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PC Build Help

K

K -

n00b
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
57
Edit: I'll also post my current system as below:
- HP DC7900 E8400 3 GHz
- 3GB Stock RAM
- 8800GT 512MB
- X-treme Gamer soundcard (to keep)
- DTX 850 headphone (to keep)
- 17" CRT (to keep)
- G9 mouse (to keep)


I'm looking for something around i7 950 3GHz system:


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Fast twitch FPS gaming like L4D, Fear Combat, Crysis

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$2000 approx more or less

3) Where do you live?
Sydney, Australia

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, GRAPHICS CARD, RAM, MOBO, PSU, COOLING SYSTEM

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
G9 Mouse, PS2 Keyboard, Headset DTX850, X-fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card, 17" CRT Monitor

6) Will you be overclocking?
I prefer a stable system

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have 17" CRT that allows me 150Hz refresh rate

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

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Anything that is future proof and stable.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
XP32, WIN 7 64 pro


Is this considered a good find? Pls advise
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Intel-i7-960...815479?pt=AU_comp_dekstop&hash=item3f02acc037
 
Last edited:
Not a good deal at all:
- Nonexistant PSU. Either that's some generic PSU or that company listed the PSU wrong. There's not such thing as True Power 860w PSU.
- For straight up gaming, a Core i7 setup is not cost effective at all.
- Even for Australian pricing, that setup is overpriced

As such, that PC is not a good buy.

What other online Australian computer hardware stores can/will you buy from? Like this one for example?:
http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/msy.htm
 
Danny Bui said:
Not a good deal at all:
- Nonexistant PSU. Either that's some generic PSU or that company listed the PSU wrong. There's not such thing as True Power 860w PSU.
- For straight up gaming, a Core i7 setup is not cost effective at all.
- Even for Australian pricing, that setup is overpriced

As such, that PC is not a good buy.

What other online Australian computer hardware stores can/will you buy from? Like this one for example?:
http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/msy.htm
Click to expand...

MSY provides Intel system package, however, in any of their packages they do not mention the following:
- Hard Drive RPM
- PSU Brand and Watt

Link: http://www.msy.com.au/SYSTEMS/INTEL-Pro4.pdf

- For straight up gaming, a Core i7 setup is not cost effective at all.
Click to expand...
Can you suggest the ones that are?
 
Danny Bui said:
Oook, you didn't answer my question: What other online Australian computer hardware stores can/will you buy from?
Click to expand...

That's the thing. If you can suggest me what brand of mobo, psu, ram, gfx to buy, then maybe I can go to any Australian online computer website stores and start picking the parts and compare prices.
 
K - said:
That's the thing. If you can suggest me what brand of mobo, psu, ram, gfx to buy, then maybe I can go to any Australian online computer website stores and start picking the parts and compare prices.
Click to expand...

Actually, we'd recommend looking for a reseller first, then the parts. This is because if you concentrate on the parts first, you might end up spending way more money than is justified. And the reason why we'd consider an i7-960 not worth the price because it costs over $300 AUD higher than the next model down, the i7-950, and provides less than a 3% performance boost compared to the lower CPU.
 
K - said:
That's the thing. If you can suggest me what brand of mobo, psu, ram, gfx to buy, then maybe I can go to any Australian online computer website stores and start picking the parts and compare prices.
Click to expand...
Here's the thing: How can I recommend parts if I don't what parts are available and at what price those parts are in Australia? There are a lot of well recommended parts here in the U.S that aren't available or well priced in Australia. Nor is buying PC parts by brand name a good idea as even brand name hardware can be crap buys. In addition, not all hardware from a certain brand actually good in the first place.

So basically, I need to know what sites you're gonna be buying from and therefore I can see what parts are actually available to you. Therefore I can tailor my recommendations and you can get a PC that's great for the price.
 
Actually, we'd recommend looking for a reseller first, then the parts. This is because if you concentrate on the parts first, you might end up spending way more money than is justified. And the reason why we'd consider an i7-960 not worth the price because it costs over $300 AUD higher than the next model down, the i7-950, and provides less than a 3% performance boost compared to the lower CPU.
Click to expand...
Noted.

HardwareGuru said:
Try

http://www.umart.com.au/
http://www.eyo.com.au/
Click to expand...

Thanks.


Some more here for Danny:
http://www.techbuy.com.au/
http://www.mwave.com.au/system.asp

Edit: Please read my first post for my current system
 
Last edited:
Thisis more than enough for a 17" monitor.
$226 - Intel Core i5 760 CPU
$179 - Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 ATX Motherboard
$100 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$249 - Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$59 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$95 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU
----
Total: $908 plus tax and shipping

Choose your own case. I recommend these:
$60 - NZXT M59 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master CM690 II Basic ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$130 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$170 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$180 - Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Thanks Danny, I'll have a look at the parts.
The reason I'm using 17" CRT is just because I can get 150Hz refresh rate for gaming purposes. I also don't mind spending a bit more for good i7 950 since my budget is approx $2000 more or less..
 
K - said:
I also don't mind spending a bit more for good i7 950 since my budget is approx $2000 more or less..
Click to expand...

The 2.8Ghz Core i7 930 only provides about a 2 to 5FPS difference over the Core i5 750 as shown in this review:
http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/gaming_the_core_debate,1.html

Additional proof: The $1040 3.3Ghz Core i7 975 Extreme Edition CPU is only 15% to 30% faster than the Core i5 750 with only a specific set of games and video cards:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/cpus-and-games-2010.html

So considering the the i7 975 is faster than the i7 930 and i7 950 and yet only provides 15% to 30% under the most ideal conditions, the Core i7 930/950 is definitely not gonna be that much faster than the i5 750 or i5 760. At least fast enough to justify the higher costs anyway. In addition, there's very little real world difference between triple channel and dual channel RAM in real world apps and games.

So platform wise, you can save around $200 to $300 if you switch to the Core i7 760 route and still get very similar performance in games. Dunno about you but $200 to $300 is too high for minimal gains in gaming. It'll only extend the life of your PC by 2 months at most.
 
Hi Danny,
Do you think there will be significant difference changing from my current E8400 3Ghz to the i5 760 2.6 Ghz (or i7 in this case)?
 
K - said:
Hi Danny,
Do you think there will be significant difference changing from my current E8400 3Ghz to the i5 760 2.6 Ghz (or i7 in this case)?
Click to expand...

Depends on the game. For quad-core aware games, definitely. For games that are mainly just dual-core only and requires sheer clock speed, kind of.
 
Danny Bui said:
Depends on the game. For quad-core aware games, definitely. For games that are mainly just dual-core only and requires sheer clock speed, kind of.
Click to expand...

I forgot to tell the OP that the nominal clock speed of an i5-760 is 2.8GHz, not 2.6GHz.
 
HardwareGuru said:
Are you content with using your current 17" crt monitor?
Click to expand...

Yes, I need the screen refresh rate high (150Hz) max on 640x480 res, that's the reason i'm keeping it. You have other suggestions I can have a look at?
 
Hey,
I'm thinking whether it's possible to OC the i5-760 2.8, would it be a good idea since most of my games are really only using single/dual core hence I want more Ghz power.
 
K - said:
Yes, I need the screen refresh rate high (150Hz) max on 640x480 res, that's the reason i'm keeping it. You have other suggestions I can have a look at?
Click to expand...
Holy fuck. The things people do....
K - said:
Hey,
I'm thinking whether it's possible to OC the i5-760 2.8, would it be a good idea since most of my games are really only using single/dual core hence I want more Ghz power.
Click to expand...

Yes it's possible to OC the i5 750. Just add a 3rd party HSF to the setup I listed above and you'll be fine:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
 
you have more than enough to spend on a 22inch widescreen or even a 24inch man

you will like your game more! 640x480 sounds so so fisherpricy
 
vict0r said:
you have more than enough to spend on a 22inch widescreen or even a 24inch man

you will like your game more! 640x480 sounds so so fisherpricy
Click to expand...

I'm sure he's not actually using that shitty resolution all the time, and probably just for a specific program.
 
I can see why people would sacrifice graphics for performance in competitive gaming, not so much in recreational gaming.
 
K - said:
Danny,
1. newegg actually have gaming computer packages. If you have to choose from all these, which would you pick?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=100006736 600030537&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=i7

2. Does newegg provide computer build service when I order parts from them?
Click to expand...

Newegg doesn't ship to or serve Australia. To answer your questions anyway:
1) Those are just prebuilt gaming PCs. Of those PCs, drop the iBuypower and Cyberpower since those companies are well known for piss poor construction quality and shit customer service. Drop the Gateways as well since some of those Gateways comes with crappy PSUs. That now leaves the Acer and Velocity Micro. Out of those remaining 5 PCs, I would recommend the Velocity Micro Edge Z30 for the best bang for the value out of those remaining PCs.

2) No. You have to get service from the manufacturers of that PC.
 
I like how you are certain with your answers.

I might use your build and get the i5 overclocked to 4ghz with that cooler you recommended me.I take it that those brands are trustworthy?
 
K - said:
I might use your build and get the i5 overclocked to 4ghz with that cooler you recommended me.I take it that those brands are trustworthy?
Click to expand...
Yes those brands are trustworthy.
 
Hey Danny,
Is it less riskier to buy the cooler and do the overclock yourself or should I ask the technicians to overclock it for me?

All I know that overclock can easily be done from the mobo and is reversible.


Regards,
Ryan
 
K - said:
Hey Danny,
Is it less riskier to buy the cooler and do the overclock yourself or should I ask the technicians to overclock it for me?
Click to expand...
Really depends on the competency of the technician
 
Danny Bui said:
Holy fuck. The things people do....


Yes it's possible to OC the i5 750. Just add a 3rd party HSF to the setup I listed above and you'll be fine:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
Click to expand...

Hey,
I read that some system do need water cooling for Overclocking purpose. Will this be sufficient if I intend to OC to 4GHz?
 
K - said:
Hey,
I read that some system do need water cooling for Overclocking purpose. Will this be sufficient if I intend to OC to 4GHz?
Click to expand...

Air cooling is still sufficient for a 4Ghz OC. Many people want water cooling because they either A) want the highest OC possible, B) the lower temps possible and C) all of the above.
 
Danny Bui said:
Air cooling is still sufficient for a 4Ghz OC. Many people want water cooling because they either A) want the highest OC possible, B) the lower temps possible and C) all of the above.
Click to expand...

Would you suggest something else if I wanna push it further for say like 5GHz?
 
K - said:
Would you suggest something else if I wanna push it further for say like 5GHz?
Click to expand...

Hardly anyone can reach 5GHz with either air cooling or liquid cooling. Most likely you will need liquid hydrogen cooling (expensive and messy) to reach anywhere near that high.
 
Danny Bui said:
Thisis more than enough for a 17" monitor.
$226 - Intel Core i5 760 CPU
$179 - Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 ATX Motherboard
$100 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$249 - Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$59 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$95 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU
----
Total: $908 plus tax and shipping

Choose your own case. I recommend these:
$60 - NZXT M59 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master CM690 II Basic ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$130 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$170 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$180 - Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
Click to expand...

Hi Danny,
I'm planning to spend a bit more and came up with these, please give me your thoughts:
- 470 gtx (What's the difference between oc and non-oc edition?)
- Noctua NH-U12P-SE2 (Planning to oc around 4-4.5Ghz and get lower temp)
- Will the PSU still be sufficient if I decided to change the above?

I'm open for comments, discussions and suggestions :D

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
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K - said:
Hi Danny,
I'm planning to spend a bit more and came up with these, please give me your thoughts:
- 470 gtx (What's the difference between oc and non-oc edition?)
- Noctua NH-U12P-SE2 (Planning to oc around 4-4.5Ghz and get lower temp)
- Will the PSU still be sufficient if I decided to change the above?

I'm open for comments, discussions and suggestions :D

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
OC editions run at higher clocks than the reference design. It is unrealistic to expect 4-4.5ghz on air cooling, you'd need a water cooling setup for something like that.
 
- The GTX 460 was already overkill for your 17" monitor. Unless you're planning on getting a 24" monitor and actually playing the games at 1920x1080, getting the GTX 470 would be a waste of money.

- As PersonalJ noted, 4.4Ghz to 4.5Ghz is only doable if you're extremely lucky with the CPU. The average OC is around 3.8Ghz to 4.2Ghz. But yes that Noctua HSF will be enough for a 4.2Ghz OC.

- Considering your plans for overclocking and the GTX 470, no, the Antec 620W PSU will not be enough. I recommend at least a 750W PSU with 60A on the +12V rail from Antec, Corsair, or Seasonic for that kind of setup.
 
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