Need help for new build

[lt_wentoncha]

Hi all,

My last build was Sept 2007...it's time to upgrade

I've been out of the build game since then, any recommendations are most appreciated.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming (3x monitors)

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not
more than a 20% spread
$1500-$2000

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

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.
Not a fanboy of anything. The last time I build Intel and nVidia were performance kings. One thing I wanted was to use SSD for storage this time around, unless there's no appreciable performance boost

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Bluray Diskdrive, maybe one or two HDDs

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Have not, I haven't been to Anandtech since 2007 and back then it had build guides - where are they now?

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Slight OC'ing, it will def be on air though as I'm to paranoid about watercooling

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
5760x1200

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Now

Thanks everyone, appreciate the help.

 

[MisterDonut]

Welcome to your...second post on AT .

There is no reason to get an SSD for gaming, meaning it won't enhance your gaming performance, but it will make general usage much snappier. I usually advise against buying SSD's for gaming rigs, but I'm going to jump on the fanboy wagon and say JESUS CHRIST THESE THINGS ARE FAST. I mean, if you can fit it into your budget and have no desire to hold back, by all means, purchase one, but just keep in mind you will likely get no performance boost in gaming.

That's a pretty big budget...do you already have Win7? Is this build strictly for gaming?

I'm not too sure on how to advise this though...

You can go with an AM3 socket, pick up the 955BE for now. It's not going to lose to any of the quads from Intel for gaming. If and when you need a beefier processor, hopefully Thuban will be released. If you're interested in this, I'd read AT's article here.

Otherwise, the i7-860 + 5970 should be ok, but I can't be too sure here. I've yet to see/know anybody running a 3-monitor setup. The only reason for a gaming rig to go for the 1366 is for a multi-GPU setup, which I'm not sure this would warrant. Somebody else would have to tell you here.

Other than the processor/GPU's, everything else wouldn't differ too far from the norm.

Of course, a matching motherboard depending on the socket you choose. ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA, etc. All good brands. Not sure I'd want to factor in USB 3.0 just yet though.

4GB G.Skill Ripjaw/Corsair XMS3 both seem to be reliable from what I know. Just don't go near OCZ.

SSD/HDD depending on what you want. If you want an HDD, WD Caviar Black 640GB would be a great choice (or your old HDDs). It's on Amazon for $75. If you want an SSD, I'd just get one big enough for boot + a few apps and use your old HDDs. Something like the Intel X25-M?

PSU would depend on your choice of GPU. I'd go with something from Seasonic or Corsair.

A full tower case that your eyes can live with. Mid-tower would suffice if you're doing single card.

Scythe Mugen 2. No surprise here . It's a great heatsink for your money's worth. Anything high end gets expensive and unnecessary if you aren't pushing the chip to the max. You might be able to live on stock and use the i860 TurboBoost (if you don't know, it magically bumps up your clock when you need it, you'll see it mentioned in the Thuban article.) if you choose that setup.

Simple DVD burner.

Three monitors of whatever you choose.

If you need these:

Saitek Eclipse. My friends and I agree this is probably the nicest keyboard in the world. Other than Optimus.

I love my MX518 but it is old. It's on the egg for $25 though. That's pretty hot considering how much I paid for mine.

On second thought, I'm not even sure if this will fit in your budget. I noticed you need something ---- x 1200. That's gonna cut a huge chunk out of your budget. If you'd consider dropping it down to three 1080 monitors, you'll fit the rest in just fine. Cheers!

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Monitors: whether you like glossy or matte is up to you, & I always recommend checking out monitors in person, but I'll subtract $1,000 from your budget, leaving 24" 1920x1200 monitors in the <$333 price range for you to decide (or others to recommend). That should be a sufficient allotment for your displays.

You're now down to $500-$1,000 for the system itself. That's a 100% spread. Can you narrow that down? You're going to be allocating $200-300 on a video card that will satisfactorily drive those three monitors...so $500 is likely too low.

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Thanks MisterDount!

Many many many apologies, I already have three monitors that I'm using on my current rig. I also have Win7 Ultimate that I picked up...it's really the only part I've got right now.

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Monitors: whether you like glossy or matte is up to you, & I always recommend checking out monitors in person, but I'll subtract $1,000 from your budget, leaving 24" 1920x1200 monitors in the <$333 price range for you to decide (or others to recommend). That should be a sufficient allotment for your displays.

You're now down to $500-$1,000 for the system itself. That's a 100% spread. Can you narrow that down? You're going to be allocating $200-300 on a video card that will satisfactorily drive those three monitors...so $500 is likely too low.

Hi Gigantopithecus,

Thanks for the reply. I have $1500-$2000 for the rig itself. Hope that helps.

 

[mfenn]

All right, since you've got the budget and want to do Eyefinity, I'm gonna pull out all of the stops. Haven't done one of these in a while

Two 5870's would be about $200 more, so that would be slightly overbudget.

If you're happy with your current HDDs, you could get rid of the F3 and 5850s and get 2 5870s instead and be right at $2000.

Also, with an Eyefinity setup, you'll need one of your monitors to support DisplayPort or buy an adapter. The 5000 series can only drive 2 DVI/HDMI type monitors at once IIRC.

 

[MisterDonut]

Thanks MisterDount!

Many many many apologies, I already have three monitors that I'm using on my current rig. I also have Win7 Ultimate that I picked up...it's really the only part I've got right now.

Oh well...that clears a lot up haha.

mfenn's build will make your pants brown. I'd drop the F3's for the 5870's though (I think he said that). I doubt you'd need to overclock.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Go AMD, save yourself $500 & sacrifice very little real world gaming performance. I just built a friend a Crossfire setup identical to this one & it screams - my only caveat is that I used two 5770s & he only has one hdd - it might get a little cramped with multiple hdds & two 5850s. In that case, go with a full tower case (like the P183 recommended above).

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Hi all,

Many thanks for the replies.

Case: ...
GPU: 2x XFX 5870
PSU: Corsair 750
RAM: 2x G.SKILL F3s
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-X58A
CPU: i7-930
CPU Heatsink: Scythe Mugen 2
Boot Disk: Intel X25-M

If it looks pretty good, I'll start looking at the parts. Not sure about the 5870s...does ATI support tessallation? From what I've read, GTX 4x0s are king of the hill.

For my gaming usage, even though I do multimonitor I've always had a powerful card paired up with a lesser card. For example, my current build I've got the 8800 GTX paired with an 8600 GT - works well with softth but doesn't support the newer types of gfx in games like tessellation. I've been thinking about doing the same thing with a GTX 480 because from what I've read the 58x0 series doesn't support tessallation very well.

As for the case, I have a P180B now, I've been annoyed by how small it is internally, the Element V from Thermaltake seems to be "Fermi" certified but I'm just interested because it looks big internally and has a tray.

Gigantopithecus,

Still leaning towards intel. I am not averse to AMD, but it hasn't been the performance champ since Venice, correct? Appreciate the feedback nonetheless.

Also, anyone know about Lucid's Hydra tech? Was that supposed to allow multi-GPU and cross vendor configurations?

Thanks again.

 

[mfenn]

Hi all,

Many thanks for the replies.

Case: ...
GPU: 2x XFX 5870
PSU: Corsair 750
RAM: 2x G.SKILL F3s
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-X58A
CPU: i7-930
CPU Heatsink: Scythe Mugen 2
Boot Disk: Intel X25-M

If it looks pretty good, I'll start looking at the parts. Not sure about the 5870s...does ATI support tessallation? From what I've read, GTX 4x0s are king of the hill.

For my gaming usage, even though I do multimonitor I've always had a powerful card paired up with a lesser card. For example, my current build I've got the 8800 GTX paired with an 8600 GT - works well with softth but doesn't support the newer types of gfx in games like tessellation. I've been thinking about doing the same thing with a GTX 480 because from what I've read the 58x0 series doesn't support tessallation very well.

As for the case, I have a P180B now, I've been annoyed by how small it is internally, the Element V from Thermaltake seems to be "Fermi" certified but I'm just interested because it looks big internally and has a tray.

Gigantopithecus,

Still leaning towards intel. I am not averse to AMD, but it hasn't been the performance champ since Venice, correct? Appreciate the feedback nonetheless.

Also, anyone know about Lucid's Hydra tech? Was that supposed to allow multi-GPU and cross vendor configurations?

Thanks again.

Hydra sucks right now, don't bother.

Do you want to do Eyefinity or no? I assumed that you did when I saw the 3 matching panels. ATI supports tessellation just fine, the GTX 480 supports it to an insane degree. By the time games even thing about utilizing that much tessellation, this generation will be horribly slow anyway. (Haha, my GTX 480 gets 12 FPS in Crysis 3 while your 5870 gets 11!!!! :awe. But seriously, the GTX 480 has disproportionately too much tessellation power, and that's just wasted space.

$800 on 2 5870s is a much better deal than $1K+ on two GTX 480s. You don't really have the budget to get 2 480s without compromising the rest of the build anyway.

 

[MisterDonut]

I'd get the 480's if you'd like them to double as a wafflemaker.

I wouldn't second look AMD if you just want to game. May be a slower processor, but you wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyways. But you're going with a multi-GPU config here, so stick with 1366.

I thought the P183 was a mid-tower? If you want a full-tower, they can get a little expensive. But a mid should fit just fine..

 

[busydude]

By the look of it P 183 doesn't seem to have a good amount of airflow. What about this?

 

[MisterDonut]

I like how the ATCS 840 looks over the 932, but that might just be me.

 

[mfenn]

By the look of it P 183 doesn't seem to have a good amount of airflow. What about this?

If you take the top HDD cage out (you will have to with long cards anyway), there is a mounting point for another 120mm fan that can blow cold air right into a GPU's intakes.

 

[busydude]

If you take the top HDD cage out (you will have to with long cards anyway), there is a mounting point for another 120mm fan that can blow cold air right into a GPU's intakes.

Ahh, I see, my bad.

 

[themisfit610]

Yes, the 180 series is fantastic, and has excellent airflow, especially when the Antec TriCool fans are replaced with something with a better CFM/Noise ratio.

If you really must have CrossFire + eyefinity, then I'd go balls out and get 2 5870s. I'd say drop the SSD if you game more than you do work on the desktop.

~MiSfit

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Gents,

Alrighty, I've decided on the below:

CPU: i7-930 from MC (I've read the 860 is better in terms of pricing, but not with multigpu like the 930)
Mobo: ASUS P6X58D or P6T Deluxe (which one? P6X58D because of Sata/USB 3.0?)
PSU: BFG EX-1200
Case: Xclio Windtunnel already bought
Mem: GSkill F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI (Triple Channel), timings are 7-8-7-24, it's cheaper than most CL8 memsticks, so this should be better, yes?
Heatsink: Prolimatech Megahlem Rev B
Boot Drive: Intel X25-M This one I'm iffy on (no real Sata 3.0 drives), I may just keep my old 160gb WD rap unless I should upgrade for better performance
GPU: GTX 480 (if/when I can get it, plus my old 8800GTX to drive secondary monitors)

Well, that's the hard stuff. I'm sticking with onboard sound this time unless there is a compelling reason to get a discrete sound card.

TYIA

 

[mfenn]

Gents,

Alrighty, I've decided on the below:

CPU: i7-930 from MC (I've read the 860 is better in terms of pricing, but not with multigpu like the 930)
Mobo: ASUS P6X58D or P6T Deluxe (which one? P6X58D because of Sata/USB 3.0?)
PSU: BFG EX-1200
Case: Xclio Windtunnel already bought
Mem: GSkill F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI (Triple Channel), timings are 7-8-7-24, it's cheaper than most CL8 memsticks, so this should be better, yes?
Heatsink: Prolimatech Megahlem Rev B
Boot Drive: Intel X25-M This one I'm iffy on (no real Sata 3.0 drives), I may just keep my old 160gb WD rap unless I should upgrade for better performance
GPU: GTX 480 (if/when I can get it, plus my old 8800GTX to drive secondary monitors)

Well, that's the hard stuff. I'm sticking with onboard sound this time unless there is a compelling reason to get a discrete sound card.

TYIA

Get the P6X58D, at your budget, there is really no reason to not have USB 3.0.

For the love of God man, don't buy a 1200W PSU! A 750W will power non-insane dual-GPU setups just fine, and be way more efficient at normal loads. (More efficient = less power = less heat = less noise).

I'm not sure if the Megahalems will play nice with memory that has heatspeaders that tall. Better to find some memory with normal sized ones.

The X25-M is about an order of magnitude or so faster than your Raptor where it matters (random reads/writes). You won't be disappointed.

Dump the 8800GTX and get the cheapest (Nvidia) card that has dual-DVI. There's no sense in having a big card wasted power and making heat. At your budget, another $30 card won't break the bank.

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Get the P6X58D, at your budget, there is really no reason to not have USB 3.0.

For the love of God man, don't buy a 1200W PSU! A 750W will power non-insane dual-GPU setups just fine, and be way more efficient at normal loads. (More efficient = less power = less heat = less noise).

I'm not sure if the Megahalems will play nice with memory that has heatspeaders that tall. Better to find some memory with normal sized ones.

The X25-M is about an order of magnitude or so faster than your Raptor where it matters (random reads/writes). You won't be disappointed.

Dump the 8800GTX and get the cheapest (Nvidia) card that has dual-DVI. There's no sense in having a big card wasted power and making heat. At your budget, another $30 card won't break the bank.

Much obliged mfenn. Which card? Cheap 9600GT? I just don't know which one...

Ah, perhaps the 1200W was too much. I had:

Q6600
3x Sata Drives
2x Optical Drives
1x 8800 GTX
1x 8600 GT
1x TV Tuner
1x Sound Card

on an 850W OCZ. I don't know why, but 2 years and 11 months to the day I bought the PSU it popped (fortunately, the OCZ had a 3 year warranty and OCZ did an RMA). I did some OC'ing (not alot, got the Q6600 up to 2.5), just figured this time around since I'm running approximately the same setup with the proposed new build I'd hedge my bets and get a beefy PSU (in light of the GTX 480's voracious energy appetites).

Thanks again.

 

[mfenn]

Much obliged mfenn. Which card? Cheap 9600GT? I just don't know which one...

Ah, perhaps the 1200W was too much. I had:

Q6600
3x Sata Drives
2x Optical Drives
1x 8800 GTX
1x 8600 GT
1x TV Tuner
1x Sound Card

on an 850W OCZ. I don't know why, but 2 years and 11 months to the day I bought the PSU it popped (fortunately, the OCZ had a 3 year warranty and OCZ did an RMA). I did some OC'ing (not alot, got the Q6600 up to 2.5), just figured this time around since I'm running approximately the same setup with the proposed new build I'd hedge my bets and get a beefy PSU (in light of the GTX 480's voracious energy appetites).

Thanks again.

I would get the absolute cheapest thing, since the GPU itself doesn't matter at all. Something like this ($35 AR).

The GTX480 is a beast, but if you figure 300W for it and 150W for CPU (absolute worst case here), you've still got 300W left of a 750W PSU, which is a healthy margin. Your OCZ probably died because OCZ PSU's aren't known for their quality. :awe: Cheap and "stylish," yes; quality, no.

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Alrighty Friendos,

Here's my build
CPU: i7 930 Bought 199 at Microcenter
Heatsink: Corsair H50 79 at Newegg
Mobo: Gigabyte x58A-UD5 269 after rebate at Newegg (yeah, UD3r is cheaper, but it's only 60 bucks extra for the UD5)
Ram: G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 189 at Newegg
PSU: CMPSU-850TX 850W 129 after rebate at TigerDirect
GPU 1: GTX 480 Hah, whenever this shows up in retail channels
GPU 2: GT 240 Bought 45 after rebate at Newegg
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1850 99 at Newegg
Boot Drive: Micron/Crucial C300 128GB Bought 373 after 3% BCB at superbiiz
Case: Xclio Windtunnel Bought 98 Newegg

Missing anything? I wasn't planning on getting thermal paste since the H50 was set to go. Going to get SATA3 cables for the C300. No need for soundcard/speakers/monitors, I'm all set. I'm buying the rest of the parts at the AM.

Total for build (+499 for GTX 480) is $1930. Right on the money.

Will post benches after system is built. Can't wait! Many thanks again.

 

[mfenn]

Alrighty Friendos,

Here's my build
CPU: i7 930 Bought 199 at Microcenter
Heatsink: Corsair H50 79 at Newegg
Mobo: Gigabyte x58A-UD5 269 after rebate at Newegg (yeah, UD3r is cheaper, but it's only 60 bucks extra for the UD5)
Ram: G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 189 at Newegg
PSU: CMPSU-850TX 850W 129 after rebate at TigerDirect
GPU 1: GTX 480 Hah, whenever this shows up in retail channels
GPU 2: GT 240 Bought 45 after rebate at Newegg
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1850 99 at Newegg
Boot Drive: Micron/Crucial C300 128GB Bought 373 after 3% BCB at superbiiz
Case: Xclio Windtunnel Bought 98 Newegg

Missing anything? I wasn't planning on getting thermal paste since the H50 was set to go. Going to get SATA3 cables for the C300. No need for soundcard/speakers/monitors, I'm all set. I'm buying the rest of the parts at the AM.

Total for build (+499 for GTX 480) is $1930. Right on the money.

Will post benches after system is built. Can't wait! Many thanks again.

Looks good! With the GT 240, you'll even be able to get basic functionality while you scrounge up a GTX 480.

You probably won't need new cables for SATA 3, the ones that come with the mobo should be sufficient.