New Comp suggestions - $1900

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Pitcrew

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May 21, 2009
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1)What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?


1.) Gaming, work (extensive 3D CAD), web browsing, watching movies, music
2.) $1900, yes
3.) San Diego, CA
4.) Everything, start from scratch.
5.) N/A
6.) Yes
7.) 40 “ LCD TV
8.) now, ASAP
9.) Lots of USB, SATA ports. On board sound card (included), 8+ RAM
10.) Planning on Vista 64 or Windows 7

LIST OF PARTS RESEARCHED on NewEgg:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Wolfdale 3.33GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8600

MB: ASUS Rampage Extreme LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

PSU: ZALMAN ZM850-HP 850W Continuous @ 45°C (Maximum Continuous Peak: 1050W) ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified NVIDIA

RAM: (X4) Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1375 (PC3 11000) Desktop Memory Model KHX11000D3LL/2G


CASE: ZALMAN Z-MACHINE GT1000-B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower High End Computer Case


VIDEO CARD: EVGA 01G-P3-1281-AR GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

HARD DRIVE: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM

MISC: ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD 7240S-0B



COMMENTS: I really like the Zalman Case. Have always wanted one so my build will be within that case. Also, Looking for other options/ opinions on a better build. It’s a toss up with the motherboard because it is more of an ATI based MB. Please let me know what you think, Thank you.
 
EDIT:
I DO NOT NEED a keyboard, mouse, monitor

A little opossed to quad core because (its been a while) I have been told games do not need or use 4 cores. Maybe wrong but please correct me.
 
Why not an i7 build? Your budget certainly allows it...

$280 - i7 920
$250 - ASUS P6T
$95 - 6GB G.Skill DDR3 1600
$225 - HIS Radeon 4890 ($25 rebate)
$75 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB
$115 - Corsair 750TX ($10 rebate)
$40 - XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V
$160 - Antec P183
$21 - LITE-ON 22X DVD±R DVD Burner

TOTAL: $1261 before shipping, taxes, rebates

You can save additional money from the above by...
1. Purchasing some components (i.e. PSU, video card, hard drive) from Amazon
2. Selecting a different case of your choice
3. Going with a lower capacity (yet still quality) PSU such as the Corsair 650TX, Antec EA650W
4. Find some other combo deals on Newegg (such as CPU + Motherboard bundles)
 
PC_User-
Thanks for the input. I fully agree now seeing the prices comparison of the i7 vs "my" build up. Questions tho:
- Why not NVidia for a Video card?
- Which P6T board?

Thanks in advance.
 
Pitcrew said:
PC_User-
Thanks for the input. I fully agree now seeing the prices comparison of the i7 vs "my" build up. Questions tho:
- Why not NVidia for a Video card?
- Which P6T board?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

The HD4890 is faster than the Nvidia GTX 275, the closest competitor to the HD4890 in that price range.

Depends on what features you need and want. Quick comparison:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16813131359,N82E16813131365,N82E16813131358

I highly recommend PC_User's build. The WD6401AALS drive he recommended is onyl 10% slower than the Velociraptor drive you chose. The Xigmatek HSF is far better than the Zalman HSF. The G.Skill RAM is clocked higher than the Kingston RAM you chose and offers more GB per $.
 
with your budget and that build a WC loop to deal with all that heat isn't out of reach. if you're up to the challenge.
 
If the Z-MACHINE GT1000-B is the case you like, then go for it. Cases are highly subjective. For example, there's no way in hell I'd buy that case for that much money, lol... nor the P183 for $160. How, a Silverstone or Lian-Li... TJ10 or PC-V1010B? Maybe...

BTW, the P6T board PC_User linked to is the vanilla Asus P6T. No SE, Deluxe, V2, etc after it... just plain P6T.

I think the HD4890 tends to take the lead more often than give it up, but as always, it depends on the games. So, you should read reviews and see which one performs best for your money on the games you play.
 
Thank you everyone for the input. You guys are great. I have changed my set up to 90% of what PC_User suggested. All but the power supply and of course the case yet I have a few more questions.

As far as power, is 750 watts enough?

Also, I am most likely to be playing Crysis and BF2 (modded) . Am I better off getting the ATI card (4890) vs the GTX 285 bang for buck? I currently have a 9800 xt (lol..thats how far my comp goes back) and like Radeon. Just thought over the past few years and reading reviews, they were not focusing on the gaming aspect of the industry (correct me if I am wrong). Just seems like NVidia has taken over.

As far as the MB is concerned, is there really all that much difference besides options? (PRO, SE, Deluxe, etc) I have looked at the specs side by side for so long eyes are getting strained..lol

I do not mind spending the money even if I am over my budget by a bit. I am looking to be good for gaming and the such for a few years down the road and being able to upgrade on a system that will not be obsolete in 3 months.
 
Make sure your board has ICH10R, then get a couple OCZ vertex (30, 60's) or Intel SSD drives, put them in RAID, turn off windows 7 write cache and get 500 mb/s read, 300 mb/s write. Your OS will fly.

Get rid of the HDD bottleneck.
 
You can use the stock cooler if noise and heat don't scare you.

Otherwise, I always recommend the Thermalright HR coolers, but the specific model depends on which particular video card you select.
 
You can save yourself quite a few dollars by ordering stuff from some where other than newegg. Although newegg has free shipping usually, because you are in CA the tax will really add up. Try to get as much from Amazon as their prices are usually around the same.


 
750W is much more than enough. ;)

If you don't need anything special, just get the P6T SE. If you want Tri-SLI capability, get the regular P6T. If you want all the bells and whistles without Tri-SLI capability, get the Deluxe/V2. They all support Crossfire.

Of course ATI is focused on gaming. What they've dropped out of is the extreme high end GPU market. Instead, they're sticking two "high/midrange" GPUs onto a single card, like the HD4870X2 and HD4850X2, as their extreme high end offering. Here, read this review...

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539
 
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