to, and I don't mind donating my extra GPU time to the [H]orde. I'll have to see how AMD cards are at GPU folding.) Based on the comments at the end of [H]'s 5850 review it seems like waiting to see what Nvidia has up their sleve this refresh cycle may be a great way to waste my time. :)
 
The TP New models are by far better than their predecessors. Unfortunately, there is no 850W model yet. Here's a review for the 750W:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=140

SSDs... Here's more info from one of my other posts...
enginurd said:
If you want more details on the tech behind an SSD, read the Anandtech SSD Anthology.

[Anandtech] The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
[Anandtech] The SSD Update: Vertex Gets Faster, New Indilinx Drives and Intel/MacBook Problems Resolved
[Anandtech] The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD
[Hard|OCP] SSD RAID scaling under Windows 7

Personally, I went from a 'cuda.10 to a Raptor150 and did not think the performance difference was worth the price premium and space sacrifice. Then I went from a caviar.black640 to a VRaptor300 and again, did not think the performance difference was worth the price premium and space sacrifice. Next I went from a VRaptor300 to an OCZ Vertex 30GB, and yet again, was underwhelmed. Then I picked up a 2nd Vertex 30GB and threw them in RAID0... WOW... I must say, the performance difference is VERY noticeable, but again, the price was pretty steep ($180 total AR in June). Regardless, it was a much bigger performance improvement than any of the Raptors ever were, for even less money than the raptors cost.

I believe the single Vertex was underwhelming because of the slow small random write speeds. As you can see from many tests online, these speeds increase greatly when in RAID0. Since RAID0 is simply striping data across two difference drives, there really isn't any major processing being done, so onboard RAID0 works perfectly fine for up to 650MB/s (around 3 vertex 120GB drives). Here are my screenshots:
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/ocz_vertex.html

As you'll learn from those anandtech articles, the TorqX has a 10yr warranty, and the garbage collection on the most recent firmware is good enough to maintain proper speeds while TRIM support is being worked on. Intel also has similar firmware to help maintain speeds as all the flash gets used.

The Intel X25-M SSDs have fast small random write speeds, but have slower sequential speeds. Conversely, the Indilinx based drives have faster sequential speeds, but slower small random write speeds. When you RAID0 the Indilinx drives, the small random write speeds increase to the levels of the Intel X25-M. For single SSD usage, the Intel is a better choice because of this. One thing to note is that the Indilinx based drives are still faster than mechanical drives, so even in a single drive config, it's still a fast solution (great for laptops/netbooks).
Click to expand...
 
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