Gaming / Development build

[TripperJoe]

Been a long time since I've upgraded and I'm looking to build a new rig. I've browsed some threads, but I'm not as up to date on hardware as I once was. I have some parts I can repurpose, but I'll be upgrading mostly everything. Hopeful to spend less than $1000. I'm willing to overclock with a balance towards stability rather than pushing limits--but uptime is not mission critical or anything. This is my home machine, so I'm paying for it, but if I can get work done, it means I don't have to get dressed in the morning...well some days

Here's what I'm leaving behind:
c2d e4300 @ 1.8ghz stock
4gb ddr2 pc2-6400
8800gt

Parts I have available:
case: p180
psu: Corsair vx550, Antec neo 620c, Seasonic s12-380 (which one is best suited? efficiency vs max load)
bootdisk: intel g2 80gb ssd
os: win7x64

What I need it to do:
Heavy multitasking
Gaming
Software development
OpenCL
RDP
web browsing, general purpose, etc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
parts to buy:
cpu: 2500k + hyper 212 $250
ram: 2(4?) x 4gb 1.5v value series ddr3 1333 $80
gpu: [ 560ti ] vs [ 6950 2gb (unlocked to 6970) ] vs [ 2 x 460 1gb ] ~$250
mb: no idea ~$150
hdd: 2 x no idea (raid 1) so I don't have to worry about losing the important data (cough) ~$100
dvd: samsung $20
total ~= $850

 

[Zap]

CPU's a good choice.

For RAM start with the single 8GB kit. That's already double what you had.

For motherboard, you almost can't go wrong. Just get a P67 chipset board in your preferred brand. You may want to read reviews though, because sometimes the lowest end one doesn't fully support overclocking in BIOS/UEFI (I'm looking at you, Asus P8P67 LE). Other than that, just buy based on features you need/want. Note that not all boards support SLI (for your two GTX 460 idea).

For GPU I would be inclined to do the single higher end card. You get lower overall power consumption (and by extension heat/noise).

HDD in RAID, you need to buy "RAID edition" drives. Samsung makes some of the cheaper ones, the F3R 1TB which runs $100 per drive. Just using normal drives in RAID is not a good idea because they tend to drop off the array. Oh yeah, obligatory "RAID is not a backup." RAID1 will just potentially save whatever work you did since the last backup. RAID1 protects against only one type of data loss, which is one HDD dying. It doesn't protect against viruses/malware, accidental deletions, OS or partition corruption, etc.

 

[mfenn]

I agree with Zap. Grab your i5 + Hyper 212+ combo, 8GB of G.Skill DDR3 1333, a 6950 2GB, a GA-P67A-UD3, two of the F3R 1TB drives, and you're pretty much all set. Either the 550VX or the ECO 620C would be appropriate and would be about the same efficiency.

 

[TripperJoe]

Looking at http://www.microcenter.com/specials/...NDLEpromo.html it seems that I can get a 2600k + board for a few more bux than the 2500k + board at newegg $370ish vs 400. Is this worth it?

 

[mfenn]

Looking at http://www.microcenter.com/specials/...NDLEpromo.html it seems that I can get a 2600k + board for a few more bux than the 2500k + board at newegg $370ish vs 400. Is this worth it?

$30 seems like a reasonable price to pay. The 2600K is a bad value at MSRP, but I'd say the 2500K and 2600K are equal values at that price point.