New Gaming PC- need advice

[radnads]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Surfing web, gaming(eve with multi clients, and all games sold at steam for less than $20)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I told the wife $2000 so that would be nice. But it lloks like it will cost me closer to $3000 so that will be my budget
3) Where do you live?
***California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
***All but monitor, mouse, keyboard
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
***Mostly from scratch except for monitor.
6) Will you be overclocking?
***Yes I will try but never had much luck.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
***24" 1920x1200 tn but may upgrade to 3d in the future
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
***As soon as I figure out what parts I need. Maybe in the next 2 days
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
***I would like to try some raid 0 and maybe crossfire in the future. No SSDs.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
***Going to get Windows 7 64bit.


I will add links to the stuff I'm looking at as I go.

Video Card: XFX 5870 $420
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150476
Case: Lain Li PC-A71F $200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112244
DVD burner: Lite-on black Sata CD/DVD burner $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289
Thermal Compound: Artic silver $10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
CPU: Intel Core I7 930 $294
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225
UPS: Cyberpower 1500va 900w $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102054&cm_re=ups-_-42-102-054-_-Product
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362
Windows 7 Professional $269
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116717
Power supply: Corsair 850tx $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009
Harddrive: WD 1T 32 mb- I already have this. $0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284&cm_re=1t-_-22-136-284-_-Product
Memory: G-Skill 6 gb $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225


Stuff ordered:
CPU Cooler: cogage true spirit $40
http://www.crazypc.com/products/true-spirit-50981.html
HDD: 2X Caviar drive 16mb 640gb drives $120
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270518633&sr=8-1


Am I forgetting anything?

 

[radnads]

I would make that post all colorful if I knew how.

 

[Dangman]

Why are you going for Windows 7 Pro?
Do you live near a Microcenter?
Why no SSD?

 

[radnads]

Windows pro because I can run windows xp programs on it and eventually will set up some wifi with 3 computer. So I think I needed it. But I know very little. Did not plan on upgrading but I had a 2 year old destroy the computer. Having to get up to speed fast.

Microcenter is about 6 hours drive to north or about 5 hour drive to the south.

And no SDD is because I read up on them and they scare me a little. I kinda like thing I can set once and forget. So SDD seem to be improving rapidly so figured I would wait.

I think my total is over 2000 now so should update my budget to 3000.

 

[guney]

Okay, I have some time to kill, so I'll bite:

Video card:
You really can't go wrong with that one.

Case:
Personally, I would have picked something less expensive if I had a $2000 budget, but I can't point out any drawback to dissuade you other than cost.

DVD burner:
Not worth much thought (or worry).

Thermal compound:
Ditto. But, I find it odd that you have in mind a particular thermal compound without listing any particular (I'm assuming) CPU cooler that you have in mind. Do you mean you intend to use this on the stock cooler?

CPU:
I have no comments for this one. It's a pretty safe pick.

UPS:
Hmmm... I'm not sure which part of California you live in (unreliable mains?), your past (had a traumatic data loss due to power failure?), or how sensitive the work done on this machine will be (plan to run air traffic control?), but I've lived in California for 10 years, have been a heavy PC user during all that time, and never suffered any adverse effect of not using a UPS. If I were you, I'd scrap this from my list and use the money on adding/upgrading other components. In the worst case, if you're truly worried, getting a better-than-average surge protector should be good enough.

Motherboard:
I haven't been following the motherboard market closely lately, but it seems to me that an X58 motherboard would be a good choice with a reasonably long future, and Gigabyte is one of the safest bets in terms of motherboard brand. I also agree with making the motherboard one of the more higher-end items and one of the bigger cost components in your configuration.

Operating system:
Amen.

Memory:
Here's my take: I'm a person who paid $500+ for 2GB of DDR3 memory rated for 1800 MHz back in the day. At the time, DDR2 was still the norm and even the rare high-end DDR3 device usually didn't go past 1300 MHz. In time (and after plenty of overclocking experimentation), I've come to realize that the main impact of high-end memory is on memory benchmark results, and little else. I noticed that even going down from 1800 MHz to 1066 MHz made an infinitesimal change in high-level synthetic benchmarks and made at most a 1 or 2 fps difference in all games. So, my advice would be, think capacity and cost, rather than speed/brand/overclocking, when it comes to memory.

Power supply:
It would be arbitrary for me to blurt out a particular brand or model. Unless you have arcane concerns like cable routing (modular cabling) or aesthetics, the choice should boil down to a cost, wattage, and noise. Your configuration so far does not seem to have monstrous power requirements (the CPU is an efficient contemporary model, and you have one video card that's not a dual-GPU or nVidia). In fact, my configuration is roughly equivalent to yours (older quad-core CPU, same GPU) and I've been comfortably running everything (with five hard drives, mind you) with a 700-watt power supply without a single problem. As for noise, the lesser the better, of course. If you're really concerned about it, silentpcreview.com is a good resource for researching especially silent power supplies. Other than that, simply scan Newegg for the cheapest power supply that matches your wattage target with a high user rating average and don't look back.

Hard drive:
I'm not sure what's implied by your omission of this item from your list. I assume it means you simply don't intend to think much about it and slap just any old 1TB internal drive in there and forget about it. However, you'd do yourself a disservice if you don't consider the fact that hard drive performance easily makes the most readily noticeable difference in the perceived speed and responsiveness of your machine. You do make a passing mention of RAID 0. That would certainly be a step in the right direction. If your mind is made up about not using SSDs, then you might want to make the hard drive(s) one of the items in your configuration on which to splurge (at the expense of things like the case, the power supply, and the UPS, if you ask me) and get something like the just-announced higher-capacity Western Digital VelociRaptor (VR200M) hard drives, and make yourself considerably happier in the long run.

That's all for now.

 

[Dangman]

Try to get some of the parts from Amazon as Amazon does not charge tax for CA residents:
$295 - Intel Core i7 930 CPU
$210 - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 ATX Motherboard
$161 - Patriot Gamer Series PGS36G1600ELK 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$56 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
---
Total: $722 shipped

The WD 500GB Blue drive is now one of the fastest OS drives out there. Mobo wise, didn't see anything in your posts that would suggest that you would need the UD5 mobo. Especially considering that the X58A-UD3R has SATA 6GB/s and USB 3.0 while being $60 cheaper.

PSU wise, do you really want/need a modular PSU? And yes the Seasonic X-750 will be enough power for just about any single GPU video card out there.

Out of curiosity, what XP programs will you be running exactly that can't be run in Windows 7? Are you planning on using your PC as a wifi hotspot or access point?

 

[radnads]

Thanks for taking the time to reply Guney.

Budget: As for budget I have edited it seeing that I wasnt going to make it under 2000 and now looking at more like 3000.

UPS: lol I have lived in California for 8 years now and maybe you are right about not needing one. I lost a computer to a lightning strike in Florida. It was a tough loss because I was in the military not making much money and computer were more expensive. Well hope that explains it.

Harddrive: At the time of your post I as looking for a good drive for raid 0 to add to the post. Kind hard to find consist info on storage.

Power supply : Power suppy added.

Memory: Still reading up on this also. There is almost to much info when it comes to memory. So was hopping someone could make a suggestion. If not I will sift through the info and post a like I think might work.

Case: Im not in love with that case> I have a CM stacker and was looking for something that big but that had less noise leakage.

 

[radnads]

Danny Bui,

Thanks for the tip I will check out Amazon and check prices before ordering. So Amazon items dont ship to fast so that was why I was using newegg.

I should let everyone know my computer knowledge level. About every 3 years I read the hardocp forum for about 2 to 5 weeks then order my parts based on what the people here in the [H]ard forum like. I'm not in love with any of my choices of components. This will be my 3rd completely new computer. This time I am out of a computer so dont have time to be so picky.

I dont know much about the X-750 but the people in the power supply forum really like it.

Im not sure if I need Windows 7 Pro?

I will read up on the UD3R right now.

And for harddrives is it specifically the WD 500GB blue or just those types? I read that the high performance drives in western digital where called black. Is there something special about the drive you linked.

And I will edit my post to reflect you feedback, Thanks for the help.

 

[jtvd78]

Thanks for taking the time to reply Guney.

Budget: As for budget I have edited it seeing that I wasnt going to make it under 2000 and now looking at more like 3000.

UPS: lol I have lived in California for 8 years now and maybe you are right about not needing one. I lost a computer to a lightning strike in Florida. It was a tough loss because I was in the military not making much money and computer were more expensive. Well hope that explains it.

Harddrive: At the time of your post I as looking for a good drive for raid 0 to add to the post. Kind hard to find consist info on storage.

Power supply : Power suppy added.

Memory: Still reading up on this also. There is almost to much info when it comes to memory. So was hopping someone could make a suggestion. If not I will sift through the info and post a like I think might work.

CPU cooler: I've heard great things about the Corsair H50, but you might want to try out the new Cool IT ECO A.L.C
Memory: Please, Do not go with Corsair dominators, they are so much of rip off. When you do choose memory, make sure you go with Ram that is at 1.5v, so you will be able to overclock them( if you want to).
UPS: I would go for an APC UPS. They very highly rated.

 

[Dangman]

I dont know much about the X-750 but the people in the power supply forum really like it.

Im not sure if I need Windows 7 Pro?

And for harddrives is it specifically the WD 500GB blue or just those types? I read that the high performance drives in western digital where called black. Is there something special about the drive you linked.

The Seasonic X-750 is an excellent quality PSU. However from a price to performance perspective, you're better off with the Corsair 850TX you now have in your build list.

Look at this and see which Windows 7 is right for you:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare

The Wd 500GB Blue drive I linked to is a single platter HDD which makes it faster than most hard drives. The WD 500GB Black is not single platter nor is the WD 750GB Black. Just found out about this deal so I highly highly highly highly highly recommend going with these drives instead:
$58 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Just as fast as the WD 500GB Blue I linked to but provides significantly more storage. The WD 640GB Blue and Black versions are also significantly faster than the WD 750GB Black drives.

Also for the needs you've described so far, 6GB of RAM is more than enough.

 

[engiNURD]

Building a $2k system right now without a single SSD would be a bad decision, IMO. Your computer is as fast as your slowest component, and mechanical HDDs are the bottleneck in modern systems. There really is nothing to be afraid of with SSDs now, especially since TRIM is supported by the recommended SSDs as well as Win7. If you're THAT afraid of SSDs, then I guess RAID0 w/ short stroking some fast, high-density-platter drives would be the next best thing -- but they still can't compete with the access times/IOPS of an SSD. http://ssd.alphaq.org

You're at least 5hrs away from a MC/Fry's in either direction? What in the world are you doing in Bakersfield?!? j/k.

I disagree with guney and the no UPS suggestion, regardless of where you live. The leading cause of HDD failures are heat and power fluctuations, and it's always good to deliver clean power to your electronics. Get a good UPS. Once you get into the 1500VA range, the prices tend to jump, though. I'd suggest something with AVR. I use an APC XS 900VA for my main gaming rig (and I've got my routers/switches/server on a standard Back-UPS 550VA). Back in the day, late 90's - early 2K, I had HDDs fail on me quite often. Got a Smart-UPS 1400VA back in 2001 on clearance and haven't had a drive die on me since (that was plugged into a UPS).