My second build, Almost final !

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mussafry89

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
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Well, I've been using a laptop for a really long time. and i finally decided i want to build another desktop. The last one i built was in 2005, and i hope there hasnt been much changes since then. So far, this is what i have. (MAXIMUM Bidget 3000) I really dont want to hit $3000, but i will if necessary.

CPU:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

Cooler:

Thermalright 120 Extreme

Motherboard:

eVGA 780i

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188024

Video Card: **TEMPORARY UNTIL 9900 series COMES OUT**

8600GTS, couldnt find anything cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814186036

RAM:

Mushkin DDR2 1066 2x2g

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146785

Hard Drive:

2x WD Cavier 400GB 7200RPM...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136076

DVD:

Pioneer 20X DVD+R

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136076

PSU:

Silverstone Decathalon 1000W

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=160&products_id=23772

Case:

Lian Li PC-P80 Armorsuit w/ Sidepanel
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=204&products_id=23305

All that comes retty close to $2000, if not, a bit over. Thats not including a 9900 video card, which is just perfect for my budget. Theres still room to expand though.

So what do you guys think?
 
You don't need a 1000 watt PSU -- the $100 Corsair 750 TX will do just as well and handle anything you care to put in that box.

SLI as an upgrade path is a horrible idea -- a single 280 GTX should handle anything you care to play at 1920x1200 and below, so unless you have a LCD larger than 26", forget SLI. Nvidia chipsets are also potentially troublesome. Get a P45 based board instead; Intel chipsets are more stable, run cooler, and generally OC better. If you must have SLI support, the EVGA 750i SLI FTW is the only Intel compatible SLI board I would consider.

The 400GB drives you chose are not that fast -- I'd recommend a 640GB WD AAKS 7200RPM, or if you go with a non-Nvidia chipset board, a Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB 7200RPM (these have problems with Nvidia chipsets).

I'd recommend a Samsung DVDRW over the Pioneer.

The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme has seen its day -- the Xigmatech HDT-S1283 with a bolt-thru mounting kit keeps up with it just fine for 1/2 the price, and doesn't require that you lap it to get good performance.
 
wow, fast replies!

Thanks.

I dont know why i picked that board, all im gonna play is counterstrike :D At 640x480. I really dont need SLi but i feel bad just not having the option to do it. But your right, i really dont need it.

So, what motherboard do ou suggest? Cuz im a complete retard with mobo's.

And i dont see how the drive you linked is faster, isnt it 7200RPM making it the same?

and samsung over pioneer. Ok ! :thumbsup
 
Okay, you made me curious....

Which monitor/resolution are you using?
Which games are you planning on playing?
Do you plan on overclocking? Using water cooling? Both?
Are you planning on using RAID 0 for those two WD hard drives?

Some additonal changes:

The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 works just as well as the TRUE 120, yet it costs less. (Don't forget to include the mounting bracket to make things easier on you.)

Unless you're considering a triple card SLI/CrossFire setup, you won't need a kilowatt PSU. In fact, the Corsair TX750 is one of the best deals around -- just get it from either Provantage or Buy.com.

If you're going to be overclocking, get the Q9450 instead of the Q9550. Personally, <200MHz and an extra 0.5x multiplier is not worth an additional $200.

Do you even need SLI? If not, look at a P35 board...

Danny Bui said:
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L Intel P35 Motherboard - $90
MSI P35 Neo2-FR Intel P35 Motherboard - $110
DFI BloodIron P35-T2RL Intel P35 Motherboard - $115
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R Intel P35 Motherboard - $120
DFI LanParty DK P35-T2RS Intel P35 Motherboard - $130
Asus P5K-E Intel P35 Motherboard - $140
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P Intel P35 Motherboard - $150
Asus P5K-E/Wifi-AP Intel P35 Motherboard - $150
Abit IP35 Pro Intel P35 Motherboard - $170
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 Intel P35 Motherboard - $170

Just to help you out: If you don't need RAID, more than 4 SATA ports and only need semi-decent overclocking, check out the DS3L. If you need 5 SATA ports, 2 eSATA ports, slightly better overclocking, and a second PCI-E x16 port, then get the Neo2-Fr. If you want heavy overclocking options and six SATA ports, check out the Blood Iron. If you like the BloodIron but want significantly better overclock stability and options, go for the LanParty. If you want 8 SATA ports, RAID, legacy ports and high overclocks and optional eSATA, than the DS3R is a good choice. If you want the DS3R but need Firewire and a second PCI-E x16 port, then go for the DS3P. If you like the DS3P but need 3 PCI slots instead of the DS3P's 2 PCI slots and like having non-optional eSATA, go for the Asus P5K-E. If you like the P5K-E but need wifi, then go for the P5K-E/Wifi-AP. If you want something that can overclock pretty damn high along with RAID, eSATA ports and firewire connections, than the IP35 Pro. If you like the DS3P but want better cooling for overclocking, then go for the DS4. Do note that the Asus website can be slow sometimes.
Click to expand...

... or consider one of the P45 boards that are arriving soon.

The G.Skill 4GB DDR2 1000 kit will reach the same approximiate OC thresholds as the Mushkin DDR2 1066 kit for less.

I recommend a faster single drive than those two 400GB drives. You can choose either the WD 640GB drive or the Samsung F1 750GB drive -- either of those drives would perform better than even a single 150GB Raptor.
 
The 400GB drive uses smaller platters -- the 640GB uses a pair of 320GB platters, which makes it much faster (higher data density leads to faster writes). Spindle speed is not the only deciding factor in read/write speed. The 640GB AAKS 7200RPMs are actually faster than older 10,000 RPM Raptor drives.

Wait a bit for the P45 boards to hit market, and watch the [H] reviews for them.
 
tiraides said:
Okay, you made me curious....

Which monitor/resolution are you using?
Which games are you planning on playing?
Do you plan on overclocking? Using water cooling? Both?
Are you planning on using RAID 0 for those two WD hard drives?
Click to expand...

im buying a new moniter, probably around 22-24 inches. I plan on trying out new games, but nothing too extreme. I dont really care about the resolution i play at, as long as the game is fun.

Overclocking, I will be trying (Never did it before, complete noob)

Watercooling, yes, but in the futur (2-3 months).

Raid 0? No.

tiraides said:
Some additonal changes:

The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 works just as well as the TRUE 120, yet it costs less. (Don't forget to include the mounting bracket to make things easier on you.)

Unless you're considering a triple card SLI/CrossFire setup, you won't need a kilowatt PSU. In fact, the Corsair TX750 is one of the best deals around -- just get it from either Provantage or Buy.com.

If you're going to be overclocking, get the Q9450 instead of the Q9550. Personally, <200MHz and an extra 0.5x multiplier is not worth an additional $200.

Do you even need SLI? If not, look at a P35 board...



... or consider one of the P45 boards that are arriving soon.

The G.Skill 4GB DDR2 1000 kit will reach the same approximiate OC thresholds as the Mushkin DDR2 1066 kit for less.
Click to expand...

The P45, is it worth the wait? Because i really am looking forward to building this and would like to order everything today/tomorrow.
oh, and I think ill stay with the DDR2 1066.

tiraides said:
I recommend a faster single drive than those two 400GB drives. You can choose either the WD 640GB drive or the Samsung F1 750GB drive -- either of those drives would perform better than even a single 150GB Raptor.
Click to expand...

I think ill get 2x 640GB WD drives, or should i get a raptor and one 640gb drive?
 
One thing thats changed since 2005, AMD is now the suck, Intel is now the win. And, unfortunately for AMD (and its billions upon billions of dollars of debt), it looks like its going to remain that way for all of 2009.

Assuming you're going with an LGA775 socketed motherboard, you want a Q9450. Its soon to be EOLd and replaced by the Q9550 at the same price (which doesn't make me any happier, I hate it how intel plays this game), but I wouldn't wait for that. Nehalem is due out for Q4 2008, and according to some random road map from Intel I saw, the cheapest Nehalem will be at 2.66Ghz, and it will be priced at just over $300. I have no evidence to prove they plan to cripple the L2, but I suspect they will.

I like DannyBui's Triade's recommendations :cool:. The DFI Lanparty DK P35-TR2S is a good Idea. I really wish I had gone with that instead of this POS Maximus formula. Its topped out at 470MHz. I have tinkered with every option and my gdamned profile which allowed me to his 503 stable on my old bios now tops out at 460. If i switch back to that old bios I cant get out of post without an ata hdd. God damnit all...

Anyways, before I go into that rant, I'll just say that the Lanparty P35DK is a good idea for an overclocker. I got to work with one last week and we set some pretty huge numbers (520 X 6 IIRC :D).

Another vote for the 640GB HDDs. Saying that all 7200RPM drives are all alike is like saying that all 3.6GHz procs are alike. In fact, if we take a rotation to mean a cycle, and convert minutes into seconds (by deviding by 60), we litterally have cycles/second which is the definition of Hertz.

I don't know enough about ram --and admittedly as an overclocker that is a problem. I should go do some homework on what clocks how high. Generally speaking however DDR2 800 w/ cas 4 will hit DDR2 1066 w/ cas 5 without too much trouble. And keep in mind, both the kits you plan to buy and the DDR2 1000 kit recommended are EPP profiles for their rated speed, meaning if your not using an Nvidia motherboard, your computer is going to say you own some mighty fast DDR2 800 and run it as such. To get it up to speed you'll have to up the FSB speed (ie overclock the CPU and NB accordingly).

Raid-0 does give you a little extra performance, but it doubles the chance of failure simply because your running two drives. Raid 10 and 0+1 both give you raid-0 performance, and raid-1 security by use of four drives, but requires you to pick-up four drives. I think a hardware accelerated raid-5 array is a better idea at that point, both from a data security stand point and from a performance stand point. All of this is to say, just run the damn things in seperation, and backup your data.

Seeing as how your on a $3000 budget, and Nvidia will have the top performer for at least 6 weeks (and even then, the elegance of the ATI's X2 cards is questionable), you will probably want the GTX280 (previously named 9900GTX --there is no GX2). The GTX280 is going to be the ugliest single chip card Nvidia has ever released for power consumption and, thus, heat produced. But it will be king of the hill. If you want to sacrifice the elegance of the single chip solution for a higher performing dual chip solution, ATIs HD4870 X2 will probably outperform. estimates put it out about two months from now.
 
Again, you'll reach the same approximate overclocking limits with DDR2 1000 RAM as you would with DDR2 1066 RAM. You'll be spending $50 more for 66MHz (actually, 33MHz) faster memory -- that's not a good deal in my book.

A P35/P45 board with a single high-end video card would be enough for a 22-24 inch monitor. There are some good P35 boards out now if you can't wait. I'm a fan of the Gigabyte boards myself, but the DFI models are very good overclockers.

Don't even consider a Raptor at this time. (Granted, the 300GB VelociRaptor is the fastest drive around, but I don't think that it's really worth the money.) If you need the space, go ahead and get two drives.
 
You guys are right, lol i've never had a budget before. And i keep trying to max it out, thats why ive been getting like the Q9550, 1000kW PSU even if i dont need it, im not used to having a budget.

But you guys are right, no need to pay extra when the difference is minimal. Right now, im at 900$ without the case and psu!! :shocked. With the PSU though, im really against going for the 750TX corsair. I dont know, id like to stick to atleast 800+ Just so i can sleep happy. And, that PSU is pretty loud at full load ... 45dBA?!? crazy.

and, its kinda funny... my case is the most expensive part of the build :p
 
The only time it would be possible for your system to reach full load with those specs is if you were gaming on one of the newer high-power-consumption cards. And, while you're gaming, you'll either be wearing headphones or have the speakers turned up, so the loudness of the PSU should be irrelevant. Idle, that system won't draw anywhere near 400W, so stick to the Corsair 750W. Also, its +12V rail heavy, so it actually can power more than some 800W PSUs, since modern systems draw from the +12V rail, mostly. Heck, even a 620W Corsair PSU would be more than enough for that build.

Wait for the new cards. Vidcards are the fastest depreciating component of a gaming PC, and you're about to buy one right before the current cards take a dive in value.
 
I said the 8600GTS is temporary, until nVdia release the 9900 series. its only $65.

As for the PSU, i guess its the 750TX. Even though its not modular ><

So right now im at $1000, without the case and without the 9900GTX. Pretty good.
 
If you'd like to spend more money, the HX1000W is modular, lol. Though, like I said, even the HX620 would suffice.

Sorry, its the end of the day, so my eyes arent the greatest right now (they saw 8800GTS, not 86).

P45 will bring about a die shrink and PCI-E2.0 (along with more PCI-E lanes) (and some boards will have better crossfire support 8x/8x vs 16x/4x). The die shrink should help it run cooler and OC better -- and will also require less voltage.
 
any clue when these P45 boards are coming out? If its worth the wait, i might as well wait for that and the new 9900 series at the same time i guess.
 
They're out, but not all of them. They'll be trickling in for the next month or so, as will reviews. As always with new releases, there should be some BIOS issues and other things to work out. I typically wait for the 2nd revision at least, but I doubt you want to wait that long. So, just wait a few weeks for more reviews, since you're waiting for the vidcards, too.
 
what the heck is a 9900? i thought new vid from nvdia was like 200,260,280gtx or something
 
they are, but some noobs like me call them 9900. I mean the 280GTX or GX or whatever its called.
 
mussafry89 said:
You guys are right, lol i've never had a budget before. And i keep trying to max it out, thats why ive been getting like the Q9550, 1000kW PSU even if i dont need it, im not used to having a budget.
Click to expand...

you know, if your at $900 w/o case, psu, and graphics cards, and your max is $3000, that puts you right back in dual GTX280 range. And Dual GTX 280 range puts you right back in the 800W PSU range.

Off the top of my head, if you want to max out your $3000 budget, I think 790i + two GTX280s + 4 GB of DDR3 + an 800W PSU + two WD 640GB drives + a Q9450, that will probably ring you in your max budget --off the top of my head.

That rig is in a bit of an impossible spot though. DDR3 is still a blatent waste of money considering its price premium and the extra performance it brings, not even mentioning how much harder it makes it to overclock. Ditching DDR3 and keeping SLI puts you on fugly 780i. I cant tell you how fugly this board is. I've been looking into its Pci-e 2.0 support and its getting shadier and shadier by the minute. To keep DDR2 and get multi GPU support means you cant have SLI, you can have crossfire though. X38 and X48 both look pretty sweet, but mean you'll really have to wait an extra 8 weeks for a pair of HD487 X2s for the best performance (which are rumored to go for an MSRP less then that of the GTX280).

and then the tangent strikes my head: Skull trail. Skull trail is Intels own X48 board. It supports both SLI and Crossfire, and has two LGA771 sockets for two quad core processors. This will take you above $3000 if you let it, but it looks like it might be a good idea. Beware the fully buffered memory moduals though!

Friends are asking me to play CS 1.6 (great use of an 8800), I'll put one together on newegg when I'm done.
edit:
3kbuildsansGTX280s.jpg
 
MrWizard forgot about the EVGA 750i FTW. Arguably the best Intel compatible SLI board around at the moment. DDR2, SLI, PCIe 2.0.
 
silent-circuit said:
MrWizard forgot about the EVGA 750i FTW. Arguably the best Intel compatible SLI board around at the moment. DDR2, SLI, PCIe 2.0.
Click to expand...

overpriced 650i, same questionable pci-e 2.0 features as 780i. But yeah, definatly the least of all of Nvidias DDR2 Nforce 700 series evils.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
overpriced 650i, same questionable pci-e 2.0 features as 780i. But yeah, definatly the least of all of Nvidias DDR2 Nforce 700 series evils.
Click to expand...

No, the 750i FTW has dual 16x (electronic as well as mechanical) slots, unlike the 650i. New silicon.
 
mussafry89 said:
I said the 8600GTS is temporary, until nVdia release the 9900 series. its only $65.
Click to expand...

The GTX 280 will be available on Tuesday (June 17), and the GTX 260 will be available on June 26. Do you really want to spend $65 for two to 10 days worth of use? Also, the new ATI cards will be released on June 25.
 
GTX 280 (at least from these first leaked, canned benches) looks to be something of a disappointment when compared with the 9800GX2, which can be had for a good bit less than its $650 price point. Unfortunate.
 
silent-circuit said:
GTX 280 (at least from these first leaked, canned benches) looks to be something of a disappointment when compared with the 9800GX2, which can be had for a good bit less than its $650 price point. Unfortunate.
Click to expand...

I figure one of the following is true...
  1. The leaked benches are not accurate, or fake.
  2. The leaked benches used old drivers which affected the performance of the card.
  3. The leaked benches are accurate, which means the $649 price for the GTX 280 will only last until June 25 when the ATI HD 4870 is released.
In any case, we'll know on Monday if the leaked benches are accurate.
 
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