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New PC Build

H

hoek88

n00b
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
49
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming -- BF3 and Virtual Machines
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1200 not including tax/shipping
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, Mobo, CPU/APU, Ram, Vid Card, HDD, and PSU.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
maybe HDD, WD AAKS 640
6) Will you be overclocking?
no
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
22in Samsung -- 1680x1050
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
immediately, but can wait if need be
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? etc.
not concerned too much about this, but extras are nice :)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
32 bit xp pro, windows 7 pro



So I have been out of the hardware loop for a long, long time, and help would be greatly appreciated. As you can see the last time I logged into this account "You last visited: 01-27-2009 at 07:29 PM". I have been reading a little here and there, on the hard forums mostly, thinking about starting with an amd 7970 card, and a sandy 2600k cpu. As far as the rest, I duno. I am shocked to see that DFI stopped making mobos, so a MSI P67A-G43 mobo seems nicely priced at 94$ after mail-in-rebate. Not sure about RAM either.
 
1680x1050 Resolution? 6970 seems a bit overkill:
EVGA GTX 560 448 Core $299
Not overclocking?
Intel 2500-non K edition $209

That saves you about 100 bucks. That's a start. I haven't hung around these parts of the forum in a while, but someone else can probably help you get a lot more for your money. May I also suggest considering an SSD in your system? Your budget of $1200 is pretty high considering what you need.
 
Prelim build:
$267 - Intel Core i5 2400 + Corsair CMX16GX3M4A1600C9 XMS3 4 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM Combo
$133 - Asus P8Z68-V LE Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$260 - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$177 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
$168 - Hitachi Desktar 7K1000.D HDS721010DLE630 1TB SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$70 - Seasonic S121II 620 620W PSU
---
Total: $1075 plus tax and shipping

Notes:
- CMustan87 is correct that since you're not overclocking, no reason to grab a K series CPU. The regular CPUs will be fine for your needs
- The HD 7970 is fairly overkll for that resolution. Unless you're planning on upgrading to a significantly larger monitor, the HD 6950 2GB will be more than enough for your needs.
- I included a SSD and a hard drive as Cmustan87 recommended.
- Maxed out at 16GB of RAM already.

As for the case, choose your own case. I recommend the following cases:
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
$88 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$98 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White ATX Case
$125 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$143 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$164 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
 
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Cmustang87 said:
1680x1050 Resolution? 6970 seems a bit overkill:
EVGA GTX 560 448 Core $299
Not overclocking?
Intel 2500-non K edition $209

That saves you about 100 bucks. That's a start. I haven't hung around these parts of the forum in a while, but someone else can probably help you get a lot more for your money. May I also suggest considering an SSD in your system? Your budget of $1200 is pretty high considering what you need.
Click to expand...

Thank for the quick reply Cmustang87, although that was kinda my idea. I wanna get some hardware that I'm not gonna have to worry about upgrading for some time. Not to shoot down your answer either but SSD still haven't shown to be worth the money IMO. But after looking into it, you are definitely right. The difference between the 2500k and 2600k is not only 100 dollars, but 2MB cache, 3.4 v.s. 3.3, and essentially maybe 20 extra frames in gaming. I'm definitely starting to see your extremely valid point. I have one concern however, if I plan on running vm's on this, will I lose a lot of performane due to the fact that the 2500k doesn't have hyperthreading? Wouldn't a virtual machine benefit from this? or is it also not important? Thank again!
 
I'd grab the Crucial M4 128gb from TigerDirect, as Cmustang87 suggested ASAP as I doubt it'll go lower than that, and I think it's a 24 hour exclusive deal
 
It's worth saying that the 2500k is excessively easy to OC. You can get it to 4.2ghz easy, with no voltage tweaks. Just go into the BIOS and set the turbo clock to 42 and you're done.
 
hoek88 said:
Thank for the quick reply Cmustang87, although that was kinda my idea. I wanna get some hardware that I'm not gonna have to worry about upgrading for some time. Not to shoot down your answer either but SSD still haven't shown to be worth the money IMO.
Click to expand...

No problem. For your uses and at the resolution you are currently playing at, the 7970 is a price premium that isn't worth paying for. If you're not going to use the added performance of a 7970 now over a 6950/GTX 560 than you are paying a hefty early adopters fee for no added benefit essentially. I'm not trying to tell you how to spend your money, just advising you. An SSD would be far more worth the money than going with a 7970 over a GTX 560 or 6950 like DannyBui said.

hoek88 said:
The difference between the 2500k and 2600k is not only 100 dollars, but 2MB cache, 3.4 v.s. 3.3, and essentially maybe 20 extra frames in gaming. I'm definitely starting to see your extremely valid point. I have one concern however, if I plan on running vm's on this, will I lose a lot of performane due to the fact that the 2500k doesn't have hyperthreading? Wouldn't a virtual machine benefit from this? or is it also not important? Thank again!
Click to expand...

You won't see 20 more fps in gaming from a 2500k to a 2600k.

I'll let someone else chime in about virtualization.

LastQuestion said:
It's worth saying that the 2500k is excessively easy to OC. You can get it to 4.2ghz easy, with no voltage tweaks. Just go into the BIOS and set the turbo clock to 42 and you're done.
Click to expand...

Pretty much yea, I would suggest giving overclocking a try and spending a little bit more and getting a 2500k. IMO, that would be worth it spending $20 more going with a 2500k than bumping to a 2600-non k.
 
hoek88 said:
Thank for the quick reply Cmustang87, although that was kinda my idea. I wanna get some hardware that I'm not gonna have to worry about upgrading for some time.
Click to expand...
The HD 6950 2GB card that I recommended earlier is already overkill for your 1680x1050 resolution. So the faster HD 7970 is just plain stupid overkill for such a medium range resolution.

hoek88 said:
I have one concern however, if I plan on running vm's on this, will I lose a lot of performane due to the fact that the 2500k doesn't have hyperthreading? Wouldn't a virtual machine benefit from this? or is it also not important? Thank again!
Click to expand...
Depends on how many virtual machines you're planning on running at the same time, what those virtual machines are doing, and what else you'll be doing with this PC while those VMs are running. If you have like 10 virtual machines that are going full bore for long periods of time, then yes the 2600 (not the 2600K since you're not overclocking) might be worth the extra $110 with its HT. But if you're planning on running 4 to 6 VMs that are idle most of the time, HT isn't gonna help that much.
 
Danny Bui said:
The HD 6950 2GB card that I recommended earlier is already overkill for your 1680x1050 resolution. So the faster HD 7970 is just plain stupid overkill for such a medium range resolution.


Depends on how many virtual machines you're planning on running at the same time, what those virtual machines are doing, and what else you'll be doing with this PC while those VMs are running. If you have like 10 virtual machines that are going full bore for long periods of time, then yes the 2600 (not the 2600K since you're not overclocking) might be worth the extra $110 with its HT. But if you're planning on running 4 to 6 VMs that are idle most of the time, HT isn't gonna help that much.
Click to expand...

Thank you guys so much for your input. Really starting to put things in perspective. I have been out of this scene for a long time, so a 30 inch monitor with 2560x1600 resolution is just completely alien to me. As far as virtual machines, I will probably be running an IDS and a web server, Apache or IIS.
 
hoek88 said:
As far as virtual machines, I will probably be running an IDS and a web server, Apache or IIS.
Click to expand...

You should be fine then with the Core i5 2400 unless you're getting spammed like crazy or getting a lot of hits to the webserver.
 
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