# Considering this build as an upgrade to a 6 year old comp



## thill3 (Jan 8, 2010)

Hey all. 

I've been looking at computer parts recently in an effort to replace my very old (but still mostly functional) desktop. Here's what I've come up with as a possibility, and I'm looking for feedback. I can get the setup below for about 2400 dollars, which is about what I'm looking to stick with (though there is a bit of wiggle room there if there's a good reason to spend a bit more). 

Case: Thermaltake Spedo Full Tower 
Extra case fan: 3 ball bearing fans 
Power supply: 750 W Corsair CMPSU-750TX 
CPU: Intel Core i7-920, 2.66Ghz, 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 
Cooling Fan: Intel LGA1366 certified CPU fan & heatsink 
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe V2, Intel X58 chipset, SLI/CrossfireX Mainboard SAS Triple-Channel CCR3/1600 SATA w/ eSATA, dual GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394a, 7.1 Audio 
Memory: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory (Kingston) 
VIDEO Card 1: ATI Radeon HD 5850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Card [DirectX 11 Support]
VIDEO Card 2: ATI Radeon HD 5850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Card [DirectX 11 Support]
Hard Drive: 128GB Kingston 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC Solid State Disk 
Optical Drive: LG 22X DVD +- R + CD+-R/RW Dual Layer 
Sound: High Definition on-board 7.1 Audio 
Speakers: 600W PMPO Subwoofer stereo speakers 
Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network 

Keyboard: XtremeGear multimedia/internet USB keyboard 
Mouse: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Button gaming mouse 
Professional wiring with High performance Thermal Compound on CPU 

Microsoft Windows 7 Home premium 64-bit 


For the most part my gaming at the moment is World of Warcraft, but I'd like the opportunity and capacity to try some of the new PC games coming out. 
WoW won't take advantage of the extra cores on the Core i7, but those cores will allow me to do other things at the same time without a loss of performance. Dual Radeon cards work in Crossfire, which WoW takes advantage of, and the memory is in 2 sets of 3 sticks to take advantage of triple channel. 
At the moment I have an 80GB hard drive in my old PC, and it's not full, so I feel that the 128GB SSD will be more than sufficient for my storage needs. (I may pick up a larger, standard spinning hard drive down the road if I decide I need extra storage space for things I don't use on a regular basis.) I did end up going with the slightly cheaper Kingston SSD instead of an Intel, but I'm certainly not set on that if an Intel one is demonstrably better.
I'm not going to be doing much in the way of media editing, though I do intend to watch movies and play my music collection. 

I'm not 100% sure about the case (may be overkill) or whether or not I"ll end up needing the extra fans. 

I also went with 2 Radeon 5850 cards over the slightly less expensive 4890s and 5770s. The research I've done says that this is probably the way to go.

I haven't included a monitor in the above setup, since I may be sticking with my current desktop CRT (19", 1280x1024 if I recall correctly) if I can't find a good, cheap LCD at a better resolution. I'm certainly open to suggestions there too.

I'd like my build to be potentially upgradeable as well. My current desktop was an econo-box to begin with, so upgradeability and forward-compatibility are important to me. 

If anyone has some insight or suggestions, that would be great. 

Thanks.


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## SummerDays (Jan 8, 2010)

thill3 said:


> Hey all.
> 
> CPU: Intel Core i7-920, 2.66Ghz, 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366
> 
> ...



The i7 930 is coming out in a week or so. You'll want to wait for that.

Asus P6W7 Revolution board for an extra X16 slot.

What do you mean by an intel certified CPU fan & heatsink?

Buy the fastest memory you can afford.

Get a bigger power supply than 750 watts.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 8, 2010)

for 1 the 750watt is plenty 
2 the 930 is the better choice
hes running 2 gpus i doubt he needs anything more then that simply because by the time a 3rd gpu is worth it better gpus from ati will be avaible


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## erocker (Jan 8, 2010)

If you are going to stick with a 1280x1024 monitor two 5850's are overkill. 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 24" monitors are quite cheap right now.


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## BraveSoul (Jan 8, 2010)

SummerDays said:


> The i7 930 is coming out in a week or so


 no way ,, 32nm i7 quad ????   

stay with 1 video card for now,, get a better monitor this one seems sharp and vibrant


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## DirectorC (Jan 8, 2010)

SummerDays said:


> Get a bigger power supply than 750 watts.



OMFG you could run all that hardware and Tri-SLI and still barely hit 750W.  More than this is overkill.

Power hungry 285s in Tri-SLI:


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## DirectorC (Jan 8, 2010)

BraveSoul said:


> no way ,, 32nm i7 quad ????



It won't be 32nm.


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## MT Alex (Jan 8, 2010)

12 Gigs of RAM is serious overkill.  I'd save the cash and stick with 6, get a better monitor and aftermarket heatsink.


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## thill3 (Jan 8, 2010)

I'm aware that the system is overkill for a 1280x1024 monitor. I have less idea what to do there than anywhere else. I hear rumors Viewsonic makes acceptable LCD's, and the one Bravesoul linked looks interesting (after a cursory glance; it's late, and I need to sleep.)

SummerDays, you ask a good question about what I mean by a generic fan and heatsink. To be honest, I'm not sure, so if you've got brand or model numbers/names I'm definitely open to ideas. Also, it looks like you believe I"m settling for slower memory than I could otherwise be getting. If I understand it correctly, the motherboard I listed is intended to be run with DDR3-1600MHz memory. Correct me if I'm wrong.

To all who suggested the i7-930 CPU, I will definitely look into that.

MT-Alex, the reason I went with 12GB of RAM is because I'd like to be able to do some other things while I"m gaming, and I have a tendency to be a bit of a packrat, even when it comes to the windows open on my workspace.

Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions. I definitely invite more feedback and/or ideas.


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## DirectorC (Jan 8, 2010)

thill3 said:


> I hear rumors Viewsonic makes *acceptable* LCDs



ACCEPTABLE?!  OK you must be trolling!


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## thill3 (Jan 8, 2010)

The thing is, DirectorC, as with a lot of things, I know just enough to get myself into trouble, which is why I'm looking for feedback and ideas. I'll definitely keep Viewsonic in mind.


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## SummerDays (Jan 8, 2010)

Nec makes some good monitors, but they're more expensive.  www.necdisplay.com

As far as fans go, look around for some reviews, read 3 or 4 of them, and you'll start to get an idea of what you're looking for.  

The main thing is to get an aftermarket fan, as opposed to messing around with the Intel stock one.

Excuse the people who go ape shit at the suggestion of a better power supply.  

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=abs_power_supply-_-17-814-019-_-Product


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 8, 2010)

1100watts for a system that wont draw more then 550watts max load even with the corsair 750watt he has 200watts of room which is plenty taking into account capaciter aging


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## DirectorC (Jan 8, 2010)

Excuse the guy who suggests everything based on e-p33n size and not actual needs!


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 8, 2010)

i could understand it if he was using 5970s for quadcrossfire or a dual socket mobo for 2 cpus and 4 gpus but no one needs that kind of power


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## SummerDays (Jan 8, 2010)

Thill, you should be very happy with that motherboard.  I've had my Asus Rampage II Extreme for over a year now, and it's great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...sus_Rampage_II_Extreme-_-13-131-352-_-Product

I'm not fond of my Thermal Take case.  The screwless system in this is a pain to use at all times.  It makes it a real pain to do something as easy as changing a card.  

I definitely would go full size for a case.

In terms of memory, this board has a base clock that goes up to 500 Mhz.. so buying faster memory shouldn't be problem.  G.skill makes some nice memory too.


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## Sensi Karate (Jan 8, 2010)

All seems good but you really need to get a larger screen (1920x1080 or 1920x1200) since your system will laugh at that 19" CRT. If you don't really want a GIANT screen, why not try something within the 22" or to the extreme for you, the 24". I have a BenQ E2200HD which is 21.5" and it works like a charm with 1920x1080 (1080p) resolution, 16:9 wide, HDMI ports and 2ms response for games. Also BenQ is very cheap for the quality they build so you could get it for $160 (AUD) or less. If you want the slightly bigger 24" BenQ also has a the E2420HD or the E2400HD which are also great screens at a very affordable price. If you want to go the extreme side maybe look into an LED screen but they are fairly expensive compared to there LCD cousins. 

More information here: http://www.benq.com/

Also that TT Spedo case is good but with the money you should go with something better, if you want quality then go for Lian Li (all of them are good) or maybe a Silverstone TJ-09 or if you want a more Gaming/Fan Frenzy/Air Cooling then go with either the HAF 932 or a Raven RV-01 or 02.

Hope you like your new gaming PC.


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## thill3 (Jan 10, 2010)

*Update*

Hey all. I've looked at Tigerdirect and Newegg, compared some prices, looked at some more details, and I think I have a parts list fleshed out for the most part.

Case: Silverstone Raven RV-02
Power supply: 750 W Corsair CMPSU-750TX 
CPU: Intel Core i7-930, 2.8Ghz, LGA 1366 (coming out late February, I believe)
Cooling Fan: Noctua U12P 120mm 
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe V2, Open Box, Closed Box
Memory: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory (Kingston) 
VIDEO Card: 2 x XFX Radeon HD 5850
Hard Drive: 128GB Kingston 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC Solid State Disk 
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium OEM
Monitor: Viewsonic 23.6" hdmi-ready widescreen

I've done some price comparisons, and the above takes the best prices from both sites (NE is clearly outdoing TD, but hey, means lower prices for me.)

The video card I"ve linked has the lowest clock speeds (core and memory) of any of the xfx 5850 models. I'm open to upgrading that a bit if it'll make some difference.

The SSD I've selected is clearly not marketed as a main drive, so I've included an OEM copy of windows 7 home premium to install as my OS.

I really like the idea of a case venting from bottom to top, and so I went with the RV-02. Thanks for the suggestion, Sensei Karate.

TigerDirect offers the same power supply as the newegg one for $5 less, but nowhere on the TD listing does it say that it's crossfire ready. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't want my second video card to be useless.

Also, If I'm reading this right, my 1800MHz RAM is automatically going to be underclocked to 1333 MHz because of my motherboard unless I intentionally overclock things. Does this look correct? Is it worth looking at motherboard upgrades, or am I going to have to spend hundreds more dollars to get something that will make a difference? (And if you have an opinion on whether I should go for the cheaper open box option or not risk it and take the closed box for more money, please let me know.)

And according to my research, the i7-930 isn't coming out until late February. Would you say it's better to buy the other parts now and have them sit around until then, or wait and then buy it all at once when the processor is available?

Thanks, all. You've been a great help so far.


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## Munki (Jan 10, 2010)

thill3 said:


> Hey all. I've looked at Tigerdirect and Newegg, compared some prices, looked at some more details, and I think I have a parts list fleshed out for the most part.
> 
> Case: Silverstone Raven RV-02
> Power supply: 750 W Corsair CMPSU-750TX
> ...




EDIT.....memory has wrong link


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## mlee49 (Jan 10, 2010)

Your link to your HDD is to your ram, how are the read write speeds? 

Also, I'm not a big fan of the P6T. Many of our i7 overclockers have Gigabyte's UD5, Evga's, and the notorious Bloodrage.

I say just go for the 920, its gonna be a lot cheaper and just fine.


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

you should change your screen chose from that to either LG or Samsung L.E.D backlit for better quality, such as

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005133


Quote
The SSD I've selected is clearly not marketed as a main drive, so I've included an OEM copy of windows 7 home premium to install as my OS.

what do you mean by this?

if you need more storage with high performance i would susgest a Samsung Spin Point F3.


(also your hard drive link is incorrect... it shows kingston ram.)


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## thill3 (Jan 10, 2010)

The RAM and SSD links are reversed. My bad. They're both still there. I'll try to edit the post.

I'll be getting two sets of the memory I linked to (2 of the 3x2GB).

What I mean by the statement on the SSD, slyfox, is that it's not going to have an OS pre-installed. My OP says that I'm not looking for much more in the way of storage space. I just don't need much more.


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## DirectorC (Jan 10, 2010)

No HDs except those in store-bought computers and shady back alleyways have pre-installed OS.


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

HDD's/SSD dont come with an OS pre-installed , only full prebuilt systems.

personaly i would go an Intel or OCZ SSD, the kingston listed only does 100mbps read 70mbps write, you should be able to find a much faster drive for only a few more $$


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

at those read and write speeds a single 1 terabyte drive would stomp that ssd in all be access times and latency

get a decent SSD im sure someone here can link a good one but that kingston just sucks compared what else is avaible on the market


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

After having a look at the store your shopping at... the next one up in the same capacity is over $100 more :*(
even so you should definetly look for somthing a little faster, 220 mbps read speed 160 write speed is decent performance for SSD.


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## n-ster (Jan 10, 2010)

TBH your spending WAY TOO MUCH!!! for better bang/buck, there is defiitely work to be done... to me, i7 920 is good bang/buck, but the choices for the hardware can be better... Also, buying used from this site may save you alot


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## DirectorC (Jan 10, 2010)

I am happy others mentioned the speed of the SSD you're buying.  That is a waste.  To get real performance from an SSD, you're going to have to bump it up a notch:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220457

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227462

Each of these reads >200MB/s and writes >100MB/s.


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## SummerDays (Jan 10, 2010)

I did some quick checking for you, and that power supply is crossfire approved for a 5870, sor you're fine.

You don't have to worry about the speed of your ram.  The motherboard is perfectly capable of handing it.


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## n-ster (Jan 10, 2010)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227468&cm_re=ocz_vertex_turbo-_-20-227-468-_-Product this x 2 in RAID 0 will be incredible speed wise 

and usually, all 650W+ PSUs support crossfire/sli, actually all brand name ones do


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

its been stated 3 or 4 times that the psu is absolutly fine to use in the system -.-.....


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

crossfire sli approved is a bunch of crap and dosent mean anything these days if its a decent unit 

Antec

Enermax

Seasonic

Corsair

PCP&C

Silverstone  if it has the proper AMPS on the 12v rails hes fine

as for that SSD it has better latency and access times but is slower then my 1 terabyte Samsung F1 let alone my new Samsung F3 HDD  so get a decent SSD if u want to go that route otherwise stick to HDDs


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

n-ster said:


> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227468&cm_re=ocz_vertex_turbo-_-20-227-468-_-Product this x 2 in RAID 0 will be incredible speed wise
> 
> and usually, all 650W+ PSUs support crossfire/sli, actually all brand name ones do



only problem with those SSD's is there only 30 GBx 2 =60.. or Half the space the one he linked has for 2x the price... sure they will perform great but i think he might need more space.



IMO you should grab one of those SSD's http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227468&cm_re=ocz_vertex_turbo-_-20-227-468-_-Product and a Samsung 1TB F3 drive.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

that drive will be enough for an OS install but if he wants to play WOW that SSD wont cut it hed need to use the HDD and lets face it isnt the main attraction of SSDs the improved loading time ?? if your a gamer


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## SummerDays (Jan 10, 2010)

Actually, ATI publishes a list of units that they take the TIME to test with crossfire set ups.

So yah, it does mean SOMETHING.

A PSU that isn't tested may still work, but that's not the point.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

its a corsair there one of the top PSU manufacturers around   so your point is moot

if it was  a  Raidmax PSU or something equally bad there would be red flags going off everywhere

point is i listed above the brands that if u have proper amps on the 12v line will power his system no problem and if he had junk id tell him to get a new PSU fact is the COrsair 750tx is a damn good powersupply end of story


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

after re reading your 1st post those 2 SSD drives in a raid 0 would be your best option if HIGH performance is your goal,

windows 7 will take up around 12-14gb once fully installed + drivers  after about a week of use.
last time i checked WoW was around 12-15 GB 

witch would leave you with 25 GB to play with (page file, hiber.sys and such taking an extra 5 gb)


also +1 to crazy.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

wow with expansions now takes over 20gigs total when installed also since later this year there will be another expansion pack that will bring graphic updates that would mean before long wow will require 25-30gigs on its own

id suggest the following SSD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148318

200MB read 150MB write 60gigs $234 if u want to go SSD


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> wow with expansions now takes over 20gigs total when installed



are you sure? i currently have WoW WOTLK installed only taking 13gb, however with the next expac coming out its likely to incress to 17gb +



might larger on your system with addons and full patch backups taking up extra space?


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

my buddy has WOW with all updates and expansions his wow folder sets at 19gigs little over right now

so 15-20gigs on windows do to bloat over time and 15-25gigs for wow with expanision means a typical SSD wont have enough room

granted raid will solve that and his current SSD has plenty of space just it sucks speed wise which is why i wonder if hes not better off with just 1 terabyte F3 as its speed enough ( i have an F3 and an F1) now if he wants real speed boost from an SSD he needs a real SSD the one i linked is fast but only 60gigs just barely enough room

also no offense to the OP but i really doubt he will understand how to set up a raid array and install windows on it and get it to work properly with that said i think the OP is better off with just standard HDDS  unless you guys want to walk him through resetting everything up if a virus nukes the raid setup or something of that nature because we all know it happens from time to time


also something to think about wow hates newer gpus at least when in multi gpu setups this has been true for years so the OP may be better off with 1 faster card aka the 5870 then 2 5850s if he intends to keep playing wow fairly regularly


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

the 60gb should be just enough imo, if he disables hibernate that will free up 12gb (if he gets 12 gb of ram)

set page file to 1gb and keep the drive  clean it should work just fine.

i have no problem helping people setup a raid 

yeah i agree, he should just get one 5870... it will be OVERKILL for wow as it is.


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## SummerDays (Jan 10, 2010)

>> TigerDirect offers the same power supply as the newegg one for $5 less, but nowhere on the TD listing does it say that it's crossfire ready. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't want my second video card to be useless.

That's a quote from the original poster.


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## n-ster (Jan 10, 2010)

TBH, if I wanted real speed on small sized games, I'd take 12gb of ddr3 and use 8gb as a RAM HD 

And Yea a storage drive is almost necessary with SSDs...A simple 640gb caviar black from Western Digital should do just fine 

TBH, raid setups dont seem so hard to do... well they aren't since I have done them quite easily 

and I'm no pro, everything I have learned about Hardware and such is because of TPU or plainly by trying out stuff like that...

At worst we are there for him 

12gb ram is WAYYYY overkill... the cheapest 6gb set will probably do the EXACT SAME PERFORMANCE for you


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

SummerDays said:


> >> TigerDirect offers the same power supply as the newegg one for $5 less, but nowhere on the TD listing does it say that it's crossfire ready. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't want my second video card to be useless.
> 
> That's a quote from the original poster.



we told him not to worry about that -.- and explained why not to worry about it. crossfire/sli ready its nothing but marketing. as long as its a decent brand psu it will be fine, there is no difference between crossfire ready psu and a standard psu of equal size / build quality


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

point remains this is the OPs first new machine in 6 YEARS things have changed alot since 2003-4

and at Summer days / OP as well

Corsair has been rated the BEST PSU manfuacture a # of times now if they weren't so good u wouldnt see ppl falling all over them same used to be said of PC Power & Cooling they also make great PSUs and still do just Corsair tend to be cheaper with equal quality and well its Corsair  

and at slyfox some ppl just dont quite get it they see marketing BS and go OMGWTFBBQ i dont have that plastered on my rig somewhere OH NOES ITS GONNA XPLODED

and i still say the OP is better off with just a standard Samsung F3 1 terabyte after all i get read speeds of 144MB/s with that particular 1 terabyte and at a price (avg) of $73 it tends to be enough SSDs are great in terms of load times but just going from a 2004 rig to a new rig with a new HDD will seem like night and day

also after using a proper ssd setup every machine u will ever use will seem slower and more frustrating to use


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

and at slyfox some ppl just dont quite get it they see marketing BS and go OMGWTFBBQ i dont have that plastered on my rig somewhere OH NOES ITS GONNA XPLODED[/QUOTE]

lol 



well to OP, imo you should change the following

swap your GFX cards for 1 5870, you can always get a 2nd one later when nvidia releases there cards.. will save you money and gain more performance. (1 5870 is overkill enough )
Option 2, if you dont get a new monitor (you definetly should imo) then one 5770 will be OVERKILL for 1200x1000 resolution currently supported by your monitor.

Stick with 6 GB of ram, you can run 2 WoW clients and still have plenty left for 30 IE pages / windows explorer folders and encode a movie. 





change to this SSD  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148318
with the money saved from changing the other specs you could spend a little more and get a larger intel SSD or 2 of the drive listed above.

thats all i can think of atm, will edit it a min


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

couldnt have summed it up any better myself 

maybe i should slap together a build on newegg and see what i can come up with what do you think?


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

here is a question that hasnt been asked, what sound system are you buying exacly 600 watt PMPO dosnt mean much, usualy a horible system will quote pmpo as its a larger number yet will perform like crap.


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## DirectorC (Jan 10, 2010)

60GB is pretty much the lowest you can go for a system drive though.  If you plan to have more than a couple of large app suites (such as Office, Nero, CS) and a handful of games (WoW is big, sure, but even COD4 takes up >8GB) then you will have to be installing other apps/games and saving large documents to your data drive.  128GB is the safest way to roll.  And I can't believe anyone is arguing about being frugal here, this guy's got the $ to make it right.  It's like building a race car without a sport-tuned suspension.  If you have the money, do it right or don't do it at all.


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## n-ster (Jan 10, 2010)

DirectorC said:


> 60GB is pretty much the lowest you can go for a system drive though.  If you plan to have more than a couple of large app suites (such as Office, Nero, CS) and a handful of games (WoW is big, sure, but even COD4 takes up >8GB) then you will have to be installing other apps/games and saving large documents to your data drive.  128GB is the safest way to roll.  And I can't believe anyone is arguing about being frugal here, this guy's got the $ to make it right.  It's like building a race car without a sport-tuned suspension.  If you have the money, do it right or don't do it at all.



TBH, SSDs are not a must... and definitively not bang/buck... a pII x3 720 system would already blow the OPs mind away

If I had money, I'd do a BIG RAM drive though xD

and you guys really think RAID 0 will be too complicated for the OP? I think it's worth a try


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## SummerDays (Jan 10, 2010)

Let me tell you a little story, that will explain what I mean.

A guy goes out and he gets environmental testing done on his car, so he now has a piece of paper that says: "this car passes environmental standards in this state" 

another guy comes along and says.. "well, duh, that car didn't need testing.. of course it's going to pass environmental testing"

The point is now he has a piece of paper that says that the car has been tested.

Now stop fucking wasting my time.


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

Ok quick sum up of the parts 


Cpu -  I7 920 / 930    $290.
Cpu Cooler - S1283V  - Scuthe Mugen 2 $50
Motherboard     -  Asus P6T delux $280
Ram -  6GB kit DDR3 1600mhz $160
Video Card - 5870 $440
SSD - Crucial CT64M225 2.5  ... maybe buy 2 and use RAID 0. $240 or $480
PSU 750watt Corsair $130
Monitor - should change to an LED backlit, either Samsung LG. (imo  havnt ever tried a view sonic)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001317$200 

works out to be $1900 roughly. prices are avaraged within $20 of most prices listed, so it should be less.


Edit, 
stole some idea's from n-ster


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## n-ster (Jan 10, 2010)

SummerDays said:


> Let me tell you a little story, that will explain what I mean.
> 
> A guy goes out and he gets environmental testing done on his car, so he now has a piece of paper that says: "this car passes environmental standards in this state"
> 
> ...



If it was a waste of time for you, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ON THIS THREAD?

TBH, if there is a Prius with that damn piece of paper and one without it we'll still know a prius is environmental friendly...


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## slyfox2151 (Jan 10, 2010)

SummerDays said:


> Let me tell you a little story, that will explain what I mean.
> 
> A guy goes out and he gets environmental testing done on his car, so he now has a piece of paper that says: "this car passes environmental standards in this state"
> 
> ...



your point is mute, end of story. 

just drop it. -.-


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## n-ster (Jan 10, 2010)

slyfox2151 said:


> Ok quick sum up of the parts
> 
> 
> Cpu -  I7 920 / 930   + Nocuta cooler
> ...



IMO, monitor wise,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001317

LED is that that much better IMO, resolution on this baby is a much better plus

As a cooler, why not watercooling? IMO it is very easy to maintain... else a S1283V or a Scuthe Mugen 2 is a better choice IMO

RAM shouldn't be over 150$ IMO... The performance difference is just not that much...

I hate that mobo... a Gigabyte UD5 would do GREAT

I still think RAID 0 is very doable for the OP, so 2 vertex turbos in RAID 0 would do good

how about a 5890


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 10, 2010)

CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119213

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136337

SSD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227462

CPU + MOBO combo http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.314990

RAM:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225

CPU heatsink:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

Thermal Paste: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020

DVD burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136167

Operating System: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150443

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001309







and it comes in UNDER the $2400 price tage the OP stated

and if go with the LED monitor mentioned above no real reason not to besides the somewhat funky resolution ( at least to me) then u would save money so eitherway take it or leave this is my advise it fits your budget and with a few other ideas from other members the price can be lowered at no impact to performance

going with the monitor N-ster suggested http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001317

results in a price drop of exactly $100 so $2324 drops to $2224

the SSD i have chosen is 120gb 230MB/s Read  135MB/s write with 1.5million hours MTBF

not to mention the mail in rebates cover shipping so it works out rather well


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## thill3 (Jan 11, 2010)

*One more time*

Ok, so I've been thinking about a lot of things that people have been saying in here lately. I appreciate everyone's help, and I hope that this can remain a civil discussion. I do want to say that I think I went a little overboard in my initial setup, and that scaling some of it back a bit would prevent me from overdoing things.

As far as SSD's go, I wanted one because of the read/write speeds. It appears, though, that in order to get the space I need, I'm going to be spending more money than I really want to spend on storage. I think I'm going to take the suggestion of a Samsung F3. I don't really need 1TB of storage, so I'll probably go with the 500GB model for $55. Link here.

Based on some of the reading I've done on video cards and the suggestions of some people here, I think I'll go ahead and switch to a single XFX 5870 (maybe splurge on a second one for crossfire at a later point in time). Link here.

I like also the Samsung LED monitor that was suggested, so I'll switch my setup to include one of those. Link here.

I think I'm going to scale back to 6GB of RAM. Switching over to OCZ gets me lower timings and a lower price. It looks like I may have to set some settings manually when going with the EVGA board, but I don't think that'll be too hard. Link here.

The CPU/MoBo combo that crazyeyesreaper suggested looks good to me.EVGA+920.

The reason I chose the fan that I did was because it seemed to be a good combination of CFM with a low noise level. The one you're suggesting, crazyeyesreaper, can get up to 31 decibels, which is far above the 19 and change at which the Noctua maxxes out. The one you suggested is 30 bucks cheaper, though. I'm not sure it's going to make a whole heckuva lot of difference, and I'll make that decision when I make the final purchase.

I'm going to stick with the Silverstone RV-02 case, the Corsair 750W power supply, and the Windows 7 home premium OEM.

Essentially that leaves peripherals. Optical drive (thanks, crazyeyesreaper, for your suggestion), speakers (not sure I need a sound card), keyboard, mouse, headset, etc.


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## n-ster (Jan 11, 2010)

thill3 said:


> Ok, so I've been thinking about a lot of things that people have been saying in here lately. I appreciate everyone's help, and I hope that this can remain a civil discussion. I do want to say that I think I went a little overboard in my initial setup, and that scaling some of it back a bit would prevent me from overdoing things.
> 
> As far as SSD's go, I wanted one because of the read/write speeds. It appears, though, that in order to get the space I need, I'm going to be spending more money than I really want to spend on storage. I think I'm going to take the suggestion of a Samsung F3. I don't really need 1TB of storage, so I'll probably go with the 500GB model for $55. Link here.
> 
> ...



the monitor linked (that I suggested) I think is not LED... the real advantage of it is the resolution... IMO LED is not a must, just a nice plus... Going to a normal 21.5" 1080p would be good, LED or not...

I suggest a 500gb or 640gb Caviar Black for better speeds and, IMO, customer service and a 5yr warranty...

as for CPU cooling, S1283V is one of the BEST Bang/Buck

If you are downgrading like that, you better get a cheaper Motherboard... A cheap 1366 mobo is still AWESOME

RAM, if you can, Buy it used... Mobo too....

bloomstick360 is selling a great mobo for only 160$  Jump on it while it is still there


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 11, 2010)

i made my suggestions the samsung F3 is a faster HDD overall the 1 terabyte being faster then the 500gig drive and more space is a good thing because as you fill an HDD it slows down the more u fill it the slower it gets example my F3 1 terabyte has read speeds as high as 144MB/s and as low as 80MB/s  but i have to fill it with nearly 750gigs of data before the speed drop becomes noticeable and since a 1 terabyte samsung F3 is $73-80 its about $25 more for dbl the space of the 500gig 

as far as 31 db noise im sorry to say i OWN the xigmatek darknight  and its fan is silent thanks in part to the rubber grommits used to attach it to the heatsink it dosent vibrate or make noise my psu fan makes more noise then the cpu fan does and my tower in my specs is less then 1 foot to my left on top of my desk

if you want it i can easily redo the above build and scale it back but im not going to unless asked

just dropping the SSD alone brings the price down from $2280 shipped to $1912 shipped

but if u go with the Raven RV02 case that takes the price up to about $1950 ish if i had used the regular HAF932 with red fans price drops to roughly $1900 even and going with the HAF 922 (the midtower version of the 932) drops the price $1847 shipped


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## thill3 (Jan 11, 2010)

What exactly is it that I'm doing that you consider serious "downgrading", n-ster? The RAM? Switching out the SSD for a HDD (whatever size)? Dropping to one video card instead of two?

One thing I think has kind of been glossed over in the past few posts in this thread is that I"m looking for upgrade potential as well. My current desktop (the six year old one, remember that blurb in the initial post?) is so outdated that even when I was looking for upgrades 3 or 4 years ago they were hard to find. If I have some extra cash down the line, maybe a bonus from work or a present from someone or something, I'd like to be able to upgrade my rig without having to overhaul it.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 11, 2010)

well i7 is fine for that u can always put in a new GPU with ease should the 5870 get old eitherway the choice with the build is up to you i upgrade every 2 years or so to a completely new build so i didnt need i7 right now but if u plan to keep the rig for the long term your going the right way about it  anyway my post above explains quite abit about what u can do to drop the price with the above ideas ive offered u can get the price down under $1850 if the samsung F3 1 terabyte was available on Newegg it would be possible to get it down to about $1810

basically your asking for advice ppl will offer there different opinions but it goes without saying good advice is only good advice if its taken used and gives you what u need or something like that im to tired to remember the quote properly


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