Gaming system critique v. 1 x infinity

[AyashiKaibutsu]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Mostly gaming. Some coding. Some video editing. Like the system to feel snappy when loading things.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
somewhere between 1.2-1.8k not looking to waste money although I'll spend some extra on little things. Just not stuff like several 100 for raid card/ssds.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
Prefer Nvidia especially EVGA. I like BFG too but they're usually too pricy.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Antec 1200 case. 2 250 gig harddrives.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I'm always browsing around the forums all the threads on general are similiar : )

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Going to OC whatever I can easily. Not going to get crazy with it; probably use stock voltage for the processor maybe a slight increase.


8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Either the 1st of november, after thanksgiving (if I think I can get good sales), or after nehalem gets released and pushes the prices of the processor/mobos down hopefully.

DVD Burner - LG 22x 24$

Harddrives - 2x WD black 640GB One for programs and one for storage + 2 more 250s for additional storage. 85$ each

Was thinking maybe I should get a 300gb raptor instead of 2 blacks. 640 gig is overkill for program purposes, but I'd be spending an extra 200$ getting the raptor. Snappiness is important to me, but I hear the blacks are really fast anyway.

Ram - 2x GSkill 2x2 ddr 900 75$ each

Little room for overlocking, good timings, not extremely expensive. Going for 8 gigs. Want to mess around with maybe setting up a ram drive with half of it.

Case fans - 2x ANtec trispeed blah blah fans that go in a case

Figure might as well fill the inside fan mount and side with fans.

HSF - Core Contact Freezer

PS/Processor combo deal - ABS Tagan BZ800

Edit grr slipped and hit post

Q9550 2.83ghz

Total combined 490 (50 dollar discount through combo)

Motherboard/Video card combo -

EVGA 780i

evga gtx 260 216 superclocked

Total Combined 520$ (50 dolalrs discount through combos)
Went with nvidia motherboard because there's a very real chance if I buy a better monitor I'll go to SLI.

subtotal: 1408.88
Shipping 26.67
total: 1435.55

I could also get a total of 90$ through rebates, but I don't generally take those into consideration when buying.

 

[DSF]

Considering that you could could save at least $75 on the motherboard and $75-100 on the PSU by not planning for SLi, I'm not sure how much sense it makes for you economically.

If you're not planning on pushing the FSB past 400 MHz (which I assume you're not without a voltage bump) just get DDR2-800 and save some bucks.

There are better PSUs to be had in that wattage range.

I also have a feeling two to three of your cores are going to be sitting idle most of the time.

Using the tri-cools that come with your case is understandable. I wouldn't buy new ones though. There are fans that push more air at the same noise level.

And when we're done, we can file this one in the "Let's review what a 20% spread is" drawer.

 

[Roguestar]

Simply put: gaming = faster dual core.

2 640GB Caviars is a better purchase than a 'Raptor, as long as you're not going to RAID-0.

The 4870 1GB is a better card than the GTX260, and you're also paying them to overclock the card for you when you can do that yourself.

I'd definitely buy a P45 chipset motherboard over the nForce. I'd also as mentioned before get a faster dual core like the E8500 and overclock it a bit, to blow away the Q9550 in games.

1.2K - 1.8K is a $600 spread. That's half of your first figure, not a 20% spread :roll:.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

So switched to Zalman 600W 110$

Combo deal (50$) on nonsuperclocked 260 212 core and the same mobo as before (510$).

I much prefer nvidia since they're manufacturers are better (customer service wise atleast), and I guess I'm gambling on the whole video card -> physics card being useful in the future.

Same processor as before without a combo deal. I run ALOT of applications in the backround and with games starting to use 2 cores I'd like two free cores for other stuff running at the same time. I use dual monitors and often times doing something else while gaming (sometimes running more than one copy (up to 4) of the same game (WoW)).

It's my understanding that the specs listed on fans are completely unreliable so recommendations are welcomed. I don't mind noise too much, but if there's all around better fans I'm all ears on which ones to get.

BTW 1200-1800 IS a 20% spread. 1500 is the medium point 20% of 1500 is 300 1500+-300/20% = 1200-1800. Math Mfer do you use it? : ) (just joking)

Total comes to 1369.50 shipped

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
So switched to Zalman 600W 110$

Combo deal (50$) on nonsuperclocked 260 212 core and the same mobo as before (510$).

I much prefer nvidia since they're manufacturers are better (customer service wise atleast), and I guess I'm gambling on the whole video card -> physics card being useful in the future.

Same processor as before without a combo deal. I run ALOT of applications in the backround and with games starting to use 2 cores I'd like two free cores for other stuff running at the same time. I use dual monitors and often times doing something else while gaming (sometimes running more than one copy (up to 4) of the same game (WoW)).

It's my understanding that the specs listed on fans are completely unreliable so recommendations are welcomed. I don't mind noise too much, but if there's all around better fans I'm all ears on which ones to get.

BTW 1200-1800 IS a 20% spread. 1500 is the medium point 20% of 1500 is 300 1500+-300/20% = 1200-1800. Math Mfer do you use it? : ) (just joking)

Total comes to 1369.50 shipped

"1200-1800 IS a 20% spread." :roll:
Your "20% spread" is 600 dollars out of 1800. Taking the maximum point, that's a 33% spread. So yes, I do use maths but it seems my lessons are a little more up to date.

Running a lot of background apps != quad core. You know what background apps are doing? Running in the background. Not actively crunching stuff. Running 4 instances of WoW is just plain silly but that's up to you. "Multitasking" != Multiprocessing.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Using my 70 and having my alt from my other another account and 2 alts from a friends account follow me while I crush an instance != silly.

Spread (it's not a technical math term so some logic need apply) would imply both directions as in: "The variance and standard deviation of a data set measures the spread of the data about the mean of the data set."

Why would you take the "spread" from the top most number (over the mean) and why would it be defined as the % difference between the top most number and the difference between the top most and bottom most number makes no sense.

A 20% spread from 1800 would be 1440-2160.

 

[DSF]

For what it's worth, a 20% spread is generally understood to be +/- 10%, not +/- 20%. That would be a 40% spread.

 

[sonnygdude]

DSF is a math teacher - you shouldn't argue with him! Also I agree with him

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Spread (it's not a technical math term so some logic need apply) would imply both directions

So, 20% across both directions is 10% in each direction. 20/2 = 10
The "spread" itself is then 20% of the mid-point.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: sonnygdude
DSF is a math teacher - you shouldn't argue with him! Also I agree with him

Not sure how much that means. I see a lot of math teachers who don't know their stuff.