Planned Upcoming Build

[RadioActiveLobster]

I plan on putting together a new rig near the end of the year.

I plan at first to do all air cooling and possibly doing some water cooling in the future, but right now I just can't afford it. So the case should have the ability to add in water cooling in the future.

Current Build Wishlist *Updated 9/17 11am EST*

• COOLER MASTER HAF X
• GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5
• CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-950TX 950W
• Intel Core i7-950
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3
• Noctua NH-D14

Since I am doing Air Cooling I wanted the best option available and from what I have read that is the Noctua NH-D14.

For the motherboard, I've been debating between the Gigabyte I linked above and the MSI Bing Bang X-Power due to the supposed "ease" of overclocking automatically with MSI's OC Genie. I am an overclocking n00b so anything that can help me with that I would like.

I will be using my current optical drives, current hard drives (Plus a cheap 80GB SATA just to hold my documents) and I currently have a MSI 5870 that I will be using (I do all my gaming at 1920x1200)

I want to try staying under $1300 total (once I do this upgrade I will be selling or parting out my current computer)


Your thoughts/comments?

 

[Dangman]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
8) Can you be more specific as to when you're gonna build this PC
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

Though right off the bat: Don't waste money on that 80GB drive. Once you factor in shipping, it's only $12 less than a 500GB hard drive:
$55 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

$12 for more than six times the space? And 4 to 5 times the speed? Totally worth it even if you don't need that much space or speed. Simply doesn't make sense to buy the 80GB.

 

[RadioActiveLobster]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

I will be doing a lot of gaming on this computer. I will also be doing the standard things like web browsing, reading (E-Books, Fan Fiction, Fiction/Non Fiction). I do some Photoshop editing but not a lot.

The main thing is I also use this computer for my job, I work at home via the internet (using a Citrix virtual desktop)

8) Can you be more specific as to when you're gonna build this PC

I hope to buy most of the parts and build it in late November, early December (looking at some hopeful Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals)

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

It'll defiantly need a lot of USB 2.0 and some 3.0 ports. I don't really have a use for Firewire. Crossfire/SLI support is a must. I haven't decided yet if I will add a second 5870 down the road or sell it and look into SLI'ing some 460's/470's/480's (Price dependent). For right now though it will be running just the single 5870.

Also, now that I think about it I doubt I need dual gigabit Ethernet on the mobo, I use only the one port currently (my current mobo has dual ports) to connect to my network/internet. The GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R is cheaper and as far as I can tell the only difference between it and the UD5 is the dual gigabit Ethernet

The mobo should also have room to install a good sound card down the road (don't need it right away, I won't need it until I move since I can't install any good 5.1 speakers in this room)

I want to do some overclocking on the rig (CPU, GPU, RAM) but I am a novice at it and I heard good things about the OC Genie on the MSI Xpower board, but I am also willing to get my hands dirty and try it the old fashion way.

Though right off the bat: Don't waste money on that 80GB drive. Once you factor in shipping, it's only $12 less than a 500GB hard drive:
$55 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

$12 for more than six times the space? And 4 to 5 times the speed? Totally worth it even if you don't need that much space or speed. Simply doesn't make sense to buy the 80GB.

This is why I post here and ask you guys. This drive will mainly be for hosting my documents/projects, but I won't complain at having a lot of space. I'm sure I'll find something to fill it up with

 

[Dangman]

The main thing is I also use this computer for my job, I work at home via the internet (using a Citrix virtual desktop)

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly do you do at your job with the PC?

I'm asking because so far, it doesn't look like you should spend the money for a Core i7 930 + X58 setup since gaming seems to be the more heavy duty of your usage. Really no difference between the i7 930 and the Core i5 750. Most of your motherboard requirements so far can easily be met by a socket LGA 1156 and P55 motherboard chipset.

Also, it is a tad too early to start looking at parts considering that Intel is releasing a new socket and new CPU line supposedly in November and December. So the CPU + mobo + RAM we recommend today may not be the smartest buys in November and December.

 

[RadioActiveLobster]

The main reason I wanted to go with 1366 was that when Intel does release the new CPU/Socket lines I was hoping the cost of the 980x would drop (I'm thinking at least 2 years in the future)

. I hope to have this build last me 3+ years (Mobo/RAM/PSU/HDD/Etc) with the possibility of swapping the CPU (I know intel said that even with the new CPU line coming out 1366 would still be around for a while) and swapping the GPU's

The reason I want to upgrade now though is that my Q6600 and current RAM seems to be bottlenecking my 5870 and I've had this rig for 3 years



As for what I do for work, I can technically do that on a $300 out of the box E-Machine so it really has no bearing on my build

 

[Dangman]

The main reason I wanted to go with 1366 was that when Intel does release the new CPU/Socket lines I was hoping the cost of the 980x would drop (I'm thinking at least 2 years in the future)

Keep hoping: More than likely Intel will not drop the prices of their Intel hex-core CPUs, let alone one of their Extreme Edition CPUs. Very very rarely will Intel ever drop the price of a Extreme Edition CPU to a price point worth buying. In fact, look at the prices of their Intel Core 2 Quad CPUs: Very little has changed price wise over the past two years despite the release of the faster Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. It's already close to two years since the release of the Intel Core i7 920 yet still no major price cuts. And yes, Intel even said back then when the Core i7 came out that 775 would still be around. Being around != good buy.

Alternative setup:
$359 - Intel Core i5 760 CPU + Asus P7P55D-E Pro Intel P55 ATX Motherboard Combo
$92 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
----
Total: $451 plus tax and shipping.

There's very little difference between PCI-E x4/x4 SLI/Crossfire and PCI-E x16/x16 Crossfire/SLI let alone x8/x8 Crossfire/SLI. The i5 760 is just as fast as the Core i7 950 in gaming. Finally, there's very little real world difference between triple channel and dual channel performance in real world apps and games.

Now consider the price difference: Your planned CPU + mobo + RAM setup is $650, pretty much $200 more than the setup I provided above but doesn't offer a justifiable real world performance increase for that $200. Nor will your plan of waiting for the hex-core CPUs to drop in price will pan out well judging from the prices of Intel Core 2 Quad CPUs.