Need comp build refresher/advice

L

lt_wentoncha

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2005
Messages
285
Hi all,

My last build was 2007, with which many [H]'ers helped me greatly.

It's time for another build.

Firstly, many thanks to Tweakz for providing my baseline from his thread.

I have a multimonitor gaming situation. I know there nvsurround and eyefinity...wasn't there some new chip coming out that was supposed to make multigpu gaming (non SLI or crossfire ie you could use different GPUs, even mix nvidia and ATI) possible? Can't remember the name...

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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1500-$2000
3) Where do you live?
US - South
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Pretty much everything. My old rig is a IP35 Pro w/ a Q6600, 8800GTX main GPU for my main monitor (24" LG) with 8600GT powering twin 21" Gateways. Nothing I can really keep.[/B]
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Keeping Bluray drive and TV Tuner. Probably going to keep 2x 1TBs as well. Everything else will be new
6) Will you be overclocking?
Honestly, no, too paranoid to OC or watercool. I might by a little, but only on air (not averse to upgrading retail cooler, though).
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1x 24" and 2x 21"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Now
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I suppose nVidia is coming out with nvsurround? I'm not a real intel/nv fanboy, it's just that they're still the performance/price kings, correct?
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?Bought Win7 Ultimate, that's all I really have so far for the new build

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I spent around $1800 for my last build, I'd like to spend that again.

CPU i7-930
Motherboard ASUS P6X58D Premium SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
Memory CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMT6GX3M3A1600C7
PSU CORSAIR 1000HX
Video Card #1 GTX 470 Not sure about this...again, I have three monitors, going to need one to drive the primary monitor and another one to drive my other two. I just hate to spend $500 on the 480
Video Card #2 ???
Case Thermaltake Element V I just need a case with room. I can palm a basketball, my old case is a P180B and I'm tired of getting cut up and scratched everytime I reach in there. Supposedly the Element V is Fermi friendly too, right?
Heat Sink Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B
Heat Sink Fans http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185092
Heat Sink Paste Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
SSD (Boot Drive) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233110
Data Reusing 2x 1TBs
Case Fans for the top exhaust 120mm x3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811999122
Case Fans 140mm x2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835233031
 
Nvsurround needs 2 video cards to drive 3 displays...lolz

and your links don't work
 
I have some additional questions to ask....

- Which games are you planning on playing? At what (max) resolution? At which level of visual quality? Are you going to use AA/AF?
- Do you plan on using all three monitors while gaming?

Nvidia has the fastest/most powerful single-GPU video card at the moment, but ATI is still the performance/cost king.

Corsair Dominator RAM isn't worth the money over cheaper DDR3 kits. And outside of synthetic benchmarks, low CAS latency (CL) doesn't translate into noticeable performance benefits, especially while overclocking.

Since your links don't work, please tell us which SSD(s) you were considering.

You can't mix Nvidia and ATI cards together. Well, you can if you want to power multiple displays separately, but you can't use an Nvidia card for PhysX alongside ATI cards. Speaking of which, where did you get the "information" about mixing them together for gaming from?
 
yea they are driver hacks so you can use physx with ATI as main and nvidia as ppu
 
Ah, you're going with the same build that Tweakz is using. (I know: I should have reviewed the link more thoroughly.)

Is the 24" monitor 1920x1200 or 1920x1080? What are the resolutions for the two 21" monitors? (Could you answer my other questions as well?)

lt_shiro, do you know whether or not those "driver hacks" have been recently updated? I've heard about a month or so ago that Nvidia had disabled all "hacks" with its (at the time) recent firmware update.
 
You will not need that ram. the only reason i want it is because i want to heavily overclock my 930. If you will not do this then i recommend mushkin [either red-black line] or the G.Skill trident. like i had said in my build a friend of mine has that exact same build i made it for him and we got it to 4.2Ghz very stable.

- IF you do want to do SLI or Xfire then the modular 1000HX is a great choice. The nvidea 4XX demand a lot of power.

- other then that this is indeed a solid build.I just made this build to last me for about 5 years i don't upgrade to much.
 
I'm requoting myself to add something relevant to this thread:

tiraides said:
For heatsink fans, go with the Cooler Master fans that lt_shiro recommended or the ever-reliable Scythe S-FLEX fans. For the case fans, however, go cheap: Yate Loon makes good fans of various sizes that cost at least half as much as those other fans all put together.
Click to expand...

Since you're not as concerned about overclocking as Tweakz is, I recommend that you go with the Cogage TRUE Spirit instead of the Prolimatech Megahalems. You won't need a second heatsink fan -- hell, you won't even need to buy a new heatsink fan.
 
tiraides said:
lt_shiro, do you know whether or not those "driver hacks" have been recently updated? I've heard about a month or so ago that Nvidia had disabled all "hacks" with its (at the time) recent firmware update.
Click to expand...

i haven't checked it in 2 months but really anything nvidia does is pointless. Its just matter of time before it get cracked again. :p
 
Gents,

Many thanks for the replies. Sorry for the links, I guess they didn't cut and paste well.

Since your links don't work, please tell us which SSD(s) you were considering.
Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167023&cm_re=intel_x25-_-20-167-023-_-Product
- Which games are you planning on playing?
FPSs like Metro 2033, Sims like X3
At what (max) resolution?
5040x1050
At which level of visual quality?
Hi Vis Quality
Are you going to use AA/AF?
AA/AF...not to high, 4x-8x. Was interested in tessellation though...are the GTX 4X0s the only cards that support it?
- Do you plan on using all three monitors while gaming?
Yes
Is the 24" monitor 1920x1200 or 1920x1080?
Yes
What are the resolutions for the two 21" monitors?
Yes, the 21"ers are 1680x1050, I used softth in other games to run 5040x1050 (I bump my 24" down). As more and more games support multimonitor, I'll eventually upgrade the 21"ers

Thanks again to all the posters (yes, I am aware I need to gfx cards to run 3x monitors...I just don't know which one, especially if I want to run AA/AF/Tessellation.

[edit]For speakers, what does everyone think of these?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121006

I've gamed on 2.1 speakers for a long time...I'm alright with the sound, but does 5.1 generate a much better experience?
 
Last edited:
It's not vaporware, but, rather, a mixed bag:

MaximumPC (Forums) - LucidLogix? (March 23)
TG Daily - LucidLogix clinches additional funding for multi-GPU gaming (March 22)
VentureBeat - LucidLogix raises $8M for boosting game graphics chips (March 17)
techPowerUp! - NVIDIA Shuns Lucid Hydra (November 6, 2009)
HEXUS - LucidLogix HYDRA now ready to deliver death-knell to AMD and NVIDIA multi-GPU graphics? (September 23, 2009)

Based on what little I could find on the subject, I recommend that you don't make it a priority in this build.

As for the Logitech X-540, how badly do you want them? They don't sound as good as the Z-5500, and Logitech speakers are generally have poor sound quality compared to the more expensive studio or home theater speakers. Then again, sound "quality" is very subjective; they may or may not offer a noticeable improvement over the speakers you're currently using.
 
Gents,

Alrighty, I've decided on the below:

CPU: i7-930 from MC (I've read the 860 is better in terms of pricing, but not with multigpu like the 930)
Mobo: ASUS P6X58D or P6T Deluxe (which one? P6X58D because of Sata/USB 3.0?)
PSU: BFG EX-1200
Case: Xclio Windtunnel
Mem: GSkill F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI (Triple Channel), timings are 7-8-7-24 and it's a bit cheaper than CL8 memsticks...am I wrong on mem and that's actually worse than CL8?
Heatsink: Prolimatech Megahlem Rev B
Boot Drive: Intel X25-M This one I'm iffy on, I may just keep my old 160gb WD rap unless I should upgrade for better performance
GPU: GTX 480 (if/when I can get it, plus my old 8800GTX to drive secondary monitors)

Well, that's the hard stuff. I'm sticking with onboard sound this time unless there is a compelling reason to get a discrete sound card.

TYIA
 
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R is about $100 cheaper and gives you more room to be sure about getting your Intel SSD. I'm not really sure about your case selection though, but if you really are in love with it I guess theres not much I can do.

G.skill DDR3-1600 is a tad cheaper than the set you chose, not much difference in performance.

Also you may want to consider the Corsair H50 instead of the megahlem for only about $5 more.

Other than that, it looks ok.
 
Definitely get the SSD.

The PSU is a tad overkill. You planning on using GTX 480 SLI or something?

Oh and to answer your original question in your OP: Nvidia is not the best price to performance king. ATI is.
 
Shadowssong,

Appreciate the response. That Corsair H50...I've never done WC'ing, is it a beast to install?

For the mem...is there no performance gain for going with CL7 mem vs CL9?

Danny Bui,

Also appreciate the feedback. I am running dual GPUs, just not SLI.

On my old setup I have:
Q6600
3x Sata Drives
2x Optical Drives
1x 8800 GTX
1x 8600 GT
1x TV Tuner
1x Sound Card

Not sure if 850W was ever enough to run that, PSU on it popped after two years of usage. I did some slight OC'ing on the Q6600 as well.

How's the 5870 on tessellation? I've been reading not that good against the GTX 480. If I am mistaken, I will def look at ATI again.

Thanks again to everyone for posting.
 
lt_wentoncha said:
Not sure if 850W was ever enough to run that, PSU on it popped after two years of usage. I did some slight OC'ing on the Q6600 as well.

How's the 5870 on tessellation? I've been reading not that good against the GTX 480. If I am mistaken, I will def look at ATI again.

Thanks again to everyone for posting.
Click to expand...

Which 850W PSU did you have?

The HD 5870 is pretty good on tessellation.
 
lt_wentoncha said:
... For the mem...is there no performance gain for going with CL7 mem vs CL9? ...
Click to expand...

Yes, but the difference is negligible, so it's not worth any noticeable price premium for lower latency. If the prices are nearly the same, go with the lower latency. Lower voltage would help, too, for compatibility and OC'ing headroom, if needed.
 
enginurd said:
Yes, but the difference is negligible, so it's not worth any noticeable price premium for lower latency. If the prices are nearly the same, go with the lower latency. Lower voltage would help, too, for compatibility and OC'ing headroom, if needed.
Click to expand...
Higher or lower stock voltages? Thx.
 
Ahh there we go. Well no wonder that PSU died: It was a pretty so-so 500W PSU. A quality 850W PSU would have been more than enough for that Q6600 setup. A crappy 850W, like the OCZ, would not have been enough.
 
Alrighty [H] Friendos,

Here's my build

CPU: i7 930 Bought 199 at Microcenter
Heatsink: Corsair H50 79 at Newegg
Mobo: Gigabyte x58A-UD5 269 after rebate at Newegg (yeah, UD3r is cheaper, but it's only 60 bucks extra for the UD5)
Ram: G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 189 at Newegg
PSU: CMPSU-850TX 850W 129 after rebate at TigerDirect
GPU 1: GTX 480 Hah, whenever this shows up in retail channels
GPU 2: GT 240 Bought 45 after rebate at Newegg
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1850 99 at Newegg
Boot Drive: Micron/Crucial C300 128GB Bought 373 after 3% BCB at superbiiz
Case: Xclio Windtunnel Bought 98 Newegg

Missing anything? I wasn't planning on getting thermal paste since the H50 was set to go. Going to get SATA3 cables for the C300. No need for soundcard/speakers/monitors, I'm all set. I'm buying the rest of the parts at the AM.

Total for build (+499 for GTX 480) is $1930. Right on the money.

Will post benches after system is built. Can't wait! Many thanks again to you out there in [H] world.
 
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