i5 build - final opinions

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paco

Gawd
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Feb 3, 2003
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With the help of several here, I'm made a lot of modifications. I'm building this computer for a customer. Budget is $800 (no more). Will be used for light gaming, 3d rendering (Solidworks), photoediting, etc.

Here's what I have so far...
Samsung DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151187
WD Caviar Black 1TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Antec Two Hundred
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129070
Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371020
Intel Core i5 750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215
GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128405
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277
SAPPHIRE 100279-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102849

This with the combo deals gets me to $780.

My questions are...
Is the Antec 300 worth the few extra $$$ over the Antec 200 case? Doesn't seem like it.
Are there any other glaring holes? Will the video card fit in the case alright? Is the PSU adequate for this build and maybe future HD and memory expansion?

I appreciate the feedback. I plan to buy everything on Monday. My customer is hot to get something now, because they need it for their home business and the current computer is about dead.
 
Does the customer like the 200 case? I personally do not. I would go with the 300-for my taste.
New VC due out soon, there might be a price reduction in the VC you have chosen if you wait maybe till Wed. New cards due out monday.
 
gwarren007 said:
Does the customer like the 200 case? I personally do not. I would go with the 300-for my taste.
New VC due out soon, there might be a price reduction in the VC you have chosen if you wait maybe till Wed. New cards due out monday.
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They picked out the 300 case, but don't know much about it. I saw the 200 and didn't notice a lot of difference, so I thought about that one to save a few bucks. What's the main differences?

I'll have to see what they think about waiting until Wednesday. They are pretty hot on it. But maybe they could move up to the 4890 if they wait a few days.

Been looking around for other PSU's, either the same Antec, but 650, or the Corsair models. But I can't find one with as good a combo deal with a case.

Any other case/PSU deals that might go for $135 or less as a combo and still be good? that's the cost of the 300 + the Antec TP-550
 
gwarren007 said:
+100 watts :D

Also a very good PSU.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah that was obvious! :D

Thanks for the suggestions. Been a few years since I've done a newer build, so I'm a bit rusty on what's good or bad right now.

I just sent them a note to see what they think about waiting for a few days for better video or at least cheaper prices.
 
I agree with the antec 200 case. I personally think it's ugly hehe to me anyways. I'd go with the Antec 300 Case + Antec Truepower New 550 for $134.90 The Antec 300 + Antec EA650 combo for $124.94 is also a good combo. The Antec Truepower New 550 maybe 550W but their total +12V amperage output is the same at 45A. I am using the Antec EA650 and it's a good PSU. 45A on the +12V will be plenty for single card configuration.
 
In addition to what HardwareGuru said, the TP-550 also has modular cables and a higher 80 Plus rating (Bronze) than the EA650 (which is only certified to meet the 80 Plus standard). The TP-550 is "technically" better, but either PSU is a good choice.

If you buy the Three Hundred case, you should consider buying two additional 120mm fans for the front of the case. For the lazy, NewEgg also has the Antec Three Hundred Illusion available, which comes with those fans already. It also has a combo deal with the EA650, but not the TP-550.

Then again, the "regular" Three Hundred case comes with free ground shipping, which can save you around $15-$25 on shipping costs.
 
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Personally, i love cooler master 590 case. Second your customer would benefit from ht, so perhaps buying i7 920 is a better choice. Some cheap board would do and i recommend asrock x58 extreme. Also, your customer would benefit from hard drive speed, so with that in mind, i would go for 2 wd 500 aals for raid 0. Nvidia card would perhaps be a better choice because of cuda, so pick gts 250 or gtx 260 216. Not sure about the prices you can get, but you can go for a cheaper gpu. Corsair cx 400 psu would be a good choice.
 
Igneos79 said:
Personally, i love cooler master 590 case. Second your customer would benefit from ht, so perhaps buying i7 920 is a better choice. Some cheap board would do and i recommend asrock x58 extreme. Also, your customer would benefit from hard drive speed, so with that in mind, i would go for 2 wd 500 aals for raid 0. Nvidia card would perhaps be a better choice because of cuda, so pick gts 250 or gtx 260 216. Not sure about the prices you can get, but you can go for a cheaper gpu. Corsair cx 400 psu would be a good choice.
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You would need to build it for him to show how you could that for the $800 budget, and he will be ordering within 3 days
 
Think I'm leaning toward that 550. I much prefer the modular PSU's. I'm pretty sure I have a few 120 fans laying around here that I can pop in too. Thanks for the input Igneos79, but I think that is going to price out of their range.

But if you want to price it all out for me, I'll have a look! :D
 
Igneos79 said:
... Also, your customer would benefit from hard drive speed, so with that in mind, i would go for 2 wd 500 aals for raid 0. Nvidia card would perhaps be a better choice because of cuda, so pick gts 250 or gtx 260 216. ...
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The WD5001AALS still uses a 2-platter (250GB each) design, making it slower than the 640GB model. At $70, you might as well buy the WD6401AALS for only $5 more and get a nice speed increase.

NVIDIA has CUDA, and IIRC, ATI has STREAM -- both of which should improve performance in CS4. Does Solidworks performance improve with ATI STREAM?

zapht3rg said:
Review of Earthwatts 750: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=163
Review of Truepower 750: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=140

These two articles convinced me to stay away from earthwatts psu's in favor of truepower new models. The price increase is not very much for significant gains in quality. In cross loading tests the earthwatts was out of ATX spec, while the TPN had no problem.
...
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You make it sound like the Earthwatts 750W is a terrible PSU for the money, lol. It was out of spec by 1mV! :rolleyes: Its final score was 8 vs the TPN's 9. At $35 savings, I'd say its still a damn good PSU for the money. For you, the price difference may be negligible, but for others, its a good opportunity to shave some cost if they're nearing their budget. Just wanted to give an opinion from the other side of the coin. ;)
 
Two things:

1) Mail-in rebates aren't the same as an instant discount -- and I believe that they shouldn't be compared the same way. For someone with a very tight (and/or very firm) budget, that $20 (s)he saves on the EA500 may be more beneficial than the $20 MIR (s)he has to wait weeks (if not months) for. (Another thing to consider is free shipping. For the majority of this past year, one of the best deals around was for an Earthwatts series PSU for a comparatively low price and free shipping. Though better quality PSUs were, and are, still available, getting an EA430 or EA500 for under $60 shipped was, and still is, a steal.)

2) Contrary to what you believe, the Antec Earthwatts series aren't crap. They were among the first PSU series to obtain the 80 Plus energy-efficiency certification, they repaired Antec's reputation after its earlier fiasco with the TruePower/SmartPower 2.0 series, and they're good power supplies for a relatively low price. Despite the ripple issue, JonnyGURU still gave the EA750 a good score. Besides, most people won't push their PSUs to their limit, which greatly reduces the chance that the EA750 could cause any long-term problems.
 
1mV!
o.O.gif
Thats not enough to write off the EA750 completely. I still believe the EA750 is a good quality PSU, even at $100 -- it still offers slightly more power than the TPN 650W at the same price (TPN is partially modular, though). So, if you had $100 budget and needed more than 700W, the EA750, TX750 and the 750W QUAD would be good choices.
 
920.95 + shipping from microcenter
940.98 + shipping from NE

Your links and prices and 1 hard drive. And you would run a GTX260 on a 400 watt PS?
 
gwarren007 said:
Your links and prices and 1 hard drive. And you would run a GTX260 on a 400 watt PS?
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Corsair's own PSU finder says no.

Also $190 is a shitty price for the GTX 260 considering that the faster HD4890 is only $10 more. And yes the HD4890 will require a bigger PSU than the Corsair 400CX.
 
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