NEED HELP: Choosing the compnents!

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Planettera

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Hi Everyone.

I am goin to bulit a new PC and need some help choosing some of the componenets. It will be used mostly for video editing and gaming. I can't decide on two of the componenets, which video card and motherboard to use. I like to get the best one:

My Choices For Motherboard Are:

1) Asus P6TD Deluxe (Main reason is the PCI ports)
2) EVGA E758 3Way SLI (Main reason is the PCI ports)

My Choice For Video Cards:

1) BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB
2) Sapphire HD5870 Cypress XT 1GB


Here is what I planned on getting:

1) Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 Case
2) Corsair 850HX Power Supply
3) Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield CPU
4) Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler
5) 6GB or 12GB Corsair DDR TR3X6G1866C9DF DDR3 Memory
6) Two Seagate SE.2 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drives (Raid 1)
7) One Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200RPM Hard Drive (Data Back Up Only)
8) Creative Labs Platinum Fatal1ty Championship Sound Card
9) Two Plextor 24X PX-880SA DVD Drive
10) Linksys WMP54GS Wireless PCI Adapter
 
i5 750, mobo, ram $420:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.294754

5850 $300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102857&cm_re=5850-_-14-102-857-_-Product

PSU OCZ 1000W $60 (best price/perf)
http://www.svc.com/ocz1000pxs-b.html

Intel X25-M 80gb G2 SSD $270
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch_v3.asp?px=PG&scriteria=BA32332

2x Samsung F1 1tb drives $170 (or get three for RAID 5)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102

Prolimatech Megahalems $65 (outperforms the V8)
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8...1366_AM2_AM2_AM3_Hot_Item.html?tl=g40c14s1037

Onboard sound (high-end sound cards are RIP OFFS)

Total $1285

I think that's the a good config. No sense getting that i7 -- OC the i5, and it'll fly. You'd rather have an SSD, believe me.
 
For future reference, these kinds of threads belong in General Hardware. This thread will probably be moved there shortly as I've alerted the mods by reporting it.
 
Zero82z said:
This thread will probably be moved there shortly as I've alerted the mods by reporting it.
Click to expand...

Apparently it's moved now :)

Anyway, Planettera, please answer the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST" so that we can help you better.
 
Can't go wrong with either board. In order to choose the GPU, you'd need to answer some of the questions in the sticky that Danny mentioned. ;)
 
ordovician said:
i5 750, mobo, ram $420:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.294754

5850 $300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102857&cm_re=5850-_-14-102-857-_-Product

PSU OCZ 1000W $60 (best price/perf)
http://www.svc.com/ocz1000pxs-b.html

Intel X25-M 80gb G2 SSD $270
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch_v3.asp?px=PG&scriteria=BA32332

2x Samsung F1 1tb drives $170 (or get three for RAID 5)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102

Prolimatech Megahalems $65 (outperforms the V8)
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8...1366_AM2_AM2_AM3_Hot_Item.html?tl=g40c14s1037

Onboard sound (high-end sound cards are RIP OFFS)

Total $1285

I think that's the a good config. No sense getting that i7 -- OC the i5, and it'll fly. You'd rather have an SSD, believe me.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your information, however I already have the hard drives and the sound card and I will be transfering them from my current PC to the new one. I mostly use my PC for my second job which is photograper and a videographer. I will stick to a high capacity HD.
 
Sure guys, thank you for offering to help out. To anwer the quesitons:

1) Mostly, I will be editing videos and photoshopping mostly, but do play games on my free times.
2) My budget for a video card and moterhboard is up to $350 for each piece.
3) I live in United States, NJ.
4) I will be purchasing exactly what posted above for all other components.
5) I already have the hard drive, sound card, and the wireless adapter from the list above that I will be reusing.
6) I'm not yet certain, but I may slighly overclock the PC if not satisfied with the results.
7) I am currently using a 22" LCD that I will be continuing to use. If I may need a new LCD, then I will be considering a 24" in the future.
8) I'm planing on building the PC within the next 2 weeks. I'm not sure how new the mobo and the GPU are that I want to get, but if the newer models will be released within the near future that's worth waiting, then I may consider to wait a little longer.
9) The features that are important for me are the raid controllers which I will be running my HD on mirror configuration. Firewire not necessary. Crossfire or SLI support may be needed for future modifications.
10) I have a legit Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit and 64-bit OS. I plan on using the 64-bit OS.

I like to have hight end and powerful components since I don't plan on keep upgrading my PC in the next 2-3 years, besides the hard drive and maybe the video card after about 3 years.

One other important factor about choosing a motherboard is the PCI slots. The sound card and the wireless adapter that I will be using are PCI, and I don't want to purchase a new PCI-e sound card. I am using a G band router that I am very happy with and Linksys don't have a PCI-e G band wireless adapter. I can't consider wired connection due to location of my routher and the PC. Besids that, there are 3 laptops that my family is using that get connected to the internet through the same router.

Thank you again,

Eric
 
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Planettera said:
I like to have hight end and powerful components since I don't plan on keep upgrading my PC in the next 2-3 years, besides the hard drive and maybe the video card after about 3 years.
Click to expand...

Ok, just a FYI, there is virtually no difference in terms of longevity between the $260 eVGA mobo you chose, the Asus P6T Deluxe and the $210 Asus P6T SE. So when it comes to the motherboard, spending more does not always guarantee a much longer life. So I'd recommend the Asus P6T SE for you since it does fit your needs.

Also, spending the extra cash for the Core i7 960 does not make your system last that much longer than the $240 Xeon X3440. That extra 700Mhz increase in clock speed does not that much of a performance increase to justify the extra $350 nor will it make your system last that much longer. At most a month. Is a month's extra use really worth $350?

RAM wise, ditch the Dominators. They're never worth the extra cash even with overclocking in mind. You could spend an extra $50 more and get twice the amount of RAM if you go with two of these RAM sets:
$155 - Corsair TR3X6G1600C8 XMS3 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600

GPU wise, go for the HD5870. With that said, it's absolutely wasted on a small 22" monitor. At least get a 24" monitor to make the HD5870 worthwhile. Or drop down to the HD5850 or HD4890 if you're gonna stick with the 22" monitor for more than 3 months.

So basically, for roughly $400 to $500 less, you can get a system with the exact same longevity and upgrade capability. So in this case, you do not need high-end parts just to avoid upgrading or push the life of your system.
 
Thank you Dan. I can't thank you enough for all you help on clearing my head of all the question.

The main reason that I want to upgrade my existing PC is because when I'm multitasking its almost comes to a complete freeze stage. This mostly happed when I editing videos and pictures and downloading stuff from the internet at the same time. I need something that won't slow me down doing my work.

Here is what I currently have:

XP Professional 32-bit OS
2 500GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 7200RPM HD's (Raid 1)
1 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HD (Data and Work Back Up)
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe Motherboard
Pentium 4 3.0GHz HT Processor
BFG 700W Power Supply
4GB OCZ Memory
BFG GeForce 7800 512MB GPU
Creative Platinum Fatal1ty Championship Sound Card
2 DVD Burner Drives

I will definitely do as you metioned for the memory and the video card options. I will be upgrading my monitor soon and most likely get two 24" LCD's. However, with the reason I mentioned in mind, do you still think the components you suggested would give me the performance I'm looking for?

Also, I have noticed that the 285GTX is 512-bit and the 5870 is 256-bit. Exactly what does this mean and to educate myself, how come a 256-bit GPU be better then a 512-bit card, both being 1GB.
 
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512-bit and 256-bit in the vidcard specs refers to memory bus width. The HD5870, despite having only half as wide a memory bus, will outperform the GTX285 not only in terms of memory bandwidth, but overall as well due to a newer architecture and GDDR5 (faster memory; GTX285 uses GDDR3). You can't really compare specs of different architectures, because its the arch that really counts -- so the only real way to tell if it performs well is to read reviews.
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=605&card2=613 (bottom of each has a list of reviews)

Yes, even with what you mentioned in that post, Danny's suggestions still hold true. You're coming from a P4-Netburst architecture chip, entirely skipping the quadcores of the Core2 architecture and going straight for Core i7 with Hyper-Threading. To help put that into perspective, a Core2 1.8Ghz Conroe (original Core2) performs on par with a Pentium EE 3.7Ghz netburst chip. The die shrink Core2 Penryn is up to 15% faster than the original Conroe, clock for clock. Core i7 is up to 15% faster on avg than Penryn, IIRC.

You could easily sell your old parts on eBay or the FS/T forums to help offset the cost of your upgrade.

The PCI slots shouldn't affect you much. The new 802.11n spec has been finalized, so you should upgrade your WiFi setup soon (and buy whichever interface is free (USB, PCI-E, PCI, etc)). Onboard HD Audio is much better since the P4 days... try it before installing your soundcard, as you might find yourself not even needing that X-Fi any longer.

As far as multi-tasking goes, your planned system won't slow down for a while. ;) BTW, tech changes so fast and parts keep getting cheaper that I've found its better to spend less each upgrade and upgrade more often than spend much more and upgrade far inbetween (eg. instead of spending $3k every 5yrs, spend $1.5k every 2.5yrs, and you'll get better overall performance for your money). I've also discovered that selling my old parts helps maintain my addiction to pc hardware.
 
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Thank you for the great advice Enginurd. I will definitely act upon some great advice I received in these past two days.

I have always been a Nvidia user and till recently never had planned to switching to ATI. Now that I get ATI recommended by almost everyone, I believe its time for a change. After all, I need a good video card for multi purpose use.

I will need help on one final issue that wasn't totally clear for me, and that is the Wi-Fi hardware. I understand that the new standard is the N band. However, I have 3 laptops that have a built in G band wireless cards and along with it I have a G band router and a range extender. For me to upgrade to N band, I have to purchase 3 new card for the laptops, adapter for my PC and a router. That will be an extra expense, and I am very happy with the performance of my current set up. Also the connector now being pretty much all PCI-e the PCI slots on motherbards are getting scarce since not many new hardware are made in PCI. Can anyone suggest an G band compatible adapter I can get, prefer a Linksys brand if I have an option.
 
Last edited:
Planettera said:
I will need help on one final issue that wasn't totally clear for me, and that is the Wi-Fi hardware. I understand that the new standard is the N band. However, I have 3 laptops that have a built in G band wireless cards and along with it I have a G band router and a range extender. For me to upgrade to N band, I have to purchase 3 new card for the laptops, adapter for my PC and a router. That will be an extra expense, and I am very happy with the performance of my current set up. Also the connector now being pretty much all PCI-e the PCI slots on motherbards are getting scarce since not many new hardware are made in PCI. Can anyone suggest an G band compatible adapter I can get, prefer a Linksys brand if I have an option.
Click to expand...

Most good N routers do have the ability to broadcast in both G and N signal ranges. In addition, most new and good N wifi adapters do support 802.11G as well as 802.11N. Anyway, here's a list of Linksys PCI Wireless adapters with WPA2 support:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
 
Danny Bui said:
Most good N routers do have the ability to broadcast in both G and N signal ranges. In addition, most new and good N wifi adapters do support 802.11G as well as 802.11N. Anyway, here's a list of Linksys PCI Wireless adapters with WPA2 support:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
Click to expand...

Thank you Dan. My apologies for not being too clear in asking the question. Since most new high end motherboards don't come with PCI ports and if someone need to use a wireless connection, what are their options for a wireless adapter in G-band?
 
Sorry, I didn't mean you had to upgrade your WiFi, just that it wouldn't be a bad thing if you moved to N, if and when you couldn't fit your G card into your new board.
 
I don't really think Plextor DVD drives are worth the money since they started re-branding lower quality drives.

For example:
* Plextor PX-750A is a TEAC DV-W516E.
* Plextor PX-800A is a Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7170A.
* Plextor PX-B300SA is a LG GGC-H20L.

On paper, I like the Sony Optiarc AD-7240S-0B as it supports both DVD +/- R DL.
 
Master Bob said:
I don't really think Plextor DVD drives are worth the money since they started re-branding lower quality drives.

For example:
* Plextor PX-750A is a TEAC DV-W516E.
* Plextor PX-800A is a Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7170A.
* Plextor PX-B300SA is a LG GGC-H20L.

On paper, I like the Sony Optiarc AD-7240S-0B as it supports both DVD +/- R DL.
Click to expand...

I had a Plextor drive a few years back which I loved, then all of a sudden they disappeared from the market and now they are back again. I didn't knew that thye were making cheaper drives then before. I have been using Samsung for 4 years now and never had a problem. I wonder how are the LG drives, they have been a hot seller.
 
Planettera said:
Thank you Dan. My apologies for not being too clear in asking the question. Since most new high end motherboards don't come with PCI ports and if someone need to use a wireless connection, what are their options for a wireless adapter in G-band?
Click to expand...

Well more than likely those who buy those high end motherboard don't bother using wifi anyway and will try to string a long ethernet cable around. With that said, they'll either end up using one of the following for wireless access if no PCI slots are available:
- a USB wireless adapter
- that PCI-E D-Link adapter
- Try to setup a wireless bridge

When it comes to wireless adapters, the only real advice I have is that make sure that it supports WPA2 for better wireless security. Assuming that your router supports it of course. Linksys made USB wireless adapters that support WPA2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
 
... but wired is so much faster... can't run a cable? howbout getting some flat ethernet cables? :p
 
In terms of wireless vs wired ... wired is always better, but if you must used wireless keep this in mind:
* PCI maximum bandwidth is 266MB/S
* PCI Express x1 max. bandwidth is 500MB/s
* USB is a max of 60MB/s burstable
* Any device you get should be N/G compatible (though I can't imagine any N device being only N).

Now, the question then becomes will the transfer rates exceed the maximum capacity. On USB, theoretically 802.11N can, but 802.11G has no chance.
 
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indeed... keep in mind that these are all theoretical max speeds, which typically varies greatly from the actual performance you get...

Master Bob said:
...
* PCI maximum bandwidth = 266MB/s -- shared
* PCI Express 2.0 x1 = 500MB/s
* USB 2.0 = 480Mb/s = 60MB/s ...
Click to expand...

802.11g = 54Mb/s = 6.75MB/s
802.11n = 600Mb/s = 75MB/s

Typical USB2.0 performance is actually around 30-45MB/s sustained, in my experience, so I believe USB2.0 should still be fine for 802.11n. Also keep in mind USB3.0 is out now, so you might want to pickup a PCI-E USB3.0 card to plug that 802.11n USB adapter into in about a year or so, hehe.
 
Can't thank everyone enough for all the help and education I got in the past few days.

Knowing that the cable connection is much faster, my wife would kill me to staple the ethernet cable from our living room all the way to our little office at the other end of the house, LOL. For that reason, I need to go wireless.

As I have mentioned, I am currently using a PCi wireless card by Linksys WPM54GS and am very happy with the speed. Currently being wireless I'm getting an avarage donwnload speeds of 9.3mbps and an upload speed of .55mbps. If I was a hardcore gamer, these speed most likely wouldn't be satisfactory.

From what being said, I don't think the USB adapter will be provide a good enough bandwith. The was it seems is that my second choice would brobably be a PCI-e adapter as PCI ports are barely being an option on the most high end motherboard and in the future.

Does anyone when USB 3.0 will be available on the motherboards? Any news on this yet?
 
Thats why I mentioned flat ethernet cable -- its great if you have carpet, as it can go under. If you have wood/tile/non-carpet, its incognito running against the bottom molding against the wall. ;)

Intel chipsets won't support USB 3.0 until 2011.

@ bob: No correction, just clarification. ;)
 
:D:D:D
enginurd said:
Thats why I mentioned flat ethernet cable -- its great if you have carpet, as it can go under. If you have wood/tile/non-carpet, its incognito running against the bottom molding against the wall. ;)

Intel chipsets won't support USB 3.0 until 2011.

@ bob: No correction, just clarification. ;)
Click to expand...

Thank you enginurd, but unfortunately I don't have a carpet and the molding on the floor has been painted so many times taht if I try to pry it off, it will also peal the paint off as well. I really don't want to deal with the headache. Also to even run the cable from point A to point B its a lot of zig zags, its not in a straight line and that will require about 200+ feet of cable. That's why I find the only solution to be a wireless. If the cable was coming in through my bedroom side, it would have been perfect, then I wouldn't need to go wireless, but when I asked the cable company if they can change it, they said that's how it has been set up and I guess they didn't want to do it. The first floor has it coming in from the bedroom side and I'm on the 2nd floor and it comes in from the other side of the house, it sucks.:(

That's a technology I can use in my field, so I guess a new or modified system is scheduled for me for 2011.:D
 
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