New build almost ready. Need advise

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bando0t

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Apr 7, 2010
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Hello guys, hope u are all doing great! Sorry if I posted this on the wrong section...I am new to the forum and I would like to run by you what I have been up to in the past few weeks..

I have been researching because I want to get a new system built. This would be my first build I have learned a lot from reading pretty much all I find. Before buying I would like to get advise from you to make sure that what I have selected is a good choice... anyway here are the questions I am guessing you would like me to answer followed by the list of the stuff I chose.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Primarily gaming, network management, office stuff

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
2500-3000 tops

3) Where do you live?
Costa Rica, parts will be bought on the US and shipped to my familily there who will then ship them to me

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, GPU, PSU Optical Drive, HDD, MOBO, Case, cooling, monitors, mouse, keyboard...everything

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
nothing

6) Will you be overclocking?
Not likely, but if so, very lightly

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Three 23'' LG W2353V running eyefinity on a 5850

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
In about 1 month

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I think I am pretty set on the MOBO I want and the futures it has. USB 3.0 SATA III, dual x16 lanes etc etc

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes. Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate

AND HERE ARE THE PARTS I HAVE CHOSEN SO FAR:

CPU:Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz

CPU cooler:CORSAIR CWCH50-1

Motherboard:ASUS P6X58D Premium

RAM:CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

HDD's:--TWO-- Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

GPU: XFX ATi Radeon HD5850

PSU:CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX

Optical drive:Pioneer BDR-205BKS Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer SATA Model

Case:NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower

Extra Fan:Thermaltake A2491 140mm Case Fan -

Keyboard:Logitech 920-000914 Black Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard -

Mouse:Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000

Speakers:Logitech X-540 70 watts 5.1 Speakers -

Monitors:--THREE-- LG W2353V - 1920x1080 2ms 50000:1

DP to DVI-D Adapter:DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Adapter for OptiPlex / Latitude / Alienware Laptops / Precision...the one from DELL to use the 3rd monitor on eyefinity.

All of that runs at about $3100 after taxes and shipping from the Egg, Amazon and Dell.....Lets not pay much attention to keyboard, mouse and speakers. I will be using an xbox controller for gaming (I know not all games are compatilble) and a steering wheel which I already I have. I would like to get your opinion on the rest of the stuff, the ones that really matter for a solid system. Thanks a lot!
 
crustybooger said:
change the ram so it runs in triple channel ie 6GB (3 x 2gb). as for your hd, should think about going for a 80gb intel ssd for your OS with a 1TB+ hd for storage. The 5850 is a great card but if you're going to do eyefinity then you need at least a 5870.


Oh does your family live near a microcenter or frys electronics? could save you a good amount of money on the cpu/mobo/ram if they do.

This is also in the wrong forum btw, would get more responses if it was in the general hardware forum.
Click to expand...

Moved it here. Thanks for the advise.
 
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You are totally right about the RAM! I thought about a ssd. But my reasoning behind those hdd's I chose was to take advantage of the 2 SATA III ports on the mobo. The only ssd that runs over a SATA III would be the Crucials and the 128gb model costs twice of what an intel x25-m is. Shed some light on me guys. Should I use a SATA II ssd for the OS and a SATA III for storage. Or should spend the extra cash and get both ssd for OS an hdd for storage running on SATA III? About my family, I am pretty sure they have a Fry's nearby. Is Microcenter another store? They live in Katy, TX. Also almost everything is on newegg (except for the monitors) and they charge about $30 for shipping and no taxes.
 
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Motherboard wise, compare the mobo you chose and this mobo:
$210 - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 ATX Motherboard

Has most of the same features as the mobo you chose but csots $100 less. See if the Asus really is worth the extra $100 to you.

RAM wise, ditch Dominator. They're overpriced for the very very little performance increase they supposedly offer. I recommend this RAM instead:
$170 - G.Skill F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM

Dunno if your "network management and office stuff" will really benefit from going 6GB to 8GB of RAM however.

HDD wise, are you planning on using a RAID 1 or RAID 0 with those two drives or something? Oh and ditch those drives. These WD 500GB Blue drives are faster yet cheaper:
$56 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

GPU wise, if you went the above RAM change or mobo change, that should have freed up enough money for the faster HD 5870:
$420 - XFX HD-587X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5870 1GB PCI-E Video Card

PSU wise, that setup does not need 1000W of power. You'll be fine with the following PSUs even if you go with a HD 5870 Crossfire setup:
$130 - Corsair 850TX 850W PSU
$156 - XFX XPS-850W-BES 850W Modular PSU
$160 - Corsair 950TX 950W PSU

EDIT: Umm, those 640GB SATA 6Gb/s drives don't perform any faster compared to putting them on SATA 3.0Gb/s ports. Also SATA 6Gb/s is backwards compatible with SATA 3Gb/s, regardless if it's a SSD or SATA drive. Yes use an Intel SSD for your OS drive and a larger drive for storage. SATA 6Gb/s or SATA 3.0Gb/s DOES NOT MATTER. I recommend this fast drive for storage:
$90 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Oh and no single consumer SSD requires SATA 6Gb/s for additional performance.
 
should just do what the guy above me posted, pretty much spot on!

katy tx is pretty close to houston. tell them to swing by the microcenter in houston and pick up a i7 930 for $199, or if you're lucky they might still have the 920 on sale for $169. easily saves you $100 and microcenter tends to have deals on their motherboards as well. like the danny bui linked is going for $199.
 
I am glad I decided to join the forum and post! Yes, Katy is about 10-15min from Houston, I'll ask them to drop by, thanks for the heads up crustybooger.

I found a combo for the RAM and the GPU Danny Bui suggested; RAM for $170 and the GPU comes at around $390. So I will be going that way.

For the PSU, that XFX modular sounds good, I haven't heard as many good things about it compared to the CORSAIR ones though. CORSAIRs are not modular, except for the 1000.

And for the HDDs, after what you said, if those 6Gb/s HDDs plugged to the SATA III interfaces are not going to be that much of a difference I can get the intel SSD for my OS and then either the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB for storage, or 2 500gb WD caviar blue in RAID 0. Would that work? I though caviar black was WD's performance line up. I know they are louder, but I though they were faster also.

Like I said before, I am very new to building systems I usually just buy them from X company, but most of the time I am left wanting for more out of it, so this time I decided to learn and build it myself. Feel free to correct me if I am doing something wrong, This is all about learning.:D
 
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Mechanical drives in standalone do not come close to theoretical speeds except in bursts. The average transfer speeds are much lower (less than half). The only time you'd be saturating the SATA600 bandwidth is with SSDs in RAID0, and as far as I know, the 3rd party SATA600 controllers on these X58 mobos do not support RAID yet. :( The price premium on SATA600 HDDs isn't worth it right now, IMO, since they perform only slightly better than current SATA300 HDDs.

WD Caviar Blues perform similarly to the Black lineup, just have shorter warranty (3yr vs 5yr). It doesn't sound like you need a RAID0 array, especially for storage, according to your usage listed. Go with the F3.

Seasonic is the OEM for that XFX PSU, same as many Corsair models. Corsair's HX lineup is modular. Their TX lineup is not.
 
SSD for OS and 1TB mechanical for storage it is then. Appreciate the explanation enginurd. For PSU I think I'll go with the Corsair 850HX.

So this would be it so far:

CPU:Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz
CPU cooler:CORSAIR CWCH50-1
Motherboard:ASUS P6X58D Premium
RAM:G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
HDD:SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
SDD:Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
GPU: XFX ATi Radeon HD5870
PSU:CORSAIR CMPSU-850HX
Optical drive:Pioneer BDR-205BKS Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer SATA Model
Case:NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower
Extra Fan:Thermaltake A2491 140mm Case Fan -
Plus the rest of the peripherals.

Keep'em suggestions coming! If there are any left :p
 
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I know cases are highly subjective, but do you really like that case? It looks like an Antec 900 knockoff with extra plastic added everywhere. :p I'm not a huge fan of the 900 either, though. I prefer the CM RC-690, the Lian-Li/Lancool cases, and Silverstone.

What is it about that Asus board that makes you want to pay such a high price premium over the UD3R Danny suggested?

I'd also save the cash and go with the XFX PSU instead of the Corsair HX.

If you're only doing light OC'ing, I'd suggest saving cash on the cooler as well. The CM Hyper 212+ offers great bang for buck.

With all that cash saved, I'd go with another SSD and toss them in RAID0. :p I've got a need for speed. :D
 
enginurd said:
I know cases are highly subjective, but do you really like that case? It looks like an Antec 900 knockoff with extra plastic added everywhere. :p I'm not a huge fan of the 900 either, though. I prefer the CM RC-690, the Lian-Li/Lancool cases, and Silverstone.

What is it about that Asus board that makes you want to pay such a high price premium over the UD3R Danny suggested?

I'd also save the cash and go with the XFX PSU instead of the Corsair HX.

If you're only doing light OC'ing, I'd suggest saving cash on the cooler as well. The CM Hyper 212+ offers great bang for buck.

With all that cash saved, I'd go with another SSD and toss them in RAID0. :p I've got a need for speed. :D
Click to expand...

+1 to all of the above, exactly my thoughts.
 
I've been reading and researching alot before posting and it sounds that more people are having issues with the gigabyte board than they are with the asus. I will not have the chance of testing the components before shipping them to CR. I guess I am just trying to reduce the chances of getting a part that is DOA or that is more likely to give me issues. It will be a pain to get a part RMA'd once they are here. By the time they are returned to the manufacturer (cuz retailer 30 or 60 days warranty will be likely expired) I would have paid more than I would save from getting a part that is cheaper and to general reviews more likely to fail. Yeah mail service from and to here sucks that much...and btw I do know that paying more does not guarantee that a part will not fail but it gives me a bit more peace of mind. So thats why ASUS. I guess something similar with the Corsair cooler. I can't get that here so it will be nice to have it in case I want to OC a bit more. XFX PSU is only 20 less than the CORSAIR. I just like the brand and have heard A LOT of satisfied people with that product. :D
 
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Actually, even Asus has issues. The truth is that their motherboards have not been as high of a quality as they used to be, on the average. In fact, the model that you're looking at has been much less reliable than it should have been at this high price point.
 
awesome, thanks!

So I've been looking at cases and after seeing the case that Alienware uses on its Aurora system I dont like all of the others anymore :rolleyes:
 
I like the FT02 from Silverstone better than that Alienware. :p
 
hey guys I went ahead and bought an i7 930...two days later I guy at work told me his wife bought a i7 960 for him but she did not know that he had a 1156 mobo..... I know what u are thinking...anyway he is selling this cpu at very reasonable price and I think I am gonna go for it. I will be putting my brand new 930 on ebay, If someone here wants it let me know. Its going for $230 shipped anywhere in the US, it is currently in Katy TX. Sorry to post this on this thread but I can't post on the for sale section until I have 50 threads
 
Honestly, if you can buy it from him really cheap, resell it and try to make a profit, then use that money to buy something else nice for your pc. How much is a "very reasonable price" for it?
 
$350..that CPU is already in Costa Rica, where I live. And no one here, at least close to us has a pc that supports that, or no one is interested on uprgrading. I am not trying to make a profit out if it. Look at it this way: I can get a better performance out of a 960 AND for ~$200 off the retail price. So that is why I am selling the 930.. I guess what I am saying, It will not be easy to resell it here, since he has been trying to do so for a while
 
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Heh, you'll get the same performance out of the 930 as you would the 960 if you simply OC the 930. They both have the same OC threshold, though, it's just the 960 would be easier to OC with due to it's higher multiplier -- which I don't think is worth it's price premium over the 930. So, I agree, I'd sell the 960 and use the 930. However, your location situation is something to consider, but I'm not sure it's worth spending the extra $100 simply to avoid shipping the 960. /shrug
 
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