rastapeenor

I have been a member for years of Driverheaven.net and now Hardwareheaven.com. I have never really posted much but I have always listened, for the past 6 months I have gone inactive so now I am in need of help.

I am planning and budgeting to build a totally new comp from the ground up, I need Hardwareheaven's help by helping me with my specs, like I said earlier I have been out of the loop for a while so I am not exactly sure what is top of the line. THANKS!

Takaharu

If you've been an avid reader, how comes you haven't specified what kind of PC you're looking for? :P

Are you after a low-end gaming machine, a beast, an overclocking-potential master, a graphics designing machine, etc, etc, etc?
Budget?

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rastapeenor

Oh snap I thought I did that, haha my Bad, Im looking for a gaming computer with a thousand dollar-ish budget, now clearly I will not be getting a mega beast but I need something that runs everything. Thanks!

BlueMak

Any brand preference or any that you refuse to get? (hardware)

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

kris23

intel has the top tier performance crown and leads in energy efficiency...

AMD leads in bang for buck... 6 cores for $200 and they are incredibly decent performers

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synthesis204

My suggestions (using US newegg):

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition (6 Cores @ 3.2Ghz):
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
$266

Mobo: ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard:
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
$110

Ram: 8GB DDR3 1600 Gskill "Ripjaw" Gaming Series (2X4GB CAS9 @ 1600Mhz):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231314
$190

PSU: Corsair TX650 650 Watt PSU:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
$90 ($70 with rebate)

HDD: WesternDigital Caviar Black 7200 32MB cache 1TB:
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$88

GFX: Asus DirectCU GTX 460:
Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$230

CPU Cooler:
Corsair H50-1 ($80)(liquid cooling):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-010-_-Product

OR

Coolermaster V8 ($60)(air cooling):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-055-_-Product

Case: Subjective...I personally love the CM Centurion ($50):
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

But it's really up to you. All these parts total at $1084USD (with $30USD worth of rebates) and could slaughter any game on the market; you could cut $100 by getting 4GB of ram instead of 8gb, and you could get a weaker X6 processor (Save $40-$60). If you're looking into an AMD X6 build, though, I really have to recommend that motherboard.

Cheers.

blibbax

This looks awesome

I'd love a rig like this, so much more expensive in the UK though

I don't know much about AMD boards but Asus is of course a good brand. Also, I don't see a CPU cooler, or were you planning on sticking with stock?

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synthesis204

Poor, poor british people. My brother just moved to London, cannot believe the difference in prices over there. I laugh at him and all the people across the pond

I knew I had forgot something. I think the stock AMD cooler would suffice for the most part, but if he didn't want that, I'd add in either a
1) Corsair H50 ($80):
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler
or
2) Coolermaster V8 ($60):
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

caqde

Another AMD newegg spec, this time using a higher clocked quad-core and an AMD HD 5850 for video a bit cheaper but faster for gaming although slower for applications that are highly threaded (most 99% of games are not highly threaded and are slower on the 1090T due to its lower clock speed).

ASSUMPTION: User is NOT going to overclocking.

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
link : Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
$159.99

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
link: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
$139.99 + $7.87 shipping

Memory: G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS
link: Newegg.com - G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS
$69.99

Videocard: XFX HD-585X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
link: Newegg.com - XFX HD-585X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
$259.99 (has $20 mail in rebate eventually making it $239.99)

HardDrive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
link: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$179.99

Case: COOLER MASTER Elite 370 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case
link: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 370 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case
$49.99 + $9.99 Shipping

PSU: Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
link: Newegg.com - Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
$89.99 + $1.99 Shipping - 15% off with promo code (ends 10/11)

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache EIDE/ATAPI 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
link: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache EIDE/ATAPI 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners
$16.99

Don't forget those optical drives gotta install windows/linux somehow .

This computer spec has more HardDrive space, is bit faster at single threaded applications, the videocard is faster at certain games slower at others (about the same speed most of the time), The PSU is more efficient with a slightly lower limit although in this computers case it won't matter as it still has plenty of headroom for upgrades and additions. Lower amount of memory, although you could add another pair of get a set of DDR 1333 4gb sticks.

Anyways all said and done the system will cost around $986.77 this includes shipping (meaning it will likely be slightly less than this). But then again this depends on where you live. (UK, US, etc)

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AMD Phenom II X4 925 AM3/ Giga-byte MA790XT-UD4P
XFX HD5770 1GB / 2x8GB of Geil DDR3 12800 10-10-10-28
Samsung SH-S182D DVD-RW drive / Sony Optiarc BD-5300S BD-RW drive
Western Digital WD1501FASS(Primary)/Western Digital 15EADS(Secondary)/Western Digital 7500AACS(Secondary)/Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb(Secondary)
Antec TP-550 / CoolerMaster CMStacker
Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Professional / Creative Inspire 6600 6.1 speakers
Samsugn T200HD 20" LCD Monitor / Logitech Internet 350 Black Keyboard
Logitech MX510 Mouse

synthesis204

caqde's list is really nice as well...can't believe I forgot the optical drive. **facepalm**

Regardless, there are some parts for you to ponder over. My only comment would be to get one stick of 4GB ram versus 2X2gb, since you can support more total-ram if you go the 4gb method:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL

I also would still push for the X6 Black Edition over the X4 - 2 additional cores, imho, are vastly more important and future-proof than 0.2ghz.

Tipstaff

My suggestion: stay away from G.Skill. Yeah, I know, I use them in all my systems, but I was lucky (1 kit was the first 1.5v that came out, the other 8GB took some tweaking to make stable). I started selling their RAM at my store, and have had 3 out of 5 kits having either 1 bad stick, or 2 dual channel kits NOT working together (that means 4x2GB sticks, 2 kits, 1 kit or 1 stick screwing up the system). And these were kits I bought at different times (so not the same batch either, and in fact, the last kit was a Ripjaw kit). That is just unacceptable.

I've since switched back to Corsair XMS3 or XMS3 Dominator, with buying the odd Patriot Sector 5, Extreme Performance Viper or Gamer, or Viper II kit. In fact, I just put together a P55 system with 8GB of Patriot Extreme Performance Gamer memory (that's 2 dual channel kits), and it worked flawlessly even after I bumped up the speed of the RAM to it's default 1600mhz and 1.65v rates. The system runs completely stable.

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synthesis204

I've always used Corsair and GSkill, and both have always worked fine for me. I have heard complaints about different-batch GSkill ram not working with each other, but I've never had the issue - and GSkill, when it does work (half dozen purchases, no faults) works for a long time and is (usually) cheaper than the Corsair alternative.

blibbax

I vote synthesis's system over cadqe's, but they're both good. I think the 6 core CPU and better PSU will allow it to last a bit longer as a system.

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caqde

The extra 100W in the spec doesn't make it better, they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

The corsair PSU is ATX 2.2 compliant and at least 80% efficient giving it the 80plus certification. It is also rated with a 650W power limit which is 100W higher than the Antec, but neither system even with crossfire/SLI using two of the listed cards will even hit 500W so this isn't much of an issue.

The Antec PSU is ATX 2.3 compliant along with EPS 2.91, meaning it usually has newer plugs on it or that it was certified at a later date and met that spec, is at least 83% efficient giving it the 80Plus Bronze certification. This power supply also has modular plugs on it for those that like them. Although it is only rated at 550watts, but as I said it won't be much of an issue.

As far as which CPU to go with I would say the deciding factors are how do you use the computer and when do you expect to be upgrading/rebuilding your computer again.

TIME: If you plan on upgrading next year, I would go with the Quad, 3+ years I would go with the 6 core.

Usage: Mainly for gaming -> currently the quad-core, Video-editing/Maya/Max etc 6-core

Currently 6-core processors do not benefit gamers in any perceivable way, I feel the money spent on the 6core can be used better elsewhere (more memory, HD space, Blu-ray drive etc), at least for those that upgrade consistently, if you don't and plan to keep your system for 3 years or more then yes, the other 2 cores will likely make a difference later on just not within the next year or two.

__________________
AMD Phenom II X4 925 AM3/ Giga-byte MA790XT-UD4P
XFX HD5770 1GB / 2x8GB of Geil DDR3 12800 10-10-10-28
Samsung SH-S182D DVD-RW drive / Sony Optiarc BD-5300S BD-RW drive
Western Digital WD1501FASS(Primary)/Western Digital 15EADS(Secondary)/Western Digital 7500AACS(Secondary)/Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb(Secondary)
Antec TP-550 / CoolerMaster CMStacker
Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Professional / Creative Inspire 6600 6.1 speakers
Samsugn T200HD 20" LCD Monitor / Logitech Internet 350 Black Keyboard
Logitech MX510 Mouse

blibbax

When I said that the 650W Corsair was better for allowing the system to last a bit longer, I meant that it future proofs against any future power hungry upgrades (e.g. GTX595, that has a 400W TDP I hear).

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rastapeenor

Alright these are awesome suggestions, I have always preferred nvidia, are the 450's a decent buy?

blibbax

Yes, though you may want to consider a 460 as suggested above, depending on how long you expect it to last and what resolutions and settings you expect to be able to play at.

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Tipstaff

Pretty decent card. On par with an ATI HD5770. Key is that it draws less power when idle than the ATI cards, although it draws a whole lot more power when under load.

Personally I would go with a GTX 460, but it is usually $100 more than a GTS 450. Even though I dislike dealing with Gigabyte, if I had to go with a GTS 450 it'd be the Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 OC.

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Judas

personally i've been having nothing but issues with Corsair and Crucial memory modules..

Patriot has been my most recent lineup of ram that has been flawless and outperforming their very own specs.. i've got 1333mhz ddr3 that is running 1600mh at the same timings flawlessly..
And the Gskill stuff has been working quite well..

So it's totally unpredictable on what may or maynot work..

the supplier i was dealing with had ocz for a long time and then just about 75% of it was failing repeatedly.. only recently have they got it back in.

Personally i think my failure rate on ocz memory is about 5-10% so it's not bad.. sure beats the corsair and crucial failure rates of 50%+... patriot is currently sitting at 1-2% tops atm... best on on hand thus far....

I've been building a bunch of intel i3 530 machines wit 2x2gb patriot 1333 kits for this company that has branches all over the province.... and not a single one has given them any kind of greif.

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synthesis204

The 768MB version of the GTX 460 beats the socks off of the 1GB GTS 450 model, and can be bought for $170, which is only $40 more than the normal GTS 450:

Newegg.com - SPARKLE SXX460768D5UNM GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

blibbax

50%+ oO

That's astonishing. I've nothing like your experience in these matters, and I've also only ever dealt with DDR2 and older memory, but I too have had lots of issues whenever OCZ has been involved. Never with corsair or crucial though, those are normally the brands I go for when I want to be sure....

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Tipstaff

Nice find, synthesis.

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BlueMak

50% failure rate of Corsair memory? I call bullshit.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

A Desire to Game

$1000, that is cake. Gotta go Newegg of course.

Notice the SATA 6 Gb/s Caviar Black and Crucial SSD. This thing should do nicely coming in at $1014.59 shipped. ($8.69 for shipping...o well). Plus you have $55 in rebates...so technically under $1000.

Should be able to OC to ~3.6-3.8 with just a bump of the multiplier.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i.../1000Build.jpg

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
$23.99

COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN3 CM690 II Basic Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$69.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
$89.99

Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model 996768
($15.00 Mail-in Rebate)
$71.99

Tuniq Tower 120 Universal CPU Cooler 120mm Cooling Fan and Fan Controller/Heatsink
($10.00 Mail-in Rebate)
$49.99

Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$134.99

COMBO - $224.98
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

COMBO - $339.98
XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity ($30 Mail-in Rebate)
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II PPCMK2S750 750W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified ...

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Three is my new favorite number. (SATA III, USB 3.0, and triple channel memory)

blibbax

Sweeet!

You got me one too, right? :P

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Tipstaff

He's probably talking about their value line. Corsair, along with Kingston, and Crucial, all of their value lines are garbage, and I always have a high failure rate or incompatibility of some kind with those. Corsairs XMS and regular Dominator line... never had a problem with those. Maybe one bad set of XMS2 a looong time ago.

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rastapeenor

Could I buy most of this stuff at Fry's? Im building my machine this weekend

Judas

naw... i avoid all value line memory if i can help it..

always stick with the midrange stuff.. nothing over the top highend ..

The crucial/corsair failrate for me is very high.....

This is spanning nearly 8 years now though for reference..... all the memory purchases i've done right from SD 100/133 right up to today with ddr3.

The latest crucial disaster was the PC12800 1600mhz XMS triple channel kit.... 2 of the modules would repeatedly fail.. and fail to a point that the motherboard would not even recognize that anything was even installed.. and the last module would occasionally glitch out..

i thought it was a motherboard issue initially because the memory tests would check out using memtest86+... even over a period of a week running.... but then it would intermit and freakout randomly.

Confirmed to be an issue with serveral other boards and running in failsafe and below spec settings..

Should have clued into there being an issue when the auto detection of the memory advanced spd would cause the system to freak out as well.

no.... kinda sucks.. but at the moment i'm stick with Patriot as much as i can...

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Sihastru

If I could add a bit of my misfortune with Corsair to the table. I had three kits of DDR2 XMS2 fail, one of which came like that from the vendor.

Also I decided to stay away from their DDR3 line, since customers of three channel kits of 3 or 6 modules (6GB/12GB) often found out that SPD data for some of the chips did not match the sticks rating. For example 1600 MHz modules only had SPD of up to 1333 MHz, and that is fine if all of them would be like that, but when you receive a "matched" triple channel kit with unmatched SPD data across the modules, it kinda says something about the company... And there are a lot of cases.

They will replace them, but it is not worth the hassle for me, especially when there is a price premium associated with the Corsair name. So Corsair memory is dead to me. I still like their PSU's though...

OCZ was found to sell value like modules with "gold" and "platinum" heatspreaders at premium memory prices. There are forum posts around the interweb about that.

These days I only trust Mushkin and Kingston.

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There are more things in heaven and earth then are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Intel Core i7 3820 | Corsair H80 | Asus P9X79 | Kingston HyperX T1 Black 32GB DDR3 | Gigabyte 8800 GTS 512 | 2xIntel X25-M 160GB RAID0 + 2xWD 1TB Green RAID1 | Asus Xonar DX | Asus ES2-750 | Sony OptiArc DVD+/-RW | Corsair AX850 Gold | Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium | Dell 3007WFP-HC2 30" 2560x1600 | Corsair SP2500 | Logitech UltraX Premium | CM Storm Advance | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64bit

A Desire to Game

Yes you could, but if you ordered it online tonight you might get all your parts by Friday and save on tax. Newegg's shipping is pretty amazing and usually free. The EggSaver 4-7 business day shipping isn't so great but the Guaranteed 3 day is often only 2 days. With such a large order, I'm sure parts would be coming from all over and would take the whole 3 days.

Fry's has the occasional good deal, but I still find it nearly impossible to beat the egg on most things. GPU prices aren't that great with Fry's, and you get sweet combo deals with Newegg (AS PROVEN ABOVE). Their selection isn't as extensive as Newegg but they do have everything to build a PC in stock.

Good thing about Fry's is that you can see your parts in person before you order them...especially the tower/case.

Take a list of parts you want and compare prices. If you're not in that much of a hurry I would definitely go Newegg...no contest.

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Three is my new favorite number. (SATA III, USB 3.0, and triple channel memory)